Sep 2010: elf's Canon 50D Journal

A review of the new S95 camera.

Something that was glaringly missing from the S90— HD video capture— has been rectified on the S95, with 720p movies at 1280x720 pixels resolution available at 24fps complete with stereo sound. Unfortunately there is no optical zoom available during recording, only 4x digital, and no auto-focus either, which limits what can be achieved and doesn't compare well to some of the S95's main rivals.

With the latest iPod touch having only a .7MP camera, I am now considering the S95 as an everyday camera.

Some photos of the Woz's 60th birthday party, taken by his friend Jeff Cable.

It's odd that I didn't see this post on any of the Apple websites I read.

Friday Foto: Downtown

The pedestrians are an important part of the photograph because they give the building scale. Without them, your brain would use the main door as reference and scale a person accordingly. However, if you imagine a pedestrian in the doorway, you realize how much bigger the door really is.

This is an example of neoclassical architecture; the columns are of the corinthian order (stylized acanthus leaves on the capitals, with 24 grooves— six per quarter turn— carved into the column.

Last Sunday's NY Times Magazine had a photo feature of women tennis players photographed with a Phantom Flex high-speed camera which can shoot 2650x1600 resolution images at 1,455 frames per second.

The photos were interesting, but the videos were amazing.

FromFriday Foto: Downtown

One of the stone carvings on the side of the redstone building. The B&W version with shadows deepened has more character than the original colour version.

Big (Polaroid 20x24 Land Camera: weighs 3,500 pounds; rents for $1,750 a day; each print costs $200; it's 30 years old.)

Small (Canon camera trinket: weighs next to nothing; costs $28.)

Patrick Demarchelier is one of my favourite editorial fashion photographers.

Beautifully lit photos of exquisitely beautiful women (and clothes.)

What you don't see are the 10 people behind the camera who did the hair and makeup, chose the accessories and carried the lights and equipment to the location— two or more hours of preparation for a 1/1000s exposure.

I practice my product photography by photographing things around the house, like this bottle of Martini Rosso vermouth which is back-lit from the bottom with an IKEA LED light in a completely darkened room. Aperture priority f/1.4, 1.3s exposure at ISO 100 with the 50mm lens.

Phaidon Press has a blog with a section on photography.