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September 27, 2006

[ CANON EOS 400D enthusiast's kit ]

Price: $2300

Highly recommended

The low-down: The Canon EOS 400D is the third iteration of the company’s entry level DSLR. The changes over the 350D are mainly in the sensor -- increased to 10 megapixels -- and moving the camera information read-out from the top panel to the main LCD screen.

We chose to test the 400D in the “enthusiast kit” form because we feel that the camera is so outstanding that it deserves the excellent Canon 17–85 image stabilised lens even though it costs $800 more than the camera with the standard kit lens.

In this combination the camera is responsive and consistently produces well-exposed, highly detailed, sharply focussed, accurately coloured photographs. As we expect from Canon the high ISO images are practically noise-free. The only disappointment we had was with auto white balance -- the camera does not handle incandescent light well.

The camera has an automatic routine for removing dust from the image sensor filter similar to that used by Olympus. In this case the filter is ultrasonically cleaned when the camera is turned off.

All controls are well laid out and intuitive in use but in the event of bemusement the printed manual is comprehensive and clear.

Like: The responsiveness of this camera makes taking a photo about as instinctive as blinking an eye. The shutter release is nicely damped and the mirror/shutter slap is reasonably restrained even if not as quiet as we would like.

Dislike: There is still no spot metering. The camera body is still too obviously plastic. Buy the black one, at least it looks more substantial than the silver.

Verdict: The lens issue needs consideration. The body costs $1300 and with the standard 18–55 kit  lens it is $1500. There is a two lens kit with a 75–300 zoom for $1650. The “enthusiast’s kit” with the image stabilised 17–85 is $2300. It’s a choice between two lenses covering 18 to 300mm for $350 or one lens of lesser focal length range for $1000. Hmm. We tried the camera with the kit lenses and didn’t like it. We switched to the better lens and loved it. $2300 buys a great camera but it’s certainly not “entry level”.

 

THERE ARE SAMPLE IMAGES FROM THE CANON EOS 400D IN THE DPEXPERT GALLERY >

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[ BEWARE the bargain that's too good to be true ] ]

INKJET PRINTERS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING EXCELLENT PHOTO PRINTS ARE CHEAP. Unfortunately the materials needed to make them work are ruinously expensive.

Canon, Epson, Hewlett Packard and Lexmark all make printers capable of producing excellent prints and the hardware is remarkably affordable. However buying the gadget is only the beginning of the shock to the credit card.

Imaging’s Canon i9950 printer is a wonderful machine but it uses 8 ink cartridges that cost $24 each. Genuine Canon paper is also expensive, particularly if you opt for the best Photo Paper Pro. And the story with Epson and Hewlett Packard is much the same.

It is understandable that the frugal photographer will be seduced by cheap third party ink cartridges and refills. We proceed on the cyncical assumption that the printer makers are giving away the hardware in order to get us addicted to their ink and papers, but we are not fooled. We’ll outsmart them by buying no-brand.

It’s an appealing logic but be warned. For a few years Epson ran a series of advertisements intended to scare their customers away from third party inks. With graphic photographic proof the company claimed that if any but their own genuine inks are used their printer heads will be ruined.

There was widespread hooting at the self-serving alarmist advertisements, but what if it is true?

Imaging can’t speak of Epson experience but we can report that third party inks wreaked havoc on the expensive print heads of a previous Canon printer we owned. The heads clogged up and nothing that we could do would clear them. When we checked with Canon they told us that use of third party inks does not void their warranty. They neither recommend nor warn. But our experience turned us off no-name inks forever.

Now comes another persuasive reason for not using third party inks. Prints made with them fade before your very eyes!

The Wilhelm Imaging Research Institute -- the de facto standard setter for inkjet print longevity -- has recently tested a range of alternative inks from the big office supply companies in the US. The house brand names are unfamiliar to us but presumably these inks come from the same source that supplies our third party market.

Wilhelm found that where, for instance, Hewlett Packard inks used with HP Premium Plus Photo Paper produce prints that last 73 years under standard illumination the cheap inks faded in 5 months or, at the most, 6 years. HP 95 and 99 photo cartridges produce prints with a life expectancy of 108 years. With the cheap inks the life of the print is 4.6 years at the best.

The disparities are just as startling for Canon and Epson printers. Wilhelm considers “the permanence of all the after-market products tested to be unsuitable for printing valued consumer photographs.”

Sadly, we get what we pay for. And what we pay for when we buy genuine inks and papers is a total system where the chemistry and physics of all the components have been optimised to work together to produce the best results and protect the microscopic ink jets from damage.

The Wilhelm Imaging Research Institute results can be downloaded from their website.

Posted by terry at 08:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 21, 2006

[ 2 NEW CAMERAS UNDER TEST ]

THE CANON EOS400D and the PENTAX K100D are currently on the dpexpert test program. The full reviews will be posted here over the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime have a look at some sample images from the two cameras in the Gallery.

 

Mimi — taken with the Canon EOS400D

Andrew — taken with the Pentax K100D

 

The Canon and the Pentax are both excellent cameras. The Pentax costs $1000 and the Canon [as tested with a high quality Canon lens] $2300.

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[MAXWELL & NIKON DIVORCE ]

MAXWELL OPTICAL INDUSTRIES will cease to be the Australian distributor of Nikon products from 30 September 2006.

Maxwell have been the Nikon distributors here since 1983.

On 3 October a new company will start called Maxwell International Australia and it will be a subsidiary of the American DayMen Photo Marketing company. The new company will continue to distribute some of the products formerly handled by Maxwell Optical —Tamron lenses, Cokin filters, Velbon tripods and Lowepro bags.

Maxwell will continue to manage warranty repairs through its existing service centres until Nikon has set up its Australian subsidiary. This means that Nikon now joins companies such as Canon, Sony, Olympus, Ricoh and Panasonic in managing their own distribution. Pentax and Casio are still distributed by Australian companies.

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[ YOU CALL THAT A PHONE CAMERA, MR TRACY? ]

THE PHONE CAMERA HAS COME OF AGE. It has now officially made the transition from Dick Tracy gadget to useful photographic tool.

The transformation of the phone camera has been in the improvement in the optics. Resolution has gone up to 3.2 megapixels and that helps, but the most important improvement has been in the lens.

Imaging has been trying two new phones -- the Nokia N80 ($1100) and the Sony Ericsson Cybershot K800i ($830). The Nokia has a 3 mp sensor and the Sony Ericsson has 3.2 -- an insignificant difference in resolution.

Where the two cameras differ most fundamentally is in their lenses. The Nokia uses the old technology of a fixed focus, extreme wide angle lens with a rough switch for selecting between macro and infinity modes. Although the N80 has a million more pixels than the much cheaper Nokia 6280 there is little to choose between them in picture quality.

The Sony Ericsson has a true auto-focus lens. The result of the added focussing mechanism is much sharper pictures which are also better exposed. In fact the output from the 800i is consistently outstanding.

Some new Nokia phones also have auto-focus lenses and we hope to test them in future but at the moment there is no contest between the N80 and the K800i.

Both phones have infra red transmitters and we were able to make prints directly on the Canon iP6700D (see the review) using Canon’s Photo Paper Pro and the results from the Sony Ericsson are very good indeed. The Nokia pictures, by comparison, lack sharpness and detail and are poorly exposed.

The next necessary development in phone camera technology is in true optical zoom lenses. At the moment phone cameras come with digital zooms which work by enlarging a small section of the image. An optical zoom exposes the whole sensor area but if it has a mechanical action it needs room in which to move and room inside a mobile phone is at a premium.

The Nokia N93 fits a 3x optical zoom and a 3.2mp sensor across the body width rather than through the body depth -- clever lateral thinking. The N93 is the true competitor for the K800i.

One possible solution to the problem of fitting an optical zoom in a small space is the liquid lens being developed by the French company, Varioptic.  In July the company announced plans to begin mass production of the liquid lens in collaboration with a Taiwanese company.

The liquid zoom consists of a drop of oil and a drop of water in a cone, sandwiched between two thin sheets of glass. When an electric charge is passed through the liquid the surface tension of the water changes and the water drop bulges or contracts which in turn alters the focal length of the “lens”.

Once the optics of the phone camera match those of an ordinary compact camera most people may find they don’t need to carry two separate devices. With phones these days also doing service as MP3 players and personal organisers one gadget will do the work of three…not to mention the FM radio, video camera, TV receiver, email client and web browser built into the latest G3 phones. Mr Tracy, eat your heart out!

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[ REVIEW—CANON PIXMA iP6700D printer ]

Price: $350

Highly recommended

The low-down: The Canon Pixma iP6700D is a 6 colour photo printer that appears to be aimed at the digital camera user who would rather not be fussed with a computer and image editing software. The printer has the standard USB interconnect with a computer but it also has slots for CF and SD memory cards, a port for Pictbridge connection and an infrared receiver to print from mobile phones plus an optional BlueTooth receiver.

The company boasts that even red-eye correction can be done in the printer. There is a small pop-up LCD screen that is used for selecting images for printing, paper type and size and for viewing images and making basic corrections.

The iP6700D does duplex printing on double-sided paper; it prints on CD blanks; it makes borderless prints up to A4 and comes with easy-to-use software for handling any of Canon’s print media.

The inks are Canon’s ChromaLife100 which promise a reasonable print life before fading.

Like this: The quality of reproduction from the Canon Pixma iP6700D is stunning. We tried just about every printing medium including photo stickers, double-sided album paper, T shirt transfers, CD labels and good old plain paper and the results were consistently good. Using Canon’s Photo Paper Pro the pictures are eye-popping.

Setup is easy with the printer doing automatic head alignment.

Dislike that: We enjoy showing off the infra red connection to sceptical pals -- take a photo with the mobile phone, point it at the printer, press the send button and… Wait! 3 minutes and 40 seconds to turn out a single 10 by 15cm print. Boy, that is slow.

Parting shot: The Canon Pixma iP6700D is one of those devices that has you wondering how it is possible to get so much for so little. $350 (and advertised for $300 in Livewire) buys a printer that consistently turns out prints comparable in quality with good silver halide processing. The iP6700D is astonishing value for money.

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September 14, 2006

[ PUZZLEME photo jigsaw ]

Price: $17 for A4/20 piece; $18 for A4/50; $20 for A4/150; $26 for A3/300

Highly recommended

The low-down: The PuzzleMe photo jigsaw service turns digital images into puzzles of A4 to A3 size, cut into 20, 50, 150 or 300 pieces.

Ordering and transferring of image files can all be done through the company’s web site or via post — PO Box 218, Mulgrave Vic 3170. Phone 03 95451788. You choose a puzzle size and the number of pieces -- A3 is 300 pieces -- upload the photo and make payment online.

The service is quick. We had our puzzle back within four working days even though the company says to allow up to 10 days for delivery. PuzzleMe emails the customer to advise that the order has been posted. The puzzle comes in a box with the original image pasted on the lid for reference when doing the puzzle.

Like this: The quality of reproduction is spectacularly good. We sent a picture of a bird, straight from the camera, 3000 by 2000 pixels at 300dpi, with a lot of detail in the feathers and a softly blurred background and the printed image is absolutely true to the original. Detail, sharpness and colour accuracy are exemplary. The puzzle is nicely cut, but be aware that an A3 sheet cut into 300 pieces produces some very small bits!

Dislike that: We found that using Firefox we could not complete the online transaction. We had to ring the company to be told that their site only works with Internet Explorer.

Parting shot: The PuzzleMe jigsaw puzzle service is excellent. We asked the manager, Michael Ly, how he achieves such a high image quality producing a one-off puzzle -- it looks like good magazine printing. Michael says that when he started the business two years ago he spent a couple of months developing his work process to get the best results with the least labour input. He passes the digital image to a high quality colour copier for reproduction and then to the puzzle cutter. At this stage A3 is the maximum size that can be produced at a reasonable cost.

We wouldn’t want to encourage Michael to increase his prices but we are bound to observe that he is charging a very low price for an individualised product which comprises both the puzzle and the unique box. Highly recommended.

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[ CHRISTMAS IS COMING—START WORRYING! ]

 

FORGET THE YULETIDE SOCKS THIS YEAR — if you have a good quality inkjet printer you’re already set up to be your own Santa’s helper turning out unique presents that are all you own work. It’s worth poking around in the printer supply shops to see what specialised printing media are available.

From what we have spotted and tried we can report that the printer manufacturers can get you up and running making mouse pads, T shirts, photo albums that look like books and those sheets of stickers that children love. With some of the elementary photo editing programs you also get applications for making cards, calendars and photo album pages.

Small children love sheets of stickers and Canon makes photo stickers onto which to print 16 little pictures. Canon’s latest printer drivers come with software to set up the image for printing. You choose the picture for the sticker, dial up the number of times you want it printed, up to 16, put the paper in the printer and press go and bingo! Personalised stickers.

Both Canon and Epson make transfer paper for putting pictures onto T shirts. It’s a simple matter of printing the image onto the transfer paper and then ironing it onto the shirt. One small child of our acquaintance was highly delighted to get a T shirt decorated with one of her very own drawings. Canon’s T shirt transfers come in a pack of 10.

Canon’s mouse pad kit comes with one pad with adhesive surface and two transparent sheets for printing on — presumably a safeguard against making a dud. In this case the T shirt transfer paper type in either the Canon or Epson printer driver is used because, as with the transfer, it flips the image horizontally and prints it in mirror image. The reason being that the printed side of the transparent sheet is pressed down onto the adhesive surface of the pad. We found that the printed sheet has a tendency to lift from the pad. It is not 100 per cent satisfactory.

Both Epson and Canon make double sided photo paper for printing professional looking album pages. Canon’s paper is intended to be used in their excellent photo album kits that come in different sizes. The kit consists of an attractive dark blue binder and ten sheets of double sided paper. The binders hold a maximum of 20 sheets -- in effect 40 pages.

Adobe’s Photoshop Elements 4 [soon to be replaced with Elements 5] has a useful set of “create” tools that will turn photos into album pages, greeting cards and calendars. Each function comes with a selection of pre-set designs. The Calendar creation set is particularly good and making a calendar from photos is a breeze.

Officeworks do a decent job of spiral binding calendars and it is relatively inexpensive.

We find that for cards and calendars the best paper to use is matte photo paper from the manufacturer of the printer you are using. Epson’s double-sided matte is particularly good for this purpose.

Finally, overhead projector transparency sheets make excellent stained glass windows. We print the festive images and then stick them onto the windows with double sided adhesive tape which is more or less invisible. It all helps to boost the spirits when peace on earth seems a wan hope.

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September 06, 2006

[ THE FIVE BUCK PHOTO ]

BE CAREFUL WHO YOU PHOTOGRAPH — you could be assaulted. Or at least be ordered, with menaces, to hand over $5.

Jodie is a walkabout street photographer in Melbourne with an attractive folio of work who happened to spot a chap sitting on the steps at Flinders street station and she snapped him. She was startled by his reaction.

Jodie says: “He came over and said that I had to give him $5 for the picture I just took of him. I told him I didn't have $5, and things started to get slightly ugly. He then told me to give him the film, when I told him it was digital he got more pissed, and I deleted the photo -- well one of them -- in front of him.

”I (moved) away and he started abusing me, with all kinds of insults -- telling me he would smash my camera in my face.”

Jodie wriggled out of the situation and then was faced with a dilemma: should she upload the photograph to her Flickr site? She did it, but with the reluctant subject’s face blacked out. Now she wants to know if she did the wrong thing.

Looked at objectively you might say that $5 is a reasonable fee to pay a model. You wouldn’t get Megan Gale for five bucks. But perhaps paying an angry person in this situation is tantamount to admitting that you have done something wrong.

We have explored the legalities of street photography in Imaging in the past but this is more an issue of ethics and etiquette. Should photographers always ask before snapping just because it is polite? Or does that destroy the spontaneity of the decisive moment? Many of the greatest photographs ever taken are of unsuspecting subjects.

But another issue arises in the context of discussing Jodie’s picture and that is to do with the pornography of poverty. This is a term coined to damn aid agencies that use photographs of misery to boost their fund-raising efforts, or to describe the tourist in India who takes pictures of crippled beggars because they are so colourful and exotic.

Marshall McLuhan called the photograph “the brothel without walls” -- the most voyeuristic medium of them all. But while we understand erotic voyeurism it is not so easy to understand the appeal of poverty as a fit subject for photography.

The simplest explanation is that seeing photographs of paupers, perhaps dying in the street, excites schadenfreude -- smug pleasure in the misfortune of others. Or perhaps pity. But these explanations don’t stand up to scrutiny. Schadenfreude is the sensation of intense pleasure you feel when you see two Mercedes collide. And pity does not attract -- it repels.

The poverty-as-art photograph is always a picture of a stranger. It is unthinkable that we should photograph someone we know in an attitude of misery. Occasionally a photographer breaks through the anonymity and forces us to get to know the subject as Eugene Smith did with his photographs of the Minimata victims -- the people poisoned by mercury in their environment. Smith’s photographs are both great art and a compelling document. He crossed the line from observer to participant and was severely beaten by thugs hired by the offending company. But this does not describe the tourist photographs of the beggars in India. As McLuhan says that type of photography turns people into things.

Eugene Smith told his students: "Humanity is worth more than a picture of humanity that serves no purpose other than exploitation."

The Imaging rule is this: it’s OK to take a spontaneous photograph of any person who looks as though they would be able to take a picture of us in another time and place. We wouldn’t mind that at all. We have decided to draw the line at snapping people who look as though they will never be able to scrape together enough money to buy a camera like ours.

Jodie did the right thing. She agonised over the rights and wrongs of her photograph. She was not blithely indifferent to the implications of what she was doing.

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[ REVIEW–RICOH Caplio 500G wide ]

 

Price: $1100

Highly Recommended

The low-down: The Ricoh 500G “wide” is an 8 megapixel camera with a 3x zoom lens with a film-equivalent range of 28–85mm. There is an optional extender lens that takes the camera to 22mm at the wide angle end. Ricoh produce exceptional wide angle lenses with no trace of barrel distortion.

The Ricoh 500G is a highly specialised camera. It has a mode setting for “fire fighting”, which “allows you to take clear, sharp pictures…unaffected by flames or smoke.” This is truly a go-anywhere camera -- through dust, fire and flood. And it is no flimsy little point and shooter with a waterproof housing. The 500G is totally enclosed in a tough, flexible rubberised waterproof case. Ricoh invite you to drop it on a hard floor from a metre if you must. And, being a serious piece of gear, the 500G sports an external flash shoe.

The all-nasties-proof body means that the 500G is no pocket camera but it fits nicely in the hand and, like all Ricohs, it is responsive with fast focus and no shutter lag. And, as befits a no nonssense camera, it is powered with either the proprietory Ricoh rechargeable or with AAs. It has a small but useful optical viewfinder.

Like this: The Ricoh 500G is made for a particular niche market which includes firefighters, builders, engineers and architects and, we assume, explorers and white water rafters. It even has a mode for correcting photos of documents so that they are straight, with edges aligned, in the final image. It has the most amazing macro facility that photographs subjects as close as 5mm from the camera.

The user guide is a 193 page book of exemplary detail.

Dislike that: The write time to the SD card is slow.

Parting shot: The Ricoh 500G wide is a tool -- there is no other way to describe it. It’s not pretty but it’s certainly tough. And it has been well thought out for a particular customer who wants a camera that can stand abuse and still produce good pictures.

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