Digital Rangefinder

Another "Film Cameras are better" excuse bites the dust...Epsons new Digital Rangefinder Epson® R-D1

CCD

Here are a few pics of a camera sensor I was experimenting with. It is pretty small but looks neat... enjoy

Phothog

THE FUTURE

Alright I know I should try to be humble about this but I just read about about a record breaking CCD chip with 111 million pixel resolution. Here is a link.

I am quite sure that it cost a pretty penny, however as the world shifts to digital, you medium and large format photogs out there be prepared to change, Or face the realization that you and you antiquated systems will be lost in the sands of time...


PhotHog

I have over the last few years been doing exhaustive testing on the freeware image software "Gimp" as well as a hack version called "Gimpshop"(very closely resembling Photoshop in style).

As is well known, I do not generally go for image enhancers of any kind. (If you need to enhance, you did something wrong)

There is I believe a place for everything and there are times that an enhancer not only should be used, but it must be used. (this is of course under the assumption that you are going do better next time)

This last month I received a test copy of Photoshop in the mail from Adobe. I have always had an attitude about Photoshop, I have seen too many Photogs go by the wayside because they relied on Photoshop to fix their mistakes, and instead of improving their skills they slowly sunk from Photog to PhotoRepairGuy. Sad. Real Sad.

Never the less having used Gimp for a couple years now I thought testing PhotoShop against Gimp would be useful.

For the last three weeks I have been putting PS through its paces and I am here to tell you that Photoshop CS2 creamed Gimp (as well as gimpshop) and in that process I gained a bit of respect for this software...


WARNING
use only as a tool or you will start taking shortcuts , devolution of any accomplishments will occur and skills that you may have had will begin to die...

Remember me saying something about designing a Gigapixel camera? well here is a link to a project that will use a 3.2Gp camera...

The future is coming large format...


Phothog

Buttercups

  

Class and style

I believe that there are very few ways of being poor(Don't confuse being broke with being poor) and yet still be "classy", a student or an artist being perfect examples, I, being both, understand the difficulty to keep up with style.

I was doing a wedding a few weeks ago where the dress style was nice-but not rigid, I was wearing acceptable clothing but many people there were not exactly "dressed up" for the occasion. after perusing the results of my work I wondered-why am I the one spruced up here? I know professionalism would not allow anything less, but thinking over the fact it seem ironic that the guy who is behind the camera should fit the situation better than most of the subjects...

Anyway I'll handle it and continue to be classy...

Phothog

A recent trend

Hi there, I've been busy with non-photog stuff, (I do live a life outside of my computer.

Ok, down to business. A recent trend that I have noticed (and finally decided to comment on) is the use of infrared technology to get good pics.

Go ahead and use infrared as a tool, but don't rely on it.
too many wannabe-photogs are relying on infrared to get pics that look neat, but are not using their skills. Just because it looks different to the beholder w/Infrared, does not make it interesting to the people looking at the end product.

Sharpen your skill(or get some) and use as a tool, an asset, but do not rely on it to get your pics...

Tamron

Here are a few interesting links from Tamron
www.tamroneurope.com/flc.html Useful for the mm challenged (focal length comparison)
www.tamron.com/lenses/how_to_buy.asp#top Good stuff-Read this before you go out and buy a lens.


Tamron has alot of nifty stuff on their site, and they have some darn good lenses

Hymenoptera

 


Here is an interesting little guy...

PhotHog 

Photography Books

I recently was at a used book sale, I was perusing the books on photography, and was amazed at the diverse selection and what good shape they all were in, but after going through each one, I was disgusted to find that they were archaic, non futuristic, and thought more of talking about film types then lenses.

So my lesson from this, if you need help with a specific problem or camera, go ahead and buy a book, but if you want data on photography or the latest tricks on getting the "perfect shot" -use the internet.




PhotHog

Neat article

Here is an interesting article, not really of "Photographical" interest, but a good example of the many places and careers, that photography can come in handy... www.seedmagazine.com/photography/jakes_flying_snakes

The sands of time

This will be a short one, I was just looking at the results from a informal online poll, and I though I would share it,

The Question: what kind of film do you use?
The Results-What film do you use ?

None, I use digital 69%
Fuji 14%
Kodak 9%
Agfa 5%
Other 2%
Konica1%

Interesting, no?


PhotHog

A Battery of Tests

If you have a Digital camera, you probably know that Dcams use a lot of juice, I can't begin to process the number of times I have heard how "this camera drinks power as fast as you supply it" or "this camera eats batteries like candy" I was fully aware that digitals used a lot of juice, and was not disappointed...

I shall tell of how I was introduced to the battery sucking camera problem, and how it is solved...

The first batteries came with the camera, they were high grade lithium, and lasted a good two weeks, after that I was using batteries like crazy, several pairs week, I tried all kinds of brands,(including some that I acquired in Florence, Italy, that couldn't even power up my camera!) after looking around at the piles of spent batteries, I thought I would give rechargables a try.

I purchased 4 rechargeable batteries along with a recharger, and after a couple of years I was somewhat impressed that they were still working to order...

I still think that High grade lithium is the best JuiceCylinder for your camera, but re-chargers give decent life, save tons of money and won't litter the floor of your studio...

So, final thought,-get High Grade Lithium and/or Rechargeables.
(or keep using nonrechargers and use the spent ones on making some type of modern art to sell on eBay-you're going to pay for you're bad habit somehow.

PhotHog

P.S. If you don't use up batteries like a water through a sieve- you should be taking more pictures.

Cameras vs. Time

Noticing over the last 6 years or so, the pricing of cameras, it is interesting to note, that while the actual camera is the same, over time the price drops considerably.
I know this is how supply and demand, economics, and the building of new technology, effects things, but it is an interesting thing to witness.

I remember the first Megapixel cameras, how it was such a huge deal. And now, aside from cameraphones, no one would be caught dead with a 1mp camera -well, maybe dead.

Canon's digital Rebel, 6.something megapixel, the first subgrand pro dslr on the market, can today be found in unused condition for around 400$. It is now considered subpro, that is not to say protogs can't use it, but I would be hard put to find a photog artist wanting anything less than 8mp.

I found, last year, my first digital camera at a thrift store. (this is probably a common occurance now in the larger cities, but I was waiting for it to happen, in my area)For nothing but historical value I purchased it, it was 2.99$ and was worth, as a camera, quite a bit less.
After fooling around with it, opening it up, laughing at the miniscule sensor, (It was a 0.1mp interpolated to a 0.2mp camera!) I looked it up on Amazon, and found that in 2000 it was being sold for 89.00$, after looking at comments I found that some people had paid closer to 100.00$ for this camera!

I wonder if some Photog will someday look at my Canon 5D or Nikon D2X and laugh... or will I someday see, in a thrift shop, a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II and think, "kids toy" ? Time will tell...

PhotHog