Hey, do you use Firefox? I do! Aside from being very anti-spyware / anti-popup, here’s one super-cool thing I like about Firefox:

Yep, that’s right, an Adorama search tool. Of course Firefox comes with search tools for Google / Amazon etc., but you can go on Firefox’ site and find ones for Adorama, B&H, and others. How sweet is that?

Peace out,
-Matt-

DISCLAIMER: All in good fun, peole! Please, feel free to jump in and joke around about cameras gear. However if you want SERIOUS advice or input on gear, please don’t hesitate to email me! In fact if you’re about to make a HUGE purchase, call me up. Some day I may charge for my advice, but not yet!

[EDIT] NEWS FLASH! Finally after a few weeks / months of silence, I heard ONE rumor that Nikon’s next generation of DSLR’s might be coming at the end of June. It’s just a completely un-founded rumor of course, but it’s a rumor none the less, and rumors are the breakfast of champion camera geeks!

There is a famous essay by Ken Rockwell about the 7 different levels of photographers. It is a great parrody, and the funniest thing is that it is all VERY accurate and true…

I don’t want to be a total copycat and write my own version, but I want to dedicate a couple posts to this type of discussion-

First, there are three different kinds of people who own the top-level gear, the $5,000 camera bodies, the $1,600 mid-range lenses, the $2,000 wide / mid / portrait primes, the $4,000-$6,000 “big gun” telephoto lenses, etc.

First, there’s the rich hobbyist who has money coming out their ears. They buy the best gear just because it’s the best, and they don’t want to bother with anything less. These guys usually make everyone else sick, because they “don’t deserve” their gear, and although they have a “nice” (though often snooty) attitude, their photos stink. LOL.

Then, there’s the complete fanboy / gear snob, who simply buys “L” lenses (for example) just because they’re “L” lenses. Unlike the rich guy, these fanboys go around intentionaly beating down all other equipment, just because they HAVE the best gear and therefore nobody can “touch” them. Of course, their pictures are even worse than the rich people’s, and they make “us” even more sick. They don’t just not deserve their gear, they deserve to have their gear stolen from them by the camera police and given to a real artist, or any real working professional, who could put the gear to good use.

Then, last but not least, there’s the working pro who simply NEEDS the best gear, and has the hard-earned success to pay for it. These guys are pretty much un-touchable and you have a hard time disliking them, because first of all their images rock, and seconly they’re either super-friendly and helpful or you just don’t hear about them because they don’t even have time to go online because they’re so busy earning their keep.

And by the way, considering the “rich” people- I used to be upset by the fact that they had such good gear but took such bad pics, but I concluded that hey, money is for spending, and if you earn it, you deserve to spend it on whatever makes you happy. As a huge geek myself, I realize that I CAN’T blame anyone for buying a camera or lens JUST BECAUSE. Of course I don’t condone going into debt in order to acquire the gear, but I definitely have to admit, again- money is for spending! If you can afford the best gear, then congrats!

Of course the “fanboys” who beat down other people get no sympathy from me. I’m all in favor of some good-natured joking about “my brand is better than yours”, and I readily poke fun at all brands among my friends, but going online and influencing amateurs / beginners in such a negative, de-moralizing way is just wrong.

Next, I’ll talk about the hard-working pro who is just “below” that well-off pro, who takes great pictures even though he cuts a few corners on equipment…

-Matt-

DISCLAIMER: All in good fun, peole! Please, feel free to jump in and joke around about cameras gear. However if you want SERIOUS advice or input on gear, please don’t hesitate to email me! In fact if you’re about to make a HUGE purchase, call me up. Some day I may charge for my advice, but not yet!
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Keeping this blog has helped me realized just whata big camera geek I am… Ugh this post is pretty embarrasing, but here goes!

A while ago I posted about how at all the events I go to, it looks like Canon amateur DSLR’s are getting outnumbered by Nikon DSLR’s by a pretty consistent margin.

Well on Saturday I went to Disneyland’s red carpet premier for Pirates 3, and then on Sunday to the San Diego Wild Animal Park to check out a June wedding location with a client.

Disneyland has been consistently Nikon > Canon and Saturdya was no exception among amateurs, although I wil note that the vast majority of the pro, press-pass holding paparazzi had Canon pro cameras.

The wild animal park however might have been slightly Canon dominated.

But the one BIG thing I realized was this:

Nikon: 70-200 f/2.8 VR.

Canon: 70-200 f/2.8 IS, 70-200 f/2.8, 70-200 f/4 IS, 70-200 f/4.

For some reason, this seems to be the “known” lens collection between the two brands. Yes, I mean to say that I saw tons and tons of Canon 70-200 lenses, and barely any Nikon’s.

Now major geeks will know that this isn’t exactly true, Nikon makes a handful of various 80-200 f/2.8 AF and AF-S lenses. But the general public doesn’t seem to remember this, all they do is whine for Nikon to make 70-200 f/4 lenses, one with VR anad one without, just like Canon has.

I think Nikon does owe the consumers a few more f/4 pro zooms, actually. The 80-200 f/2.8 lenses are some of the sharpest lenses ever made, and Nikon could get away with not making a 70-200 f/2.8 AF-S. But f/4 lenses need to come.

Oh and while they’er at it, give me an 80-400 f/4.5-5.6 AF-S VR, as an update to the 80-400 f/4.5-5.6 AF-D VR. That would be sweet…

-Matt-

Here’s one thing you might never have thought of, but as a professional I had to deal with it today:

Take a good look, especially at the two selected photos. Same exact camera-assigned name, but one has “_1″ after it. What is this? Well, the images were from two completely different weddings, in fact they were taken in different years. You see, my camera recycles it’s numbering every nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine shutter clicks, counting from 0001 all the way up to 9999 and then over again. Of course I’ve never taken ten thousand photos at just one event, but over the years I have “rolled over” my old camera 7 or 8 times, and my new camera is about to roll over if it hasn’t already.

So whenever I go through my landscape photos and compile a “beach” gallery, or in this case when I’m going through ALL the weddings I’ve ever shot to re-find any portfolio material, …I end up with the possibility of over-writing an image if I accidentally add another image with the same exact name.

I did this a couple times before I figured out what was going on, but then I worked around the problem by opening up images in Bridge and then saving them to my main portfolio bin. Whenever Bridge comes upon a redundancy, it adds that “_1″ to the end so that I don’t lose any images.

Learn something new every day, eh?

-Matt-

Holy cow. This thing is the size of a small-town phone book!

It’s got everything in it though. It does like a whole 2-3 pages on EVERY current DSLR, with the specs drawn out into these long paragraphs and stuff… Wow. I can finally understand which Gitzo tripod is which! The tripod company websites are particularly impossible to navigate and decipher, dunno why…

But man, that’s a lot of paper! And the thing says $6.95 on the front, so they must really love me to send it out for free!

-Matt-

DISCLAIMER: All in good fun, peole! Please, feel free to jump in and joke around about cameras gear. However if you want SERIOUS advice or input on gear, please don’t hesitate to email me! In fact if you’re about to make a HUGE purchase, call me up. Some day I may charge for my advice, but not yet!
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Ladies and gentlemen, that’s right, DPReview.com (digital photography review) just sold itself to Amazon.com. I hope owner Phil Askey got paid enough money to retire on the spot, because he’s worked very hard to create an amazing website that millions trust for un-biased camera reviews.

Sadly, it could all go to pieces now. Meaning, we could lose the un-biased aspect of reviews, they might turn into just another mindless blurb about how great each camera is, spat directly from the mouths of the camera makers themselves.

Of course, that might NOT happen, and since I’m an optomist, I’ll stop being negative and start hoping for a few things:

~ MORE REVIEWS!!!! Until now, I think Phil has been pretty much working on his own at DPR, so he could never in a million years have had enough time to review EVERY camera that comes out. Not only has he just not had the time to review a ton of the little P&S digicams, he’s also had to forego reviewing a handful of “replacement” DSLR’s, such as the Canon “mkN” cameras and Nikon “s” series cameras. Minor quibble, but it would be nice to see a review for EVERY camera out there, and never have to leave DPR for my info…

~ LENS REVIEWS, DANG IT!!!!! This is actually more important than reviewing more cameras. NO website out there offers a comprehensive collection of lens tests. PhotoZone and SLRGear come close, and have high-tech tests of the FEW lenses they can get their hands on, but there are 10x more lenses out there that desparately need to be tested. I hope to see a really cool interactive graph thing (for sharpness) like SLRGear has. To have that kind of chart for EVERY lens out there would just be WAY cool! And if Amazon threw just a LITTLE money into DPR, they could afford an army of employees who could just spit out lens tests all day long.

~ Some forum moderation. DPR has been notorious as a place where all the riff-raff of digital photography congregate, trolling for arguments in the competitions forums, spewing misinformation blatantly based on un-founded personal grudge / distaste… The list goes on. Not just the Canon “FF fanboys” bashing Nikon, but also the Sigma Foveon crowd, the Fuji Super-CCD crowd, the Olympus E-system crowd, and so on and so forth; they all have an overwelming population of forumers who love to do nothing but argue. I hope that with a little more moderation, DPR forums could turn into a nice place to go for legit equipment opinions, and fun, harmless speculation on what is to come…

Personally, I’d like to see a MASSIVE grid of camera body and lens tests, where basically they just go down the line with EVERY camera and line up various ISO samples all in a row, so that we could have an ultimate, once-and-for-all ranking of which camera is the best at this or that… Likewise with lenses, I’d love to see a massive test chart that just goes down the line with center+corner samples from EVERY single ultra-wide APS-C zoom, then EVERY 35mm ultra-wide zoom, then EVERY f/2.8 70-200 zoom, etc. etc. etc. Until now it’s been impossible to compare lenses in such a fair manner.

Of course if DPReview does go down the tubes, that will be my queue to start MY OWN website for DSLR + lens reviews! WOW, that would be the ultimate job. I could cut straight through this “actually taking pictures” NONSENSE and just be a geek ALL DAY LONG!

Take care,
-Matt-

I am big on supporting my local camera stores, just because I’m a nice guy and I hate to see the big bad internet take over the world of retail. I like to be able to go into a store and talk to the people, have them help me out, handle the gear, take some test shots, etc.

But just the other day I experienced the “stereotypical” retail store for the very first time. At least I think, and I hope I’m wrong. I went in to get a memory card; I really needed it for the children’s play I was about to shoot, so I was going to buy one no matter what. But I asked about rebates, and the guy at the counter said they were all over. So I paid ninety-something bucks for a Kingston 133x 4 gig card, which *was* a really good price the last time I checked…

Turns out that from May 1-31 there’s a $30 rebate on that card, and retail should be just $60, making it $30 after the rebate. Ouch! And it looks like I can’t get back in on the rebate, because they’re only for select dealers. So maybe the guy didn’t lie and he was just not up to date, but still, I don’t even work in a camera store and I’m like a walking encyclopedia on camera gear and where / when to buy it… I wish every camera store employee was as geeky as I am about gear, then there could be 100% honesty between us and I could rely on them for all the latest news. At least ONE of us would have looked online and realized the massive difference in the price of that CF card. I’m totally willing to pay an extra 10-15% in order to get an item on-the-spot when I need it, but paying 300% too much is something I don’t want to do on a regular basis.

Moral of the story? Well, I think that unless you’re really on top of your game as far as online / in-store prices are concerned, be careful buying stuff in-store.

Also, lol, if you really need a memory card right now, get a Kingston 133x 4 gig or 8 gig card, they’re SUPER cheap! (the 8 gig has a $50 rebate, knocking $115 to an astonishing $65!!)

Of course if you don’t REALLY need a memory card right now, don’t bother “pouncing on this deal”, because prices only go DOWN and in a few more months prices might be even lower…

Take care,
-Matt-

While the Canon VS Nikon debate rages on, and forumers make a big stink about “I”ve had it with Nikon/Canon, I’m switching to Canon/Nikon”, or similarly “Hi, I just sold all my Nikon/Canon gear and decided to join ‘your’ ranks…”

…I’m sitting here with my eye on the Olympus E system, and wondering if / when I can afford to switch. There has always been a lot of nay-saying about Olympus’ decision to re-build it’s system from the ground up, and to go with a 2x cropped sensor no less, but now in mid-2007 the E-system has nothing but good things going for it:

14-35 f/2.0 + 35-100 f/2.0 – No camera maker has ever gone to f/2 with a zoom. Olympus, enabled by the smaller size of their 2x 4/3 sensor, is making two of them. Yes they cost a lot, but you’re buying a lighter, faster lens than even Canon / Nikon’s 70-200 f/2.8 lenses. No stabilization yet, but they’re starting to make “SWD” (USM / SWM / HSM etc.) …and that’s what I really need.

11-22 f/2.8-3.5 – I’ve always disliked the 17-35mm view on a full-frame camera, and wished for something closer to 20-45mm. Voila, the 11-22 is equivalent to 22-44mm. Oh and all these lenses, in addition to being smaller and lighter than a 35mm eqivalent, have the best weather sealing on the market. You’ve seen the picture of that guy washing his Olympus under the faucet, lol. ‘Nuff said.

Then there’s the fact that Sigma is making a handful of it’s best lenses in the Olympus mount now, including the 150mm f/2.8 and the 30mm f/1.4, oh and the 50-500 lol. (Taking you to 100-1000mm on the 2x Olympus mount, yee-haw!)

Of course none of this fantastic lens action would mean anything if Olympus didn’t make good bodies with good sensors, but as we are seeing in the market today, that is changing now. The E-1 is of course a dinosaur, but it is indeed a very capable tool for certain things… Now however, we’re about to see the E-1′s successor, probably with a 10 megapixel (or better) sensor that does as good as (or better than) the amazing E-410 and E-510 cameras…

We’ll see when the “E-3″ hits the shelves- it might just be that Olympus starts opening a few eyes to the possibilities that 2x holds…

All in all, I think I’m too addicted to the Nikon control layout to ever actually switch. Lenses like my Sigma 50-150 f/2.8, the Tokina 16-50, and the Nikon 12-24 DX are nearly as good as the Olympus offerings at a much lower price. But who knows, I might be at the camera store some day and handle an E-3 and fall in love!

-Matt-

One thing I just don’t understand…

I simply don’t understand why P&S camera makers, after all these years, have not been trying harder to raise the bar in the wide angle department.

Almost EVERY camera I see released starts at 35mm, 36mm, or 38mm on the wide angle end. 35mm is HARDLY wide angle, and 38mm is just “mid-range”… It is a sorry excuse for wide angle, and it is one of the main reasons I just haven’t bought myself a P&S camera yet.

Only a handful of cameras are going to 28mm, and that is what I’d consider average wide angle. And out of the THOUSANDS of cameras made, only 2-3 that I know of go to 24mm. That is so sad.

I can understand if it’s just really tough to do, and lens construction gets more complicated. But that should only have been the excuse for the first couple years. NOW they should at least be able to hit 28mm or 24mm without adding TOO much cost, right? Instead, things are getting downright BORING- 3x optical zoom that starts at 36/38mm, a 2.5″ LCD, more and more megapixels, (why, oh why?) and more and more crazy feature ideas. (like stereo sound in video clips. Give me a break, the two mics are like ONE INCH away from each other! That’s not stereo!)

This is one reason I seriously consider getting what is in my opinion one of the sweetest, most innovative cameras on the market, the Kodak V705. Kodak said to themselves “hey, these tiny little CCD sensors are so cheap these days, why not just put TWO of them into the camera body, put TWO different lenses on them, one for wide angle and one for mid/tele, and seamlessly jump between the two? They were able to go to a whopping 23mm wide angle!!! (equivalent)

I applaud Kodak for their ingenious design…

Panasonic is one of the companies who has been trying to release more P&S cameras with 28mm wide angle with EIGHT 28mm P&S cameras since 2005, and Fuji has been goign to 28mm on their “prosumer P&S” cameras since mid 2005…

Nikon on the other hand hasn’t gone wider than 35mm SINCE 2005, and only made ONE camera ever that went to 28mm…

Canon has one recent P&S camera that hits 28mm, the SD800 IS, but other than that it’s back to 2005 for the S60/70/80 or the Pro1…

Olympus has gone to 28mm a few times with their prosumer P&S, but has only done it once with a compact P&S, the FE-200

Pentax has never hit 28mm, and has only gone wider than 35mm maybe twice with a couple 34mm cameras and I think one 32mm camera.

Samsung has gone to 28mm a couple times, not bad…

Sony has the prosumer R-1, which has the honor of being acclaimed as having a 24-120mm lens that is probably as sharp as a true 35mm lens. But other than that the vast majority of their P&S cameras are 38mm, save ONE that goes to 28mm from back in 2003. Come on, Sony!

…And then, oh by the way, have you ever heard of a company named “Ricoh” in the camera business? TWELVE, count them TWELVE P&S cameras that hit 28mm! (and small ones, slim ones even!) Yes ladies and gentlemen, one of the most un-known camera brands is the one who is answering the need more than anyone else. If it werent for the super-cool, indestructible Olympus 770sw, (waterproof to 30 feet and impact proof!) …and the nifty Kodak 23mm wide angle, I’d be in line for a Ricoh Caplio R6 right now… Oh and Ricoh hasn’t exactly gotten their AF game up to speed yet, by the way, so don’t just go uot and buy an R5; reviews are not that glowing for that camera…

That’s all for now,
-Matt-

Two things:

Two things: First, Adobe’s photo downloader is a joke- it crashes if I try and download more than a gig or so of images off my memory cards. I had gotten all excited after I saw an online video about it, and how you can automatically perform a handful of tasks as you download your images from your computer. Buuuut, if the programa crashes under too much workload, I guess good old drag-and-drop with finder will have to do. I’ve always preferred manual control over downloading images off my memory cards, because then I can see which folders I’m copying to where, and KNOW I’ve got them all downloaded to my computer.

In fact that’s one reason I prefer Adobe Bridge above other image browsing software. You see, Adobe Bridge is just that, a browser and processor. A lot of other softwares, like Lightroom, iPhoto, etc. are more like stand-alone photo albums, in that they require you to IMPORT everything you want to browse and process. You don’t get to just view folders where they are on your computer, you have to make albums, or projects or collections or whatever, within that software. I think that’s just too much. I don’t want to have a photo album on my computer organzied all one way and then have everything organized another way on my hard drive. I want to have four folders right on my desktop- one for engagements, one for weddings, one for albums, and one for events. I don’t want to have to go into a library somewhere and then sift through a ton of folders that were created automatically. That works great for iTunes, (actually for music it’s BRILLIANT) …but not for my photos!

Second, ROFL, I have to admit something slightly embarrasing: I was actually running Photoshop CS3 IN ROSETTA for as long as I’ve had it. (Rosetta, for you non-Mac users, is the “translation” software that allowed non-Intel based programs to operate on the new Intel Macs.)

As you should know, Photoshop CS3′s main highlight for Mac users was that it CAN run native on the Intel platform. Of course you can still force programs to load through Rosetta, and for some reason that little box was checked in the CS3 application info. OOPS!

Well, now it’s running truly natively, and I’m experiencing a substantial speed increase. I stitched a 6 image panorama incredibly quickly just now, it was amazing. I didn’t clock it, but it might have taken less than half a minute to spit it out. Compare that to the 15+ minutes that CS2 and my PC took. WOW.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Later!

-Matt-