benhider.com/blog

As you must know by now, I could talk about cameras for hours, and I’m sure I’ve bored many people being nerdy at parties. Canon are announcing new cameras today and the most interesting is the new Canon G11. Normally people who stop me in the street and talk to me about the massive camera I’m carrying will ask “How many megapixels is that?” and I have to say 8, as I normally carry my old 20D. They normally look confused as I have a pro lens, battery grip and flash bracket attached which makes it look better than it is. Realistically though, any images I submit to agencies are never as big as “8 megapixels.” Understanding the megapixel race is all about understanding the general publics view of what is good. More megapixels = Better camera = Better quality = Better Images. None of this is true. The new Canon G11 understands this and is the first time an update on a camera actually drops megapixels from 15 to 10. Hopefully this means better low light capabilities and better image quality which is Canon’s claim. They’re plugging the camera as a photojournalists carryall camera. I’ve been wanting a camera I can carry with me all the time and have been looking at the 4/3 cameras. The G11 would be at the top of the list, but the unwanted swivel screen and lack of HD video is something to consider (not to mention that I don’t have $499.99)

BUT does it shoot as portrait when held naturally??? At 12.3 megapixels it’s gonna be priced at $799.99 (with 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 lens) or $899.99 (with 17mm f2.8 lens and optical viewfinder)

I’ve never shot with a half frame camera, but was in class with this guy who made some amazing images with one. I’ve always thought the portrait composition of the image would be a hindrance (although you could always rotate the camera I guess?). When I had my Holga with the 645 crop it often ruined my images even more than the plastic lens and the light leaks. Here’s the camerapedia page with all the history and junk.

I’ve finally started being booked for some more freelance work, which is great (yet means I have a dry spell coming) but still won’t allow me to buy one of these new Mamiya’s. I was shooting a salesforce.com corporate event for Fifth Avenue Digital today, which was a lot of work, but pretty fun and especially nice as it was my first event where I had my own editor. It must have saved me at least 6 hours of worrying over the 2,000 images I took.

If I worked every day for the next year, I may be able to think about buying a Mamiya DL33. At 33 Megapixels, it sensor will allows a pixel size of 7.2 microns. at a size of 36 x 48mm. I could probably have bought one of these with all the money I’ve spent on film, however the lifespan of a digital camera’s only about 2 or 3 years, which means the investment needs to make you some regular dough.

I remember my grandfather telling me that he remembers seeing one of the first computers in England and that it took up a huge room and just calculated simple problems. And now just yesterday I was in K&M deciding whether I should buy a 8GB  Compact Flash card for $70 or a 4GB card for $40. Here’s what a Gigabite used to look like ony 20 years ago compared to a 1GB SD card now!!

(via Crave & ToxicJunction) I love stuff like this because it reminds me that when I’m really wanting the latest technology, that it’s all fleeting and impermanent and if I just wait another year, I’ll be wanting something new and better!

Thanks to the crave blog, here are the specific details of the upcoming Canon 5D Mark II. They say the body only price will be $2,699. It’s pretty exciting!!!!

• 21-megapixel full-frame sensor
• 1920×1080 video at 30fps
• Maximum ISO 25,600
• Digic 4 image processor
• 3.9fps burst unlimited JPEG/14 raw with UDMA card
• 15-point AF
• 920,000-dot 3-inch LCD
• Live View

One of the 5D bodies matched with the newly released Zeiss lenses and a 32GB Sandisk Compact Flash would probably make me wave goodbye to 35mm film forever. The Zeiss 50mm 1.4 will run around $1000.

Canon have also released information on the new Canon G10 that’s due for release in October. It sports 15 megapixels and a 28-140mm F2.7-4.5 lens and is going to be the same $499 as the G9.

I’m sure that I don’t use my brain that much when I take pictures. I’m also sure there is always something going through my head, however insignificant. I don’t think the pictures I take would be included under the umbrella that Lomo are creating when they made this book “Don’t think, Just Shoot.” If you haven’t visited their website in a while you should, if only to see the variety of cameras that they now carry.  (See Minox GT-S photo below – retails for $575.00)

I keep getting emails that begin “If you thought you couldn’t afford a Hasselblad, then think again…” The basic premise is that if I thought that the H3D was out of my budget, then I was wrong. It is now ONLY $17,999.00. Does the marketing department at Hasselblad think that this is a good sales pitch. Do they really think that $18,000 is affordable? They have just announced a new upgrade to the H3D camera that now gives it a 50 Megapixel sensor, available in October. The sensor is made by Kodak which I think is excellent as it means Kodak could seriously be making the transition from film a little better than Polaroid. Images shot at full resolution will be 6132×8176 which is enormous. I would love to play with this camera for a few days, owning it would be impossible and an investment that is sure to depreciate so quickly. I imagine renting it would be the way to go. I found the 39 megapixel one for $500 a day or $2000 a week here.

Hasselblad actually have a really good and interesting website (if you are a camera nerd like myself). One of my favorite parts is the Hasselblad in space section where they show all of the cameras that have traveled into space and more importantly to the surface of the moon. Below is one that was used on 20 July 1969 by Neil Armstrong to take the first lunar landing pictures. Annoyingly, the cameras never returned to earth as they were left on the surface of the moon and only the film backs were taken back.

This may explain why you can spend thousands of dollars on one lens. (Optical glass can cost $1000 a Kg!)

Being a Canon user, here are some Canon videos that show how the glass is made too (using a ‘temperature gradient type continuous slow cooling furnace’ – try saying that too quickly)

Part 2 and 3 of Lens video after the break and a Canon 30 fps set up for a baseball game

Pages: 1 2

And here is an advertisement for a more modern polaroid camera with Hugh Laurie in. Over here you will know him from the TV medical drama “House,” but back home in the UK he is well known from things like “Blackadder” and “A Bit of Fry and Laurie.”

There are a few variations of this pinhole camera on the web. The black one takes 120 film and has building instructions here, and the colorful one takes 35mm. Either way they are awesome, and something I wish I thought of doing when we had that assignment in Photo 1 during my freshman year at SUNY Purchase. The last image is an actual digital camera built by lego which can be used for taking both still images and live video and connects via a standard USB. It can be built into a LEGO robot as seen here.

I would insist on world peace and then buy one of these. While in San Francisco this spring, we walked into a camera shop and the clerk saw my fascination in all of their old medium format camera’s. I am sure partly to annoy the hell out of me, and partly to show off, he handed me one of these. I was quite amazed at how nice it felt and also how great everything looked through the viewfinder. If you have ever shot 4×5, you know that ground glass will trick you into taking many pictures that looked beautiful at the time, but don’t translate to film. This camera at least makes that mistake a less permanent one. Although the $36,000 price tag is a hefty start for any small business to invest. You could always lease one from Calumet for $1,047 a month for 48 months, or rent one here for $500 a day. I’m sure if you had the client base, it would pay for itself quick enough. Unfortunately I can just dream.

Features
• Adjustable control grip allows you to enjoy ergonomically correct
shooting positions
• Grip display lets you view the camera settings from any
shooting position
• Direct-drive mirror with little or no vibration ensures no
camera interference
• Large, built-in 6 x 7cm LCD touch screen, offers a variety of
functions and pre-defined settings – just a tap away
• Digital back can be used with all leading large format cameras
Superior Handling and Control – and comfortable
• Combined analog and digital interface for quick access to camera settings
• Keep your tripod setup, switch from portrait to landscape by only
turning the camera back, not the camera
• Full remote control from the computer
• Screen interface available in seven languages
• Easily upgradeable firmware

Available Schneider AFD lenses:
• AFD Xenotar 2.8/80 PQS
• AFD Super-Angulon 2.8/50 HFT PQS
• AFD Tele-Xenar 4/150 HFT-PQS
• AFD Tele-Xenar 2.8/180 PQ
• AFD Variogon 4.6/60-140 PQS

The 80mm F 2.8 Lens is $3,100 and they go up to about $6,500.

There was a story about this in the New York Times, just before I left for India. This is the first digital camera and is over 30 years old. It was invented by Steven J. Sasson, an electrical engineer at Eastman Kodak. Who would have known that they were creating their downfall. It is about 12″ x 12″ and records the images to cassette tapes!

It took 23 seconds to record the digitized image to the cassette. The image was viewed by removing the cassette from the camera and placing it in a custom playback device. This playback device incorporated a cassette reader and a specially built frame store. This custom frame store received the data from the tape, interpolated the 100 captured lines to 400 lines, and generated a standard NTSC video signal, which was then sent to a television set.