Digital Photography - it just gets better!

I'm a fan of photography. I don't take good pictures (hopeless!!), but sure do appreciate great photos and the cool gear that helps capture those photos.

And being a photography enthusiast means this is the best time of the year... yeah, Photokina! That's like the E3 of gaming... the Detroit motor show of cars.... the... well, you get the picture.

However, in the recent years, the stuff that get dished out at Photokina is nothing to really go ga-ga over. The manufacturers keep on cramming more megapixels into the sensors, they try to out-do each other with evolutionery and me-too features... BORING!

But this year, things got really exciting!

If you read my previous blogs on digital cameras, you'd hear me bemoan (here, here and here!) the tiny and noisy chips in Panasonic Lumix cameras. I had been wishing out loud that Panny woudl stop the silly megapixel race and focus on making their wonderfully small and featurefull cameras with larger and better chips.

Lo and behold, 2 surprises came...

1) Panasonic introduces its first micro four-thirds digital SLR prototype, the G1. The whaaa? Picture this:

• Its like an SLR, with interchangeable lenses, but the body, lenses - everything - is much much smaller
• They do away with the flip mirror and the prism, and in the process gives true live-view
  
• The heart - sensor - of the camera is still a proper SLR-sized four thirds CCD.. so there is no compromise there

Here's a side by side comparison of how the conventional DSLR looks like vs the new micro four thirds.... lots of exciting days ahead, when we see how the market responds to this. Already, Olympus is hot on the heels and have also pre-announced their version of the micro four thirds as well!

The traditional four-thirds DSLR: note the mirror and pentaprism

The micro four-thirds DSLR : everything smaller except the sensor!

Then, things got even more exciting!

2) Canon announces its mother of all compact super zoom... the Powershot SX1 and SX10

• It finally has a really great camera that starts of with 28mm
• It has an optical image stabilized 20x zoom, with super fast and silent mechanism that beats the stuffings out of the competition
• Ths SX1 has Canon's excellent CMOS CCD.... with a bonus that it can shoot at a lightning speed of 4 frames per second!
• It does away with even top-end consumer video cameras by being able to shoot videos at FULL HD
• On paper... the features are really top notch.... can't wait to test it out when it's finally available here!
• The only thing is the price.... no idea how much is it going to cost in Malaysia .. but it does look like its going to encroach quite deeply into DLSR country ... and may (hopefully not) end up with a very niche market..?
  

Read more about this amazing camera here, here and here.

Sorry, Panny, but I may have a new favourite hottie now.... !!

More pix from the Lumix TZ2

In early July, I wrote about the amazing Panasonic Lumix range of compact super-zooms, given the series name of TZ (short for travel zoom).

My friend, AiHua, had since sent me more lovely pictures taken with his TZ2, but I'd somehow overlooked them and didn't post the pictures.... am hoping to make amends today, and in another future post.

Again, thanks AiHua, for sharing these!!

Hmmm... I really must seriously look into migrating to a different template. The current one looks nice but has 2 limitations... (1) the body / main column is too narrow for my liking... as a result, it doesn't do justice to the pictures below (they look too narrow/small!!)... (2) this is currently a 2-column template. Need to look for a good 3-column template that still gives lots of space in the middle for long-ish articles and photos.

Any recommendations, friends?

Macro #1


Macro #2



Max 10x zoom



Sights of Melbourne #1



Sights of Melbourne #2



What a view!! Northern Territory, AU.

The amazing pocket rocket (pt 2)

Rereading my earlier post about the Lumix TZ , I realized that I'd not put in sufficient focus on the person behind the camera. Okay, granted the previous post was more on the camera, but still, I felt I should have given more credit to the 'liveware behind the hardware.'

So for this post, I no longer have any excuse for not giving enough focus on the photographer, since I'm not talking about cameras today!

Okay la, may be just this bit here then we'll go to the pix, promise!
The previous set was taken using the Lumix TZ2 with 6 megapixels and a 2.5" LCD.
Today's set was taken using the Lumix TZ15, with 9 megapixels and a really hi-res 3" LCD.

This time around, the pictures were taken by Tan Lay Heong, a fine-arts student with incredible talent! I hope to be able to compile some pictures of her painting and show them here...lovely!! Sorry, I digress.

Anyway, the point here is that people make the difference. With her keen eye on picture composition, the pictures taken really have that emotive quality about them. Sorry, less words today, more pictures!!

Do post in a few comments if you like -- and have a say about what you think about the pictures here. I personally think they are great -- makes you want to both run and pause at the same time... deep.... :)

Sunny but cold

Surfer dude

Incoming!!

Hope


Silhouette

Searching for answers?


Found the answer!?

Getting somewhere

Majestic

Private time

The amazing pocket rocket

If anybody were to ask me what they should get, if they needed a good point-and-shoot camera, and didn't mind a little bit more bulk, I would wholeheartedly recommend the Lumix TZ range of cameras.

These guys pack a solid 10x optical zoom in a tidy little, metal-encased package. Its quite a beauty! Don't take my word for it. Here's a pix of the Lumix TZ5... check it out yourself!

Image Source: DP Review.com

And how does the camera perform, you say? Again, don't take my word for it. Check out these pictures yourself. Many thanks to AiHua, the guy behind the lens, who kindly agreed to let me show off some of his lovely pictures. The liveware behind the hardware makes the difference!

Oh and by the way, the first 2 pictures were taken at the Ayer Itam Dam, in Penang, Malaysia. Penang is a really great place to be. Visit it if you haven't been there. Its got a lot of old-time charm. Okay, so perhaps quite a bit of its "Pearl of the Orient" aura has been lost to too many years of neglect and mismanagement... but many of us die-hard Penang supports (yep, I'm one of em!) still hope that she will relive her glory days one day soon!!

This next one was shot at the seaside of Sungai Burung, Selangor, Malaysia.

The next set is a composite, showing the difference you can get by playing with the contrast. The top pix of the pair was shot in the original, plain vanilla mode. The bottom one was shot with a notch or two of extra contrast. Its really cool how much more detail can be surfaced with such a simple step. Its really made wonders out of the otherwise bland pictures you usually end up when shooting through the plane window!

All the above were shot with the TZ2. Stay tuned when I get my hands on some pix taken with the TZ5! Till then, cheers!

My digital eyes (Pt 2)

Hmm... this past week has been really nuts. It didn't really help with me loosing the entire previous article as well. So I thought I'd better skip the yarn and get straight to things...

To recap, I had been happily using my Lumix FX9 for almost 3 years, but was beginning to feel frustrated over the limted optical zoom (3x). So I made up a list of features I was looking for in my next camera. In short, we say in Hokkien as "ai parng-ghee, tuar-tay" - literally, I want it cheap and big (in value).

One of my biggest criteria was that I wanted a big zoom range, but didn't want to have to carry around multiple lenses. So that ruled out the SLRs and anything with less than 10x.

Had I tried to look for something like that a few years earlier, I'd have gone mad with the very limited choices!

Fortunately, this time around, there were at least a few more to choose from. They were, in no particular order:

Olympus SP-560UZ

When the 550 came out, I was actually very excited to go try it. A few shops had them and the price was RM1899 (USD 580) or thereabouts. The 10 minute impression was 'OK'. No 'oh wow' or anything magical. However, upon doing some more research, I started realising what was not right.

Pix Source: Trustedreviews.com

What I liked:

• A slightly bigger wide-angle lens (actually meaningless, if I think more about it) at 27mm
  
• ISO starts from 50 and goes all the way to 6400 (although with reduced resolution)
• Nice package with metalic accents -- looks handsome!
  

Show Stoppers (there are actually many, but I'll stick to the worse 3 for me):

• Crappy lens - Barrel distortion at one end and pincushioning at the other! Throw in chromatic aberation and, hello, why bother then? You'd be better off with a shorter zoom that is clear all the way.

• Contrast detection autofocus - my Minolta S304 had that and it was sheer pain trying to shoot in low-light conditions. Have lost count how many party shots I'd gotten totally out of focus. This guy has the same problem as well.

• AA batteries - RED ALERT RED ALERT! The Cantonese have this saying that goes something like "once you've seen a ghost, don't you think you'd be afraid of the dark from then on?" In theory, using an 'open' battery like AAs frees you up to by spares anywhere, any time, should you run low. In practice, if your propreitary battery is good enough (and they tend to be), why would you even need to 'buy spares'? If they say they wanted to support defacto standards, then why on earth still stay with xD memory??

Other reviews: DP Review; Trusted Review


Fujifilm FinePix S8000fd

When news started surfacing about a Fuji superzoom, I was hopeful that they would make one with its famed SuperCCD chip. That, I had hoped, would address the noise issues better than all those crappy 1/2.5" chips that Panasonic tended to like. Alas, they decided to build it around a conventional CCD instead. Fuji must not be very popular in Malaysia, as I really had a hard time finding them in shops. So no hands-on for me here!

Pix Source: Trustedreviews.com

What I read that I liked:

• Okay, I'll just admit it now. I'm a sucker for black bodies with metallic accents. And this, like the Olympus has it! Sigh... can't say the same for the Panny!
  
• A sligtly larger LCD at 2.7" (vs 2.5" for the other 2)... but this comes with a price... the powe conconsumption! (see show stopper)
• Good flash coverage... strong enough for most cases

Show stoppers (not so much show stoppers, but demotivators):

• Not very popular in Malaysia... not heavily promoted as well.... hard to find! (so how to buy?)
• Feels like a 'me-too' camera (I'm sure fuji was not trying to copy anyone!) with no killer feature to distinguish it from the crowd.
• AA batteries -- that again! It would be something if the camera can really last on AAs (I'll be impressed), but if the buyer is expected to say "oh, they're AAs and the lifetime is terrible, I understand"... then the makers must be nuts!
  

More reviews: DP Review, Cameras.co.uk



Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18

When my friend Trish asked me for my opinion about some cameras her sister was considering, I told her up front, that I'm a Lumix fan! So read below with a pinch of salt if you like.... but that still doesn't discount the fact that the FZ18 is still a great all-rounder with good value for money superzoom! Its got its fault (NOISE!) but I still love it.

** If you Panasonic web researchers somehow stumble on this blog.... please, tell your people, fix the noise, forget about the megapixel race!! **

Pix Source: Trustedreviews.com

What I love still (have been using this for 8 months):

• Great interface and usability -- really makes shooting fun. I have a lot fewer missed shots these days as the FZ18 is really fast. Having some dedicated buttons sprinkled around strategic places also help.
• On-lens image stabilization, a.k.a Mega OIS. The other 2 use CCD-shift instead... somehow, i feel that comes out a bit short compared to this. I've gotten away with some silly shots (think: low, low light, no tripod or firm base) thanks to this.
• Nice, crisp images throughout the zoom range with beautiful colours... in-camera purple fringing correction... jpegs come out (near) perfect!
• 1cm macro -- go right up to the incect and say 'HELLO!!'
• Electronic view finder is a godsent on sunny days. The resolution in this is also good enough that you can faithfully see the image without having to peep out and see things 'with your real eyes'... at least in most situations.
  
• For RM 1550 (USD 470) with 4GB card and Raydawn UV filter... its quite a steal!
  

Things I didn't quite like:

• Sigh, noise. Even at low ISOs. If your idea of enjoying photos is blowing them up to max resolution on your monitor, and examining it with inch by inch, then this is *not* the camera for you. Get an SLR (and a life, I think!)
  
• Focusing in low light at the extreme long end of the zoom can occassionally get a bit tricky. Images also a bit soft as you approach max zoom.
  
• Nobody seems to mention this, but the volume (even at max) during video playback is really very soft -- can only be heard in quiet rooms.
  

In short, the FZ18 for me is like a jack of all trades. You get a bit of everything... but doesn't really feel like there's too much of a compromise though. Add that to some features like 18x zoom and user interface that it has firmly mastered, you're left with a neat package with little to complain about! Heh :)

Other reviews: DP Review, Cameras.co.uk


Next -- you're in for a treat. A couple of pals of mine have agreed to let me feature their pix taken on their Lumix TZ2 and TZ15! Stay tuned!

My digital eyes (Pt 1)

In 2001, I paid RM 2300 (USD 600) for one of my first lessons on digital cameras and photography.

That lesson came in the form of the Minolta DiMAGE 304 (D304) digital camera. Again, as with my Olympus iS-100 (see previous post), this hasty purchase was also prompted by an urgent need for a camera. And what was the lesson I learnt?

Read the reviews, do your research first, before plonking your hard-earned cash into anything, dummy!

See, being a techfan and all, I was into specifications. If it says so in the brochures, it ought to be alright... right? Sadly, no.

Don't get me wrong. In its own right, the D304 is a very decent camera. A very capable lens, 3 megapixels, 4x optical zoom, solidly built aluminum body, surprising number of controls for both manual and automatic modes, and, for that price, images that leave one little to complain about. It also had a nice girth in the hands, lending you good stability.


So with so many nice things about the camera, exactly what is it that I'm moaning about then, you ask? Lets put it this way -- where its if battery consumption were likened to petrol efficiency in a car, this guy would put the Hummer to shame!

The camera came with a complementary set of 4 AA alkalines. Out of the box, the fresh AAs lasted me a good NINE (count 'em: 9) shots!!

Fortunately, I had also bought a set of rechargeable 1600mAh NiMH batteries. These guys took a painful 16 hours to charge. And they lasted how long in the camera? 30 - 40 shots (about 1hr plus)! I promptly ran out to buy an 1800 mAh, and eventually, a 2000 mAh set.

Not long after, I was happily on my way to Beijing, armed with these 3 fully-charged sets of batteries -- and with no charger. These 3 sets got me through 2 days! By the time I got back from the 5d-4n trip, I had used up 8 additional sets of hastily-bought alkalines, and had still lost too many opportunities to snap more pix. Bloody hell!

Much of the rest of the 4-year life of the camera was pretty much this routine: Charge plenty early. Bring the bag of batteries. Snap quickly, minimise preview. Hope the batteries last the outing. It mattered little that I had practically employed all known tricks for maximising the battery life. Sigh.

Oh yeah, and speaking of batteries -- have a thought about how you should be disposing them, ok? Help take care of Mother Earth, thanks!

Anyway, I finally had enough!

So I set out to get myself a new camera, with the following wish list:

• 5 or 6 megapixels (yep, am embarrassed to admit that I too was then caught up in the megapixel hype without understanding the physics behind it)

• Slim to the point its pocketable (remember the girth I'd mentioned above? It was getting to me)
  

• MUST have decent battery life (CIPA equivalent of 200 or more shots)

• Fast and responsive (reliable auto-focus especially in low-light conditions, and short lag)

• Image stabilization, focus assist, a nice clear LCD, and a nice price to boot

After much research and indecision, I finally settled on the Panasonic DMC-FX9. Boy, was I really happy! At RM 1500 (USD 400), the FX9 was quite a bargain that largely met the above criteria, plus, had the added bonus of spotting a Leica-branded lens for extra bragging rights.

Gone were my battery problems. I could just leave the camera in the drawer (I know, I know, its not a good idea to leave the battery in the camera!!) and whip it out for a quick shoot, knowing with much confidence that there would always be enough juice for a few shots even at its weakest!


This is what I loved about the FX9:

• The pictures are really something -- nice resolution, lively colours, crisp and clear shots
  
• It is jacketed in a really smart combo of brushed and polished metal. Lovely, lovely!
• It shoots fast! Switch it on and you're almost instantly (1-2 secs or so, at most) ready to go
• 3 words - Mega OIS lens. Gives you a 2-stop advantage that really is helpful in low-light conditions.
• Simple, responsive and non-fussy interface.
  

I had rediscovered the fun of just taking snaps with the FX9. Having it so small meant I could bring it with me wherever I went. Perhaps the only complaint in this respect was that its so... dinky... that some times, I missed the nice, reassuring steady weight of an SLR!

Now, almost 3 years and nearly 12,000 pictures later, the FX9 is still very much alive and well. It still takes good pictures, although some dust has managed to get into the lens -- and is now occasionally interfering with the pictures. Its time I sent it to Panasonic for some much-deserved TLC and got it back to a pristine condition.

As happy as I had been with the FX9, the limitations of the 3x optical zoom were starting to be more than just a bother. I was begining to miss the good old days of being able to reach 300mm with my SLR for those tight shots.

Think: shooting from too far away at school concerts and sports days; losing the spontaneity of the subject because you had walked too near; having your subject of interest as a mere spec in the photo.... and you'll understand what I mean.

So that started me looking for something with a couple hundred more MMs of reach in the lens. And that search was a really fun one!

Ps. New to digital photography? Want to catch up on some tech-speak and impress some geeks? Check out this excellent glossary from my favourite camera review site, DP Review.