Kodachrome 1935 - 2009. R.I.P.

June 23rd, 2009

A groundbreaking film to photography when it was introduced, Kodachrome has finally been culled from the market by Kodak.

Most surprising of which is that it took so long.

While there still are people shooting this medium, it is for novelty only, as opposed to it offering any tangible benefit towards the image. Resolution, ISO-sensitivity, color and image quality have long been surpassed by digital.

Apparently, there is only one lab in the US still processing the film! And, according to Yahoo news, “unlike any other color film, Kodachrome is purely black and white when exposed. The three primary colors that mix to form the spectrum are added in three development steps rather than built into its layers.

Kodak’s gist is here

“Where can I download PDF manuals for my Nikon products?”

June 17th, 2009

The answer to the simple question “Where can I download PDF manuals for my Nikon products?” is given by Nikon’s US website with a pretty comprehensive collection of all their manuals.

All nicely sitting in one place!

D-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s!

Here’s the link.

Nikon’s New Pro Videocam?

June 16th, 2009

The floodgates are open.

Both Nikon and Canon have shown their capability to build video into their DSLRs.

Granted, the implementations are far from perfect, but they’ve done it.

But: except for picture quality, they have thrown Camcorders back 15 or more years back in time, when there was hardly any image stabilization and back practically forever with lacking autofocus.

We want more. We want these faults to be fixed. We want high quality video on a video recorder which is at least as capable as conventional camcorders. And the biggie: WE WANT TO BE ABLE TO USE OUR DSLR LENSES ON THIS!

Do you realize what this means?

The death of DSLR!

If we can have perfectly capable Liveview, the use of the viewfinder will drop dramatically. And with that the neccessity of the mirror mechanism. And with that the mirror slap.

Yay, quiet high-quality photography at last?! This will revolutionize wedding photography!

Who will be first: Canon or Nikon? Thank goodness we’ve got stiff competition!

DIY “El Cheapo” Steadicam

May 20th, 2009

Hey, this is cool, check it out!

Steadicam DIY + HV30 + 35mm from stephen greg on Vimeo.

More DIY here.

Gigapixel Images - The Robot Behind it All

May 19th, 2009

I was floored when I saw gigabyte images for the first time in Digg. Wow, pretty cool, although I couldn’t quite think of an application in my field of photography. This is a screen thing and since I mainly work with albums, images in the range of 10-20 Megapixels are more than enough resolution for me.

A gadget, no less.

They’re produced kind of automatically with this machine:

Gigabyte Images machine robot

Just plunk in one of their approved compact cameras, press a few buttons and wait for the shooting to end. Download all the images to the computer and run the image-stitching software.

Voila!

Squarely in gagapixel-nirvana, you can now zoom to your heart’s content.

The website of Gigapan.

Feature in Upcoming DSLR’s (D5000)

April 14th, 2009

Usually Nikon implements new features in it’s more expensive products, then lets them percolate downwards to the cheaper models. Examples: D3 to D700, D300 to D90, D200 to D80, D80 to D60. With the announcement of the D5000, the new swiveling display should be a feature which will be available in it’s future upscale models. This should be inexpensive in production, yet immensely useful in Liveview-mode.

Nikon’s also announced it’s AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 10–24 mm f/3.5–4.5G ED, which should be a nice lower-cost, smaller and lighter alternative to the 12-24mm/2.8, which, although nice, is positively huge and heavy. Pity it’s got an amateur aperture range at an almost pro-price, though. 

F-Stop Beyond

April 5th, 2009

A great blog with regular interviews by Ron Dawson, recommended!

F-Stop Beyond

f0.95 Lenses - Canon and Leica

March 24th, 2009

Wow, I didn’t know these existed, but they do!

Canon supposedly made f0.95 lenses in the 60’s and Leica has one too:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/digital-life/cameras–camcorders/articles/leica-lens-matches-aperture-record/2008/09/19/1221331172762.html

(at 10k a pop and ISO 25k I couldn’t care less - - - - although that Bokeh must be SWEET!!!  Drool….

Firmware Updates D300, SB900

January 18th, 2009

It’s always a good idea to periodically check your gear manufacturer if any firmware updates are available.

There were some goodies out for my crop of Nikon gear :-)

Check here if you’re in Europe: Nikon Europe Update Site

Nikon D300 Body: 1.10 (cures a number of issues including autofocus)

Nikon SB900 Flash: 5.02 (cures a number of issues including overzealous overheating shutdown)

Nikon D90: None as yet

Nikon D700: None as yet

D90’s Goodness

December 22nd, 2008

The Nikon D90’s an amazing camera for the price! I bought it for travel - my regular D300’s and D700 are just too big, heavy, expensive and conspicuous.

Click on the thumbnail to see the original image taken at 6400 ISO, F2.8, 1/10th of a second hand held (it was really dark in this cave in the Marble Mountains, Vietnam) with a 17-55/2.8, no flash. The image is straight out of the camera, all the EXIF data is intact. No, it isn’t quite near the D3/D700’s low noise levels, but then it costs just 1/3 the price!

The D90 sure has lowered the cost-of-entry for new wedding photographers entering the business. I’d say all you need to get some pretty darn good pictures is:

* A D90

* A 17-55/2.8 Lens

* An SB600 flash (the camera’s built-in flash is the backup)

* Your old SLR and lens as a backup

* A bunch of batteries for the flash, a backup battery for the D90 and some memory cards

* Your artistic eye and technical photographic knowledge (you didn’t think the camera alone would get you great pictures, did you?)