Posted by Constantin Chirila on May 31, 2009 in Personal
Hey everyone!
First and foremost I want to apologize for my inactivity, it’s been 2 crazy months and I’m still not finished. I’ve been busy with the college and things, and also I have started to work part time, so my time is pretty limited.
Anyways, this couple of months were a lot of releases and news in the photographic world like:
the release of the Canon 500D / Digital Rebel T1i DSLR camera
the release of Nikon D5000 DSLR camera
the release of Phase One P40+ camera system
three new entry-level DSLR from Sony: A230, A330 and A380
the release of Pentax K-7 DSLR camera
Although I wasn’t able to talk about these I promise that from now on I will struggle to be very prompt in talking about any news.
Also, I am planning to show some photo retouching techniques and maybe I will start a video podcast so you are able to understand much easier the steps of the future tutorials. I am also planning to integrate Twitter, so stay tuned for some changes in the interface.
Last but not least, I would like to proudly announce that I recently became a member of AAFR ( the translation: Association of the Romanian Artist Photographers ), hope I got right the translation. This is very important to me, because only best and most active photographers can take part . If you wish to see the photographs that helped me join AAFR, then you can go here.
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.
Due to fact that I love shooting landscapes, I am in love of the new Canon 5D Mark II. Talking a lot about it a friend asked me what’s that special with this camera compared to my Canon 40D. And it all came to one major difference: the 5D Mark II has a full frame sensor and the 40D has a crop sensor. So in this article I will try to explain the “Crop factor” notion, and the difference between them.
Full frame notion. A full frame sensor has an area of 36 x 24 mm and it’s close to the area of a 35mm film camera, back in the film days.
Crop factor. Well many of the digital cameras, from compact to DSLR cameras, have different image sensors with different dimensions. Most of the sensors have sizes equal or smaller than 36 x 24 mm. Because of the smaller sensor, the camera tends to capture less than an image giving the effect of cropping. There are a lot of crop factors starting from 1x (the Full Frame) and going all the way to 2x (Olympus), for DSLR’s and going even further than 6x for compact cameras. A 2x crop factor refers to a sensor size 2 times smaller than the full frame meaning a roughly 18 x 12 mm sensor size.
Now let’s see how this translates in the actual size of the image:
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Dec 12, 2008 in Camera Gear, Rumor
It seams that Nikon are releasing a bunch of new cameras. After announcing by mistake the new Nikon D3X, it seams that now news are traveling about Nikon are developing the upgrade of D300 the Nikon D400. But, for now stays at “just a rumor” state.
Here are the supposed specifications:
New 14.8 megapixel DX format CMOS sensor effective 14.3 megapixel
Self-cleaning sensor unit (low-pass filter vibration)
ISO 100 – 6400 (with boost up to ISO 25600 and down to ISO 50)
14-bit A/D conversion
Movie capture at up to 1080p 24 fps with stereo sound
Nikon EXPEED Plus image processor 30% faster than previous EXPEED image processor
Super fast operation (power-up 13 ms, shutter lag 40 ms, black-out 90 ms)
Kevlar / carbon fibre composite shutter with 200,000 exposure durability
Multi-CAM3500DX Auto Focus sensor (51-point, 15 cross-type, more vertical coverage)
Auto-focus tracking by color (using information from 1005-pixel AE sensor)
Auto-focus calibration (fine-tuning) now available (fixed body or up to 20 separate lens settings)
Vignetting control in-camera
Automatic chromatic aberration correction
Custom image parameters now support brightness as well as contrast
Seven frames per second continuous shooting (nine frames per second with battery pack)
3.0″ 922,000 pixel LCD monitor
Live View with either phase detect (mirror up/down) or contrast-detect AF, face detection
‘Active D-Lighting’ (adjusts metering as well as applying D-Lighting curve)
Detailed ‘Control Panel’ type display on LCD monitor, changes color in darkness
Buttons sealed against moisture
Same ultra-fast startup and shutter lag as D700
Scene Recognition System (uses AE sensor, AF sensor)
Picture Control image parameter presets
UDMA compatible single CF card slot
Virtual horizon indicates if camera is level (like an aircraft cockpit display)
Extensive in-camera retouching
HDMI HD video output
Magnesium alloy body with connections and buttons sealed against moisture
Beside the fact that it isn’t Full Frame, with a lot of specs aproaches to the soon to be released Canon 5D Mark II. It’s rumored that the Nikon D400 will have a price tag of $2000. It’s also said that this will be release in February 2009. Since this is a rumor don’t take all of this as granted. Stay tuned for more info.
Taking sharp photographs is the dream of every photographer. However taking crisp, clean images can be quite challenging. I would like to share with you guys some tips on how to get razor sharp photographs, but before that let’s see what are the common causes for lack of sharpness:
Wrong focusing. The most common cause for blurry photos is not focusing right. Often happens to focus on the wrong part of the image, or using a very narrow depth of field, or taking the photo quick without checking if it is in focus, and all of this helps in throwing your subject out of focus and obtaining blurry photographs.
Low value of the shutter speed. This causes 2 sets pf problems: Camera shake and Subject movement. This two makes blurry photos because your shutter speed is too low to freeze the action.
Noise. Sometimes using high ISO values might get you results with lack of sharpness. Although since cameras evolve so quickly these days, higher ISO values might still get you very sharp images.
Here are 9 ways of improving your photographs sharpness:
I was recently asked by a friend of mine these couple of questions: “Prime lens? Zoom lens?”. He wanted to buy a new lens and was a little confused by these 2 terms. After I explained to him, I decided to share this “lesson” with the rest of you. So here it goes.
What is exactly a Prime lens?
Well, a prime lens is a lens that has a fixed focal lengths. Some examples of prime lenses: 14mm, 15mm, 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 100mm, 200mm, 300mm, 400mm, 600mm, etc. (There are a lot more that i have missed). So bottom line there is no zooming involved. These are similar to our eyes, you cannot zoom with your eyes, you can only distinguish things at a relative close distance and depending on the size. And if you want to see something more clearly, you get close, exactly what you have to do with your camera that has a prime lens mounted on it.
What about Zoom lens?
The zoom lens it’s a different story. It has a range of focal lengths available in one lens. So you can have a wide and telephoto lens in just one lens. So you have the ability to zoom and take a shot. Some examples of zoom lenses: 18-55mm, 17-40mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm, 18-200mm, etc (There are hundreds of lenses with different combinations).
Now I will try to put a ruff list of the advantages and disadvantages of these 2 types of lenses. Some people might disagree with me since this is more of a personal choice and you can see a lot of contradictory discussions around the web about how one outperforms the other (like Canon VS Nikon “wars”).
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Dec 1, 2008 in Camera Gear
A few days after they leaked by mistake the new D3x, Nikon released the brochure of the camera. It contains some test shots and the full specifications list of the camera.
Nikon has leaked their own announcements themselves by mistake. How did this happened? Well, it appears that they released their magazine named “Nikon Pro Magazine” in Europe to early, before they could launch the “official announcement”.
The new Nikon D3x is a full-frame DSLR camera with a 24.5 megapixel 16-bit EXPEED image processor. Here are some more specifications:
24.5 megapixel the highest resolution seen in a Nikon DSLR to date
16 bit EXPEED image processor (35.9 x 24mm)
51 point autofocus system
5fps continuous shooting (or 7fps at 10 megapixel)
ISO range 50-6200
Extra High Active D-Lighting
Live preview shooting mode
3 inch LCD screen with 922000 dots
Extremely durable magnesium construction with economically optimized and weather-sealed
Dual CF slots
According to cameraworld.co.uk the price of the D3X camera is expected to be around £5500 (they even take pre-order deposits of £20). And it is said that will be released in December.
I wonder if it’s worth buying it. Beside the high megapixel number there is not much improvement compared to D3. I guess that this D3X it will be a relief for fashion/portrait/product/etc. photographer , but a disappointment for wedding and sports photographers photographers where they need speed and god image quality at very high ISO. But we will wait and see how it will present itself.
For a few days there are the news of the improvement of 
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