The open and shut case for the digital camera. Look up the history of the Leica cameras - it is one of the most documented devices in all of photography. It came along to give a new way of working, just at a time when there were more and more ways of writing about it and publishing the results. Leica themselves did ( and does...
I have come to accept the need for aids in living. I'm not at the stage yet where I'll need an ear trumpet or a wooden leg, but the time cannot be far away. I already need aids to the memory - whenever I enter a room with a vague expression on my face the family has been trained to shout out " Now what have you lost? ". Sometimes they stop what they are doing and help me to find whatever it is, and sometimes they just push me back out of the room...
I hope the Lowepro rep doesn't bristle up too much at that headine...
I am surprised that Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton were not keen digital photographers - because anyone who attempts to do photography these days needs to be a mathematician - and it might have been the other way round. We're all familiar with the off-sets and multiplication factors that are needed for understanding focal lengths when people are assessing what big or small sensors do - but we're not that familiar. And it's still possible to flummox us with science when it comes to equivalences in exposure between f stops, T stops, and other ratios. Fortunately for most of us TTL metering and Automatic flash can put most of the hard work at a distance while we take the actual pictures. I was brought to this thought when i checked out two tele-converters from the Stirling Street storeroom this week, looking to tes them out with the lenses I own. I was prevented from this by the construction of the tele-converters themselves and by not owning the right lenses. I'm not alone in this confusion, though, and it is a recurring them that has...
I proceeded to the Murray Street premises of Camera Electronic and interviewed the store manager, Domenic Papalia. He opened the Canon show cabinet and took out a Canon Macro EF-S 35mm f:2.8 IS STM lens and a Canon 70D camera. After ascertaining that there was a charge in the battery, Mr. Papalia admitted that the lens had an inbuilt lighting system that could be actuated by a button on the side. Subsequent tests showed this to be the case - the button has three positions: high power, low power and off. The lens has aperture stops ranging down to f:29 - which is quite unusual for many small digital lenses. It autofocuses, as well as manually focusing once you release the locking. It contaains internal stabilisation. The picture of the SD card may not be art but it is science enough to show you how close and big it will go. The advantage of the two LED lights is seen when you are this close - otherwise, it is nearly impossible to obtrude other lights in front of the lens at such a distance....
Well, you cannot fault the makers of cameras for being dull bodies - they let their design departments run with the colours and in the cameras we've seen this week we've had a different shade each day. The Fujifilm XF10 today is Champagne Gold. How the Fujifilm people got away with using the word " Champagne " when it is debarred from local winemakers is a mystery. Perhaps they have better lawyers. Whatever, they do have an attractive pocket product here. It's the newest of the quartet and probably contains the newest circuits - but it also has one design decision that the others did not make - no zoom lens. This camera has a fixed 18mm lens feeding onto an APS-C Bayer-pattern sensor. Due to the nature of prime lenses over zooms, and fixed construction over erecting lenses, as well as that large sensor...
Eye Eye, Captain. Sorry about the tortured jokes, but the weather is cold and we've run out of rum. The reason the word " eye " has been mentioned is that the camera today - the Panasonic Lumix TZ90 - has a real live viewfinder for your eye - as well as a fully tilting 180º LCD screen. This is still a pocket camera - though like the Nikon Coolpix A900 it has bumps and protuberances. You'll not get it in your jeans pockets but the good old sports coat inside pocket is fine. You'll note the metallic grey finish - sort of halfway between the silver of the Canon and the black of the Nikon. You'll also note the 30X Leica zoom lens, onboard flash, manual focusing for macro shots, 4K video, and the first of the really useful thumb rests. PASM and art filters to while away time with. What you won't see is the post-shooting focus ability - this camera can take multiple frames to let you select the peak of focus. It can also take stop motion animation. And...
The days of the good old compact camera are numbered, they tell me - but then they have told me that you can't get film any more and we have fridges full of fresh stocks of it. And people buy it by the bagful...
The Coolpix model name was a brilliant piece of branding by Nikon - if there was ever any word that would work on the mind of the young and hip, it was that. This camera lives up to it. The portability of the Nikon Coolpix 900 is not as good as the previous little pocket - it has more bulk in all dimensions when closed and more controls protrude from the surfaces. But it also contains more actual machinery and capability: 35 X zoom lens, larger sensor, onboard flash that rises away from the lens axis, 4K video, the ability to access PASM settings, 180º flipping LCD screen, and the Snapbridge circuits to connect it easily to smart mobile devices. You can change image sizes and formats, change ISO and white balance, and do many of the photographer things that you've become used to in your larger camera. Of course the camera has some of the circuitry that modifies images for art effect, as well as a setting that will do most of the scene selection settings for you. Not a feature to...
The pocket is calling. That wonderful invention that carries money, keys, handkerchief, and lint. The stylish sometimes avoid them in the hopes of appearing slimmer and sleeker - but pay the price in having to carry ever larger bags to hold the tools of modern life. The pluggers amongst us know the vlue of good pockets everywhere - trousers, skirts, and especially coats and jackets. These are places in which you can keep your camera. Now some readers of this column will instantly think of mobile phones - they can be used as cameras as well as fetching Ubers, pizzas and Pokemon. Some do make quite fetching images, but the ergonomics of them as the picture is being taken can be atrocious. And the principle of a good big'un beating a good little 'un still applies. The trick for the travelling photographer is to find the compromise point between a number of factors: a. Size of pocket vs size of camera. b. Quality of image needed at the end. c. Type of image that will be sought - in terms of framing and exposure. d....