Category: photography

About taking pictures

Yosemite information

I was supposed to go to Yosemite today but had to cancel. 🙁

Based on discussions on flickr which reminded me about the rockslide in Yosemite blocking 140, I thought others would find this tip useful:

It is simply a must to subscribe to Yosemite Blog before your trip out there to supplement your trip. Besides some wonderful photos by the owner and other contributers, there are updates about the weather and road conditions, hiking tips and discussions. For instance, did you know the cables to Half Dome have just been put up?
Continue reading →

Posted on by tychay 0

Where 2 millimeters makes a difference

In an old article, I mentioned that a Canon 18-55mm at high end isn’t that different than the Nikon 17-70mm kit lens in focal length (reach).

My statement was:

After all, you can just shoot the Canon at 55mm @ 1.6x and then crop it down to a 6 megapixel photo and it will look close enough to the Nikon D70 at 70mm at 1.5x.

I’m surprised nobody has called me out on this statement!
Continue reading →

Posted on by tychay 0

Costco cameras and the D50

I was at Costco today and noticed that they now have the kit cameras in boxes out. Normally, you have to write down a number of pick up a flag, take it to a register to pay for it, and then pick it up behind the counter. Now you just pick up the box on some cameras.

If your box is big enough, I’m sure this will help sales. Those extra 20 minutes of gratification when you know it’s “yours” make a big difference.
Continue reading →

Posted on by tychay 5

My Human Race

Human Race logo

Last Saturday I took some photos at the Human Race, this was my first attempt at sport photography, something my camera (and background) is not suited for at all. I learned a lot of things that day, mostly about how stupid a photographer I am.

Caitlin was the official videographer of the event and I tagged along in order to practice some sport and candid photography.

What follows is a discussion of that and as time goes on, I’ll post and process more photos. If you can’t wait, you can view the view the official photographs or look at Caitlin’s set of the photos I took.

[more discussion after the jump]Continue reading →

Posted on by tychay 3

Is my camera “professional”?

A recent thread on Flickr about the unavailability of the D70s devolved into a question about whether the Nikon D70 is a “professional” camera or not.

It started with an comment by davehodg: “The camera is the hammer, the photographer is the craftsman.”

A point I agree with.

sam_ fired back: “Nikon currently produces five digital SLR models, including two “professional” models and three intended for consumers. The professional models include the D2X and D2Hs. While the consumer models include the D50, D70s and D200. Regardless of your personal opinion davehodg, this is how Nikon markets the mentioned cameras.”

A point I also agree with.

Then a whole slew of posts followed using durability to distinguish professional and non-professional cameras.
Continue reading →

Posted on by tychay 17

APS-C videocameras

Caitlin talks about a particular dream of hers: high-definition APS-C sensor videocameras in two articles: here and here, including the much-awaited mention of Sony’s new CMOS sensor.

I’ll go even a step further. I think that such a manufacturer should standardized on a modified Nikon F, Canon EF-S, or Olympus 4/3 (if 4/3″ instead of APS-C) mount. This way, out of the box, a whole set of lenses will work with such a camera and they can still make gobs of money on their own custom “kit” lenses that allow zoom control (and other features cinematographers need but film camera lenses don’t have).Continue reading more about large sensor video cameras after the jump

Posted on by tychay 2

Noise as a GUID

An interesting article from the Discovery Channel about using noise to match digital images to the camera that shot it in much the same way bullet markings can be used to match to the gun that fired it.

My Nikon D70 has a really hot pixel in the lower left of the sensor (upper right). And D70’s in general on long exposures have a large amount of dark current digital noise in a distinct area caused by off-chip processing unit heating up.

The only problem I see is when one applies statistical noise reduction processing on the image (a la Neat Image or NoiseNinja), it should make noise identification very difficult. Heck, even in-camera noise reduction should make this hard? I wonder the impact of long exposure NR in my camera.Continue reading →

Posted on by tychay 0

mediamux

Well, at least one camera is steady

“Well, at least one camera is steady”

Caitlin started a blog about content creation in sight, sound, and motion called mediamux.

It’s just a start, but if you ever do video content creation, or just like to discuss it, you should subscribe to it.

One of her early entries covers the RedOne digital cinecamera, which I wanted to blog about but was too lazy. She promised me she’d also do a quick write-up of Sony’s 60fps dSLR sensor and digital image processor.

She’s into cinema and video so she has a lot of insights that escape poor little old still-photography me. Her running catalog of various camera and non-linear editing tricks alone are worth reading.

So subscribe to her newsfeed.

Plus, she’s a whole lot hotter than me…

Plaxo is hiring!

“Plaxo is Hiring”
Posted on by tychay 0