Category: Photography

March 4, 2008

More Homebrew Family Fun: Light Doodles

As an engineer by training, it's my duty to make sure my kids are exposed to the fun of hacking their world. Combining hacking and art makes for an activity fun for both generations, so I'm generally on the lookout for fun art/science projects. An instructable (I'm an avid instructable fan) entry had a great idea -- light doodles! To have fun drawing in the air, all you need is some colored lights, a dark room, and a digital camera.

Well, it is a little more complicated than that. If you don't have some colored LED lights (like car keychain lights) handy, you can follow this instructable to make some of your own. I bought some cheap assorted LEDs and other parts off eBay to make mine. I had tried using an incandescent flashlight, but the poor results bored my kid. The LEDs are easier for small kid hands, and multiple colors add to the fun.

Next, I had to pour through my digital camera manual to figure out how to set (a) the delay and (b) a long exposure. The exposure setting was hard to find! My Canon SD100 can be set for 15 seconds. After that, it's pretty simple. If you need more tips, read this instructable for advice on taking the pictures.

Look, Ma! No messy paints, no wasted paper!

Posted by Bob in Family and Photography
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January 14, 2008

Photograph Your Car, Violate the Car-Maker's Trademark....Huh?

I just came across this ridiculous story on BoingBoing about Ford preventing a Mustang owner's group from publishing a calendar featuring photos the owners took of their own cars on the grounds that all images of Ford cars are inherently trademarked and, therefore, property of Ford.

Can American companies become any more stupid than this? I'm not quite sure it's possible.

For the record, I'm fairly confident Subaru has no such policy. And just to try it out, here's a shot of my own car (a 2005 Impreza WRX STI).

Posted by Craig in Cars and Photography and Society / Politics
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January 4, 2008

GearBits' Predictions for 2008

As has become customary around the changing of the calendar, here are GearBits' official predictions for 2008.

1) Blu-Ray Wins the Format War
Yep, I'm going to pick a winner and it's going to be Blu-Ray. The one-two punch of Warner Brothers's move to Blu-Ray exclusivity (from its Switzerland-like neutrality of supporting both formats) later in 2008 and Apple's announcement that BD will be the only HD format available in its products will cement HD DVD's demise. And none too soon. I don't really care which wins...just make it snappy so that prices on players and media can plummet, thanks.

2) Google's Android Shakes Up Phone Industry
For a while now, the cellphone industry has been fairly static. A few smartphone and mobile OS makers have generally tussled for market share, but the overall industry has been pretty evolutionary. Google's entry will prove to be a watershed moment, with open source finally making a big impact in the handheld space (and no, I don't consider the Zaurus to be a big deal...sorry). Actual handsets running Android will be announced, if not available, before the end of 2008.

3) Palm Supports Android
This is more of a hope than an actual prediction, as I just don't know whether the egos at Palm will let the company do the right thing and admit that their next-generation OS (which has been under development since 2004!) will be a viable contender against Android (which has essentially the same technical details but scads more developer support). But, if cooler, more rational heads prevail at Palm, they'll announce that they're plans will be to produce at least one Android-based product (probably to come out sometime in 2012 :-/ ).

4) Microsoft's HD Photo Replacement for JPEG Image Standard Goes Nowhere
I'm not saying it's a bad idea technically; I'm just saying that JPEG is so entrenched now that replacing it would be about as reasonable a thing to try as would be replacing MP3 with any of the multitudes of better formats. JPEG, like MP3, isn't great, but it's adequate (at least for consumers) and ubiquitous. We'll still be saving all our photos in JPG (and maybe RAW) at the end of 2008...and likely long after that.

5) Subnotes Will Explode in Availability (and Maybe Popularity)
I've always been a fan of tiny, sub-3-pound laptops, but I think 2008 will see a huge number of these clamshell devices come out of every corner of the consumer electronics space. The Asus EeePC and the OLPC XO Laptop are two examples. While Microsoft had a good idea in its UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC) concept, the hardware was just never executed all that well. Frankly, I think a 7" touchscreen for Windows is just too difficult. But, going with the traditional clamshell design and using cheaper and/or smaller technologies (e.g., flash memory instead of a HDD) will bring us a raft of interesting (and some good) designs at <$500 price points. Bring 'em on! And I think we'll start to see a lot more people toting these things along that traditionally avoided laptops for whatever reason (cost, weight, etc.).

6) The GPS War Heats Up
TomTom, Nokia, and Garmin will exchange hostile fire over the GPS market due to convuluted agreements regarding mapping data as well as market-share for hardware. Products will continue to decline in price and improve in functionality, and >50% of cellphones will have some form of GPS functionality available on them. I guess that's two predictions in one...oh well.

7) DRM Hits Choppy Water
2007 saw some movement away from DRM (digital rights management), especially in the music industry, but I expect we'll see similar initiatives in all areas of media. DRM has been proven again and again to be little more than an expensive technological boondoggle, and the leading innovators at the consumer media interface (e.g., Apple, Amazon, and Google) will make some headway into reversing the trend of more encumbrance for our media. The RIAA and MPAA will continue to fight it...they know how to do nothing else...but economic results will start to demonstrate that DRM actually hurts profitability.

8) Major Tech Stocks End 2008 Up Significantly
These are bound to be wrong, but what the heck...nobody pays me for stock tips. I think Apple will end 2008 at 235, Google will be at 960, and Microsoft will finish the year at 50. As for other stocks, iRobot will end up at either 46 or 12 (can you tell I'm a cynical shareholder?), IBM will show tepid growth to 112, and RIM, hurt by the continued weak US dollar and facing increasing competition, will struggle to match its 1-year high of 127.

9) I Buy a New Laptop and Am Disappointed
My Panasonic CF-W2 is now three-and-a-half-years-old and I'm starting to cringe every time I turn it on (my luck with hard drives makes me skeptical of many living past their 4th birthday). I've been looking at possible replacements (e.g., Toshiba R500, Panasonic W7, maybe the Lenovo IdeaPad U110 or the rumored Apple subnote) and so far every single one has some significant trade-offs. So, I expect I'll get one and it will turn out to be not significantly better than my aging Toughbook. You'd think in nearly four years that two grand would buy something markedly superior. We'll see...

10) Major Changes in Automotive Industry Announced
While the car business makes actual change only very slowly, we'll see some huge announcements in 2008 that will fundamentally change the future of that industry. Things like record oil prices, an increasing attention to sustainable/green technology, and significant ownership changes will substantially change the competitive landscape. Make no mistake; Toyota will continue its ascent and eclipse GM as #1 car-maker in the world. But, we will see several major announcements that will start affecting actual consumers in 2009 and beyond.

So, I'll check back in about 12 months to see how I fared. In the meantime, what do you think will happen?

Posted by Craig in Computing and Gaming and Home A/V and Industry and Internet and Other and Phones and Photography and Popular Media and Science & Nature and Society / Politics and Technology and Wireless
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October 19, 2007

iStumped: Can't iPhoto Simply Display Photos?

A few months ago, I upgraded our family room's HTPC by replacing the old Shuttle box with a nice Intel-powered Mac Mini. So far, nearly everything has been hunky dory. Front Row pretty much works as advertised, and that's the computer's main use.

But one sore point with me has been an inability to wrangle iPhoto to display my photos I have on an external drive attached to the Mac so that we can view them through Front Row (which only talks to iPhoto for photo-viewing purposes).

Basically, what I want iPhoto to do is simply index and display photos stored on an external hard drive, in much the same fashion that iTunes handles MP3 files stored externally. You see, I keep all my "original" photos on a machine elsewhere on our network -- the files on the Mini's external drive are merely copies, updated as needed via network backup. So, when I add some new photos to the collection, all I want iPhoto to do is realize I've done so and make the new folder available via Front Row. Isn't that easy?

Yet there's apparently no way to do that. iPhoto wants to be the sole photo-management app and really makes it difficult to interact with photos that aren't "imported" directly through it. In that sense, iPhoto is really an overly egocentric, yet very lame, program.

Anybody have a suggestion as to how to view our photos via Front Row? Anyone? Bueller?

Posted by Craig in Computing and Photography and Photos
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June 27, 2007

Comparison Test of LCD Screen Cleaners

Last month, I became fed up with the increasingly disgusting state of my LCD screens. Both my laptop and my two LCD desktop panels at work were just rife with dust, lint, and macroscopic unmentionables. Just gross.

So, I thought I'd grab a screen cleaner and wipe them off. Turns out that's not as easy as one might imagine. Most everyday cleaners you find in grocery stores have alcohol, ammonia and/or other chemicals in them that do not play nicely with the plastics and coatings involved in LCD and other portable electronic displays.

So, I did what any conscientious tech blogger would do: I ordered three of the more commonly recommended cleaners to do a comparison test. KlearScreen, Purosol, and Mirachem Optix were all purchased from online retailer Photodon (who provided no monetary or other support for this test other than selling me all the cleaners at their standard price). I also purchased a bottle of the Photodon house brand LCD cleaner just to see how it stacked up. I also bought a brand new microfiber cloth to use in the testing.

Read on for details on the four candidates and the results of my month-long test for performance, endurance, and overall value.

First, the test environment consisted of two 20" LCD panels I use at work, as shown below. I broke up each screen into two halves (for a total of four areas, one for each cleaner). Each half-screen was then broken up into a black area and a rainbow area for visual inspection of dust and grime removal.

These had not been cleaned in any way since they were purchased new nearly a year ago. So, they were absolutely filthy, as the screen shot below attests.

To test the cleaners, I sprayed each on one half of one of the two displays and wiped it clean with the microfiber cloth. Some had better spray patterns or cleaned more easily than others, as the results table below describes. Each week for a month after cleaning the displays, I examined the four quadrants for lint and other detritus that had accumulated in the cleaned areas. My findings from that long-term examination are also described in the results table.

Results

Cleaner	Price Paid	Spray/Smell	Initial Cleaning	Long-term Cleaning
KlearScreen (8 oz.) Recommended!	$12.95	Fine mist, wide pattern; mild, but distinctive, smell (not unpleasant)	Very good	More than a week dust-free
Mirachem Optix (4 oz.)	$5.55	Generous and uneven, less misty and more droplets; faint smell	Very good	New dust attracted nearly immediately (by day's end)
Photodon's Ultra (4 oz.)	$7.95	Fine mist, smaller pattern (more targeted); very faint smell, nearly odorless	Very good	More than a week dust-free
Purosol Plasma (4 oz.)	$16.95	Ultrafine mist, wide pattern; almost odorless	Very good	More than a week dust-free

Recommendations
All four sprays cleaned quite well; the displays looked nearly new after a good wiping-down and no differences across the four quadrants were noticeable immediately after cleaning. However, the Mirachem Optix product did not seem to prevent static-attracted dust as well as the others and its quadrant had noticeable dust within a few hours of being cleaned. For that reason, and the rather unsatisfactory spray nozzel, I would not recommend Mirachem Optix (despite it having the lowest price of just $1.44 per ounce).

The three other sprays all kept their parts of the displays clean about the same length, with noticeable dust appearing a little more than a week after being cleaned. Given no differences in cleaning performance, the decision comes down to price. However, the pricing on these cleaners ranges broadly, from a low of $1.62 per ounce for the KlearScreen to $4.24 per ounce for the Purosol (the Photodon's Ultra came in at $1.99 per ounce).

So, as it offers a very good cleaning solution at a reasonable price, my recommendation is the KlearScreen LCD-Laptop-Computer Screen Cleaner. More information can be found at www.klearscreen.com.

Based on the results just described, I also used KlearScreen on my laptop and phone and both devices' screens were cleaned quite satisfactorily. While I cannot judge the long-term effects of using any of these products on LCD screens, their manufacturers state that no chemicals in any of them should have any deleterious effects whatsoever.

Note that no free samples were used or communication with companies manufacturing or selling these sprays (other than making an online purchase with Photodon) occurred during the testing and writing-up of results. GearBits has no financial association with any of these products or their manufacturers or distributors.

Posted by Craig in Computing and Mobile & PDAs and Phones and Photography
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April 9, 2007

Cameraphone Photo-Sharing Declines

According to TWICE, a recent study suggests that phone-based photo-sharing is declining:

Camera Phone Image Sharing on Decline
By Greg Scoblete -- TWICE, 4/6/2007 9:24:00 AM
Jackson, Mich. -- Despite a sharp uptick in the number of households with camera phones, fewer consumers than ever are sharing their camera phone images, according to a new study from the Photo Marketing Association.

In a January survey canvassing 5,985 families, 35 percent reported owning a camera phone, up from 26 percent in the previous year. Of that figure, only 24 percent reported sharing images via e-mail or wireless transmission, down from 28 percent in 2005 and 36 percent in 2004.

The percent of camera phone owners who print their images was unchanged at 4 percent.

More than 80 percent of camera phones on the market are under 2-megapixels, PMA said.

I see two likely reasons for this trend (if it is, indeed, an actual trend). First, cameras are increasingly found in all manner of phones, from the priciest smartphones to the freebie disposables you get with a new contract. That means a wider variety of individuals are using cameraphones. So, given that a camera in one's phone may be a new feature to many who have it now for the first time, they may be less familiar and less likely to use it. Also, many who now have cameraphones got the phone with no intention of using the camera function -- it just happened to have a camera in it. Both of these user demographics factors would tend to lower the percentage of cameraphone owners who actually share photos with the cameraphones.

Second, and perhaps more sinister, is how difficult, cumbersome, and unpleasant most carriers have made it to actually share photos using their cameraphones. Take Sprint, for example. In order to share a photo from my phone, I have to submit it through the Sprint's proprietary Picture Mail service. Once uploaded, say, via MMS, the recipient gets a text message pointing him to a URL (yes, a website!) at which the photo can be viewed. This requires starting an actual web browser and burning through lots of overhead packets downloading things like menus, background images, etc. Despite having a perfectly good MMS application in my Treo and my wife's Treo, both on Sprint, we can't simply MMS a photo to each other. Instead, it either has to go through Sprint's craptastic Picture Mail service, or we just have to email it as an attachment. Instead of simply using the functions that most phone-makers have already embedded in the handsets themselves, carriers' desire to control every aspect of the usage experience generally tends to harm the user's experience and destroy value for their customers.

While the demographic trend may ultimately push these numbers down fairly low, the carriers could easily help reverse the trend somewhat by opening up picture-messaging the same way that most have done with SMS/text messaging. Open standards promote use and foster innovation, both of which benefit the carriers nearly as much as they benefit their customers.

Posted by Craig in Industry and Mobile & PDAs and Photography
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March 3, 2007

What Is This Picture?

I came across this photo and found it very curious.

What do you think it is? A close-up of a hairy guy with bad skin? To find out, click the "continue reading" link...

According to the MSNBC Picture Stories page I found this on, it's a close-up of Mars' surface.

The high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sent back this image of Vastitas Borealis, part of Mars' Northern Plains. The crisscrossing dark tracks are caused by dust devils - mini-tornadoes that stir up the lighter dust and reveal the darker soil beneath. The picture was taken last Nov. 19 and released Feb. 21.

I really did think it was hairy skin at first.

Posted by Craig in Photography and Photos and Science & Nature
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January 11, 2007

Want to Buy My JVC GR-DVM80U Digital Camcorder?

In an effort to clean out our technology closet, I'm selling a MiniDV camcorder that we just never use: a JVC GR-DVM80U with several extra accessories (2 extra batteries, 2 blank tapes, and a nice camcorder bag).

Check out the eBay auction now.

UPDATE #1 (1/13/07)
Well, I had to re-list this auction as the original auction ended with a fraudulent Buy-It-Now. Here's the email I got from the buyer:

Hello, Compliment of the season to you.I am Mr.Steve Joe., I'm contacting you concerning your item on Ebay which i eventually became the winning bidder for your item.Morever i'm presently serving our beloved nation here in Iraq with the United Nation and i intend sending this item to my son as suprise gift who works with the American Embassy in Lagos,Nigeria as a consular.I will be making my payment to you via PayPal and also i want you to send me the total cost including the cost of shipping to Lagos,Nigeria,So get the package ready for immediate shipment or next day shipment okay?and don't forget to send me your PayPal Email Address so i can immediately make out my payment.Plz i want the item to be shipped via Usps Global Experss Mail(EMS).Mail me back it's urgent. Regards Mr.Steve Joe

Needless to say, that's not legit. To eBay's credit, they refunded me 100% of the fees associated with the original auction and de-registered "Steve Joe" as a user.

What eBay really needs is a way for me to stipulate that I won't accept bids from users with less than a positive feedback rating (currently, ebay only lets you say you won't accept bids from users with negative feedback ratings) or users that have registered within the past month. That would make it tougher on new buyers, but for an item with a likely final value exceeding $100, that seems like a reasonable trade-off to me.

Anyway, the new auction is up...go check it out.

UPDATE #2 (1/18/07)

Well, I've been scammed again. After m_irwin.1, a bidder with +2 feedback and ebay member since 1999, made the high bid on my camcorder, I figured it would be fine.

But then I get his payment notification email:

Micky Irwin wrote: I have made the payment for your item via my paypal account m_irwin01@yahoo.com, get the item ship to my son address as soon as you receive confirmation of payment from paypal. Here is my son address below for verification.
Mr Adewale George Francis
Sw9/241 Araromi Apata Odo Ona
Ibadan
Oyo state
Nigeria
23402
+2348063014998

hope to hear from you soon

Needless to say, this is AGAIN not a legitimate bidder, as m_irwin.1's recent feedback shows.

And this time, even PayPal is being used in the scam (or it's one of the more complex phishing attempts I've seen):

This PayPal payment has been deducted from the buyer's account and has been "APPROVED/DEPOSITED into escrow account" but this is international shipment,your account will not be a credited until the shipment tracking number is sent to us for shipment verification so as to secure both the seller and the buyer. Below are the necessary information requested before your account will be credited. You are to send the shipment tracking number through our customer service helpline (info.paypalcustomeraccount@emailaccount.com), and our customer service care will attend to you. As soon as you send us the shipment's tracking number to us for security purposes and the safety of the buyer and the seller,the money will be credited to your account.Do not send to the buyer the reference/tracking number for the safety of your money. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shipping Information
Address:
Mr Adewale George Francis
Sw9/241 Araromi Apata Odo Ona
Ibadan
Oyo state
Nigeria
23402.
Address Status: Confirmed

**PLEASE NOTE**
Once shipment has been verified and the tracking number sent,we will verify and credit your account.You will receive a " CONFIRMATION EMAIL " from PayPal informing you that the Money has been credited.The payment has been made under your name

It seems to me that navigating the eBay auction system and then sending a coordinated fake PayPal email would be more work than it's worth for a $175 camcorder. Whatever the case, it's darn irritating.

UPDATE #3 (1/21/07)
I just logged in to my eBay account and noticed something odd. Within a day of my fiasco above (1/18/07), the feedback rating for the scammer m_irwin.1 had sunk to -10 as nearly a dozen victims left negative feedback. Today, however, the seller listed as having won my auction is labeebmile, who only has one negative feedback entry and mine has been removed from his account, leaving him with a feedback rating of +2. What is going on? To make matters even more confusing, my account shows that I left feedback for the winner of the auction (previously, m_irwin.1, but now labeebmile), yet nothing for him shows up when you list my feedback left for others. Obviously, eBay is having some serious issues here. I will hopefully get a full credit for all fees associated with my last auction and will look elsewhere to sell my camcorder. The death of eBay indeed seems imminent.

Posted by Craig in Home A/V and Photography
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January 2, 2007

GearBits' Predictions for 2007

As per tradition (OK, for at least the third time), here are my predictions for the upcoming year, 2007:

1) Apple's iPod continues PMP domination
Thought I'd start off with a safe one. Yep, I don't think too many would argue that the iPod is poised to remain the de facto standard in portable media players. Given that the #1 seller in Amazon's electronics category during the 2006 holiday season was the iPod by a significant margin, and given that accessories for all other PMPs combined amount to about 1/100th of what's available for the iPod, there's really no doubt that newcomers will have a hard time challenging the king, despite any technical advantages.

2) 802.11n gets ratified and gear floods to market
802.11n, the next generation of that family of wireless networking standards, has been forever in getting off the ground. 2007 should see its final certification, opening the gates to loads of networking hardware compliant to the new standard.

3) Film cameras all but disappear from electronics stores
While you'll still be able to find cheap disposables, it will become nearly impossible to find any mainstream electronics retailer selling more than one or two token models. $99 digital cameras from recognizable brands will become commonplace.

4) Nintendo tops Sony and Microsoft as gaming overlord
Not a big leap here, but Nintendo, through its Wii and DS lines, will lead all brands in game unit sales in 2007. Sony will retain the crown of technological leader (and work though its Blu-Ray production issues), and Microsoft will continue to play the spoiler in the industry.

5) TiVo is acquired
If this prediction was good enough to be wrong in 2006, then it's good enough for 2007 as well.

6) Google launches the GooglePhone
Google, in partnership with some handheld maker and/or carrier, will launch a branded QWERTY smartphone that natively runs its main offerings (e.g., Gmail, Google Docs, Google Maps, Google Talk, etc.). Maybe I'm predicting this purely out of desire -- I so want such a device -- but I do think it will happen eventually.

7) eBay sells Skype
You heard it here first. Or maybe you didn't. Either way, this is a long-shot prediction, but I think Meg Whitman is smart enough to realize that Skype is worth more to eBay when it's owned by somebody else.

8) Palm brings Jeff Hawkins back to reinvent Treo line
The current Treo line is getting a bit long in the tooth (not to mention the now-ancient Palm OS, which Palm just repurchased the permanent rights to) and its sales are likely getting pinched by slimmer, more aesthetically appealing (while not as functional, but a lot of people by phones based on looks...kind of like how they pick boy/girlfriends in college) offerings from Motorola and others. So, since Palm doesn't seem capable of designing anything anyone wants to buy on its own, the company will announce that Jeff Hawkins is coming back to help lead the development of the next-generation Treo. And many will ask, "What took you so long?"

9) HD-DVD and Blu-Ray persist; nobody cares
More devices will be available at cheaper prices, but sales of both players and media will continue to be tepid. Not only is renting becoming the dominant mode of DVD acquisition, but the current quality of standard dual-layer DVDs is perfectly adequate for 99% of the population. Maybe in a few years, the proliferating 1080p sets will drive people to want high-def movies, but it won't be as rapid an adoption rate as the original DVD was.

10) Robots become sentient, destroy all of humanity
On a related note, iRobot's stock price will double in 2007 as a result of strong sales and the announcement that a first-gen AI will take over as President and CEO.

Have a good year, everyone!

Posted by Craig in Computing and Gaming and Home A/V and Industry and Internet and Mobile & PDAs and Phones and Photography and Society / Politics and Technology
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July 26, 2006

Electronics Ads from 1975 and 1981

I've been cleaning out some old stuff of mine and my parents and have come across an interesting collection of stuff from my childhood. Two things I had saved for future reference included a 1975 World Series (baseball) program and a 1981 newspaper about the Space Shuttle. Looking through these, I discovered a veritable time capsule of consumer electronics -- advertisements from brands like Tandy, Zenith, Polaroid, and Magnavox are pretty amusing compared to today's offerings.

Take a look at some full-page ads for TVs, computers, cameras, and more after the jump...

1975

From the 1975 World Series program (pictured above) come three great ads. Click on the small images for high-res images in case you want to read the fine print (highly recommended!).

Magnavox's Stunning 19" Color TV
At that size, thank goodness it comes with a remote!

Three Cutting-Edge Cameras from Polaroid
Yes, there was a time when a 24-ounce camera was considered "lightweight."

Zenith Shows Off Its "Genuine Wood Veneer" TV
Back when people liked their televisions to also serve as furniture.

1981

In an April, 1981 edition of Today's Shuttle Logbook (above), a specialty newspaper published around Cape Canaveral, Florida, we find a couple more highly entertaining advertisements.

The Tandy TRS-80 Model II and III
And to think that we once luxuriated in a blissful 64K of RAM.

RCA Introduces the SelectaVision VideoDisc
Almost stupid enough to make you appreciate Blu-Ray.

Posted by Craig in Computing and Home A/V and Photography and Technology
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June 29, 2006

Say Good-Bye to 'DSLR'

SLR It's time we said good-bye to the "D" in "DSLR". DSLR, short for Digital Single-Lens Reflex, refers to the fact that these upper-end cameras no longer rely on film.

The majority of cameras sold on the planet haven't relied on film for years now (since 2003, to be exact), so why do we need to refer to these things as digital cameras or digital SLRs?

We stopped carefully calling them electric drills and electric typewriters a long time ago -- now, you have to explicitly specify the manual version of either if that's what you mean, as electric is assumed. It's the same with electronic calculators (when's the last time you saw a mechanical one?).

Therefore, I propose we start referring to digital cameras as just "cameras" (and, accordingly, digital SLRs are just "SLRs") and begin referring to film cameras, as the minority in the category, explicitly as such.

So...can I sell you my old FSLR?

Posted by Craig in Photography
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June 12, 2006

Case Logic SLRC-4 Camera + Laptop Backpack

Business trips often provide nice opportunities for some travel photography, so taking both my camera and my laptop -- something none of my current bags can accommodate -- was becoming increasingly desirable to me. So, I began searching for a backpack-style bag that would safely house my DSLR and lenses while also providing room for my notebook.

I found the Case Logic SLRC-4 SLR/Computer Backpack. It's nice and quite a bargain (I found it for about $70 delivered -- the next cheapest similar alternative was a LowePro bag for about $140).

Granted, if you have a lot of gear and/or really big lenses, this may not be the bag for you. If you want to use it for toting both a camera setup and laptop (with accouterments), you'll be limited to one DSLR body, 4-5 small-to-medium-sized lenses, and up to a 15" notebook. A jumbo 300mm f/2.8 (or larger) lens just isn't going to fit. The inside is very reconfigurable in terms of allocating space for different equipment, so as long as you're not heading off to a month-long safari, you should be covered.

Build quality seems very good -- definitely better than I expected for such an inexpensive bag. Another benefit is that there is nothing about the bag that screams out "expensive technology inside!" making it less attractive to thieves.

So, if you have a modest DSLR setup and need to take your laptop with you often, check out the Case Logic SLRC-4 backpack...a good bag and a great value.

Posted by Craig in Computing and Photography and Travel
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May 4, 2006

This Just In: Cheap Digital SLRs Require Amateur Photogs to Learn New Stuff

From the "who wudda thunk" department comes this CNET story: Digital SLRs bring lens quandary.

The article discusses the increasing variety of sensor sizes in digital SLRs, meaning that those who buy lenses for these cameras have to understand what is commonly referred to as a "crop factor" (the article explains it...read, read).

With any technology that reaches the mass consumption level, there will have to be some learning and familiarization. So it's not really surprising that there's some confusion.

However, I did notice that the article says some DSLRs are moving towards a 4:3 image aspect ratio (the standard 35mm film aspect ratio is 3:2). So, will 4x6 (inch) prints go by the wayside in favor of 4.5x6 or some other new standard size? That will not make the photo album manufacturers very happy.

I expect that DSLRs and other removable-lens cameras will remain tools for the serious hobbyist and professional, with everyone else getting fixed-lens cameras. If you have no need for the flexibility of an SLR and you're not willing to put up with the added bulk and complexity (let alone cost), there's no reason you should.

Posted by Craig in Photography
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March 4, 2006

Shutterfly's Hardcover Photo Books Are Really Nice

We've been longtime Shutterfly customers, as they've typically done a terrific job on our photo prints.

The only exception was our recent holiday cards, where the photo on the front wasn't as crisply printed as I had expected. But in general, we've been quite satisfied.

A few weeks ago, Shutterfly sent us a postcard offering a free hardcover photo book. I expected a catch, but thought I'd check it out anyway.

So I went online and created a hardcover photo book with a leather cover (other options are suede and satin) and 24 pages of photos and poems I had written for my daughter. Configuring the book was very easy with lots of page layout options, several font choices, and very flexible text entry.

Upon checkout, I realized there was no catch; I was charged only for shipping. I guess Shutterfly was just trying to generate interest in one of its pricier products.

A couple days ago, we received our photo book and WOW! It's an impressive product. The quality is about what you'd find on a high school yearbook, which is better than I expected. Given that a 50-page, leather-bound, custom-printed photo album is going to cost you less than $100, it seems like a pretty good deal, too.

Below are some shots of the book we received. We'll certainly be ordering these in the future for special occasions and maybe gifts (these would make an amazing personalized holiday or birthday gift for that older relative who is so hard to shop for).

The quarter is included just to give you a sense of scale (the books are big!).

The books include black end papers.

Full-bleed (to the edge of the page) printing is available for photos, which gives a very professional look.

Posted by Craig in Photography
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January 22, 2006

SmartDisk Fotochute - Cheap Portable Storage for Digital Camera Images

Browsing the circulars in the newspaper this morning, I noticed what seems like a pretty decent deal.

OfficeDepot is offering the SmartDisk FotoChute FCD20, a portable 20GB receptacle for digital camera files (and anything else that can be transferred via its USB2.0 port), for $70 after rebate (valid for purchases between Jan. 22nd and 28th, 2006).

Here's the link to the OfficeDepot webpage. The website still says $169.99, but the flyer said they were giving an additional $30 off in "instant savings."

The reviews I've read seem to indicate that it works pretty well as a file sherpa, but it doesn't do some things that other, more expensive devices do (like play MP3s, allow you to view photos on a little display, provide memory card slots, etc.).

I don't have one of these, and probably won't run out and get one, but for those of you looking for cheap, small file storage or about to take a long trip and don't want to stock up on flash media for your camera, this might be a decent deal.

Posted by Craig in Computing and Photography
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November 29, 2005

Nokia N90 - The Phone, PC Setup, and Imaging

So I familiarized myself with the Nokia N90 over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend (see Hands On - Nokia N90 Multimedia Smartphone for initial thoughts and photos). Being as this is the first Symbian Series 60 phone I've spent any real time with, the learning curve was a bit steeper than I expected. Also, given that I'm not as much of a "phone guy" as some folks (most of my phone use involves data rather than voice), I came into it with a lot of smartphone-esque expectations (e.g., I'm very used to a touchscreen and lots of hardware buttons, of which the N90 has neither). With that said, after the jump are some thoughts from my first few days of using the N90.

The Phone

Hardware-wise, the N90 feels solid. The fit and finish is superb. Buttons and screen and swivel joints all feel robust. It's a pretty fashionable phone as well, what with its hip mix of black and chrome. Fingerprints aren't much of a problem, thankfully, so you won't constantly feel a need to polish it. Overall, it feels great in my hand, but seems a bit big in my pocket. I'm used to flatter and wider phones, whereas the N90 is more brick-shaped when closed (its overall shape reminds me of the old disposable 110 cameras).

The N90's two screens are very bright and easy to read. The external 1.5" (diag.) display has a color resolution of 128 x 128 and is great for getting alerts when the phone is closed as well as use as a viewfinder when taking photos -- great double-duty use.

The internal (main) display is a bit small at 2.1" (diag.) for a media-centric phone (in my opinion), but it has an absolutely brilliant resolution (352 x 416). This makes photo viewing a nice experience. However, the OS uses the screen's real estate very inefficiently, with many missed opportunities to show a lot more information than it actually does. This creates lots of added scrolling through lists of unseen options (as the screen cap below shows...can't I see more than 3 pieces of info about Abe at a time without scrolling??).

Use as a phone is decent, although I still don't understand why phone makers insist on burying the ability to silence the phone in a menu structure. On the N90, it requires hitting the power button, toggling the joystick down three positions, and clicking again to confirm. For comparison, on the Treo (sorry), all you have to do is slide a physical button and it's 100% quiet -- that's smart. At least you can silence the N90 without opening it...there is a silver lining.

PC Synchronization

Setup on my PC was a bit disappointing. The connection software -- Nokia PC Suite -- only syncs to Outlook, Outlook Express, Lotus Notes, and Lotus Organizer. I don't use any of those, and PC Suite itself doesn't offer a PIM interface. Frankly, in my opinion, Nokia PC Suite is a confusing kludge of applets -- it attempts to be activity-centric, but ends up presenting a chaotic mess of options with no clear direction. Maybe it's just my lack of familiarity, but I think a lot of UI designers would have a hard time praising its interface.

Nokia PC Suite also did not make it easy for me to migrate my contact data from a device other than a Series 60 phone. It wouldn't handle that mass vCard export that Palm Desktop produced, so I was limited to just pulling over a handful of contacts one at a time (export vCard, save, drag to PC Suite, confirm, repeat). If Nokia wants to capture additional market share with the N90, especially going after media-centric users, it should really rethink its desktop experience. After all, the PC is where many folks store most of their digital media.

Photography

One of the main functions the N90 is supposed to serve, apart from being a phone, is as a camera. Its Carl Zeiss lens with 2MP (1600 x 1200 resolution) sensor is fairly serious fare for a phone (at least outside Asia, where any phone camera with less than 3MP is to be publicly mocked and derided). So, how does it do? I'll let you be the judge. Here is a fairly typical phonecam photo: my daughter indoors at close range, with flash (click the thumbnail for the original full-size image).

As you can see, it's a decent photo for a phone, but I wasn't convinced it was anything special compared to even a mediocre dedicated camera. The red-eye is terrible (not surprising given that the flash is a 1/4 inch away from the lens) and the noise in the picture is quite noticeable. Checking the EXIF data reveals that the shot was taken at 1/20th of a second at ISO 800. So how exactly would this camera react in a dark environment like, say, a pub or nightclub? Not well, I expect. But how does it compare to other cameras?

With these thoughts in mind, I decided to take the same photo with all the imaging devices I had on hand, with the results shown in the table below. Each row shows one of the four imaging devices, in order of increasing megapixelage (a Treo 650, the Nokia N90, a Canon S1 IS point-and-shoot camera, and a Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D digital SLR). The image in the left column of each row is a thumbnail (click to see the original full-sized image) and the image in the right column of each row is a 300x200 crop of the full-sized image (the only manipulation of the original images posted here are for the Maxxum 5D shots -- at 5 megs apiece, they were a bit unwieldy, so I resaved them at JPG quality 90%, which brought them down to ~800KB apiece and didn't really damage image quality terribly).

	Thumbnail (click for full image)	Full-size center crop
Treo 650 -- .3MP
Nokia N90 -- 2MP -- no flash
Nokia N90 -- 2MP -- with flash
Canon S1 IS -- 3.1MP -- no flash
Canon S1 IS -- 3.1MP -- with flash
Minolta Maxxum 5D -- 6MP -- no flash
Minolta Maxxum 5D -- 6MP -- with flash

This was a tough test -- I used a combination of incandescent and halogen lamps to light the room, and the objects themselves weren't lit directly. The N90's color accuracy seems OK (to my uncalibrated eyeball -- the Canon S1 IS with flash seems to be the most accurate), although I've noticed that the flash can give the image a blue tint if the subject is close (as in the close-up of Sam above). Thankfully, the N90 gives a fair range of control over the imaging function -- not SLR-level control, but scene mode, flash mode, white balance, exposure compensation, and color effects are all easily adjusted.

I did notice that the N90 jumps to really high ISO levels (640 and 1000, with and without flash respectively), which greatly enhances the noise. Lots of pixels on really small sensors do not typically result in low-noise images anyway, and ISO 1000 certainly isn't going to help. Take a look at the full-sized N90/no flash image -- you'll notice big blue blobs in the otherwise homogeneously burgundy carpeting. I haven't found a way in the N90 to set the ISO level, so that may be an uncontrollable factor.

My initial reaction, being the image quality snob I am, is that I'd much rather toss one of the crop of new, tiny, deck-of-playing-cards-sized 5MP+ cameras (e.g., the miniscule Canon SD450 or teensy Nikon Coolpix S2) in my pocket if I thought I would want to take some decent stills or some high-quality (VGA @ 30fps) movies (the N90's movies are limited to 352x288).

But, I'm not ready to throw in the towel on the N90 yet -- I think I may just need some more time with it to figure out how to get the best photos out of it. Besides, since it's a phone, it's always with me, unlike a dedicated camera (which I rarely seem to have when I most want it).

More to come...

Posted by Craig in Phones and Photography
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November 25, 2005

Hands On - Nokia N90 Multimedia Smartphone

The nice UPS man just dropped off a Nokia N90 on my doorstep.

You remember the N90...it's the new GSM phone with the Carl Zeiss optics, 2MP camera, video capture straight to MPEG-4 at 352x288 resolution, two-way video calls, etc., etc.

While it's warming up (don't want to risk condensation damage) and the battery is charging, I thought I'd post a few shots of what it looks like sans power (next to my Treo 650 for size comparisons). It's amazingly small...thick, but elegant.

So far, me likey. More later after I get it operational.

Continue reading past the break for the photos!

Nice box.

Surprisingly compact, if on the thick side (this ain't no RAZR).

There's the Zeiss lens and flash (yellow spot).

It's a flip-phone...with a twist...or two!

In standard "phone" mode next to the Treo 650.

Posted by Craig in Phones and Photography
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November 23, 2005

Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D Digital SLR

Recently, I started a list of cameras that almost met all my needs, but failed to do something I desired.

Well, after looking at all these cameras, my resolve to stick it out until someone came up with a digital SLR that took movies simply petered out. I am weak.

After looking around a bit and trying out some cameras in stores, I realized that I need image stabilization -- I just do not have steady hands. And, I wasn't very excited about dropping over a grand on a camera. So, based mostly on those two factors, I decided to see if I could find the Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D (called the Dynax 5D in some markets) for a decent price.

As fate (or advertising) would have it, I got an email from Circuit City announcing a big pre-Thanksgiving (wtf?) camera sale. Long story short, I picked up a 5D kit (includes an OK, but not great, 18-70mm lens with the 5D body) for $703 from the CC store about a mile from my house. As that was only about $15 more than the cheapest mail-order, I gave in -- my last argument for holding out was gone, and immediate gratification was just too tempting.

I haven't had much opportunity to use it extensively yet, but I snapped some quick pics of my daughter eating her dinner. So far, I'm really pleased at the responsiveness of the camera, and the images are very nice -- good detail and great color accuracy. The lens doesn't seem to be noteworthy in any regard -- it's a bit slow, but given that it only added about $50 to the price of the body alone, it was a bargain.

I haven't gotten it out of Program AE yet, so I expect this camera has a lot of room for me to grow into. More reactions will be posted here on GearBits as I use it...I promise.

Posted by Craig in Family and Photography
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November 13, 2005

My Quest for the Perfect Digital Camera

In my recent post, What I Want in a Digital Camera (November 11, 2005), I listed a bunch of criteria that are ~~important~~ essential to me to have in a digital camera. Some folks emailed me with ideas (or posted them at DigitalMediaThoughts) so I thought I'd start a list of cameras that folks have suggested, but which ultimately fail to meet one of my absolute must-have criteria.

So, listed below, in true nerd fashion, is a table of suggested digital cameras that come within one inadequacy or missing feature of being my "ideal". The features I require (as detailed in my original post) are listed as columns and each row shows a "near miss" camera that comes close to meeting my requirements (all links go to DPReview.com).

Camera	Image Quality	HQ Movie	Speed	Anti- Shake	Good Optics	Manual Zoom	Flash +Shoe
Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D 6MP D-SLR
Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D 6MP D-SLR
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 8MP Fixed Lens
Fujifilm FinePix S9000 9MP Fixed Lens

Any other suggestions? I really do want to upgrade...just need to find the right camera.

Posted by Craig in Photography
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November 11, 2005

What I Want in a Digital Camera

Or, Why the Heck Haven't They Made This Yet?

C-2100 Since I began my search to replace my aging Olympus C-2100 UZ (I still miss my Uzi sometimes), I've yet to find a digital camera that I'd say is close to my ideal. Even if price weren't an issue, every model offered up in the past 2 years is lacking something important to me.

So, here's my annotated "short" list of digital camera requirements:

1) Excellent picture quality. It seems obvious to me that this should be near the top of anyone's list who really cares about the camera he/she uses. But oddly enough, and contrary to the belief that technology improves with time, cameras being announced recently seem to offer us worse image quality than cameras being made a few years ago. There is much gnashing of teeth over the increasingly noisy 5-9 megapixel sensors being stuck in 'prosumer' and enthusiast non-DSLR cameras. The manufacturers seem to believe that we're willing to put up with incredibly noisy (even at ISO 100) images as long as they're really, really big. Sorry...that doesn't make any sense to me. I'd take a clean 3MP image over a noisy 8MP image any day of the week. If that means you have to make a 1" (versus 1/1.7" or smaller) 5MP sensor, so be it. Even my Canon SI 1S, which came out in 2003, turns out worse photos than my old C-2100, which came out in 2000 -- the Canon just doesn't offer the same vibrance, clarity and tack-sharp images the Olympus produced despite it being 3 years newer. DSLRs seem to be the clear winner in picture quality, but they have a different limitation...

2) Great movies. OK, I heard several of you photography purists audibly snort when you read that. Yes, I really like the fact that I can take high-quality (VGA, 30fps) MPEG-4 movies with my digital camera (the lack of this feature is why I replaced my C-2100). I'll be taking some stills of something (OK, basically just my daughter these days) and I'll think "gosh, it'd be nice to get this on video." Switch modes and bam, I'm recording live action. And it's rare (OK, never) that I want to film something for longer than a few minutes, so the HQ movie mode offered by many of the better digicams suits me much better than a miniDV camcorder. Unfortunately, none of the DSLRs available today offer movie mode. Why is that? Surely they could figure out a way to lock up the mirror and just start recording video data. I mean, other than the optics configuration, a DSLR is pretty much like any other digital camera.

3) Fast response. I want to be able to take pictures well within a second of turning the camera on and I expect the shutter response, including auto-focus, to be darn near instantaneous. Too many expensive cameras still hem and haw over focusing, especially in low light situations (why on Earth did they stop putting AF assist lamps in high-end cameras?!?), making me lose moment after moment that should have been captured. Yes, DSLRs are generally quite fast, but for other reasons I mention none fits my ideal profile.

4) Anti-shake / optical image stabilization in the lens. I have notoriously shaky hands -- so much so that my friends used to joke I'd be the first surgeon to cut out his own spleen by accident. So for me, image stabilization is a real boon. And yes, I request that this be handled by moving lens elements (a la Canon) and not by moving the CCD (as Konica Minolta does). The latter approach is much less effective at countering shake due to the physics of optics (which I won't go into here).

5) A fast fixed lens with high-quality optics. This isn't so much a requirement as a logical conclusion. I want image stabilization in the lens, but I don't really want to have to buy a bunch of really expensive OIS lenses. Plus, I don't prefer the idea of hauling around a bunch of lenses -- I used to own a 35mm SLR and having a camera bag the size of a hockey duffle always irritated me. Today's long-zoom prosumer digicams have great range -- 35-350mm (10X) is common and 35-420mm (12X) is becoming moreso. That's a lot of zoom, my friend, and except for maybe slapping on a wide-angle adapter once in a while, 35-420mm covers pretty much anything I can imagine doing on any kind of regular basis. So I'm happy to give up the ability to swap lenses if they'd give me a really good (fast with great optics) fixed lens.

6) Zoom and focus rings on the lens. Why is this concept so strange to camera makers? They seem to think we want to zoom in and out using a little thumb toggle instead of twisting a barrel ring. Well, it ain't so. Not only would zoom and focus rings make for much better (i.e., precise) control, they'd use up less battery and wouldn't add noise to movies the way that powered zooms do. Fuji's FinePix S9000 (shown) is a good example of what I'd like the barrel on my camera to look like.

7) Optical viewfinder -or- high-res EVF. I like the idea of getting back to an optical viewfinder, but unless the camera is a DSLR, this is really tough to do well. So, I'd be willing to keep an electronic viewfinder as long as it has enough resolution to let me focus manually with confidence. This is impossible to do in most digital cameras due to crappy EVFs and it's very frustrating.

8) Powered by NiMH 'AA' cells. I have a hard time justifying a camera using a proprietary rechargeable battery when four 2500mAh NiMH 'AA' cells give such great power. Sure, they take up a bit more room, but I'm not pretending this camera needs to be pocketable. Besides, isn't that what the handgrip is for -- a place to put the batteries??

9) Pop-up flash and hot shoe Yes, I want options. For snapshots and spontaneous fill flash, a pop-up flash is usually just fine. But, if I'm going to do something serious, a hot shoe for competent external flash is essential.

10) All the other little stuff. Full manual controls, including white balance and those other more obscure settings; good ergonomics; a good rear LCD (2" or larger please); an EVF mounted on the far left edge of the camera (if looking at the back), so I can avoid nose smudges all over the LCD; standard-size threaded filter mount on the lens (without requiring a special adapter or hood); a reasonable flash media format (Memory Stick and xD Picture Card do not qualify); live histogram; neckstrap and lenscap strap attachment points on the camera body; full bracketing; and some other things I probably can't think of at the moment.

You might notice I didn't specify image resolution (megapixels). That's because I don't really care that much. At least 3MP is reasonable and more than 6MP seems wasteful to me (media gets eaten up really fast with 8MP images). Big zoom can make up for lower MP a lot of the time, as can effective framing when you actually make the shot.

Yes, this ideal camera would probably be pretty costly, but you know what? It'd be worth it...to me, at least.

Update: I've started a list of cameras that almost meet these requirements at this GearBits post...go check it out.

Posted by Craig in Photography
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October 29, 2005

I've Been Plagiarized...in Arabic Farsi or Urdu (I Think)!

At least, it appears that a site has ripped off some GearBits content, translated it into ~~Arabic~~ Farsi or Urdu (thanks, IssamE), and posted it as its own original content.

It looks to me like this other site took my Digital Photo Printing Worksheet (posted December 7, 2004), translated it and made a few changes (e.g., Imerial to metric units), and added links to its own site with no obvious reference back to GearBits as its original source. I have no problem sharing -- in fact, I encourage it -- but GearBits' Creative Commons license clearly states that attribution is expected.

Here's my original post:

And here's the ~~rip-off~~ derivative work:

I think it's pretty obvious that they've modified my worksheet, but if anybody speaks ~~Arabic~~ Farsi or Urdu and would be willing to tell me what the other page actually says, I'd appreciate it (all the free machine translation services I've tried give me back nothing but jibberish). If the other site is, in fact, giving proper attribution, I need to post an apology. :-)

Posted by Craig in Internet and Photography
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September 8, 2005

NYTimes on Wireless Network Cameras

The New York Times has a decent, if not short, piece on wireless network cameras. They review the Linksys WVC54G, Panasonic BB-HCM371A, and D-Link DCS-6620G. They did not mention the Hawking Technology HNC230G I reviewed last month.

Posted by Craig in Computing and Home A/V and Photography and Wireless
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August 9, 2005

Hawking Technologies HNC230G Wireless-G Network Camera

Ever in search of the better baby cam, I snagged an HNC230G Wireless-G Network Camera from Hawking Technologies. There are many wireless network cameras out there, but I chose this one due to the combination of it having 802.11g with a very reasonable price (under $90).

What's a wireless network camera, and how does it differ from a webcam? Good questions. Webcams have to be connected to a computer, usually via a USB cable, and merely send image (and sometimes sound) data to the PC. Network cameras have their own embedded web server built right into them so they can broadcast their signal to the local network (and out to the Internet) without a PC. They have their own IP address, so you can access them independently of anything else on your network.

In the box was the camera (which was surprisingly small...maybe the size of two decks of cards), a short CAT-5 cable (needed for initial setup only), A/C adapter & power cord (the only wire needed when the HNC230G is in wireless mode), ball-joint mounting kit (a very nice bonus!), and the requisite software CD.

On the camera itself are several features of note: a power plug, an RJ-45 plug, an antenna mount, two screw sockets for mounting on the included ball-joint (one on the top and one on the side), and 4 status LEDs (thankfully the config software lets you turn these completely off).

Setup was pretty easy. First, you plug the camera into power and wire it directly into your network router (initial setup requires a wired connection...can't be done wirelessly). Then, install the setup software onto a PC on the network and run through the camera's wireless setup wizard. After that, once the camera is happily talking to your network, you can complete the configuration wirelessly.

As you can see in the photo, I mounted ours underneath a cabinet in the corner of the kitchen. It's fairly unobtrusive...visible, but it doesn't draw your attention. The power cord is tied up in a little bundle behind the camera...you can just see the 802.11g antenna peeking out from behind (ignore the coax cable there...that's unrelated).

So how well does it work? Pretty well, overall. When using the camera's wireless connection to view the camera's video in a web browser (it requires a Java applet), I get 6 frames per second (fps) at 160x120 and 320x240 resolutions and 2-3 fps at 640x480 (note that my wireless network is 100% 802.11g). When using a wired connection, I get somewhat faster video, although not at the camera's advertised rate of 30 fps. Image quality is quite decent...very acceptable, as can be seen in the screen cap below (that's our dog in the foreground). The camera also comes with viewer software that will let you watch 4 network cameras simultaneously (for security applications or, I guess, if you have lots of kids).

Overall, I'm happy with the purchase. I had always wanted an 802.11 network camera, but balked at the price. Prices have really started to drop recently, and this budget offering from Hawking Technologies doesn't disappoint.

Posted by Craig in Computing and Home A/V and Photography and Wireless
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March 16, 2005

Knowing When (Not) To Upgrade

I know now that I shouldn't have sold my camera.

When you're addicted to gadgets, upgrading is almost always just a question of which new device to get. Rarely is it that what you already have, despite it being ancient (at least in technology years), is the best thing going. That's what I'm now finding out about my former digital camera.

I used to use...no, that's not right...obsess over my Olympus C-2100 UZ (shown). This camera had such a cult following at one point that it was called the "Uzi" by its fans.

I was so enamored with that camera that I bought a spare, just in case something should happen to my first one. I had all sorts of extra lenses and filters and doo-dads specially for the camera. And it treated me well...rarely was I at a loss as to how to capture a decent picture. Here are some of my better examples:

But when my wife and I were expecting the birth of our daughter last summer, I felt I needed a camera that could also take decent movies. The Uzi took admittedly crappy movies -- 320x240 at 15fps with lots of distracting focusing/zoom motor noises. Given that I didn't want to be bothered with a separate camcorder, and given that I thought recording straight to MPEG-4 would save a lot of time over importing DV tape (which it has!), I thought I'd sell the Uzis and get myself a nice new camera with similar features and better movie capabilities. I thought I had found just such a camera when the Canon SI 1S was introduced last Spring.

So, I agreed to sell my Olympus setup to a guy in Canada for about $40 more than the Canon and a high-speed 2GB CF card cost. "How cool," I thought, "I'm going to come out ahead on this deal." Well, the results are mixed. While the movie capabilities of the S1 IS are indeed what I was hoping for (VGA 30fps movies of the baby are excellent), the camera aspects of the Canon are a step down from the Olympus.

And here is where the specs failed me. The Canon is 2004 technology, whereas the Olympus came out in 2000. The Canon is 3.2 megapixels while the Uzi was just 2.1. The Canon has a faster focusing mechanism than the Uzi, yet because it doesn't have a focus assist lamp, it often misfocuses in low-light situations. The Canon is smaller and lighter than the Uzi, but once I put on the threaded lens adapter (so I can use filters), it's about the same size. But really none of that matters as much as one simple fact: the Olympus consistently took better pictures than the Canon does.

It's not that the Canon takes bad pictures. They're just so-so. Even after the minor Photoshopping that I always had to do with the Uzi's photos (up the saturation, sharpen a tad maybe), photos from the Canon always seem a bit flat. Maybe it's a little more noise. Maybe it's a little softer images. I don't know. All I do know is that my wife and I look at the photos that come out of the Canon and we're rarely impressed. Contrast that with looking at photos from the Uzi, when we'd regularly go "wow" or "ooh." I am certainly not a gifted photographer, but the Uzi seemed to bring out the best in my efforts.

So, yeah, I miss the Olympus. I made a mistake and am man enough to admit it. Several of my friends (who were convinced they should buy one after trying mine) still have their Uzis, and I'm a bit envious whenever they get theirs out to snap some pics. Maybe I can convince one of them to let me have theirs when they upgrade. Of course, if they read this blog post, they may just never do that.

I guess the lessons learned are think twice, always do a trial before making a permanent switch, and don't expect a device to be excellent at everything. I relied on the specs and regret it a little. The movies are totally terrific with the Canon, but I hope I can find something someday that will once again deliver the knock-out images the Uzi produced for me. Any suggestions?

Posted by Craig in Photography and Technology
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February 17, 2005

More Treo 650/600 Comparison Photos

Here are 4 more pairs of photos taken recently with the Treo 600 (top) and Treo 650 (bottom):

Two things are obvious:
1) Focus and resolution (not in terms of pixels, but in distinguishing detail) is generally better on the Treo 650 (the blurriness on the one shot is likely due to me -- it was cold and my hand was freezing). It seems that the JPG compression is higher on the 600, which may explain part of this.
2) Saturation and contrast are much higher on the 600 (too high, IMO) than the 650, which may be a tad low. Why don't they add settings in software for this stuff just like they do on $59 digital cameras?

Also, take a look at another website (PhoneCamPhotographer.com) that has some good Treo 600/650 comparison shots.

Posted by Craig in Mobile & PDAs and Photography and Photos
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December 7, 2004

Digital Photo Printing Worksheet

One question I get asked a lot by friends and family is "how big can I print this digital photo?" My answer is always "it depends," which then requires a lengthy discussion of pixels per inch and viewing distance and other mundane topics.

So, I put together a little Excel spreadsheet that should help you determine what size prints you can make with reasonable quality based on the size of the digital photos you have. You can get it here or click on the screen capture below (you have to have Microsoft Excel to use the file).

I've based the calculations employed by the spreadsheet largely on my own experience and preferences, so if you have a more or less critical eye than is typical, you might differ with some of the recommendations the guide offers. In that case, leave me a comment and I'll tell you how to change the PPI (pixels per inch) guidelines used in calculating the ratings.

Posted by Craig in Photography
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April 30, 2004

Music Player Snaps Pictures

iRiver has announced a new combination digicam music player, the iRiver Prism Eye. Coming in two models, the iFP-1090 and iFP-1095 devices combine digital audio with FM tuner capability with a digital camera.

While similar in size and specs, the iFP-1090 and iFP-1095 have storage capacities of 256-MB and 512-MB. The devices do not as yet support any expansion memory, and connect to PCs by USB1.1. Form factor is 3.5x 1.5 inches.

Prism Eye devices use a 0.3-MP CMOS sensor to capture images at 640x480 resolution, with an available 3x digital zoom. The 256-MB device can hold approximately 300 shots.

Audio formats supported include MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis and ASF. FM tuning is within the 87.5-108 MHz band. A Li-ion battery can handle about 35 hours of playback.

The Prism Eye is expected to ship this summer.

Posted by Sam in