After the launch events of this Summer and this Fall (before and during the Köln Photokina), there are two brands leaving important questions open. This is Sony and Nikon. While the two near-friends had us used to seeing them working together around the Sony digital photo sensors, we discovered two very divergent/different announces about 35mm Full Frame dSLR cameras: A Sony Alpha 900 pushing the resolution to record levels (24.6MP) and a Nikon D700 limiting its resolution in favor of maximum sensitivity (12MP).
Some would have us thinking that Nikon would have rejected the sensor offered by Sony (used on the Alpha 900) for reasons of insufficient image quality. It does not seem so obvious when looking at the results actually obtained by Sony, but why not? After all, Nikon did obtain a special edition of the Alpha 700 sensor in order to build its Nikon D300…
So what?
It is not very difficult to forecast. Nikon is preparing a Full Frame SLR photo camera with very high resolution (the Nikon D800 of the rumour mill or the D4 promised around Christmas?) and Sony will derive a low resolution version of the Alpha 900 (most certainly named Alpha 800). Their moves will be opposite but very complementary (and predictable).
In both cases, you can say that Canon will not be forced into running with the pack. With their EOS 5D Mk II (and the last EOS 5D, sold at bargain prices), there is enough to sustain the pressure, but Canon will need to react in 2009, before Summer.
Here is an interesting case (I think) of how I work on the photos I shot. Usually, I think of it as development of the digital image. Like for its argentic/analog counter-part, I have to work a little on the image to make it printable, but I also have to prepare a correct framing of the image and possibly more.
This is the photo of an elephant on the Musiara plains of the Masai Mara National Park in Kenya. Initially, I shot the horizontal photo below, in order to get a fairly good portrait of an elephant within a tight frame:
It is a fairly correct image: A touch of colour in the background, enough information in both highlights and shadows, good focus plane, nice structure on the skin of the elephant, both eyes are visible and both tusks are inside the frame.
But after preparing/developping the trivial image (just minor levels correction, minimal unsharp mask), I thougt that it could be possible to try something else by re-framing the image:
But while I was at it (and because of the nice work of light on the mud-covered skin of the animal), I also decided to try a black and white presentation (with desaturation by Photoshop and a little coloring of the image):
This is merely the beginning of the publication of photos I shot in the Masai Mara National Reserve (Kenya) during a photo safari leaded by Alain Pons, French wildlife photographer. You can expect a long string of images since I found quite a number of nice occasions to snap a few animal shots.
Awesomely superb, “The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala” is an illustrated book (download in PDF) by James Bateman that you can find in Botanicus.org wbe site of the Missouri Botanical Gardens.
Did you think that you needed to drop a few bucks to get Norton Ghost? No, it can be free. And legal, too. If you go and get one of the software programs that can do the same service for nothing, zip, silch, naught.
I would recommend the following:
DriveImage XML is probably the most famous of these programs. It’s free for personal use, quite old, but still kicking and able to do not only images, but also scheduled backups. However, the interface is among the simplest ones. My own personal recommendation.
However, some people would also think about other similar tools:
For a straight-up, drive-to-drive clone, you can use Runtime’s Shadow Copy (completely free)
XXClone runs in Windows, is free for personal use and -while being very simple- does copies of your disk (even makes it bootable, if needed).
Once again, there is no need to buy expensive software or to go to Pirate Bay to get a hacked/pirated copy. Just use the right tool for the right price. Norton Ghost is good enough, DriveImage XML is much better.
After about 10 days out of France, I am back from the Masai Mara National Reserve (in Kenya). I brought back about 30 GB of wildlife photos (around 1700-1800 images) to be sorted out in the coming days. You can expect series of published images here on a regular basis.
Even better than games where you must run against the clock, where you need to stock more and more points, where there is a way to win! Here are games designed only to waste the time you have on your hand: TheCleverest.
On the Canon USA web site, there are a few interesting articles about the recent Canon EOS 50D. A good way to evaluate the performance we all can expect from this nice camera for enthusiasts.
And remember that Full Frame cameras are for the richest of the photographers. Most of us are still interested in more accessible real-world cameras like the Canon EOS 50D.
Even shooting the photos seemed out-this-world: Silently and slowly walking the station with another photographer (we did not even exchange a word), while the people around us were waiting for their train trying not to notice the flash lights. It could not have been a more troubling experience, going from an unstuck paper to a poor paint job or a hasty writing between dirty white tiles.
You will probably notice a little slow down in publication of posts here in the coming days: I am travelling for a few days to Kenya in order to shoot photos in the Masai Mara National Park during the great migration of herbivores (wildebeests and zebras, mostly).
I will be there with Alain Pons, wildlife photographer, and supported by Amawanda travel agent.
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