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After having had the Nikon D70s for a while now I wanted to share my thought so far. It sits very nicely in my rather large hands and I don’t feel the need for any external battery pack. It seems very well designed and built. It has a hard outer shell which doesn’t scratch or damage easily, and the whole camera just feels very robust. It’s heavier than some competing cameras, but that’s not a bad thing I think. The metering-system seems very advanced. Most of the time I leave it in matrix-metering, but occasionally I switch to spot-metering. The autofocus seems very fast and accurate and I set the camera to one-spot focus instead of the evaluative matrix-type setting that is standard. That way I can chose quickly and easily what should be in focus. The 18-70mm lens also seems very well built and it is better than most lenses that come bundled with cameras, in my humble (and subjective) opinion. It’s perhaps not professional grade but seems much better than the lens you get with the Canon Rebel.

[composed and posted with ecto]

One thing I really liked about Al Ain was that photography-shopping was much better than Abu Dhabi. There’s probably better stores still in Dubai but Grand Stores and Salam Studios in Al Ain Mall both have pretty decent selections of photography stuff. Salam Studios have filters, Sigma lenses, and Sunpak flashes, along with many different LowePro bags. Grand Stores carried much more Nikon stuff than Grand Stores in Abu Dhabi Mall. I managed to get me a remote control and battery for the D70s, and circular polarizer and skylight filters. Next step is to find a telephoto zoom lens, and eventually I’ll be looking for a really wide angle lens and some gradual neutral density filters.

[composed and posted with ecto]

Last night I finally took the plunge and invested in a digital SLR camera and after much research, deliberation, and self-debate I picked the Nikon D70s. I’ve always been a big fan of Canon and have almost always prefered them over Nikon but in what I was looking at the only Canon that made sense was the 20D and it’s just too expensive for what you get, I think. I get most if not all of what I’m looking for in the D70s but at a much lower price. If we compare price then the D70s is much closer to the Digital Rebel 350D but the Rebel just feels too small in my hands and cheap. The D70s sits much better in my hands and it just feels more solid and - okay I’ll use the word - professional. It’s 6Mp compared to the Rebel’s 8Mp but I’m not sure that makes for much of a difference really for most of us (read what Ken Rockwell and Michael Reichmann says about this). Before buying it I took some sample shots posted online, blew them up to 20×30 and printed them and they look stunning so with a good enough shot to start with and some careful processing you can print really big from a D70s - I know because I’ve done it

Now I only need to find a few little things for the D70s, like filters, extra battery, and remote release, and I’ll be happy. And when our shipment of stuff arrives I will have my tripod and some other bits and pieces as well so we can start doing some serious photography again.

[composed and posted with ecto]

Microsoft has apparently launched a site for professional photographers. Apple has had a similar one for a long time.

CNN:

Sony Corp. and Konica Minolta Holdings Inc. said Tuesday they would jointly develop digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras, marking Sony’s entry into the fastest-growing segment of the camera market.

Good news, I think. Sony makes stylish and often-good cameras. KM has a very good track-record of making good cameras that unfortunately have yet to be able to make much of a dent into the dominance of the two big ones - Canon and Nikon. Together they may be able to create something really exciting.

Professional landscape photographer Alain Briot discusses the reasons behind his switch from film-based 4×5 to digital using the Canon 1Ds Mark II.

NYTimes:

RECENTLY, I was lying next to a hotel pool, keeping an eye on the children, when the guy on the next chaise swore like a sailor.

He was peering at his little digital camera, looking furious. I couldn’t help myself. “Do you need help with that?” I asked.

“This is the stupidest camera,” he said. “I’ve tried three times to take a picture of my son going off the diving board, but the delay is so bad, I miss it every time.”

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I knew he was talking about shutter lag, the maddening time it takes for most digital cameras to focus and calculate the exposure after you have squeezed the shutter button but before the shot is captured.

I nodded sympathetically. “And even the half-pressing trick doesn’t work, eh?”

He looked at me as though I had just spoken Aramaic. “The what?”

Suddenly it dawned on me that this guy didn’t know the half-pressing trick. He didn’t realize that you can usually eliminate the shutter lag by half-pressing the shutter button before the action begins. The camera prefocuses, precalculates and locks in those settings as long as you continue to half-press. Then, when the child finally leaves the diving board, you press the rest of the way down to capture the shot. No lag - no lie.

The guy was so happy, he bought me a ginger ale.

I realized that day that the world could use a handy, clip-and-save digital camera primer - not so much an FAQ (frequently asked questions) list, but more of an FGA (frequently given answers) list. Here are 10 tips everyone should know:

ZDNet:

The next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, will feature support for uncompressed digital camera images–which could change the way people view and edit photos.

The company on Wednesday announced deals with camera companies Nikon and Canon, as well as Fuji Photo Film and Adobe Systems, to let Windows users view, print and eventually edit uncompressed digital camera images–which are stored in what’s commonly known as a “raw” format.

This is great news. Now if they could all just come up with one open specification on a RAW format, so we wouldn’t have to consider every manufacturer’s individual format, that’d be even better.

The Digital Photography Weblog:

Spring is coming, so lets get ready to get out and do some photography on those warm summer nights. Here is how to do it right…start with switching off that flash. .read on to lean about while balances and removing Hot Pixels.. !

Night photography is tricky but it can produce some of the most beautiful photos.

[posted with ecto]

The State:

The rapid move from film to digital photography is causing businesses from Fuji in Greenwood to local shops to find new ways to keep customers.

This year 52 percent of U.S. households are expected to own a digital camera, up from 41 percent last year, according to the Photo Marketing Association, whose members range from Wal-Mart to wedding photographers.

Those households typically have film cameras, too, but most are starting to gather dust as consumers find digital photography cheaper and more convenient, said Dimitrios Delis, marketing director at the group’s headquarters in Jackson, Mich.

“Film is on a fast decline, and we see the decline accelerating,” Delis said.

Consumers and businesses ordered 27.4 billion prints last year, 19 percent of them made from digital images, up from just 2 percent in 2001. Next year, Delis predicts digital prints’ share will rise to 30 percent.

Film’s exposure to this trend is intensified by an overall decline in print sales. As sales of digital prints skyrocket, prints from film fell 13 percent last year and Delis expects an 18 percent drop this year.

[posted with ecto]