Which entry level full frame dSLR camera to buy?

Written by Gary on February 16th, 2009

For the purposes of this blog, I am going to exclude the expensive Nikon D3x, Nikon D3 (as the D700 is almost as good) and the Canon 1DsMIII.

So that leaves use with 3 very worthy contenders but with quite different features:

  • Nikon D700:
    • 12mp with live preview, 5fps, good AF tracking, great high ISO performance, some excellent, if expensive new lenses designed for digital such as the wide angle zoom and new tilt-shift lenses and built-in flash
    • BUT no built in image stabiliser, no movie mode and for some the 12mp may not be sufficient for landscapes or wedding photography
  • Canon 5DMII:
    • 21mp with live preview and limited HD movie mode
    • BUT no image stabiliser, not good for action work (only 3.5fps and limited AF capability), and even the L series lenses may not be up to the task of matching the sensor resolution, particularly the zooms when used wide open, while the standard zooms are not anything to write home about although serviceable
    • of considerable concern is the flash sync is slower than the 1DMIII – see here and there is no built-in flash which can be very useful at times
    • perhaps the main concern though is its propensity to fail in moist environments when used with a vertical battery grip – see here
    • dpreview.com has just reviewed it and despite the above, it is an excellent camera but in my view full of compromises (and I own a Canon 1DMIII)
  • Sony A900:
    • 25mp with built-in image stabiliser and comparable image quality at least up to ISO 800
    • BUT NO live preview, nor video mode, no built-in flash, and uses the legacy proprietary Minolta flash hot shoe which creates annoying compatibility issues when using 3rd party flash accessories
    • some very nice Carl Zeiss lenses designed for digital but no tilt-shift lenses as yet

The prime consideration for most is what system they already have, in which case, they will go with the same brand as they have rather than pay for changing systems.

For others, it will be a case of which suits their needs best:

  • the Sony really seems a good buy with its image stabiliser, high image quality and high quality lenses – an almost ideal full frame dSLR camera that I find very tempting if I had the money – but many will not want to risk not having a Canon or Nikon
  • for those that want high resolution in Canon or Nikon, that really only leaves the Canon 5DMII but it really concerns me that it may fail just when you need it, and not everyone can afford a backup dSLR for these scenarios. The lack of sports/action capabilities is not such a big concern – the Canon guys wanting this will probably still go for the Canon 1DMIII or wait for the MIV with its 1.3x crop which gets them that bit closer to the action and with 10fps and weather-proofing
  • so where does that leave the Nikon D700? For most people, 12 mp is plenty, and the greater versatility afforded with its better action capabilities, the better wide angle lenses and reliability with the option of the excellent cropped sensor Nikon D300 as an excellent telephoto back up camera may be enough to persuade them that its the way to go rather than the Canon.

I suspect the pro photographers will go for the Nikon D3x over the D700/D3 or Canon 5DMII/1DsMIII even though it’s price tag seems a bit excessive, at the end of the day, it will be reliability, usability and high optical quality and sensor quality that counts for them.

 

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The bushfires – lessons to be learned II – our fragile existence

Written by Gary on February 15th, 2009

Following on from the two previous blogs on climate change, drought, record heat waves and the resulting bushfires, here is another with some thoughts.

Victorian bushfires are usually started by either:

  • lightning strikes
  • electrical power lines contacting trees in strong winds or poles falling over
  • intentional arson
  • thoughtlessness – out of control fires, use of power tools or throwing cigarette butts out of car windows on high fire danger days

It now seems that many of the bushfires were started by overhead power lines in the strong north winds reaching 100kph (not unusual in for such winds in our Summers) combined with primed tinder-dry forests and a day with hottest temperatures on record combined with low humidity and the strong fanning winds. The lethality of the resultant fires was magnified by the dry “cool” change with different wind direction brought by the usual cold fronts which follow such hot northerly winds in Summer.

Is it time to consider underground power for the forest regions?

Arguments have raged over the years on the place for controlled burn offs to reduce fuel (bark and leaf litter) in forests combined with the fact that Australian Eucalypt forests need cyclical fires for their long term health – some need 5 year cycles, others 12, and yet others 30 year cycles. Indeed,last financial year, controlled burn offs in Victoria covered over 150,000 hectares of land, the largest amount since 1993 and 18% more than the annual target – although there is some debate on how strategic the burn offs were.
The problem with controlled burns is that there are only about 10-12 days each year with safe conditions taking into account temperature, winds and humidity levels and worse still, large scale burns on such days poses health threats to those with respiratory conditions.

The current stay or go policy may need revision depending on the fire danger index (a measure of anticipated wind speed, ambient temperature and low humidity). Previous recommendations were made on the grounds that you could stay if your home was defensible (NB. homes on a northerly slope with nearby tall trees and made from flammable materials are probably NEVER defensible in a forest fire with a north wind ), but these assumptions were based on fire danger index levels of less than 100 (high danger is 12-25, extreme is > 50, Ash Wednesday in 1983 had a level of 102).

On the day of the bushfires last Saturday, now called “Black Saturday”, the fire danger index level was an incredible 180 in the Kilmore region.

Perhaps it is time to consider that only specially designed homes in appropriate environments should be considered defensible on days when the fire danger index exceeds 100, and unless people have a fire bunker to retreat to on those days, they should evacuate early.

Finally, the bushfires have exposed how fragile our existence really is, not just because of the immediate risk of death from the fires and the devastation they cause with little warning, but the potential for greater calamity.

It is well known that south-eastern Australia including Victoria is in the grip of a 12 year drought with no signs of it breaking and ever diminishing water supplies despite water use restrictions, and as our heat waves have shown, Melbourne is not designed to cope well with them in terms of power supply and delivery as well as our transport system is not designed to work in high temperatures.

Less than 10 years ago, Melbourne was voted the most livable city in the world, but then rapid population growth, spreading urbanisation and drought are demonstrating that as a “civilisation”, we may have peaked and now in decline as our water resources are unable to meet demand.

The bush fires have highlighted the fragility:

  • it would not take much for a bush fire to knock out our main power generators in Gippsland or even just the main distribution lines to the city
  • perhaps of even greater long term impact is if the fires made it into our pristine water catchment areas with their mature mountain ash forests
    • this would contaminate our water supply with ash, but worse,
    • the new forests that develop over the next 50 years will use much more of the rainfall and thus run off into the dams may be reduced by 30-50% – something we cannot afford in an environment of diminishing rain falls and increasing demand

If this drought is not just a variation but a new way of living due to climate change then we will need to reassess our priorities and at the very least stop the increase in demand on our resources by reducing population growth in this region or we will be forced to resort to environmentally unfriendly solutions such as more desalination plants just to survive.

 

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The bushfires – lessons to be learned

Written by Gary on February 10th, 2009

Us Victorians are accustomed to our annual bushfire season when it is not uncommon for hundreds of thousands if not millions of hectares of forest to be burnt out and then rejuvenate as part of their natural systems that have evolved over millions of years.

For the most part, Victorians living in the areas at risk are generally well prepared and have been encouraged to remain and defend their homes from ember attack during such fires, or evacuate early.

But it seems climate change through its increase in extreme weather conditions may have changed all that – a 12 year drought, some nice rains in December 2008 to spur on plant growth, almost zero rain the following month culminating in a record heat wave of 3 days in a row exceeding 43degC which made the state tinder dry and at risk.

Then just a week later, the final ingredient to make the perfect firestorm – a record amazingly hot 46-47.9deg Saturday with 80-100kph north winds and careless, thoughtless or worse, homicidal humans allowing or intentionally starting fires at the peak of these conditions.

The resulting firestorms traveling at 40-50kph gave authorities little chance to warn the locals who were caught by surprise, too late to evacuate and the extreme conditions meant few houses in its path were defensible.

To survive meant either:

  • evacuating before the fires started – just because it was an extreme danger day, or staying and either:
    • having a fireproof bunker or cellar
    • luck combined with a good sense of timing to get out of the burning house just before its roof caved in but sufficiently long after the fire front had passed that radiant heat outside was not lethal – a must read graphic story of a lucky escape
    • getting into a car in a clearing well away from the radiant heat of the fires and which was not going to catch on fire from nearby trees or tall grass
    • access to a wide open space such as a sports oval giving sufficient distance from the radiant heat and having protective clothing or woolen blankets

Those who in panic tried to flee at the last minute in cars appear to have died – roads blocked by falling trees and power lines, the zero visibility causing head on collisions with other cars or trees, the nearby trees just causing too much radiant heat and ember attack.

Most of those attempting to defend their homes in the path without a backup found the severity of the ember attack and the fire balls impossible to contend with and only a lucky few of these survived.

Relying on communications to warn of the dangers proved unreliable as it seems:

  • the authorities were not aware of raging rapidly moving new firestorms even that which devastated Kinglake until it was too late to warn people
  • the two way radio, mobile phone systems and internet websites were all flooded with activity making access to reliable information difficult
  • the ABC radio station, whilst proving perhaps to be the best communication still could only warn of the threats the authorities were aware

The Victorian government has announced a Royal commission into the fires and what can be done to minimise the lives lost next time – after all this was no where near our biggest fires but it was by far our most fatal due to its ferocity and speed combined with a sudden, lethal wind direction change from the cool change.

It would seem too late now for humanity to stop climate change and untimely economic events combined with human greed are likely to postpone any real efforts directed towards this, and thus extreme events in weather is something we will all need to learn to live with or die.

It is clear we will not be able to defend homes in such firestorms and such firestorms are likely to increase in frequency.

I doubt that people will leave their homes in these areas just because it is a extreme fire risk day – this would expose even further risk to the activities of arsonists and sociopaths.

We need to consider the wisdom of living in high fire risk regions or at least consider mandating fire bunkers or cellars be built and maintained for each house – just having a community facility is unlikely to help as these fires showed – people may not have time or access to get to them.

We need to improve warning systems – perhaps a National Early Warning System using text messages sent to all mobile phones as has been suggested.

We need to realise that fire fighters cannot control large firestorms and that these in general will keep burning until they burn out.

The Victorian government gave the best advice the day before the fires when it was aware of the extreme fire risk conditions for that day – if you don’t need to be in the bush and forests, don’t be there – it is not the day to go touring around.

And finally, we should never take that which we have for granted – for all too quickly, it can be taken away.

See my brief history of Victorian bushfires here.

 

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Hottest day on record (47.9degC/118.2degF) and Australia’s worst bushfire disaster on record.

Written by Gary on February 7th, 2009

Well, thought last week was bad enough when I wrote about our heat wave, but today beats everything for us Victorians.

Melbourne’s previous highest temperature of 45.6degC on the Black Friday Bushfires in 1939 has easily been passed with temperatures in the mid-46deg in the city while only 50km away temperatures have hit an unbelievable 47.9deg C at Avalon airport, all this and winds up to 90kph.

Here is the snapshot of peak temperatures and conditions (click on image for a larger view):

Melbourne's hottest day on record

Spare a thought for those trapped in the bushfires and the fire fighters trying to protect them in this hellish heat.

bushfire updates here

ABC online report Sat pm at least 14 dead in the fires and many more may be found while concerns are had for 100-150 sheltering in a CFA shed in Kinglake

ABC Online report Sunday morning at least 25 dead and expected to find more than 40 dead while townships including Kinglake and Marysville have largely been destroyed with residents trapped for 4-5 hours in the region at the height of the blaze. Elsewhere, 50 homes burnt near Bendigo and 30 near Kilmore and Wandong where the CFA hold serious concerns. Although there were 400 fires across Victoria Saturday, by Sunday morning there were still 36 fires out of control, a dozen of these were major.

ABC Online report Sunday afternoon and the toll rises, at least 700 homes and 66 lives lost with more expected to be found while fires still rage out of control making it perhaps the most tragic bushfire episode in Victoria’s recorded history, eclipsing Ash Wednesday in 1983 when 76 died and Black Friday in 1939 when 71 died.

ABC Online Sunday evening reports 84 have died making it officially Australia’s most fatal bushfire disaster on record.

ABC Online Monday morning reports death toll has reach 108 deaths and homes lost now at 750.

ABC Online Monday afternoon reports death toll now at 131 dead.

ABC Online Tuesday morning reports death toll now at 173 dead with yet more bodies to be found while bushfires still threaten rural communities in central and north-eastern Victoria.

The Herald Sun Wednesday morning reports death toll now at 181 dead and has links to videos. ABC Online reports of further communities at risk as fires still remain out of control.

See my brief history of Victorian bushfires here.

some photos from ABC Online:
bushfire

Labertouche:
Labertouche

Marysville:

Marysville

live weather conditions and maximum temps can be found here

Finally, no – even though I would love to have taken photos of the fires myself, it is far too dangerous a proposition and such amateur photojournalism during these conditions is highly discouraged. One of the common causes of death in bushfires of the past has been car accidents as drivers attempting to flee, blinded by smoke, crash into debris or other cars. Yesterday, many have been burnt to death in their cars fleeing their homes too late. These fires can cover 1.5km in 5 minutes in those conditions – only fools would be there unnecessarily.

 

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Heat wave – a harbinger of worse to come

Written by Gary on January 31st, 2009

Have not been out much this week as Melbourne is going through its hottest heat wave on record, fortunately things have cooled down today and we only are expecting temperatures in the high 30’s degC.

We had 3 days in a row in higher than 43 degC (a record for Melbourne) including a top of 45.1degC (2nd hottest on record, and this comes after a month of < 1mm rainfall following 12 years of drought. A quick shot of a Melbourne sunset at the peak of the heat wave. Melbourne's heat wave at sunset

Fortunately there is a little reprieve with the next 7 days forecast to only be in the low to mid 30’s and the heat is bearable as there is little humidity.

Most of us have air conditioners but these don’t help when the electricity supply goes down due to excess demands or in my case when it went down for 18 hours at the peak of the heat when a local transformer over-heated.

I was lucky in that I had to work most days indoors in an air conditioned environment, but commuters felt the heat as the urban train system practically came to a stand still due to combination of failing air conditioners on trains, tracks buckling in the heat and then the power cuts.

The tennis players at the Australian Open had to endure their hottest Open tournament yet, and to top it off, last night’s semi-final men’s game went for over 5 hours – a record for the tournament!

Construction workers took the week off and headed to the beach as their rules give them a day off if it hits 35degC.

Many slept on the beaches overnight to cool off, and fortunately only a few elderly appear to have suffered enough to require medical treatment.

It was a different story for wildlife – Melbourne’s population of flying foxes (bats) fell from the sky as they died en masse in the heat – ringtail possums fell from trees – kangaroos too exhausted to jump fences – Melbourne’s Plane trees dropped their leaves prematurely.

But most importantly, the usual fierce hot winds associated with such weather has been limited and major bush fires have not eventuated thus far apart from one in Gippsland and another small one which threatened Melbourne’s power supply.

So we can all be grateful that things were not as bad as they could have been and although our water supplies are the lowest in 30 years, we still should have enough to last us until the drought breaks (if it ever does) or the desalination plant is built.

Once known as the Garden State, Victoria’s long drought has savaged our gardens – few have lawns worth looking at (we have not been able to water lawns for the past couple of years), some replace them with artificial lawns and plastic pot plants. Most trees are drought-stressed and the majority of birches have died in the past 12 months.

But this is nothing compared to the hardships of those in Africa whose crops have failed for the 2nd season in a row due to drought and now face famine in an economic environment of rising global food prices and shortages with little hope of real help from economically struggling and increasingly inward looking “wealthy” countries who are likely to become less charitable to others in need.

see some of my photos of Victoria and Melbourne here

more information about Melbourne here

and… as hot as Melbourne’s heat wave has been, it was not as deadly and prolonged as that in Adelaide, the state capital of South Australia which ended up having almost 2 weeks of consecutive days greater than 40degC – see here.

post script: The Age Feb 22nd reports that in fact it appears there were at least 100 excess deaths in Melbourne and over 200 excess deaths in south-east Australia during those 3 days of heat – mainly of elderly with cardiac failure who were found dead in their homes.

It proved to be a harbinger of worse days ahead – and an omen that life will be more extreme this century unless man can reverse the damage he has done.

Our rainfall in south-east Australia is dependent on La Nina and El Nino events, but recent research suggests that ocean currents in the Indian Ocean called the Indian Ocean Dipole – “positive Dipoles” can over-ride the potentially rain inducing La Nina events – and this is what has happened in the past 3 of these – no rain just prolonged drought. Positive dipoles were also responsible for the droughts that ruined thousands of outback pioneers at the start of the 20th century and the drought that spanned World War II.

Aerosol levels over Asia reduce Asian temperatures by 1-2 degrees Celsius and this change in the distribution of surface temperatures can force changes in wind direction and ocean currents and forces more heat into monsoon winds over NW Australia and increases high pressure systems in southern Australian which produce hotter, dryer conditions.

meanwhile, northern Queensland is lashed with floods from cyclones (Townsville receiving 242mm rainfall in 48hrs which is half Melbourne’s ANNUAL rainfall) and London is brought to a standstill by the worse snow conditions in 20 years.

 

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How powerful is that flash?

Written by Gary on January 25th, 2009

Following from my last blog on using a bit of math to use your flash in manual mode, I thought it best to look at another confusing topic – comparing flash light output powers.

Electronic flash units:

For electronic flash units without light modifiers, the light output is relatively easily compared with each unit as their light output power is measured as a Guide Number (GN) as outlined in the last blog.

The GN is usually stated in either meters or feet at ISO 100 and for a given zoom setting of the flash and a given room (eg. light colored 10 foot high ceiling).

Most flash units built in digital SLRs have a GN of ~11-13 in m at ISO 100.

The more powerful flash units (strobes or speedlights) have a GN of ~45-54 in m at ISO 100 when used at their telephoto setting (light beam equates to ~100mm focal length lens).

The older Metz 45 series flashes have a GN of 45 in m at ISO 100 but at wide beam coverage equivalent to a 35mm focal length lens.

The most powerful portable battery operated flash units (eg Metz 76MZ-5 digital) have a GN 76 in m at ISO 100 and at their longest telephoto setting.

BUT how do you compare these with studio flash units when these are rated in watt-seconds??

Unfortunately, the short answer is you can’t!

Watt-seconds refers to the ELECTRICAL power the flash capacitor is capable of discharging on full output.

1 watt-second = 1 Joule

Each flash unit will have a different efficiency in converting this electrical energy into light output, and furthermore the actual amount of light hitting the subject depends also upon what flash modifier is used with the studio flash – reflector type vs soft box, etc.

To further complicate matters, many manufacturers specify a value called EFFECTIVE Ws which is usually much higher than the TRUE Ws value and aims to be more reliably comparative between models.

The best way to compare is to actually measure the light output of a given setup using an incident flash meter at a given distance from the subject and use this to determine the GN:

GN in meters = aperture reading given by light meter at ISO 100 x distance from light meter to flash in meters

A low end studio flash tends to be rated at 150 Ws and is generally adequate for portraiture, although a much more versatile studio flash would be a 300 Ws unit.

Professional photographers wanting to turn ambient daylight into night so they can isolate a fashion subject will need a super powerful flash which are rated at 1200Ws-4800Ws.

Bowens rates their Esprit Gemini monobloc strobes at the following GN in m at ISO100:

  • Gemini 125 = 125Ws = GN 41m
  • Gemini 250 = 250Ws = GN 60m
  • Gemini 500 = 500Ws = GN 80m
  • Gemini 750 = 750Ws = GN 104m
  • Gemini 1000 = 1000Ws = GN 120m
  • Gemini 1500 = 1500Ws = GN 160m
  • NB. the digital (DX) versions and those rated 1000Ws or higher are not compatible with their portable Travel-Pak battery

To have some idea of what these high end flash units for fashion photographers can do, check out the Profoto range such as their 2400Ws ring flash for which you need a very expensive generator to provide the power.

A further consideration is the power of the modeling lamp in studio units – 100W is barely enough to view the effect and most prefer 150-200W lamps.

As they say, amateur photographers tend to worry about resolution and sharpness while professional photographers tend to be much more concerned with quality and versatility of their lighting, because at the end of the day, a large part of what makes an image visually appealing is the quality of the light, not the sharpness of the lens or how many megapixels the camera has.

The beam candlepower-second (BCPS) measure:

Some units may be rated in BCPS and although this unit can’t be precisely converted to GN, an approximate conversion which can be used is:

GN in feet = square root (BCPS x ISO / 20)

Other GN conversions:

Obviously to convert GN in feet to GN in meters:

GN in meters = GN in feet / 3.3

Converting GN for a different ISO is a bit more difficult:

GN at new ISO = GN at old ISO x sqrt(new ISO / old ISO)

in other words GN at ISO 200 is 1.4x that at ISO 100,

and, GN at ISO 400 is 2x that at ISO 100.


For tech heads, more information on quantifying light output can be found at:

 

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Electronic flash – the basics I – resorting to manual exposure when all else fails.

Written by Gary on January 16th, 2009

One area that many new photographers find difficult is electronic flash.

Whilst many are happy to just let the camera and flash do their thing in auto mode, often the flash exposure results are not what you want.

Now the simplest solution may be just to dial in a flash exposure compensation in auto mode, but sometimes even this does not solve your problem.

A common problem is under-exposure due to the flash just not being powerful enough for the given flash to subject distance, ISO and aperture – you need to change at least one of these to get your exposure up (ie. move in closer, increase the ISO and/or open up the aperture).

My preference is to resort to manual flash exposure as this removes all computer algorithms and light metering issues from your problem solving list, BUT it does require a bit of understanding of how the flash works and just a little mathematics.

Manual flash exposure – the basics:

In manual flash mode (not just manual exposure on the camera but manual mode on the flash), the flash should pump out the same amount of light each time for a give manual output setting.

Thus for manual flash for dummies, one could just experiment with the manual output setting and adjust it until you get the results you want and/or move the flash closer or further from the subject. In fact, with the trial and error possibilities of digital photography, this is probably the easiest path to go.

But if you want to really understand it, we need to know HOW much light is being pumped out for each manual output setting.

Fortunately, this is amount is usually available by the manufacturer and given as a Guide Number (GN) at ISO 100 and in metres or feet.

To use the GN value, set your camera to ISO 100 (bad luck if you have one of those Nikon dSLRs which don’t go down to ISO 100 – you need to do some more maths!), then calculate the aperture you need to use on the lens by dividing the GN by the flash to subject distance (make sure you are using metres or feet as per the GN).

aperture to use at ISO 100 = GN at ISO 100 in metres / flash to subject distance in metres

As the intensity of light falls by the square of the distance, if you double the distance to the subject, you will reduce the light by a quarter (ie. 2 f stops wider aperture will be needed).

If you halve the flash output by setting manual mode to M/2 or half, you will need to open your aperture by 1 f stop or double your ISO to maintain the same exposure.

BUT there are problems with this manual calculation method:

  • the GN is usually quoted for indoors in a “normal” room – it will give under-exposure if used outdoors with no walls to bounce light around, and it will give over-exposure if used in a small room with highly reflective walls such as bathrooms
  • for macrophotography, the higher the magnification, the greater the reduction in light, thus at 1:1 macro work you need to apply a compensation factor which would require you to open the aperture by ~2 f stops
  • when using attachments on the flash, it may alter the effective GN – eg. a diffuser may halve the amount of light getting to the subject
  • bouncing the flash off a wall requires you to calculate the distance from flash to wall and then wall to subject, and then allow that most walls will reduce the light by ~half
  • use of filters on your lens such as polarisers will require exposure compensation
  • modern flashes with zoom heads will have a different maximum GN for each zoom setting

The flash meter:

To address most of these issues with manual flash (but not macro or use of lens filters), one can use an incident flash meter which is usually placed at the subject and pointing towards the incoming light and gives an aperture reading for the ISO that was set on the meter. More expensive flash meters allow one to take a reading of light hitting a subject from the position of the camera but with these spot meters, errors may be introduced by the tones of the subject.

Flash meters can be the best solution when precise exposure control is required, particularly when determining exact exposures for a main light and fill light as well as rim lights.

Setting the camera for manual flash exposure:

On most cameras it is usual to set the camera to manual mode, set the ISO and aperture according to your flash calculations, and set your shutter speed to a level dependent on how much ambient light you want to see – the slower the aperture, the brighter the ambient light will be. Remember though that you can’t use a shutter speed faster than the sync speed for your camera (usually about 1/180th sec) unless you go into FP or HSS flash mode but that’s another, more complicated story.

Remember, that for normal flash, changing the shutter speed will NOT affect the flash exposure BUT it will change the brightness of subjects lit by ambient continuous light sources.

More information on flash here.

 

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Panasonic FZ28 wins dpreview.com’s compact super zoom tests

Written by Gary on January 16th, 2009

dpreview.com has just released results of their group tests for compact digital camera super zoom cameras with zoom ranges 18-20x.

While the Canon SX10 IS (28-560mm range) was joint winner with the Panasonic FZ28 (27-486mm range), the FZ28 was regarded as the camera to take given its smaller size and its HD movie mode, although the Canon has added advantages of having a hot shoe, a better viewfinder, longer range and an articulating LCD screen.

The Olympus SP-565UZ with its 20x zoom was also recommended.

NOTE: the review did not look at the new 25x zooms from Kodak and Olympus.

 

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New cloud cover, astro seeing and wind forecasting website

Written by Gary on January 11th, 2009

I have been waiting patiently and finally someone has created a graphical weather map style website which forecasts low, middle and high level cloud cover, wind strength and direction, dew, astronomical sky transparency and seeing.

See SkippySky.com.au.

Currently there are forecasts for Australia, Europe and Nth America, with the data derived from the American NCEP GFS computer weather model data (ie. not from Australia’s Bureau of Meterology which is at bom.gov.au and thus may have different forecasts).

This website will be very useful for astrophotography as well as general outdoor photographers wishing to find out the likelihood of good cloud conditions for their photos.

 

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A lesson on backpacks for cameras

Written by Gary on January 10th, 2009

Camera back packs are a problematic area – everyone has different needs, preferences, equipment and not one backpack will solve each person’s needs let alone everyone’s needs.

My favorite backpack for urban day use is actually a cheap hiking day pack from a camping store. I love this because it is super light, inconspicuous and doesn’t shout out that there might be expensive cameras in there worth stealing, and I can even give it to staff in art galleries to stow with minimal risk they will steal anything from it as it looks like all the other bags they stow for people wanting to browse the art galleries.

Of course, the BIG problem is that if you have more than 1 camera/lens kit, they tend to rub against each other and there is no protection from dropping the bag. I partly address this by using a lot of bubble wrap and I don’t drop the bag!

The second problem is that these are not optimised for carrying heavy (>3kg) camera kits around all day and remaining comfortable.

The bags I like LEAST are the front access style where you have to place the backpack on the ground and unzip the whole bag to get to your camera and lenses out – OK for photoshoots perhaps but NOT for urban use and not on nature shoots with wet ground – for the Canon/Nikon guys with their favourite 70-200mm f/2.8 lens attached – these bags are about the only ones that will fit them – but they are NOT for me!

I thus bought a Lowepro Stealth Reporter D650 AW shoulder bag style but one where you can unzip a central top zip to gain access to your camera – fits my cameras nicely, but once you get 2 or 3 camera/lens kits at 1.8kg each, it gets very uncomfortable carrying around all day.

My latest backpack – the Naneu Pro K3L:

So recently I thought I would try another style – the dual compartment Naneu K3L backpack which is similar to Lowepro Rover Plus AW BUT has a unique feature which I love – a support system that allows airflow on your back reducing perspiration build up and thus keeps your back dry.

It seems a nicely made bag with a separate compartment for a 15.4″ laptop and and upper compartment for a jacket and your main shooting camera or whatever else you want to carry there – I carry my Olympus E510 mounted to ZD 50-200mm SWD lens there because the combination is too long mounted for the lower camera compartment (although easily fits unmounted).

In the lower camera compartment, I can store my main Canon equipment such as the Canon 1DMIII mounted with EF 24-105mm L lens, and have room for 1-2 580EX flashes, 135mm f/2.0L lens, 85mm f/1.8 lens and a 1.4x TC with a little room to spare – see:

Naneu

Instead of the Canon 1DMIII with 24-105mm lens, I can fit the Olympus E510 mounted with a ZD 7-14mm lens.

The backpack has a nice rear mount for a tripod, has all weather cover and a few other niceties, but above all you can walk all day very comfortably with a fairly heavy camera load.

BUT NOW HERE IS THE LESSON:

If you use this backpack, it is quite easy not to realise that the zip to the lower compartment was not zipped up last time you used it.

This morning I was horrified when I picked the back pack up from the boot of my station wagon to hear the sickening thud of my beautiful 1kg ZD 50-200mm SWD lens hiiting the bricks from a height of about 1m!

I had “temporarily” stowed the 50-200mm in the lower compartment after my last expedition – and those compartments seem designed to empty their contents onto the ground if unzipped and you pick the backpack up!

LUCKILY it was a pro Olympus lens with great build quality and not one of my Canon lenses – the prime impact was on the rear lens cap which cracked and split half way, and the secondary impact was on the UV filter – BUT the lens itself sustained zero damage – AF works well, zoom is smooth, optics fine with no apparent adverse impact on image quality.

So reminder to myself when using this bag – ALWAYS zip the lower compartment after use or at the very least snap lock the dedicated buckle straps for that compartment.

More information on backpacks here.

The other downsides of the K3L is that these designs by necessity are rather bulky and stick out a long way from your back which tends to mean you knock into things when you turn around, and it weighs about 2.5kg by itself – so you are pushing to get it on airline cabin baggage.

see NaneuPro website.

 

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