And Yet Another Camera Format…

This was previously titled “and then there was three” but apparantly, I cannot count.  I completely forgot about the medium format digital camera (which many of us aren’t considering).  So we could ignore those and consider only these three popular sizes.

On Tuesday night when the club meets to tour the photo lab facilities at London Drugs, many of you will be participating in the “Cheryl Pady Adventure”.  The adventure is a point-n-shoot only night.  No big dSLRs allowed.

Right now, the majority of digital camera users are using one of the two major digital formats.  That is, point-n-shoot (including camera phones) and the bulky and ever-favorite SLR form factor.

Coming along in the market is a new player though.   These have been marketed as the micro 4/3 sensor or mirrorless cameras.  They are blending the best of both world into a small package full of quality.

Currently, Olympus and Panasonic have been the big market leaders in this field but they have new competition this year.

Pentax and Nikon have recently introduced two new mirrorless cameras this year.  Sony is beginning to introduce their next generation NEX mirrorless cameras as well.

At this time, these high quality mirrorless cameras certainly out perform their little point-n-shoot brethren but at a significant cost.  Many of these micro four thirds system start near the $700 mark.  The quality of these smaller interchangeable lens mirrorless cameras are beginning to equal or rival the performance expected in a full sized digital SLR.   Many of these new additions have prices equalling or even exceeding the cost of an entry level digital SLR. Many have simply favoured the SLR format for the larger selection of lenses and accessories when comparing to the dollar equivalent in this smaller package.  However, the size and convenience of this system is beginning to convince many new photographers to dig deep in the piggy bank.

For some, the lack of lens selection has been a barrier to jumping into the format.  As product lines mature and grow, so has the quality and selection.  It has been a few years since the first introduction of the micro 4/3 sensor.  Currently, the number of available lenses and adapters for the micro 4/3 mount are beginning to grow.

Now, the biggest selling point for many has been this system’s diminuative size.  Usually half the size of an equivalent SLR system, the micro 4/3 or mirrorless systems makes it the ideal camera system for the photography-minded traveller.

There are times when I’m hefting my big bag of lenses and camera bodies (yes, I still carry my film SLR body) - I think that 35 pounds of glass could be reduced in weight and size with very little loss of quality.  However, I’m not independantly wealthy nor do I have good numbers for the lottery.

Still, for those of you with the need and the means – don’t discount this third category of cameras form factors.

The market is showing demands for these smaller and higher-quality cameras. This trend is driving camera companies to design and support this format.  Like many new technologies, the initial costs will be fairly steep but given time, they will become significantly affordable.   As time marches on and technologies advance, it is easy to see that this form factor is going to make as significant impact on the way we look at our camera gear.

Models that I have looked at are: [NOT Ranked in any way]

• Olympus PEN series (E-PL2) http://www.olympus-global.com/en/visions/pen.html
• Panasonic Lumix G Series https://panasonic.ca/english/audiovideo/camerascamcorders/digitalstill/DMCG3.asp (there are others too)
• Pentax Q http://pentax.ca/en/digital_slr/Q
• Sony NEX series http://store.sony.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SearchCatalog?keyword=%CE%B1+NEX+Cameras&storeId=20153&langId=200&catalogId=100803&in_dim_search=%26alpha%3B+NEX+Cameras
• Nikon 1 http://en.nikon.ca/Nikon-Products/Nikon-1-Cameras/index.page

There are probably others out there and many that may require a closer examination and review but as you can see – this particular form factor doesn’t appear to be going away.

I suppose that I could have lumped the medium format digital with the SLRs and kept this page titled (then there were three).  After all, I did lump camera phones along with the point-n-shoot category of cameras.

Oct 4th Meeting

This is one of those meetings where the club goes somewhere other than our regular home.

London Drugs in the east end of the city is going to have to put up with a gaggle of photographers wandering about their aisles and parking lot.  Our meeting brings us to this store on this evening to tour their photo printing facilities.

Other than the photo printing – which includes a print (free).  The club is hosting what we are calling “The Cheryl Pady Adventure”.  This particular adventure requires you to use your point-n-shoot digital camera and wander about in the store and parking lot getting photos.  No cheating allowed (strictly no dSLRs allowed!!!)

Dwayne and the other executives will have more details when you are at London Drugs…

You guys and gals have fun!

Going to more regular entries

You may have noticed that this blog isn’t what you would have called regular.  Seems to have a lot of empty spaces in between posts.

That, hopefully will change with my new duties as editor of the RPC’s newletter, the f-16.   Just tonight I have put together the 95% final copy and it just needs the stamp of approval from the current 2011/12 executive.

Not as much new information but, hopefully it will be more regular in production.

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Images in the slideshow were taken from the RPC fieldtrip late in the summer to Coderre, SK.  They had a wonderful time on a 2-day excursion to a few near-ghost towns in the area and some wonderful towns and churchs still inhabited and in regular use.

Photo credits to Dwayne Senft, Sharon Bregg, Cheryl Pady, and Colin Walkington.   My apologies if I missed a photo credit.

Nothing beats a fieldtrip with good friends and of course, smokies and wobbly pops.  Don’t forget the unforgetable photographic opportunities and an appreciation for the places this province has to offer!

It’s been awhile hasn’t it

Things have been busy for me these past few months. Even though I’ve moved away from Regina to their rival city of Saskatoon, I still am fairly involved with the Regina Photo Club.

Expect a new f-16 this coming september and new enhancements to the website. Among things are an online fillable membership form so that email addresses and other important information isn’t mis-read.

Our starting night is Tuesday night September 7th starting at 7:30pm at our regular home at Wascana SIAST 4500 Wascana parkway downstairs in room 155.

See you there! (well – not me – but virtually)

A change of the guard

Sorry folks but, it has been quite a while since I wrote anything on this blog.

Time flies when you’re having fun.

The 2010-11 Annual General Meeting of the Regina Photo Club has come and gone.

I have resigned halfway through my second term as president of the Regina Photo Club.  Why?  Simply put, I cannot provide the leadership that this club deserves from a distance.  Which brings me to the “what distance”?

As wonderful as I find being involved with the club as president, its just one of those responsibilities that need a person to be around more often than twice a month.  You see, I had accepted a transfer in my day job to a different city.  Not too far but, far enough that a 250km (one way) isn’t feasible to do twice a month.

I did hang on to my hat as president until the end of this program year and decided that my involvement in the club can be more effective in other roles.  I’m not fully sure if members feel disappointed or relieved at my leaving.  Still, I get to be involved as editor of the f-16 newsletter and webmaster for the club’s website(s).

My good friend, Dwayne Senft, is now the new president of the club.  At one time, Dwayne was my vice-president, and I feel that together we were an awesome leadership team.  Dwayne was really good at inspiring me and pushing the club to its potential.  I can see that Dwayne will continue to push the role of the club in our photographic community and I’m looking forward to seeing it grow.

On the other hand, I have my work cut out for me as I take over the duties as editor of the f-16.  Our outgoing editor, Kelly Guilmette, was an absolute artist with her one year as editor and she produced extremely magnificent issues.  I can only hope that I can continue with a high degree of quality and artistic layouts as she has…

Here’s to the 2011-12 season of the Regina Photo Club.

Slide film….

yes…film. I did say it. Old technology. red, green, and blue light sensitive emulsions on a celluloid medium.

Why do I talk about it? Just to encourage you to play.

The learning curve that your digital camera affords you to be confident with film.  Essentially, you display the pure photographic ability (all the technical shoot-time knowledge) in a single 24mm by 36mm cardboard framed piece of cellulose.  It’s good to play.

The Regina Photo Club is running a small slide competition for Jan 4th, 2011. It will be in house (entries accepted right up to the meeting) and all images will be judged by all those in attendance.

Frankly, I rarely get to exercise my old Nikon F80 and here’s a good reason to do it…

Later this year, the Regina Photo Club is going to host a slide night.  More specifically a slide competition.  All the categories will be available and a theme to be discussed.

So from now until Jan 4th, 2011 get your self some slide film, dust off your old 35mm camera and think film…

New season

It’s a new year for the Regina Photo Club.  Like many things in this city (and most likely everywhere) we start up our new program in September.

Along with kids starting school, university and post-secondary institutions as well, we have programs like ours that start.

Our registration night is Tuesday September 7th, 2010 in room 155 at SIAST Wascana campus.  4500 Wascana Parkway, Regina, SK.

Our membership fees have increased by a little bit in order to support our use of the much larger auditorium in the SIAST facility.

Hoping to see you there!

You know – it looked better in real life.

I’ve heard this comment many times from people showing off some of their shots of flowers and sunsets and of colorful events.

It just doesn’t have to be the case.  Most of the time, shooting during the golden hour or the blue hour gives you a different quality of light. Using automatic white balance setting on your camera may produce unwanted results (like too cool or too warm).

As you know, the temperature of the light source greatly affects the image.  In the film days, we used film specific to the predominant light source (like Tungsten or Daylight).  As well, we used filters to correct for colour casts under differing light sources – like flourescent lights.

The digital world has made this task slightly simpler.  As a matter of fact, too easy.  As the technology improves, and the programming becomes more complex to recognize the myriad lighting conditions, we are doing less to recognize and correct for difficult lighting situations.

So what happens when we continue to rely on the technology to “be accurate”? You get a lot of the phrase ” it looked better in real life”. 

Is it really a major problem?  Maybe it did look better in real.  Memories are always fonder in these situations. Colours always seem richer in our fond memories. 

However, you can do your best to capture the image as your eyes and mind sees it.

If the desire is to reproduce the colors as accurately as possible, then you may want to invest in some white balance tools and other colour calibration tools.

Many of us know about monitor and printer calibration but, how many of you have calibrated the capture at the camera level?  A lot of us do depend on proper exposure to get a fairly accurate image.   However, you can use other tools to calibrate the sensor.

Currently, I’ve been using X-Rite’s Color Checker Passport which allows not only white balance to a neutral white but allows to warm or cool the image.  Other products that I have used are the Color Balance Coach and Whibal.com cards.

The added bonus of the X-Rite ColorChecker is that you can create custom color profiling for use in your RAW workflow.  For this I do recommend that you check out the better written reviews of this product.

• Review by Luminous Landscape
• Review by Northlight Images (UK)
• Google search for X-Rite ColorChecker Passport reviews

What ever product you’ve managed to use, consider something to manage your colour and white balancing. 

Usually, I will take a reference photo of my X-Rite card at the beginning of a shoot and again when the lighting conditions change..

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Here, I have my reference photo for my bright sunlight situations and again when I was inside the dark abandoned home.

All these tools for white balancing are handy to have around and can be used to set the proper level prior to shooting, or to verify after shooting, or both.

As you become accustomed to using these tools and similar devices, it can become part of your daily shooting workflow.  It can save your butt if you happen to forget to reset your camera settings from the previous shoot. It won’t be a perfect save, but if you did fiddle with the WB settings (say you shot under the sodium lights at night or in the flourescent environment in the office).

In situations, where you find yourself shooting under mixed and unknown lighting conditions, these tools will certainly make your photography more colour accurate and truer to life.

By the way, this can apply to video as well as stills photography…

It’s Mid-summer

and the weather has been somewhat challenging.  From thunder and lightning storms to sweltering heat, we’ve seen just about everything short of a summer snowstorm.

Doesn’t mean you’ve been forced inside and keeping the camera safe from the elements.  As a matter of fact, some of us have ventured  out when it wasn’t pouring buckets.

It is mid-summer and the August long weekend is upon us.  Saskatoon hosts their annual Fringe Festival on Broadway Ave this saturday, while many of our club fieldtrippers have a ghost town to visit on the same Saturday (July 31st).  email the RPC fieldtrippers asking for the July 31st trip details.

There are lots of events over the summer that just begs to be caught on camera – not to mention the family photos that you take while on vacation…

I hope to see many of you out there with your cameras, enjoy the summer, and have tons of fun.

Gil (a.k.a Fuji)

Don’t follow me – I’m lost…

really guys!  I admitted that I’ve never been to the Last Mountain Lake Wildlife Preserve before… still you trusted me out in front to drive there.  Of course then I would have to take the scenic route…

Tip:  If you are aiming to go to the Visitor Centre of the Last Mountain Lake Wildlife Preserve – go to the town of Simpson on highway #2 in Saskatchewan.  From there it is a short 14km drive east to the “HQ”.

We drove up from Regina via Lumsden, Craven and Strasbourg on highway 11, 99 and 20 (respectively) and ended up at the regional park (for camping) marked as the Last Mountain Lake Regional Park.  You would think I would gotten a hint about this when I read the sign (hint: regional park) …

Chris B rode along with me in my car and I – like the pied piper – led our merry band on a wild goose chase in this neighbourhood.  Ron G said he had the GPS coordinates so we let him lead from there.   Colin W, Shelly R, Gail C, Bill A, Henri L all eventually made it to the HQ of the Last Mountain Lake wildlife preserve but we unfortunately misplaced Bob P and Stephane C.  I hope they decided to go to another part of the preserve – after all, Stephane did tell me he has gone there before.

Somehow, I have the feeling that I will get some ribbing the next time I stand up to lead a photographic excursion…

Anyway, some of my images from the leader of the lost….

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