Portrait Photography

Eider

03.31.09

eider

To my shame I didn’t actually know it was an Eider. I wondered if it was a black and white duck? I suppose it is a kind of black and white duck. This is a male, the females are brown. A snatched shot from the Gourock to Dunoon ferry just before it left yesterday morning.

Show Hide 14 comments

Kenmuir Hill

03.30.09

On Sunday Catherine and I went for a walk around our local landmark, Kenmuir Hill and Elliston Tower at its summit. The sky was rubbish so I left the 40D at home and took the LX3 instead. Here are a few for fun in black and white since the colours were drab anyway. Here’s the south aspect of the hill complete with scarring.

Scars

And here’s a rather dramatic tree.

Tree

And here’s Catherine being more optimistic about the grey sky than I am!

Catherine

The west flank of Kenmuir Hill towards Castle Semple Loch and Lochwinnoch. Sky burned-in as best as I could manage from the LX3 raw.

And finally the “Tigger” of crap-sky photography with her new EOS 1000D. (Headwear by “Buff”)

Show Hide 0 comments

Claire

03.29.09

When I did Claire’s portrait, I met her just as the light was failing. That combined with my inexperience at the time meant that I got very few great pictures that did justice to her. I was pleased with this early one from our session before the light went; the low light gave warmth, but I didn’t spend as long as I should making the best of this last real light. I wish I had as I would have had some open eyed pictures to choose from. Anyway, this is my 2nd choice for Claire.This one has great warm light and although Claire’s eyes are shut, she has a lovely expression and the picture shows her fun-loving and appealing nature

I would really like to meet Claire and do another session with some better light

Show Hide 0 comments

Canon 500D

03.29.09

So practically the next day after my previous post about Canon’s questionable “pixels before sensitivity” strategy they anounced the EOS 500D. This puppy replaces the current 450D as the decent amateur camera in the Canon line-up. The 450 had 12 MP and had decent reviews, but none of them raved about it’s low noise performance, generally describing that aspect as “more than acceptable” or “decent” unlike the introductory model the 1000D which has gained good reviews about it’s noise performance at 1600 ISO. The key difference between these cameras is that the 450D has 12 MP while the 1000D has only 10 MP. There aren’t any reviews out yet, but the new 500D has 15 MP! The sensor is the same APS-C size (too small) that Canon stupidly persist with so what are the chances of people saying that its noise performance is outstanding in a market dominated by excellent Nikon noise figures? This is probably the same (or similar) sensor that they have put in the recent 50D which has underwhelmed the reviewers in terms of noise performance; my guess is that the noise performance will be similar, but probably not an iprovement on the 450D that it replaces. It might be that the headline MP rating will tempt people more than the Nikon reviews of the D90 which would be the obvious rival, but people buying DSLR’s are wiser than the “herd” who choose one compact over another because of its higher megapixel number, most will not be shooting for billboards, and will want flashless indoor photography unspoiled by noise or aggressive noise reduction. I don’t dislike the higher MP count per se, but only if it comes with improved noise as well. Since Canon won’t turn back its headline MP strategy, our only hope this side of Black Silicon maturing into a usable technology is a BIGGER SENSOR. Are you listening Canon? No, I thought not:-)

Oh, it has video too, that will help it to win market share, but It wouldn’t swing the choice for me.

Show Hide 3 comments

Canon losing their way

03.24.09

I noticed in this weeks photographic news that Nikon are selling well in the UK and the current recession is not affecting them; sales of the D90 and D700 DSLR’s are described by Nikon as “outstanding”. This doesn’t surprise me. If I was advising anyone who was buying into digital SLR’s at present which brand to go for, it would be Nikon. They have a good range of cameras and class leading noise performance in more than a few of their models. The only camera Canon have which is generating real excitement is the 5D which at present is sitting above £2000 in the UK. I have mentioned before now that the camera below that in the range, the 50D, hasn’t generated any real excitement, and costs around £800-£900. Nikon’s D700 is around £1600 for a full frame sensor. If I was a Nikon user, I might want a full frame D700 so much that I would find some way to buy it. I want a Canon 5D, but there is no-way without my camera earning me moneythat I’m going to pay £2000+.

In my view, Canon are losing the marketing war very badly for the following reasons:

1. The gamble they are taking in positioning the 5D and 50D as higher resolution cameras than the competition at 15 and 21 megapixels means that the competition gets better magazine reviews for high ISO performance. Since almost no-one prints pictures at poster sizes, the reviews probably have the right priorities. These reviews influence the market hugely! The 50D gets lukewarm reviews, the Nikon D300 gets great reviews at 12 Mp and better high ISO noise performance; the 5D has pretty good reviews, but the D700 at 12 Mp gets stellar reviews for high ISO performance. They made a mistake, the market clearly values slight resolution increases with large high ISO noise performance increases and that’s what Nikon has given the market.

2. The sensor that we call APS-C in the Canon 100D through to the 50D is a little smaller than the Nikon; that’s why the lens multiplication factor is 1.6 for Canon and 1.5 for the Nikon. This means that the Nikon has a 370mm squared area and the Canon has 329 mm squared. The Canon pixels have 11% less area if the pixel count is the same. If the technology is similar, then Canon can’t compete on noise performance due to smaller pixels. Why don’t they make slightly larger APS-C sensors?

It occurs to me that Canon have an interesting sensor in the previous professional 1D mk2. It has a 1.25 crop factor, and amazing noise performance with 10 Mp (APS-H). Why don’t Canon put a camera together for amateurs looking to move up from the 40D using that sensor, upgraded to 12 Mp or 15Mp like the 50D if they must; that could be camera to undercut the D700 for price that could come close for noise performance. They can’t compete with a smaller sensor and higher resolution.

WAKE UP Canon!

Show Hide 2 comments