« January 2008 | Main | March 2008 »
February 27, 2008
[ REVIEW—FUJIFILM FINEPIX F50fd ]
Price: $500
Excellent, up to a point
The low-down: The F50fd (the fd stands for face detection, which really works and is surprisingly useful) is a 12 megapixel compact camera, using Fuji’s own Super CCD sensor which is a bit larger than the competition. The lens has a modest 35-105mm zoom range (film equivalent). Construction is robust and attractive. There are not many user controls, but what there are can be easily accessed from knobs and buttons. The trademark Fuji Fn button gives instant access to ISO, resolution and photo styles. The camera has “dual image stabilisation”, meaning a combination of CCD shift and ISO boost. Fortunately dual mode can be turned off and only the CCD shift used. It takes both xD and SD memory cards.
Like: Image quality is gorgeous, very much in the style of Fuji’s admired Velvia film. Focus is fast and accurate, exposure is consistent, resolution is outstanding. Auto white balance is almost always spot on, so colours are accurate. Skin tones are lovely. This is quite simply some of the best image quality we have seen from a compact. But!
Dislike: There is always a but. The stunning image quality ends at ISO200. Up to that speed the pictures are perfect, above that speed they deteriorate, due to the excessive pixel density. At ISO400 the pictures start to look grainy, and the in-camera noise reduction begins to reduce sharpness and blur detail. Still, we mustn’t exaggerate the issue, ISO400 pictures are fine as 10cm by 15cm prints and better than the competition.
Verdict: If you can live with a top ISO of 200 – which is the standard speed of most colour negative film that we used in the past – then the Fuji is a terrific little camera. We would like an optical viewfinder, but they are a fast disappearing camera feature. We surprised ourselves with how much we relied on face detection. We enjoyed using this camera, all the while longing for a version with 7 million pixels, which would make it perfect. As it stands we would still recommend it to anyone looking for a superior compact.
*
Posted by terry at 09:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
[ HANDSOME PRINTS ]
DPEXPERT HEARS HOWLS OF PAIN from across the Wide Brown Land: “Why do my printed photos never look like they do on the monitor?” Indeed, it is a truth universally acknowledged that getting a satisfying print is just about the hardest part of DIY digital photography, and that is why many, if not most, snappers still take their memory cards to the nearest photo lab for print making.
When it comes to printing at home on an inkjet printer we may assume two categories of bewildered user, the unfussy who just wants quick, consistent output from the printer, and the more fastidious photographer who wants to make exhibition quality prints. This week we’ll concentrate on the requirements of the unfussies.
There is some advice that is common to both categories. Find a paper you like – preferably from the printer manufacturer – and stick to it. That removes one variable from the process. And always use the manufacturer’s inks. Third party inks will not match the printer/paper profile that is installed at setup.
Canon Pixma printer owners have an easy life. Your printer comes with some software called Easy-Print Tool Box. Open the Easy-PhotoPrint section, select an image straight from the camera, and, provided that it is sharp and well exposed, Easy-Print will turn out consistently good prints. You select the paper size and type and the software resizes the image to fit. There are no image editing tools, other than red eye removal, so the quality of the print depends on the quality of the saved image.
Derek Mobbs, the applications engineer and trainer at Epson Australia, is the expert on inkjet printing on his company’s printers and his sets of instructions for printing can be downloaded from http://tech.epson.com.au/downloads.
Derek insists: “Calibrate your monitor.” That is, adjust the monitor so that it has the best possible tonal range and the most nearly accurate colours. This can be done via software, such as Adobe Gamma which is loaded into the computer when Photoshop is installed. The software method is subjective and not the best way to go. Hardware calibration is better, using a device like Panton’s Huey, which plugs into a USB port and adjusts the black, white, grey and colour output of the monitor.
Different printers put up different dialogue boxes, but they all contain the same basic options. Here are the easiest steps to a great Epson print from Photoshop Elements.
· Open Edit/Colour Settings and select Always Optimise for Printing.
· Open the image to be printed and select File/Print, the first level of print dialogue boxes comes up
· For Colour Management select Photoshop Elements Manages Colours
· Open Printer Preferences
· Select paper type and size and check Best Photo
· Open Advanced and select ICM and turn Colour Adjustment Off
· Choose Border or Borderless
· Click on OK to return to first dialogue box
· Click on Printer Profile and select the correct profile for the intended printer/paper combination. The profiles are installed on the computer when the printer is first set up and they are named with a combination of the printer model and paper type
· Set Rendering Intent to Perceptual
What could be easier?
Next week: printing from Photoshop for the fussy photographer.
*
Posted by terry at 09:00 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 21, 2008
[ REVIEW—NIKON D300 DSLR ]
NIKON D300 Digital SLR
Price: $2900 body only
Simply superb
The low-down: The D300 is a12.3 megapixel camera with a CMOS sensor, in place of the CCD unit more common to Nikon. Sensitivity range is ISO200 to 3200 with extensions to 100 and 6400. The large, bright viewfinder shows 100 per cent of the image area. There is also a choice of “live view” in which the LCD is used as the viewfinder. The 75mm LCD is high resolution with almost 1 million pixels. Speed in burst mode is from 6 fps with internal battery and up to 8 fps with the optional battery pack. The autofocus system has an astonishing 51 point sensor for better moving subject tracking. The information from the sensor also affects exposure and white balance – a boon for sports photographers. Construction is rugged, with good sealing, and the ergonomics are outstanding. All important functions are accessible through buttons and knobs on the body.
Like: This camera is so responsive it is an extension of the eye. See the subject, think the photo, press the shutter and there is a properly exposed, sharp picture in all its 14 bit RAW colour depth glory. Nikon ergonomics have always been the best and they just got better. Image quality straight from the camera is faultless. We like the fact that auto exposure bracket can take a set of five exposures which is useful for high dynamic range (HDR) processing – most cameras make do with brackets of three.
Dislike: The dioptre adjustment on the viewfinder is so stiff that it can only be moved at the cost of a broken fingernail.
Verdict: The D300 is in a class of its own. The Sony a700 shares the same CMOS sensor and LCD screen and costs considerably less, and the Olympus E-3 is a few hundred dollars cheaper and they are both cameras worth considering. But if money is no object then the Nikon is hard to beat. Now that Nikon have fitted a self-cleaning function to the sensor the Canon 40D no longer has that advantage. What’s more you can plug in your GPS device just in case you don’t know where you are when you take the picture! All in all a camera to dream of.
*
Posted by terry at 04:32 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
[ PHOTOS IN THE FOREST ]
OUR FORESTS ARE LOVELY – at least the bits that are left after the wood chippers have had their way.
The straight grey trunks soaring above our heads; the ferns and bracken clustered around the trees; the moss and hanging bark; the occasional stream and waterfall – it is all a photographer’s dream. And also a photographer’s nightmare. The photos seldom do justice to what our eyes have seen, and there are several reasons for this.
Our eyes see everything in focus, from the closest bracken to the highest tree canopy. A camera, left to its own devices, cannot cope with this extreme depth of focus. But with the right lens – an extreme wide angle – and the right aperture – f16 or smaller – a camera can do a reasonable job of keeping the closest and the most distant objects in sharp focus.
A tripod is essential for the serious forest photographer. We use the slowest ISO speed to get the best quality image and we couple that with the smallest aperture and that means long, long exposure times. We also prefer overcast days for even lighting, so hand-holding is out of the question. And windy days are no good for this activity because the leaves will be blowing all over the place and will be blurred.
Digital sensors are very good at discriminating between various shades of green – in our experience digital beats film in this respect. But once again our eyes are even better and we can see subtle shades of green even through the surface reflection on a leaf. The camera just sees a bright highlight which looks horrible in the finished photo. A polarising filter will cut the surface reflections on leaves and water, or the highlights on wet rocks. Using a polariser increases the richness of the colours that are lost in the bright reflected light.
Polarising filters further diminish the light transmitted to the sensor, making exposures even longer, so a tripod is essential, but so is some form of shutter release that doesn’t involve touching, and therefore shaking, the camera. A remote cable or infra red release is best, but you can also use the self-timer to fire the shutter 10 seconds after you last touched the camera.
However – there is always a however – to reproduce the widest tonal range we need to do a little High Dynamic Range processing.
The dynamic range of the light on objects in the forest is immense, from the bright sky above to the darkest shadows around the bottoms of the trees. A photo correctly exposed to reveal detail in the shadows will be featureless in the highlights. We can overcome this problem by taking three or more exposures at 2EV intervals (use the camera’s auto exposure bracketing) and then using a program like Photomatix to merge them into a single picture that preserves detail at both ends of the tonal range. Photoshop CS2/3 also has an HDR merge function under the File/Automate menu. It produces a flat-looking image that then needs to be corrected in Photoshop editing.
We may be deficient in soaring, snow capped mountains and vast, placid alpine lakes, but there’s magic in the forest of a subtler kind. You have to go to some trouble to capture it.
*
Posted by terry at 04:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 13, 2008
[ REVIEW—EPSON PHOTO STYLUS R1900 PRINTER]
Price: $1100
Outstanding printer
The low-down: The R1900 is an A3+ (329 by 483mm) photo printer. It uses eight ink cartridges, including two blacks – photo and matte. The Ultra-Chrome Hi-Gloss2 formulation has resin coating of the droplets and a “gloss optimiser” to improve the surface, with reduced “bronzing”. Print life is rated at up to 200 years, depending on paper type and storage. The ink set includes orange, which Epson claim improves skin tones. The printer handles printable label discs, roll paper and Epson’s heavy specialist papers. The printer comes with roll paper adapter and can print either strips of individual photos up to 329mm wide or continuous panoramas. Setup is easy and print speed is very good. The unit footprint is huge – 62cm wide by more than 90cm deep, and to use all its functions it must be accessible from both front and back. It is not for the space-challenged.
Like: The print quality is stunning, easily the best pigment ink prints that we have seen. Detail is very good, virtually indistinguishable from a good dye ink printer. Glossy prints are rich with only the slightest hint of “bronzing” (the unpleasant effect of seeing the contours of the ink when viewed from off-centre which is a characteristic of pigment ink printers).
Dislike: The ink cartridges have very small capacities and cost $22 each. You can’t cheat with these inks, once the ink level indicator orders a cartridge replacement it must be done. The penalty for squeezing an extra print from a depleted cartridge is banding and a wasted sheet of expensive paper. In the US the R1900 costs AUD606. Please explain!
Verdict: The Epson R1900 is a great printer. However Epson have pinched the pennies by putting the instruction manual on disc from where it is installed to the hard drive during setup. And as with most printers the number of possible print setting permutations is bewildering. Getting prints that consistently match what is seen on the monitor is hard to do by trial and error. Please Mr Epson – and Mr Canon and Mr HP – how much would it cost to include a printing guide that explains how to get the best print from Photoshop?
*
Posted by terry at 11:23 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
[ CONTRIVING SPONTANEITY ]
DPEXPERT MOTORED OUT TO ELTHAM last week for a one day workshop designed to help photographers improve their people shots. The day was organised by Camera House and was run by professional photographer, Shelton Muller.
Shelton loves doing wedding photos, which makes him something of a rarity amongst professionals, most of whom seem to do it grudgingly to make a living. But Shelton is a showman who enjoys nothing better than directing a cast in a big production.
There were thirteen of us there in the chapel at Montsalvat. For $249 we were offered the run of the grounds, lunch, the cooperation of three models and the experience of the professional.
We are a motley crew with varying degrees of expertise. One wants to take better pictures of his bonsai, and another has been sent by his wife to learn to take better photos of her with the camera she gave him! There are a couple of camera club enthusiasts and one chap who just wants to recapture the pleasure he got taking photos for the school year book a long time ago.
There is a bloke who takes pictures of yachts and a couple of women who want to take better photos of their children.
We get started with the warning: “There’s no more difficult subject in the world than people.” And then we learn about light – avoid the on-camera flash, use available light wherever possible and become an observer of light and how it falls. Look for the most attractive, diffused light – think Rembrandt, and window light streaming in from above and to the side. When you find the light place your subject in it.
Then attend to composition. It isn’t a good idea to place the subject’s face in the centre of the frame with lots of “negative space” around the head. Put the eyes of the subject one third of the distance from the top to bottom of frame.
A medium telephoto lens, preferably a prime, is best for portraits. Shelton’s in love with his 85mm Micro Nikkor. It gives a flattering perspective and keeps the background attractively out of focus.
So, this is an easily repeatable set of rules, but now comes the hard part. We all want to take spontaneous, unposed, relaxed, natural pictures. And as our teacher says: “Often the spontaneity is contrived.” You have to work at it. The photographer is the director, drawing a performance, an illusion of spontaneity, from the subject. Which is where we shy introverts are at a disadvantage.
Shelton has a personality somewhere between Jim Carrey and Tigger. When he pulls a face and bounces you smile. His exuberance comes from unfeigned pleasure in his work and in making people have a good time while he is buzzing around putting them into their contrived spontaneous poses. He is free of the embarrassment that most of us feel when pushing people around in front of a crowd.
dpexpert, being a dour party, is confident that we know all about the rules of lighting, composition and lens selection, but when it comes to energising the subject we can only envy Shelton! We don’t think that wedding photography is for us. We should stick to still life capsicums and zucchinis.
*
Posted by terry at 11:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 06, 2008
[REVIEW—SONY CYBERSHOT DSC-T200]
Price: $650
A gadget that almost works!
The low-down: The T200 is a compact camera with an 8 megapixel sensor and a 5x Zeiss zoom -- 35–175mm film equivalent. The optics are folded within the body and do not protrud. The only external controls are power switch (power is also turned on and off with the sliding lens cover), image review and zoom button. All other controls are reached through the touch screen. The screen is 8.8cm with a 16:9 aspect ratio. TV high definition mode can be set in-camera and the unit connected to an HD TV for image playback. There is image stabilisation, face recognition and Smile Shutter! You depress the shutter button but nothing happens until the subject says “Cheese!” Images are stored in internal memory or on Sony’s Memory Stick. Construction is rugged and there is a choice of colours – black, silver and red.
Like: The touch screen control function is logical. All camera settings – there are not that many – are easily accessible. Used with care picture quality is acceptable, if a bit hit and miss. No doubt the intended customer is a person who will leave the mode set to Auto and the flash to on and will be happy with the resultant party shots.
Dislike: The price seems a little high. Perhaps this is a consequence of the included gimmicks, such as face recognition and Smile Shutter, or perhaps the touch screen. Auto white balance in Program mode is poor and left to its own devices it will select high ISO speeds producing noisy pictures with loss of detail. ISO speeds go up to 3200, which is ridiculous and the images look like pointillist paintings.
Verdict: The Sony T200 is a perplexing camera. Those who buy it as a fashion accessory with the latest in gimmickry will probably love it. For less money you can buy the Sony DSCW80 (RRP $350) which is a better camera. Mind you, it looks like a camera, so it won’t impress anyone at a party. It’s as boring as bat’s manure – but it works extremely well. It doesn’t recognise a smile when it sees one – can you live with that?
*
Posted by terry at 09:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
[ HELP, MY CAMERA IS AN IDIOT–PART 2 ]
CAMERA AUTOMATION has reached some sort of loony extreme with the introduction of Smile Shutter – the setting that allows you to depress the shutter, wait for the subject to smile and then the camera fires itself. Henri Cartier Bresson can eat his heart out over this innovation. From now on the camera will choose the “decisive moment”.
On one level it is all harmless gimmickry, but on another these extravagant automations raise the customer’s expectations of what cameras can do without intelligent human input. We have already covered the unreasonable expectations of automatic focussing systems, and the other day an email came from a reader who is disappointed with her automatic exposures.
L writes: “Having previously had two Pentax cameras I had faith in buying my first digital SLR – the Pentax K100D. But I have found the default settings a problem when photographing scenes and landscapes with sky. The sky tends to get bleached into over exposed white. A lot of photos seem to come out over exposed. I would really appreciate any ideas or tips on how to alter the settings to improve results.”
We expect too much from the automatic exposure system in a digital camera. Take the case of the over exposed sky.
There is usually foreground underneath the sky. So what is the camera going to "see" as the photographer's priority area? The dark foreground or the bright sky? The dynamic range between the darkest and lightest areas of the picture is huge -- in fact much greater than a digital sensor can cope with. So you have to make a choice -- expose for the sky or for the foreground?
If you want a rich blue sky with big fluffy clouds then you will have to over-ride the auto exposure and underexpose the picture. But if you want detail in the foreground -- say in a subject's face or the detail of a building or the landscape -- then you will have to over expose the sky.
Or, set Spot metering, take a reading from the sky and another from the foreground and then set the exposure manually to an in-between setting.
Digital cameras, like L’s Pentax, all have an Exposure Compensation button. Using exposure compensation you can experiment with different settings, usually between two stops under- and two stops over-exposed. A digital picture is free, so you just keep taking them until you get it right.
Back-lit photos are particularly difficult for cameras to judge. The camera tries to preserve detail in the bright light behind the subject, but this then seriously under-exposes the subject. A back-lit head will have a face in deep shadow if the camera is left to make the decision. In this situation set the camera to spot metering and take a reading from the subject’s face.
Open shade is also difficult for automatic exposure systems. The tendency is to over expose a subject in shadows. Wind the exposure compensation down 1 EV and the camera will do better.
The eye is much more tolerant of wide dynamic ranges of light and dark than a camera sensor. The eye can perceive detail simultaneously in deep shadows and bright highlights that a digital sensor cannot “see”. Sensors have double the dynamic range of film but only half that of the eye – in other words they need intelligent assistance.
*
Posted by terry at 09:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack