Tag: Nikon

Building the Perfect Camera, Pt. 1

Jason6 Comments

One of the more recent episodes from the guys over at This Week in Photography had them wrapping up their coverage of PMA, where they talked tech about all the latest cameras to come out from the various vendors.  Canon was noticeably absent from the show, but it didn’t detract from an interesting comment I think Ron Brinkmann said where he wished he could pull all his favorite features from each of the cameras and basically make his own.

To me, the idea screamed “blog post”!  So, I decided to go for it.  I went through every major SLR on the market today and cherry-picked my favorite features from each camera.  It took a while (there’s a lot out there), but I kept on plugging at it for a few days.  Finally, I’ve completed the list, and here’s my “perfect camera” wish list:

  1. Full Frame Sensor – It seems the market is trending this way, and while the added zoom on a crop sensor can be nice, I’d love to see my 10-22 on a full frame body!
  2. EF-S support – This is Canon-specific, but because of my 10-22 and 18-55, I would really love to get that super wide angle on a full frame without vignetting or fisheye distortion…I know, the impossible dream, but hey, it’s not like such a camera will ever really exist, so I may as well dream, right?
  3. Low Light Performance – Think Nikon here – they’re beating the pants off pretty much everyone in the market with their low light sensitivity and handling.
  4. ISO handling – the fact that you can shoot at ISO 102400 is pretty amazing, but the noise is crazy.  Sure, I’ll take the high ISO, but at least let me make decent prints from it.  This kind of ties into the low light performance, but since it’s a separate spec, why not…
  5. Multi-card compatibility – Lately more cameras are supporting the CF and the SD format cards, but mine currently does not support the latter, so, it’s on my list!

That’s it?  Of course not, but do you really want me to list ALL the features I want to see in my dream camera in ONE SUPER LONG POST?  Of course not!  I wouldn’t want to read that either, no matter who wrote it!  So, I’m saving the other segments for another day soon (hint, hint, hint)!  I’m not even sure this is my “Top Five”, but it could be close.  I dunno, is it worth it doing a “top five” features list?  Would you?  Also consider this:  what is your dream camera?  What are the must have features for you?  How much would you pay to have them all under one hood?  I know it’d be a pretty penny, but think about how useful and how long it would last you…!  Sound off in the comments with your favorite features!

Don’t forget, the March Flickr Giveaway is underway where you can win a Cheetah Stand, so make sure you enter your favorite WILD pic today!

Camera Profiles

Jason1 Comment

So, today I had the day off work, and was catching up on a few things.  I read through most of my piled up photo magazines, caught up on some NAPP tutorials, and some overdue email replies to various asundry things.  One of the tutorials I watched was from Matt Kloskowski on installing camera profiles for ACR in both LR and CS3/CS4.  It’s pretty cool stuff.

Basically, Adobe has worked with various camera vendors to get the ACR to approximate the same colors that are shown in the vendor proprietary software (Digital Photo Professional for Canon and Capture NX for Nikon, and a whole host of others.)  Matt did a great job of showing how close it gets while even still in beta.  I was convinced enough to go ahead and download the plugin to use in CS3.  Fair warning though, you do need at least ACR version 4.5 or higher to use these profiles (I have 4.6 installed).  Since my bodies are Canon-specific my interface may look a little different, but thought I’d share the screenshot of what it looks like for me:

My thoughts are that the Camera Landscape beta is the closest to what DPP shows.  Since it’s all happening in camera raw, as Matt stated, it just gives you a better starting point with less editing to get to your final results.  I really can’t wait to see how this develops and moves out of beta.  Just hope that Adobe sees fit to release the final shipping version for CS3 owners as well as CS4.  What about others – has anyone else installed this?  How do your pictures look?  Are they close to your vendor software?  Feel free to jump in with the comments!

In other news for Friday, this is the last day to participate in the economy-photography poll from the sidebar.  You RSS readers – stop in and vote, we’re trying to break 30, and only have until midnight!  Other than that, it’s been a great day – I even got some cool shots of the dog after our walk with the sunlight glistening in her eyes.

I’ll leave with my favorite What the Duck of the Week.  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again on Monday – have a great weekend!

Forgetful Fridays

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With my crazy work schedule, I completely forgot to write the Friday Funnies, so now it’s also the Forgotten Friday!

So, what happened that was funny this week? Well, anyone that follows photography found out about the newest additions to the Canon and Nikon line-ups.  Canon announced the 50D, and Nikon announced the D90 on the heels of Canon.  While this may just seem to be news and events, what’s funnt about this is that there have been rumors about the next bodies that each would be releasing for a long time now, and most were resigned to waiting until Photokina to hear the news.  So, it’s funny because apparently even Canon and Nikon couldn’t wait – the marketing monsters of each company likely wanted to get a jump on things and get the word and buzz out.  I just find it funny because here is yet another example (in my mind) of the tail wagging the dog.

That could just be me though.  Was it wise to make these announcements ahead of Photokina?  Will there be an economic upside to doing so?  Should the respective companies have waited?  Aside from the gear hounds and photo freaks, does anyone else really care about 10 MP versus 15 MP and a 920,000dpi resolution LCD?  Moreoever, should marketing be the driving force behind companies or should they just release product announcements when completed and let the consumers decide whether the gear is worth getting excited about?  In my mind, the gear should be able to speak for itself.  If it’s good, people will like it, and if it’s crap, people won’t.  Can it be that simple?  What do you think  Tell me in the comments!

In the meantime, happy shooting, enjoy the weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday.  Oh yea, continue to watch those apertures!

I’ll leave you with my favorite WTD comic from this last week:

What the Duck
What the Duck