Behind the Images

You may have noticed that I've been very quiet on this blog for a very long time. The reason is that I've been spending a lot of time pursuing my other main interest: photography. I have found the time I invest in that to be very rewarding, so it occupies all of my available free time. The purpose of this very short post is to point you to where you can find me when I'm quiet here.

Recover Stolen Camera Gear with Lenstag

Have you ever been the victim of camera theft? Thankfully I haven't, but ever since a colleague of mine recounted his months-long journey to recover his DSLR and lenses, I've been giving the topic a lot of thought. His story involved many calls to the the police, and hours spent scouring the Internet to find his camera's serial number embedded in EXIF data on Flickr. He then painstakingly followed the activities of the thieves on social media until he had enough evidence for the police to approach them. Luckily for the rest of us, there's a potentially useful (and free) service that aims to make the processes of locating stolen camera gear a little easier: Lenstag.com

PSA: Level Up Images with Lightroom

This is going to be one of the shortest posts I've ever written. I'd like to take this opportunity to make a public service announcement. If you have any interest whatsoever in photography, please do yourself (plus the world) a favor and take the time to learn Adobe Lightroom. It isn't even a quarter as difficult as Photoshop to learn, yet it will do wonders for your photographs.

It wasn't all that long ago that I used to think the auto enhance features of programs like Picasa were sufficient to improve my images. If I could invent a time machine, the first thing I would do would be to go back in time and yell at myself to start using Lightroom (okay well maybe after I tell myself to buy Apple and Adobe stock, along with some Bitcoins).

I learned through a combination of friends with similar interests, blog posts, and tutorials. Here's a good compilation of links to get you started. If you don't believe me, check out the before and after examples below (may not work correctly on a mobile browser). All edits were done with basic Lightroom tools and didn't require any complex masking, layering, etc. Some edits are subtle, but often that is all it takes to make an average picture great.

Getting Published Isn't Just for the Pros

If you are an aspiring photographer hoping to turn pro, or even a hobbyist like myself, you've likely spent hours shooting and processing images, comparing your work to the work of pros, and finally concluding, “man I suck.” That’s how I’ve felt ever since I took up photography as a hobby in 2010. It’s not necessarily a bad way to feel as it keeps me grounded and pushes me to get better. However, it’s nice every once in a while to receive some validation that I don’t quite suck as much as I think. It’s especially nice when that validation comes from a source as prestigious as the Smithsonian. Read on to find out how I was able to get an image published in Air and Space magazine, as well as some tips I learned along the way.

Rediscover Photography with the Fuji X100S

Just a couple of short months ago, I was browsing one of my favorite tech blogs (Engadget) when I ran across an announcement for the Nikon Coolpix A, a relatively tiny camera with a massive APS-C sensor crammed in. As a gadget-head, that certainly got my attention. However, what ended up piquing my interest even further wasn't the article, but rather a number of reader comments referencing the Fuji X100S. I like to pride myself in being well appraised of new technology announcements, but here was something I had never heard of. “Fuji? Didn't they used to make film? What are they doing now?” I thought. 

I can say with absolute certainty that I’m now fully aware of what Fuji is doing, and I’m very impressed. So impressed, in fact, that I quickly ditched my Sony RX100, cashed in a bunch of Southwest Airlines miles (that I earned while playing the frequent flyer game) for Amazon gift cards, and bought myself a shiny new X100S. 

After a few weeks with it, I’ve decided that it’s time to share my impressions. I thought I had learned the basics of photography in the three years since I took up this hobby, but the X100S has taught me that I have so much more to learn. Even those of you who have been shooting for much longer than I have, will definitely want to take note of this camera. It very well could encourage you to rediscover photography all over again. 

Essential Image Comparison Tools

Last year, I wrote a post about some great hardware comparison tools to use when looking for your next camera. As cool as those sites are, they are only part of the camera research toolbox. What should matter more for your next camera is the quality of the images it produces. On that note, I recently came across two image comparison tools that I thought I should share. Both of these tools offer handy side-by-side comparison images of the exact same subjects, taken with various cameras, across a range of ISO sensitivities.

There’s no question that these tools fully amount to “pixel peeping.” That means looking at images at 100% resolution and comparing the smallest details. While I think doing that can be valuable for comparing one camera to the next, try to stop doing that once you actually get the camera. A memorable image can be blurry, noisy, improperly framed, poorly lit, etc. The subject, story, emotions, and so much more, are far more important than any pixel-level imperfections. See what I mean by checking out this Anti-Pixel Peeping thread.

That said, I like to know that I’ve done everything I can (within budget) to ensure that my gear isn't what’s preventing me from getting the shots that I want. These tools help me know what a camera is capable of under ideal conditions. I strongly recommend bookmarking the following two sites for your next camera search.

A Beginner’s Guide to Taking the DSLR Plunge

I recently had the opportunity to upgrade my DSLR through an awesome online deal. In the process of setting up and playing with my new camera, I got to thinking about the road I've taken from casual point-and-shoot photography to using more serious photography gear. I decided that rather than bore you to tears with a deeply technical review of the camera, I thought I’d take this time to relate why I finally took the DSLR plunge and cover some of the things that you should consider if you’re on the verge of taking the same plunge.

My recent upgrade involved moving from a Canon T2i to a Canon T4i for only $130. I did this by purchasing the deal described in this post, and then selling my T2i body plus the 18-55mm lens from the T4i kit. It was a relatively minor upgrade, but I ended up with a camera that has a faster processor, articulating touch screen, wireless master capability, and better low-light performance for a relative pittance. Wait, $130 is a pittance? Not really, but once you take the DSLR plunge, you’ll see why it starts to feel that way.

So why do I call it a plunge? Aren't we just talking about buying a nicer camera in the same way that one might compare a Honda Accord to a BMW 5 series?

No, not at all.

I was once guilty of thinking that way about DSLRs, but I've come to realize that they are really more like Pandora’s box than a simple camera upgrade. A DSLR most definitely is a nicer camera than a point-and-shoot, but you won’t necessarily end up with better pictures, and it can’t always replace a point-and-shoot. It took me a very long time to realize why, and I’d like to help others avoid some of that frustration. Read on to find out what I mean and learn if you're ready to take the plunge.

SanDisk Pushes the SD Card Speed Barrier

I love photography. I might be horrible at it, but my fondness for recording my experiences runs unabated by my lack of talent. It closely compliments one of my other loves, travel. Anyone who knows me, and knows how much I love to travel, has probably heard me say that I don’t buy souvenirs when I travel. The only souvenir I like to take home with me is my photographs. They allow me to capture memories that I’ll still be enjoying long after a cheap souvenir has been relegated a storage bin.

To be sure that I don’t miss a shot, I like to have both a nice camera and a fast memory card. I’m not an expert in the memory card space, but I've long been happy with the speed and reliability of SanDisk cards. Not long ago, I purchased the SanDisk Extreme Pro 16 GB SDHC UHS-1 card (wow, that’s a mouthful). It might be overkill for some, but I like knowing that if anything is slowing me down, it’s not something I can easily control like the memory card. So how fast is it?

Goodbye Canon S95, Hello Sony RX100

You might be surprised to read that title if you've read my Canon S95 post. The fact is that I even surprised myself by switching camera vendors after having bought nothing but Canon for the past eight years. About a month or so ago, I sold my beloved Canon S95 and purchased the highly praised Sony RX100. This was not a decision I made lightly, and I spent months deciding what camera I could buy that would give me as close to the DSLR performance of my T2i as possible, without sacrificing the extreme portability of a point-and-shoot. At least for the time being, the RX100 is the best camera I could find in my price range that met that goal.

In addition to being surprised, you might recall how wowed I was by the Sony RX1. In that same post, I referenced the also impressive Sony NEX-6, and lamented the RX100’s high megapixel count (relative to its sensor size). Ultimately, it was budget that won out over all other considerations. If I wasn't spending the equivalent monthly salary of 37 Thai rice farmers each and every month on daycare, this post might have been all about the RX1 instead. The thought of putting my kids through college pushed me to reconsider my aversion to the RX100’s megapixel count, and I’m glad I did.

The RX100 is a VERY impressive camera. That said, at $648 it’s still FAR from cheap. However it's cheaper than the alternatives I considered. There may come a day when a mirrorless NEX-style camera might come back into consideration, but for now that style of camera isn't quite ready to replace my DSLR (with its arsenal of lens options), and not quite small enough to function as a point-and-shoot alternative.

Okay, enough background. If you're reading this, you probably have some interest in photography and/or gadgets. So why the RX100? Is it really worth the equivalent of THREE garden-variety point-and-shoots (or 11 months as a Thai rice farmer)? Read on to find out what’s so cool about this camera and why I was drawn to it.

Sony RX1 (Wow, Wow, and Wow)

Sony announced the new RX1 camera this week, and it literally made my jaw drop. If you’ve read my S95 post, or if you’re a photography fan, you likely know very well how important image sensor size can be in a digital camera. It was for that reason that I let out my first “Wow” while reading the RX1’s press release and saw that they have managed to stuff a full frame image sensor in a body that’s not much bigger than your typical point and shoot camera. That is a truly incredible engineering feat.

Check out the massive difference in sensor size below between a point and shoot like the popular Canon S100, the Sony RX1, and the pro-level Canon 5D Mark III:

Olympics Tech

It’s Olympics time again! I’m not typically an avid viewer of televised sporting events, but for some reason, I always get really excited for the Olympics and find the time to watch as much as I can. Well this year, I’ll have many more ways to get my Olympics fix as the world of technology has changed drastically in the last four years.

The idea that mobile technology has been growing explosively in recent years is something I’ve been aware of, but it never really hit me just how much it has exploded until I saw the great infographic from iProspect below. Click on the image to expand it, or download the full PDF here.

Those are some pretty astonishing stats for smartphones and tablets. Also, the growth of Twitter and Facebook is simply mind-boggling. Like I said, I knew it was happening, I just hadn’t realized that it has all happened so fast. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised then this is the first Olympics where athletes will have to juggle the opposing obligations of updating their fans through social media, while also trying to keep their mind focused and in the game. Take a look at this amusing (and a bit scary) article about how much of a distraction this new social media craze has become for the athletes.  

Given the growth in mobile, it’s also not surprising that someone finally decided to target those devices for disseminating Olympic coverage. As a mobile technology fan, and an Olympics fan, I’m very excited to see a variety of apps available on iOS for coverage of Olympic news, photos, and video. A big departure from years past is also the availability of live video coverage from web and mobile apps (albeit in a handicapped way, see below).

Size Me Up

You may have read my post about the Canon S95 and what I look for in a camera. In that post, I made a brief reference to the website Camera Size, but didn't talk about it further. I’d just like to use this short post to specifically call some attention to the fantastic tool I use whenever I am looking for a new camera, as well as mention another great tool that has just been released by the same developer, Sensor Size.

Why oh Why, My S95

I almost feel embarrassed to write this article as there are legions of professional photographers out there with oodles more experience in photography than I have. If any pros are reading this, please don’t hesitate to call me out if I’m wrong about something. I am a gadget fan though, so I do feel qualified to at least tell you why the Canon S95 is one of my favorite gadgets. I’d also like to explain a few key points about what I look for in a camera that may be valuable to many non-professionals, or those just starting to dip their toes into the treacherously expensive waters of photography.

The Canon S95

If you were to peek into my photography gear bag, you’d first see a large Canon T2i DSLR camera, along with a small assortment of stupidly expensive lenses (seriously, I know it takes a lot of R&D to develop these things, but come on now). While looking at all that kit, you’d probably be wondering why an amateur hobbyist like myself needs it all, and in the process I bet you’d probably miss the tiny Canon S95 sitting in the corner of the bag. If you don’t believe how easy it would be to miss the S95, check out this great size comparison of the two cameras from CameraSize.com.

That brings me to why I love the Canon S95. Why would I need it when I have an expensive DSLR with a high quality lens? Well, given the enormous size of a DSLR in comparison to a point and shoot, you can likely imagine many awkward situations when a camera that large is simply overkill, too heavy to carry, or attracts too much attention. Why the S95 and not just any garden-variety point and shoot? As someone that has come to enjoy the total control that a DSLR gives me over a photo, it is hard to go back to a point and shoot that only offers me the automatic modes like Auto, Sports, Beach, or Fireworks. In addition to the qualities I will mention below, I want a camera that gives me total control over settings like shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, among others.

The S95 gives me manual control of all of those things in a package so incredibly small and light, that I barely notice I’m carrying it. When all of that manual control isn’t needed and I simply want to go full auto, ram the shutter button down, and relax when I’m on vacation, the S95 does a fine job as well. 

I should mention that the S95 has since been replaced by the S100, and I fully expect that the S105 (assumed name) will be released sometime this fall. Normally I would say go right out and buy the S100 over the S95. At this point, without ever having used the S100, I’m not sure. Some have suggested that while the feature set of the S100 is improved, the image quality is slightly reduced. Check out this review of the S100 on The Verge, as well as this side by side comparison of images from the two cameras and decide for yourself. Also, here is a spec for spec comparison between the S95 and the S100. Ultimately, I think the S95 must still have value as it is currently selling for only a few dollars less than the S100 on Amazon (over a year and a half after its release).

Before I get to what to look for in a camera, I’d like to point out one more awesome little gadget that is permanently attached to my S95. I’m referring to the crab-like appendage known as the Joby GorillaPod Micro 250 tripod seen in the image above. Perhaps in testament to the popularity of the S95, some of Joby’s own product marketing shots show an unbranded S95 atop their tripod. This was a great and inexpensive addition to my camera. It is so unobtrusive that I can keep it permanently attached and barely even notice. If you’ve ever tried to take a picture in low light, you’ll notice how essential it is to keep the camera as still as possible. When no suitable flat surface exists to place my camera on, this micro tripod has often fit the bill. It certainly won’t do what a full tripod will, but it’s better than nothing at all. When stowed, the tripod does cover the battery door, but it is easy enough to swing it out of the way to open the door.

Is the S95 the be-all end-all of point and shoot cameras? How can I say this? Mmmm..No. For one, the pop-up flash is irritatingly located right where I would normally put my left index finger. Two, it’s pretty darn expensive as far as point and shoots go (currently $350-375). I’m sure I could find additional negatives, but my point is that it is a fantastic point and shoot that does everything I want it to do. Ultimately, each person will have their own set of requirements. It’s also a Canon and I’m partial to Canon as I’ve had a long and positive history with their products. For amusement sometime, ask a room of passionate  photographers whether they prefer Canon or Nikon and then watch the exchange from behind safety glass. For a full review of the S95, check out this one at Steve’s Digicams.

No matter what point and shoot camera you buy, here are some things I’d recommend keeping in mind when comparing the average $175 point and shoot camera to top-end compact cameras like the S95.