A good flashlight ought to be mandatory for everybody's keychain. In the past, I used those cheapo mini flashlights that you can get at any toy store for € 2,- but the problem with those is that they fall apart as soon as you look at them, and the batteries are empty by the time you've left the store. It was time to cough up some coin and get a decent one.
After some research I found the Fenix E05 R4, which was € 24,95 and throws a good amount of light with just one AAA battery.
Fenix has a reputation for making excellent flashlights and this one is no exception. The E05 throws a decent 30 lumens of light with a duration of about 2.5 to 3 hours with a normal AAA battery that you can buy pretty much anywhere. I know there are AAA flashlights that are much fancier and throw even more light, but they are at least double the price and don't have the specific feature that this E05 has, and even this 30 lumens is already super bright!
Most flashlights have a real bright center "hotspot" with lower light around it. The E05 has a special diffuser lens in front of the LED bulb that spreads the light out evenly over a large area, which makes this light much more useful than most other flashlights in my opinion.
A good knife is probably the most useful tool any person could carry on them; and I usually have a few on me. Aside from my main knife, a Buck 450RD Protégé, and the Victorinox SwissCard Lite in my wallet, I wanted a nice backup knife to put on my keychain. You never know when it might come in handy.
The character "Soap" said in the world's greatest movie, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: "I think knives are a good idea. Big, Fuck-off shiny ones; Ones that look like they could skin a crocodile." While I totally agree with Mr. Soap there, the weight might be an issue if I put one of those on my keychain.
My new Victorinox Classic SD has everything but a weight issue. At 22 grams it's hardly noticeable, yet this little baby is packed with functionality. It has a nice sharp blade, a little nail file which doubles as a screwdriver, a pair of scissors, a toothpick and a pair of tweezers. All this goodness, stuffed in a tiny pocket knife which is about the size of a AA battery.
The Victorinox Classic SD is a perfect companion for the little Fenix E05 flashlight that also resides on my keychain. They're both black, they weigh about the same, and they are more or less the same size...
But above all else... they just look absolutely adorable together I think anyone should have them on their keychain.
The end of the summer is always a great time to clean up one's house or, in my case, computer. Up until now I had been using older software which, in its own right, is great software; but the newer versions had some features that just could not be ignored.
- Firstly, I've upgraded Adobe Lightroom to version 3.2, which has much better noise reduction than version 2.6, which I had been using previously. This obviously results in better image quality, which in turn makes me even more happy with my photography.
- I've also upgraded my HDR software to Photomatix Pro 3.29. I might be using this to beef up photos from time to time, if the lightening is tricky. Even with a single RAW image, Photomatix can make the lightening a lot better, though the best results are still achieved with multiple RAW files with different exposures.
- And last but certainly not least, I've upgraded from Windows Moviemaker (yeah, yeah, I know.. don't laugh) to Cyberlink Powerdirector 8, which gives me much better editing abilities and, in my opinion, better videos. The two time-lapse videos were made using this software, so you be the judge. As time goes by, and I start to make more videos, I will make a standardized template for the videos.
A nice update, that will give me even better image and video quality... ooh yeah
As I mentioned in the previous post, last Sunday was my 32nd birthday; but I don't celebrate it. This obviously also means I don't get many presents for my birthday. My parents gave me some clothing stuff and Daniel gave me a very cool light stand and shoot-through umbrella for my flashgun; but that's about it. But the best gift came from someone that I deeply admire and respect: myself!
About a year ago I bought the Kodak Zx1 pocket camera that records 720p video's on SD cards. While the camera works fine and is water resistant; it has some limitations that really got on my nerve, and so I decided to look for a replacement. The thing that mostly annoyed me was the fixed focus. While fixed focus is fine for most outdoor situations, it does get annoying if you want to get a slightly closer look at something and it just ends up as one big blurry blob on your photo or video.
My criteria were clear to me, and I started to look for a compact camera with autofocus and 720p video recording ability. My eye finally fell on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W350. It's a tiny and very cute little point and shoot camera with a ton of features. It's about the size of a credit card, and it's only 16.7mm thick.
It has a 14.1 megapixel sensor and with the 35mm equivalent of a 26-105mm f/2.7-5.7 lens it gives quite decent image quality. Aside from decent pictures, it can also record 720p video with autofocus and even zoom ability. Especially the zoom is quite nice, because that is a feature that most compact point and shoot camera's don't have. The last feature I'd like to mention is that you can make panorama photos on this camera by just sweeping it from one side to the other. While the quality of the panorama photo is not the best, it's good enough for some funny pictures for websites.
I'm really happy with this little camera. Because it's so light and small, I can bring it with me at all times. So from now on my videos and "on the road" photo's will be much, much higher quality. Stay tuned for more of those
Even though my kit was more-or-less complete, it still felt like something was missing; and I don't like that. While making photo's in dark places it always bothered me that I had to use LED based flashlights to light up stuff, which gives horrible color casting. I wanted something better, and so I decided to get a flashgun.
A bit of searching and reading reviews later I ran across a "Strobist" beginner set for a nice price. "Strobist" basically means that the flash is not mounted on the camera itself, but is handheld or on a light stand. The kit includes a Yongnuo YN460-II flashgun and a Cactus v4 wireless flash trigger.The wireless flash trigger allows you to put the flash up to 100m from the camera, and it still fires on the exact moment that it needs to; really cool.
All in all it looks like a pretty decent kit, and the flashgun sure is bright enough! The cool (or bad) part is that I have to learn how to make photo's with a flashgun now, which seems like a fun challenge. I've seen some real nice photos that were made with off-camera flashguns, and I can't wait to make some of my own.
The only thing missing in my photography kit, was a decent zoom lens to make wildlife photos and maybe shoot some close-up photos of artists at festivals. At first I was thinking of getting an 18-200mm lens, which would then replace the 18-55mm kit lens that came with my camera. After reading some reviews, and giving it some thought I dismissed that idea, because all the reviews mentioned that the image quality wasn't all-that, and well... I've gotten fond of the 18-55mm kit lens; it's extremely light, and it performs pretty good.
While browsing the web I noticed that the Canon EF 70-300mm f4-5.6 IS USM was on sale at a store in Barendrecht. I decided to read some reviews, and generally liked what I read and saw. Today, Xariana and myself were in the area anyway, and I decided to make a little detour and pick one up.
It's big, it's heavy and it makes my camera look badass; I love it Oh and more importantly, it makes some very, very nice pictures too! My kit is more-or-less complete now; Maybe I will get a nice macro lens someday, but that's more a long-term idea.
One of the things on my wish list, was a fisheye lens. The main characteristic of a fisheye lens is that it has an extremely wide angled view. Some even go as far as an 180 ° angle. Because it has such a wide angle, you can put pretty much a whole room on a single photo if you position the camera on the right spot.
The second characteristic is that this extreme wide angle gives the image a spherical distortion. This spherical distortion gives portrait photo's a very funny effect, because the center of the image is magnified more than the sides. I really wanted one, but the only problem was that most of them are rather pricy.
While browsing a web shop stumbled upon a fisheye lens by an unknown brand that was almost half the price of similar lenses of the major brands. I got curious, but remained skeptical; after all the difference in price usually means compromises. After reading a few reviews and watching a lot of sample photo's I was convinced: this lens kicks ass! I'm talking about the Samyang 8mm fisheye lens, which is sold under many names. In certain European countries, including the Netherlands, Samyang lenses are sold under the brand name "Walimex".
So, what's the catch ? Well, it turns out there is no real catch. Optically this lens performs just as good, if not better, than some lenses that are twice as expensive. So why is this one so cheap ? The difference in price is in the way the lens operates. With most lenses, you can set the aperture size from within the camera. A tiny motor then makes the diaphragm either larger or smaller, and thus increasing or decreasing the aperture size. With this lens there is no tiny motor, and you can't set the aperture size in the camera. To make the diaphragm larger or smaller, you have to twist a ring on the base of the lens.
Aside from the manual diaphragm, this lens has no autofocus; it only has manual focus. This is no problem at all, because having a focus ring on a fisheye is rather useless anyway. Because of the extreme wide angle and spherical distortion, the depth of field is so amazingly large that no matter how you set the focus on the lens; pretty much everything will be sharp anyway. For example, if I set the focus on 30cm from the lens, then everything between 15cm and infinity will be in focus.
In short, by keeping this lens a fully manually operated lens, the manufacturer managed to cut the costs dramatically; making this lens extremely interesting for people that are looking to get a fisheye lens, but are not willing to sell their first-born child to get one. I totally love my new fisheye lens, and can't wait to get into the field and shoot some kick-ass photos.
Even before I bought my new camera, I already knew that sometime I would get a "Nifty Fifty" with a really big aperture for it. They allow you to make real nice photos with creative blur effects because the depth of field is very narrow. This makes these lenses very suitable for portrait photos. I just had to get one!
Fortunately, these lenses are also really cheap. There are no fancy zooming mechanisms in them, which means that they are really simple and therefore cheap. Another plus is that because there is no quality loss due to the zooming mechanisms, these so-called "prime lenses" produce extremely sharp pictures. I can't wait to make some photos with my new baby
With my spanking new camera, it became a bit of a nuisance to walk around with my old tripod, since it had no quick release plate. This meant that I would either have to keep the camera on the tripod all the time, or screw and unscrew the camera each time I want to move. It was time to get an upgrade.
A bit of searching, reading reviews and checking out tripods at photography stores later I decided to buy a Velbon Ultra Luxi M. It's a cute little tripod that is easy to carry around. It weighs just a little over 1 kilogram and folded up it's only 35 centimeters in length. Yet if you fully extend the 5 sections of its legs, and slide up the center column, it comes up to a very respectable height of about 155 centimeters.
Another cool feature is that you can split the center column in half, and fold the legs really wide, so you can get very close to the ground with your camera, while retaining full stability. It's a very thin and light tripod, yet it can easily hold 2.5 kilograms of weight without losing stability.
As you may have noticed, I've been taking pictures of abandoned and decaying pictures. While I've been exploring these buildings for quite some years, I never took photos of my adventures in the past; with exception of this photo. A few months back I suddenly decided to start taking some photos; at first with my cell phone, later with my Canon PowerShot A620.
On its own the PowerShot A620 is a fine camera, and it has served me well for nearly 5 years. But traveling through moist and dark buildings, I started to notice the limitations of a "point and shoot" camera; even though the PowerShot has plenty of options for custom settings. And since I started to like taking pictures more and more, I decided to start looking for an upgrade.
I had already decided that I wanted to get a "Digital single-lens reflex" camera; more widely known as "DSLR". After reading a lot of reviews and comparing models, I had found my new camera: the Canon EOS 450D.
The EOS 450D has a very nice 12.2 megapixel resolution, which is more than enough to produce high quality images. The lens that was included with the kit is not the- best lens, but it does its job quite well. I will probably get a better lens at some point in the future, but for now this lens will do just fine. The camera has a 9-point autofocus system that works remarkably fast. Where the PowerShot took about 1 second to focus, the EOS 450D does it in maybe 0.1 second. I've got a bunch of memory cards lying about that I can use with the camera. On a 4 GB card I can store 658 photos in JPG format or 177 in RAW format.
I've ordered some accessories from DealExtreme, which should arrive in a week or two. I've ordered a nice camera bag, some lens cleaning products and some useful thingies like a water level that you can slide onto the camera and a lens-hood.
It might take some fiddling and practicing before I will have mastered this beast, but I've read a lot of tutorials, watched a truckload of how-to videos, and I've got quite some experience with photography already; so it won't be long before I'll be able to produce some kick-ass pictures The results will, of course, be available in the photos section of this website. I can't wait to get outside and play