Kia ora tatou:

I know I have banged on about tripods ad nauseam, but I feel it is time to visit this again, having been at a workshop where the $80 tripods which are a chiropractor’s best friend were present. A good tripod is indispensable for a photographer.End of story.

If there is one piece of equipment which is absolutely indispensable to a landscape photographer, it has to be the tripod. Put simply, any landscape photographer worth his salt has a really good tripod … or two. Whenever I am teaching landscape photography workshops, it never ceases to amaze me how little emphasis would-be photographer’s give to the selection of their tripod. They spend an amazing amount of money on the best cameras, the best lenses and high-quality filters, then spend a pittance on the tripod. Buying a cheap tripod is, quite simply, false economy. And here is why.

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Thriller, Colombo Street

Kia ora tatou:

Enough of the serious posts…for the moment…

I’ve noticed I am prone to a disease specific to photographers, which rears its head about this time of the year. It’s probably happened every year for the last 25 or so, so when the symptoms present, I’m fully aware of what’s going on. The symptoms go something like this:

For no particular reason I find myself parking up and wandering into my favourite local photographic retailer (you know who you are!). I really don’t have a reason to be there, but somehow it just happens. When they come up and asked me what they can do to help, I shuffle and mumble, and try to think of something meaningful to say. What I really should do is be honest and say: it’s that time of year again, and I need to kick some tyres. I suspect I haven’t got this problem on my own.

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Sony Vaio VGN-AW37GY

Kia ora tatou:

ASP stirred the pot a week or so back  in suggesting that the Sony Vaio laptop ( hereafter referred to as the BBB-Big Black Box) I took to Africa may have found its way under a Namibian dune, because I hadn’t said anything further. Well it hasn’t, and I probably need to a do a review of that as well. Frankly I  have never reviewed a computer before. I read reviews, but have never written one. It would appear that time has come. but first some ground rules.

1. This will get techy at times, but frankly  I am more interested in how it performs and whether it will support rather than hinder me. So this is an end-user review. People who need to know stuff like hyperthreading ability and on-board cache won’t find any of that stuff here. Go Google….
2. I use a PC but I have spent time with Macs. I like both. Neither operating system is perfect.  I tend to push my computers really hard and I have found that Mac’s can get just as slow as a PC. So I use Windows-based machines, because there is enough under-the-hood control fo me to be able to keep them at peak efficiency for me. I prefer using a PC because they are (bang for your buck) more affordable.I know many pros prefer Mac but I have yet to see the advantage. Mac fanbois, feel free to weigh in below (some evidence would be great!).  and since this is the Paragraph of Contention, may I add here that I have been a fan of Vista since its inception, and especially since SP2. It just works, and it does not clog up like XP, requiring a full reinstall every year or so. I love the interface for one thing.Finding files in a desktop with 8 Hard drives and a total of 6 TB of storage is not easy, but Vista makes that a breeze. Of course there will be some amazingly useful plugin which makes XP friendly and justifies continuing to keep the corpse alive…. Feel free to share in the comments section.

There it is. Let us move on.

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Dune 45, Sossuvlei

Kia Ora tatou:

A Number of you have rung or e-mailed me since I got back, wanting to know how I got on with the Sony in Africa. I’ve been thinking about that, and decided it’s probably time to write some sort of gear review.

I don’t do gear reviews easily. Certainly not the ones that go into every intricate detail of how the camera functions, that make really boring photographs of household objects on a white background, and then tell you how good the camera is or not. Frankly, I’m not that interested in the intricacies of the custom menus. I’m a photographer. I use a camera to make pictures, and I measure the success of the machine in question in two key areas: how intuitive  and reliable it is to use in the field, and the quality of the finished file. Make me happy on both those accounts and I’m a loyal supporter.

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Kia ora tatou:

While I was mucking around in the menus, trying to avoid having to RTFM, I came a cross a couple that could be useful.

The first is C-RAW, which gives a 12 Mp file whenever you use it. Might be really useful the next time I shoot a wedding…..

The other is APS-C mode. I had the opportunity to use it yesterday in Pretoria. My good friend, Reg Botha, took me to a game park nearby, which sprawls across around 4 000 ha of the high veldt. Now the last time I shot ( rephrase: photographed) animals was 3 years ago in the Kruger, so I was well and truly out of practice.

But the animals were not.

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…But the Road has always been, and those of us who can travel it always have. The world goes on, the Road goes on-from creation to destruction, amen, for all you know. What’s your point?…

-Roadmarks ( Roger Zelazny)

Kia ora tatou:

In the last chapter of the story of a new Sony user in Africa, I talked about the camera and the files coming out of it. In this post I want to talk about the post-production implications of making the switch.

Just before I left last week, Marcus at Dove Electronics, who handle Sony cameras in New Zealand, suggested I take one of their Vaio VGN-AW37GY laptops with me. Given that I was looking for a new laptop, and I have only ever heard good things about Vaio’s, I readily agreed, on the premise that I was free to bag it if it didn’t perform. He agreed ( but seemed a bit too confident, so I resisted the temptation to put money on it), so late last Thursday I picked it up, and started throwing software at it.

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Kia ora tatou:

I have been in South Africa a few days now and have had time to try out the camera and lenses, along with the laptop loaned me and revisit my workflow. So I intend to write this review in two parts: in the first part what I am learning about the Sony and the way it works. In the second I will write about the laptop and the effects of using it and the impact on my workflow.  As many of you know , I have been a Canon user for around 10 years, and in most of that time I have used 1-series  Canons, with the latest being the 1D Mk III and 1DS Mk III. So I have a body of fore-knowledge which needed to be rebuilt. This review will tend to compare the 2 systems in places, as it gives me a better idea of what the 24.5 Mp Sony A900 delivers relative to the Canon.

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Kia ora tatou:

Those of you  interested in how much of the market is taken up by each brand might be interested in this….

Photoscala has posted an interesting Gain & Loss analysis of the worldwide DSLR market, for the period 2006-2008. According to their findings Canon, who were the undisputed worldwide leaders in 2006, have lost 9 percentage points and barely managed to keep their number one position against Nikon, who have gained 4 percentage points in the meantime. The biggest winner is Sony, who managed to more than double their market share, and took the third position from Olympus with ease. The rest of the market is devoid of any major changes, although Panasonic has managed to double its share, partially owing to its introduction of the DMC-G1 (which is, technically speaking, not a DSLR, but is nevertheless included in the figures).

Nota bene: Photoscala warns that these numbers, which were derived from multiple sources, are to be taken with a grain of salt, but allegedly “the tendencies have been captured quite accurately”.

Kia ora tatou:

It’s that time of the year, when the rumours turn to fact…or not…

With something  called IFA around the corner ( another trade show, I think) the manufacturers are rolling out their new products. Samsung, Casio and Olympus have released new toys ( sorry, tools) but they look so underwhelming, I won”t go into them here…..

The two things which have the Bridge Salivation System (BSS) in full werewolf-slaver mode are the new Canon 7D, specs for which include:

* 18MP APS-C CMOS sensor

* 8 frames per second continuous shooting

* 1080p HD video recording with manual controls

* 3.0 inch Clear View II LCD screen with 920,000 dots

* 19-point AF system (all cross-type)

* 1.0x magnification and 100% coverage viewfinder (more…)

For as long as I’ve been involved with photography, I’ve subscribed to the edict (and taught it) that you should have a filter on the front of the lens.

Until now.

After a conversation with a camera technician in South Africa, I’m rethinking the whole thing. I’m coming to the conclusion that they aren’t necessarily a good thing.

For those of us who came up through film, there were lots of good reasons for using filters. If we shot black-and-white, then we used a UV filter to cut down the amount of ultraviolet light reaching our film,  therefore giving it a better spectral response. If we shot film, then we probably went out and bought a skylight filter, to reduce the amount of blue light reaching our colour film. Here in New Zealand, with its excessively high amount of ultraviolet light (especially since the ozone hole came into being), there was no question of the necessity for these. But do we need to continue with this practice when all but a few of us use digital cameras?

Another reason for using filters like this on the front of our cameras was to protect the soft coating on the front lens element from scratching and from excessive cleaning. The theory was that filters could be thrown away when they got scratched and that it was cheaper to replace a filter than to replace the front element of the lens. Conventional wisdom also said that in using one of these filters we would be protecting our lenses from damage if we dropped it. And so for years we all dutifully bought filters for the front of our lenses. But, with coatings much harder and durable, is there a need to do so any more? (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

Just in today.

Canon have announced new models.

1. 350D/400D/450D owners will soon be able to upgrade to the 15.1Mp 500D. Cool features you might like include ( note: taken from Canon Press release, so you might want to circle around the adjectives)
2. * 15.1 Megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor
   * Full HD movie recording with HDMI connection for viewing and playback on an HDTV
   * ISO 100-3200 (expandable to 12800)
   * 3.4 frames per second continuous shooting
   * Max. 170 large JPEG images in a single burst
   * 3.0″ ClearView LCD with Live View mode
   * 9-point wide area AF with cross type centre point
   * High speed DIGIC 4 performance and superb image quality
   * EOS Integrated Cleaning System
   * Full compatibility with Canon EF and EF-S lenses and EX-series Speedlites, including new Speedlite 270EX, TS-E 17mm f/4L and TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

You would think they could get it right in the factory…. Some 6 months ago, I upgraded my frontline DSLR to a Canon 1Ds Mk III. At  $NZ11500, you would expect it to be a OOB (out of the box) experience. Well it pretty much was…for a few weeks, until the Quick Control Dial started playing up and intermittenting. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t… After some discussion (read: carefully controlled anger) with Canon NZ, they replaced it. And my sharp pictures went away… I decided it was substandard shooting technique on my part , and it was time for an upgrade of how I worked in the field. I aim to have a file which will print beautifully at 20″ X 30″. Any more is really pushing the limits of what the camera can achieve.

1. I began using mirror lockup and a cable release. It helped a little, but the images were still unsharp.
2. I took to using my Manfrotto 058 tripod, which weighs 6.15 kg. Some improvement, but i was still having to reach into the esoteric corner of my CS3sharpening toolbox.
3. I changed the head to a Manfrotto  229. It added 2kg, but the improvement was minor.
4. Both the Mk III’s suffer from intermittent focus issues (read: lack of consistency), so I began practising the multi-tap technique.  As Rob Galbraith writes in his extensive article on the 1D MK III, : To give yourself a reasonable chance with One Shot, it looks like you’ll want to pump the autofocus two or three times with it pointed at the same area of the subject. Alternatively, switch the camera to AI Servo, configure it to autofocus only when the rear AF-ON button is pressed, then “lock” the focus by releasing AF-ON. Not only did AI Servo produce more consistent stationary subject autofocus than One Shot (albeit in limited testing), it also means you don’t have to switch AF settings when the subject starts to move. Just press AF-ON. Again only marginal (if any) improvement.

Then it gradually dawned that perhaps the issue was not my technique, that the camera was front/back-focusing. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

I guess most of us buy our memory cards on price. Well, why not? I mean they are all much of a muchness (that looks terrible in print).

Wrong.

I am asked from time to time which brand of cards they should be using. I know I have tended to stick to the big names (Sandisk and Lexar) and buy them from someone I can have a discussion with when/if they go wrong/fail. So far it has worked. But there is more to it than that.

Firstly, you need to consider write-speed, the time it takes your camera to write the file to the card. This will vary according to the make and model of camera. If you have a camera that takes 2 different forms of card (i.e Compact Flash and SD), then you find that performance varies.

Brand is another issue. One manufacturer’s 200x card may well differ from another’s. And don’t believe that a card with an advertised write speed of 30Mb/sec (e.g Sandisk Extreme III) will actually deliver that. The culprit here is not the card, it is the camera. As an example is my Canon 1DS MKIII.  A SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition 8GB ($NZ180.00) has an actual write speed for RAW files of 17.966MB/sec, in other words a little more  than 1/2 the potential performance. A Sandisk Extreme 8.0Gb CF Ducati($325.00) has a write speed of 19.808MB/sec. Nearly twice the price, but not 2x the performance. Bang for the $$$, The former card represents better performance value. A Transcend Class 6 8GB SDHC card for the same camera has a write speed of 9.795MB/sec.

So how do I know all this? Because there is a cool site which has tested a whole array of cards with different cameras and published the data. You can access it here.

Read-speed is the time it takes to get the data off the card, and here the issues are the speed of your card-reader and the bus speed in your computer. If this matters, then buy a really good card reader. I recommend the Lexar Professional UDMA Reader. Quick and effective.

Lastly, how do you know that card you ordered online is the Real Deal? My friend SSG ordered one while overseas, A 16Gb Transcend. When he went to download it, it turned out to be only 8Gb in capacity. He was able to return it to the dealer who had sold it to him. Would it be that easy if he had ordered it from www.fornexttonothing.com? I wonder.

I note the Big Two are using holographic logos in their packaging. How reliable they are I am not certain.

Caveat emptor.

Kia ora tatou:

Well, it is finally here. The replacement for the 5D. Creatively named the 5D Mk II ( NOT!), it has a lot of very cool features that Canon users will appreciate, including:

• New 21.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor with improved EOS Integrated Cleaning System (E.I.C.S.)
• New Full HD 1080 resolution movie recording
• 3.9 frames per second continuous shooting
• High performance DIGIC 4 providing superb image quality
• Maximum 310 large JPEG images in a single burst with a UDMA card
• 3.0” VGA (920k dots) Clear View LCD
• ISO 100-6400 (expansion from 50 up to 25,600)
• 9 AF points + 6 Assist AF points

It is the 1080p video function that has me excited. It takes me back to the days when I first saw digital ( PhotoShop 1) and realised the winds of change had come to photography.

It is happening again. Moving and still image are drawing together and the implications for we p[photographers are huge.

Post to follow.

O, and they have also released a new 24/1.4L lens.

Now what will Nikon bring out?

Kia ora tatou:

If I told you your trusty Canon Powershot ( i.e. like my G7) could be made to shoot RAW, do HDR, motion detect, display the histogram and shoot from 64s to 1/32 000s, you wouldn’t believe me. I wouldn’t believe me either!

Well, apparently you can. Read here and here.

And no, It isn’t April 1.

For those of you shooting Sony, the Big Boy’s Toy has arrived in the form of the Alpha 900, with a 24.5 Mp sensor, 100% viewfinder, ” newly-developed, body-integrated SteadyShot Inside unit which achieves an anti-shake effect equivalent to shutter speeds faster by 2.5 to 4 stops. This new unit provides stabilization for Sony, Minolta and Konica-Minolta wide angle, large-aperture lenses, which is difficult for lens-integrated systems.” O, and let’s not forget those gorgeous Carl Zeiss lenses! Read more…

All this for around $US3000. Kind of makes the $$$ they charge for a 1DS III look a bit inflated!