Since Photokina is now fully in session, I’ve been reading The Luminous Landscape and looking at the various product announcements. Some of them are interesting. Some are not. The pixel wars continue and it leaves me wondering just how much technology I need. I would imagine that, if it hasn’t already, digital will surpass film in every aspect. Lenses will continue to get better and better. Technology will continue march on.
The other day when I was in Savannah, I took the above picture at ISO 3200, not expecting much. When I looked at it using the histogram, naturally it was very heavily weighted to the left, or shadow side. After all, it was dark outside. When I pulled it up in Photoshop, the people (Usha, Craig, and someone that I don’t know) were barely discernible. After some tweaking with PS, I had a decent photo. Never would I have been able to accomplish this type of quality with film. ISO 3200 would have been all grain. Further, the former Nikon flagship, the D2x would have failed miserably at this task. I’ve shot with it at 3200 and the results were very poor. Let’s just say that you got the shot, but it would have taken so much clean up to make it usable. It’s hard to image that the D700 is even better at this level than the D300.
I love just watching the technology get better and better. If you’ve been keeping up with the announcements, which announcement excites you the most or captures your interest?
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7 Responses to “Technology marches on”
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A few years ago a flash was required to capture photos in low light conditions so they didn’t turn out solid black. Now you can get an acceptable shot in almost any condition without artificial lighting. This is what is exciting to me.
I now view artificial flash/lighting as a type of pre-processing of the photographic subject as opposed to post-processing of the digital image.
Earl, I think that you need to get out and do some low light shooting with that new toy of yours! Just make sure to do it in a safe area!
You’re certainly right about not even being able to get this shot without a flash. Now, with ISO 25,600, it seems that the sky is the limit. Soon, the camera will be the equivalent of night vision goggles … hopefully everything won’t be green though!
It looks as if we are currently (at least when talking DSLRs) get a bit away from the pixel race to the High-ISO race. And Nikon seems to be clearly leading at the moment.
I kind of enjoy that, it makes more sense to me than the pixel-race. As Earl says, it really opens up new photographic possibilities.
I think what Earl mentioned is really one of the larger leaps we are seeing now – being able to free ourselves from flash and the sometimes undesirable effects that go along with it. Will I be tempted by a higher MP camera? Maybe a little, it is only natural I guess. But not if it means sacrificing high ISO capabilities or diffraction limitations.
Maybe there will be a leveling off point of MP vs. price. Maybe it will continue to increase more and more, making us buy larger and faster computers, more hard drives just to keep up with the new cameras. Seems like a conspiracy to me.
I have a lot of fun shooting low light portraits – I’m excited by the potential of the new 5DII for that aspect.
Mostly at the moment I’m excited to be excited about shooting again – I don’t need a new camera, probably won’t get one for another 6 months, but I’m having fun taking pictures. That’s more exciting than new features!
Even more than that, I’m excited that my cast comes off in 7 days!
The Canon 5D MkII. If I were a Canon shooter, that’s where I’d be heading. Being not saves me a considerable amount of money
The new Canon 5DII is interesting but overall I’m pretty satisfied with where I am right now with equipment.