Digital Photography Life - Make Every Shot Count : Digital Camera Reviews | Tutorials

DPL 018: How to Deck Out Your DSLR, Digital Photography Life Style

Michael Stein & Scott Sherman — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:30:00 -0000

What do you buy when you want it all? Today, Michael tells us not only about the new Nikon D300s he just picked up, but about all the swag he got to deck it out, Digital Photography Life style. Some of the things Michael added on were the enhanced battery grip, the enhanced Nikon battery for the camera, next generation NiMH rechargeable batteries with a truly space-age charger, and an external battery pack for his flash. It's all listed for you on www.scottsphotoblog.com. Of course, I can't blame Michael for upgrading his gear - I'm totally hot for the upcoming Canon 7D, which we talk about in some detail. Great specs - we can't wait to see if the output matches the camera's potential.We also discuss two high-end cameras coming out from Leica - the Leica M9 and Leica X1 - nice sounding gear, but with the price tags to match.For full show notes, links and your codes for terrific savings and free stuff from SmugMug, please visit www.scottsphotoblog.com.Thanks for listening!

DPL 017: Better Landscape Shots with Pro Photographer Marc Meunch

Michael Stein & Scott Sherman — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:10:00 -0000

Take your landscape photography to new heights with great tips from pro photographer Marc Meunch on today's show. Marc covers the best gear, shooting techniques and digital processing tricks to give your shots that cover-quality magic. Marc is a fantastic guest on today's show, which you'd expect given his outstanding resume. Marc has photographed for book publishers including Time Inc. He's represented Canon Cameras in several ad campaigns, and appeared on ESPN's "Canon Photo Safari" for eight season. He's published and co-published several books of photography. He's also "artist in residence" at SmugMug, our favorite photo sharing and selling service. Would you like a real expert to tell you how to improve your photography? In today's show, we'll tell you how you may get a personal critique from Marc on your landscape photos. That's worth the price of admission alone! Marc tells us how he got into the photo biz and gives tips for those of you looking to break into it, While Marc is accomplished in many areas of photography, in our interview we focus on landscape shooting, particularly, how to get outstanding shots in autumn, when the beautiful colors get every photographer's fingers itching to snap.Marc's tips include the best equipment to buy and use, the two lenses he considers must-haves and how to use a flash to achieve the perfect balance of light. We also talk filters, tripods and cameras.There's a ton of sites we mention in today's show, including the one that will take you to where you can submit your photos for Marc's evaluation. Be sure to visit www.scottsphotoblog.com for all the links you can eat.

DPL 016: Take Better Pictures on a Sunny Day

Michael Stein & Scott Sherman — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:45:00 -0000

It's that season again - tons of new cameras and gear to discuss. We'll get into some of the latest and greatest, and tell you how to take better pictures on sunny days with the equipment you have now. But first, a bit of catch up - on our last show, I mentioned an online back service that will mail you a hard drive with your data, saving you weeks of downloading your data should you crash yours. I couldn't remember the name, but have since looked it up - it's BackBlaze. $5/month or $50/year for unlimited storage. If you ever need to get your backed up data on physical media, it'll cost you $89 for a DVD's worth of data (?) or a more reasonable $189 for a USB hard drive with your files. Both prices include shipping and handling. The hard drive seems like a great value to me. Our listener and guest-Tweeter Landya McCafferty kicked butt again, winning the Photowalk Contest for her city for the second year in a row! Go Landya. Of course, her city is Placenta, Wisconcin, and she's the only resident with a camera. Kidding! Not only did she win, but her photo was featured on Scott Kelby's blog. You'll also see some great examples of both naturalistic and surrealistic HDR shots. If one LCD on a camera is good, two must be better, right? The people at Samsung hope so. Maybe it will convince you to buy a TL220 or TL225.The names certainly won't. Back to basics with the Canon S90. Great sensor, clicky controls and manual settings. I want this camera, but I agree with Michael that the G11 offers more functionality, but its not pocket-friendly. Shoot a lot? Toshiba's announced the World's Largest SD Card - 64 big fat gigabytes of goodness. Although wouldn't it have been funnier if they meant an SD card that was like 12 feet or something? They should save that announcement for April Fools Day. Oh wait - the card uses the new "SDXC" format which won't work in your current camera anyway. Turns out, the joke really was on us.The iPhone is the second most popular camera on Flickr and Camera Genuis makes it better. Maybe. You can read a review on TUAW here. The user reviews are mixed, but for 99 cents, you can afford to find out for yourself. SmugMug is our favorite site for sharing and - should you chose to accept this assignment - selling your photos. SmugMug has two fantastic offers just for our listeners: 50% off your SmugMug service at any level (enter code "Flickr" at checkout). This is a fantastic discount and you should take advantage of it in time to share your holiday photos!A free camera strap to any listener of Digital Photography Life: This one is just crazy. A high-quality camera strap that replaces the neck-slicing piece of canvas that your camera's manufacturer condescended to include with your DSLR. Get your freebie here.

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Michael Stein & Scott Sherman

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