Tagged: camera RSS

  • Dave 8:48 pm on February 10, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: camera, gx100, ricoh   

    Ricoh Caplio GX100 

    GX100 [114/365]

    Ever since I got in to digital photography, I’ve had a succession of small cameras – mainly different versions of the Canon Ixus. I’ve also had a few larger cameras – a Konica Minolta Dimage Z5 and currently a Nikon D50. I love that D50 – I find it very easy to use and I can get my fingers and thumbs whizzing around the controls getting it to do stuff without much though – it just feels so comfortable and nice to use for me. I don’t always want to take a bag full of cameras and lenses and associated paraphernalia everywhere though.

    Typically, if I decide to travel light, I’ll just pop my little Canon Ixus 55 in to my pocket in case I feel like taking photos somewhere during the day. That’s fine, but the problem for me these days is that I’m used to all of the controls of a DSLR. So, I was looking for a camera that would still be fairly portable but was capable of features other than an automatic mode and exposure changes.

    Realistically, this came down to either the Ricoh Caplio GX100 or the Panasonic DMC-LX2. A number of things put me off the Panasonic though – mainly the sledgehammer to crack a nut approach of noise reduction resulting in some images that look like they’ve had some Photoshop smudging added. They’re not dreadful all of the time by any means, but I think it’d irritate me. A few other things didn’t sit right either. The LX2 has a 16:9 ratio screen and a sensor to match, which is quite nice, but the menu system seems to have been copied from the other Panasonic compacts and just stretched. That suggests to me that the people who made this just couldn’t be bothered to do it right. It’s probably due for a replacement soon, and whatever replaces it will more than likely sort the problems out.

    The Ricoh Caplio GX100 seemed to be the only other compact with balls. It could also shoot in RAW mode and had features like manual focusing, aperture priority mode, full manual control and two dial controls to quickly alter aperture and exposure using just my right hand. It also had a wider lens (24mm as opposed to the Panasonic’s 28mm – both are very nice compared to my Ixus’s 35mm (all compared to a 35mm film camera). To put that 24mm in to perspective, that’d be a 16mm lens on my Nikon D50 to get the same thing.

    Both the Panasonic and the Ricoh get noise at high ISO’s, but the Ricoh doesn’t try and correct it like the Panasonic does. All in all, the Ricoh looked like it was the one for me. So I got one.

    I’ll write another post after I’ve had more use out of it and have more to say. My initial thoughts are:

    • Very fast to use
    • Very easy to use
    • The image stabilization astonishes me how good it is (and apparently it isn’t as good as the in-lens optical stabilisation systems – so they must be really impressive).
    • The 24mm wide angle is so nice after being used to 35mm on a compact.
    • I like being able to save my favourite settings as MY1 & MY2 on the mode dial.
    • Snap focus works amazingly well (no half press pre-focus – just hit the button)
    • Works quite nicely at night without support
    • JPG seems to be more than good enough for me so will probably be my default on the camera
    • Love square crop and black and white modes (you can do these things afterwards, but it’s done well and it’s fun!)
    • Macro focuses at 1cm and manual focus in macro mode allows for some very nice control

    So, I love it so far (in case you hadn’t guessed). Here’s a few images taken over the last few days…

    Macro mode photo of a replacement car headlight bulb (one of the other bulb images is real, the other two are reflections from the packaging)

    Headlights

    The image below was taken hand held in macro mode in a room lit with a dim lamp. The exposure was for 1/2 second. The image stabilization kept the image nice – to the point where you can still make out the paper grain…

    Rat [110/365]

    The following image is from Light Night in Nottingham – hand held at night – it exposed at 1/7th of a second so image stabilization kept it together again here.

    Nottingham Eye

    More shots taken with this camera are in this set.

     

    • brendadada 10:02 pm on February 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Yeah, you’re not the only person to love these. I had one in my hands a week ago. Gorgeous to handle. Modelled on the GR range. I’d love one, if I needed another camera, that is. ;)

    • Primed Minister 10:22 pm on February 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I’ve been pondering purchasing one of these for a while and it looks like you’ve been getting some great results with it. I bought a Casio Exilim EX-Z1050 as a ‘pocket’ solution which has been ok but I’m not too keen on using an LCD screen for framing my shots, I prefer a normal viewfinder, does the GX100 have one?

    • publicenergy 11:33 pm on February 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      That thing poking out of the top is the optional digital viewfinder (you basically get the screen inside the viewfinder). It’s odd that the GX100 VF kit with the viewfinder was the same price as the version without – so I figured I’d get it. Having used it though, I think I’ll use the camera more without the viewfinder than with. You have to get your eye very close to it for it to work. On the plus side, you can swivel the viewfinder through 90 degrees, so that’s quite handy.

      It’s early days for me to be writing it off though.

    • Primed Minsiter 12:23 pm on February 11, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I did wonder what that was poking out of the top of the camera. It’s a toss up between another lens for my D70 or a GX100 at this stage. Impressive though it seems I might wait until the price comes down before splashing out on one. Meanwhile I’ll sit back and enjoy your shots with it Dave. :)

  • Dave 7:46 am on January 16, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: camera, canon, ixus   

    Inside a Canon Ixus 400 

    My old flooded Ixus 400

    Ixus Autopsy [88/365]

    In July 2005, my old Canon Ixus 400 died when I accidentally filled it with water. I had neglected to close the valve on my Camelbak and flooded it during a pub stop on a bike ride. I’m not sure why I hung on to it. Initially I kept it because the advice for cameras with water in them is to not turn them on and let them dry out. I had this little camera sat somewhere warm for days until I thought there was the chance that all of the water had evaporated. However, it was well and truly dead.

    I found it again yesterday (along with my long dead Ixus 40 – but that’s a different story), and decided to take it apart just to see what’s in there. There was no obvious sign of corrosion due to the water which surprised me. The other thing that surprised me was just how compact and well designed the insides are. There were little data ribbons joining different circuits to devices and it was all trunked around inside the case in a very neat manner.

    Another thing that surprised me was just how big the capacitor was for the flash – it was as high as the case. I had no wish to mess around with that – even though a long time has passed between the camera being used and now, I remember from doing A Level physics at school just how much of a kick those babies can have, so I erred on the side of caution there.

    The Ixus 40 that replaced this and also died when I slammed my car door and my coat got snagged on something inside and got trapped as the door closed. Unfortunately, the camera was in the pocket and took the full force. It did actually turn on and take photos after that, but the screen was broken and when you took the photos from the memory card, they were all black squares.

    I’m going to disassemble that one too but I think I’m going to wait until I’ve got a flash unit and try and do a better job of the photos of it.

     

  • Dave 5:36 pm on May 25, 2007 Permalink
    Tags: camera,   

    Infrared modified S5600 – Two weeks later 

    A runner and his dog

    I posted a few weeks ago about the modified Fuji Finepix S5600 – modified so that it could take infrared shots without the usual hindrance of an internal infrared blocking hot-mirror.

    When I got the camera, it coincided with the start of some really grey dull weather. Traditionally, infrared photography works best when the sun’s out, and out of all of my old infrared shots taken with the unmodified Canon Ixus, my favourites were all taken on warm sunny days when there was plenty of infrared light being kicked out by the sun.

    I started using this camera regardless of the weather and was amazed at how infrared sensitive it was. I did get some lovely shots despite the weather, but when the sun came out I think the photos got even better. The photos above are a selection of photographs I’ve taken with the camera over the last two weeks.

    I have used SmartSetr to create a Flickr set which will stay up to date and contain all of the photos I take with this camera: Fuji Finepix S5600 Infrared Flickr Set – it’s sorted in decreasing order of interestingness so you should see the good stuff first if you watch the slide show!

    Tags: , ,

     

    • Dennis 9:30 pm on May 25, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      Excellent stuff!

    • publicenergy  »&nbs 11:19 pm on June 22, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      [...] Also see the photos I got after two weeks when the sun eventually came out! – Two weeks later [...]

    • Modified Infrared Fuji Finepix 5:41 pm on November 17, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      [...] Update: Also see the photos I got after two weeks when the sun eventually came out! – Two weeks later [...]

    • Esteban 9:13 pm on June 28, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I’m enjoying your photos. I’ve been looking at the irdigi website and can’t make up my mind whether to have a camera converted to the vis+IR spectrum or a conversion to IR only (which means you have to decide which filter to specify). Is your S5600 converted to be IR only or full spectrum? What is the IR filter; 720 nm or ?

      Your help appreciated.

      Thankyou

    • publicenergy 10:27 pm on June 28, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Esteban, mine is a full spectrum camera, but I only use it for infrared anyway, so the IR only one would have done really.

      I personally use a Hoya R72 filter, just because I had one that fit and I used one before – I keep intending to experiment with other filters, but I’ve just not got around to it!

  • Dave 8:11 am on November 21, 2006 Permalink
    Tags: camera,   

    Flickr Camera Finder 

    Flickr camera finder

    The Flickr Blog reports a few new features which further improve Flickr. One of the nice new features is the Camera Finder. Not only can you search for images taken with particular cameras, you can further filter the results by categories such as portrait, landscape, macro and of course interestingness! They have even been kind enough to put in a link to Yahoo’s shopping site :P

    They seem to have done their homework as well – My little Ixus 55 has different names in different territories and when you look at a list of cameras by a certain manufacturer, these alternative names are mentioned and the photos of them are grouped together under one model name.

    The final nice touch is that they have linked the camera names that appear on the EXIF detail pages of the photographs to the camera page – and again here, my Ixus 55 links correctly to the Powershot SD450 page.

     

  • Dave 8:43 pm on October 13, 2006 Permalink
    Tags: camera   

    Back to school 

    Back to school

    A year ago I posted an entry about the cameras I have owned. Since then the only change prior to today was that I managed to kill my Canon Ixus 40 and replace it with an Ixus 55 which is still going strong and gets a lot of use for infrared and when I’m out cycling. In that old post I mention that my Konica Minolta Dimage Z5 will keep me going until I’m ready for something more serious. Well, that day came today with a move in to the realms of Digital SLR with a Nikon D50.

    Lots and lots of deliberation went in to this and lots of people offered advice. There are so many things to consider. The D50 seemed like a perfect introduction to DSLR’s for me. It could do everything that my existing cameras could do including infrareds if the need arises – I suspect I’ll keep the Ixus for that though – at the moment when I go walking I typically have the big camera with me and the Ixus attached to the Gorillapod with the infrared filter attached to it. I’ll experiment with the D50 and infrared though to see what can be done.

    Things that swung the D50 for me included; it felt nice to hold, the weight felt just right – and the size – I held a few Canons and I don’t know if my hands are a bit bigger than average but they didn’t feel as nice to hold – that’s probably a personal thing though – I know lots of people who love their Canon DSLR’s.  The Canon’s were also ruled out because of their infrared handling – with the Ixus I sometimes get hot-spots and they looked worse with the Canon DSLR’s (I was looking at the entry level ones, not the more expensive models). Other factors? It seemed very very quick in use which was great – the little Ixus cameras are so fast these days, I imagined that bigger more complicated cameras would be sluggish in comparison, but no. Seeming loads of compatible lenses – including old SLR lenses which opens the way up for cheap experimentation – well relatively anyway! It uses SD cards – my other cameras use SD cards so it makes them convenient. They’re cheap too these days. Reviews helped a lot too. There were lots and lots of other factors in choosing this – all of the contenders looks like great cameras really but this just felt like the one for me.

    Now I just need to work out how to use it!

     

    • greywulf 10:35 pm on October 13, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Welcome to the Land of Lens Lust, Dave. Kiss your credit card goodbye as you pore over sexy black numbers that twist in your hands :)

      I’m a Canon fan, my other half loves Nikons – you’re right, it’s a purely personal preference thing as both are as good as each other in reality. I think it take a good year (at least 6 months) to learn a new camera. I hope it’s going to be fun for you.

      The best advice I can give is this: “learn the lens, not the camera”. With an SLR, the lens is everything. The camera is still just a light-tight box even if it’s a digital sensor rather than film working the magic. Expect to be a little disappointed with the first hundred or so shots. DSLRs don’t do anywhere near as much post-processing as a pointy-shooty – but the dynamic range and detail more than makes up for the extra effort you have to put in.

      Oh, and don’t drop it :)

    • Rick 7:12 am on October 14, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Aaaaaaay. Welcome to the club, even if you did join the dark side (Nikon). lol. :D Some good advice above, and he’s right, the first few shots will be appalling, but thats normal. It’s like starting from scratch all over again, but with a head’s up on some of the finer points, its just a question of learning how to apply your knowledge. Enjoy… and I’m looking forward to seeing the results. ;)

    • Marwood 2:47 pm on October 14, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Snap!

      I’ve been playing with a Fuji s5500 more and more over the last year so, when I got a new job, I decided I deserved a present. I bought a D50 about two weeks ago.

      I’m really enjoying it so far. The controls are a lot like the s5500 but they’re all placed exactly where my fingers fall when I grip it. It’s also much faster than the Fuji.

      The colours are looking a bit odd at the moment, but I think that’s because my home monitor is a bit strange. Let me know how you get on and if you find any quirks.

    • publicenergy 9:18 pm on October 14, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Well, I’ve been very impressed at what you lot have done with your cameras – I’d resisted the temptation long enough!

    • publicenergy » Train Spo 11:17 pm on October 24, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      [...] It’s over a week since I bought the new camera and I hadn’t had chance to use it. I needed to sort some things out on my bike – after the two days in the Peaks last weekend, some of it was in a pretty sorry state. I sorted out most things myself in the week but took it to a bike shop yesterday for a bit of TLC. Before going to collect it today I decided to get out and take some photos with the new camera. So, I went to Barrow Hill Roundhouse Railway Centre near Chesterfield. I had never heard of the place before discovering Greywulf’s set of photos on Flickr and it looked like a decent place to go and have a play with a a camera. [...]

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