Photography

Eye-fi Pro Card

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Today Eye-Fi introduced their 4GB Pro wireless SD card, which I’ve been beta testing for the last few months.

The major enhancements in the Pro card are support for RAW files and ability to connect directly to a computer using an ad hoc network. It also lets you choose which images to upload by marking them on the camera, a feature which is now available to all Eye-Fi cards via a firmware update.

Although I had an original 2GB Eye-Fi card, I rarely used it on my D90 since the storage was too limited. A 4GB Eye-Fi Pro card will hold 1000 pictures in Large/fine quality or 512 RAW images. Although JPEG images and movies can be sent both to a computer and an online service, RAW images are sent only to the computer.

I have my Eye-Fi cards send both to SmugMug, so I can get geotagging, and my MacBook Pro. When the images are sent to my MBP, I start Aperture and import from local files in their original location to avoid making extra copies. It’s faster and more convenient than removing the card from the camera and using a card reader.

Correct color balance isn't always best

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I wanted to take a picture of the two OWC Mercury On The Go drives connected to my iMac, which I thought looked kind of cool. I wasn’t too pleased with the automatic white balance (right image), so I used my White Balance Lens Cap to measure the white balance, which resulted in a much worse image (left side).

white balance

Although the left image looks pretty bad, it’s actually more accurate, since the incandescent lighting in my office gives a visible off-color tint. I ended up going with the auto white balance image, since it looks more natural. Of course I could easily correct either one to make the iMac pure white with Aperture’s color correction tool, but I prefer the slight tint.

Photo of the day

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I haven’t posted a photo of the day for a while, but I really like this one. This dove let me get very close, so I was able to take this picture with only a 105mm lens rather than the 70-300mm I usually have to use for birds.

Dove

Photomatix plugin for Aperture

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I have been using Hydra’s aperture plugin to create HDR images from 3 bracketed photos. It’s pretty basic but produces fairly good results without a lot of tweaking. Now HDR Software’s Photomatix is also available as an Aperture plugin. It offers many more options than Hydra, but takes a bit of tweaking to produce a more natural-looking image. It seems to give much better detail, especially in dark areas.

DSC_5236 Hydra HDR
Created with Hydra		 DSC_5234 Photomatix HDR
Created with Photomatix

Best lens bargains for your Nikon DSLR

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If you have a DSLR, you can easily spend more on lenses than the camera itself cost. Luckily there are a few great lenses you can buy for under $200. I will highlight two of my favorites here.

Everyone should own Nikon’s wonderful 50mm f/1.8D AF, which sells for under $140. This is one of the best lenses you can buy because it’s extremely sharp and the large aperture lets you shoot in low light and blur the background nicely. It’s my favorite lens for those reasons.

Note that this lens lacks an internal AF motor, so if you have a D40 or D60 you can only use manual focus with it. If you have one of those cameras and you really need auto focus, Nikon also sells a 50mm f/1.4G AF-S, which costs around $480.

If you need a long zoom, Sigma’s 70-300mm f/4.5-6 DG Macro is a good choice for around $150. This is one of the longest lenses available at an affordable price, as most similar lenses only go up to 200mm. It has a macro mode available from 200-300mm which lets you focus much closer and gives a 1:2 close-up magnification. Since it lacks vibration reduction, you’ll either have to use a tripod or shoot at a very fast shutter speed, since the long focal length amplifies any camera shake. On the plus side, the image quality is excellent with less distortion than Nikon’s 18-200mm.

A point & shoot camera for DSLR photographers

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I really love the D90, but sometimes it’s just too big to carry. For those times it’s nice to have a compact point & shoot camera that will fit in my pocket. As much as I love Nikon DSLRs, I don’t care much for their Coolpix point & shoot cameras, since the image quality isn’t that great and they’re very slow.

I decided on the Canon A2000 IS based on its image quality. I’ve always liked their A-series, since they use standard AA batteries. I noticed some really great pictures taken with the A1000 IS & A2000 IS, but I chose the A2000 IS because of its larger & brighter 3″ display and longer 6x optical zoom. It’s also a lot smaller & thinner than older A-series cameras. It normally sells for just over $200, but I found it for $150 at buy.com last month.

The A2000 IS doesn’t provide any manual controls and the battery life isn’t great, but the image quality is excellent. It also takes great videos. I started getting a battery warning after shooting 80 pictures & 2 videos with a set of fresh AA alkaline batteries at the Polynesian Festival today.

IMG_0129

I posted more pictures here.

Nikon's new D5000

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Earlier this week, Nikon introduced the D5000, which shares several features of the D90, but in a smaller & lighter camera that costs several hundred dollars less. It adds several compelling new features, most notably a 180-degree tilt/swivel screen and several new scene modes.

The D5000 uses the same sensor as the D90, so the image quality should be very similar to the D90 and D300, making it a worthwhile step up from the D40 or D60. However, the D5000 has a few very significant drawbacks: it lacks the D90’s internal focus motor, which means it can’t auto-focus with non AF-S lenses, such as Nikon’s wonderful 50mm f/1.8 AF. The D5000’s LCD screen is only 2.7″ with a resolution of 240×320 vs. the D90’s beautiful 640×480 3″ screen. The D5000 also lacks a subcommand dial, so most likely it will be necessary to use the menu for many settings, where they could be changed with one button on the D90. If you use an external flash such as the SB800 or SB900, the D5000’s built-in flash can’t be used as a remote trigger, unlike the D90.

I’d like to see a swivel screen in other future models, but I wouldn’t give up the D90’s features for it.

D90 Hi-Def Video

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I recorded a lot of hi-def video on my D90 at Oakland Park Youth Day. Here’s an unedited video straight from the camera. This is the only one that was small enough to upload to Flickr.

I find that it’s hard to keep the video in focus when the subject is moving, and it’s very difficult to see if it’s in focus on the LCD screen in bright sunlight.

I also uploaded lots of photos here.