Posted by Constantin Chirila on Mar 3, 2009 in Camera Gear
At this years PMA show there was announced the Ricoh CX1 camera. Lately Ricoh have done some innovative things. I am usually not impressed by a point&shoot camera (being a DSLR user), but this one drown my attention having a few rarely seen in a camera and innovative features. Beside the four photos braketing (and my DSLR have 3 braketing) and the 9MP resolution, it has a CMOS sesnsor which can only be met at DSLR cameras, which might mean lower noise than other Point&Shoots.
But the cherry on top of the cake is the fact that it can record a photograph that contains a high range of brightness, which a normal camera cand record. This is doing by take 2 consecutive shots at different exposure and automaticaly combines them in a photograph with a High Dynamic Range to up to 12 EV closer to the dynamic range of the human eye. Now this being developed I think it’s only a matter of time until othe camera manufacturers follow the trail. And I hope we will see this feature especially in future DSLRs which greatly need this function.
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Mar 1, 2009 in Photography
I was pretty moved by this short film, “Transform”, made for Scott Kelby by Zack Arias, a full time photographer. He said so many true things, than I felt very inspired an very ambitious, considering I am a photographer still at the beginning of the journey.
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Feb 27, 2009 in Camera Gear
We often find ourselves wishing and talking about DSLR cameras, we compare them and adopt a geek language babbling about shutter speeds, ISO, camera features, image processing and other technicalities. This makes us forget about the most important piece of gear that helps us take the photograph we want, and that is the LENS.
The lens is the eye of the camera, and every photograph is recorded after the light come through the lens. Taking your DSLR without putting your lens on, and start taking photos, your see that the image processor records and extremely blurry photographs.
Lenses allows us to:
get more light ( lenses with big aperture), even if your camera have high iso numbers, you’ll still need a fast lens to get fast shutter speeds.
get close-up of your subject without actually being close ( telephoto lenses )
get incredibly sharp photographs
get sharp images of a mosquito’s eye ( macro lenses )
isolate our subject with small depth of field
capture sharp images of huge mountains and big fields of flowers ( wide lenses )
make creative photographs with lens-baby
As you can see lenses are way more important that the camera.
In creating the ultimate lens is involved a lot of precision mechanics and optics science. Also there is use a high amount of very expensive glass materials, so you will need a lot of glass elements in building a zoom lens with fast aperture. Also every piece of glass is treated with other substances for durability, minimize chromatic aberrations, reduce flare, etc. Also raw optical glass costs around 1000$ per kilogram, as Discovery Channel points out in their “How it’s made” show.
All of this being said, you can easily explain why a good lens costs hundreds and even thousand of dollars.
Also please check this video created by Discovery Channel on how lenses are made.
For a few days there are the news of the improvement of Pocket Wizards. These are the brand new PocketWizard FlexTT5 and MiniTT1. It seams that all the time that Pocket Wizard stood quietly without any release news or anything, they secretly were developing an improved version.
So to get out of the confusion the MiniTT1 it’s a transmitter and the FlexTT5 is a transceiver (meaning that it can act as transmitter and receiver).
Here’s what new PocketWizards can do:
You can control your strobes in TTL mode. You can use 20 channels in TTL photography or 32 standard channels in manual flash photography.
When using multiple strobes you can use HyperSync™ Technology to push your shutter speed up to 1/500th.
You can even push your ControlTL system to get flash sync with shutter speeds beyond 1/500 and and even up to 1/8000. To do this you will automatically get into FP/High-Speed sync mode.
You can connect your PocketWizars to your PC via USB and configure it or update it’s firmware.
FlexTT5 has an Auto-Sensing Transceiver Technology that enables it to switch back and forth between Transmitter and Receiver modes as needed for greater flexibility on the job.
The new system of PocketWizards can still be used with older ones like PlusII or MultiMAX but you will need a FlexTT5 as transmitter.
If you want to know more you can go to their website and watch the video below:
And some last info, the PocketWizards will be available by 1st of March for Canon and Q2 2009 for Nikon.
I cant’ wait to test them to see if it worths the money.
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Feb 7, 2009 in Personal
Yesterday I went to the opening of a gallery where three photographs of mine, previously chosen, were exposed. I was pretty amazed of how many people in my city are interested of photography. Also I met other photographs and exchanged some experiences we had. I found out and learned new things from them.
I felt pretty happy and proud when I was asked different questions about my exposed photographs or when I was told that my work is pretty good. Also there were people interested to buy my work, which I wasn’t expecting.
At the end there were some beautiful speeches by some important people (from the art point of view), and also by my current professor from the School of Photographic Art. Me and some other photographers, each received a diplomafor the selection of our photographs to be put in the gallery.
Overall there was a beautiful experience and there is no doubt that I will repeat it, with other more beautiful photographs to impress people that love and understand photography as art.
You can check some photographs from the opening of the gallery at my FlickR account.
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Feb 2, 2009 in Rumor
According to an anonymous source, that’s somewhat trusty, by the fall of this year will be launched the replacement camera for the 50D, but the name will be changed into “Canon 7D”. You might ask “Why Canon is doing this?,” well it’s said that this is because of the confusion with some models from Nikon (Canon 40D, Nikon D40). So there will be no 60D.
Here are the supposed specifications:
15.1mp (apparently it will be the same sensor with some internal upgrades)
DIGIC V (DIGIC IV a stopover to a big advancement in processing)
New 13 Point AF
1080p Movie Mode
8 fps
3″ VGA LCD
98% Viewfinder coverage
New Battery
Weathersealing
Ergonomic Upgrades
1x Compact Flash and 1x Secure Digital Slots
As seen from the specs, this seams a camera worth to buy for 40D and 50D owners (since 50D is a bit of a dissapointment).
Anyway we will wait and see how true of a rumor this is.
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Jan 30, 2009 in News
I recently came across to some worrying news.
The biggest camera manufacturer, Canon, has reported an 81% downfall of their quarterly profits, due to the economic recession and low demand for their products. From what Canon’s Managing Director, Masahiro, said: “A substantial recovery in the economy is unlikely in 2009. Our operating environment will be even harder this year than it was last year”, the situation doesn’t look too good. And from what I read in on Reuters, Canon profit stumble predicts further slide.
Also Sony has even bigger losses in profit coming close to a staggering 95% drop, in this fourth quarter. Sony said its net profit shriveled to 10.4 billion yen ($115.6 million) in the third quarter from 200.2 billion yen a year earlier. You can read more about this on The Associated Press.
Although everyone started to feel the economic crisis, it seams that in stead of things getting better, are getting worse.
impressed by a point&shoot camera (being a DSLR user), but this one drown my attention having a few rarely seen in a camera and innovative features. Beside the four photos braketing (and my DSLR have 3 braketing) and the 9MP resolution, it has a CMOS sesnsor which can only be met at DSLR cameras, which might mean lower noise than other Point&Shoots.
We often find ourselves wishing and talking about DSLR cameras, we compare them and adopt a geek language babbling about shutter speeds, ISO, camera features, image processing and other technicalities. This makes us forget about the most important piece of gear that helps us take the photograph we want, and that is the LENS.
For a few days there are the news of the improvement of 
Yesterday I went to the opening of a gallery where three photographs of mine, previously chosen, were exposed. I was pretty amazed of how many people in my city are interested of photography. Also I met other photographs and exchanged some experiences we had. I found out and learned new things from them.
