I went shopping for some last additions to Laurens birthday presents and stopped in the antique shops in Powerscourt Shopping Center. I got distracted by a collection of cameras and picked up a present for myself as well, a Beau Brownie from around 1930. It may not be in perfect shape but it still works and came with a bag and original instructions so I’m pretty happy with it. It takes 120mm film which I have a few rolls of so I’ll have to test it out and I’m half tempted to bring it to my wedding and see what cool photos I can get.
Photo Gear
Pray for George
I’m a big fan of Sigma lenses and my bag is full of them, I’ve always found them reliable, cheap and good enough for what I needed. Others have had different experiences but Sigma has never let me down. That said after several years I have finally made the leap into Canons L series glass with a late Christmas/Birthday present to myself of a 24-70 2.8 USM. This appears to be the must have lens that everyone raves about and lusts after so after months of contemplation I took a deep breath and went shopping on Saturday. I had thought I’d go with the cheaper option of a Sigma lens but when I went to Gunns Camera shop in Dublin they had the Canon lens for over a hundred euro cheaper than in other shops in town and just about a hundred more than the Sigma so I promised my credit card that I would be nice to it for the rest of the month and handed it over to Mr Gunn (a really nice man who seemed genuinely pleased to have my business, I always try to spend some money in his shop when I’m in the market for gear which unfortunately is rare enough).
Usually I’d be hit by buyers remorse sometime later in the day but that hasnt been the case with this lens. It’s a beautiful solid block of metal and glass. I took it for a walk around the neighborhood on Sunday afternoon and couldnt believe how easy it was to get get sharp focus and keep the shutter speeds to a nice hand holdable speed. For me if the speed falls below 1/100 handheld I know my shots will go down hill rapidly, but not with the 24-70. Yes there was still plenty of light around but I took it into a local church grounds and sports field with lots shadows and had no problems. It wasnt a very scientific or long test but I went home happy.
The above photo is of the water font outside the church asking parishioners to pray for George and his wife. As a test I set the aperture to 2.8 and focused on the O in his name. It came out nice and sharp and only required small tweaks most of which are related white balance and exposure with my old but reliable 40D. With my Sigma walk around zooms I had to apply lots of sharpening in post, not here. I couldn’t help myself and had to apply a bit of sharpening but I think with that small amount, a fraction of what I needed with the Sigmas, I might have over done it since the shot was sharp already, I’ll have to learn that this lens does not need the same after care as the others in my bag. Some may think the depth of field in this is a little shallow but that is what I wanted to test so I’m happy. I’m not a pixel peeper by any means. My attitude is I’m more worried about the content of the shot than the content of the pixels but so far I’m really happy with my new toy and I cant wait to test it out with some family get togethers and a wedding in a couple of months.
iPhone 3GS camera
I was recently lucky enough to win an iPhone 3GS. Just in time to replace my old 3G which was dying under the demands of the new iOS 4 I had foolishly upgraded to. One of the things I did not like about the 3G was the camera but the 3GS has a much improved 3 megapixels, auto focus and a touch focus screen.
One day last week while walking to the Luas tram home I spotted this flower head dropped in the tram lines and it seemed like the most interesting thing around to try and photograph with the iPhone. I didn’t put it on the computer. I downloaded some photo apps on the iPhone and just used those to tweak the picture. It’s still hard to judge the image on a small screen but I was pretty pleased with the result and how easy it all was. It’s not perfect but it’s a camera phone. The unfortunate thing is the camera in the 3GS is so much better than the 3G I now really want the iPhone 4 with its 5 megapixel camera 🙂
Pillars
I like this view in Dublin. Standing the north side of the pillars in front of the old House of Lords now Bank of Ireland and look towards Trinity. It shows a very grand view of Dublin architecture which unfortunately isn’t matched by its surroundings. I wonder if the buildings we build today will be as impressive in hundreds of years as these ones? I doubt it.
By the way, this is the first photo I’ve published here from my new Canon Powershot SD1200 IS. I like the camera. Easy to use with enough manual settings to keep me happy. It’s a good size to, fits easily into any pocket but the viewfinder might as well not exist since it’s too small. Image wise it’s a good performer, way better than my old point and click. The photo above was taken handheld at night time and camera shake was well handled plus noise was at acceptable levels as well, that said I keep it at ISO100, noise does increase as you go up the ISO levels, but that is the case with all cameras. The 3x zoom is a little limited but it’s a 3x zoom so what do you expect. It wont replace my SLR but it lives in my laptop bag or coat and goes where ever I go so in that respect it’s better than my SLR. As the saying goes the best camera to take a photo is the one you have with you.
Snow Bench
Here is another photo from the recent cold snap in Dublin. This time a photo from St Stephens Green. Travel with work is eating into my photo time but I just got a Canon Powershot SD1200 IS as a birthday present so I plan to take that with me on my travels so I’ll have some new photos to display.
I’d love to be able to carry my DSLR but airline baggage restrictions just dont allow me to carry what I need for work and still fit the DSLR. But as people say, the best camera to take a photo with is the one you have with you so the powershot will be a great addition to my kit.
Once I get to use the camera in anger I might post a review here but so far I’m well pleased. I’ve never really liked small point and click cameras but this one seems a huge leap forward from the old Olympus I had 3 years ago.
Spyder 3 Pro
I bought a Spyder 3 Pro today to calibrate my laptop screen and my God the difference is incredible. Previously I had just used the calibrate by eye functions built into Mac OS-X and the results varied so much from one calibration to another that I felt I couldn’t depend on the results.
The Spyder was easy to set up. The only problem I had was installing the software which started with a Chinese or Japanese screen but when I clicked on the right hand button (which I guessed was cancel or continue) the installer continued and the rest of the panels were in English. I cleaned the screen with the included sample of cleaning tissues. Finally I ran the application and followed the instructions on screen. The calibrator did fall off during the first run so I just cancelled the task and stuck it back on the screen with no problems. The first complete calibration took around five minutes. An hour later I ran it again and the next time it only took a minute or two.
I feel might be a little warm compared to what I am used to but when I compare it to my old settings now I realize they look very blue and cold. I’ve looked at other peoples photos on sites like flickr and they look pretty good so I’m really happy. Now the next thing is to start working on some photos and see what they come out like.