Paul

Electronic View Finders, then and now

 Photography  6 Responses »
Aug 272011
 

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Jan 14, 2004 – Trinity River – Irving, TX

My first serious digital camera, as mentioned yesterday, was the Minolta DiMage A1. It had most everything that I needed. It didn’t have interchangeable lenses, but had a zoom and a macro mode.

I cut my photographic teeth, so to speak, on ‘glass’. I had SLRs, which of course, view the image through the lens, wide open. As a matter of course, I think, I tended to shoot wide open because I liked the wider apertures and the out of focus backgrounds. Therefore, I’d shoot wide open or down a stop or two, rarely venturing past f/5.6. I still do that today, save for hyperfocal street shooting, then I hang out around f/8 or f/11.

When I moved to the A1, it had an electronic viewfinder. I had an immediate distaste for that technology, at the time. When looking through the camera’s eyepiece, it looked like an old video camera. Panning caused smearing and if your subject was moving, there was that video flicker as the refresh rate was not sufficient to keep up with life. Also, the resolution of the video was rather poor, so focusing manually was almost out of the question, especially focusing on a fine edge.
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Technology improves. When I got my D300, it had Live View. This allowed me to see my image, ‘live’, on the back of the camera. I didn’t like it much, save for shooting above my head, which I do rarely. The refresh rate was fast enough. I tried focusing with it a time or two, but I just couldn’t get into it. I still wanted to look through the eyepiece.

Well, Sony decided to go the route of the EVF in some of their cameras. As I look at the genealogy, it doesn’t really surprise me, as Minolta was one of the first to come out with the EVF. Sony bought Konica, who bought Minolta. If you want to read more about the cameras, you can read about them here.

Now, if they got right, I would imagine that an EVF that looks ‘real’ could be a big positive, allowing you to see everything as it’s going to be: depth of field and white balance are the two biggies that come to mind. I can see this with my Canon S90, though it doesn’t thrill me because I have to hold it at arms length, no viewfinder.

Anyway, if you’ve had experience with this camera, I’d be interested to hear your opinions, or your overall opinions on EVFs.

 Posted by at 00:00  Tagged with:

Even then, it was enough.

 Photography  8 Responses »
Aug 262011
 

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Tony and Grandpa: December 2003. Tony was 11

This photo was shot with my Minolta DiMage A1. This was my first ‘serious’ digital camera. It weighed in at almost 5 MP and about $1,200. I thought of this camera when Ken made this comment to yesterday’s post about having the latest camera equipment:

It’s a fair question if the person asking knows about digital photography, I think. Digital cameras keep getting better with each new model whereas film cameras were very much alike in producing photos of similar quality.

I was going to answer him in the comments, but felt that this deserved its own post. So, thanks Ken! :)

I think that, in one respect, I’m on the opposite side of the fence on this one. I think that if someone knows about digital photography, they would, as Ken says, know that digital cameras keep getting ‘better’ with each new model, but better in what regard? There seem to be more bells and whistles, higher ISOs, more pixels, better white balance, perhaps, but does it really improve the overall photo? That, I believe, is still left to the photographer.

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I looked back at some of the photos from 2003 and 2004 that I took with this, by today’s standards, modest camera, and was really quite happy with what I saw, even upon closer inspection. Sure, they wouldn’t stand up to the type of the enlargement that say my D300 or M9 would because they have a lot more pixels to give; however, for portraits, which the type of shot that I was asked to take, not a problem.

I have a few prints, 12 x 18, that I made from my 6 MP Nikon D40 and looking right at them, at arms length and even closer, they are beautiful. Printer technology has come a long way and you can get glorious prints from a 6 or even 4 MP camera, reducing the effect of the number of pixels.

The DiMage A1 was a cool camera, for its time. I shot with it for a couple of years until I made a serious upgrade to the Nikon D2x, which soon became outclassed by the D300 at a much lower price point. Since then, I’ve not upgraded my Nikon equipment. I actually, somehow, abstained from buying the D700.

It was an interesting look back at some of those photos. I think that it has even inspired me to write another post about it. We’ll see tomorrow. :)

 Posted by at 00:00  Tagged with:

Do you have the latest gear?

 Photography  5 Responses »
Aug 252011
 

Cloud shadows
Before I start this post, I just wanted to say that I’d never seen cloud shadows in the sky before. Yesterday, on my morning walk, I happened to look up and see the shadow of one cloud projected upon a thin layer of clouds. I thought it quite cool, indeed! :)

The day a former coworker contacted me and said that she wanted me to take some photos of her daughter. About 3 or more years ago when we worked together, she’d made that same request, but we never connected and made that happen.

As we talked about the specifics, she asked me a question that kind of caught me off guard. She said:

Do you have the latest gear? Are your cameras up-to-date?

I paused. My brain locked for a moment trying desperately to figure out why that was important. Finally, the lock disengaged enough for me to state: No. I don’t. I have a couple of digital cameras and some film cameras, all of which are capable of getting the shot.

She responded: Oh. Well, you know that I don’t know anything about photography, but I thought that it might be important.

Certainly, I had nothing against her question. Based on clever marketing to keep us buying the latest-greatest-most-up-to-datest widget, bauble, or camera, I can see why she though that was needed. I assured her that it wasn’t, though.

Who knows, I might show up with my Mamiya 645 film camera and really give them a shock! :) Hold on … I need to change my FILM!!! LOL

 Posted by at 00:00  Tagged with:

Farewell, Cedric

 Personal  3 Responses »
Aug 242011
 

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Farewell, my friend

Though a few days behind, I was rather surprised, as I was getting caught up with my fellow bloggers, to find that Cedric, author of Plop, said that he was exiting the blogging game.

I’m not really sure when I came upon Cedric’s blog, but I was sure glad that I did. There was something valuable there. Often times, I would read one of his post, attempt to absorb it, fail, have to come back, read again, and then make a comment, or not. Sometimes, there was just nothing left to say. He’d covered the point in its entirety, leaving me with nothing to add. There was value there.

Perhaps there was value, also, in his paucity. His blog was not a noisy blog. He is one of those people who, at least from the nature of his blog, only says something when he has something of quality to say. He most certainly doesn’t prattle on, like some folks, myself in particular. :) I wanted to see for myself when I went to Australia, but alas, the planets didn’t align correctly and we didn’t get to meet.

I, for one, will miss his blog. Thankfully he’s on Twitter and G+, so we’ll see where that goes. I suppose that at some point, everyone gets tired of blogging or perhaps has nothing left to say. I’m not there yet, but can admit to wondering what it would be like to not have a blog. I think that I do it more for the writing than the photography.

Well, farewell my friend, I’ll see you around.

 Posted by at 11:48  Tagged with:

Certainly not in the know!

 Humor  8 Responses »
Aug 232011
 

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Hmmmm. I wonder if he’s trying to tell me something?

Strike One
A couple of weeks ago my son, Pedro, called to ask if everything was alright. I assured him that things were, but I was quite puzzled as to why he would call and ask me such a thing. I had just left the movie theater with James and Tim. We were on our way back home. Pedro told me that it was flooding in Charlotte and that someone had died. Huh? Well, it had rained for a few minutes, pretty hard, but nowhere near flooding.

When I got home, I found that one part of the city had received some torrential type rains for about an hour, which had swollen some creeks. One women, who was shoplifting and tried to get away, ran into the creek, was carried away, and drowned. This was the flooding that he was talking about, a single, isolated, flash flood with one death.

Strike Two
I received a call from Pedro, again, this time last week. He asked if everything was alright. I said: Why wouldn’t it be? He said that he had heard that Bank of America was going to let go of 3,500 people. I didn’t know this! Hmmm. You’d think that as an employee I’d know this, but, I didn’t. I had to read about it after I got the call.

Strike Three
Today, around 5:00 PM as I was leaving work, Tony calls me from Missouri and asked if I was alright. I said: Why wouldn’t I be? He said because you guys had an earthquake. It’s on the news and everything. I said: Well, it must have been an awfully small one because no one around here felt it. :)

After I hung up with him, I did a quick search and, sure enough, there had been an earthquake near Washington, DC. According to reports, the earthquake came in at a 5.9, which is moderate on the Richter scale. Well, I’ll be damned. An earthquake. Didn’t know about that either.

I really like not having a television and not being in the know, sometimes; however, perhaps one day, I’ll come outside and everyone will have been abducted by aliens and I won’t have a clue as to what happened. I’d probably go home and write a blog about it. LOL

 Posted by at 19:44  Tagged with:

G+: Future blog?

 Personal, Photography  24 Responses »
Aug 222011
 

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I have Facebook, Twitter, and a blog. I don’t have a Flickr account, but just keeping up with these things takes a lot of time. Recently, I accepted an invitation from someone to join Google Plus, or G+. I’ve been looking at it for several days, trying to get a handle on who it works. I finally think that I have the beginnings of an idea of how it works.

With FB (Facebook), everyone is a ‘friend’. If you have more than a few friends, things can get messy in a hurry. There is no way to filter content. You get lots of content that you’re not interested in, especially if you have some people who post lots of content. The only way to reduce that is to hide the content or un-friend them. G+ has mitigated this issue with circles that allow you to put different people into different circles and view the content that you want.

If you combine this ability with the ability to ‘follow’ certain people, you get a Twitter-like experience, but with much more than 140 characters. This seems like the blog of the future. I’m following Thomas Hawk, just to see how I like the experience.

There’s also a Flickr-like experience, allowing you to share your albums as well.

After just having a short look, I’m wondering if this is the wave of the future for blogging, marketing, etc. I know that a few of you are on there: Ove, Cedric, Andreas, Robert, etc. Anyone else who is using it and what do you think?

 Posted by at 16:25  Tagged with:

Casual Photographer

 Photography  15 Responses »
Aug 172011
 

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If I were to put a label on the type of photography that I participate in at this time in my life, I would call it “Casual Photography”, or perhaps even “Carefree Photography”.

I used to get up early, grab the tripod, go out to get the shot. I used on an SLR or a DSLR. When I travelled, I hauled all of my equipment with me. Now, I seem to spend most of my time shooting with my iPhone or Canon S90. I like the easiness of transportation, especially when flying. I just slip it in my pocket and that’s that. I love it.

As Robert mentioned some time ago about my D300, as soon as I get it fixed, it’s going on the selling block along with the various lenses that I have and associated flashes, filters, etc. I’ve kind of changed gears and don’t really miss the SLR.

I’m about to head out of town for a few days and will only take my S90 and charger. That’s it. Nothing more, well, except for the ubiquitous iPhone. :)

I liked the label, Casual Photographer that I was going to buy the domain, but alas, someone else already has it. Que Sera, Sera. :)

Ironically, the photo that I included with this post was not taken with either the iPhone or S90, but the M9 in Australia on the steps of the Opera House. Go figure. LOL

 Posted by at 13:41  Tagged with:
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