short gap filler
Originally uploaded by smussyolay

Posts have been a little scarce recently as I have been very busy. This does mean however that I have a lot to talk about, so stay tuned! In the meantime here are a few interesting things I’ve come across recently.

♦ Firstly, one of the reasons I love the internet: honest product reviews by people with no mandate to keep manufacturers or editors happy, such as Scott Kelby’s review of the Jobo photoGPS, a piece you’d be unlikely to find in a photography magazine! (ps if you haven’t read it already check out The Online Photographer’s review of the Nikon 24-120mm ƒ/3.5–5.6G, which is in a similar vein)

♦ Canon have announced the latest in the line of affordable DSLRs, a market segment it created back in 2003 with the release of the Digital Rebel. Check out a hands on preview of the new 500D here. The one good thing about this announcement for amateur photographers (who want to shoot pictures, not video) is that it will likely push down the cost of the 450D.

What’s wrong with the new 500D? Well they’ve equipped it with a 15 megapixel sensor, when there are widespread concerns that 15mp was too much for the 50D. To put this in perspective, 8mp is still fine for the professional sports shooters using the 1DmkII. The 35mm film that was used by some of the worlds top photographers for over half a century barely equates to 8mp. According to the stats of people visiting this site in the past year, the vast majority of users screen resolutions only correspond to a 1mp image (and that’s if it fills the entire screen). Don’t get me wrong, high resolution is not in and of itself bad, but I really can’t see including a 15mp sensor in an entry level camera as anything other than a marketing gimmick.

♦ At some point I’ll write an essay on film vs. digital, and my whole take on the debate. But to summarise, my position has always been that no matter how sophisticated the technology becomes it will always be the artistic vision and skill behind the equipment that dictates the ultimate result (until such time when computers become truly intelligent, at which point us photographers will be totally out of a job).

The sentiment was echoed by Michael Johnston in a recent post on The Online Photographer, but this time accompanied by a video which demonstrates the point far better than I could hope to do.

Disclaimer yes it’s a viral ad for Samsung and as a result you have to take what you see with a pinch of salt. But the point is it doesn’t matter if the entire thing isn’t 100% real, having seen “One Man and His Dog”, I know it could be done!