Don't know how it happened, but last night I stumbled upon several dSLR (Nikon/Canon) versus Rangefinder (Leica) comparisons. Something, I wish hadn't happen. Reading through these reviews / comparisons / user experiences made the (digital) rangefinder concept very appealing. Especially when you're a non-studio / non-portrait / non-macro / non-action shooter..... which fits my profile for about 95%.
Posts filed under Photography
Apple iPhoto Photo Album
For the last 5 years, I've been using the Apple iPhoto application to create my holiday photo albums (five so far). Some might find them too expensive, but I simply love the Apple iPhoto integration, the available templates, and ordering process. Worth every penny in my opinion.
The 46 page photo album of the Spain holiday arrived today. Time between ordering and delivery was thee work days (five if you include the weekend). Excellent, fast, service if I may say so.
The album was created with Apple iPhoto.
Warning: crappy low-light iPhone photo :-)Thankfully, the real thing looks much better.......
The photos seen in the album in the photo above is a 7 photo panoramic overview of Granada, Spain. Taken from within Alhambra.
'Official' Nikon Hand Strap II Review
I was in the market for a hand-strap. Nikon offers a AH-4 hand-strap for their cameras, but that accessory is over $70 USD. Not something you buy without knowing if it 'suits' you. Sure, I could get the official AH-4, and find out after a couple of days that it's not my cup of tea. Chances are slim that the store will get it back with a full refund, since it's used.
So I started to look around for a cheaper option, and I found one (well, several) on eBay. This Nikon Hand-Strap II is supposed to be official in/from Korea, but even the Korean Nikon website only shows the original AH-4. So it's a (cheap) knock-off, but that didn't keep me from getting one.
Them Crooked Vultures @ HMH
On June 10th, the "Them Crooked Vultures [1]" played in the Heineken Music Hall (HMH) in Amsterdam. The band consists of;
- Dave Grohl on drums and vocals
Former Nirvana, and Foo Fighters - Joshua Homme, lead gitare and vocals
Former Queens of the Stone Age - John Paul Jones, every other instrument......
Former Led Zeppelin
Them Crooked Vultures @ HMHAwesome 2 hour concert for a already legendary band that released only 1 CD so far.
Getting Around a Wide-Angle Lens
Going on holiday is fun, but it's also a time of concessions on several levels. Especially if you can't bring every lens you own or (in theory) might need. Since the awesome Nikon 5-500mm f/1.8G VR ED N (small, <€1000, <1kg) isn't widely available. This means deciding what to bring in your camera bag.
In my case, I wanted to experiment with primes during my holiday. this also means that you have to use the foot-zoom, and on several occasions that won't work because of certain limitation (walls, buildings, ravines, etc.). In those cases you have 3 options;
- Don't make the photo
- Make a photo, but know immediately that it will end in /dev/null when you get home (a just-for-the-record photo).
- Improvise
So as you might have guessed, I ran into such a situation in Toledo, Spain. They have this great cathedral in the middle of an old town with narrow streets. You need a ultra-wide angle lens for almost anything there.
Billingham 225 Review (part 2)
As promised, the second part of the Billingham 225 Camera Bag review. This part will be more on the experiences I had during my 2.5 week driving around in Spain (~5500km in total).
The bag is roomier than expected. There were roughly two configurations that I carries around;
- Nikon D300, Nikon 17-55 f/2.8 and a Nikon 85 f/1.8, Panasonic Lumix LX-3
This was the 'easy-way-out' configuration. - Nikon D300, Voigtlander 20mm, Nikon 35mm f/2, Nikon 50mm f/1.8, Nikon, Nikon 85mm f/1.8 and a Lensbaby Composer
I used this configuration about 80% of the time, since those primes force you to think about composition etc. There's not always room to change lenses. The best example of this is an 'almost' Gigapixel creation I made of the cathedral in Toledo with my 35mm lens. To completely capture the cathedral I had to take 72 photos (result can soon be found in the Panoramas section of my website).
The bag is pretty safe in regards to pick-pockets, and prying fingers. All the zippers etc. protect your gear very well. Downside is that you need to open a lot of things before you get to your gear (every advantage has its disadvantage....)
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Released
Adobe released Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 into the wild. The application can be downloaded from the Adobe website. The trail can be upgraded to a fully functioning version when you enter a valid serial number.
New features are;
- Flickr integration
Really nice feature. I do wonder how (and if) it works across multiple computers. - Easy sharing
- Lens correction
- Support for DSLR video's
- Image watermarking
- Tethered shooting
For Nikon and Canon Cameras - etc.
After I downloaded the new version I installed it on my MacBook. The 'old' Lightroom v2.x can be used besides the new version.
Billingham 225 Review (part 1)
;)
Billingham 225As some of you might have noticed, I was looking for a new camera bag. Yesterday, the mailman delivered the Billingham 225 (Black/Tan version) I ordered at Kamera Express.
The reason for me getting this bag is that it holds more space, pockets, zippers etc. than my Crumpler Daily M. It's also safer in regards to prying fingers. Additional advantages are that the bag is less conspicuous, and looks way better than the Crumpler (I know... taste....).
Getting a New Camera Bag
I intend to do some travelling the next couple of weeks, and for that I need a bigger/safer (more ergonomic) shoulder bag for my camera gear. Since I travel to some areas where people roam the streets that are extremely interested in what you carry around, I need a inconspicuous bag.
;)
Domke F-5XZFirst inline was the Domke F-5XZ WaxWear bag. About the right size and according to the website convenient zippers to protect your gear from certain fingers.
When I received the bag (ordered it online) it turned out that there were no zippers, and also no convenient 'bottom zippered flap which allows easy access'. Two things that made me decide to get the bag weren't there. So I decided to sent that bag back.
I tried to get the non-WaxWear version of the bag (which has the zippers), but that one wasn't available (anymore). So, off to start looking at other brands.
Droplets in Photoshop CS5
Every photo I upload to Flickr goes through a watermarking process. To do this, I created a watermarking action within Photoshop (started this in the CS3 days). These actions can be 'converted' to so-called droplets. These are 'shortcuts' you can place on e.g. your desktop. Every image you drag onto this droplet gets opened in Photoshop and the preconfigured actions are applied.
This worked in Photoshop CS3, and CS4 (after some modifications to the original action). But in Photoshop CS5 the droplets won't execute. The action itself runs smoothly within Photoshop, but when you export it as a droplet, the action won't start. You have to start the action manually.....
I even tried to create an action / droplet from scratch in Photoshop CS5, but that one won't run either when I drop a JPEG on the droplet. This is a reason for not upgrading to CS5 on my main machine (which also still runs Leopard for compatibility reasons).
According to the online Adobe Photoshop CS5 helpfiles regarding droplets, the droplets should still function. So I write this of as a bug in the initial release of Photoshop CS5.