With me being very occupied, this blog may be out of action for next 7 days.
In the meanwhile, do take a peek on many other things on my site

FIRMWARE UPGRADE FOR CANON EOS 20D AND EOS 350D/REBEL XT

Canon has issued a firmware upgrade for 20D and 350D(Rebel XT).

The upgrade for 350D includes following fixes:

# Fixes the phenomenon of shots being unable to be taken when using the remote controller RC-1.
# Fixes the phenomenon wherein the camera continues to scroll through images being played back.
# Improves reliability in communication when using some CF cards.

See Canon website for details.

Fixes for 20D includes

# Fixes a problem in color temperature information transmission that occurred when using Speedlite 430EX.
# Improves reliability in communicaion when using CF cards.

See Canon website for details.

THE DIGITAL CAMERA BUYING GUIDE

A lot of people ask me the question - 'hey suggest me a good digital camera'. My normal response is that I am not very well verse with non-SLR digital cameras and hence would not be able to suggest what to buy. But I often manage to probe about their usage pattern and advice them on the features they should look for in the camera and the kind of camera they might really want to buy.

Here, I am trying to take a peek on those features that a digital camera buyer may want to look into and eventually help the buyer to zero in on a model. While I am trying to help the buyer on how to go about choosing a camera, I am refraining from making model suggestions.

Disclaimer: The camera models provided here are only meant to serve as examples of a camera with feature that the user would be interested in. I have not tested any of these cameras and do not know about the quality of them. The examples are only Canon cameras because of me being more familiar with them. Read the reviews in links provided below or elsewhere to ensure that the model you have zeroed in is actually a worthy buy.

CHOOSING PROCESS

First look at what type do you fall in and see if the features mentioned actually match what you are looking for. Look at the camera example given in the table(The way they are going, all these models may become obsolete very soon). Now look at other options that would provide similar features. I have given below link to a list of models from popular camera makers. Browse around and choose what is good for you. If your budget permits, you might want to go one or two level higher so it would be useful some time later. Also checkout dpreview's camera selection help based on the features you require. I personally suggest buying cameras from a maker who specializes in it than buying from a general consumer electronic company which makes everything and cameras too. The list here is of course not comprehensive.

- Canon cameras
- Fujifilm cameras
- Kodak cameras
- Konica Minolta cameras
- Nikon cameras
- Olympus cameras
- Panasonic cameras
- Samsung cameras
- Sony cameras

Choose at least 3-4 different cameras that match the feature set. Once you have zeroed in on them, read some reviews. Almost all cameras will have plenty of reviews available on the internet. Check some of these websites which make good reviews of all. Usually it is enough to check at dpreview since you are likely to get best and most comprehensive reviews.

- dpreview
- dcresource
- dcviews
- Steve's Digicam
- megapixels.net

Finally after reading the reviews, go ahead, do your research, zero in on one of your shortlists and enjoy taking pictures!

USAGE PATTERNS

My suggestions of camera features are usually based on the usage pattern of the likely buyer. The question I ask is - what do you want to use the camera for. I get different type of answers based on which I give my suggestions. The typical responses that I get are like this:

TYPE	DESCRIPTION
Type 1	I just need a camera. I could use it for any purpose. I think having a digital camera would be nice.
Type 2	for family photos, taking pictures with friends, in functions and parties or picnics. May be post card prints.
Type 3	I am headed for a vacation and want to take pictures. I don't have a camera with me now and would want something to record the places I went to
Type 4	for family photos etc, but I would love to shoot nature and scenery at times when I am out but I don't do it much or very seriously.
Type 5	for general usage of all kind. And I love taking prints and storing or displaying them.
Type 6	I want to learn photography and may want to spend some time on it. But I am not keen enough to invest on SLR cameras or fat lenses. I often travel and love to shoot landscapes, and who knows - may be some wildlife too. Prints will be nice.
Type 7	I have some extra money and would want to spend on a good, quality digital camera
Type 8	I am pretty serious about photography and would want to make those breath-taking images I often see in magazines or ompetitions. I think I want to put some good time out shooting with my camera.

Based on these patterns, I make advices on features they would want to have in their camera. I also made some research on some Canon models to find cameras that have the required features. Read disclaimer above before planning to choose the camera. The features I look for are directly related to taking pictures - such as the optical zoom, ISO settings and megapixels, but does not cover maintenance aspects such as battery life, storage medium and cost. Including these things would only make this post swell too much and confuse the reader who would be already inundated by the choices available. Below is a table that I arrived at based on the usage patterns of different type of users I described above. I have explained a bit about terms like resolution and ISO below in the article.

Important Note: The base standard for number of megapixels in a digital camera is fast increasing. New models are released and technology updates happen very frequently. The megapixel values and the model names in the table are indicative values at the time of writing and can become obsolete fast.

TYPE	RESOLUTION	ZOOM	ISO SETTING	OTHER DESIRABLES	SAMPLE MODEL
Type 1	3-4mp	1x - 2x	200 to 400	-	Powershot A510
Type 2	3-4.5mp	3x	100 to 800	video mode, portrait, landscape shooting modes. Auto ISO will be nice.	Powershot A510
Type 3	3-5mp	3x	100 to 400	landscape and portrait modes, long battery life, auto ISO	Powershot SD30
Type 4	4-5mp	4x - 6x	100 to 400	landscape, portrait modes	Powershot SD450
Type 5	4-6mp	3x - 5x	100 to 400	landscape, portrait modes
Type 6	5-8mp	up to 10x	100 to 800	Aperture, Shutter priority and manual modes, exposure compensation, white balance settings, auto ISO	Powershot Pro 1 Powershot S2 IS
Type 7	6-9mp	3x to 8x	-	good looks, sleek and small size, several shooting modes, spoil yourself with bluetooth or any more features you would like!	Powershot S70
Type 8	6-10mp	-	100 to 800	I strongly recommend type 8 people to go for SLRs. If you are really serious about photography, you will soon discover that an SLR is needed. Don't buy something else and spend money again to upgrade to an SLR	Canon EOS 350D Nikon D70s

The terms explained:

Resolution: Normally specified in megapixels, this indicates how big will be the pictures you are taking. The more megapixels you have, there will be more information in your image. So higher the resolution, bigger it looks on your screen and you can take larger prints. A 4mp camera is good enough to print up to A4 size.

Zoom: Manufacturers often mislead buyers by providing plenty of digital zoom. Keep in mind that optical zoom is what you should look at. The optical zoom indicated how much magnification you get from the lens. But in digital zoom, the image captured is simply cropped to make it appear big on your lcd, something that you could do yourself on the computer.

ISO: The ISO reading indicates how sensitive your camera is to the light. A higher ISO indicates you can take pictures at low light too, but at the expense of quality. Higher ISO is especially useful in taking pictures indoors or in parties. For film cameras, you would have to buy film with certain ISO ratings. But in digicams you can set this value when you are shooting(if the feature is available).

100-400L TEST IMAGE

I haven't got a chance to go out with my newly acquired 100-400L yet, but obviously I could not resist the temptation to try shooting something indoors. What took me by surprise is the quality of the IS in the lens. Below is the image of my kitten taken in a poorly lit room. What is amazing is that it is taken handheld, at a shutter speed of 1/6 sec at ISO 1600 and there is no hint of any camera shake in the image. My hats off to people who have designed the image stabilization system.

MY CANON 100-400 L LENS HAS ARRIVED!

It was a long-standing dream; I could not really wait for it. I had almost bought a 300mm f/4L along with a TC but some sample images comparing it with 100-400L made me go for the latter. My sabbatical is starting next week and at the right time, I am loaded with all the gear I wanted to have. I am also offloading my earlier 28-80 and 75-300 lenses. So my current list of equipment includes

- Canon EOS 350D(Rebel XT) which lead to inception of this blog and my moving to digital photograpy
- Canon 17-40 f/4L which I bought only recently
- Canon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L acquired just now



And I have decided that this combination is good enough for me for sometime to come, and I will not buy any more gear for next 2 years. Now for spending a lot of time taking pictures!

AGFA IS CLOSING DOWN

This will be one of the milestones towards saying goodbye to film. Agfa, which had been operating under bankruptcy protection is now closing down by end of the year. Agfa is one of the film manufacturers who did not manage to re-invent themselves in the age of digital photography. Details here.

Who is next, I wonder. Probably none? Other film manufacturers like Kodak, Fuji and Konica have worked hard to migrate to digital. Companies like Kodak may have to put their days of glory in the past but unlikely that they face extinction.

HOW MANY MEGAPIXELS IS TOO MUCH?

When I was thinking of moving from film to digital photography a few months ago, I was loaded with greed for megapixels. Then digital SLRs were just inching up their standards from 6 megapixel to 8mp with Canon launching EOS 350D/Rebel XT. But technology in DSLRs is moving fast and more and more megapixels were getting squeezed into those few inches. Canon is slowly moving towards full frame sensors and at the same time increasing the resolution beyond 10mps. But how much do we really need?

I was pondering about it yesterday and was wondering if it won't take too long for my 8mp camera to go obsolete and 12mp become the norm. At the same time, I thought about problems that would be coming with it. The 8mp raw image converted to tiff format comes up to as big as 46MB. And it is common knowledge that big prints can be taken comfortably with the resolution offered. On the downside, my computer which can be said as "normal configuration" with 512MB RAM and 80G hard disk starts crawling real slow when I load my imaging softwares - Canon Digital Photo Professional(DPP) and Photoshop. Upgrading to 10 or 12mp would definitely require me to upgrade to a more powerful computer and more investment.

Another factor is the lenses: ask Michael Reichmann(of luminous landscape) and he will tell you about it. When he bought his EOS 1D, his existing 100-400L was no longer good enough for the camera and he had to upgrade to a sharper prime. The problem is that bigger resolution shows all the flaws that it can, and you can no longer shoot with your good old lens which you thought gives you ultra sharp images.

I am sure soon we will discover that we will require upgrading to new and robust softwares as we move up the megapixel ladder. Many more such things may soon be needed. That would only make us gear junkies and we will end up spending more time acquiring latest stuff, researching and working on the images at home than spend time taking pictures. At the same time, when the whole world would be moving up the value chain, you may no longer feel secure and comfortable staying behind and watching, holding your old 8mp camera. Eventually digital cameras I think might become like computers - upgrade or face obsolescence!

I did some searching around to see what others have to say about it. See Ken Rockwell's opinions on The Megapixel Myth.

CONTINUING ON CONVERTING TO BLACK AND WHITE ...

I was searching further about gathering information on converting digital images to black and white, and someone helped me into a thread on photogrpahy-on-the.net where Black and White Photography specialist Martin Henson answers some forum members' questions on bw conversion using Photoshop. The thread has plenty of information and is a must read for any one interested in black and white digitals. Also read the step-by-step process suggested by Martin and described by one of the forum members. Martin's website also has some info on his techniques. Martin has featured many his works on his website - digital-monochrome.com and every one of them is eye-catching.

CHANNEL MIXER UPDATE: VALUES TO MIMICK BLACK AND WHITE FILM

This month's Better Photography Magazine happens to carry an article on converting digital images to Black and White. They have also given channel settings that correspond to some traditionally black and white films. Here they are:

Kodak Tri-X 400: 25,35,40
Kodak Tmax 100: 24,37,39
Kodak Tmax 400: 27,36,37

Agfa 200X: 18,41,14
Agfapan 25: 25,39,36
Agfapan 100: 21,40,39
Agfapan 400: 20,41,39

Ilford Delta 100: 21,42,37
Ilford Delta 400: 22,42,36
Ilford Delta 400 Pro: 31,36,33

Ilford FP4: 28,41,31
Ilford HP5: 23,37,40
Ilford Pan F: 33,36,31
Ilford SFX: 36,31,33
Ilford XP2 Super: 21,42,37

CHANNEL MIXER FOR BLACK AND WHITE IMAGES

Of late, I am spending time playing with the channel mixer tool to create black and white copies of digital images. I used to have an impression that black and white images are better off taken using film than digital images. Some of my black and white images I had come to liking were taken on film. The contrast provided by b&w film seemed to be good and digital images converted to grayscale appeared very pale. But after playing around with Channel mixer, I am planning to use digital media for my further attempts in b & w.

Channel mixer(Image - Adjustments - Channel Mixer in Photoshop) is an easy to use and understand tool and provides a lot of flexibility. It can provide excellent contrast to the images but needs a lot of practice and experience to get good output. I am now practicing using it on my old color images and it appears to me that not all images may be suitable to be converted to black and white. So it requires some understanding, practice and ability to predict the output when choosing images to be made into black and white. The best suitable images I think are buildings and architecture, rocky or sandy geography that offers good contrast and waterfall images.

Below is a sample I tried out with Channel mixer. See the comparison between converting to grayscale by discarding color information and using the Channel Mixer. Latter is definitely better, but I feel it can be improved much more

Original Image

Converted to grayscale(Image >> Mode >> Grayscale in Photoshp)

Using Channle Mixer

CHOOSING A LENS

Once L, always L! Looks like that is the problem with buying L glasses. I was managing with kit lenses(28-80 and 75-300) for three long years and wasnt really complaining. Then came my digital camera which showed me enlarged views of images that made me unhappy. I decided to upgrade my lenses and bought my first L glass recently: a 17-40L. When I saw the output, I was addicted; there was no looking back. The 17-40 was good to replace my 28-80 but I had nothing to replace the other lens. And having seen the output from an L lens, I simply refused to go out with my 75-300 lens. So I am thinking of buying a replacement for that even though I don't have enough money in hand.



I am now in a dilemma to choose between a 300mm f/4 IS USM prime with a 1.4x teleconverter and the famous 100-400L IS USM lens. Both have their positives and negatives and none of the expert advices I have received so far has helped me much. The decision, I hope, will be made within a week. It will be my first white lens and I am excited even before I made a buying decision!

Update: Had a real tough time trying to decide between the two. Finally a thread on photography-on-the.net helped me to make the final decision. The winner is the 100-400L!

PICTURES - DOWN THE MEMORY LANE

I am posting some of my favorite images on my personal weblog. As I dug into the archive of my old images, fond memories of the beautiful places where the pictures were taken kept returning to me. I felt that my three years of tryst with photography was worth doing it.

Interestingly, most of the pictures I am posting there are taken on film media. It could be that I have shot film for almost 3 years, where as my digital camera is only 6 months old. But I have a nagging feeling that I haven't taken many pictures I felt good about after moving to digital. It may have more to do with me than the media, but as an exception, the quality of my bird images have improved leaps and bounds since moving to digital. Besides, I got to understand finer technical aspects of photography(on things like sharpness of the image, importance of proper lighting) only after moving to digital, since flaws in the images were much easily exposed.

DIGITAL BLACK AND WHITE

Despite using a D-SLR as my primary camera body, I was planning to continue using my film SLR for shooting black and white. I had a presumption that Black and White looks pale and washed out on digital media compared to the tones you can get on film. But around a month ago, a friend sent me a picture of Niagara Falls taken using a 20D, which changed my mind. I am planning to try digital black and whites in my next photo-trip and am doing my homework to find out the best way to convert a digital image to black and white. I bumped into this useful article by Cambridge in Color and am studying it right now. The tutorial is short and simple but very informative. It describes the fundamentals involved in converting to black and white in Photoshop and provides several options to the user. A worthy read for any one interested in B&W photography.