Miku's PhotoBlog

My iPhoneography from Instagram

2013-04-23T13:04:00.004+03:00

I have been mostly taking pictures with my iPhone for the last couple of years, so I put this Instagram widget on a post to get some life here. Here's a link to my Instagram feed.

Everything about FUJIFILM X-Pro1

2012-01-12T09:28:00.002+02:00

FUJIFILM X-Pro1 is very exciting new camera announced in CES 2012. Here I have gathered all the information I could find about it and I will update this post as new stuff comes available. Latest links on top. Feel free to leave tips in comments if you find something.

Reviews:

Videos:

The Camera Store Hands-On field Test with Samples
Brandon Remler
Michael Fletcher
Fuji Guys playlist
CES 2012 preview: http://www.viddler.com/explore/engadget/videos/3807/
Hands-on preview: http://youtu.be/4gzREBGKUFI
Walkthrough with Kayce Baker: http://youtu.be/LXL_YraX8dc
Interview and hands-on: http://youtu.be/kQ_jOm08WRk
Technobuffalo hands-on from CES: http://youtu.be/t0rFuOkGPig
Kayce Baker at CES 2012: http://vimeo.com/34890330

Sample pictures:

Official product information:

Previews:

First impressions / Hands-on:

Preorder:

My little iPhone app review: Pocketbooth vs. Incredibooth vs. Classicbooth

2011-11-11T08:15:00.001+02:00

There's three different 'photoboot' apps on my iPhone and I want to get rid of two of them. One should be enough, right?

Here's all the three apps and their main attributes.

Pocketbooth: resolution 489 x 2608, front and rear camera, 5 photo effects, 2 strip size and a lot of other options for frames and such.
Incredibooth: resolution 520 x 2720, only front camera, 4 photo effects and that's it. Very basic.
ClassicBooth: 484 x 2592, front and rear camera, couple of options.

I'm surprised that there's not much difference in resolution between them, considering that one of them has support only for the front camera. Incredibooth has to go because it's nice to have rear camera for some occasions even though it doesn't seem to have effect on resolution. The lens on the rear camera is better and I bet in low light there would be a huge difference in image quality.

Images from ClassicBooth has a lot more contrast and punch compared to Pocketbooth. All that is easy to add in post processing but out of the box ClassicBooth has the edge.

It's a difficult choice between Pocketbooth and Classicbooth but I think I will keep Pocketbooth because it has so many options.

Here's a quick sample from all of them side by side (click to view bigger):

Pocketbooth

Classicbooth

Incredibooth

My little iPhone app review: Movie FX Cam

2011-11-04T15:52:00.000+02:00

I have been looking a long time for an iPhone camera replacement app that would have black and white 'viewfinder'. It means that what you see on the screen of your phone is what you will get in the picture. It's a lot more fun to compose and take pictures in b&w if you intend to shoot those pictures in monochrome anyway.

Movie FX Cam is the first application I have found that does that. The app itself is a bit crappy. Let's get all the negative out of the way so we can concentrate on the good stuff. It crashed the first time I tried to use it but haven't done it since so it is usable. It has very annoying welcome screen and you have to "Touch to start" to get to shooting. I don't see the point and it just makes it slow to start. It has low output resolution of 2048 x 1530 px compared to native cameras 2592 x 1936 px and it could use a lot of usability tweaks.

The app can be used to shoot movies as well but I'm not interested in that so I only shot stills. Movie FX Cam has many effects but I have been mostly using 'Film Noir' effect which I like a lot. I shot a funeral once with Leica M6 + pre-asph 35mm Summilux and Kodak Tri-X which was pushed couple of stops in development. 'Film Noir' effect looks a lot like those pictures. The fake film grain is the best I have seen in any iPhone application. Pictures taken in the dark show blotchier grain but that's because the iPhone camera sensor can't handle low light and produces actual noise.

More of my iPhoneography can be found here.

Here's few samples taken with Movie FX Cam and iPhone 4:

Summer vacation with Fuji X100

2011-08-08T22:19:00.000+03:00

After two months of use my Fuji X100 had to be sent to service. It started over exposing when stopped down. Also EVF blacks out sometimes after half pressing shutter button. Reliability of my Leica cameras haven't been any better so I'm not surprised. All new technology from washing machines to televisions seems to be crap these days in terms of reliability.

Anyway, here's some picture from my holiday which I spent mostly on a remote location at the Kvarken Archipelago.

Fuji X100 mini review and comparison to Leica M9

2011-07-17T17:22:00.000+03:00

Ah, it's sweet to shoot with a real camera again. I sold my Leica M9 some time ago and have been shooting only with iPhone since. It's pretty far from a real camera but it's a lot better than nothing. M9 started to feel very expensive for the little time I had to actually shoot it, so I sold it before the price dropped even more. Comparison to M9 might be irrelevant for most people but it's very relevant for me because I might consider buying it back again when it gets cheaper. I might fall in love with Fuji X100 and forget all about Leica...which would save me tons of money.

This Fuji X100 is the first camera in a long time to interest me in any way. On paper it's perfect fit for me. I used to shoot the M9 exclusively with Summicron ASPH 35mm f2 so the kit had same focal length and maximum aperture than this Fuji. I loved that kit and that's why I'm making this comparison. With the price of that beautiful Leica kit you could buy about eight new Fuji X100s. I bought mine second hand for 750€ which is not bad in my opinion.

Here's a little table where I have listed some of the key characteristics that matters to me and which camera has it better in my opinion:

Focusing

Focusing a rangefinder like M9 becomes quickly a second nature and manual focusing is not a problem. However I do prefer a good auto focus mechanism and never understood the criticism of it. AF also makes it possible to focus using only one hand which is great when out and about with a kid packing a lot of stuff. The lack of range finder also allows Fuji X100 to have 10 centimeters as closest focusing distance which is excellent. I'm not into macro photography but it's often nice to be able to get close to the subject. Rangefinder mechanism in Leica limits closest focusing to 70 cm which is not always enough. The AF speed of the Fuji is not great and it has annoying lag (if used to semi pro DSLR) and often misses focus and you have to half press shutter button couple of times before it locks focus. It's not bad when you get used to it though.

The optical viewfinder of the Fuji X100 is very good and actually better than I expected but it's not quite as clear and bright as the viewfinder of the M9. I prefer OVF over EVF so I only use EVF when I need to focus closer than possible with OVF which is about 75 centimeters.

Good thing is that I feel that the X100 is easier to focus with both eyes open than range finders. I haven't leart to focus with both eyes open with range finder because I just don't see the double image coincide clearly enough. With X100 the focus frame blinks green when it locks focus, so it's easy to see even both eyes open.

Unobtrusiveness

I want my cameras to be discrete and not to draw unnecessary attention while photographing strangers on the streets (or my kid). Quiet shutter sound is one aspect of that and Leica has a pretty quiet shutter. However it had quite annoying rewind sound which is lacking in Fuji X100. Fuji has a shutter sound which is pretty close to a compact pocket camera and it is nearly silent which is excellent for shooting kids and people in the streets.

Leica M9 is the smallest full frame camera but it's not exactly small. It's compact but not like Fuji X100 which fits into a jacket pocket if you like. Price of the M9 also might make one to handle it like a precious jewel rather than a tool which it is suppose to be. Fuji X100 can be handled more freely because you will not loose a fortune if you get couple of scratches on it.

Startup could be a lot quicker. I usually keep my camera always on so that I can quickly take a shot. Power saving features saves battery life. This has worked great with Canon 5D, Nikon D700 and Leica M9 and they are instantly ready when half pressing shutter button. This is not the case with X100. It takes a second or two before it's ready to take a shot and it's impossible to tell if it's on or not without looking through the viewfinder. I often find myself trying take a picture but the camera haven't woken up from it's sleep. Either I haven't press the shutter button hard enough or long enough and I end up looking through a mute viewfinder with unresponsive camera like an idiot.

Dedicated wheel for exposure compensation in X100 is excellent. Only one of my many cameras so far have had that feature and that was Epson R-D1. Sure DSLR cameras have buttons for exposure compensation but those are usually used with button combinations and to see the setting you have to take a peek in viewfinder or one of the LCD screens. Nothing is more convenient than the way X100 does it and that makes a camera fast to operate. Using EVF you can also see the effect in real time through the viewfinder or LCD.

Image quality

I'm not completely happy with the files X100 makes. Quality is pretty good but there is something about them that I can't put my finger on. Pictures are somewhat sterile, lifeless and lack punch in most situations in my opinion. In optimal lighting conditions image quality is excellent but so is my iPhone. I had the same dissatisfaction with files from Nikon D700. The original Canon 5D makes beautiful files and it's still one of my favorites in that regard. Same goes for M9 which makes beautiful files with lots of sharpness and punch. M9 files look great without any post processing (not even sharpening) which is not the case with any other camera.

Pictures from X100 are not as sharp as pictures from M9 due to the lack of anti aliasing filter in M9 but they have plenty enough detail and sharpen well in post processing. Fuji X100 beats M9 in the high ISO department hands down. Highest I used to shoot M9 was ISO 2000 and even then I preferred to convert those pictures to B&W because the colors looked horrible. With Fuji I can use ISO 3200 with no problems. I haven't done any scientific high ISO comparison but my gut feeling is that ISO 6400 picture shot with X100 has about same amount of noise as a ISO 2000 picture shot with M9. That is a huge difference!

Cool factor

X100 has been made to look vintage and retro, like a 70's rangefinder camera. I don't know how it is in other countries but 70's stopped being cool here years ago. Problem is that cameras made in 70's look like that because their design idea has followed function or has some other purpose other than imitation. Fuji X100 design is like a fake vintage Luis Vuitton bag. I don't like ugly things no matter how good they perform. Most of the amateur and professional photographers I know here in Finland agrees with me. X100 might look cool in Asia or Northern US but it's not cool in here. I have owned most of the cameras that this is suppose to look like and I don't want a modern camera to look like them anymore. This looks like it was made by a cheap Chinese toy factory two years ago. I bet it gets boring really fast and the next model will have a completely different design no matter what it has inside. Why not be brave and do something that looks modern? It doesn't have to look like a plastic DSLR but something slightly more modern like the titanium Leica M9. I'm getting used to the look now and it doesn't bother me much anymore, but I might pimp it up a bit with some crocodile skin ;)

Tweaking

I got a cheap eBay version of the lens hood. eBay is cheaper for a reason and I needed to secure the hood with some tape. I also taped focusing mode selector switch because I too many times accidentally turned it to manual focus. My X100 is equiped with Artisan & Artist strap which made out of leather and is a lot longer than the one that came with the camera.

Conlusion

I don't love the Fuji X100 but I feel it's the best option in its class at the moment. With M9 I always felt proud owning it because it is a beautiful no bull shit camera. X100 feels more like a gadget and it doesn't raise any emotions. So I would rather have Leica M9 but for the price I think Fuji X100 is very good. There aren't other alternatives if you like a good optical viewfinder and that is a must for me.

And here's some pictures taken with Fuji X100:

Framed

2011-05-01T19:38:00.000+03:00

Long time no update. I feel I have more passion towards longboarding at the moment than photography. I guess my photography hobby is on hold again but I do shoot occasionally and update at least my iPhoneography blog more frequently.

Smoke

2011-02-04T22:19:00.000+02:00

It has been slow on this blog for a while. I'm still struggling to find energy and time to do any photography and that's why I sold my Leica M9. I might buy one again in the future when they get cheaper. Now all I have is some old film cameras which are basically junk and an iPhone. My iPhone blog is becoming more popular every day and I will keep updating it every day.

Mr. GF

...and one of his walls.

End of the year

2010-12-31T18:08:00.000+02:00

2010 was really slow year for me in photography. I didn't take part in any photography competitions or exhibitions. I guess taking care of a small child and my day job has drained the creativity and energy out of me.

I started uploading some of my pictures taken with iPhone to another blog. Check it out. That Tumblr seems to be a great blogging platform by the way.

Waiting for christmas

2010-12-03T11:30:00.000+02:00

I'm contemplating with the idea of starting a picture a day project for next year. I did it once before and ended up with about 350 useless pictures. It's a stupid idea.

I have no idea what she's doing and she probably doesn't know either.

Here's couple of more pictures before all this snow piled up.

Lomographers often take pictures of their feet. I don't why.

I went exploring an abandoned glass factory in Turenki and stumbled upon this old broken truck.

Testing Retro Camera Plus iPhone app

2010-11-27T19:14:00.000+02:00

There's many 'toy camera' apps for iPhone and Hipstamatic is probably the most popular. This Retro Camera Plus is a very strong competitor in my opinion and it's free! In some ways it's even better. I like the fact that you can't choose film and lens separately with Retro Camera Plus. There's too much combinations of film and lenses in Hipstamatic for my simple mind and it's also slower in processing than this.

I don't like 'Pinhole camera' and 'Little orange box' in this app because the frames are a bit over the top for my taste. 'The Bärbl', 'Xolaroid' and 'FudgeCam' are great. 'FudgeCam' comes probably closest to a real toy camera like Holga as I have seen in any app.

The key to any kind of toy camera type photography is to keep composition as simple as possible. That is even more critical with cell phone cameras because depth of field is infinite due to the small censor.

Here's few pictures from winterly Helsinki with Retro Camera Plus.

Above pictures are all taken with the 'The Bärbl' setting.

This one was taken with 'FudgeCam'.

This installation was in a court yard of a mental institute. I have no idea what is going on here. Maybe they run out of place to put their laundry to dry.

Color photographs above ware taken with 'Xolaroid'.'

'Little orange box' effect here.

'Pinhole camera' sample.

I went to Kuopio and all I got was these lousy pictures

2010-11-21T18:36:00.000+02:00

...and a mild two day lasting hangover.

8 ball opening shot performed by Ville. Classic photography material.

Ugly side of town.

Jani doing his best to look weird and me taking our picture reflecting from an elevator mirror.

Last set with the great Canon 50mm f/1.0L USM

2010-11-16T21:09:00.000+02:00

Last because I sold it. No surprise there. It was excellent but too big and heavy to use daily and I don't want to keep that kind of lens gathering dust. Now I have owned pretty much every lens and camera I have ever wanted and I can concentrate more on content...I hope. You can check out the list of gear I have used over the last couple of years on the about page here.

Duck in Töölönlahti

2010-11-15T20:15:00.000+02:00

Here's my latest bird pictures. This duck was shot with 35mm lens. I don't need a longer lens even for 'wild' life.

Hooded crows are my all time favorite subject and here they are combined with a street sign and some silhouette magic. Can't beat that!

Here's my entry for the wild life photographer of the year competition. An unknown bird of prey has just made an example of a pigeon. I can't say I'm sorry for the flying rat.

Testing Hipstamatic: The Dalí Museum GoodPak

2010-11-11T10:50:00.000+02:00

The iPhone app Hipstamatic has now a new hipstapak available which is called The Dalí Museum GoodPak. As a fan of Hipstamatic I couldn't resist getting it. I can't recommend it though. It comes with 'film' and 'lens'. 'Dream canvas' film is pretty much useless because it is very ugly. 'Ina's 1969' film for example looks much better in my opinion for every purpose. 'Salvador 84' lens produces mostly crap and almost never makes a picture more interesting in anyway.

Here's few samples. First two and the last one are taken with the Dream canvas film and the two b&w pictures use BlacKeys B+W film.

It seems to pick an object from the picture, double it and place it to the left side of the frame.

Pictures with lots of details it just messes up badly.

For portraits it might produce interesting results. Here for example it made me but uggly and weird although I'm beautifull and quite normal.

Double animal again.

Double exposure kind of thing going on here.

All Saints' Day

2010-11-06T21:46:00.000+02:00

A lot of candles are lit in cemeteries during All Saint's Day. I took a walk in Hietaniemi cemetery today and took a couple of snaps of all the usual subjects like angel statues, crosses and flowers.

Three views

2010-10-27T20:14:00.000+03:00

Here's my daughter again. My best pictures are of her now days.

These are taken with the B&W mode of M9 by the way. I added some contrast, vignetting and grain in post processing.

More about iPhone 4 image quality

2010-10-19T08:47:00.000+03:00

I'm not much of a pixel peeper and don't care what files look like when viewed at 100%. It is nice to see though that the lens on iPhone 4 is relatively free of distortions. Lens doesn't seem to suffer from barrel or pincushion distortions, which is nice for pictures with straight lines.

Couple of words about iPhone 4 image quality

2010-10-18T17:21:00.000+03:00

It would be nice if the default image sharpening on iPhone could be adjusted. Default sharpening is way too much. That is the main grief I have with the image quality.

HDR feature in iPhone 4 is great though. Any other camera would have blown out the sky on this picture and left foreground black, even Leica M9.

With leaf

2010-10-16T14:05:00.000+03:00

Cell phone cameras might come close to real cameras in terms of image quality but they do lack in usability. I for one can't use my iPhone camera with gloves on and I need to wear gloves almost half the year because it's quite cold around here.

Subsonic Reflex 40

2010-10-14T20:40:00.000+03:00

It's a new longboard that I just got and I'm stoked! This board is more long distance pushing and downhill oriented versus my old board which is more focused for tricks and fancy moves (which I don't know how to do yet). It has a custom feature which is the hand hold for easy carrying. I'm a gentleman skater who doesn't like to get hands dirty and the board gets very dirty when riding over puddles.

Specs:

Board: Subsonic Reflex 40

Trucks: Holey (chosen just for looks)

Wheels: Seismic Blast Wave 78mm 75a

Bearings: Rush "All Weather" (with the stainless balls plus one ceramic)

Here's some gear porn:

I'm not done yet

2010-10-12T17:00:00.000+03:00

These two pictures ware the only keepers from around 400 photos I dumped from a memory card. A lot of bad pictures have been taken lately but I feel a motivation creeping up on me. It's still very week but I have lost the will to give up on photography completely.

Autumn leaves and a squirrel

2010-10-04T22:03:00.000+03:00

I haven't felt the photographic vibe in a long time and I think I'm going to take a brake from it. I only took these mundane pictures to test a lens. I have a rare Canon EF 50mm f/1.0 L for sale in case you are interested.

Best of 2009

2010-09-11T20:53:00.000+03:00

In lack of new pictures to post, I'm once again digging old ones. These are some of my favorites from the year 2009 which seems like a long time ago.

Hipstamatic - best digital toy camera so far

2010-09-05T21:38:00.000+03:00

Like many before me, I too have now been rocking the Hipstamatic app on iPhone 4. This is the first phone I have bought in ten yers. My employers had me using Nokia phones for almost a decade. There's no going back I think.

Hipstamatic is not quite a replacement to Holga althought the images it produces are very similar. Holga is much faster to shoot with and less noticable in my experience.