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Tuesday, February 27, 2007 -
Kit Bag: Everyday camera
The Camera
I'll start with the easy bit, my everyday camera. I carry an Olympus FE-130 with me most of the time for those occasions when carrying my proper camera is too much. I originally bought this camera to take snowboarding with me, as I didn't want the bulk or risk or my other camera, but it now travels around in my work bag, as well as in my handbag at weekend.
The FE-130 doesn't have any manual settings but the scene selection functionality works pretty well and allows me to control some of the settings, I've used the snow scene pretty extensively and it seemed to do a very good job. It takes AA batteries, which is absolutely fine for me for this camera. It uses an XD card which is a slight frustration as my other cameras have been CF, and my next camera is probably going to be SD so I'm getting a great collection of storage media.
All in all a great everyday camera, has its limitations, obviously, but for £65 it has proved to be excellent value for money.
The Case
I carry this camera around in a Hama DF15 Fancy Funny case. It's bright red, and offers a reasonable level of protection. I didn't want too bulky a case as it has to be able to fit into the pocket of my snowboarding jacket. The case wouldn't be sufficient for me for a better camera, but it does just fine for this one, and at £3.99 I have absolutely no complaints to make.
Moo cards ordered
Saturday, February 24, 2007 -
JPG Magazine / Moo cards
When reading one of Jeremy's posts the other day, I stumbled across his link to JPG Magazine. JPG Magazine describes itself as JPG Magazine is for people who love imagemaking without attitude. It's about the kind of photography you get when you love the moment more than the camera. It's for photographers who, like us, have found themselves online, sharing their work, and would like to see that work in print. Seems like a nice idea, so I've just spent the last half an hour reading through stories, and viewing photographs. I like the fact that there is hard copy available too, although admittedly it looks pretty hard to get at in the UK.
He also linked to Moo, whom I had spotted through the flickr link. MOO dreams up new tools that help people turn their virtual content into beautiful print products. It looks like there is some Moo card swapping going on. I'm yet to see any Moo cards in the wild, but they do look cute...
He also linked to Moo, whom I had spotted through the flickr link. MOO dreams up new tools that help people turn their virtual content into beautiful print products. It looks like there is some Moo card swapping going on. I'm yet to see any Moo cards in the wild, but they do look cute...
Labels: moo
Tuesday, February 20, 2007 -
Backup strategy and workflow
Backing up my images has always been important, and as I consider moving to a 10 megapixel camera, and shoot more RAW format images than ever before, the amount of disk space becomes an even greater consideration.
My current workflow is this:
I'm about to add a new task, which follows on from item 7 above which is
I don't have a good workflow for cleaning out images off my MacBook at the moment, but I guess realistically there is no need to keep images that have been processed, backed up and are "infrequently accessed". This is an area I need to get better at as at the moment I have over 6GB of images on my laptop.
My current workflow is this:
- Take photos - this seems like a good first step ;-)
- Upload images onto MacBook into Lightroom
- Use the Library view and delete the duffers and tag the keepers
- Use the Develop view with all remaining and make any adjustments
- Export all remaining photos to a folder on my desktop, and include a contents.txt file indicating keywords for photos within that folder to allow for quick searching on the server
- Decide if I want to make an album for them for janeandrichard.co.uk and if so, then copy them to a different area on my machine, open up a web browser and run a home-grown (well Richard grown) script to create an album. Then ftp it up to the server.
- Copy the folder from my desktop to the photos area on our server. (Richard runs a backup from the server to an external USB drive now and again - for a long time we backed up to CDs but its got a little bit out of hand now...)
I'm about to add a new task, which follows on from item 7 above which is
- Upload the folder to flickr tagging the photos as appropriate and putting into their own set.
I don't have a good workflow for cleaning out images off my MacBook at the moment, but I guess realistically there is no need to keep images that have been processed, backed up and are "infrequently accessed". This is an area I need to get better at as at the moment I have over 6GB of images on my laptop.
Sunday, February 18, 2007 -
Petition against photographic restrictions
Following Dave's lead, I've just been to sign the petition against the proposed restrictions regarding photography in public places.
Labels: petition
Saturday, February 17, 2007 -
Which DSLR?
After 4 years of solid use, the time has come to say goodbye to the trusty Canon Powershot G3 and upgrade to a DSLR. As the last 2 digital cameras had been Canons, then I'd assumed I would remain true to the cause and remain a Canon girl. I have no lenses and therefore free choice at the moment.
My initial thoughts were to go for a Canon EOS 400D, and so I headed off to Jessops to try it out. I got on ok with the system, but it felt a bit too plasticky, and felt somewhat unbalanced with a larger lens on it. I began to think that I needed something in the "semi-pro" range instead of the prosumer range.
I continued to read up on options, and to ask about for recommendations. The next stop was to go into Clock Tower Cameras, here in Brighton which was a master stroke. The gentleman behind the counter was knowledgable, and patient and extended my models to consider by introducing me to the Pentax cameras. As always I'd headed off armed with 2 memory cards - one CF and one SD - and so proceeded to snap away and try them out. What became apparent very quickly was how much more robust the Pentax 100D felt in comparison to both the Canon 400D and the Nikon D40. Based on that, and the ease of use, in this range the Pentax would be the one.
But now I'd started thinking about the next range of cameras, so the Nikon D80, the Pentax K10D and the Canon 30D, so back to Jessops to hold and try. In this range, the Nikon and Canon catch up on robustness, and so there was no clear winner on this factor. I plugged all three models into the Digital Photography Review side-by-side comparator to get an idea of the differences.
The flickr Camera Finder has proven useful giving the ability to see what photos have been taken with each of the cameras:
Pentax K10D
Nikon D80
Canon EOS 30D
Unfortunately, it doesn't break it down by lens, but does give an idea.
After reading the reviews, it is between the Nikon and the Pentax (read the hands-on report), so a complete change from my original thoughts, I am leaning towards the Pentax at the moment, but I think another trip to the camera shop is required, to try a few more settings based on what I've read - including the Adobe RAW format on the Pentax K10D as all my test shots were taken as JPEGs.
My initial thoughts were to go for a Canon EOS 400D, and so I headed off to Jessops to try it out. I got on ok with the system, but it felt a bit too plasticky, and felt somewhat unbalanced with a larger lens on it. I began to think that I needed something in the "semi-pro" range instead of the prosumer range.
I continued to read up on options, and to ask about for recommendations. The next stop was to go into Clock Tower Cameras, here in Brighton which was a master stroke. The gentleman behind the counter was knowledgable, and patient and extended my models to consider by introducing me to the Pentax cameras. As always I'd headed off armed with 2 memory cards - one CF and one SD - and so proceeded to snap away and try them out. What became apparent very quickly was how much more robust the Pentax 100D felt in comparison to both the Canon 400D and the Nikon D40. Based on that, and the ease of use, in this range the Pentax would be the one.
But now I'd started thinking about the next range of cameras, so the Nikon D80, the Pentax K10D and the Canon 30D, so back to Jessops to hold and try. In this range, the Nikon and Canon catch up on robustness, and so there was no clear winner on this factor. I plugged all three models into the Digital Photography Review side-by-side comparator to get an idea of the differences.
The flickr Camera Finder has proven useful giving the ability to see what photos have been taken with each of the cameras:
Pentax K10D
Nikon D80
Canon EOS 30D
Unfortunately, it doesn't break it down by lens, but does give an idea.
After reading the reviews, it is between the Nikon and the Pentax (read the hands-on report), so a complete change from my original thoughts, I am leaning towards the Pentax at the moment, but I think another trip to the camera shop is required, to try a few more settings based on what I've read - including the Adobe RAW format on the Pentax K10D as all my test shots were taken as JPEGs.
// posted by Jane @ 6:31 PM
Comments:
Hey, I recently went through exactly the same DSLR dilemma :)
I was going to go for the 350D or 400D, but as soon as i picked them up, i found they were too plasticy and too small for my hands.
After trying a lot of DSLRs in Jessops, and researching them all on the net, i eventually returned to buy the Nikon D70s - a lovely, lovely camera at a good price, and the kit lens is great - 18-70mm :D
To be honest, all of the DSLRs are great, and whatever you buy, you're pretty much going to be happy!
One quick thing which you're no doubt aware of - if you want an AF lens with the D40, you need to get a newer lens with the focusing motor built into the lens, which are more expensive.
I was going to go for the 350D or 400D, but as soon as i picked them up, i found they were too plasticy and too small for my hands.
After trying a lot of DSLRs in Jessops, and researching them all on the net, i eventually returned to buy the Nikon D70s - a lovely, lovely camera at a good price, and the kit lens is great - 18-70mm :D
To be honest, all of the DSLRs are great, and whatever you buy, you're pretty much going to be happy!
One quick thing which you're no doubt aware of - if you want an AF lens with the D40, you need to get a newer lens with the focusing motor built into the lens, which are more expensive.
Jane,
Get the K10D. I looked at all the others and picked the Pentax. Image quality is, to all intents and purposes, identical whichever camera you choose. The deciding factors for me were the Pentax's superior build quality/weather sealing, the in-body anti shake, the fact you can use lots of older, cheaper Pentax lenses with it and the availability of top quality, compact and light DA prime lenses. It's not perfect-no camera is-but it was the best of the bunch for me. Having said that, make your own mind up. Handle them all and get the one that you feel most comfortable with, everything else being equal.
Regards,
Bruce
Get the K10D. I looked at all the others and picked the Pentax. Image quality is, to all intents and purposes, identical whichever camera you choose. The deciding factors for me were the Pentax's superior build quality/weather sealing, the in-body anti shake, the fact you can use lots of older, cheaper Pentax lenses with it and the availability of top quality, compact and light DA prime lenses. It's not perfect-no camera is-but it was the best of the bunch for me. Having said that, make your own mind up. Handle them all and get the one that you feel most comfortable with, everything else being equal.
Regards,
Bruce
Tuesday, February 13, 2007 -
Photobloggies 2007
Via terrorkitten - Nominations can still be made for the 2007 Photobloggies awards. I've nominated a few of my favourites. I'm hoping that the list of nominations, or at least final nominations, will be made available so that I can add some more great photography blogs to my reading list.
Labels: awards
Sunday, February 11, 2007 -
Flickr Pro
Last week I upgraded my Flickr account to be a pro member. I'm planning on making more use of flickr to put up images that I don't really know what else to do with - like the ones I link to from the blogs, or for photos of various events, like the Sussex Geek Dinner, or Brighton Bloggers meetups.
I'm using the Flickr Uploader tool for the Mac and finding that is working for me pretty well, but as usual recommendations of other tools are always welcome.
I'm using the Flickr Uploader tool for the Mac and finding that is working for me pretty well, but as usual recommendations of other tools are always welcome.
Labels: flickr
