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Can the EP-2 Be a Pro Camera?

"Fundy" — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 04:24:03 +0000

It’s official, I’ve sold off my last DSLR and 35mm lens. The only “high end” camera I own is the Olympus EP-2 along with the 20mm 1.7 and 45mm 2.8 (remember, Micro 4/3 cameras have a 2X lens factor). Today, I took that little baby out on the town to see what it could do. Just for fun, I set myself up with some constraints. I only shot in manual, only used the two lenses listed above. Additionally, just for something different I only shot in 1:1 and 9:16 panorama format. After shooting in 2:3 ratio for so long, I want something a bit different, a bit fun. For me square format means those old Hasselblads that I could never figure out how to use. The 9:16 ratio has something about it. With all of the wide screen TVs, widescreen cinemas, and panoramic cameras out, the format really interests me. Exposure Shooting in manual is sooo easy with this little thing. While the electronic viewfinder seems a bit odd at first, the bonus is that you have a live histogram all of the time. Just watch the histogram fall into place as you adjust the aperture or shutter speed. Getting proper exposure is pretty much a 100% guarantee. Manual Focus One of the bonuses of shooting with the EP-2, is that whenever you adjust the manual focus ring, the viewfinder auto 7x or 10x zooms in. So, you have a mega close up of where you are focusing. It works like a charm. I did have a few shots out of focus due to moving around after focusing. User error. But, when it is on, the focus is on. Quality Overall, the quality looks incredible. Is it on par with a high end DSLR? No, of course not, the sensor is half the size. But, as you can see, the clarity is far from in this 100% crop. This image was actually taken with the 1:1 ratio option, so I didn’t even use the full frame. As a test, I did a vertical crop at 5:4 and did some quick test prints at Costco. The 16×20 looks incredible. Absolutely no issues at all. It is sharp as a tack. The 20×30 print, lost a little resolution, but at arms length, in a frame, you would be hard pressed to find any fault with it. Some More Shots Here are the rest of the shots from the day. I hope you enjoy them. Fundy

WPPI Roadshow Road Trip – Learn About Finao

"Fundy" — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:02:19 +0000

Finao is my favorite album company for a few reasons. First of all, they make books. Their albums are made with traditional book binding techniques that will stand the test of time. That means the your sample or your client’s wedding album will not fall apart. They are sturdy. So sturdy, you could probably clock you significant other upside the head and knock him cold. Another reason is that they have a gagillion cover options, size options etc. But one of the problems is that many people feel overwhelmed. But fear not. It’s simple. Choose your album by the type of photography, choose your size and your cover options. Check out the fun Road Trip up to Seattle with a little education about Finao along the way.

Nikon Finally Releases New Lenses

"Fundy" — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:39:13 +0000

Well, they didn’t just release new lenses. They also released the D3100. The only thing really exciting about it, is the constant AF while shooting video, and a dedicated video button. While, I’m not that excited about the camera itself, that means that video is going to play an increasing roll in Nikon’s cameras. We can expect the same technology to go into the D700 replacement, probably a D700s, with full HD and the new live AF. But the big news is the new 85 1.4 with crystal nano technology. This has been a lens that everyone has wanted for years. The old 85 1.4 was a fantastic lens, but it was getting long in the teeth. And without an AF-S motor on it, it was slow to focus. But this new 85, if it is anything like the 50mm 1.4, it should be a big hit. My new 50 1.4 is an amazing piece of engineering. For professional wedding photographers, the next lens in the lineup should be the most exciting. Well, at least if you shoot like I do. I spend most of my time on the wide end (14-24 2.8) or the long end (70-200 2.8VR). The only time I really spend any time in the mid-range is during the formals and towards the end of the night when everything is winding down. The new 24-120 f/4 VR should fill the shoes nicely. At about half the price of the 24-70 2.8, it makes much more sense to me as a workable midrange zoom. The last lens, is just a wave to the casual shooter. It is the FX version of the 18-200 DX, which isn’t a bad lens by any stretch of the word. Granted you don’t want to do anything professional with it, but it is a great weekend lens with the family at the park. Stick that with the 50 1.4 and you have a great travel combination. The new 28-300 VR looks to be the new family/travel lens. Since the 18-200 was such a great performer, I expect this one to be also. Fundy

70-200 VRII Review – Crystal Nano Coating!

"Fundy" — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:12:19 +0000

The running joke in the studio last week was, “well, it has crystal nano coating.” I love to make fun of lens manufacturer naming. It seems like they spend all day trying to come up with new letters and words to tack onto the end of lens names. Some of my favorite names are from Tamron. They really have the naming stuff down. “AF18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical (IF)” . Now that is a name. Well, the new Nikon 70-200 2.8 has a pretty dang cool name, so it must be good. (AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II). And the bonus? I has crystal nano coating! It must be good. Many of the new lenses from Nikon have their new nano coating. What is it? Well it just adds extra color contrast. Is it good? Yep, this lens produces some pretty dang cool contrast.

This is a recent photo from a senior shoot. As you can see it has awesome contrast and great pop. I’m not going to get into semantics here. Is it better than the old one? Yes. And it should be it is about 10 years newer. It it sharper? Yes, I think it is? So, should you get it? Well, will it bring more profit to your business? Only you can decide that. Remember, spending money on display albums and prints should be first in a business, then gear. Fundy

Holy Perfect Compact Camera Batman

"Fundy" — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:25:40 +0000

OK, I think that Fuji Film spent a few years inside of my noggin and actually listened to what I wanted out of a compact camera. You all know it. After spending all week at work with a heavy DSLR, the last thing you want to do is take one home for the weekend or go camping. But then all you hear all weekend from your spouse or family is: why don’t you have a camera? And I’m usually thinking it myself. The answer usually is cuz it’s a pain in the rear, but that doesn’t go over well. Thankfully, Fuji, I think, has saved me. They’ve just announced, and I’ve already pre-ordered the FinePix F300XR. Itsy Bitsy Look at this little beauty. It’s got some huge zoom range, 24mm to 300 and something ish. OK, that is cool. But you know what else is cool? They did some super mumbo jumbo cool thing where the lens elements fold within the lens barrel so the camera can be smaller. When it needs to go long, the telephoto lens pops out.When it needs to go wide, whamo, cool. Look how dang small that thing is. Uber Cool? Well, there are a lot of uber cool things here. But what is the uber coolest? Hybrid AF technology. Have you ever wanted to take your compact camera and throw it on the ground and jump up and down on it because you just missed every shot of your kid trying to blow out the candles on a cake? Why? Because compact cameras totally blow at focus. Totally blow? Why? Because they use contrast focus, where the camera uses the contrast in the scene to focus. Low light? No contrast, no focus. DSLRs use phase focus where they take two views of the image and match them up (kind of like what you see in a rangefinder). It’s faster in low light or precise sports focus. So what the heck did Fuji do? Well they added in extra sensors so the camera can contrast focus in good light and phase focus in bad light. The result? They are promising focus speeds as fast as mid range DSLRs. Wahoo. I’m in right there. You got me hooked. But wait, there’s more They have created a way to make natural looking background focus without the expensive lens. We all love shooting at f1.2 or f1.4 and getting that creamy background. Well they take multiple shots with the background going more and more out of focus and blend them together in the camera. How cool is that? Check it out. Sure it won’t replace the DSLR for pro shoots, but it will sure make those pictures in the park with the kids look a whole lot better. The super extra bonus? Fuji Skin Tone=yummy. Before the D700 came out I used to shoot with the Fuji S5. When that camera came out, it was the holy grail for skin tone. It had, by far, the best skin tone and auto white balance of any camera out there. Luckily, I think Nikon traded their camera technology for Fuji’s color technology in that deal and now the newer Nikons have great skin tone. Especially with their Vivid settings. But, the skin tone is rockin’ on the Fuji’s as are the cool film modes. So I’m excited and I’ve got one on pre-order. Could this be the perfect pro photographer’s point and shoot camera? Possibly. Only time will tell. Fundy

iPad review for photographers and creative professionals

"Fundy" — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:13:41 +0000

I received my iPad on Saturday. A nice lady in a brown UPS truck gave it to me and had me sign my life away. The first thing I notices was that it was heavier than I thought it would be. Last month my wife bought me a Kindle for my birthday and while I knew the iPad was heavier than the Kindle, I didn’t expect there to be that much of a difference. When you use it as a ‘computer’ you don’t notice the weight. But once you use it as a ‘reader’ the weight is evident. Overall Impressions My overall impression is that the iPad is a game changer. When I first saw it, I thought, “Just a big iPod Touch. What the heck is Apple thinking.” But after using it for a while, I can clearly see that we are getting a glimpse of the future of computing. One reviewer said that Apple just killed the mouse – and he may just be right. What immediately struck me is that you can collaborate on this computer. You can lay it down and have a group of people around the screen, all with the ability to grab, move and create something. My immediate feeling is that this device is going to be a game changer for creatives. And this is supported by many of the top selling apps. Many of these apps are made specifically for mocking up IU, designs, even sports plays. As a reader I think that anyone who has owned a Kindle will be both pleasantly surprised and also know that the iPad is not a replacement.

The first impression when reading a book is that the page is crisp, clear and oh, so crisp. Wait. I said that. It is a pure pleasure to read books on the iPad. But, there are two caveats. The first one is that the iPad is pretty, real pretty. iBooks comes with the first Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. The text is very crisp and the color photos are beautiful. That is where the book reader shines. If the book has photographs, they are amazing. But, I think that heavy readers will be disappointed with the eye strain created by a back lit machine.

Photos

This is one area where the iPad truly shines. The photos on it look insane. They are bright and full of life. For anyone who grew up on slide film, the moment you put those slides on a light box, they came to life. The feeling is similar on an iPad. It is a no brainer to say that it is the perfect mobile portfolio. Clients will be wowed by photography presented on an iPad. I’m sure there will be many, many apps out there for photographers to show off their work. iPhoto is a great way to show the work on the iPad. With a rating system and the ability to create albums on the fly and the iPad would be pretty dang cool as an ordering device.

Movies

Of course Star Trek HD looks fabulous, but photo slide shows look amazing also. I loaded the HD versions of our eMotionMedia presentations and they look amazing. Yet another way to present material to clients. I can imagine a bridal show booth with 4 iPads sitting out on it as mobile portfolios and pricing information. It would be a pretty fantastic mobile presentation device. We plan on using a few of them in our WPPI booth next year.

Last night I booted up a movie on the NetFlix app, which let’s you stream Netflix movies directly to your iPad via WIFI. The quality was so good. You could tell it wasn’t HD, but, still, it was much better than a portable DVD player. I can easily say that the iPad, is hands down, the best mobile movie watching device available on the market. And I’m sure it’s the only one with 12 hour battery life.

Apps In General

The apps out in general are all pretty good. Some are a bit buggy. iMockup, for example, is a great app, but you can tell the creators don’t quite have a handle on the iPad user interface yet. Some things are a bit jumpy. The games are a total “game changer”, pun intended. Scrabble is super fun. And you can use your iPhone or iPod Touch as the tile holder and “flick” your game pieces onto the iPad. How the heck could they do that? Fairies?

The Apple Apps, especially Keynote and Pages are works of art. They’ve really put a lot of thought in them and they work extremely well. I can easily see students typing term papers on Pages on an iPad. Keynote on an iPad might be the best portable presentation device ever conceived. Not only can you create amazing presentations. You can present ones that you’ve created on your Macbook or iMac.

The big screen of the iPad, coupled with the fast processor and easy to use interface, means that we are going to have a whole bevy of cool new apps coming our way.

iPhone Apps Uprezed

iPhone apps uprezed suck. They are just horrible and pixelated. Sure they work without a hitch and if you have that App you just need to use and the iPad version isn’t out yet, you can use it. But I’ve deleted them off my iPad. Using super pixelated apps on such a beautiful screen is like taking Sears portraits with a Leica. It just makes you want to scream.

The Death of Flash

Remember when the very first iMac came out and it didn’t have a floppy? It just had these crazy USB ports and a firewire? Everyone screamed!! But then the floppy slowly died.

My feeling is that the iPad is going to do this with Flash. The main use online for flash is video. Secondly it’s used for games that kids play online and for photography sites. That’s basically it. HTML5 is taking care of video. You get a much better video experience with very little back end coding and everyone is happier. The games? Who cares. The photographer sites? Me thinks we need to think.

Will Flash be gone next year? Nope. Is this the first nail in the coffin. Oh, yes, maybe the second even. Flash will be gone.

Business Investment

On the forums people have been asking if the iPad is a good business investment. My first reaction is, “Really?” It’s just so much fun, who cares! But people do care. I think that ultimately they are going to be great business investments. They will pay for themselves with the great presentations we can make and also the bookings and contracts we can make on the iPad. But my feeling is that we really don’t know how useful it is going to be. It’s such a game changer, that we really don’t know how much the payoff is going to be.

Should I Get One?

Yep. It’s such an amazing device, a totally new look at what computing will be, I think you should get one. And if you don’t like it. It’s the perfect kid computer – easy to use and won’t play any online games or ‘unsuitable’ movies. My wife stole mine, so there you go….

Fundy