My recommendation to all beginners are to start off from a cheap tripod before finding your way to the ultimate tripod that fits you the best. There are plenty of standard size tripods for new/used for around $20. Get yourself one for sack of having one: don’t worry picking the ‘right’ tripod… As long as its a standard sized, aluminum tripod that should serve you well.

Learn to love it, feel what’s like to own a tripod and do things you cannot do without one. Learn to hate it, attempt to carry it everywhere sensible, try setting it up differently, push to its limit (feature wise) and gently abuse it (strength wise).

Now you are an experienced tripod user with plenty of comments toward your tripod. Before you start thinking about hunting for your next tripod, look at your tripod now: how’s its condition?

• If its in similar condition to when you purchased it, then you are either not using it enough, this tripod fits your light usage, or you are simply not a tripod person. Please get rid of that thought “we’ll, if I have a better tripod, I…” That’s just GAS. Either way congratulation, you’ve saved yourself a premium on spending money on tripod that you may better invest into something else;
• If your tripod took the beat, well… lucky this poor fellow isn’t your $800 tripod (because that can happen too if you not using it correctly). Find yourself asking new tripod that fits your usage.

Reason why you don’t jump to a high end tripod as your first tripod is that there isn’t such thing as ‘the ultimate tripod’. All high end tripods has their distinct features and prices can get ridiculously high. You need to first figure out what kind of tripod fits you the best and narrow down your choice that way: you not going to know what you need until you been out with one.

Here is a shortlist of features you may consider. Remember, there’s no one tripod that can fits them all:

• Price
• Storage size and base weight: for traveler and everyday photography
• Material (wood, aluminum, carbon fiber, titanium): for weight, durability and stability
• Stability: important for long exposure and landscape
• Maximum height: for versatile and everyday but affects stability
• Price: tripod can get really expensive an don’t forget different heads, plates and fancy accessories you may desire
• Speed: as in how fast can you deploy a tripod from its folding position
• Environment capable: temperature, sand dust, humidity and salt…
• Specialty: detachable pipe leg for macro, 2 sections bendable center pipe, triangle legs for better minimal storage space
• Did I mention Price? some may go with videography tripod for super stability, or Gitzo’s special weather sealed tripod. those are not sub $1000.

I don’t want to go into tripod heads and plates as they are different topic and can be specialized. That’s leave that till another day…

Couple of things you may not already know:

• Tripod doesn’t retain resell value the way lens does. Material will age and new models will replace yours completely (unlike lens were some old optics are actually sharper than successors)
• Carbon fiber is considered as premium material, but it’s actually fragile and may crack upon heavy drop.
• Not even the top end tripod able to deal with portrait mode perfectly. You are bound to get L-plate or gimbals head, or just stick with landscape mode.

Summary

It is important that you start shooting and start using one. Because it is the experience that will take you to the next level. Same applies to your equipment usage, you will have to learn to love it and hate it in good to be good at using it.

For example:

JPEG straight out of camera. Setting: ISO200, f11, 30 seconds.

My first suspect was my B+W ND110 filter (10 stops) causing uneven exposure. Some suggest possibility of sticky shutter curtain. Another asked me whether I shut my ‘Viewfinder Curtain’ because that can be a source of light leak, which is a hard knock on my head. I’m doing long exposures in broad daylight, there’s a ‘Viewfinder Curtain’ available to my camera body (D800) and I did not think of using it.

I did a test to confirm that is exactly the cause. I took the following shots

•  ISO 100, f8, 30 seconds
• Using B+W ND110 filter
• JPEG straight out of camera, resized from 3680×2456 to 900x601px

Photo taken with ‘Viewfinder Curtain’ shut.

Photo taken with ‘Viewfinder Curtain’ open shooting to East with Sun above me (early afternoon). You can see a subtle horizontal white ghosting about 70% down the photograph.

Photo taken with ‘Viewfinder Curtain’ open and shinning a touch into the viewfinder for 30 seconds. Photo is now badly polluted by light leak through viewfinder.

This may be obvious to some landscape photographers but when this unwanted effect hits me, I could not pin point the cause. I hope this post is somehow helpful and can be quickly realised when occurred to new photographers.

New Features in Photoshop CS2 from CS1

Released in May 2005.

1. Vanishing Point: Groundbreaking ability to clone, paint and transform in the perspective of your images.
2. Image Warp: Warp any object, with customisable presets and adjustable control points.
3. Noise Reduction: Advanced correction of noise created in high-ISO shooting, plus JPEG artifact reduction.
4. 32-bit HDR: Create and edit 32-bit, High Dynamic Range images, for the widest range and richest detail.
5. Spot Healing Brush: Fast, efficient one-click retouching of dust, scratches and other image flaws.
6. One-Click Red Eye Correction: Instantly eradicate this common photo flaw.
7. Optical Lens Correction: Correct common lens issues like barrel and pincushion distortion.
8. Animation: Easily create animated Web graphics directly in Photoshop CS2.
9. Smart Sharpen: Intelligently counteract common photo blurring with advanced control.
10. Shadow/Highlight: Simple discrete adjustment of shadows and highlights, now also for CMYK images.
11. Enhanced 16-bit Editing: Additional filters, such as Liquify, are now available for use in 16-bit images.
12. Smart Objects: Non-destructive editing and transformations, including Illustrator CS2 integration.
13. Video Preview: Send an instant preview of video-destined images to an external monitor.

New Features in Photoshop CS3 (10.0.0) from CS2

Released in April 2007.

1. Non-destructive Smart Filters: Filters can be applied non-destructively, and remain live and re-editable. That gives you the flexibility to experiment with different filters and settings, without having to back up and start over with the original image.
2. Vanishing Point with adjustable angle: Paste graphics in perspective to create packaging mock-ups and effortlessly edit in perspective.
3. Black and White conversion: Quickly remap the colors in your image to monochrome, and improvements to the Channel Mixer.
4. Improved Curves Adjustment: Curves now features a larger, improved display incorporating an integrated histogram and simultaneous display of multiple color channels.
5. Enhanced Merge to 32-bit HDR: Merge to HDR lets you use your digital camera to capture bracketed exposures that together cover the dynamic range of the scene.
6. Quick Selection tool: Paint the general area with the Quick Selection tool to select the region you need to work on.
7. Refine Edge: Final touch to any image selection.
8. Photomerge with advanced alignment and blending: Provides a fast, easy way to convert a series of images into a panorama.

Released a year apart, they share more similarities than difference, hence making the mark 2 version a revision to its presessor. A summary of their similarity as following:

• Color Temperature: 5600K
• RRP (at release time): US$75
• Full Power Recharge Time: approx. 3 seconds
• Zoom: 24-105mm
• Power Level: 1 to 1/128
• Acoustic Signal: Yes
• External Power Connector: Yes
• PC Sync Port: Yes
• Overheat Protection: Yes
• Flash Duration (at Full Power): 1/200 seconds

Besides the build quality and an obvious LCD user interface, there are some minor spec variations:

New Features in Photoshop CS4 (11.0.0) from CS3 (10.0.1)

Released in October 2008.

1. Smoother panning and zooming and fluid canvas rotation: Navigate to any area of an image with new, ultra-smooth zooming and panning. Maintain clarity as you zoom to individual pixels and easily edit at the highest magnification with the new Pixel Grid. And use the revolutionary new Rotate View tool to smoothly turn your canvas for distortion-free viewing at any angle.
2. Adjustments panel: Simplify image adjustment by easily accessing every tool you need to non-destructively adjust and enhance the color and tone of your images; on-image controls and a wide variety of presets are also included in the new live and dynamic Adjustments panel.
3. Masks panel: Quickly create and edit masks from the new Masks panel. This panel offers all the tools you need to create editable pixel- and vector-based masks, adjust mask density and feathering, easily select non-contiguous objects, and more.
4. Content-Aware Scaling: Use the new and revolutionary Content-Aware Scaling feature to automatically recompose an image as you resize it, smartly preserving vital areas as the image adapts to the new dimensions. Get the perfect image in one step without time-intensive cropping and retouching.
5. Extended depth of field: Easily create a single image from a series of shots that have different focal points with the enhanced Auto-Blend Layers command, which smoothly blends color and shading and now extends your depth of field, automatically correcting vignettes and lens distortion.
6. Auto-blending of images: Combine a range of images, each with a different exposure, color, and focal point — with options to preserve tones and colors — into a single color-corrected image.
7. Industry-leading color correction: Enjoy dramatically enhanced color correction with re-engineered Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools that now intelligently preserve color and tone details.
8. Improvements on printing options: Get outstanding prints with superior color management, tighter integration with leading printer models, and the ability to preview out-of-gamut image areas. Support for 16-bit printing on Mac OS offers increased color depth and clarity.

Credit goes to SoftPedia.com for compiled such an easy bite.

Few has mentioned whether I have database of different varieties  and fact is I do have databases of other information such as Canon lenses, DSLR bodies, price research etc. However, it is much easier to commit to a smaller data set and maintain the quality, rather than going for quantity. In time I will sort out Canon lenses and made them available too.

Thanks for everyone’s participation.

• Nikon Lenses Database as Google Doc
• Nikon Lenses Database as HTML Page

New Features in Photoshop CS5 (12.0.0) from CS4 (11.0.1)

Released in April 2010.

1. Improvements on Maskings and Complex selections: Select specific areas within an image in fewer clicks. Easily select intricate image elements, such as hair; eliminate background color around selection edges; and automatically vary selection edges and perfect masks using new refinement tools.
2. Content-Aware Fill and Content-Aware Spot Healing: Remove any image detail or object and watch as Content-Aware Fill magically fills in the space left behind. This breakthrough technology matches lighting, tone, and noise so it looks as if the removed content never existed.
3. HDR Pro and HDR Toning Adjustment: Create photo-realistic or surreal HDR images with unprecedented speed, control, and accuracy. Get better-than-ever results thanks to automatic ghost removal and greater control with tone mapping and adjustments, and even give single-exposure photos the look of HDR.
4. Puppet Warp: Enhanced puppet features enable subtle re-positioning of photographed elements, particularly model poses.
5. Refined Edge
6. Mixer Brush and Wet Brush Painting
7. Bristle Tip Brushes
8. 3D Extruded Text with Repoussé
9. Photography and 3D: Reflect Image Based Lights
10. Video and 3D: Animate Video Image Based Lights
11. 3D Ground Plane Shadow Catcher
12. Video and 3D: Create and Animate Depth of Field
13. Ray Traced Rendering Options and Progressive Rendering

Credit goes to Windows7Downloads.com for compiled such an easy bite.

New Features in Photoshop CS6 (13.0.0) from CS5 (12.0.4)

Released in May 2012.

1. Content-Aware Patch: Patch images with greater control using Content-Aware Patch, which allows you to choose the area that Content-Aware will use to create your patch.
2. Mercury Graphics Engine: See near-instant results when editing with key tools such as Liquify and Puppet Warp. The new Adobe Mercury Graphics Engine delivers unprecedented responsiveness for a fluid feel as you work.
3. New Blur Gallery: Quickly create photographic blur effects using a simple new interface with on-image controls. Create tilt-shift effects, blur everything and then sharpen one focal point, or vary the blurriness between multiple focal points. The Mercury Graphics Engine delivers immediate results.
4. All-new Crop tool: Crop images faster and with greater precision using the all-new, nondestructive Crop tool. Rapidly manipulate your images on canvas and see your adjustments happen live thanks to the Mercury Graphics Engine.
5. Intuitive video creation: Bring Photoshop editing power to your video footage. Easily enhance any clip using the full range of familiar Photoshop tools, and then create movies using an intuitive set of video tools.
6. Preset migration and sharing: Easily migrate your presets, workspaces, preferences, and settings so you can experience Photoshop in the same way on all your computers, share your setup, and bring your customisations from past versions into Photoshop CS6.
7. Adaptive Wide Angle: Easily straighten objects that appear curved in panoramas or photos shot with fisheye or wide-angle lenses. New on-canvas tools use the physical characteristics of individual lenses to automatically correct curvatures, and the Mercury Graphics Engine gives you near-instant results.
8. Content-Aware Move: Move or extend a selected object to another area of your image, and then watch as Content-Aware Move magically recomposes and blends the object for a stunning visual result.
9. Skin tone–aware selections and masking: Create precise selections and masks, enabling you to easily adjust or preserve skin tones; easily select intricate image elements, such as hair or faces; and more.
10. Revolutionary erodible brushes: Draw more naturally and realistically using drawing tips that erode as you work. Endlessly wear down and sharpen a charcoal pencil or pastel to create different effects, and save favorite blunted tips as presets.
11. Scripted Patterns: Generate geometric pattern fills faster with new Scripted Patterns.
12. 10-bit deep color support: Get a more accurate representation of how your images will appear in film with 10-bit monitor support. See just the pixels you’ve captured, reduce or eliminate the need for dithering, and reduce contouring or banding.
13. Support for 3D LUTs: Retouch images for film more easily with 3D look-up tables (LUTs) — including Adobe SpeedGrade.Look color LUTs — that you can turn on when you need to tweak raw color data.
14. Vector layers: Use vector layers to apply strokes and even add gradients to vector objects.
15. Sharper vector rendering: Get sharper rendering by clicking once to snap the edges of vector objects to pixels.
16. Custom strokes and dashed lines: Easily create custom strokes and dashed lines.
17. Layer search: Use layer search capabilities to quickly zero in on the layer you need.
18. Lighting Effects Gallery: Get better performance and results with the new, 64-bit Lighting Effects Gallery. The plug-in is powered by the Mercury Graphics Engine and offers on-canvas controls and previews that make it easier to visualize your lighting enhancements.
19. Oil Painting filter: Quickly give your work the look of a fine painting with the Oil Painting filter powered by the Mercury Graphics Engine. Control the style of your brush as well as the direction and shine of your lighting for a superior look.
20. Airbrush tips: Create realistic airbrush effects using fluid, lifelike controls and granular paint particles.
21. New painting presets: Simplify painting with new presets that offer a good starting point for creating realistic painting effects.

Credit goes to SoftPedia.com for compiling such an easy bite.

• Single digit model are the professional level
• Three digit models are the secondary professional levels (D100 line up and D700 lineup)
• Two digit models the consumer levels, but
• There are several levels (current 3) of ‘consumer’ lineup, and before they knew it it is now a trainwreck. From 2009, they begin to fix this by having:
  • D7000 lineup as ‘prosumer’, highest consumer level
  • D5000 lineup as ‘mid-range’, 2nd consumer level, and
  • D3000 lineup as ‘entry’, the cheapest consumer level.

Usually I would recommend one to just forget about 2 digit models and just overlook them all are “consumer level”. But if you are enthusiastic about the naming convention  then here’s more:

•  ”X” notation means high resolution variant. Eg/ D1 to D1X, D3 to D3X.
• “H” notation means high speed variant. Eg/ D1 to D1H.
• “s” (lower case) notation means ‘second iteration’, consider this as a bugfix upgrade variant. Eg/ D70 to D70s.
• But now we have crazy model name like D2Hs, D2Xs. So Nikon decide to forget about the “s” notation and just use a new number instead (good idea), AT THE SAME TIME replacing “H” notation with “S” (upper case), which means ‘high speed’, not ‘second iteration’. Eg/ D3 to D3S, D300 to D300S.

Now in 2012, things appears to be all sorted out as we have fairly normal names but underneath I fear another round of confusion is yet to come:

• “E” notation is completely new and “altered anti-alias” variant deserves it’s own character. But are we going to see D800ES or D800EX (where in the distanced future, 36MP is nothing).
• The upcoming of (rumored) D600 is say to be a) a cheaper Full frame line up, or b) a real successor of D700. If it’s scenario A, then we will have our 8th line of DSLR family tree, and if it’s scenario B, then that’s just silly.
• Currently it can be hard to convince someone D300S is higher tier than D7000 as D7000′s performance supersedes both its predecessor D90 and its big brother D300S.  The upcoming of  (rumored) D400 may overcome this confusion.