Ian Lind’s Photo Blog

This photo was taken this morning (Thursday), during part of our walk where I didn’t have to huddle under my umbrella.

At first, I thought I would like the B&W version the best. But a few tweaks to the color version and my resolve wavered.

Any thoughts from readers would be appreciated.

[Photo info--6:31 a.m., near corner of Kamehameha Highway and Puakenikeni Road, Canon S90 camera, 1/400 second, f/4.0, ISO 100.]

Not one of our cats.

This beauty lives down next to the Kaaawa fire station. She is friendly and totally unafraid of the two large and sometimes boisterous dogs she lives with. She’s one of only a handful of cats that greet us fairly regularly on our morning walk.

It was quite dark when this photo was taken, about 12-15 minutes before sunrise. I wasn’t sure a photo would be possible, but the 5D came through.

I like the contrast of cat against dark pavement and the contrasting textures of the pavement and her fur.

Photo info: Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 1250, Canon 28mm f/2.8 lens, 1/80 sec. at f/2.8.

This was one of those “can’t quite make up its mind” days, where the weather was somewhere in between.

As we reached Swanzy Beach Park on our early morning walk, the sun had just come up, and the coconut trees in the middle of the park stood out against the large dark clouds and curtain of rain in the background.

Although this patch of rain passed us by, another hit as we reached the far end of the beach. It did get a little wet.

I couldn’t keep any detail in the bright spot in the sky around the sun and still have any shadow detail in the foreground. I suppose more post-processing work could have resulted in additional range, but this was relatively quick and dirty.

I’ve come to like the G10, although I’m curious about the newly announced G11.

Canon PowerShot G10
1/40 sec at f/3.5
ISO 80
Focal length 13.761 mm
Lens 6.1-30.5 mm

6:17 a.m.
August 22, 2009

I finally broke and bought a new 5D earlier this year, upgrading from a Canon Digital Rebel XTi. After telling my wife how much it cost, there was no way that I was going to be able to order any L-class lenses. Don’t even think about it!

Luckily, I already had a selection of less expensive Canon lenses, mostly primes, and was looking forward to using them on a full-frame digital camera. But how would they perform? Would I be happy with the results? I was worried by all the forum discussions saying that the 5D demands only the best glass.

But I’m not a professional, although I’ve been an amateur photographer for decades, well back into the film era. That was really the reason I wanted to go full frame–I remember quite well how these lenses render a scene in 35mm, and I was tired of having to account for the digital conversion factor of smaller sensor DSLRs when trying to “see” ahead to how the camera/lens combo and the resulting photograph will interpret a scene.

My lineup of lenses:

Canon 24mm f/2.8

Canon 28mm f/2.8

Canon 50mm f/1.4

Canon 85mm f/1.8

Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS

Nothing fancy here.
I’ll cut to the chase. I’ve been very pleased by how well these lenses work with my 5D. They all have performed quite well.

Over the next week, I’ll collect a few representative images from each lens, just to give some flavor of what I’ve found.

I’m beginning here with the only zoom in the bag, the Canon 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS. This is half the price of the L-grade 70-200 IS, and I’m happy with its results.

I recently took it to a birthday party for a neighbor’s daughter and got a number of good shots which made the parents very happy. The long reach of this lens allowed me to get up close without being totally intrusive. I’m sure the L version would make me even happier, but without side-by-side comparisons, I’m a happy camper.

Click on the photo for a few more samples of the 70-300 IS at work with the 5D. The black & whites were converted using Lightroom 2.2.

-Ian Lind, Kaaawa, Hawaii

http://www.ilind.net

ian(at)ilind.net

Mr. Romeo appears to hang in mid-air, but he’s actually caught in the middle of jumping up onto the kitchen counter. Getting this shot was just luck. I had camera in hand when I noticed Romeo sitting and looking up, then his rear end started twitching and I knew a jump was coming. Camera into position, cat launched, several images, one caught the moment.

Canon 5D Mark II.
Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens at f/3.5.
1/80 second. ISO 800.

What will be the favored means of low cost, local, direct-to-market communication in the post-newspaper world?

This telephone pole reminded me that generations of handbills and flyers connected with readers right here.

And what remains is a lot more artistic than a pile of crumpled newsprint.

Canon G10 • 1/80th sec at f/4.0 • ISO 80

Nicole, daughter of a good friend who died last month, photographed at a celebration of her father’s life. For a moment, with that deep expression, I had the feeling that she understood some of what was going on around her.

Canon Digital Rebel XTi, 1/15th sec at f/2.8, Canon 28mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 800.

Just another Sunday morning in Kaaawa.

Canon G10

I spent an hour on Friday at Kaaawa School, where they were finishing up several weeks of fundraising for the American Heart Association with a bit of fun.

Students compete in six different events, from a sack race to jumping rope.

I’m trying to get better at ignoring the competition and just trying to focus on the kids.

I did a quick and dirty collection of photos to share with the school, which you can see by clicking on this photo, which is one of my favorites.

I’ve got some work ahead culling out the best shots and working on them.

Sounds like fun.

Top photo: Canon EOS 400D, Canon 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS lens at 275mm, 1/500 sec at f/5.6. ISO 400.

Bottom photo: Canon EOS 400D, Canon 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS lens at 300mm, 1/800 sec at f/8.0. ISO 400.

I’ve been “eye buying” for a while, poring over online reviews while thinking about upgrading to the latest versions from my Canon G9 and Panasonic LX1. I was leaning towards adding the LX3 alongside the G9.

Then our house was burglarized two weeks ago and my G9, as well as my Canon XTi, were taken.

Now the shopping is no longer idle fantasy. I needed a replacement camera, and I decided to go with the less expensive small camera and waiting on replacing the DSLR until the insurance kicks in.

I have to admit that I never fully warmed up to the G9, in contrast to my love affair with my old G2. The G9 was obviously a much better camera, but I never became as comfortable with it.

But now I needed a quick fix. An immediate replacement was necessary to avoid being limited to photos using my iPhone.

All things considered, and looking at this replacement being my primary camera for at least a couple of months, I opted for the G10.

It was ordered on Wednesday from B&H, and arrived in Honolulu on Thursday afternoon. Can’t complain about that service. I charged the battery on Friday, put on the strap, and installed a new SDHD card. Early Saturday morning we went off on our daily walk on the beach at dawn, new G10 in hand.

First impressions. When I first opened the box, the camera was wrapped in plastic and looked quite small. Then I picked it up. Very different impression. It’s a heavy camera, solid, sits in your hand like a rock. It’s probably no bigger than the G9, but on first impression feels bigger and heavier than it looks.

There are some subtle changes in the body. The grip on the front right of the camera is bigger, reducing the need for the add-on grip that was popular with the G9.

Looking at the top of the camera was a bit disorienting at first for a former G9 user. The dial on the left is now for adjusting exposure plus/minus two stops in 1/3 stop increments. The familiar settings dial on the right is smaller, but surrounded with a new wheel for setting ISO speed. The combination looks complex but sems to work quite well.

The rear of the camera features a bright LCD screen and slightly rearranged buttons, but if you’ve used other Canon cameras then they all feel familiar.

There’s a power button on the top of the camera, and a button on the back for reviewing images without firing up the camera and extending the lens.

The wider 28mm equivalent wide angle field of view makes quite a difference in the feel of the images.

I took several dozen photos while out walking, then a few more back home with our cats. The camera feels good and solid in your hand. Focus seems good. I don’t yet know whether the lens is extremely sharp, but that LCD screen certainly is. The camera is fast enough, although wasn’t quick enough to keep up with a couple of the dogs that we ran into. The lag still hasn’t fallen down into DSLR territory.

The G10 handled exposure well except for a couple of photos with a very bright patch of sky. In those, all highlights were blown out, although I could recover them from the RAW images.

RAW. That was the next adventure. I got back home, plugged my photo drive the MacBook Pro, popped the card into a reader, and Lightroom downloaded, but only the jpeg images appeared. The RAW images were reported as unreadable.

Dang! I forgot that the new RAW files from the G10 are a problem with older software. I’ve been using Lightroom v 1.something, along with CS3. A bit of searching and it seems the easiest solution in my setup was to upgrade to Lightroom 2.2 which reads the G10 RAW files and imports them as in digital negative format, which in turn open in CS3. The Lightroom upgrade from version 1.x cost $99, but is probably well worth it because of the added features and functionality. The installation was straightforward and finished without problems.

After the upgrade, Lightroom updated the catalog I’ve been using and proceeded to load the new RAW files.

I was pleased with the camera’s performance in the early morning light. It caught the subtle colors and differences in light. For example, you can see the surf spray that is hanging like mist at the base of the cliffs on the far side of the bay.

At wide angle, there’s a good deal of lens distortion. Check the curve in the horizon in this photo, easily corrected using the PT Lens plug-in.

I used the macro setting for this close-up of a strawberry at breakfast. Nothing to complain about there.

Focus is very good in this shot of Ms. Annie. It was in relatively poor light, shot at ISO 200. But the focus was quick and accurate.

I really can’t comment yet on noise at higher ISO.

But my first impressions of the G10 are all very positive. It’s too early for an enthusiastic recommendation, but I’m already feeling better about it than the G9 that it replaces.