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.

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).

Moutful of wine

Moutful of wine, originally uploaded by Siim.

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 :)

Off topic: Valuable reading for online wisdom

Estonia is not a country with very much enterpreneurship on the web. Very few success stories (Skype is not really Estonian idea even though all engineering is done in Tallinn, Estonia) and most of them local as stuff is made in Estonian, rather than English. It has also to do with our Soviet path that did not really care or nurture enterpreneurship or taking risks. Almost 15 years of independence and laws have not done a great job at injecting start-up attitude into people. If you do something as a legal person and fail you are responsible for all the risks and pay with your own property/money etc. Setting up a company is not really expensive but enough so to be a hurdle for students and young people just off university. Hmm... forgot myself into the intro part :)

Web is/has huge potential. You just need a computer and internet connection and you could do stuff. Found excellent blog by Marshall Brain writing about how to earn money on the web and using the web. You might also want to read his "How to make a million dollars".

We'll return to our usual photographic content shortly :)

Kaidi

Kaidi, originally uploaded by Siim.

This picture has been uploaded and posted because I wanted to test some screencapture software.

Kaidi is about to become a mother. And I am about to become an uncle.

Silent sleepers

Snail, originally uploaded by Siim.

It's always the photos that you just snapped quickly and then forgot about, that provide the most satisfaction. Maybe it's because you don't worry about them so much, don't check the aperture, shutter speed, depth of field, framing and so on. You just notice something interesting, point your camera at it, fire the shutter and move on.

This "snail" was shot in Budapest, Hungary last summer when I was visiting my girlfriend. She studied in Central European University that has absolutely fascinating old building there. From outside it looks like 4 (if my memory is correct) story old building, inside it's half old, half modern and has 10 floors altogether. So for big part you have these renovated floors and rooms, and then you step into a narrow coridor that ends in 50 cm wide swirling and supersteep stariway.

This is exactly where I took the photo. We had just reached the ground floor through this staircase when I took last look back and up and saw "the snail". I hurriedly snapped one photo barely making sure that shutter speed was fast enough to get at least some sharpness and then run after the others. Aperture was probably F1.4, shutter speed around 1/30-1/50 and metering was left to the camera.

Understanding DNG

I bet many of you have had questions about RAW format, why it's good, why there are so many different versions, why they are not compatible etc. Well, Adobe came out with free standard called DNG to create some sort of order in the chaotic world of different RAW formats. It's open architecture and documentation should help make sure that you can open your digital "negatives" in the future. Photoshopnews.com has tackled DNG and written very extensively about DNG format and how to use it in your workflow.

To understand the benefits of a DNG workflow, you must first understand how to use it. In its simplest form, you take proprietary raw files and use the DNG Converter to convert them into DNG. The application itself is very simple. It can live anywhere, in your applications folder or even just sitting on your desktop-that’s where I tend to keep it.

Link: DNG Workflow, Part I
Link: DNG Workflow, Part II

Canon Rebel XT / EOS 350D review

Market segment for entry-level well priced digital SLRs has really heated up recently. And "entry-level" doesn't mean "bad" or "lacking on features and performance". Pentax, Olympus, Nikon and Canon all had good contenders there. Then Canon went ahead and threw their new 8 megapixel Rebel XT /EOS 350D (as it's called in Europe) into the playground. This camera shares many features with it's more potent older brother Canon 20D while being really small and light and comes with a sub $1000 pricetag (body and kit-lens).



First impression

I should be used to really small and light SLRs in this price-range but Rebel XT / 350D (link to Amazon.com) still managed to surprise me. Female snappers will be especially pleased but for my average sized hands the body felt even too small. Grip is actually held only by two fingers as index finger is on shutter release and small finger has nothing to hold on to. Lightweight body is of course bonus whenever you have to lug it around over your shoulder.

Turn-on time and waking from stand-by is almost nonexistant, clearly something inherited from Canon EOS 20D. Battery life is also impressive - I didn't manage to get it empty after 4 days of shooting even though I used LCD a lot.



Body and usability

Working area of right-hand thumb is really busy with buttons - exposure lock, focus point selection, exposure compensation, shooting mode selection (single frame, continuous, timer) and LCD light button all sit there. In addition to that you have navigation buttons which turn into ISO, focusing mode selection, exposure mode selection and white balance selection buttons during taking the picture.

All this button frenzhy going on I found myself occasionally unintentionally pressing (or they got pushed when putting into my camerabag or taking out) shooting mode button and turning dioptric correction wheel next to viewfinder. It truns way too easily.



On the back there are actually two screens (already familiar from Rebel /EOS 300D) - above 1.8 inch color-LCD there's black-and-white information screen that shows most important shooting information in nice large font. It doesn't really work for candid shooting from the "hip" as you're requred to turn your camera to check aperture and shutter speed.

Tripodmount and lensmount are both made of steel which is a bonus. Then again - I've never heard of anyone breaking their plastic mount...

Focusing

From all cameras that I've tested in this price/feature range Rebel XT / 350D is hands down winner in focusing speed. Nothing more to say here really - focusing is really fast and focus lock very firm, no hunting around.



One strange thing I found though - when shooting in dimmer situations then on aperture mode camera focuses fine. If I switched it to night portrait mode then flash pops up (as expected) and camera does a strobe flash for focusing aid. In the end it takes much more time and I have always found strobe flash very akward solution.

Shooting speeds

Shutter speeds range from 1/4000 to 30 seconds + bulb. Maximum shooting speed is 3 frames per second and maximum 14 frames in one burst in JPG format or 5 frames in RAW+JPG format. After that camera slows down to clear buffer but continues as soon as there enough free space. Strangely enough I never managed to hit the roof when shooting JPG. It just kept on snapping and snapping. I was using the fastest CF card by Lexar but it's really strange. In a good way.

Color display and viewfinder

Color display is probably the biggest let down in 350D. Even with cloudy weather it is too dark and on sunny days completely useless. Turing up the brightness helps only very little - truly weak performance from Canon.

As all cheaper digital SLRs 350D has somewhat small and dim viewfinder but not horribly so and it's possible to focus manually in darker conditions as well.



Picture quality

In my Canon EOS 20D review I complained about really crappy kit-lens. Apparently Canon has some quality control issues here as the same kit-lens on my test 350D was considerably better. No rainbows around bright light sources and overall better image quality. Manual focus ring was still moving enough to make manual focusing a pain.

Picture quality wise 350D is no worse than it's older brother 20D. They both use same DIGIC II imaging processor which keeps noise well under control even at ISO 800 and only on ISO 1600 it becomes really visible on computer screen.

White balance is good in normal situations but similarily to 20D turns out too reddish photos that are taken indoors. You can avoid this problem by shooting RAW+JPG at the same time and do some post processing later in your computer.

Software

I've never really written about software that comes with digital cameras before as I've never used it before. I just copy images to my computer and use iView Media Pro for managing and Photoshop for editing. But as I didn't have new Photoshop CS2 I couldn't convert RAW images with it. So I was forced to try out Canon own software. Oh boy. Canon might be on eof the best camera companies out there but it certainly turns out crappy software. Slow and really unusable. It took me several minutes to find out how to do raw-conversion.

I'd seriously think about giving a try to free converter from www.pixmantec.com.

What's in the CON list?

I already mentioned the too dark display. If you have large hands it could be too small a camera for you (vertical grip might help here). Another, perhaps minor but nevertheless, minus is the fact that if you open CF card door while pictures are being written from camera memory to the card this is cancelled and you will lose unwritten images. I imagine it would be really easy fix to show a warning on display not to take out the card and keep writing data.

Conclusion

A week with new 8 megapixel Canon Rebel XT / EOS 350D convinced me that it's really a tremendous camera for beginner and as a spare body for professional shooter alike. Handling, responsiveness, shooting speed and picture quality - this camera offers some serious competition to larger, heavier and more expensive cameras.

Half-way there

Confession: I started this blog only for one reason - to test Google Adsense. My main weblog and also my main photographic site are both in Estonian (Estonia is a small country in Eastern Europe, population 1.4m) and adsense does not support that language. To tell the truth, there aren't that many Estonian companies either who use AdWords.

So I though I'd just start writing about my photos in English, and translate some camera reviews along the way. I do them for free, out of my free time, don't get paid by camera companies or local resellers. I use Minolta gear myself but consider myself pretty objective so putting my findings out to a wider public shouldn't hurt anybody. And seeing from the response that has been pretty much the story.

On times I've had the urge to write about other stuff, mainly technology or communications related as I work on these fields myself and they interest me, but haven't done it. I know I don't post often enough to really develop loyal readership but there seem to be enough so I'll keep it alive here :) Hopefully more pics will follow as soon as I get color calibration sorted out on my laptop.

Open letter to Konica Minolta

Dear Sirs,

I am writing to add my name to the list of photographers from around the world that are requesting that your company, as well as the other major digital camera makers, adopt a policy of open documentation of RAW formats, past, present and future.

I am also requesting that your company adopt a universal RAW format. The DNG format has been put forward as such a possible standard, but we are willing to accept any truly open standard as the industry may agree upon.

I support the position on this taken by the OpenRAW Working Group.

Please add my voice to those that are against proprietary and encrypted RAW file formats. I urge you to act swiftly to support your customers so as to ensure our continued loyalty to your company's brands and products.

Sincerely,

Siim Teller
Proud owner of Dynax 7 Digital

Stadionok station in Budapest

Stadionok, originally uploaded by Siim.

There's no subway in Tallinn so they are fascinating places to me whenever I visit a bigger metropolis. I was in Budapest last summer and even though we lived quite in the center we still took metro every now and then. I don't even remember why it was so empty, probably just a lucky change or late in the night. These red stools just begged to be photographed. I dialed my 50mm lens to F1.4 (ISO 100 film) to get decently sharp results as light levels were really low. It's not tack sharp but this is one occasion when image itself justifies (to me at least) some softness :)

Somewhat slow period

Haven't been snapping a lot lately. Haven't been tinkering with Photoshop either to show off work I consider my best. Only thing I've been doing a lot is scanning. I have now over 1100 frames scanned, perhaps 15 times as much to do but it's a slow process. 2 rolls of film per evening is the limit and it means that I don't do anything else with my computer. So reading books and cooking is in, blogging, messing with photos and surfing is out.

On the bright side - just got news that my Konica Minolta Dynax 7 Digital (Maxxum 7 Digital for those in the US) has reached my local shop so my switch from analog to digital is coming along nicely.

Show only 1% of your photos

"When you have hundreds of pictures where you used to have one, people are less likely to ever go back to look at any of them," said Nancy Van House, a professor in the school of information management and systems at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies the social use of photography. "A lot of people are getting to the point in their digital photography now where it's becoming a problem."

Nice article on CNET about slow drowning in digital pictures. Edit, edit the hell out of your pictures. Leave only the very best. No, 100 out of 1000 is not the very best. National Geographic photographers shoot thousands of images per assignment and still only 4-5 end up in the magazine. The very best. And they sure do impress the viewer and stick out. So delete crat, file away stuff that has meaning to you and only show your very best to friends and family.

Three girls on a ladder

Three girls on a ladder, originally uploaded by Siim.

My younger sister studies dancing and they just recently launched their own dancing act called Tee Kuubis (tee/tea/road in a cube?) with a big performance on the seaside on top of a large building. It moved from one end to the other and culminated with 3 dancers in buttfreezing water, helicopter liftoff (no, they didn't rent it, it was just there) and sunset. Very nice concept as following dancers around this huge area made public more part of the whole thing.

My sister had asked me to take some photos so I chased them and shot 3 rolls I think. Here's one of the best pictures I really like. Shot on Fuji Superia 400 (I think) and scanned with Minolta Dimage IV. Levels, colors and sharpness tuned for final output.

Off to London

Heading to London for a couple of days. Mainly work but hopefully find some hours to walk around this big city and do some happy snapping. Somehow I've only shot Kodak T-Max P3200 and one roll of Kodak EliteChrome I accidentally found for 2 pounds (expired of course). And I plan to get my galleries updated on my Estonian homepage (see my photo page) so perhaps at some stage link to London gallery. If you're still shooting film then I can heartily recommend this ultraspeed black-and-white T-Max. You can practically do handheld shooting during the night, it has very interesting and notable grain which I adore. My brother put one roll through his camera recently and got very different results back from his lab. Oh, it's requires hand developing (not C41 process) so your local lab might not offer the service and you actually have to get your own hands wet :)

Canon EOS 20D review

Canon EOS 20D has been on the market for quite some time and I finally got to try it out some weeks ago. It's a great improvement over already good EOS 10D. Canon has listened to photographers critique and improved startup times, framerate and buffersize and also pumped up the quality, especially on higer ISOs. For owners of 10D it's surely a tough decision - should they update or not.



Compared to 10D new 20D is slightly smaller and with more rounded corners and also lighter. On the backpanel there's new navigation jog-dial which allows focus point selection or moving around the image in review mode. Other improvements are new 8 megapixel sensor, faster DIGIC II processor, 5 frames per second shooting speed and twice as large image buffer. This allows to take 23 highest quality JPGs in sequence. Huge improvement is almost zero lag on camera turn on or when waking camera from standby. With 10D it took something like 2.5 seconds, easily costing you missed shots.

I happily left usermanual in camerabox. If you've had any contact with Canon cameras (or with any modern SLR) you'll get the functions of buttons easily. The only thing I checked from usermanual was the logic of exposure compensation. You have to switch the ON/OFF switch to third option and then dial in exposure compesation using the large wheel under your thumb. But. There's a but. When you go to menu and exit by pressing menu button again then you have to tap shutter release to activate large wheel. I didn't get used to it.



Otherwise body of 20D is very comfortable to hold - big enough and weighs enough, all the buttons are in the right place so there's no need to feel around while shooting. Body material feels good and it sits firmly in your hands. Only nag I have is about top LCD display light switch that was too far for reaching with my index finger. Apparently you're only supposed to use it when your camera is secured on a tripod.

Menus we're clear and I rather like the one long meny and color-coded approach Canon has taken in its pro cameras. Custom Functions could actually have longer texts explaining their functions.



I mainly shot in RAW+JPG mode which records both RAW digital "negative" and ready-to-be-used JPG image. I could fit around 80 of those on 1GB memory card. As already said, 20D can take 23 JPGs in a row (5fps) and 6 RAW images in sequence. Very solid performance.

ISO 100 is perfeclty noise free. If you're really peeping your pixels then noise starts to ever so slightly show at ISO 400 but it will be invisible with A4 print. ISO 800 is very usable and even ISO 1600. As a reminder - noise is much more visible on computer screen and less so on prints, especially if you keep them small. Noisewise 20D is very big improvement over its predecessor 10D.



There are couple of downsides. ISO is not immediately visible and you have to push a button to see it. Small annoyance. Turning on mirror lock is major annoyance as you have to press buttons and surf the menu.

It's been said that viewfinder of EOS 20D is actually smaller and dimmer than that of 10D but I had no problems with it. It's no competitor to film SLRs because viewfinder is so much smaller but as far as half-frame DSLR go, it's very good.

Oy, there's one "ugly" bit as well

Canon kit-lens that I got with the body was really horrible. Manual focus ring was loose effectively making manual focusing at night a pain in the ass. It also draw nice rainbows around every lightsource like streetlamps, candles, moon etc. Smaller apertures only made the rainbow sharper. I haven't seen so bad kit-lens from any other manufacturer out there. Simple - don't buy EOS 20D with kit-lens, save the money and get better glass instead.



Focusing is fast, a bit slower in dimmer situations but I didn't really experience any hunting for focus. Of course usual difficult subjects as reflective smooth surfaces that lack necessary contrasty bits for the focus to work on.

I was not so overwhelmed that I had to install Canon software as my Mac would not recognise 20D with out it. Several people have pointed out that I was probably using wrong protocol for camera-computer interaction but I did actually try to read manual on this and thought I was using the right mode. So I used EOS Viewer Utility to copy images to my harddrive and even tryied RAW conversion with it but after 2 minutes decided that Photoshop Camera Raw plugin works much faster. In addition Viewer Utility takes up very much screen space and has trouble fitting into 1024x768 resolution screen.

Thumbs up to software called Photostich that comes bundled with the camera. It helps to stich together pieces of panorama is really easy to use and if the shots are taken well then gives very nice results.



Small bit of information to those who care about how much noise their camera makes - 20D is noisier than Nikon D70 for example. In shooting situations that require discreetness 20D is not very good solution.

Bla-bla-bla, what's your conclusion?

Canon EOS 20D is excellent camera with well balanced usability, picture quality and speed. I can heartily recommend it to everyone. Just remember to get some good lens to get the maximum quality out of it. If you're not willing to spend extra then rather check out Canon Rebel XT / 350D and spend money that is left over from body on quality glass. It will make much more importance in your pictures than the body. And 350D is equally capable camera but more on it a bit later.

Time to get organised

I've been shooting pictures for 4 years. Perhaps something around 150 rolls of film in this time + hundreds (if not thousands) with digital cameras that I've tested. Out of 36 frames I usually get 2-3 that I really like. I have some of my fotos digitised either scanned myself from prints or later having lab do the scanning for slides. But it's all a big mess. All my negatives are piled together in a bix box, most of them unmarked and only some of them digitised in good enough quality. My CD-s are also in a big pile and finding that one shot is a pain.

Every time I read a photo magasine I want to go out and just shoot the hell out of some cool subject. And yet somhow I never get there. I take my camera to my usual routes and get somewhat predictable results. I don't do any projects even though I want to.

So today I decided to actually draw up a roadmap as inspiration from my "official" job. I set down rough guides when I'll go fully digitised, when I'll have my negatives sorted out and organised, what projects I'll definetly do and by what date and when I'll do my first exhibition. Yes, exhibition. And have enough stockworthy photos to suplement myself with some income. At the same time I want to keep writing about photography in English and in Estonian because I like it, it helps others and occasionally earns me some pocketmoney if something gets published in local paper or magasine.

Getting where I want to be unfortunately requires some investments but I've always tried to keep an attitude that money is one resource that is not depleted. I've already taken the first steps - recently bought film scanner so I'm getting digital copies of all my best shots. It will take some time but eventually I have everything in the computer. I'm buying digital camera probably next month and external harddrive later in the summer (managing CD-s is hell). I don't want everything to bog down to gadgets and money so getting myself out and about is just as big part.

Am I going full time photographer? I don't think so. I just feel that I could get more out of the whole thing. And yes, I like ordnung.

Are you serious?

You're a business and getting online presence. Of course you need some snappy pictures to make your web look more alive. And these pictures should be of businesspeople doing business, right? So you designer (or son or whoever does your webpage) heads over to their favourite stockphoto website and gets those really professional looking photos. What the heck, they get three of them just to make the visual side stronger. And the result is something like this: http://www.hipub.net/. No, I don't know the site, just stumbled upon it. And those tacky pictures from 90something just blinded me. Please don't do that on your webpage, it looks so out of date and noone will want to do business with you. Need a bit more refresh looking photos that say "business"? Check those (yeah, I have my pics up there as well, but none on business), prices start at $1 a pop.

You can shoot a movie with EOS 20D

Kaido posted a link to übercool movie by Patryk Rebisz that is made using Canon EOS 20D digital SLR camera. It's a bit jumpy cause 20D "only" does 5 frames per second but otherwise it's really cool. Note to potential followers: your DSLR shutter is designed to take 35-50 thousand frames trouble free (depending on model, pro class cameras have higher number I suppose). After that you might run into problems like blown shutter and have to get it replaced which might not be very cheap.

Link: F (working title) (found via Kaido)

Nikon D50 and D70s announced

Good news to all Nikon shooters who are searching for less expensive way into going digital. Nikon has finally officially announced it's new six megapixel D50 which will set you back around $899 when purchased together with kit-lens. There's also update to rater popular D70, the new D70s but improvements are not very extensive. I'd say that overall Canon is one step ahead with it's camera bodys (but certainly not with it's kit lenses). Check out dpreview.com for more info.

Nikon has today announced their new affordable and easier to use D50 digital SLR. The D50 has the appearance and control layout of the D70, the major physical differences are size, weight and control layout. Under the skin the D50 has the same six megapixel CCD sensor as the D70 (and the D70s announced today). The D50 will be available in black and silver bodies and as a kit with the new AF-S DX 18-55 mm lens. The D50 Kit (including the 18-55 mm lens) will cost around US$899 when it's available in June.

Guidelines for effective photo website

Strange website by the name of Burns Auto Parts has published a really good overview on what to keep in mind when doing yourself one of thoso photosites. If you're a photographer with an eye towards selling your images you definetly should have a website. No, if you're a photographer and you want to show your work then you should have a website. If you only shoot foryourself then don't.

However, just having a website—of any quality—is not enough. Your site needs to be of a certain quality to hold the interest of most worthwhile potential clients. As in all parts of your marketing mix, there are some basic standards to keep in mind when it comes to your site—things like your branding, good, clean design, and ease-of-use. There are a rather surprising number of photographers’ websites out there that are an affront to the eye, the ear, or are so complicated or poorly designed that they may as well have no site at all. I see them every day.

Link: Photographers’ Websites – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Frequently crashing Minolta Dimage Scan Dual IV

I got myself Konica Minolta's Dimage Scan Dual IV film scanner (got mine from Amazon for $236.99). Excellent value and really decent reviews were reasons I decided to pick this model. It lacks ICE but my pockets are not deep enough at the moment to think of anything more expensive. So couple of days ago I got around and started makeing scans and what I found out was that DS Dual4 Utility software keeps crashing every now and then. Off-topic but Minolta has really come out with... substandard software anyway. And the bad thing is that you cannot just restart software as it tells you that there's something still running and you have to close it. I took a look at ongoing processes but couldn't figure out what it was. So I needed to make a restart after each crash. Do I have to tell you how stupid that felt?

Today I continued making batch-scans and again I get those crashes on my 12-inch 1.2GHz Apple iBook (read what I think of iBook as a photoediting tool). I think I finally figured it out. Looks like crashes only occurr after display goes to sleep. Scanner finishes current patch, ejects film holder and software crashes. When you turn off display sleeping then everything works fine. At least I haven't had any more crashes. Will update this post if I discover something further about it.

How's Dimage Scan Dual IV? Looks great actually. I've only scanned my first 5-6 films and doing it on maximum quality and having Dust Brush on takes quite a long time but results looks impressive. Haven't worked out some brightness-contrast issues yet (on my current settings it looks as if scanner want's to get detail from dark areas that is not really there and ends up creating bit more noisy files than necessary) but getting really good details from my shots. Did I already say that Minolta software sucks?

Stairs and bridge

Stairs and bridge, originally uploaded by Siim.

Shot this already month ago but only now got around developing the film. And this photo stood out for not even sure why. Probably because I shot it with lens wide open (F1.4) and because of that it has really soft feeling to it. The original was color negative but because of concrete and late evening grey sky very black-and-white anyway so I desaturated it totally.

How 12-inch iBook works for photoediting?

I've had my Apple 12'' iBook computer now for over 3 month and thought I'd write shortly on how it works for photoediting. When I was picking a new laptop I wanted something small and light yet powerful. After checking my options decided to order 12-inch iBook from Apple (my first Mac in fact). It comes with G4 1.2GHz processor, 256MB of memory and 30GB harddrive. I added 512MB memory and changed harddrive into 80GB. Overall it set me back around $1350.

It's great all around performer but for with some cons to be a tool for serious photographer. It's light enough so I don't have second thoughts wether to put it in my backpack or not. It has good battery life even if I'm doing serious photoediting. In most conditions screen is good and bright, of course direct sunshine kills it (as it kills probably every other LCD screen, no?). It doesn't get extremely hot and I'd say it works on the quiet side. Only 2-3 times when I've heard the vents rev up.

USB2.0 and Firewire ports come as standard on all iBooks, Bluetooth (optional) works great for syncing with my mobile. I didn't get the Combodrive that allows to write DVD-s but I'm pretty happy with CD-writer.

Biggest con is probably screen resolution. All iBooks come with 1024x768 and if you still want Mac portable but better resolution then you'll have to go with much more expensive 15-inch PowerBook. That said, perhaps coupling 12-inch screen with higer resolution is not so good idea if you want to keep your eyesight...

How fast is this thing? I usually have Safari (browser), Mail, Skype (netphone + IM), iView MediaPro (for managing my photos) and Photoshop CS open when I'm doing photo editing. Converting RAW file from Canon EOS 20D using Photoshop Camera RAW plug-in takes around 8-10 seconds. Default Shadow/Highlights to the same file takes 4 seconds. Unsharpening Mask 1-2 seconds. I'm pretty happy with those times as I rarely work with bigger files and don't see myself doing it in near future.

As for working with iView MediaPro (an excellent software to manage my 8000+ pictures) - once files are added to the library and thumbnails created then there's no visible delay when I open new folder, do a selection based on certain criteria and search through metadata of all those files is sub-second process.

All in all I'm very satisfied with my iBook so far. Great harddrive capacity (I am thinking about buying external drive for backup purposes), great speed at 768 MB of memory, good screen and really intuitive and beautiful operating system. Highly recommended.

If you've never used a Mac before and are afraid of the learning curve then my advice is - don't be. You'll certainly have to spend some time getting used to a bit different logic etc but if you have at least one friend who uses Mac and who can help answere your answeres then that's all you need.

Canon EOS 350D (Rebel XT) and 20D

I've just recently tested those two cameras. Will complete 350D / Rebel XT review in couple of days and of course translate it into English as well (my native tongue is Estonian). But I was wondering if there are already enough Canon EOS 20D reviews out there or you'd care for another opinion?

To make it short - both are excellent cameras. 350D / Rebel XT actually proved to be a pleasent surprise albeit the camera is perhaps a bit small for my hands. If you cannot wait for the full review and have made up your mind then buy it from Amazon.com, only costs you $999.

A little exercise in black and white

This is actually a very small portion of this photo. I was playing with the original and then noticed these nice green leaves. However, after tinkering a little I decided to go black and white to get more abstract feel. Because it's such a small fragment of a big picture the quality is perhaps not the best. It's shot with Canon EOS 20D (excellent camera) with kit-lens EF-S 18-55 F3.5-5.6 (really crappy lens) at F8 but is still as sharp as I'm used to.

If someone's interested in the process then used Channel Mixer in Photoshop, set red channel to 0 (original was really green photo), green to around 60% and blue to 20%. Then reduced Brightness only so slightly and increased Contrast. Final touch was to apply tiny amount of Unsharpen Mask. Now, I wish I knew more about working with black and white, when I see some fabulous photos I want to do the same but somehow fail in my own opinion. Perhaps that's the reason I still go to local camera shops and buy Kodak Tri-X or Ilford HP5 which is probably my favourite bw film.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day coming

Someone just reminded me that last Sunday of April is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. Check out your local camera club, they might have special event showing the tools, process and results, it's really fascinating and low-tech in todays digital world. Actually, you can take pinhole photos with your digital camera as well but where's the fun in that.

What's pinhole photography and how do you take pinhole photos? Check out what Wikipedia writes about it: Pinhole camera

Haven't ever got into pinhole myself but I do enjoy them. Check out www.nyclondon.com/blog for example.

Pentax *ist DS review

At the time of announcement new Pentax *ist DS was the lightest and smallest of digital SLRs you could get. Now Canon is releasing even smaller EOS 350D but DS still beats all competition when it comes to price (unless you count in Canon EOS 300D that is morally outdated). When I went through the technical specification it sounded all very nice. How did it come out of my 4 day test-shooting? Read on and find out.



The first impression about DS is: "Wow, that is small". To get size and weight down Pentax has switched to SecureDigital memory cards (I think all other DSRL cameras support CompactFlash that is physically twice as big). Size wise I would even compare DS to prosumer class digicams, that have small size sensor and fixed lens. Instead we're dealing with a decent entry level digital SLR that supports huge range of Pentax lenses. It has Pentax KAF mount compatible with PENTAX KAF2, KAF and KA mount lenses and even some K and 67/645 lenses, latter require special adapter.

With all the smallness going on, I wouldn't say that *ist DS was uncomfortably small in my hands (and I have average size hands). After two days of using there wasn't anything special about the body, buttons or handling to complain about. I prefer slightly bigger and heftier camera body, especially grip part, but DS sits firmly in your hand and will not slip out if held with only one hand.

Body is all plastic Correction: DS has stainless-steel chassis covered with plastic, grip is covered with rubbery material to reduce slip. Tripod screw and lens mount are metal. Overall good build quality, only OK button in the middle of navigation buttons feels sluggish. You would expect more buttons from a DSLR so to change anything you need to use combination of presses and turns. For example: ISO, white-balance, flash and shooting mode are changed by pressing FN (function) button, then selecting up-down, left-right with navigation key and confirming with OK button. Sounds more complicated and time-consuming than it really is. Everything is nicely shown on the screen and after a little practice it's fairy quick operation.

Scroll-wheel on the back is unusually placed quite into the middle. Exposure compensation button is at a very uncomfortable position.

As with all cheaper digital SLRs viewfinder is smallish but should pose no real problems for shooter without glasses. When you turn camera into portrait position you might have to move camera to see shutter, aperture and other information that is hidden to the side of the viewfinder. To simulate usage with glasses I simply moved DS away from my eyes just a little and it definitely starts feeling as if looking into a tunnel. When compared to Olympus EVOLT / E-300 (link to my review) and Canon Digital Rebel / 300D I would say that DS has superior viewfinder that works well when trying to focus manually. In fact, when using manual focus DS tries to help out and lights those focus points that are actually sharp.

Kit-lens SMC Pentax DS 18-55 3.5-5.6 complements DS with small size and gives a good impression. Zoom ring has decent width and texture and 5 bonus-points to Pentax for adding meter scale on the lens. With a little practice you'll be able to really shoot from your hip.

What surprised me about kit-lens was its ability to focus really close. Not macro of course but close enough, with some cropping you'll be able to impress your friends with macro-like photos.

The only downside

I've read some other Pentax *ist DS reviews and have not found this issue raised anywhere else but... Focusing speed is something that is left to be desired. I got a feeling that DS focuses more like compact camera. When you press the shutter it takes some time for the signal to reach cameras "brain" and then when lens kicks into action it's pretty fast process. Which actually makes me think that this can be improved with firmware updates but we'll see. Maybe better optics will help as well.

And I have to constantly remind myself that similar entry-level film cameras have similar focusing speed problems. Only difference is that for similar film camera you shell out maybe $275.49 (price of Canon Rebel) and not $829.95 which is how much *ist DS costs in Amazon.com at the time of writing this.

Switching on and waking up from standby is speedy, takes about 0.5-1 seconds so very good performance.

I cannot give any comments on battery life as DS comes with CRV-V3 lithium batteries and you have to pay extra to get rechargeable batteries and recharger. Of course using disposable AA-s is also an option but in the long run will be more expensive.

A bit surprisingly there's the least amount to say about shooting and pictures. It's actually a compliment to the camera because you know a good camera if it doesn't hinder your shooting and does not give reason to think about picture quality too much.

Writing speed to SD memory card is very good, when shooting RAW I did not notice any considerable writing times when used for normal shooting. Perhaps those who shoot sports and action a lot want something faster but good planning and pressing the shutter at the right time goes a long way. There's no challenge in 8fps and 40 frames buffer :)

For nighty shooting there's noise reduction mode that doubles exposure times but eliminates "hot pixels" that show up with long exposures giving a cleaner result. Results from night shooting are impressive but kit-lens disappoints as even with smallest aperture there's visible flare around street-lamps.



Noise at ISO 800 (DS offers range from 200-3200) is pretty good, used it on a cloudy winter day to do some street shooting and cannot complain. High ISO noise is much less visible than on Olympus Evolt / E-300 that is in the same price-point. Still, ISO 1600 is very noisy and 3200 should be used only when really no other option.

What annoyed me was the fact that DS does not auto-rotate photos shot in portrait format, don't know if it really helps to keep the price down...

Let's sum up. Pentax *ist DS is in no way better than the competition. It does not have any special features or is really above others in certain respect. But body that handles well, good menu system and good picture quality mean that this is an overall good contender in entry-level DSLR market. The only minus in my opinion was slow autofocus. As Mike Johnson wrote in his review of the same camera, it's the K1000 of digital SLR. If you have Pentax lenses, get it.

How to make money from your photos

The eternal question, no mistake here. Any advanced amateur has thought about it - how to have fun, do something you love and make some money on the side. Most even don't want to do photography full time because that means actually taking responsibility and delivering good results every time, sometimes pictures that you normally would not take and that you don't find value in. But I thought I'd share my experience as I've sold couple, I'm actually selling one every week or even more often. But I've certainly not become rich because of my photos.

First a little about promoting yourself. I started posting my photos on my homepage long time ago. First just for friends to see because they were on them, as my audience grew I started being more critical and publishing a bit less. I also seldom wrote on photography, this even grew into a special website about photography - foto.diip.ee. Because I was now showing photos in several places people started to notice and occasionally someone would ask if it was OK to use a picture here or there. So I decided to give my photos away with only 2 minor restrictions. First I asked people to link back to me and I they could only use pictures for non-commercial things. This approach proved to be very successful as my photos got used on websites, in PowerPoint presentations etc.

If you lack skills and webspace you might want to check websites that offer photo hosting (Flickr being my favourite) but anyone who is a bit more serious about presenting their work should invest (not necessarily money) in nice personal looking galleries. It gives much better overview of their work and if done well will make people take you much more seriously.

Orders did not pour in, they never have. But I've developed good relationships with couple of designer friends who use my photos for their client works. I don't do any assignments because I shoot film and have a huge backlog of rolls waiting for development but if you shoot digital that is an option.

When I put up new photos I promote it on my homepage and also paste link to couple of friends, just to remind them that the photos are there for viewing pleasure.

Royalty-free ripping you off?

Couple of month ago I was reminded of a site called istockphoto.com that has a vital market for photographers, designers and everybody else who deal with photos, vector images, flash clips etc. Just to see how it works I uploaded couple of photos (see my gallery). Results have been interesting. Selling one photo makes you very little money because it costs very little to buy it. So it's a volume game - you have to sell a lot to make decent sum of money. But because it's a big community and buying one photo costs so little people actually buy a lot.

When I compare to my direct sales the difference in pay is tremendous. I might make 60 UDS from direct sale of a photo in Estonia but when I put the same photo up in iStockphoto then one sale only creates me .60 USD. If you value your photos higher then this solution is definetly from you.

Also, read the licence really carefully so you know what rights you're giving away. And you need model release for all photos that have recognisable people on them. This might be a dealbreaker as many photos that I like have been taken some time ago, of totally unfamiliar people and I have no way of finding them and/or getting them to sign model release.

But. If you can get some friends to pose for free (give them a free print for example) and create some fun, cool, different photos then these could easily sell in tens if not in hundreds. Key to success is finding out what buyers are looking for and to have a large portfolio.

iStockphoto is actually very helpful - they try to give topics that always need photos (and also those that they have more than enough already), they don't accept everything so make sure yours are sharp, good quality and of course visually strong. They run forums as well, most useful is "Photo Requests" where one can detail what image s/he's looking for. Keep your eye on those forums, they might help you earn a few bucks but also give insight into what images are currently sought after.

By no means is iStockphotos the only option. I'm sure there are tens of similar websites. iStockphotos is not paying me to advertise them, I'm writing about them because I'm using it myself and I hate writing about stuff and tools I don't know and use.

I won't get rid of my own galleries because I have many images that would not sell there but that I like myself, that I like showing to people and that might just by accident prove a sell.

One more thing that relates to your galleries. You have to make very clear what rules apply to using your images. You might want to add copyright icon + photographer name on every photo. At least have (C) Copyright and photographer name and contact email beside each photo. Sometimes people steal photos just because "there was no name on it/beside it so I thought it was for free".

Woman with a bag

Bag, originally uploaded by Siim.

This one is from my countless wanders in Tallinn old town. It was originally shot in color and I thought very long how to present it. Nice light and yellow Fiat gave it really pleasant look but in the end black and white gives a better feeling. At least for me. I cut off the top part that showed some roofs and sky, more interesting format and tighter overall feel. What do you think?

Important day

kasikaes, originally uploaded by Siim.

I shot my first wedding this summer. Maybe I already posted a photo before but this is also one of my favourites. Wedding ceremony and everything took place in Kuressaare which is really lovely small town in Saaremaa, Estonia. I covered the whole day, bride makeup, dressing, shot 2 hours before the wedding for special pictures and then everything until midnight. Had a loaned Canon EOS 10D + my own film eating Minolta Maxxum 7 so ended up with veeeery many photos but because costs were not really important - the shot was my gift to my sister.

A little exciting

lastekaitseliit, originally uploaded by Siim.

I'll get Canon EOS 20D this evening to test out. With the kit lens, but that's OK, I actually asked for that specifically. Next up should be Canon EOS 350D that is just making its way into Estonian stores. Really competitively priced, top marks for local stores for that. Usually stuff is 10-20 percent more expensive than abroad. If you can get a friend to bring it from USA then even bigger price difference. But now there's virtually no price difference which means that it's just as good to get it from here and get local guarantee, support local shopkeepers etc.

Picture is taken with Sony F828 last winter. This was the first 8 megapixel prosumer camera I got my hands on and performed quite nicely. Didn't have external flash so I just took a white sheet of paper and held it up between flash and subjects in 45 degrees. Some flash bounced up to the ceiling, some went through the paper and I think I achieved very good results this way. Not terribly convenient way of taking photographs but works :) And now this picture of Evelin and Hendri ends up in Estonian Child Protection Organisation magazine frontpage.

Reason to dump AIM

This might seems as not so photography related but I'll get to the point. AOL has changed Terms of Service to their popular AIM chat services. It now contains following (on their ToS page scroll down to "Content You Post"):

In addition, by posting Content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the Content or to be compensated for any such uses.

So. If you're a photographer (or just happy snapper) and send your picture to a friend, faimily member or anyone over AIM, AOL reserves the right to use it anywhere they want. Without letting you know, paying you, asking for your concent. Same goes for texts, poems, jokes and everything else in text format. Songs, videoclips etc etc. If I was AIM user I'd be switching to some alternative now.

Disclaimer: I work for a competing IM company.

Anyone interested in Pentax *ist DS?

So, anyone? I have half review translated (original here in Estonian), half to go but lately been low on energy. Slow on the photography front in every way. Haven't been shooting that much, haven't developed any rolls, haven't really tinkered with older photos to put them online. Still, one photo from August, 2004. My company had it's summer days in a small island called Kihnu, off the coast of Estonia. Sunny weather but really on the cold side, even for Estonia.



I couldn't decide weather I liked the original or black and white version better. To get this gritty look I used The Imaging Factory's tool called Converto to B&W Pro (there's free trial version that is not crippled and it works both on Windows and Mac). It's really great tool, allows fast and intuitive control. I'm thinking of buying it although have used Channel Mixer in Photoshop so far to do my b&w conversions.

Having a bit problem

Looks like this site is messed up layout wise if viewed with IE. I normally use Safari and Firefox, that's why it took so long time to notice. Anyway, I don't know how to fix the problem myself, perhaps someone could give me a hind or two?

The problem seems to be that with Internet Explorer content part only starts after left sidebar is finished...

Camera stores in Tallinn

Someone was searching for information about camera stores in Tallinn, Estonia. I'll try to put down some essential information about that topic.

Largest selection of camera equipment: Probably Photopoint that has two large stores in Tallinn. Both are out of city center so you'll probably want to take a cab. Shouldn't be more than 5 Euro / 5 USD ride max. You can find addresses and phone numbers on their website. Other bigger stores are run by Maksifoto, Fotomax and Fotoluks. All of these also offer quality service for developing film, geetings prints (from CD, memory cards etc). You can also buy slide film from most of these stores.

If you're looking for camera repair: Theres smaller store called Fotomeister right next to Kaubamaja (very center by Viru Keskus) where is probably the best chance to get your broken camera fixed.

Looking for second hand camera equipment? You best bet is Morgan that is quite in the center, maybe 3 minute walk from Hotel Palace. They have quite a lot of second hand equipment up on their homepage as well.

Looking for old Russian made cameras? Visit market next to Balti railway station. Check it on the map. They usually have at least the most usual models (different models of Zenit, Zorki etc) but it's good to have a local with you as then the prices will probably me cheaper.

If you have more specific questions then leave them in the comments.

New Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

Looks like LetsGoDigital has exlusive preview of new Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT that is here to replace the biggest seller among digital SLRs - Canon EOS Digital Rebel. New Rebel XT touts 8 megapiksel CMOS sensor, 3 frames per second shooting speed, 14 frame burst operation, speedy USB 2.0 connection, simultaneous RAW and Large JPEG writing and 0.2 second start up time.

Target user: With plain language menus, intuitive controls and default settings chosen to reflect general every-day use, the Canon EOS 350D is designed to appeal to digital still compact users looking to expand their creativity, and film SLR users who have been waiting for 8.0 Megapixel performance at this price point. It will be available as body only and in kit form with the new EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II lens.

Link: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT Camera Introduction

It will be called Canon EOS 350D in Europe. In US body only will cost $899, in Europe slightly more expensive (as always) at €899. I know that local stores have already ordered it but they could not tell when it was going to hit the stores here in Estonia.

Look back into digital history

There's an excellent story about early days of digital and how NC2000 was slowly but steadily making its way into press photographers camera bag. It's a beast of a camera built buy Kodak, sold by AP (who's staff was among the first ones to adopt it), had 1.3 megapixel sensor and by todays standards rather bad of a camera. The pictures (there are lot within this long story) on the other hand are pretty awsome. At least on the web. And if I'm not mistaken they have been used on the cover of Time so must have been good on paper as well.

But there was another side to the equation, he acknowledges. "It was a combination of excitement and anxiety. There was a lot of excitement about how cool this stuff was. You'd show up at an event, and you'd be the only guy with a digital camera, and everybody was ooohing and aaahing. That was always really cool. [But] I could never trust what the camera was doing. When you popped that card into the computer there was always that little thought in the back of your mind: what happened this time, what went wrong? But you kept doing it because it was so cool. And it was where the industry was going."

Link: A look back at the NC2000

My first time in London

Quite unexpectedly I had my first chance to visit London. A city I've read so much about, who's history I've learnt and practically had to know a good tourist route. All because I studied in "English biased" school that had English literature, geography etc classes besides normal language classes. Don't really remember that much about it all any longer but it was still cool to suddenly see Big Ben, Picadilly Circus and some other places. Because I had only 1,5 days and had to work as well I got only little time during lunch break to sneak around with my camera. And I rather just walked and tried to get it all in than shoot hectically. Of course I only had 1 roll of film (Kodak T-max ISO 3200) with me and ran out quite quickly. And boy is film expensive over there. You're expected to cough up like 10 pounds for Kodak slide that only costs 3 pounds here. In the end I settled for expired Kodak slide for 2 pounds :)



Here's one shot from my lunch break. I stood around for quite some time because I liked this lonely girl smoking sitting on the fence. And then a guy came and picture fell together. If you're interested you can check out some more pictures in my London gallery (there are some Estonian thrown in for good measure).

Estonian design underground

Something a bit different this time. I'm not very familiar with Estonian design scene and don't know if there even is something that can in all honesty be called "underground". Anyway, there a new webzine out (it actually feels very much like a traditional magazine because of the layout) called Betamag (English version) that does interviews with young Estonian designers (and some photography minded people as well), presents their works and thought etc. I'm pretty thrilled by this, especially as in the web they can experiment with video, sound, animation, interactive etc. I hope that people behind the Betamag can keep the project alive and find time to release 2nd, 3rd etc. issue as well :)

The bad thing is that if you're interested in reading more about Estonian design then I'm not really sure where to link to. Google does help somewhat.

More Lomo Fisheye pictures

Lomo Fisheye, originally uploaded by Siim.

Lomo Fisheye, originally uploaded by Siim.

There seems to be great interest for pictures taken with the new Lomo Fisheye camera so I'll post two more that I received from lomography.com. Interested in this new camera? Read the press release and some comments.

Copyright: Lomography.com

Where to get Lomo camera?

Probably the best place to get them is from lomography.com, it has the widest selection. However, I compared some prices in lomography.com and in Amazon.com (see all Lomo cameras in Amazon) and Amazon is considerably cheaper. For example Colorsplash camera is $75 in lomography.com and only $59.94 in Amazon.com. Same price difference for Lomo Frog Eye Underwater Camera, probably for others as well... Amazon.co.uk has very limited selection of Lomo cameras unfortunately. So get 'em from Amazon, you'll support this site as well :)

Toes seen by Lomo Fisheye

4920_fisheye_varvas, originally uploaded by Siim.

Once again a picture by Lomo Fisheye, this time about a guys toes. Looks funky :)

Photo: Lomography.com

Dog as seen by Lomo Fisheye

4920_fisheye_koer, originally uploaded by Siim.

Everything that is in the center of the frame is recognisable but the more you get to the edge of the frame it gets distorted and compressed.

Photo: Lomogrpahy.com

Picture of new Lomo Fisheye camera

4920_lomo_fisheye_s, originally uploaded by Siim.

As I already wrote, they come in two colors, don't really know how big or heavy they are but my guess is that they're pretty standard 35mm compact size because you do have to make room for the film inside :)

New Lomo Fisheye camera

Lomography.com has just announced new Lomo Fisheye that looks really cute and creates 170 degree images on normal 35mm film. They sent images of the camera and also some promotional images that give idea what you might expect from this little plastic (I assume) box. They'll start selling it in March on www.lomography.com and price will be EUR 40 /USD 50. If you're not familiar with lomography then their idea is that snapping photos should be about fun, color, moments etc and not about shutter speeds, aperture, whitebalance and whatnot. So they offer cameras that are as barebones as you can get - mainly plastic body, only one button, quite often plastic lens and that's about it. These cameras tend to create somewhat soft, slightly oversaturated pictures with vigneting corners (light falloff). Some of them have 4 (or even 6) lenses instead of one and create 4 pictures on one frame. Anyway, they're great fun and you can get one pretty cheap. But have a right mindset, don't expect high quality and settings you can tinker with.

Oh, and Lomo's pressrelease is such a nice change because it doesn't have the usual corporate marketingtalk (or it has less) and tries to sell the idea of fisheye camera from a totally different perspective. I'll post it here, it's fun. I'll post an image of the cameras (they come in two different colors) and some example shots as well in next posts.

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The Fisheye View - How Goldfish and Lomographers See, Experience and Live Life

Lomographers love everything that gets their eyes going and keeps them on their ocular toes, so to speak: the most varied of commonplace and exceptional atmospheres, colours, people and animals in all possible and impossible situations, action, distortion, shifts, deformation and reversals. They simply can't get enough of all the stuff that expands their visual horizon.

On the lookout for a new genuine kick for our thirsty little eyes, we've delved differently, totally fresh, into the topic of seeing, and explored fish's eyes and the way they see in unfamiliar surroundings - on land, in the fresh air. We concentrated our research on all those goldfish, little ones and big ones, that observe our world out of their aquariums, in homes, in bars, offices, restaurants, shop windows, zoos and other public aquariums, on camp sites etc. Looking out at the world of people, dung beetles and dromedaries! We focused in particular on the optical dimensions of these goldfish's existence.

And the result was that we then went on to build a beautiful new camera with a chunky lens on the front that can simulate the physics of seeing as experienced by our slippery pals in aquariums the world over. However we also wanted to know more about the psyche of our mute little bros, and very quickly made some sensational findings: Goldfish are the wackiest entities we've ever run across, real top-notch freaks, providing perfect Lomographer-compatible companionship!

1.) They are wild, restless marathon swimmers with an inexhaustible supply of energy.

2.) Distance is not their thing - being just a nose away from other life forms and inanimate objects gives them a kick! "Swim right up close every time, and then get a real eyeball full," is what their inner voice is quietly telling them to do. And that's just what they do do - with max. glow, with emotion, immediacy, open-mindedness, quasi-licentious concupiscence and utmost enjoyment!

3.) They love the wild life: shrill parties, heavy beats and riffs, oddballs, dumb messages, thick air, brash grrrls, tuff bros, big Joes, fine stuff, dangerous liaisons, smelly socks, just-got-up hair-dos, scratches on faces and on fins....

4.) They particularly crave everything that lives and moves, they are insatiably addicted to the smell of living flesh, to the sound of words, to the excrescence of ideas and to the sight of skin and smiles. They are masters of the arts of entertaining and seduction, with a heart-warming sense of humour and a rampant imagination. The consequence: They're quite welcome anywhere and loved everywhere!

5.) Goldfish are moral, philosophical, social and ethical heroes. They are profoundly good creatures, endowed with the highest virtues and key to the lock of good fortune: tolerance, honesty, loyalty and social commitment!

Once we'd made this incredible discovery nothing was going to stop us. With our own newly developed fisheye lens and the fantastic know-how gleaned from all those wonderful goldfish, it wasn't long till we started seeing with the eyes of those little beauties for ourselves. And then the consequences were gargantuan in dimension: an all-round renewal of the way we see the world about us, shifts in the view and dimensions, a massively extended horizon, an incomparable clarity of depth, an undreamed-of unleashing of the user's perceptual abilities.

The Result: The Fisheye View!

You should find out for yourself exactly what this fisheye view looks and feels like - grab a Lomography Fisheye Package and dive, with your incredibly significant enclosed booklet 'The Fisheye View', into the world of the goldfish and the goldfish's view. And then there's only one thing for it: Step out into the wild round world of goldfish life - with the Lomography Fisheye camera in your hand.

Some words about Olympus E-system cameras

I posted my review of Olympus E-300 / Evolt some time ago, but today found December 2004 issue of Professional Photographer (UK photomag) that reviews Olympus E-1 launched already in 2003. It's interesting to read how professional camera holds up after a year of being on the market at a time when several new digital SLRs are launched every 6 month or so. And E-1 is 5 megapixel camera at the time of cameras with 8, 11 and even more megapixels.

So, what's notable in the light of my recent review of E-300? Somewhat surprising was the fact that E-1 seems to be suffering from not-so-great autofocus just like E-300. Of course this is not a problem in normal light and only starts showing in lower light and with less strongly defined subjects. Will Cheung from Professional Photographer also notes that manual focus does not feel the best or most responsive. This was also my conclusion with E-300 / Evolt where it can be blamed on focus-by-wire. Cheung says: "There seems to be a time lag and the amount of focus adjustment doesn't seem proportionate to the amount the focusing barrel is rotated."

E-300 actually shows pretty good performance considering that it's entry level camera. 8 megapixels is hell of a lot more if you need the extra resolution, it's slightly slower at 2.5 fps (3 for E-1) but also much smaller. Of course it does not have weather sealed body, viewfinder has only 94% coverage against 100% of E-1 and cannot compete with 12 image buffer of E-1.

If you can find December 2004 issue of Professional Photographer somewhere I suggest taking a look at this article. Olympus E-system is rather interesting, certainly a big risk on Olympus' side, and we'll see if Four-Thirds can carve a viable market for itself. Sigma has made some lenses specifically for this standard but at the moment Olympus E-1 and E-300 / Evolt remain only cameras. And I think Olympus needs to introduce new pro-level camera real soon or they'll miss the window of oportunity.

Oh, and I recommend PP anyway. It's a great magazine if you've grown out of simple how-to general advice and inspiration magazines (I used to read another British magazine called Practical Photography) and want to read about how professionals do it, what are their tools, how their day looks like, what are the business aspects then give it a try.

Rehersal

23, originally uploaded by siimt.

Last autumn I spent 4-5 evenings shooting rehersals of musical Grease. My sister got a dancing part there so I asked her if it would be possible to hang around and practice shooting dancers. It seemed to be no problem so I got myself bagful of Ilford HP5 that I pushed 2 steps to ISO 1600, Kodak T-Max 3200 and Fuji Press 800. Because of low light levels I still ended up shooting F1.4 much of the time and I only had my 50mm fixed focus lens. First evening was spent getting to learn the location, people, what happened where etc. As I got more used to dancers (and they to me) I got closer, between them, sneaking candids and unexpected shots. They are the most fun by far. On this picture there's a small break (there are maaaany of those in such rehersals) in the dancing, that's my sister and her partner waiting for next commands.

When things go wrong...

REM performed in Tallinn today and I was supposed to go shoot them. With new Pentax *ist DS digital SLR that I was supposed to get for loan from a local camera store. Yes, I did make it to the show and I got my shots but with my trusted Minolta Maxxum 7. It turned out that this store was no longer open 24 hours (can you imagine a photo store that is opened 24 hours?). They had just closed, I couldn't get my camera, I didn't have my own camera with me (how stupid is that), I didn't have any spare film at home and was unsure where I could get film this late in the evening. Did I mention I was running late for the show by that time?

Took the tram to downtown, found one open store, got 3 rolls of film (Kodak T-Max 3200 and Fujifilm X-tra 800), ran home, grabbed my camera and took a taxy to the venue. Was late 5 minutes but still made it just in time to join other snappers.

REM frontman Michael Stipe. Foto (C) Siim Teller

I was never a big fan of REM but they are a great live band. Of course when you're fighting for the best place, changing lenses (I have fixed focus lenses), trying to get a good composition while monitoring shutter speeds in constantly changing lightning and moving subjects is pretty demanding. But it gives you a nice buzz. If you have an opportunity to shoot some performances I can strongly recomment it. It helps if you have some association with a newspaper, music magazine or website because it gives you necessary credentials. If you don't have this then start with smaller venues, young bands and performers. It'll give you the chance to see if you like it at all and it also gives the chance to grow with the band.