↑

Posts Tagged ‘technology’

Photography, Technology | 0 comment

New Camera for Christmas – Now What?

Gifts under the Christmas Tree - ©TimeLine Media

Gear Gifts

A shiny new camera was a popular item in the back of Santa’s sleigh this year! If you were like my mom, it was an exciting gift to get, but one that will definitely be giving out goodies for more than just the next year. After unboxing, and making sure everything turn on, it can be overwhelming to think about what to do next. Do I read the manual from cover to cover? Almost never. Do I need to buy more accessories and things to add to the body? Usually. Do I change any of the settings on the camera before using it? Absolutely. Why would I do any of these things?

Red Nikon D3200 - ©TimeLine Media
Red Nikon D3200 – ©TimeLine Media

I would do what most kids do with their new toys. I would go out and play with it first! Take LOTS of photos with the new camera. If you had a previous model that was similar in type, you will be very comfortable with most of the layout of the control and the symbols printed on the camera. There may be some new buttons on there, but if you didn’t have them on your last camera, you will likely not need them on your new camera if you have not read about it yet. Most functions on cameras have not changed in decades. So it is likely that if you are used to a particular brand and how it displays functions, it will continue to do so on your new model.

Gifts under the Christmas Tree - ©TimeLine Media
Gifts under the Christmas Tree – ©TimeLine Media

New Camera

Taking lots of photos with your new camera will also get you comfortable with how it responds. If you left the settings exactly how it came out of the box, it will likely give you perfectly fine results. They may not look much different as images from a point and shoot, or smartphone camera, but they will be viewable, and will give you a starting point to play with the settings later. There is probably a lot of family, friends, and other holiday things going on right away, so don’t worry so much about the details with your new gear. Just start enjoying it by using it!

You have a lot of time to tinker with all the other fun that a camera can make when you are not stressed about the season. Just be sure to register the camera with the manufacturer before your lose the registration card, of the serial number rubs off the outside! That will ensure you get all the warranty and repair rights if something breaks along the way.

Capitol Christmas Tree at night - ©TimeLine Media
Capitol Christmas Tree at night – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Family, Personal, Photography, Technology | 0 comment

Best Gifts

I am so thankful for another great Christmas spent with family. There was so much good food to eat, and many gifts to exchange! Some of the best gifts are still related to photography. A new camera, or a new camera bag to hold all my stuff! Actually, I am enjoying going through some old photos. I sent a few of our old family slides out to be scanned. It takes a long time to do the scanning right, and the equipment can be hard to master.

s_v13ahef9pac0077
s_v13ahef9pac0001

Luckily, there are lots of places that you can outsource this. Luckily they were able to complete the job in time before Christmas. It was nice to share the digitized images with family while we had some time to relax and go through them. These old images definitely have more meaning as time passes. This makes me appreciate even more the job of being a photographer to help preserve even better images for people if I have the gear and the knowledge to do so.

s_v13ahef9pac0236
s_v13ahef9pac0113

I have plenty of personal images to go through after the scanning. These were all taken on slide film, so we did not see them as often as those that were taken with negative film, and then printed. These always stayed as slides and would only come out when my parents setup the projector, loaded them into trays, and displayed them on a projector screen. Sometimes we would look at them on a small slide viewer, but it was still rarer than looking through the prints. It has been fun to look at them again especially during the holidays.

s_v13ahef9pac0379

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Personal, Photography, Travel | 0 comment

Noise and High ISO – Fuji X100s

©TimeLine Media - US Capitol Building at night

Washington, DC

I received a few emails about my recent posts about the X100s. It is a deceivingly good camera. Altough it has the form factor of a small, point-and-shoot camera, it has many of the controls of a larger camera, and can be just as complex to use. With the smaller body, many of the functions are more menu driven as there is just not that much space to add buttons or switches on the body. This can slow down your shooting if you have to change settings frequently, but they have tried to build in shortcuts. There are specific buttons that you can assign to settings that you access more frequently. The Fn button near the shutter release can change ISO settings very quickly in lieu of a dedicated ISO button on DSLR bodies.

©TimeLine Media - US Capitol Building at night
©TimeLine Media – US Capitol Building at night

Noise

Speaking of ISO and noise, this camera also has a big advantage over smartphone or point-and-shoot cameras. Behind the lens is a large APS-C sensor which is equivalent to the sensor size of many popular DSLR cameras. The larger the sensor, the better the low-light performance of the camera. A few have asked for some 100% crops of photos at the higher ISOs. Here is an example of the night time shoot at the Capitol building.

©TimeLine Media - US Capitol Building 100% crop
©TimeLine Media – US Capitol Building 100% crop

Even at 100%, the noise is not terrible especially considering the ISO is up to 800. This is also with the default noise reduction settings from Lightroom. If I were to print this image at a size higher than 16×20, I would have to do some more work, but at anything lower, the noise would not be viewable from a normal display distance. Another thing to note is that the photo above is sharp event at 100% with a shutter speed of 1/15th! It is much easier to hand hold a smaller, lighter body at slower shutter speeds.

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

1 … 6 7 8 9 10 … 16