Body based sensor image stabilisation

del.icio.us Tags: ImageStabilisation,Sensor Size,Body,OIS

There’s an age old tussle amongst proponents of the sensor-based image stabilisation built into the body (Olympus, Pentax, Sony DSLRs) vs the lens-based stabilisation favoured by Nikon, Canon, Panasonic DSLRs. Sensor based IS works on the sensor so you don’t get steadying of the view when you are sighting the shot before you click. Then Bluetrain048 talks about a procedure where you hold in the IS button of the Olympus E-510 and it stabilises the image and keeps it steady for a couple of seconds. Well, I never knew it was there…..

DIYPhotography’s Portrait Lighting Cheat Sheet

I thought this was fun – you see instructions on how to use your studio lighting, DIYPhotography has taken the time to make a Cheat Sheet.

Inexpensive Wide Angles in your pocket

I like wide angle perspectives. So much so, I bought the widest ultra wide available for my DSLR – the Olympus Zuiko 7-14mm. It wasn’t cheap and I would normally not go out and spend money like that, but I just had too, it was a special birthday and all.

I still like wide angle combinations which are more pocketable though. Pocketable wide angles are not easy to get – the small sensors in pocket, compact cameras mean that a “normal” angle of view lens for these cameras is already 4mm optical focal length. Making a wide angle forces the optics to go 2mm, 3mm which is really small.

I was happy to come across a second hand Kodak V705.

There are two lenses on it. The equivalent 23mm wide angle is a good lens but doesn’t focus (I think it’s a fixed focus) so it can’t go macro. The second lens – a zoom, does focus but either the exact camera I have is not good or the camera does not have a very good mechanism in that one. Ready-to-shoot time for the camera is fast, right after the sliding lens cover unhides the lenses, the 23mm is about ready to shoot and there is little or no shutter lag because the 23mm does not need to focus.

The camera is chunky though, it is small but not slim.

Looking around for other cameras (do you call it window shopping if you use Microsoft Windows?), there are a few wide angle compacts – but I like low cost because I expect the camera to be tossed around, sometimes with keys in my pants pocket.

What else is there that is wide angle and inexpensive?

There’s the Olympus FE-4000 Magenta. This has a 26mm equivalent wide angle lens, 4x optical zoom.

It’s about AUD 240 It has a 24mm equivalent lens with zoom to 120mm. It’s about AUD 199. I can’t yet find a review but there’s one for the FE-5020. PhotographyBLOG carried out a review.

The Panasonic DMC-FX40 is another inexpensive model with a 25-125mm equivalent zoom. Photography BLOG has a review. It’s about AUD 199 too.

Finally, the little known Kodak M420 with a review here – It’s not available in Australia – well, I did say it was little known.

Caring Tuppen for Precious Rocks

See how loving wrapped the rocks are? They must be fragile art pieces.

APR – AnandaSim’s Photo Rating System

Ananda's Photo Rating System Edition 1.1

Note: Updated 22nd April 2013
See also Edition 2: Ananda’s 10

With increasing awareness brought by the accelerated learning that digital photography and the internet brings, I’ve sometimes thought of a rating system to assess my own as well as other photos I see.

Subject Choice	Max 2 out of 10 aggregate points
Wow Factor (includes Story Telling)	Max 2 out of 10 aggregate points
Visualisation – Covers Scene Lighting, Composition, Specific and explicit choice of exposure and other elements of rendering, presentational aspects	Max 3 out of 10 aggregate points
Execution – the Technical Image Quality – Exposure, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness/Sharpening incorporating in-camera processing as well as post processing	Max 3 out of 10 aggregate points

Observations:

1. The maximum possible score in each category is largely subjective. That’s intended. You preference for a Subject may be quite different from mine.
2. The subjective parameters outweigh the technical parameters. That’s intended. Glorify art and life not gear.

S:2 W:2 V:3 E:2 Agg:9

del.icio.us Tags: photography,assessment,rating,appreciation,imagequality

The old KB 18

For a few years, I gave up on carrying the film SLR. My Minolta XE-1 had run into shedding its flock and the silvering of the mirror was disintegrating, my X-700 was fine but I could not bring myself to completing a roll of film, even if it was 12 exposures. There didn’t seem enough to shoot at and the SLR was cumbersome and expensive to carry around. For that interim period, I got a near disposable Kodak KB-18. Kodak has a weird sense of balance – for such a cheap camera, Kodak has a support page just like its more expensive cameras. The pdf manual is online. It even has a FAQ article on Premature Rewind – is that as embarrassing to you as it is for me to discuss?

The KB 18 is no more, it broke a few years ago. But what nostalgia.

Taking photos of kids

Over at the DPR forums, we routinely see beginners or rather new parents who want to take photos of their young kids all the time. They have this "I wanna take a photo of them anytime, everytime, anywhere, everywhere" urge that, after a few years, I'll bet becomes "oh, maybe we should take a photo of junior, Hon, where's the camera, did you see it last, did we ever buy batteries for it?"

Regardless, it's nice to have the family moment and to treasure each other, so we still want to take a photo or two. Only, we can't have every shot we want, at any time and at any place - when the kids transition into a mid phase, they'll even cover their faces when you raise your camera.

Taking photos of kids has to be a case of social engineering and management - as the adult and the parent, you HAVE TO manage the situation. Not the other way around. You'll go nuts with any camera chasing after them - you have to stage the situation, set up the shot.

I just came across a Tamron video, I think some points are really funny, but it does reinforce the idea that you have to manage the situation.



Candice says that the Tamron she is using is "lighter and more compact" than the other lenses. I guess that's a relative statement - it is an f/2.8 lens (which explains it's bulk) but it sure doesn't look compact or light. Additionally, she's shooting in bright daylight and shadows on a DSLR, so the f/2.8 isn't vital for getting a high shutter speed, it's more for a shallow DOF. Which is not easy to work with, even in this staged environment when you have kids moving actively.

The other point is she's shooting in a high dynamic range scene. This means she has to sacrifice the highlights - many newbies don't yet understand this and insist that the photo is flawed when the highlights are burnt out.

Here's one from expertvillage:

And she talks about forcing the flash on or "fill in flash"

Carson hosts a demo for Nikon, baby photos, again in studio environment

Here is another one

The shallow Depth of Field thing

It's not often I take my Olympus E-330 out for family lunch. But I didn't feel like driving and being the responsible adult, so off we go, E-330 with the manual focus alien Tamron 28mm f/2.8 Adaptall II mounted on a jinfinance Four Thirds lens mount adapter.

There's a restored Austin A40 outside the local church at Kingsway - what a lovely oppurtunity.

I got in as close as I could, I used to think the lens wasn't that sharp but the photo above is at full aperture open. Bokeh is quite pleasing too.

Of course, I took a look inside at the quaint speedometer.