Photospot

Ever seen one of these?

2007-03-27T21:23:00.000-07:00

Found this in cafeteria. Couldn't resist doing some "Product Photography".

Sparkling water - for Bats and Sloths only

Setup
I placed the PC Monitor Stand under the lamp on my desk. Placed a plain sheet of paper against the wall and the monitor stand, then placed the bottle on it.

Shot with 50mm 1.8, in aperture priority , at F3.2 and ISO 100. I also over-exposed by one full stop (exposure compensation +1EV) yet, at 1/60s it looked a bit underexposed. In the end, I had to use "Fill Light" and "Tuning" in Picasa to get a brighter background.

Oh! The Joys of Childhood!

2007-03-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

It was a fun weekend. My daughter loves her new bubble maker - "Infinite Bubbles". So on Sunday evening, we went to the near-by play area.

I wanted to shoot colorful shots of all the reflections. I had my 50mm F1.8 prime attached to the camera as I knew I was not going to shoot wide angle. I wanted to use narrow depth of field to make the bubbles stand out. But pretty soon I realized that it was too difficult to take any good pics of shiny bubbles in it with the windy weather.

It was very sunny and taking pictures of my daugher was also difficult due to high dynamic range. As evening sattled and shadows grew longer, I started getting better shots. Out of 50+ shots that I tried, this one is my favorite.

Focal Length: 50mm
ISO : 100
Aperture: F2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/500s
Mode: Black and White (with red filter)
Editing: Sharpen and Glow with Picasa (Free from Google), Noise reducation with Neat Image (Free Demo)

And, I could see parallels between both of our toys. She was making lots of bubbles effortlessly and enjoying running behind them. And I was taking lots of pictures, trying different settings, checking thr results and trying something new.. almost a child's play compared to what photography enthusiasts had to go through a generation before.

I wonder what her first dSLR would be like !

A year later...

2007-03-22T19:39:00.000-07:00

Wow, it has been almost a year since my last post! I never thought I'd leave such a large gap in my posts. But time never stops for anybody.

Hmm... if you could stop time, then what shutter speed would you use to take a picture ? ;)

My sincere thanks to the netizens who have linked to this blog, provided this blog as reference to others in forum posts or left encouraging comments right here. This is not a "Photo a day" blog or my "daily diary". So all your back links have helped this blog stay relavent even when it has not been updated in a while.

Here are some topics I am planning to cover in next few posts.

Selecting lenses for your DSLR
Understanding Exposure Value
Understanding Histograms
Any suggestions ?

The purpose of this blog is to capture things that I have learned about Photography so that someone else can benefit from it. So your feedback is valuable to me if you learned anything from this site. Please voice your comments and criticisms for the writeups.

Soordasji - a Candid Portrait

2006-03-25T13:05:00.000-08:00

Earlier I had posted a candid portrait that I had clicked in India during my previous trip back home. Well, here is another candid portrait from India but with a subtle difference.

Soordasji
(c) All Rights Reserved

First of all, what makes a "candid portrait". From what I have understood so far, A candid portrait is an image of a person where

the subject (the person) is not deliberately posing for the shot
the image should capture the essence of that person's mood or character or some other unique property

As per this description, the above photo does not look quite candid, as it seems the person is posing.

Well, he is not! He is blind! He had no idea that I was taking his picture or even I had a camera in my hands!

The subject
The person in this picture is Soordasji. On our India trip, we also did some pilgrimage to a holy place in Madhya-Pradesh (which literally means Central State) of India. Soordasji has dedicated his life to taking care of inner sanctum in a small shrine located inside a larger temple. I don't know much about him other then the fact I have seen him at the same shrine almost two decades ago, dedicated to the same activity. When I say "dedicated" I mean really really dedicated! The number of visitors is not very large on any given day at the shrine. But day and night, he keeps the inner sanctum clean by washing and dusting. He hardly even moves away from the place.

In fact it was quite a humbling experience to see him there. I remembered when I visited this place when I was a kid and my father told me about him. And now I was visiting the same place with my daughter and seeing him do the same dedicated service.

Composition
I thought of taking his picture next to the shrine door etc. But none of that would have done justice to the character of this man that I had in my mind. So I took a close-up. It captures this mans simplicity, his age, and his eyes in a way that I liked. This man is really pretty much what you see in this picture. He does not have much worldly possessions, nor is he interested in anything other then keeping the shrine clean. I am not sure how to capture his dedication in a picture. But once you know his story, you start seeing that in his face and eyes.

Editing
The original was obviously in color. But to bring out details in his dark skin, I had to do some editing (Fill Light, Contrast etc.) that caused the color quality to suffer. So I ended up converting it to Sepia, then exaggerated contrast a little further and moved the temperature control also to get the kind of colors I liked. All of this was done in Picasa2.

One last note. Before you think I exploited the blind by taking his picture, a clarification. I did tell him after taking his picture; he didn't mind. I gave some donation too and wondered what a man so detached from the world will do with the money I'm donating anyway! Well, it only took a few seconds to find out. On our way out, an administrator told us that the temple in which the small shrine is located was going through some reconstruction, And the new beautiful gate that was being built, was entirely being sponsored by Soordasji!

Found a Friend in Fatehpur Sikri

2006-02-23T02:19:00.000-08:00

After visiting Taj Mahal, next day we visited Fatehpur-Sikri, The mughal captial built by Akbar. Main attraction over there were Akbar's palaces, a beautiful Shrine of sufi saint Salim Chishti and The Buland Darwaza (The Gigantic Gate).

But for my daughter, the main attraction was this puppy that followed her around. I took a few shots of them interacting.

Found a Friend in Fatehpur Sikri
(c) All Rights Reserved

Prince Pup of Fatehpur Sikri

It was a good change from the rest of the scenary - which was all full of very high dynamic range. My choice of timing to visit the place (afternoon) was very bad. But I did manage to get couple of interesting ones... which I'll post next time.

Taj Mahal - at a different perspective

2006-02-14T07:54:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics of Taj Mahal from some not so obvious angles. I have not seen many pictures of Taj Mahal with this perspective.

Taj Mahal!
(c) All Rights Reserved

It was possible to take these pics only because I was using a wide angle lens (17-40mm F4.0L). Even then it was difficult to capture the entire central structure from the base of one of the minarates. I took two shots (3rd and 4th above) thinking I'll join them using Canon PhotoStitch. Unfortunately, Canon PhotoStitch refrused to even try to merge them saying the focal length is too small and it cannot do a smooth merge with the perspective at such a focal length.

More 'Taj Mahal' - my favorite shot

2006-02-12T02:23:00.000-08:00

Taj Mahal in evening lights !
(c) All Rights Reserved

Out of about 60 pics of Taj that I snapped, this one is my favorite. I did make some enhancements uing Picasa2, but I think the picture itself was great to begin with. With the beautiful symmatry of its design, once you have Taj Mahal in the middle of your frame, there is not much left to do in composition to make it more applealing. Just keep the Taj in the middle - symmatric - and shoot !

Although I did try to take some pics of the Taj at some not so obvious angles... I'll post those in the next post.

Taj Mahal in evening lights!

2006-02-09T21:40:00.000-08:00

Taj Mahal in evening lights !
(c) All Rights Reserved

We did sight seeing in northern India for about 10 days. And of course the first attraction was Taj Mahal! I visited this beautiful monument after about 22 years... i.e. first time in my adult life. It was a memorable experience to see and apprecitae this beautiful work of art and engineering.

We also visited Fatehpur-Sikri, New Delhi, Gokul, Mathura, Vrindavan, Haridwar, Hrishikesh and Panna (MP).

Through out the tour, I carried 3 lenses with me.

18-55mm F3.5/5.6 : the kit lense
50mm F1.8 : the prime
17-40mm F4.0L : my proude new purchase for this trip

So what did I really use the most?

17-40mm F4.0L ... exclusively.

Why ? Mostly because ...

it was the best quality of lens I had with me
and because I did not want to even attempt to change lens while I am lugging my camera bag on shoulder, a heavy camera and a heavy lens in one hand and carrying my one year old daugher in the other hand :-) ! Camera, The L lense, My daughter... can't drop any of them, can I ? :-)

India Trip !

2006-02-08T21:42:00.000-08:00

(c) All Rights Reserved

Hello folks! I just got back from India!
Had lots of fun with friends and Family and also did a lot of sight seeing in northern India. Snapped about a 1000 clicks with 20D and a brand new 17-40 F4L !

I will try to share the best of the shots and lessons in the coming weeks!

Regarding the shot above. Well I wanted to capture the sense of scale of Taj Mahal. So I tried to fill the frame such that the smaller objects - people - do get some attention with the Taj in Back. However, with the 17-40 F4L being a very wide lens, I had to come closer to Taj for this picture.. which unfortunately caused the perspective (top narrower then bottom). Anyways...

A view from Pier 39

2005-08-09T08:05:00.000-07:00

Here is a view of San Francisco from top of a Parking lot at Pier 39

Original was a color image. Applied following enhancements using Picasa2.

Crop
Fill Light
Sharpen
Sepia
Gradient
Auto Contrast

At The Bridge

2005-08-08T06:40:00.000-07:00

Recently, I drove somone to see Golden Gate Bridge. Here are some pics of the bridge I snapped while on site. It was very foggy that day and I couldn't get the shots I'd love, but I tried to make the best out of the situation. These are few that I liked.

A Trip to Yosemite Valley

2005-06-08T01:04:00.000-07:00

Residents of San Francisco Bay area are very lucky to have so many beautiful and fun weekend getaways like Carmel, Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay, Napa Valley, Lake Tahoe and Yosemite Valley!

We try to go to Yosemite Valley at least once during the month of May. During this period, the snow in the sierra mountains is melting and there is so much of water in the Falls. This year also, we planned a trip for May second weekend (although it turned out little different this time).

Also, this was my first trip to the valley with a digital cam in my hand. So I was very excited.

Preparation

A total of 1 GB of memory (1 of 512MB + 2 of 256 MB cards)
I grabbed the laptop also just in case I ru out of memory
Housekeeping camp, where we were staying, do provide an electrical outlet. So I was not worried about battery recharging etc.
For the camp fire side shots, I also bought a Canon 50mm F1.8 Lens (more on this lense in a separate post)

First Problem
I was testing my new 50mm F1.8 lens for sharpness and tried various very small apertures, and suddenly a hairline started showing in all the pics. Upon further Investigation of pics, lense and camera, I concluded that this was due to a scratch on the 20D sensor! This was a really BAD news as this would rule out all the long exposure (smooth water shots) ! I contacted Amazon and they promised to replace it. But for this trip I had to live within F9.0 or so! Anyways.

Overall, I took about 125 shots only ! And most of them I did not like once I got them on the computer. I mentioned about this feeling of "It looked better then this picture" feeling earlier too. Well, it was like Deja vu. But this time it was for different reasons. Check lessons learned. Pics posted below are the few I liked.

I wanted to do better post processing with Adobe Elements 2.0, but it is becoming so hard to find time for everything, especially when weekends are busy withmore opportunities for taking pictures. So finally I did simple fixes with Picasa 2, and created a gallery with Adobe Elements 2.0. Please View the Gallery for higher resolution images.

Entering the valley Floor
For the first time I hit bumper to bumper traffic in Yosemite National Park. Here are a couple of pics of Yosemite Falls that I snapped from the driver seat, when traffic was at stand still.

[View Gallery]

Despite our best attempts, we wasted a whole lot of first day in just reaching to the camp. And thet was the sunniest day of our trip!

Camp fire
I had grabbed the 50mm F1.8 lens especially for the camp fire shots. Here are some of the camp fire shots.

[View Gallery]

Curry Village
Between running behind kids (my nephews) and doing BBQ, I don't know how the second day was gone already. Both days, I wasted so many shots due to lack of Dynamic Range. I won't blame it on 20D though, it was just too bright and sunny and I was trying to take pictures in the middle of the day!!! Here is a decent one that came out nice, because it was in shade.

Pizza Patio at Curry Village

And soon it was evening, and then clouds and rain!!!

Leaving Yosemite
Next morning, we were wondering if we wanted to stay for the day. It had been raining all night and was still raining. Suddenly park rangers showed up and informed us that we had only 15 to 20 minutes to pack up and leave!!! All that sunny weather on the previous day plus the rain all night had the Merced River over flowing and it was about to move in our tents. We packed the cars in 10 minutes in rain and left hurriedly. I made BIG one mistake, placed the camera bag behind other stuff!!!

On the way out, we could see the river moving in our tent, which actually created an increased sense of urgency to get "out of the woods". Although it was nothing dangerous, we just did not want to get stuck in the park, if they close the access roads.

The best photographic opportunities showed up at this totally unexpected moment. Although I had passed up on the raging rapids of Merced river, the beautiful scenes below were just too good to pass, so I pulled over and had to get the camera out again. And I'm so glad I did :-)

[View Gallery]

Lessons Learned

Rushing out of the woods
Looking back, this did not turn out to be the kind of trip I expected. But I learned more about photography by making some mistakes and I guess that makes it worth. Here are some lessons learned.

Dynamic Range:
I had not even thought about dynamic range before this. Dynamic range in short is the range of brightness the camera can capture from the brightest object to dakest object in the scene. Anything brighter then upper level shows up washed out or white anything darker then darkest level of the range shows black. In very bright situations like what I faced, either I can get a beautiful bright and blue sky or I can get details from shadows in the trees. Getting both is tough. Either the sky will be all washed out and white, or all the shadow details will be dark underexposed. Many of my shots of falls did not come out right. I lost the detail in water while trying to make sure the surrounding greenary came out properly detailed. More on dynamic range some other time.
Viewfinder does not show Dynamic Range
Now, think about this. When I shot the picture, viewfinder showed an excellent detailed optical view, so I clicked. But, the viewfinder in no way indicates, what will be underexposed/overexposed. You have to review your image closely in preview. I did some preliminary review, where I missed the fact that water was completely whitened out(overexposed). This would have been OK, if I was taking long exposures at very small apperture for that smooth water flow effect. But due to sensor scratch problem I was limited by F9.0. So at faster shutter speeds (no smooth effect) , the overexposed water made the picture look mediocre to totally bad.
Time of the day is important:
because, Sun does not follow your time table. If you wanna get good shots, get out of the bed/tent earlier or wait for late afternoon or evening. Atthese times, Dynamic range is smaller and with patience, you can get a good shot. My evenings were reserved for family activities, and mornings ... well... I went there for rest too :-)
Pack your Camera First, but keep it on top of the luggage
Later on, in the evening I saw the park being closed, and the Merced river rapids that we passed by, regreting not taking pics. Safety first, but leaving the camera in an easily accessible locationwon't hurt.
Make a Plan
I was more disappointed because, I really did not take any trips to more scenic places like Mirror lake etc. If you go with other family members, your options can be limited. Advanced planning would have helped. I guess, I am just spoiled because Yosemite is a weekend getaway for us here in Bay Area.

Leaving Yosemite

Since this trip, my camera has been replaced by Amazon and I think I learned some valuable lessons in this trip. I hope to visit Yosemite again before end of summer!

Please feel free to post any comments or share your experince.

Tags : Yosemite, 20D, Photography

Yosemite Falls

2005-05-28T18:02:00.000-07:00

Been too occupied lately with other stuff, so I've not found enough time to do some post processing of the pics from Yosemite. Here is a quick one using Picasa2 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. I took this picture while waiting for traffic to move (Yes! Traffic! Even in Yosemite!). When you are on a very short trip with family, you have to grab every opportunity you get :-).

Yosemite Falls, Yosemite National Park, CA

Increased saturation a little and resized the image with Picasa2
Sharpened using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 using Unsharp Mask filter (Amount 120%, radius 0.3 , threshold 0.0)

Bridge at Happy Isle, Yosemite Valley

2005-05-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

Couple of weeks ago, I had a weekend trip to the beautiful Yosemite Valley. Below is one of the pictures from this trip.

Here is the same pic after applying following changes in Picasa2

Fill Light
Warmify
Saturation Increase
Sharpen
Glow

Stay tuned for more from this trip...

On a Rainy Evening

2005-04-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

If you live in San Francisco Bay area, you might have noticed that gorgeous full rainbow yesterday evening. I rushed out to try a picture of it after I reached home from work. But unfortunatetly It was too faint by then. Disappointed I returned to car and noticed the rain drops all over the windshield. It looked very interesting with the backdrop of sunset colors. So I clicked away...

Canon EOS 20D, F8.0, 1/125 s, ISO800

Canon EOS 20D, F8.0, 1/200 s, ISO800

I wish I had used more depth of field. But it was already at ISO800 at F8.0, and to decrease the aperture even further, I'd have to go to ISO1600. I wanted to keep the shutter speed as high as possible for maximum sharpness while holding the camera in hand.

Pink - Erica Heathers

2005-04-27T00:16:00.000-07:00

Updated

Erica Heathers

Native to South Africa

(c) All Rights Reserved

Shot handheld with Canon EOS 20D, 18-55mm EF-S Kit lens in Canon Raw format
F13.0, 1/50 s, ISO 800
Did minor adjustments and converted to JPG using Canon's Digital Photo Professional bundled with 20D.
Applied "Glow" and "Soft Focus" Effects in Picasa2
Did a very tight crop, makes it look like it was taken with a macro lens. Well it was not. The 8.2 MP gives you so much of resolution to play with.

Although, I do wish I had the 100mm F2.8 Macro lens to capture the beauty of these tiny flowers in great detail.

Update

Couldn't resist posting one more picture of these beautiful flowers. This time, a 4:3 aspect ratio wallpaper. Click on the link below to download the wallpaper.

A very colorful toy

2005-04-20T01:24:00.000-07:00

Tiger Piano
Canon EOS 20D, F5.3, 1/8 s, ISO 800, 55mm (using 18-55 kit lens)

Modified with Photoshop Elements 2.0

Unsharp Mask : Amount 300%, radius 0.3 , threshold 0
Resized Image to 400 X 600
Resized Canvas to 422 x 622
Stroke with black color, 1px, inside

I just like the funny gaze of this character, and wanted to emphasize on it, at the same time, wanted to capture its full spectrum of colors. I was, shooting in low light, so opened up aperture to its maximum F5.3, allowed by 18-55 mm kit lens at full zoom (i.e. 55mm). Hence the shallow depth of field, which actually puts even more emphasis on the face of the character. And, yes I know it is not perfectly centered in the frame.

Little Pomeranian

2005-04-14T00:19:00.000-07:00

Canon EOS 20D, F9.0, 1/160 s, +2/3EV

Here is a picture of my colleague. Recently, one day she brought this cute little pomeranian puppy with her. It was only a few weeks old, and in fact my 20D looked bigger then this puppy. I forgot to reset the Exposure compensation Dial back to zero EV, so some over exposure and loss of details in white areas. But I am glad that the pic came out nice otherwise.

I did some sharpening using Unsharp Mask filter in Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 (bundled with 20D). Also created the white border using the Stroke command.

Why I chose Canon EOS 20D

2005-04-13T01:09:00.000-07:00

OKay, time to finish of what I had started. Here is the second part. You might want to read first part from the link below.

Part I : Why I upgraded to a digital SLR

Part II : Why I chose Canon EOS 20D

In spite of the limitations I was facing with G5, I was overall happy with my decision to go with a Canon product. I knew that it was not a limitation of canon's technology but rather the class of camera I had chosen. So when I decided to upgrade to a dSLR, I simply started looking for what Canon had to offer.

300D or 20D ? A $600 question.
At the time of buying G5, it was first time for me so I was a bit skeptical spending a lot of money. But when it was time to upgrade, I knew that whatever I'll get I'll make good use of it. And therefore I was willing to spend little more if I liked the product. When I started looking, there were mainly two models that were within my reach. Canon EOS 300D (Digital Rebel) and Canon EOS 20D . 20D is the next incarnation of Canon EOS 10D. 10D was still available in the market but discontinued by Canon after 20D became available. On simple side by side comparison, it was quite clear that 20D was an entirely different class compared to 300D. See for yourself at dpreview.com. 300D was the first dSLR under $1000 and has had a revolutionary impact on the advanced amateur class of consumers. But by all means, 20D was a significant step forward in so many respect, for $600 more.

It was lot more robust compared to 300D. (Magnesium Alloy Body vs. Plastic Body )
Lot faster startup times. (0.2 seconds vs 2+seconds )
twice as fast continuous shooting (5 frames per second vs 2.5 frames per second)
Better, smarter, faster auto focus (9 point AF in 20D vs 7 point in 300D )
Faster Download speed for pics (USB 2.0 vs USB 1.0)
Bigger and better images (8.2 MP, better noise performance vs 6.3 MP)

300D is definitely smaller and lighter. But again, I was not shopping for a point and shoot here. I was shopping for serious photography, so I had size and weight at bottom of my priority list anyway. So it came down to, "can I justify spending $600 more?" Looking at the difference above, and thinking long term... Absolutely! I had learned my lessons well on G5 and knew what I wanted - a fast camera with great low light performance, that will last long. And definitely 20D was better at that then 300D. Still, I decided to put it off for a couple of more months to see if the prices go down further for 20D.

Canon Digital Rebel XT : 350D
Earlier this year, right around when I was closing in on placing my order, canon announced the next incarnation of 300D, the Canon Digital Rebel XT - 350D. And this caused a lot of dilemma! 350D or 20D ?(many folks are going through this right now... May be you too... Hmm let me get inside your head).

By all means, 350D was more like 20D's guts and brains cramped into the 300D's body and then shrunk even further. Moreover, 350D was to be sold at $500 less then 20D. So why in the world myself or anybody else would buy a 20D instead of this 350D. Well this is a completely debatable topic that can compete with Canon vs Nikon argument. There are strong reasons to buy either of these cameras. It's upto you to find out what is more appealing to you. Below is a list of what I thought about these differences.

Image size
20D : 8.2MP
350D : 8 MP
This was negligible.

Image Quality
They have different sensor, but both camera produce almost equal quality pics in identical conditions. A pro may nitpick little bit here and there. But hey, if you and me can not see the difference even at closer inspection, the difference is not there.

Build Quality
20D: Very robust, Magnesium Alloy Body with Rubber Grip.
350D: Plastic Body, no rubber grip.
First time, when I held my friend's Olympus C5060 camera in my hand, I could feel the difference between his camera and my plastic body Canon G5. C5060 felt much more robust because of it's magnesium alloy body. So I was definitely biased towards 20D with Magnesium Alloy body. Also, for someone, just wandering into dSLR world for "higher megapixel" or "better image quality" or "smarter auto modes", preferences would be still like "I still want something light and small". I was coming in from a different angle. I wanted to build a good lineup of lenses over the coming years. So whatever I get had to last few years, and had to be able to hold heavier lenses. Naturally I would go with 20D.

Weight
20D : No doubt this guy is heavy, 27.2 oz
350D : And this one is even lighter then 300D, Only 19.0 oz.
Now that is a BIG difference of weight. But again, that's what it will be if you want it robust and well built. You cannot be an 8 seater, off road vehicle and be feather weight at the same time.

Size
20D is 0.7 inch longer, 0.5 inch taller and 0.3 inch thicker then 350D. 350D is actually even smaller then 300D. For me, a person with relatively large hands, 350D felt too small for a better grip, while 20D would just fill my hands for a perfect stable grip.

Another temptation was, why not get 350D + a nice Canon lens with Image stabilization, in the same amount for which I'll get 20D with the entry level kit lens? Well, I thought, lens I can always add later on. Why compromise on camera body right now?

So I ended up choosing 20D over 350D as well. Even though the image quality differences were minimal, I selected 20D for better ergonomics and robust build quality.

Why not Nikon D70 ?
In the week I was about to place an order for 20D, I had a couple of friends over for dinner. When the topic came up, I was asked if I considered Nikon D70. And I had to admit, I had not looked at D70 closely. Eventhough I was so close to ordering 20D, I thought I should at least take a close look at 20D vs D70 comparison. And few things jumped out to me.

D70 was Nikon's answer to Canon 300D and was lot more like 20D or 350D then like 300D.
It was NOT magnesium alloy body.
Noise performance was not as good as 20D.
It's a 6.0 MP camera compared to 8.2 in 20D
The price difference was in the range of $200 to $300

Canon or Nikon
While looking at the comparison, what I realized was, this was not a simple Camera Model choice. This was a whole product line and brand choice for future investments as well. Once I choose Canon I'll be buying Canon's EF or EF-s Lenses. Once I choose Nikon, I'll be buying Nikkor lenses etc. Obviously with no experience of Nikon product, I'd feel better selecting something from my safety zone only, and that's what I did. Also, both of my friends who suggested the Nikon product, were themselves Nikon owners and had not tried Canon products yet. We all have our own safety zones! So 20D was it for me. My Canon vs Nikon decision was not completely objective so instead of going into details of 20D vs D70, I thought it would be best to document the main reason, my safety zone!

Update #1

If you are looking for side by side comparison of 300D, 350D, 20D and D70 then the right place to look at is the side by side feature comparison at dpreview.com. Use this as a starting point and then read full reviews for each of these cameras.

Update #2

dpreview.com has detailed comparison of 350D with 300D, 20D and D70 as part of 350D review.
bobatkins.com has nicely summarized Rebel XT vs 20D.
kenrockwell.com has detailed comparison of 20D vs D70.

Why not wait for the next model ?
Finally, why buy now? Canon has been announcing new dSLRs on annual basis. Why not wait for the next model that is very likely to show up this fall? Of course patience has its pay offs. But for me that pay off was the reduction in prices over the past few months that I had been petiently waiting. Also, getting a camera in fall means wasting a whole summer. And of course my baby daughter is growing fast! I wanted to take lots of pics of her in this first year. I just didn't see any point in waiting for next dSLR from Canon.

And frankly, after doing enough research, you reach a point where you just want to commit and move on to the real stuff... Taking a lot of pictures that is. That's what Photography is all about!

As this blog is about "sharing experiences" related to digital photography, I thought documenting my product decisions was an important part of it. I hope all my blabber above would help someone trying to enter the dSLR world in making the right choice for themselves. If you are a Nikon lover, wait for 1 month as they will announce a new dSLR by this month end. If you are a Canon lover, go get a 350D or 20D. Don't waste a summer!

Winners announced for 2005 Pulitzer Prize

2005-04-06T00:48:00.000-07:00

Been too occupied lately with other pending stuff (April 15th is coming closer, so it's tax time) ... so didn't get chance to finish the second part - "Why I chose Canon EOS 20D" - yet.

But here is something that I think every amateur and pro photographer should take a look at for inspiration. Winners for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for year 2005 were announced on 4/4/05 for multiple categories. Two of them relevant to photography are Feature Photography and Breaking News photography.

Feature Photography : Deanne Fitzmaurice (some graphic content) , San Francisco Chronicle

Breaking News Photography : Associated Press Staff (strong graphic content) , Associated Press

While going through these works, one thing that clearly stands out is that - the most important aspect of the image is a strong and clear subject. A strong and clear subject leaves a lasting impression on the viewer regardless of the other technical qualities of the image !

Also check their archive galleries for previous years winners and their works.

Why I upgraded to a digital SLR

2005-03-30T23:05:00.000-08:00

Its a lot of stuff to capture in rational behind moving from G5 to 20D. I'll break it down into two posts.

1. Why I upgraded to digital SLR
2. Why I chose Canon EOS 20D

Here we go with the first part.

Why I upgraded to a digital SLR

I got G5 in November 2003. Had great time learning basics of photographic exposure with it. My primary goals was to learn basics of photography and G5 helped me solve that purpose.

But for all its features, G5 is still a prosumer camera with its limitations. Read on...

Limitations of Canon Powershot G5
It has been a few months since I had started feeling "the one year itch". I started feeling that I can not do more with G5 and started facing its limitations. No doubt its a great camera, but it can not scale with your skill for sure.

Focusing Difficulties
When I bought G5 I thought, "I am not going to take pictures of fast moving objects in low light that often". But when my new born daughter started moving, It was becoming more and more difficult to focus properly. Remember, with G5 you have to do focusing with LCD screen. And it is really not that efficient or reliable. This is applicable to any camera where you have to do focusing using LCD (read LCD - Looks Can be Deceiving). Also, autofous is slow, especially in low light. Due to day job, I found myself trying to take pictures of my daughter in the evening at home in low light, more then expected. And focusing difficulties was becoming the main issue.
Noise at Higher ISO speeds
G5 allows ISO sensitivities of 50, 100, 200 and 400. But higher ISO means more noise in the image. I could always use software like Neat Image. But nothing compares to an original picture with minimal noise.
Lot of motion blur
Due to bad noise levels above ISO100, I was forced to use lower ISO and hence slower shutter speed (need more light as the sensor is slow at capturing it). This caused motion blur in low light pictures.
Depth of Field Issues
Another thing I could do to get more light in was open the aperture to the maximum. In case of G5, that would be F2.0 (read The F Number - Demystified). This will help increasing the shutter speed to avoid motion blur, but then, you start losing Depth of Field because your aperture is wide open (read Depth of Field - the Third Dimension). Narrow depth of field causes parts of the subject to be blurred (e.g. eyes will be OK but hair or hand will be blurred). Such effect was not always desirable.

As you can see above, all of these problems were somehow related to Photography in low light coditions without using any flash. However that's not it.

Aperture limits
Smallest aperture for G5 is F 8.0. So if you want to take long exposures with wide depth of field, you can only go upto the point where your picture won't be over exposed at F8.0. Imagine that you are trying to take a picture of water falls and you want to expose it for long time to get really smooth water effect. Eventhough G5 allows upto 15 seconds max shutter speed, you will be limited to a second or so at ISO 50, because beyond that your picture will be overexposed. If aperture smaller then F 8.0 was available, you can set it to smaller size and go for longer exposure. On my 4th of July Fireworks pictures, I had to use Neutral Density filter on top of at F8.0 to get decent 15 second exposures even at night. Even then the grand finale shot came out overexposed !
Depth of field
If you want to choose a certain depth of field by setting proper aperture on G5, It is very difficult. You take a trial snap, get the picture on LCD, zoom in and verify that the depth of field covers all that you want. Problem is once you zoom in on LCD, you quickly lose perspective. The guide box on the corner tells you where you are on the picture but I always found it to be very inconvenient this way. A better way would be to be able to see depth of field optically (through viewfinder, not on LCD) and verify, and of course you can not see depth of field in a viewfinder in a non-SLR camera.
3:4 Aspect Ratio
The pictures generated by your G5 fit perfectly well on your TV. But if you get 4X6 print from a consumer lab, your picture will be trimmed from top and bottom. This may be a killer for your composition. This is because G5 images are with 3:4 aspect ratio, which fits perfect on your TV, but not in a 4X6 print. Workaround is to manually crop all the images to 4:6 aspect ratio before sending for print.
Filters
I also wanted to start trying out different filters (especially Circular Polarizer). But faced by other limitations, it was clear that I wanted an SLR, so I just didn't feel like doing any investment in buying good filters etc for G5. This was bothering me because I was delaying learning new techniques!
Scalability
Being a non-SLR camera, G5 does not have capability to change lenses. You are limited to the built in lens. There are two adapters available, one for wide angle and other for telephoto. But that is it. Contrast this with the SLR world where there is a plethora of choices depending on what is it that you want to shoot.

Faced with this Limitations I started looking for an SLR. I did not see a point in upgrading to G6 or Pro 1 from Canon or any prosumer camera for that matter. It would have been just like G5 with few more features and few more mega pixel.

So why did I think an SLR would fix many of these problems ?

SLR features

Interchangeable Lenses
This is the Defining Feature of an SLR camera. You can choose any lens that you want that is compatible with your camera's lens mount and just replace it. Your ability to zoom in, set very small apertures, shoot a very wide angle of the scene etc. are limited only by the lens that you mount. You can have one general purpose zoom lens or you can go for a different lens for every different type of picture. Want to take pictures in low light? Get a lens that can open aperture upto F1.4 ! Want to shoot very wide angle landscape photograph? Get a lens with small focal length like 10 mm to 22 mm. Want to get into wildlife photography ? Get a long focal length lens like 200+ mm.
Composing with a ViewFinder
In a point and shoot, you have some limited zoom and the view finder will have a mechanism which will show the same view. Still it is not through your camera's main lens. When you zoom in and out, the viewfinder also moves its small elements back and forth just like the main lens to mimic the same amount of zoom. This is OK as long as it shows correct zoom.

However in a camera with interchangeable lens, it is impossible to have a viewfinder with it's own independent lens. If you shoot extreme telephoto and the viewfinder does not show extreme telephoto view, how are you going to compose your picture ? It just doesn't make sense. For Point and shoot, this was OK because the lens is fixed and its capabilities are imitated by viewfinder also. But similar mechanism in a camera with interchangeable lens will be impossible.

That's why in camera's with interchangeable lens, optical mechanisms like penta prism and a mirror are implemented that show the view finder's view thorough the main lens. Due to this mechanism, they are called Single Lens Reflex Camera or SLR Camera! This is required because the lens is interchangeable. That is why I call the Interchangeable lens the Defining Feature for SLR. You will never have a separate lens for view finder in a cameras with interchangeable lens.

What are the advantages ? Well, when you are composing, you look through the view finder. You can very accurately verify if you have achieved proper focus as you are not limited by the resolution of an LCD.
Higher ISOs and lower Noise
dSLR offer better ISOs. 20D offer 100,200,400,800,1600, 3200. Higher ISO speeds allow you to take the picture faster. Also at similar ISOs the noise levels are way too low compared to a G5. Primary reason for this is a better sensor. A dSLR is usually a bigger and more expensive camera, it employs a larger sensor compared to a point and shoot with the same mega pixels. Larger Sensors have larger individual pixels which produce less Image noise.
Better control over Aperture and Shutter speed
An SLR supports very small aperture settings. These are limited to what lens you put on it of course. Also shutter speeds can vary from a few thousandth of a fraction to as long as you want(called bulb setting). With the combination of wider range of ISOs, shutter speeds and apertures, you can get the same exposure level in the way most suitable to your situation. Trying to avoid motion blur ? Trying to cover enough depth of field ? Trying to do both together but in low light ? No problem ! Your playing fields is a little bigger.
Depth of Field
Most SLR cameras come with this neat feature. Your composition is done with aperture wide open. But then after you have selected your desired aperture, you want to verify if it covers enough depth of field or not. Press a little button, and camera instructs the lens to give you a preview by setting the aperture to the desired level. You can verify everything from the viewfinder and change aperture if you wish.
Faster Camera
Prosumer cameras typically have a couple of second startup time for it to get initialized. It's an electronic device just like your DVD player. However, this delay can make you miss a very valuable photo moment if your camera was not on. dSLRs are built to professional quality where you can't afford to miss a moment. So typically they have startup time of a very small fraction of a second. They also capture multiple frames per second (for those shots of kids jumping in the pool or running in the garden). You don't need to be the luckiest guy to capture the exact moment. Shoot continuous whenever you want to captue fast action. Just make sure that you have enough room on your compact flash card.

"How many megapixels is it?"
I still get asked this as the first question. As you can see in the list above, higher megapixel was not the reason for upgrade at all . Beyond 5 MP, I dont think MPs are that relavent for point and shoot. May be in SLR world, it matter a bit because the expectation is that the images might be printed at anything larger then 4 x 6. Well, I've not done that yet. But MP was definately not a criteria. I had lots of other things to complain about before any lack of resolution. FYI, 20D is an 8.2 MP and I think it will provide more room to crop. But again, one needs to get better at composition and rely less and less on cropping.

Oh one more thing...

What happens to G5 ?
Nothing, G5 still stays as my second camera and I am sure I'll be using it for many occasions like..

Places where "professional photography" is not allowed (They typically think of anything SLR as professional).
When I don't want to carry a rather big camera with me. (Formal party)
Just as a backup if I spill my coffee on 20D (I hope not!).
Where an SLR camera might look overwhelming.

Enough said, the true measure of success of a decision is the results. And so far it looks good. I have not had that many chances to take pictures outdoors this last few days after I got my 20D, because sometimes California weather really Sucks. But I am looking forward to a great summer with the new toy.

My little Wonder

2005-03-20T01:35:00.000-08:00

-:- My little Wonder -:-

Here is one of my first shots with 20D. It has been reduced in size. What's unique about this shot is the conditions in which it was taken. I captured this when my baby daughter was playing in the bed, early in the morning on a cloudy day, in available light through the window! The only way this was possible is because I dialed up the ISO sensitivity to 1600 ! Even at 1600 ISO the images that come out are very useable with relatively low noise. I'd never be able to get this shot with my G5. Full exposure info is as below.

Aperture : F 5.6
Shutter : 1/30 sec
Focal Length : 35 mm (I was using the kit lense from my old film SLR Canon Rebel G)
ISO : 1600

Note: The original image has some noise in it, but I left it in it and sharpend with Picasa 2. For Black and White or Sepia images, when you sharpen with the noise, it starts looking like film or paper grain which I think looks good. I'd never do that to color images.

I was sooo... wrong

2005-03-20T01:27:00.000-08:00

... and I dont even feel bad about it! Few months ago in my post "Why I chose Canon Powershot G5", I concluded;

"I don't think I'll buy an SLR in near future."

Well, I have proven myself wrong. Last Friday, The UPS guy delivered a brand new Canon EOS 20D, my first digital SLR!

In summry, 20D is the best you can get in it's class. It is fast in focusing, startup, read-write speeds, and can capture 5 frames per second 8.2 Megapixel images. It has lot less image noise at ISOs upto 800 (oh yeah!) and it is very well built.

With this camera I am moving from the "prosumer" to "a serious amateur" category. So what made me buy a digital SLR camera so sooner then I had thought? Well, I am not going to post a full review of 20D. there are plenty of good reviews out there on the web and I don't think I can do better then those. But I'll surely try to document the thought process that might be able to help someone else make such a move. After all, it's a big step up, considering that this camera costs almost double compared to what I paid for G5 a little more than a year ago.

Stay Tuned...

Window on the Wing

2005-03-09T01:11:00.000-08:00

Holiday Lighting

2005-03-04T08:57:00.000-08:00

Holiday Lighting, Glendale, AZ