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39 megapixel Camera PhaseOne P45 Review

DSLRBlog Editors — Fri, 12 May 2006 10:01:20 +0000

Outback Photo has a review of the monster 39 megapixel PhaseOne P45 camera back and they are very pleased with the results!

I’ve recently returned from my first photo trip with my new system—a PhaseOne P45 (39 megapixel) back on a Mamiya 645AFDII . After using a 4×5 for the last 30 years, it was quite a change! Just lifting the camera backpack brought a smile to my face (it’s about 10 lbs. lighter). I greatly enjoyed the agility and mobility of a medium-format camera, especially with the zoom lenses. I was also able to do close-ups fairly painlessly, quite a change from 4×5. I didn’t need to worry about running out of film—my tiny card case had four 4 GB cards, allowing for about 350 exposures! And, unlike 4×5 film, where each click of the shutter adds up to around $4.50—these were…free! (Free, after you pay the rather steep price of admission for the P45 back). This is actually quite liberating, as there is no reason now not to try more adventuresome compositions and/or lighting situations. (Situations that I previously would have talked myself out of, due to film costs, and low probability of success. But…taking chances is important.)

How long will it be before we have access to 39mp …?

He also compares Raw Developer vs. Capture One, I didn’t realise there was so much involved in properly developing RAW, I need to research more I think.

Technorati Tags: phaseone, p45, digital, camera, review

Sony Serious About DSLR

DSLRBlog Editors — Fri, 12 May 2006 09:49:02 +0000

Sony have been talking about their plans for their newly named Alpha range of Digital SLR Cameras. These plans include releasing 20 new lenses this year and have underlined they are committed to this market for the long term. While they have some heritage with their Konica Minolta partnership they have a heck of a lot of ground to make up outside of the consumer market.

“Our goal is to become the shin’uchi, or headline performer, of digital SLR cameras. In the traditional Japanese art of rakugo storytelling, the shin’uchi is the performer recognized by everyone as the undisputed master of his craft.”

Technorati Tags: sony, dslr, digital, camera, news

Lense Quality Comparison tool

DSLRBlog Editors — Mon, 08 May 2006 17:20:24 +0000

I just found what looks like a promising new tool for helping people select new lense purchase. It’s a fancy web application that allows you to compare crops taken with different lenses at selected focal lengths and apertures.

ISO 12233 Lens Test Chart 100% Crop Comparison Tool

While the choices are limited right now it does confirm what I thought about a couple of lenses I own, the 50mm 1.8 lense is damn sharp for the price!

Technorati Tags: canon, lense, reviews, comparisons, digital, photography

Digital Prints from Flickr, Now International

DSLRBlog Editors — Mon, 08 May 2006 09:37:30 +0000

This might be worth a try, FlickrBlog says Flickr now offers the rest of the world the QOOP printing service. Really dumb thing is you still can’t do it right from the flickr site …

So, you aren’t in the U.S. Darn it! Unfortunately, this means you aren’t able to prints your photos via Flickr yet.

This means that until Flickr guys get the interface sorted out you have to go to http://www.qoop.com. Their prices look pretty good, they have a great range of products and sizes and the interface is really quite nice (especially being able to select by “sets”, etc).

I’m going to order a photo book to try it out.

Technorati Tags: flickr, digital, photography, prints, processing

New Tips Blog

DSLRBlog Editors — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 08:31:29 +0000

We like our photography tips here at DSLRBlog, we are here to learn and even the most experienced photographer can all learn something new. I was pleased to read in my inbox this morning that Darren the guy behind Digital Photography Blog has started a new blog just for photography tips…

Digital Photography School

Over the two years of that site I had a lot of emails from readers asking for tips on how to use their cameras and came to the conclusion that while there are many millions of digital cameras being bought each year around the world that a very large proportion of those that buy them could be using them to achieve better results.

While I think many of his tips will be beginner level so might not apply to the majority of our DSLR owning readers (people tend to learn the ropes with point and shoot before lashing out the cash on a more complex camera) I would still encourage you to take a look as you never know what nuggets of inspiration might be waiting.

To give you one example, his post on Getting Horizons Horizontal was something I was pulled up on early by Mark and looking over my contacts photos today should be required reading for many Flickr users!

Technorati Tags: learning, dslr, digital, photography, tips

Photography Tips From Webmonkey

DSLRBlog Editors — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 10:02:09 +0000

Webmonkey has published an extract from Dane Howards Photoshop and Digital Camera book, “The Future of Memories” there are some thought provoking tips in there. I won’t spoil them by describing them here, go read the article, but here are the headlines.

More Effective Images

Free yourself from the viewfinder.

Shoot more images in one setting.

Shoot now, edit later.

Plan for post.

Anticipate events.

Adapt your body language.

Discover new angles.

One tip he suggests that I only just started thinking about on our recent Canada trip was this one.

Get the pieces and fix it in post. If you’re planning to work on your pictures later, shoot multiple shots of the same thing over time. Use these “pieces” to assemble your shot.

This speaks to me as I only recently relented and started using Photoshop (I still prefer the camera or photographer to do most of the work), take multiple rapid-fire portrait shots of groups hoping to be able to nit a perfect scene together later and started experimenting with Panoramas.

Technorati Tags: digital, photography, tips

Canon Software Update

DSLRBlog Editors — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 11:01:02 +0000

Canon have put up some new software updates that you might find useful

Digital Photo Professional (DPP) 2.1
EOS Utility 1.0
CameraWindow DSLR 5.3R2 (Windows)
ZoomBrowser EX 5.6.0 (Windows)
ImageBrowser 5.6.1a (Mac).

Grab them while they are hot

Technorati Tags: photography, canon, digital, camera, software, tools, news

Memory Card Data Recovery Tool

DSLRBlog Editors — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 11:46:03 +0000

Download Squad points to a tool that allows you to recover lost photographs from dodgy memory cards, CD-ROMs or your hard drive

PhotoRec is an open source multi-platform app intended to help you recover photos from corrupted media like memory cards

Luckily for me I have yet to experience this problem, I’m glad I heard about this software now rather than when I really need it!

Technorati Tags: digital, camera, memory, card, data, recovery, photography, tips

Online Photo Editing

DSLRBlog Editors — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 08:35:14 +0000

Wow this PXN8 is pretty neat. While it won’t compete with Photoshop, or even Picassa for that matter, if you are out on the road or in a cyber cafe and need a quick little bit of photo editing this is the perfect tool. It is all web based so completely online and allows crop, zoom, resize, redeye etc. You can even send the results directly to Flickr if you don’t want to save to your disk.

PXN8 is an online image editor with a user interface developed with standard web technologies (HTML, CSS and JavaScript) which are available by default on all modern web browsers.

See it at pxn8.com

Until Flickr incorporates the functionality in the main site, as they inevitably will, this is quite a cool partner to Flickrs features!

Technorati Tags: pxn8, flickr, tools, digital, photography, editing, software, review

Cool Bird’s Eye Photographs

DSLRBlog Editors — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 12:17:27 +0000

There is something oddly compelling about aerial and satellite photographs. The view from above I suppose is our rarest of experiences but also there is something vaguely voyeuristic about it. This new blog aims to collect the best sites from Microsoft’s new service.

First Google brought us Google Local and Google Earth. Then Microsoft followed suit with Windows Live Local, featuring stunning new imagery. Bird’s Eye images provide a high-resolution, low-angle aerial view of a small area. This website is the definitive guide and repository for the coolest Windows Live Local locations.
– Bird’s Eye Tourist

Technorati Tags: aerial, satellite, photography, digital