Thursday, July 26, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Hijacking Ambient Sound Investments :)
I have an interesting experiment going on. Some friends have an investment fund, called Ambient Sound Investments and I helped them with some copy writing for their website. They live on a local URL www.asi.ee so I recommended that they also buy the www.ambientsoundinvestments.com before anyone steals it from them. Since that never happened I thought I'd play a little trick on them. So I purchased the domain, set up a quick page that is mainly about telling the user that "This is not ASI homepage" and slapped up Google Ads.
It's an experiment with 2 goals:
- See how long it takes until they notice.
- See how long it takes until someone actually visits the sight and clicks on an ad.
I admit, the last idea is totally stupid as there's no real content on the page and why would anyone go there and/or click on the ads, but since it's an experiment then it's my goal.
Update: Darn, that didn't take long (only like 5 hours or so). The guys have their web chatter monitors nicely tuned (or then someone we both know still subscribes to this blog...). Experiment over.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Nothing to see, move along
Ugh, one of those crazy weeks when I'm always up at least until 1 am and up 7.30 and still looks like I'm short of time. First half of the week was full of work, sports and photos (had to finish up with wedding shoot from 1.5 weeks ago), second half is full of work, work and testing two photo printers - Canon Pixma iP5000 and just announced HP Photosmart 8250. Making A4 borderless prints at home is something of a novelty to me. Both have some problems with Mac (Canon's software just won't install and HP has failed to provide me with drivers and software for Mac and I cannot find it on their webpage) but I could just put it down to my own stupidity and in HP's case to the very recent announcement of this printer.
So hopefully reviewes of those two photoprinters next week and I truly hope to finish the Wedding Series as well.
So hopefully reviewes of those two photoprinters next week and I truly hope to finish the Wedding Series as well.
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Minolta Maxxum / Dynax 7 Digital revisited
I initially tested and reviewed Konica Minolta Maxxum / Dynax 7 Digital (D7D from here on) in November 2004 and rather liked the camera (disclaimer: I've been shooting with Minolta cameras for 5 years now). In May 2005 I finally plunged into digital and bought D7D for myself. I briefly played with the idea of switching to Canon but fortunately Minolta brought prices down in time. Since may my D7D has seen extensive use both indoors and outdoors, during the day and night. I've shot over 3500 frames, used the camera 6+ hours straight, used it for shooting sports, landscapes, a wedding (just yesterday), streetphotography etc.
First of all, D7D has a great body. Especially if you love analog controls and lots of buttons. I most certainly do. The body is adaption from Dynax 7 analog body which I previously used so the switch was pretty easy. Actually some things have improved - toggle button between AF and MF under your thumb is better placed, metering mode dial and focusing mode dial have firmer step so I don't switch them accidenally any more. I'm not sure about the placement of depth of field preview button which I was used to pressing with the small finger on my right hand, now it has to be pressed with small finger of left hand and is really not in the best position when you're using slightly longer lens.
One thing regarding the body that I'm not very happy with is the fact that grip has lost some of it's depth. The grip itself actually feels just as big in the hand but with D7D my fingertips are pressed agains the body. I just shot for 6 hours straight yesterday and today I'd rather not take the camera into my hand as my fingertips are aching. And my fingers aren't that long, they're actually more on the short side for my height.
Second, I absolutely love that you can set 3 custom programs or group of settings and then switch between them by simply turing big dial on the top. I've set one for maximum quality, second for slightly lower quality and third for high-iso handheld shooting. It's really easy to change a setting and save it. I can see how this feature will help me in future assignments where I can set one setting for no-flash maximum quality shooting, second for shooting with flash and third for shooting with wireless flash for example (switching between normal flash and wireless flash is a drag, more on that later).
Thirdly, ISO 800 and 1600 is actually usable. I don't hesitate switching to 800 if necessary or to 1600, especially if I think I can convert these pictures to black and white later. High iso does tend to soften the image somewhat and there's still noise present but it's rather filmlike I would say.
D7D was lacking in the speed department when it came out, or that's what I read from forums as everybody seemed to need 8 frames per second, 40 frame buffer camera. Ok, really the problem was write times and with the firmware update this has improved dramatically. With my shooting style (rather trying to press the shutter in the right time than having it pressed down all the time) I have never had to wait for the camera to clear the image buffer. But it probably is a little slow for Olympic style sports photography.
One thing that rubs me the wrong way is the fact that even though D7D has orientation detection it does not automatically turn images shot in portrait. Don't know if it's just a stupid mistake or would that put too much stress on processor and would slow the camera down but it would be a great timesaver in post-production phase.
D7D is more prone to exposure errors that it's analog predecessor. It's more easily fooled by bright light sources or really dark areas. Sometimes it underexposes for no apparent reasons. I don't like chimping (as checking every image after you've shot it is aparently called) so sometimes I miss these errors. Certainly not a huge problem and nothing that would make me hate the camera but there's definetly room for improvement in the future.
Because I don't do really specific and scientific testing on speed, write times, color accuracy etc I'll just say that D7D feels slightly worse in autofocus that did D7 analog. I'm using the same lenses in pretty much the same situations and I don't get so good feeling. I use only central focusing point as I've never liked camera trying to guess where to focus, I think they're doing a bad job out of it and I'm not talking only about Minolta here. In my initial review I actually said that focusing in the dark was better with digital body and Sigma 70-300 lens, now I think the opposite is true. Minolta really shouldn't have dumped the low light red assist light that allowed literally focusing in pitch black.
Word of warning - don't trust the screen in bright sunlight. In fact, don't trust the screen in any other light. It's good for checking framing and overall quality + use histogram for exposure check but never delete a frame beacause it feels too bright or dark on LCD. That is not to say that the screen is bad, it's just not telling the whole story.
Histogram sometimes starts to warn a bit too early. So there might still be some detail in either highlights or shadows and that's all you need but histogram is already blinking and that might give the idea you have to reshoot and adjust slightly. That is something I've just now getting used to and am beginning to trust my instincts more.
Battery lifetime. I cannot really say how many frames or how much long it will last. I wish it could do more but you can check over at dpreview.com yourself if it's doing average milage or above/below that. Certainly worth getting a second battery (I purchased one by Power2000, half the price of original, same or similar performance) and if you're really in saving mode then switching off autofocus, LCD information and AntiShake. And use review sparingly.
You might have noticed that I've said nothing about AntiShake so far :) AntiShake is imagestabilizer that is built into camera body and helps to reduce softness from shaking hands, resulting in sharper pictures and allowing to shoot handheld in darker conditions than with normal camera/lens. Once again I've done no measurements but I know that I can shoot without tripod in very dark conditions and it suits my shooting style perfectly. Just last week Konica Minolta announced their new DSLR, Maxxum / Dynax 5 Digital and I'm glad that they've put AntiShake in this camera as well. It's really a great technology.
Oh, promised to write about wireless flash as well. Minolta has a really cool solution where you pair your flash with you camera and can then use flash wirelessly off-camera. It's controled with short flash bursts from D7D own pop-up flash and you can even pair 2 flashguns with one camera. Both camera manual and flash own manual are not the best and probably tell you just the basics but I really like it and plan to get my own flash soon. Enough of borrowing stuff. Downside is the complicated switching between normal flash and wireless flash. When you take flashgun off your camera you have to press a button on it and go to camera menu to switch flash mode from say "fill-in" to "wireless". Hard to do it when all you want to do is grab the flash into your left hand and fire off a quick frame. Custom program are something that could really help here.
That's a wrap then. Just some things that have stuck out while using this truly excellent camera.
First of all, D7D has a great body. Especially if you love analog controls and lots of buttons. I most certainly do. The body is adaption from Dynax 7 analog body which I previously used so the switch was pretty easy. Actually some things have improved - toggle button between AF and MF under your thumb is better placed, metering mode dial and focusing mode dial have firmer step so I don't switch them accidenally any more. I'm not sure about the placement of depth of field preview button which I was used to pressing with the small finger on my right hand, now it has to be pressed with small finger of left hand and is really not in the best position when you're using slightly longer lens.
One thing regarding the body that I'm not very happy with is the fact that grip has lost some of it's depth. The grip itself actually feels just as big in the hand but with D7D my fingertips are pressed agains the body. I just shot for 6 hours straight yesterday and today I'd rather not take the camera into my hand as my fingertips are aching. And my fingers aren't that long, they're actually more on the short side for my height.
Second, I absolutely love that you can set 3 custom programs or group of settings and then switch between them by simply turing big dial on the top. I've set one for maximum quality, second for slightly lower quality and third for high-iso handheld shooting. It's really easy to change a setting and save it. I can see how this feature will help me in future assignments where I can set one setting for no-flash maximum quality shooting, second for shooting with flash and third for shooting with wireless flash for example (switching between normal flash and wireless flash is a drag, more on that later).
Thirdly, ISO 800 and 1600 is actually usable. I don't hesitate switching to 800 if necessary or to 1600, especially if I think I can convert these pictures to black and white later. High iso does tend to soften the image somewhat and there's still noise present but it's rather filmlike I would say.
D7D was lacking in the speed department when it came out, or that's what I read from forums as everybody seemed to need 8 frames per second, 40 frame buffer camera. Ok, really the problem was write times and with the firmware update this has improved dramatically. With my shooting style (rather trying to press the shutter in the right time than having it pressed down all the time) I have never had to wait for the camera to clear the image buffer. But it probably is a little slow for Olympic style sports photography.
One thing that rubs me the wrong way is the fact that even though D7D has orientation detection it does not automatically turn images shot in portrait. Don't know if it's just a stupid mistake or would that put too much stress on processor and would slow the camera down but it would be a great timesaver in post-production phase.
D7D is more prone to exposure errors that it's analog predecessor. It's more easily fooled by bright light sources or really dark areas. Sometimes it underexposes for no apparent reasons. I don't like chimping (as checking every image after you've shot it is aparently called) so sometimes I miss these errors. Certainly not a huge problem and nothing that would make me hate the camera but there's definetly room for improvement in the future.
Because I don't do really specific and scientific testing on speed, write times, color accuracy etc I'll just say that D7D feels slightly worse in autofocus that did D7 analog. I'm using the same lenses in pretty much the same situations and I don't get so good feeling. I use only central focusing point as I've never liked camera trying to guess where to focus, I think they're doing a bad job out of it and I'm not talking only about Minolta here. In my initial review I actually said that focusing in the dark was better with digital body and Sigma 70-300 lens, now I think the opposite is true. Minolta really shouldn't have dumped the low light red assist light that allowed literally focusing in pitch black.
Word of warning - don't trust the screen in bright sunlight. In fact, don't trust the screen in any other light. It's good for checking framing and overall quality + use histogram for exposure check but never delete a frame beacause it feels too bright or dark on LCD. That is not to say that the screen is bad, it's just not telling the whole story.
Histogram sometimes starts to warn a bit too early. So there might still be some detail in either highlights or shadows and that's all you need but histogram is already blinking and that might give the idea you have to reshoot and adjust slightly. That is something I've just now getting used to and am beginning to trust my instincts more.
Battery lifetime. I cannot really say how many frames or how much long it will last. I wish it could do more but you can check over at dpreview.com yourself if it's doing average milage or above/below that. Certainly worth getting a second battery (I purchased one by Power2000, half the price of original, same or similar performance) and if you're really in saving mode then switching off autofocus, LCD information and AntiShake. And use review sparingly.
You might have noticed that I've said nothing about AntiShake so far :) AntiShake is imagestabilizer that is built into camera body and helps to reduce softness from shaking hands, resulting in sharper pictures and allowing to shoot handheld in darker conditions than with normal camera/lens. Once again I've done no measurements but I know that I can shoot without tripod in very dark conditions and it suits my shooting style perfectly. Just last week Konica Minolta announced their new DSLR, Maxxum / Dynax 5 Digital and I'm glad that they've put AntiShake in this camera as well. It's really a great technology.
Oh, promised to write about wireless flash as well. Minolta has a really cool solution where you pair your flash with you camera and can then use flash wirelessly off-camera. It's controled with short flash bursts from D7D own pop-up flash and you can even pair 2 flashguns with one camera. Both camera manual and flash own manual are not the best and probably tell you just the basics but I really like it and plan to get my own flash soon. Enough of borrowing stuff. Downside is the complicated switching between normal flash and wireless flash. When you take flashgun off your camera you have to press a button on it and go to camera menu to switch flash mode from say "fill-in" to "wireless". Hard to do it when all you want to do is grab the flash into your left hand and fire off a quick frame. Custom program are something that could really help here.
That's a wrap then. Just some things that have stuck out while using this truly excellent camera.
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Packaging that can kill you
For some time now I've been wondering about packaging of certain goods. It appears that either manufacturers are trying to gear up for nuclear war or trying to make consumers cut their fingers and/or wrists while trying to open packages. Specifically I'm having ultrastrong plastic packages in mind. I've mainly stumbled upon them when purchasing memory cards but similar packaging is used for batteries/chargers, power adaptors etc. They are impossible to open up with your bare hands, at least I'm too weak to tear them open or force the bindings to give way. So I have to resort to sharp objects like scissors or knives and even then it's a chore. Cutting up one side is not enough but when cutting other sides you're threatened by really sharp plastic edges that are the result of cutting the first side.
I understand the need for good, durable packaging as it's the only thing protecting a memory card or battery charger for example, from being damaged before it reaches it's target audience. However, someone really should have invented a safe, strong and easy to open solution by now. What century is it?
Just bought my second SanDisk Ultra II 1GB Compact Flash memory card. Really pleased with my first one, fast and reliable and got a good price as well. Can strongly recommend if you're on budget that does not allow to get the fastest cards on the market (Lexar Pro range and SanDisk Extreme range for example).
I understand the need for good, durable packaging as it's the only thing protecting a memory card or battery charger for example, from being damaged before it reaches it's target audience. However, someone really should have invented a safe, strong and easy to open solution by now. What century is it?
Just bought my second SanDisk Ultra II 1GB Compact Flash memory card. Really pleased with my first one, fast and reliable and got a good price as well. Can strongly recommend if you're on budget that does not allow to get the fastest cards on the market (Lexar Pro range and SanDisk Extreme range for example).
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Friday, June 17, 2005
Bunch of camera reviews coming up
Gearing up for new digicam reviews. I write pretty regularily to a local digital lifestyle magazine called [Digi] and we're going to do a bigger test for compact digicams. Something from Canon, Pentax, Sony, Casio etc. I'm usually not very fond of testing these small digicams but it's good to put them through the paces every now and then to see what are the new features, how big steps manufacturers have made in picture quality, speed etc. Later it is much easier to answere the eternal question: "So, which camera should I buy, which one is the best?" Hopefully have time to bring the reviews here as well.
More interestingly Pentax new budget priced *isd DL should be coming up soon. It has one big draw-back that I've noticed so far - it has only Auto ISO setting but let's not jump into conlusions here :)
More interestingly Pentax new budget priced *isd DL should be coming up soon. It has one big draw-back that I've noticed so far - it has only Auto ISO setting but let's not jump into conlusions here :)
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