The photo above was from earlier in the summer, as two EL trains passed each other on the Chicago River. Nikon D50 with 18-70mm lens, an aperture and shutter speed that I can't remember.
Showing posts with label useful links. Show all posts
Showing posts with label useful links. Show all posts
Monday, August 25, 2008
Time Out Chicago Photo Issue
Time Out Chicago is on the news stands this week with it's annual (if doing something two years in a row counts as annual?) photo issue. This includes a reader submitted contest, which managed to escape my attention even though I have a subscription to Time Out. The theme of this years contest is "in transit", featuring pictures of the EL. Luckily, I've never shot any photos like that!
The photo above was from earlier in the summer, as two EL trains passed each other on the Chicago River. Nikon D50 with 18-70mm lens, an aperture and shutter speed that I can't remember.
The photo above was from earlier in the summer, as two EL trains passed each other on the Chicago River. Nikon D50 with 18-70mm lens, an aperture and shutter speed that I can't remember.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Battery!
Popular Photography has an extremely useful review of double A batteries in their June issue. I'm surprised that I haven't seen this examined by other photography magazines. We all use them, after all. The results are not entirely surprising-- it turns out that you get what you pay for. For example, among the rechargable batteries tested, PopPhoto says the Energizer "15 minute charger" are a best buy. They're also the most expensive of the bunch, at $29.87 for four batteries and the charger.
Of the disposable batteries, Energizer's E2 Lithium (seen above) costs more than twice as much as the next most expensive, at $16.84 for a pack of eight, but they last nearly 4 times as long! I can attest to this, as I recently bought some of these to use in my pocket camera. Granted I don't use that camera very often, but I can't remember the last time I had to swap these batteries out.
On a completely unrelated note, I suddenly have the song Battery, by Metallica, in my head. Smashing through the boundaries, lunacy has found me... cannot stop the battery! Yes, my head is a strange place.
Photo details: Nikon D50 with 60mm Nikon Micro lens, 1/640sec at f6.3. If you click on the photo you can see a much larger version.
Of the disposable batteries, Energizer's E2 Lithium (seen above) costs more than twice as much as the next most expensive, at $16.84 for a pack of eight, but they last nearly 4 times as long! I can attest to this, as I recently bought some of these to use in my pocket camera. Granted I don't use that camera very often, but I can't remember the last time I had to swap these batteries out.
On a completely unrelated note, I suddenly have the song Battery, by Metallica, in my head. Smashing through the boundaries, lunacy has found me... cannot stop the battery! Yes, my head is a strange place.
Photo details: Nikon D50 with 60mm Nikon Micro lens, 1/640sec at f6.3. If you click on the photo you can see a much larger version.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
File under useful links
Thom Hogan has posted a nice article about "shot discipline" on his generally useful web site, bythom.com. Some of the things he talks about I don't fully agree with (like his advice to never use filters-- I love my polarizer!), but overall it's a good refresher even for experienced photogaphers.
Thom also claims that Nikon is releasing an update to the D80 between now and the summer, perhaps called the D90. I don't know how or where he gets his information, but this is good news for those of us (like me) who have been thinking about buying a D300 but don't want to plop down $1700. Ouch!
Thom also claims that Nikon is releasing an update to the D80 between now and the summer, perhaps called the D90. I don't know how or where he gets his information, but this is good news for those of us (like me) who have been thinking about buying a D300 but don't want to plop down $1700. Ouch!
Friday, March 14, 2008
How to read camera reviews, a primer.
The first step is, don't read them at all. I rarely do. I just read the parts that are important, usually the introduction and the conclusion. Pay special attention to the pros and cons listed at the end of the review. Every camera made is a compromise in some way. If they weren’t they would all cost $10,000. So look carefully at the cons and decide if you can live with that particular camera’s shortcomings-- maybe it's too tall, or too short, or doesn't laugh at your jokes. Oh, sorry, I forgot, we're talking about photography.
Pay absolutely no attention to the final rating given, whether it's a number (out of 10, as they use on cnet) or some other rating system. These are all pretty meaningless. Take this review by dpreview.com of the new Ricoh R8. They give the camera a "Recommended" rating, despite saying things like this:
If you are looking for a camera to take flash pictures… stop reading now and start looking for alternatives. The R8's flash performance is pretty poor to say the least. The flash is quite underpowered to start with but even when subjects are actually positioned within its reach the flash exposure gets it wrong more often than not.
Wow. that's a pretty big flaw for a $400 camera. Dpreview also notes that the R8 has a terrible movie mode, a face detection system that doesn't detect faces, an image stabilization system that doesn't stabilize images, and performs poorly at pretty much all ISO settings, though they're only "slightly disappointing" by this last point.
Clearly, this is a camera to recommend.
This brings me to my final piece of advice: look carefully at the photo samples. Ricoh is generally a pretty good company, but most of the photos for the R8 look terrible to me, either noisy, or worse, full or noise reduction smudging out the fine details. This is particularly evident when you look at the largest sizes, which you should always do. Buying a camera is like a forensic science. The more you can see, the better.
Pay absolutely no attention to the final rating given, whether it's a number (out of 10, as they use on cnet) or some other rating system. These are all pretty meaningless. Take this review by dpreview.com of the new Ricoh R8. They give the camera a "Recommended" rating, despite saying things like this:
If you are looking for a camera to take flash pictures… stop reading now and start looking for alternatives. The R8's flash performance is pretty poor to say the least. The flash is quite underpowered to start with but even when subjects are actually positioned within its reach the flash exposure gets it wrong more often than not.
Wow. that's a pretty big flaw for a $400 camera. Dpreview also notes that the R8 has a terrible movie mode, a face detection system that doesn't detect faces, an image stabilization system that doesn't stabilize images, and performs poorly at pretty much all ISO settings, though they're only "slightly disappointing" by this last point.
Clearly, this is a camera to recommend.
This brings me to my final piece of advice: look carefully at the photo samples. Ricoh is generally a pretty good company, but most of the photos for the R8 look terrible to me, either noisy, or worse, full or noise reduction smudging out the fine details. This is particularly evident when you look at the largest sizes, which you should always do. Buying a camera is like a forensic science. The more you can see, the better.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)