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.
Monday, February 14, 2005
Sunday, February 06, 2005
More Lomo Fisheye pictures
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 :)
Friday, February 04, 2005
Toes seen by Lomo Fisheye
Once again a picture by Lomo Fisheye, this time about a guys toes. Looks funky :)
Photo: Lomography.com
Dog as seen by Lomo Fisheye
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
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.
-----------------------------
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.
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.
-----------------------------
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.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
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.
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.
Monday, January 31, 2005
Rehersal
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.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
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.
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.
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.
Monday, January 24, 2005
Looking for free photo management software?
Then go and have a ride with Picasa. It's totally fee, very simple and userfriendly. Found all my images in a breeze and works real quick on my 2.5 years old laptop. If you're looking for alternative then try Adobe's Photoshop Album Starter Edition which is also free but in my opinion offers not so many options in equally simple user interface.
In my home computer I have switched to iView MediaPro because it supports IPCT embedded information, has more features and can handle my 5000+ images (and is not for free) but if you're just taking photos and want them nicely organised then try Picasa. One click image editing comes as added bonus. And your original files are never touched. Nice.
Small addition: There's a nice side-by-side overview of Picasa 2 and Apple's iPhoto 5 by David Pogue from NYTimes. Mind you, that Picasa only works on Windows machines and iPhoto only on Macs.
In my home computer I have switched to iView MediaPro because it supports IPCT embedded information, has more features and can handle my 5000+ images (and is not for free) but if you're just taking photos and want them nicely organised then try Picasa. One click image editing comes as added bonus. And your original files are never touched. Nice.
Small addition: There's a nice side-by-side overview of Picasa 2 and Apple's iPhoto 5 by David Pogue from NYTimes. Mind you, that Picasa only works on Windows machines and iPhoto only on Macs.
Friday, January 21, 2005
No more Hello for me
When I started this site my plan was to occasionally post a photo and some background story - where it was taken, how, what equipment, what post-production was applied to the image. I'd choose images that meant something for me, that had a nice story attached to them etc. I used Hello to upload images to Blogger, very convenient. But now I've moved to Mac and Hello is Windows only. So I'm a bit stuck as to how to upload pictures here. Getting them to my own server and linking from there is too cumbersome. I've heard that Flickr allows to post images to Blogger but I hate setting up a new account somewhere... Any ideas?
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Olympus E-300 / Evolt review
Thanks to Olympus Estonia I had an opportunity to test new 8 megapixel Olympus E-300 (Evolt in US markets) with 14-45mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens, 40-150mm F3.5-4.5 and Olympus FL-36 flash. It's really competitively priced, body with kit lens costs 999.95 at Amazon.com and that's cheaper than 6 megapixel Nikon D70.
Usual Estonian "winter" only offered grey skies and pretty bad weather so most of the shooting was done indoors, I was pressed for large apertures and high ISO-s. I spent 2 days shooting indoors skate and BMX contest Pop Session and that really pushed this camera to it's limits. I'm too lazy to put images here so please check them in my original Estonian review.
Both lenses I had belong to the cheap end but feel very solid and well-built. Only element I was not so impressed with was manual focus ring that has to be turned a lot to move focus and because its focus-by-wire, does not feel so responsive as real mechanical lenses. Then again - it's possible to change the direction of manual focus ring. I suggest you leave manual focus to only macro shooting. Especially when trying to get focus right in darker conditions it's not very practical as viewfinder is not the brightest around. It probably get's better when using faster lenses.
About body and ergonomics
I really liked that Olympus E-300 / Evolt presents all most important options on the back of the body. Flash mode, ISO, white balance, picture quality, exposure compensation, focus mode and exposure mode selection all have their own buttons. Press it and then use thumbwheel to switch between options, very handy.
Even though camera has very brick-like shape it sits well in ones hand. Grip has rubbery cover, thumb area has the same cover so there's no danger of E-300 slipping out of your hand. Perosnally I'd wish for a slighly larger grip, there's somewhat strange higher line on the grip to help compensate that I think. Weight is good - strolling around whole day holding camera and flash does not leave you with a strained shoulder and tired hand.
As I already said the viewfinder is not the brightest, because of small sensor it's smaller than those of film cameras but after two days you get used to it. Viewfinder shows approximately 94% of whole frame.
OK button seemed out of place at first. On all other cameras (that I remember) it's been situated in the middle of navigation ("arrow") buttons, on E-300 it sits below and to the right of navigation buttons. Your thumb has to move more but again, it's only matter of getting used to. On the plus side you can choose which option to set to the OK button. Options are - depth of field preview, switching between autofocus and manual focus, manual white balance, setting sharpness, saturation etc.
E-300 has only one dial that you operate with your thumb so your index finger only has the job of pressing the shutter.
Maybe it's my hands but AEL and focus point selection buttons are in the wrong place. I kept hitting button that opens pop-up flash and this button is situated way to the left. Unfortunately it's not very convenient to use those two buttons, your thumb is forced to uncomfortable position.
If you want an overview of all buttons and knobs and menus etc then check out very thorough review by dpreview.com.
Focusing and shooting
Focusing speed is average, nothing spectacular with kit lens. Olympus E-300 struggles with objects coming at the camera and objects with low contrast. Because manual focus is cumbersome (switching it on requires pressinga button and turning a dial) so this is not very practical choice as well. Better try to find something with good contrast. When shooting sports I switched to continuous autofocus and that gave better results. But shooting extreme sports indoors is really very demanding for this camera.
Focusing is on the quiet side, maybe not as quiet as with Nikon D70 kit lens but still good. Mirror slap is also very acceptable so good points here.
On the first day of using E-300 I constantly had the feeling that many images are overexposed so for most shooting I had -0.3 or even -0.7 exposure comensation dialed in. Somewhat to my surprise dpreview.com found that their E-300 tended to underexpose, especially if there was bright lightsource in the frame. After checking thoroughly checking images in my computer screen I decided that my E-300 did sometimes overexposu, mostly when I was shooting in dim conditions as if camera decided to help me get better lit images. But when shooting outside exposure was pretty good. Whitebalance is OK, does struggle sometimes.
About shooting speed
If you plan to shoot a lot of sports and want high quality then collect more money and get something else. 2.5 frames per second is not enough for fast moving subjects if you want to shoot continuously. And with highest quality JPG you can only keep this speed up for 4 frames. Then you have to wait for the camera, lift your finger and press the shutter again. If you switch to "High quality" then I managed to shoot 50 frames continuosly and probably would have been able to fill whole card (SanDisk 35x 1Gb) holding the shutter.
About picture quality
I'll borrow something from our local photomag Cheese that put Olympus E-300 side-by-side with 5 megapixel Olympus E-1 that is directed to professional shooters. When E-1 picture was upsized to match that of E-300 there was really no difference. So higher pixel count might not bring you a quality leap.
What do I think? Overall good quality. Perhaps images are a little soft straight out of the camera but you can turn up incamera sharpening or do it later in Photoshop or whatever software you're using. My soft images can be blamed for large aperture that I was using most of the time and 14-45mm kit lens probably cannot compete with more expensive lenses.
Olympus E-300 by default allows you to use ISO 100, 200 and 400. From the menu you can extend this to 800 and 1600 but this is achieved by software so a big drop-off in quality. While ISO 800 is still usable I cannot advice ISO 1600, it looks perfectly horrible.
Red stripes on the pictures. WHAT?
After a long day shooting sports I went home and discovered something very strange. On images shot at the end of the day there are visible red stripes in darker areas. It's better seen on high ISO images but is also present at ISO 200 images. Wrote to Olympus Estonia about the matter and they got back really fast with an explanation. Turns out that at least some cameras from the early production patch are affected by this problem. Apparently Olympus will take these cameras back and replace with a good one. If you do discover red stripes on your images then contact your local Olympus dealer and ask for a replacement. If you cannot see the stripes on this image here then your screen is not very accurately calibrated.
Here's how you can check your camera: turn it to ISO 1600 and shoot something in a dim room. According to Olympus it does not matter how long your camera has been on. Strong stripes consisting mainly of red "noise" should be visible.
About battery life
I never did manage to kill my battery even though I shot around 500 images a day, tinkered a lot with the display and also used pop-up flash (you can use pop-up flash together with external flash, cool). In the evening battery was still in the green. Next day shooting in around 0 degree Celcius I got the battery to go to red but then I had to give camera back. So batter puts up very good performance.
Pop-up flash and FL-36
Camera flash was surprisingly good, whole scene is well lit and at least indoors it works pretty far. On the downside - you have to open flash yourself, there's always the chance that you forget and then your once in a liftime photo oportunity is gone. Pop-up flash is also used for focusing assistance so forget about sneaky shooting, you'll blind everyone with your stroboscope :) It's possible to set flash compensation when you want your flash a little more subtle.
Olympus FL-36 flash gave very good results, with full batteries (it takes 2 AA-s) recycle times were very fast. If you plan to use lots of flash and fast recycle times are required then keep extra batteries in your pocket, FL-36 eats lots of them.
What really bugged me was one physical aspect of FL-36 flashgun. In it's bottom leftside corder there's dial for setting different options in flash menu. This dial has pretty sharp jagged edge for easier turning. However, when you hold camera up this sharp edge strikes you right in the middle of your forehead. After a day of shooting with flash I sported small aching red spot on my forehead. Strange engineering from Olympus.
Display and viewing images
1.8 inch screen feels smallish when you've used some 2+ inch screens but of course it's enough to check focus, information etc. Olympus offers pletoria of viewing options, from only picture to histogram and small picture plus all information about picture next to it.
I really liked the approach Olympus has taken to zooming in to the picture. You zoom in in steps but zoom out with only one step. I like this logic and wish more manufacturers adopted it.
Conclusion
Writing these reviews is always difficult. You can actually like the camera a lot but still find many things that bug you. I did like E-300. It's not perfect camera and it lacks in some areas (autofocus speed was sometimes an issue) but for this price I think it's a very good camera. So if you're looking for your first digital SLR I suggest you certainly give E-300 / Evolt a try. If you've already made up your mind then get it from Amazon for $999.95.
Usual Estonian "winter" only offered grey skies and pretty bad weather so most of the shooting was done indoors, I was pressed for large apertures and high ISO-s. I spent 2 days shooting indoors skate and BMX contest Pop Session and that really pushed this camera to it's limits. I'm too lazy to put images here so please check them in my original Estonian review.
Both lenses I had belong to the cheap end but feel very solid and well-built. Only element I was not so impressed with was manual focus ring that has to be turned a lot to move focus and because its focus-by-wire, does not feel so responsive as real mechanical lenses. Then again - it's possible to change the direction of manual focus ring. I suggest you leave manual focus to only macro shooting. Especially when trying to get focus right in darker conditions it's not very practical as viewfinder is not the brightest around. It probably get's better when using faster lenses.
About body and ergonomics
I really liked that Olympus E-300 / Evolt presents all most important options on the back of the body. Flash mode, ISO, white balance, picture quality, exposure compensation, focus mode and exposure mode selection all have their own buttons. Press it and then use thumbwheel to switch between options, very handy.
Even though camera has very brick-like shape it sits well in ones hand. Grip has rubbery cover, thumb area has the same cover so there's no danger of E-300 slipping out of your hand. Perosnally I'd wish for a slighly larger grip, there's somewhat strange higher line on the grip to help compensate that I think. Weight is good - strolling around whole day holding camera and flash does not leave you with a strained shoulder and tired hand.
As I already said the viewfinder is not the brightest, because of small sensor it's smaller than those of film cameras but after two days you get used to it. Viewfinder shows approximately 94% of whole frame.
OK button seemed out of place at first. On all other cameras (that I remember) it's been situated in the middle of navigation ("arrow") buttons, on E-300 it sits below and to the right of navigation buttons. Your thumb has to move more but again, it's only matter of getting used to. On the plus side you can choose which option to set to the OK button. Options are - depth of field preview, switching between autofocus and manual focus, manual white balance, setting sharpness, saturation etc.
E-300 has only one dial that you operate with your thumb so your index finger only has the job of pressing the shutter.
Maybe it's my hands but AEL and focus point selection buttons are in the wrong place. I kept hitting button that opens pop-up flash and this button is situated way to the left. Unfortunately it's not very convenient to use those two buttons, your thumb is forced to uncomfortable position.
If you want an overview of all buttons and knobs and menus etc then check out very thorough review by dpreview.com.
Focusing and shooting
Focusing speed is average, nothing spectacular with kit lens. Olympus E-300 struggles with objects coming at the camera and objects with low contrast. Because manual focus is cumbersome (switching it on requires pressinga button and turning a dial) so this is not very practical choice as well. Better try to find something with good contrast. When shooting sports I switched to continuous autofocus and that gave better results. But shooting extreme sports indoors is really very demanding for this camera.
Focusing is on the quiet side, maybe not as quiet as with Nikon D70 kit lens but still good. Mirror slap is also very acceptable so good points here.
On the first day of using E-300 I constantly had the feeling that many images are overexposed so for most shooting I had -0.3 or even -0.7 exposure comensation dialed in. Somewhat to my surprise dpreview.com found that their E-300 tended to underexpose, especially if there was bright lightsource in the frame. After checking thoroughly checking images in my computer screen I decided that my E-300 did sometimes overexposu, mostly when I was shooting in dim conditions as if camera decided to help me get better lit images. But when shooting outside exposure was pretty good. Whitebalance is OK, does struggle sometimes.
About shooting speed
If you plan to shoot a lot of sports and want high quality then collect more money and get something else. 2.5 frames per second is not enough for fast moving subjects if you want to shoot continuously. And with highest quality JPG you can only keep this speed up for 4 frames. Then you have to wait for the camera, lift your finger and press the shutter again. If you switch to "High quality" then I managed to shoot 50 frames continuosly and probably would have been able to fill whole card (SanDisk 35x 1Gb) holding the shutter.
About picture quality
I'll borrow something from our local photomag Cheese that put Olympus E-300 side-by-side with 5 megapixel Olympus E-1 that is directed to professional shooters. When E-1 picture was upsized to match that of E-300 there was really no difference. So higher pixel count might not bring you a quality leap.
What do I think? Overall good quality. Perhaps images are a little soft straight out of the camera but you can turn up incamera sharpening or do it later in Photoshop or whatever software you're using. My soft images can be blamed for large aperture that I was using most of the time and 14-45mm kit lens probably cannot compete with more expensive lenses.
Olympus E-300 by default allows you to use ISO 100, 200 and 400. From the menu you can extend this to 800 and 1600 but this is achieved by software so a big drop-off in quality. While ISO 800 is still usable I cannot advice ISO 1600, it looks perfectly horrible.
Red stripes on the pictures. WHAT?
After a long day shooting sports I went home and discovered something very strange. On images shot at the end of the day there are visible red stripes in darker areas. It's better seen on high ISO images but is also present at ISO 200 images. Wrote to Olympus Estonia about the matter and they got back really fast with an explanation. Turns out that at least some cameras from the early production patch are affected by this problem. Apparently Olympus will take these cameras back and replace with a good one. If you do discover red stripes on your images then contact your local Olympus dealer and ask for a replacement. If you cannot see the stripes on this image here then your screen is not very accurately calibrated.
Here's how you can check your camera: turn it to ISO 1600 and shoot something in a dim room. According to Olympus it does not matter how long your camera has been on. Strong stripes consisting mainly of red "noise" should be visible.
About battery life
I never did manage to kill my battery even though I shot around 500 images a day, tinkered a lot with the display and also used pop-up flash (you can use pop-up flash together with external flash, cool). In the evening battery was still in the green. Next day shooting in around 0 degree Celcius I got the battery to go to red but then I had to give camera back. So batter puts up very good performance.
Pop-up flash and FL-36
Camera flash was surprisingly good, whole scene is well lit and at least indoors it works pretty far. On the downside - you have to open flash yourself, there's always the chance that you forget and then your once in a liftime photo oportunity is gone. Pop-up flash is also used for focusing assistance so forget about sneaky shooting, you'll blind everyone with your stroboscope :) It's possible to set flash compensation when you want your flash a little more subtle.
Olympus FL-36 flash gave very good results, with full batteries (it takes 2 AA-s) recycle times were very fast. If you plan to use lots of flash and fast recycle times are required then keep extra batteries in your pocket, FL-36 eats lots of them.
What really bugged me was one physical aspect of FL-36 flashgun. In it's bottom leftside corder there's dial for setting different options in flash menu. This dial has pretty sharp jagged edge for easier turning. However, when you hold camera up this sharp edge strikes you right in the middle of your forehead. After a day of shooting with flash I sported small aching red spot on my forehead. Strange engineering from Olympus.
Display and viewing images
1.8 inch screen feels smallish when you've used some 2+ inch screens but of course it's enough to check focus, information etc. Olympus offers pletoria of viewing options, from only picture to histogram and small picture plus all information about picture next to it.
I really liked the approach Olympus has taken to zooming in to the picture. You zoom in in steps but zoom out with only one step. I like this logic and wish more manufacturers adopted it.
Conclusion
Writing these reviews is always difficult. You can actually like the camera a lot but still find many things that bug you. I did like E-300. It's not perfect camera and it lacks in some areas (autofocus speed was sometimes an issue) but for this price I think it's a very good camera. So if you're looking for your first digital SLR I suggest you certainly give E-300 / Evolt a try. If you've already made up your mind then get it from Amazon for $999.95.
New Olympus E-300 / Evolt review coming soon
I have just finished my Olympus E-300 / Evolt in Estonian, you can view it but most probably will understand very little. Some images to see, though. I'll put it into English in a day or two. Check back.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Night street in Kuressaare, Saaremaa
I was in Saaremaa (rough translation: Land of Island) this summer because my sister got married and I was also shooting the wedding. Because I had my cavation anyway we went for a whole week and for the first time I had some time to get to know Estonia's biggest island. Kuressaare is the largest town there. Historically it's has always been powerful and/or important center whether it be for it's almost fully preserved castle or for it's health spas and famous mud.
Most of the time I shot with a borrowed Canon EOS 10D and Sigma 17-35mm lens. Had my Minolta Maxxum 7 with several lenses for backup and for black-and-white photography. Take a look at my wedding photography.
This photo was taken in the center of Kuressaare one late night (it does get a little darker during our summers but not much) after I came from local movie theater (that also doubled as a nightclub). I saw this lovely cobblestoned street and for once took the trouble of getting out my tripod. That allowed for maximum depth of field as it was crucial to get it sharp from front to back Vertical format forked best this time. I'm really please how it worked out.
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Marilyn Monroe 2005 calendar
It's not very often that you find a nice calendar that you actually wanted on your wall. I think I've had one calendar at my home during my grown-up years, there's one in my office but it's a pretty standard nature pictures. And it's up there because everybody got it for present and it's convenient to have it. But now Ilford (who was some time ago rumored to get our of business) has released a free Marilyn Monroe 2005 calendar. The only catch is that they offer it in PDF-format and you have to print it yourself. Still a good deal. Go download it.
All pictures in this calendar are shot by Sam Shaw, you can see more of his images at Show Family Archives.
Link found via Photographyblog.
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Lonely woman in a tram
I don't take public transport very often. Not because I have a car but rather because I live a short walk from all places that are important to me. So when I do take a bus, a tram or a trolley bus (it's a bus with horns, and it uses the horns to eat electricity from wires) I'm rather fascinated by them and by people who ride them. My favourite are trams because they are fast, cars don't get in the way and they are most often newarly empty. So I've grown into the habit of shooting empty trams now and then. Perhaps I just try to persuade myself that I like them empy, maybe it's because I'm too shy to take pictures of not familiar people.
It's actually not very easy to take a good snapshot in moving tram because the tracks are not very well laid down so you are constantly being shaken. Wait for a stop or traffic light, that's the best advice. This particular shot was actually shot when the tram was hurtling along at top speed. I grabbed two shots, one of them turned out decently sharp. I used Casio Exilim S100 that I was testing back then, shutter speed was 1/30th of a second, F4, 1 stop underexposure because this camera tended to overexpose a little. This also got me a bit faster shutter speed.
Why did I choose this photo? I like the loneliness. It was a usual grey bad autumn weather, people don't smile a lot, cars are muddy and they throw up a clowd of water when they speed by. If sun does turn up the next day you really do notice it. Maybe a nice sunny picture next :)
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Pentax Optio S5i review
This is a rough translation of my original review (it's in Estonian and contains some photos as well).
Optio S5i is nice small (not to say tiny) camera, slightly smaller than credit card. With battery and memory card it weights about 120 grams so perfect for carrying around all the time in your pocket or bag. Throw in a 5 megapixel sensor and you should have a winner, right? Right? :)
Front and back panels of S5i have stripy metallic pattern and it really helps to grip what would otherwise be a small and slippery camera. I didn't attach the strap but never had any real scare over dropping it. Using strap is probably a smart thing to do nevertheless. It's pretty hard to use the small buttons with your gloves on but zoom and shutter controls are big enough. Why would you want to use this camera with your gloves on? Because where I live it's not very finger friendly weather for about 6 month in any year.
Steve at Steve's Digicams is not happy about the placement of ON/OFF button because you could press it when you really wanted to take a photo. I did not notice this during my one week testing. All other buttons and functions are pretty well laid out, if you've used any digital camera before there's pretty much no learning curve I would think.
Overall very good first impression from Optio S5i.
Tripod mount (not sure if that's the name) is not below lens so getting panoramas from tripod is not that easy but to help you out Optio S5i offers panorama shooting mode where you can see part of the previously shot frame for easier alignment.
Focusing is ok for a camera in this class, could be faster but probably in the same league as competitors. Getting moving objects sharp could be a challenge, especially if it's overclouded day or not so brightly lit room. In dimly lit room S5i starts to struggle, I had to spot it into a rather contrasty object and only then got focus fixed. One thing that bugged be about focusing was the fact that this Pentax does not tell you if the object you're trying to focus on is too close. So it could be difficult to determine if it's too close or camera is just having hard time trying to get focus.
Auto white balance is decent, but every now and then fails. For example a shot made early morning with clouded skies turned out rather bluish. Also shots taken couple of seconds apart indoors showed different colors.
As to shooting options - there are many. 21 all in all. Starting with usual portrait and landscape and ending with underwater mode. But you'll have to get the optional underwater housing to put this mode into full use. I did not give those shooting modes very thorough testing but "autumn" was a disappointment. It rendered the scene very violet and overexpose. Same place shot couple of seconds later with automatic everything gave nice rich autumn colors. I have this image in my original Estonian review (scroll down to a violet looking autumn picture).
Different shooting modes raised other questions as well. I was trying to shoot a picture with maximum amount of depth of field and tried program, landscape, portrait and macro mode but all gave the same aperture and shutter speed. Strange.
Flash is good for normal photos, I liked that it did not overexpose faces when used from around 80 centimeters away. Background was also not blackened out but contained fair amount of detail.
Macro mode was nice, minimum focusing distance is 6 cm. 3x zoom lense is pretty normal, covers most day to day shooting situations.
During long exposures noise reduction kicks in so it might take a while when your image is being processed and saved. My tests in near darkness turned out well.
Now for the fun part
In my Estonian review i ask a question "Could it be that 5 megapixels is too much?" Optio S5i is being promoted as the pocket size fun camera that can get you quality to print A4. I have a split opinion about it. Larger files is good because you never know which picture you are being asked to print out real big. On the other hand large files are slow to save, they take up space on your memory card and hard drive, it takes more time to copy and process them if needed.
I tried saving max resolution and highest quality picture that Optio S5i could provide to it's internal memory and clocked about 7 seconds. I am usually not that patient. You can use the screen to find your next frame but otherwise the camera is locked up, not possible to take next shot, not possible to review those already taken. This file ends up taking around 2.5-3 megs of space. At least deleting is faster.
Is that all? Unfortunately not. A week after testing Pentax Optio S5i I had the chance to try Olympus Mju Mini (a 4 MP camera) and Casio Exilim S100 (a 3 MP camera). I also tried Optio S5i side by side with older Canon A80 (4 MP). Here are my thoughts from all these experiences.
In my humble opinion advantage of 5 MP-s over 4 is not sufficient enough to tolerate slow write times. I don't need 4 frames per second shooting speeds but I do want decent frame to frame speed. When I have to lower resolution and/or quality setting then is there really a point in putting more into the camera in the first place? Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree and I should get a different camera because it's not possible to get this size/speed combination at this point of time at all...
Now, I admit, that Canon PowerShot A80 is quite a different camera and perhaps it's not very fair comparison but still. I set both cameras to full auto, max quality and shot away. And ended up with results where Canon offered better detail even though it has only 4 megapixel sensor as compared to 5 that Pentax has. When I made a similar test comparing macro mode I couldn't say that one was better than the other.
Especially those objects that are a bit further away turned out fuzzy and not very well detailed. One could even say that Pentax optics are not up to the job but that is a bit hard to believe. And then, to turn everything upside down, S5i took really good photos in bright daylight with distant cranes having good detail. There's a 100% crop in the original review, click on this crane picture and you'll get original image as well.
I think you'd be wise to read Steve's Digicams review of the same camera as well. He usually is more optimistic about cameras and maybe I am being too critical here. For full disclosure: I don't own a digicam myself, I still shoot film (slide) and have only tested ~10 digital cameras so far.
What's the conclusion then?
I would buy this camera if I wanted something that was stylish, lightweight, had good ergonomics and easy to master menus (that is not to say that there aren't many options you could play around with) and good zoom lens. I would probably carry this camera around everywhere, set it's resolution lower than maximum so I would still get excellent prints at 10x15 cm but achieve faster saving times.
But don't take my word for it, read other reviews, go give it a try at your local shop and ask friends who have bought it. That is always sound advice. And then go get it from Amazon.
Optio S5i is nice small (not to say tiny) camera, slightly smaller than credit card. With battery and memory card it weights about 120 grams so perfect for carrying around all the time in your pocket or bag. Throw in a 5 megapixel sensor and you should have a winner, right? Right? :)
Front and back panels of S5i have stripy metallic pattern and it really helps to grip what would otherwise be a small and slippery camera. I didn't attach the strap but never had any real scare over dropping it. Using strap is probably a smart thing to do nevertheless. It's pretty hard to use the small buttons with your gloves on but zoom and shutter controls are big enough. Why would you want to use this camera with your gloves on? Because where I live it's not very finger friendly weather for about 6 month in any year.
Steve at Steve's Digicams is not happy about the placement of ON/OFF button because you could press it when you really wanted to take a photo. I did not notice this during my one week testing. All other buttons and functions are pretty well laid out, if you've used any digital camera before there's pretty much no learning curve I would think.
Overall very good first impression from Optio S5i.
Tripod mount (not sure if that's the name) is not below lens so getting panoramas from tripod is not that easy but to help you out Optio S5i offers panorama shooting mode where you can see part of the previously shot frame for easier alignment.
Focusing is ok for a camera in this class, could be faster but probably in the same league as competitors. Getting moving objects sharp could be a challenge, especially if it's overclouded day or not so brightly lit room. In dimly lit room S5i starts to struggle, I had to spot it into a rather contrasty object and only then got focus fixed. One thing that bugged be about focusing was the fact that this Pentax does not tell you if the object you're trying to focus on is too close. So it could be difficult to determine if it's too close or camera is just having hard time trying to get focus.
Auto white balance is decent, but every now and then fails. For example a shot made early morning with clouded skies turned out rather bluish. Also shots taken couple of seconds apart indoors showed different colors.
As to shooting options - there are many. 21 all in all. Starting with usual portrait and landscape and ending with underwater mode. But you'll have to get the optional underwater housing to put this mode into full use. I did not give those shooting modes very thorough testing but "autumn" was a disappointment. It rendered the scene very violet and overexpose. Same place shot couple of seconds later with automatic everything gave nice rich autumn colors. I have this image in my original Estonian review (scroll down to a violet looking autumn picture).
Different shooting modes raised other questions as well. I was trying to shoot a picture with maximum amount of depth of field and tried program, landscape, portrait and macro mode but all gave the same aperture and shutter speed. Strange.
Flash is good for normal photos, I liked that it did not overexpose faces when used from around 80 centimeters away. Background was also not blackened out but contained fair amount of detail.
Macro mode was nice, minimum focusing distance is 6 cm. 3x zoom lense is pretty normal, covers most day to day shooting situations.
During long exposures noise reduction kicks in so it might take a while when your image is being processed and saved. My tests in near darkness turned out well.
Now for the fun part
In my Estonian review i ask a question "Could it be that 5 megapixels is too much?" Optio S5i is being promoted as the pocket size fun camera that can get you quality to print A4. I have a split opinion about it. Larger files is good because you never know which picture you are being asked to print out real big. On the other hand large files are slow to save, they take up space on your memory card and hard drive, it takes more time to copy and process them if needed.
I tried saving max resolution and highest quality picture that Optio S5i could provide to it's internal memory and clocked about 7 seconds. I am usually not that patient. You can use the screen to find your next frame but otherwise the camera is locked up, not possible to take next shot, not possible to review those already taken. This file ends up taking around 2.5-3 megs of space. At least deleting is faster.
Is that all? Unfortunately not. A week after testing Pentax Optio S5i I had the chance to try Olympus Mju Mini (a 4 MP camera) and Casio Exilim S100 (a 3 MP camera). I also tried Optio S5i side by side with older Canon A80 (4 MP). Here are my thoughts from all these experiences.
In my humble opinion advantage of 5 MP-s over 4 is not sufficient enough to tolerate slow write times. I don't need 4 frames per second shooting speeds but I do want decent frame to frame speed. When I have to lower resolution and/or quality setting then is there really a point in putting more into the camera in the first place? Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree and I should get a different camera because it's not possible to get this size/speed combination at this point of time at all...
Now, I admit, that Canon PowerShot A80 is quite a different camera and perhaps it's not very fair comparison but still. I set both cameras to full auto, max quality and shot away. And ended up with results where Canon offered better detail even though it has only 4 megapixel sensor as compared to 5 that Pentax has. When I made a similar test comparing macro mode I couldn't say that one was better than the other.
Especially those objects that are a bit further away turned out fuzzy and not very well detailed. One could even say that Pentax optics are not up to the job but that is a bit hard to believe. And then, to turn everything upside down, S5i took really good photos in bright daylight with distant cranes having good detail. There's a 100% crop in the original review, click on this crane picture and you'll get original image as well.
I think you'd be wise to read Steve's Digicams review of the same camera as well. He usually is more optimistic about cameras and maybe I am being too critical here. For full disclosure: I don't own a digicam myself, I still shoot film (slide) and have only tested ~10 digital cameras so far.
What's the conclusion then?
I would buy this camera if I wanted something that was stylish, lightweight, had good ergonomics and easy to master menus (that is not to say that there aren't many options you could play around with) and good zoom lens. I would probably carry this camera around everywhere, set it's resolution lower than maximum so I would still get excellent prints at 10x15 cm but achieve faster saving times.
But don't take my word for it, read other reviews, go give it a try at your local shop and ask friends who have bought it. That is always sound advice. And then go get it from Amazon.
Monday, December 06, 2004
Exploding dog... not, it's a man!
Just quick post. We have this pile of balloons in the corner, leftovers from a birthday gone by. Idle mind is a monster as is well known so after frantic search for device able to record video we ended up with a home made explosion movie (it's some 72 kilobaits, Quicktime should play it).Stay tuned for reviews of of Pentax Optio S5i, Olympus Mju-Mini and Casio Exilim S100 (first camera with ceramic lens). All quite stylish and rather capable small cameras.
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Konica Minolta Dynax 7 Digital review
I did this review originally for my Estonian photo site but because there seems to be demand for English version as well then I'll post here a bit shortened version of my review. Please head over to Fotodiip (original story) to check out some photos made with Dynax 7 Digital (it's Maxxum 7 Digital in USA).
Okay, so it's the first digital SLR from Konica Minolta, they're really late into the market but not necessarily too late. Camera has 6.1 megapixel sensor that has a cropping factor of 1,5 meaning that your 24-105mm zoom lens will turn into a 36-158mm zoom and your 50mm fix into a 75mm lens.
I most unique feature is built-in AntiShake that works as image stabilizer and helps to reduce blur created by shaky hands resulting in sharper pictures with slower shutter speeds. Canon, Nikon and Sigma have their equivalents of this technology but all have put it into lenses that are more expensive. Konica Minolta approach gives all your normal lenses image stabilization. There is a cost, however. Looks like battery gets hammered by this feature so do carry extra battery around and switch AntiShake off if not necessary to use (ie. enough light for normal handheld photography). With my first run I got around 300-400 images but I had AS on all the time, used a lot of display, shot in 4-5 minus degrees (Celsius) and tested flash extensively. Because I could keep the camera for only 2 days I did not get battery empty for the second time.
Second thing that really stick out is the amount of buttons and knobs and levers that are placed all around D7D body. I shoot with Dynax 7 film camera myself, it's the "father" of D7D and has 21 buttons. I'm sure D7D has at least the same amount, perhaps even couple more. But I like it very much. This means that most controls are within finger's reach and you don't have to dive into the menus to set flash compensation, mirror lock-up, change ISO or whitebalance. It'll confuse you in the beginning (unless you migrate from Dynax/Maxxum 7) but if you get used to it I think you'll also come to love it (there's a picture in the original story of film 7 and digital 7 side-by-side).
D7D is very flexible meaning that photographer can configure a lot of options, also functions of many buttons and then switch back to "green" Program mode with one press of a button. You can also configure three function sets for fast switching. For example if you shoot wedding and have to move from outside to inside and outside again you just toggle between to settings that have been memorized before. Really handy.
Most of the buttons are just where they were on the film body, some have been improved (9-way control button under your right hands thumb for example). DOF preview button has been moved a bit, whitebalance button added to index finger working area etc.
Dynax 7 Digital is actually slightly bigger and heavier than it's predecessor. Grip is a handful, an improvement. Good rubbery feel and also patch of rubber under thumb so it sits nicely in my hands. Shutter release (it's called like that, right?) could be a little higher but it's better than on the film body.
CF card compartment door is good, strap does keep out so it's no problem to close. There's also a small slide door within the big door so if you only need to connect USB cable you don't have to open the big door. Nice touch.
Back screen is a delight, it's 2.5 inches. Compares really well against 1.8 that is usual for competitors. Menus on the screen switch to portrait if you turn you camera on the side, that's nice. I could not test display visibility in bright sun, we had lousy weather. Small screen on top of the camera has been removed but because I never use it on my film body I did not miss it. Full points to display.
Viewfinder is slightly bigger and brighter than that of Nikon D70 but if you compare it to Dynax 7 film camera then it's not so great. It's just as bright (slightly "warmer" look I would say) but much smaller, but that's the problem with all current crop of DSLR (except full frame Canons).
Menus are clean and simple, no problem using them at all. At any time you are shown only one screen full of options so no scrolling is necessary. Very good usability here.
I tested following lenses: Minolta 24mm, Minolta 50mm, Minolta 24-105mm, Minolta 300mm and Sigma 70-300mm. All worked fine, no problems with AntiShake or anything. When I said "all worked fine" I lied a bit :) I actually got in trouble with 24-105 and 70-300 lenses two times. Camera just would not display aperture and when trying to press shutter message "Lens not attached" (or something similar) was displayed. Turing camera off and on again helped. Don't know what's the problem here, haven't read in in any other reviews so maybe only this camera has this glitch.
Focusing is just as fast as with Dynax 7 film body. D7D actually won out with 70-300 Sigma lens that is pretty dark in the long end (F5.6) as it would focus on dark and low contrast scene (on film body it failed to do so). Camera just kicked into really slow focusing mode and grounded to stop at the right point. Seems that some improvements to the focusing have been made.
Flash raises higher than on the film model, no problem with red eyes at all so no need for red eye flash mode actually.
I did not like shutter sound very much. It gave kind of loud plastic sounding clap. It's hard to compare with film body (because of the motor wind) but I'd say that no improvement have been made. Of course you hear the sound only like 10 cm from your ears so it will never sound too quiet but I don't think it's a camera for shooting piano concerts.
Focusing is also noisy, no competition with Canon USM lenses or even with Nikon D70 kit lens. I think this is bigger problem with Konica Minolta cameras and might have to do with their design decision to put focusing motor within the body and not within the lenses. Use manual focus if you need quiet :)
KM have given up excellent red assist light that allows my film Dynax 7 to focus virtually in the dark. Instead they have opted to use strobe light from flash. There are several things fundamentally wrong with this in my opinion. First you need to manually raise the flash (not very convenient in a fast pace shooting situation). Second, it's really annoying for people and forget about getting some candids or unaware faces on your picture. Then again, who would buy D7D to shoot with on-camera flash? Especially when you can crank ISO up to 1600 and still get acceptable quality? More on that a little later.
Shooting speed is more than enough for my style. I tried continuous mode with JPG and also "pumped" from frame to frame and managed fast times without buffer getting full too soon. I don't shoot sports and I don't shoot wild animals chasing their prey, if you're into that kind of thing then you of course wish for 8 fps and 40 frame buffer. Instead you have to do with 3 fps and 12 frame buffer in JPG format. 4 in RAW (if my memory does not trick me).
AntiShake really seems to work. I don't normally go around shooting 1/20, 1/10 and even 1/6th of a second handheld. Most amazing was, that I could shoot 1/100 with 300mm lens at a not very brightly lit store and get very acceptable results. Thumbs up. Results probably depend on your hands quite a lot, I have medium steady ones attached to my body :)
On the right hand side of the viewfinder you'll see 5 step progress bar showing how much AS is working. If it's 2-3 you'll probably get decent result. If it's more then chances of getting sharp pictures fall considerably. Big screen really helps when checking images for sharpness.
Picture quality is excellent with some downsides. Looks like Dynax 7D seems to underexpose up to a stop in some conditions. In grey overcast day I got constant underexposure by 1 stop. Images looked darker than necessary and histogram backed this feeling up. Fortunately it's really easy and fast to key in exposure compensation if you set this function to back scrollwheel.
Inside and on Rammstein concert I got well exposed images so a bit confused.
On the plus side - colors look really nice, there's enough detail in the shadow areas and I don't think I blew out any highlights. Auto whitebalance worked well, pictured taken in my office turned out ever so slightly greener than necessary
D7D is a joy to use at low light levels. First you have AS but then you have really good quality ISO 800 and even ISO 1600 is largely usable. Of course noise shows up but it looks controlled and it can be worked later if necessary. I have comparison shots up in the original review, just scroll down the page.
Conclusion
If you own Minolta glass and want to take the dive into digital then go ahead, buy the camera, it's a fine piece of machinery. I'd get one for myself if I had the funds but that'll have to wait a little. It sits nicely in one's hands, is really easy and fast to use and big screen plus AntiShake are like added bonuses. However, if you don't have an investment in Minolta lenses then you might want to consider other options as well.
Okay, so it's the first digital SLR from Konica Minolta, they're really late into the market but not necessarily too late. Camera has 6.1 megapixel sensor that has a cropping factor of 1,5 meaning that your 24-105mm zoom lens will turn into a 36-158mm zoom and your 50mm fix into a 75mm lens.
I most unique feature is built-in AntiShake that works as image stabilizer and helps to reduce blur created by shaky hands resulting in sharper pictures with slower shutter speeds. Canon, Nikon and Sigma have their equivalents of this technology but all have put it into lenses that are more expensive. Konica Minolta approach gives all your normal lenses image stabilization. There is a cost, however. Looks like battery gets hammered by this feature so do carry extra battery around and switch AntiShake off if not necessary to use (ie. enough light for normal handheld photography). With my first run I got around 300-400 images but I had AS on all the time, used a lot of display, shot in 4-5 minus degrees (Celsius) and tested flash extensively. Because I could keep the camera for only 2 days I did not get battery empty for the second time.
Second thing that really stick out is the amount of buttons and knobs and levers that are placed all around D7D body. I shoot with Dynax 7 film camera myself, it's the "father" of D7D and has 21 buttons. I'm sure D7D has at least the same amount, perhaps even couple more. But I like it very much. This means that most controls are within finger's reach and you don't have to dive into the menus to set flash compensation, mirror lock-up, change ISO or whitebalance. It'll confuse you in the beginning (unless you migrate from Dynax/Maxxum 7) but if you get used to it I think you'll also come to love it (there's a picture in the original story of film 7 and digital 7 side-by-side).
D7D is very flexible meaning that photographer can configure a lot of options, also functions of many buttons and then switch back to "green" Program mode with one press of a button. You can also configure three function sets for fast switching. For example if you shoot wedding and have to move from outside to inside and outside again you just toggle between to settings that have been memorized before. Really handy.
Most of the buttons are just where they were on the film body, some have been improved (9-way control button under your right hands thumb for example). DOF preview button has been moved a bit, whitebalance button added to index finger working area etc.
Dynax 7 Digital is actually slightly bigger and heavier than it's predecessor. Grip is a handful, an improvement. Good rubbery feel and also patch of rubber under thumb so it sits nicely in my hands. Shutter release (it's called like that, right?) could be a little higher but it's better than on the film body.
CF card compartment door is good, strap does keep out so it's no problem to close. There's also a small slide door within the big door so if you only need to connect USB cable you don't have to open the big door. Nice touch.
Back screen is a delight, it's 2.5 inches. Compares really well against 1.8 that is usual for competitors. Menus on the screen switch to portrait if you turn you camera on the side, that's nice. I could not test display visibility in bright sun, we had lousy weather. Small screen on top of the camera has been removed but because I never use it on my film body I did not miss it. Full points to display.
Viewfinder is slightly bigger and brighter than that of Nikon D70 but if you compare it to Dynax 7 film camera then it's not so great. It's just as bright (slightly "warmer" look I would say) but much smaller, but that's the problem with all current crop of DSLR (except full frame Canons).
Menus are clean and simple, no problem using them at all. At any time you are shown only one screen full of options so no scrolling is necessary. Very good usability here.
I tested following lenses: Minolta 24mm, Minolta 50mm, Minolta 24-105mm, Minolta 300mm and Sigma 70-300mm. All worked fine, no problems with AntiShake or anything. When I said "all worked fine" I lied a bit :) I actually got in trouble with 24-105 and 70-300 lenses two times. Camera just would not display aperture and when trying to press shutter message "Lens not attached" (or something similar) was displayed. Turing camera off and on again helped. Don't know what's the problem here, haven't read in in any other reviews so maybe only this camera has this glitch.
Focusing is just as fast as with Dynax 7 film body. D7D actually won out with 70-300 Sigma lens that is pretty dark in the long end (F5.6) as it would focus on dark and low contrast scene (on film body it failed to do so). Camera just kicked into really slow focusing mode and grounded to stop at the right point. Seems that some improvements to the focusing have been made.
Flash raises higher than on the film model, no problem with red eyes at all so no need for red eye flash mode actually.
I did not like shutter sound very much. It gave kind of loud plastic sounding clap. It's hard to compare with film body (because of the motor wind) but I'd say that no improvement have been made. Of course you hear the sound only like 10 cm from your ears so it will never sound too quiet but I don't think it's a camera for shooting piano concerts.
Focusing is also noisy, no competition with Canon USM lenses or even with Nikon D70 kit lens. I think this is bigger problem with Konica Minolta cameras and might have to do with their design decision to put focusing motor within the body and not within the lenses. Use manual focus if you need quiet :)
KM have given up excellent red assist light that allows my film Dynax 7 to focus virtually in the dark. Instead they have opted to use strobe light from flash. There are several things fundamentally wrong with this in my opinion. First you need to manually raise the flash (not very convenient in a fast pace shooting situation). Second, it's really annoying for people and forget about getting some candids or unaware faces on your picture. Then again, who would buy D7D to shoot with on-camera flash? Especially when you can crank ISO up to 1600 and still get acceptable quality? More on that a little later.
Shooting speed is more than enough for my style. I tried continuous mode with JPG and also "pumped" from frame to frame and managed fast times without buffer getting full too soon. I don't shoot sports and I don't shoot wild animals chasing their prey, if you're into that kind of thing then you of course wish for 8 fps and 40 frame buffer. Instead you have to do with 3 fps and 12 frame buffer in JPG format. 4 in RAW (if my memory does not trick me).
AntiShake really seems to work. I don't normally go around shooting 1/20, 1/10 and even 1/6th of a second handheld. Most amazing was, that I could shoot 1/100 with 300mm lens at a not very brightly lit store and get very acceptable results. Thumbs up. Results probably depend on your hands quite a lot, I have medium steady ones attached to my body :)
On the right hand side of the viewfinder you'll see 5 step progress bar showing how much AS is working. If it's 2-3 you'll probably get decent result. If it's more then chances of getting sharp pictures fall considerably. Big screen really helps when checking images for sharpness.
Picture quality is excellent with some downsides. Looks like Dynax 7D seems to underexpose up to a stop in some conditions. In grey overcast day I got constant underexposure by 1 stop. Images looked darker than necessary and histogram backed this feeling up. Fortunately it's really easy and fast to key in exposure compensation if you set this function to back scrollwheel.
Inside and on Rammstein concert I got well exposed images so a bit confused.
On the plus side - colors look really nice, there's enough detail in the shadow areas and I don't think I blew out any highlights. Auto whitebalance worked well, pictured taken in my office turned out ever so slightly greener than necessary
D7D is a joy to use at low light levels. First you have AS but then you have really good quality ISO 800 and even ISO 1600 is largely usable. Of course noise shows up but it looks controlled and it can be worked later if necessary. I have comparison shots up in the original review, just scroll down the page.
Conclusion
If you own Minolta glass and want to take the dive into digital then go ahead, buy the camera, it's a fine piece of machinery. I'd get one for myself if I had the funds but that'll have to wait a little. It sits nicely in one's hands, is really easy and fast to use and big screen plus AntiShake are like added bonuses. However, if you don't have an investment in Minolta lenses then you might want to consider other options as well.
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