IMAGE GALLERY: CORBETT NATIONAL PARK

I have continued to process images from my journeys, and have uploaded images from Corbett National Park on my images gallery. Corbett is a great place, and I can say without doubts that it is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen. I hope to return there someday and spend a few months photographing its amazing landscape and fauna.

Click on the image to go to the Corbett gallery.

CANON FOLLOWS SUIT

It was about to happen any day. Canon was a bit late compared to its counterparts, but finally they have taken the decision to stop producing some of their film SLR cameras - especially the ones at the lower end.

I have been following the events related to decline in film photography for a while. Here are other news from the past:

1. Nikon stops making film SLRs and Konica Minolta exits camera business.
2. Evolution of digital cameras
3. Agfa closes down
4. Photography stores stop selling film cameras.

And for a change, there is one story about an attempt to resurrect film, by people who are passionate about it.

FINDING A PHOTOGRAPH IN ONE THAT WAS NOT!

Sometimes, you may have a good photography within what you thought is worthless.

I was cleaning up my images directory, and this one was left unprocessed, for deletion. The 3:2 frame looked ugly, with too much sky on the top and too much darkness at the bottom. I am not sure why, but just before trashing it, I realized the panorama would be nice!



Click to see a larger image.

CAPTURE ONE PRO: I AM IMPRESSED

Sometime back I had noticed a few people using Capture One Pro(C1 Pro) turning up excellent images. I never thought their raw image conversion software had anything to do with it, but I was curious and decided to have a look.

I went to C1 website and realized that you can download and try it out, which I did. I was quickly impressed with the output. The final image looked far better than what its counterparts would have generated. The images were crisp and the colors looked excellent. Sharpening was also very good and the overall image quality made me feel good for the first time since I went digital! But alas, it is only a trial copy that I worked on, and it is so expensive that it costs as almost much as my camera! But I hope to buy it some day when I accumulate some extra money.

Here is an image I made with C1 Pro.



Click to see a larger image.

100-400L f/4.5-5.6 IS USM LENS USER REVIEW

It is the lens that is talked about, raved about and celebrated all over the world. The reasons are many. To list a few -

1. Image Stabilization that can give shake-free images at lower shutter speeds
2. A long zoom range providing versatility in shooting different kind of subject
3. Sharpness levels that are not seen in comparable zoom lenses
4. Value for money


The 100-400L

Here are a feature list of what the lens offers:

1. EF mount lens for EOS cameras.
2. Zoom lens with focal length range of 100mm to 400mm
3. Autofocus with a USM motor
4. Image Stabilization
5. Push pull zoom
6. Speed - f/4.5-5.6
7. Minimun focusing distance - 1.8m

Who should consider this lens:

1. For wildlife photographer who can't afford the more expensive primes and fast lenses, but still needs a telephoto lens which can give reasonable image quality.
2. If your wildlife subject includes both birds and animals, a combination of which will require you to use wider range of focal length, but you would not want to spend time changing lenses often.
3. Some people use this for photographing airplanes.
4. This is also suitable for people photography. Though it is not the best lens for portraits it is very useful when you are shooting moments, or life in action. The zoom range is very useful though a 70-200 would serve the purpose well.

The 100-400L may not be for you if you are using an 18mp camera. It may provide sharp enough output, but if you are shooting with a 1Ds Mark II, the details may appear soft. See what luminous-landscape has to say about it. It may not be suitable for you if you need really razor sharp images with zero flaws. The 100-400L may not be very suitable for sports and action since it is not a fast lens,with the aperture opening up only by f/5.6 in the longest focal length.

For a wildlife photographer who is used to working with a tripod, a 400mm prime lens sold by Canon, which comes in the same budget may be a better option. Another option that people often consider is to use a combination of 300mm prime lens with a 1.4TC, which is again in the same budget.

IMAGE QUALITY

The 100-400L is respected for the sharpness and image quality it renders. Though general opinion is that it makes quality images with reasonable sharpness, you occasionally do hear complaints. I shoot with an 8mp camera and I have found the output acceptable, though it can't be compared with primes. I sometimes use the lens for shooting landscape(when I don't like to be bothered by the ordeal of changing to a wide angle lens) and in such cases I wish the output was a bit more sharper. But its still good enough and can be resurrected by a little extra sharpening on the computer.


A test image taken at 400mm


100% crop of the above image



A test image taken at 100mm


100% crop of the above image

Above images were taken with an EOS 350D, at ISO 200, f/5.6 and f/4.5 with the lens mounted on a tripod and using self timer, processed with Capture One pro and sharpened using photoshop.

OTHER FEATURES

With Canon's USM motor inside, focussing is noise free, fast, and near instant. There are two focussing modes - one between 1.8m to infinity when the camera hunts the full distance, and another mode between 6.5m to infinity. The later mode can be set when your subject is likely to be farther, and not having to hunt the full scope of the lens increases the focussing speed considerably.

The lens is not very heavy, and can be used for shooting handheld. Image stabilization is a great aid in shooting hand held. The IS is impressive, and I have got sharp images at shutter speeds as low as 1/6 sec in favorable conditions. Though it is difficult to achieve this figure in the field, it is not difficult to get good images at 1/30 to 1/60sec.

The 100-400L uses push pull zoom mechanism, which some people find annoying. My personal experience is that it is far more easier to work with a push pull zoom than rotating zoom. You can change the focal length much easily and must faster. And even if you are not comfortable in the beginning, it is a matter of getting used to it.

To conclude, it is a good lens for those who want to shoot birds and other wildlife handheld, but don't expect the sharpness of a prime.

WEBSITES OF INDIA'S PHOTOGRAPHY MAGS

I had once written that none of the photography magazines in India have a website. I am glad to notice that things have changed quickly in the last few months and some of them have come up on the web. Here are the websites I happened to notice:

1. Better Photography: Has a summary of articles available in the current and previous issue.
2. Times Journal of Photography": Table of contents and summary of some articles
3. Asian Photography: I know they have a website, had visited it once but haven't been able to recall it. No amount of searching has helped. They used to publish some full stories from the magazine. Shall update it once I figure it out.

A WEEK IN VARANASI

I spent nearly a week in Varanasi in late February this year, and I had recently posted one of the images on this blog. I was away for a long time and processing all the images had been pending. I have now uploaded all the images into my image gallery.



There is something about Varanasi that fascinates every one. It is a photographer's paradise, and the variety that you can find on the bank of the Ganges(called Ghats) and the narrow adjoining streets is amazing. It was my first trip there, and I was actually more confused than delighted in the beginning. But now, I am looking forward to return there sometime and spend longer time, walking around the ghats.

A SMALL CHANGE WITH FEEDS

A few months ago, I tried using feedburner for publishing RSS/Atom feeds for this blog. It was on an experimental basis for a few days to see if I can benefit from using feedburner. Some of the readers may remember that I had goofed up with the settings then, and the feeds were not working for a few days. Now again, there is a small change. I am reverting back to using blogger's default feeds from feedburner, so please update your feed address. If you are using my feedburner feeds, it will still be working for a few more days, but not long. My apologies for the inconveniences.

SONY: 20 LENSES TO START WITH!

When Sony made a decision to enter digital SLR market, I was skeptical. First, I wondered if Sony had enough technical expertise to make SLRs. But they had it worked out, as they had borrowed technology from Minolta, which has now stopped making digital cameras. The next thing I wondered is about the lenses that Sony would offer. DSLR market is more about lenses than the camera itself, and if Sony entered the market with just 3-4 lenses to offer, they would find the going difficult. But obviously Sony had done its homework. They are entering with a bang, with 20 lenses to offer their DSLR buyer! Read about it in Sony's website.

With so many lenses to offer, I think they have crossed the first hurdle. Professional and serious photographers can now put Sony in consideration when they are making a buying decision. Of course, it is not all, and it matters that the quality of the lenses and the sensors will have to really good. We will also have to wait to see the pricing strategy of Sony. I feel that only way for Sony to make the cut is by making cameras and lenses priced lower than Canon and Nikon.

I got some really good feedback and reviews on this image of a Goden Langur in several forums and image sharing groups.



Click to see a larger image.

Exif: Canon EOS 350D, 100-400L at 310mm, 1/90sec, f/5.6, ISO 200

RESURRECTING OLD PRODUCTS OF THE FILM DAYS

With its losses mounting, Kodak has been slowly reducing their product portfolio. They stopped making digital SLR cameras some time ago. One of the other products they had discontinued was their Black and White photo paper, called Azo.

But it has some of its fans who would not want to let go of it. And Azo did not have a replacement that could satisfy these people. Some of the fans decided to take it up in their hands, raised money through the internet and started producing Azo by themselves. Read the story here.

It is interesting how, when the system is changing quickly, a few people decide to preserve the old way of things. It happens in every industry or technology or art, more so where you see many passionate people.

On an unrelated note, I dislike the way they call film photography as "analogue photography" in the above newsclip. It is now common to use the word "analogue" to mean non-digital, but I don't think that suits well for photography using film.

A BIT OF PEOPLE PHOTOGRAPHY

When I started trying my hands on photography, I was not all that keen to shoot people. I stuck to shooting landscapes and wildlife and did not find much interest in people or portraits. But over the days, I got acquainted with photographers in my town, some of whom were shooting people. Seeing their work was an inspiration to me and I decided to work on people. Now, I also shoot people along with my usual subjects - landscapes and wildlife, but it still forms a smaller percentage. In the last few months when I was travelling, I visited Varanasi and Rishikesh, which gave me some opportunities in photographing people. Here is an image I made at Varanasi. Varanasi is a great place for photography. It is such a riot of colors, there are times when I had to desaturate the images! There are so many things to witness here that few other places can offer.



Click to see a larger image.

Exif: Canon EOS 350D, 100-400L at 320mm, 1/250sec, f/5.6, ISO 200

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Digital Photography World is now one year old! The first post on this blog was made on May 5, 2005.

I started this blog when I was loaded with the excitement of having bought a brand new digital camera. I was then not sure if this blog is going to last the initial excitement and survive. But it has gone beyond my expectation and managed to stay on with fairly regular updates.

One of the initial reasons for coming up with this blog was because I was awed with the amount of catching up one has to do when going digital. I had little knowledge about pixels, image sizes or the science of digital photo processing. While I started my learning, I decided to make notes that I could refer later if I forget, and the notes happened as some posts in this blog. Looking back, I feel amused to see that I did refer back to some of these posts, especially the ones on color management, chromatic aberration, dust and scratch removal fairly often, just to mention a few. I am glad this effort has been useful to me, and I hope all my readers have found some use of this blog.

AN INDIAN ROLLER AND BLUEST OF THE BLUE SKIES

I was looking forward to photographing one of these beauties for a long time, and finally found a friendly one in Rajaji National Park, India. But what I loved more than my subject in this image was the super-perfect background!



Exif: Canon EOS 350D, 100-400L at 400mm, 1/500sec, f/8, ISO 200

2006 RAW SURVEY BY OPENRAW

Openraw has released the results of their annual Raw Survey, which gathers opinions from professional photographers and serious amateurs about shooting Raw images. The 2006 survey results are now available on their website and has some interesting information on what photographers think.

The survey has information about photographers' reason for preferring to shoot raw, choice of raw conversion software, their reasons for buying a particular model of camera and many more things that can serve as useful information for everyone. Readers can also register and discuss the survey results on their forum.