[Andr]

October 10, 2006 at 4:32 pm

I think if you have photoshop even version 7 would do all this natively without this plugin.

[Andr]

October 10, 2006 at 4:27 pm

Chips are made to a level of tolerance and are graded accordingly, hence the larger the chip and the more perfect the chip is the more expensive, it is a trade off to get a 6mp or higher chip for less money.

In general manufacturers differ in their ‘tolerances’ to faults and quality of chips used.

[Andr]

September 29, 2006 at 7:55 pm

I have a Nikkor 28-200mm lens and love it, I would rarely have to switch to a wider or longer lens.
Minimal chromatic abberation even maxed at 200mm.

I know you can get a 28mm to 300mm range but I think that is a bit too adventurous a range to be wholesome?

IMHO I do think the Nikkor 28-200 is a better lens than a sigma or tamron equivalent. HTH :D

[Andr]

September 27, 2006 at 10:18 pm

Just a tip as you are buying a new one, get a geared head for it, they are fantastic!

:D

[Andr]

September 24, 2006 at 5:50 pm

Even second hand X-Pan are pricey, particularly when you add lenses, They do give brilliant results. They are very heavy they feel like solid steel. Have a look some of our xpan shots:
http://www.allmono.com/search.php?search_type=search&keywords=5%3A2+65%3A24

I would suggest (assuming you have an SLR or DigitalSLR) to buy the widest lens you can find and experiment with the panoramic format by cropping your images to a ratio of 65:24 (as xpan film on 35mm is 65mm wide x 24mm high)

Ideally if film is your thing get a second hand Haselblad 500CM and a 40, 50 or 80mm lens this will give you 60x60mm nearly the same width as the xpan (65) then you can tape off the view finder ground glass screen to the 65:24 format, needless to say this will be a much more versatile solution, also less distortion at the edges of images too!* (You could always get a digital back at a later stage)

If its mega resolution you crave, obviously the Fuji GX617 or similar is the thing.

* Using wide lenses (45mm) on the X-Pan – then about 5mm on each side is a little bit iffy, for example in a crowd scene you would notice people heads looking stretched horizontally, strangely enough there is virtually no distortion from a 50mm lens on a Hasselblad 6×6 camera.

[Andr]

September 24, 2006 at 5:19 pm

The “Macro Switch” means you can tell the lens to limit its focusing range – to between infinity and about a few metres in front of the lens.

The only difference you will see is that autofocus should be marginally faster as the lens dosent use the full range of focus.
Ironically on Sigma “Macro” lenses the same switch is called “Limit focusing range on/off” which describes this function more clearly!

Then only if you want to photograph something close to the lens (within a few cm) switch “macro” to the on position.

[Andr]

September 16, 2006 at 10:01 pm

For photographers that don’t have the CS2 HDR capabilites, if you secure your cameras’ composition with a tripod, then take two or three bracketed exposures keeping the camera in exactly the same position you can make these into layers in photoshop (or psp) and use bits of one layer say 1 stop under for sky and possibly bits of the one stop over for more shadow detail. Be sure not to create a flattened effect just use the extra detail in the bracketed shots using your ‘correct’ exposure shot as a reference.

Talking of increased dynamic range, I am sure true 16bit per channel chips/processing will eventually reach the D-SLR market (Most D-SLR are 12 or 14 bit that are tranposed to 16bit), in the Digital backs you get a true 16 bit per channel and as they can take practically any landscape and still have a bit of dynamic range on either end to spare!

Andy if landscapes are your thing and you are particular about highlight and shadow detail, then invest in a digital back, and MF camera, second hand ones appear from time to time decent 16MP/22MP ones.

If budgets don’t stretch, then a very good D-SLR in RAW mode should capture enough d-range, try as I mentioned above but one exposure for the sky and one for the ground, then blend/edit/erase between the two shots as layers in photoshop, it’s like using a graduated filter but without the limiting obvious linear band across your image, you can make the transitions more subtle…

[Andr]

September 9, 2006 at 3:57 pm

I agree with Ciaran, for most cases the limited edition thing does not impress, and seems a bit suss. However for reproductions of paintings as giclee on canvas for example, etc limited edition is important.

I think there is a few different levels of photography as ‘art’, there is the totally ‘fine-art’ photography where the photographer produces art and photography is the ‘medium’ where the image conveys itself like a painting or watercolour would. Often technically ‘wrong’ images are popular as photographer can get bogged down with making something to perfect. Then there is the landscape and ‘real’ images these are harder to sell as the market is saturated with posters and prints. etc.

It is a fairly new concept in Ireland to see it as true art. And for people to discern between a cheap framed prints and the real quality photographic prints.

In the US framed black and whites and large colour pieces are extremely popular, practically every US tv show that shows an interior of a house has a few b+w prints on the wall. Over here it’s only catching on IMHO.

But my 2 cents on this is that photographers if the plan to sell it as ‘art’ then they should start thinking and creating like artists – common sense? What is selling in your local art gallery? Go in and ask! 9 times out of 10 they’ll tell you what oil/wc/prints/art is popular. Ask yourself “well would I want that on my wall, and not just because I took the picture?”

[Andr]

August 30, 2006 at 2:06 pm

DML Data Micrographics Ltd in Portobello Harbour Dublin, 478 1888 – Jim / Kevin http://www.dml.ie

There is also a photographic repair shop downstairs under DML that does rentals/second hand equip (try before you buy).

Hope this is of some help.

[Andr]

August 30, 2006 at 1:57 pm

Hi

You could try DML in Portobello Dublin, 478 1888 Kevin / Darragh / Jim

Bowens kits, 2 flash softbox stands etc. all in one box, a decent semi pro setup that could be built on later. HTH