Its been about a week since my exams got over and I’ve made some interesting purchases over the course of these days.

The first and most important one would be the Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon DDR MC Electric 35mm f/2.4 which I’ve nicknamed ‘Jenna’. I managed to win an auction of it on Ebay for just over £60 which I thought, was a decent deal. I havent really had a chance to try the lens out and push it to it limits but from what I’ve seen so far, its had some very impressive results. The first thing I noticed about the lens was that it felt good which is a mark of a good lens. When you hold it on your hands, it just feels right and solid. The piece which I got was in mint condition with one very minor scuff on the side. It focuses very closely, upto a reproduction ratio of 1:2 and can be used to shoot some impressive macro photographs. It resembles the standard focal length of 50mm on a crop-sensor camera and is useful in everyday purposes. I can also remove it from my wishlist now and I’m proud to have achieved another milestone on my wishlist. I will be posting some sample shots taken with it very soon on my Flickr Photostream.

Another gadget that I’ve got my hands on is the Logitech Z-2300. I didnt buy it but one of my good friends bought it and hence, I was able to test it out. They are 2.1 speakers and come with an absolutely massive sub-woofer. The sound quality is excellent, very crisp and makes you feel like you are in the middle of a concert. The sub-woofer is second to none and has a bass powerful enough to rattle the windows. It is also very very loud and can probably over-power some of the popular home audio systems. The sound retains quality at all volume levels which is one of qualities of high-end music systems like Bose, etc and its good to see that quality in consumer level goods, thanks to Logietch’s THX certified sound quality. A highly recommended purchase for any audiophile.

And my final and latest acquisition is a Phottix Wireless remote for my camera. It works excellently and as good as a Canon wired remote. It supports Bulb mode and if you hold down the button on the remote for 3 seconds, you can release it and the camera will still continue to take the photo until you press the button again. This is very useful feature so that you dont have to hold it down to take long exposure photos like Star trails. It also works perfectly with the burst mode and even though I probably wont use it with the burst mode, it nevertheless sounds quite exciting. I hope to make more use of it soon.

The Greatest Show on Earth, the Summer Ball is this Saturday and I’m looking forward to it!

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We had our first exam at University yesterday, Introduction to Economics, which went remarkably well. The exam procedures were more or less the same as school, the only difference being that there were about 400 students in one hall as opposed to about 125 in school. The size didn’t really make much of a difference in the exam but they took a hell a lot of time to collect all the papers at the end. Next exam is next Tuesday, gotta start studying.

I’ve been looking to get a medium format camera recently, because I want to venture out into new forms of photography. After several hours of researching online instead of studying for my exam, I came to the conclusion that for a person who is taking his first step into Medium Format, a folder camera would be ideal since it isn’t very expensive but gives good quality images and is compact when compared to the other alternatives.

I did stumble upon a few Bronicas on Ebay, it was quite tempting to get one, but I had to refrain since they would be an overkill for me and were also slightly expensive. After more hours of hunting, I came across several models of folder cameras such as the Agfa Isolette which seemed to be the most popular and various different versions of the Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta.

Zeiss Ikonta by Ray Pempengco

In order to get a hands-on experience with some of these cameras before buying one, I decided to visit a secondhand camera store in London. So yesterday, right after the exam, I went to London and spent about an hour lost trying to find the store, and I finally managed to find it. I wouldn’t exactly call it a store since they are a mail-order business and don’t have a store front for customers. Its more like a office room filled with all the classic cameras you can dream of. I was initially overwhelmed by the amount of cameras they had in that space and spent a good 10 minutes just looking at the huge collection. The store owners were very friendly and allowed me to handle various cameras. After some drooling and handling of some of the best medium format cameras in the world, I decided that I would get a Zeiss Super Ikonta and if all goes right, I should probably have one with me this time next week. And if anyone is looking to get a classic camera, I suggest you look at their extensive online catalogue, but act quick since they sell like hot cakes.

Here are some links which I found very useful containing more information about the world of Medium Format Cameras -

Introduction to Medium Format Photography - Ken Rockwell

Medium Format Guide - Cameras.co.uk

Choosing a Medium Format Camera - Philip Greenspun, Photo.net

Medium Format on a Budget - Peter Williams

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Last week has been quite hectic with essays to give in, last minute paper work to be done, etc, before leaving for the Easter break. We have one solid month of vacation which is pretty good although can also be a reason for boredom. I, however, will most probably manage to rid the boredom since I will travelling to different places around the United Kingdom over the next 2-3 weeks.

I had to write and submit a 2500 word essay for Politics which was okay. I got the results for my Economic Analysis test and Intro to Economics assignment results and I got 99 and 72 respectively. I had to attend several society annual general meetings since it was the end of term. I was elected to the position of Vice President for the Politics Society for next year.

After a bit of a hassle, I received my printer yesterday. It is a Canon Selpy CP 330 and is truly portable in the way that it has a battery and can be used to print directly from the camera wherever you are. Its quite compact and is pretty fast too. It is a Dye Sub printer and uses a thermal technology to print instead of inks which is what makes it portable. It can print upto 4*6 which I think is enough for quick prints. The print quality is excellent too, with vivid colors and sharpness.  And on a side note, I have to thank ebuyer.com for their excellent service since they collected the first faulty printer I received and sent me a new one the next day.

I watched a couple of movies, ‘The Fifth Element‘ and ‘A Scanner Darkly‘ and both have their own positive and negative points. ‘The Fifth Element‘ had a pretty crazy storyline but I still liked it a lot, it had a good blend of Sci fi and comedy which is something you dont see often. And with Bruce Willis added to that, there is now way it can go wrong. ‘A Scanner Darkly‘ had some really amazing visuals, great work by the animators. They had to edit each frame of the movie individually and it must have take a lot of effort and dedication to do it. I cant say I liked the story too much though, it was okay, but a bit too weird for my liking. ‘The Fifth Element‘ is a must watch for any Bruce Willis or Sci Fi fan while people who like movies with a new feel will enjoy ‘A Scanner Darkly‘.

University life has been good the past term and probably better than the first term since I’d met so many more people and was involved in several activities. I’m looking forward to the vacation, one, for the break (deserved or not) and two, for the vast photographic opportunities.

Have a Good Friday and Great Easter!

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Few of you may have read a post I wrote almost a year ago about ‘5 Features we can expect in future cameras‘. I must admit I was quite a newbie to the technical aspects of photography that time and really didnt know much about the practicality of photography. I was an excited new photographer wanting to try out all the possible different forms of photography in the easiest way possible without really paying much attention to each type. As a result, the list contains things that are probably not particularly useful to the professional photographer but are useful for the everyday photographer who is satisfied with a simple and easy method of photography. That being said, I thought an overview of the list would be useful to see how it could be modified, what things are already achieved and what are on their way.

Photo Copyright of Boris Sverdlik

1. GPS and Google Earth Integration
This was one of the features I’d wanted in cameras before. I cant imagine why I would have wanted because practically, it does not have much value. You can indeed still buy GPS addons for cameras but I dont see any reason to have them built-in. It would only increase the price of the camera unnecessarily for everyone while being useful for the few people who would actually use them. It *might* become a part of cameras but I dont see any need for it.

2. 3D Models
This is the feature of a software rather than of hardware. Indeed, it would be pretty cool to have a 3D model of places like Microsoft’s Photosynth but it doesnt have much to do with the hardware of the cameras but rather a software which should be able to read the visual content of each photograph and link them together.

3. Direct Internet Upload
Eye-fi, a new announced but yet to be released SD Card with build in Wi-fi can do this. It sounds promising and will be quite useful for people. And since newer dSLRs like the Canon 450D accept SD Cards, the Eye-fi card will also be useful for semi-professionals. Read more about the Eye-fi card here. And for the professionals, the Canon users can get the wireless file transmitter which, although costs as much as a camera, might turn to be useful for transferring photos while shooting in the field to the base station for instant review. Nikon users need not give up hope as they also have the option of adding a similar wireless file transmitter to their cameras.

4. Built in HDR Optimiser
HDR or High Dynamic Range photos constitute a small proportion of the world of photography and are sometimes quite controversial regarding their nature since they are highly manipulated photographs. HDR photos do look good, but only if processed correctly. I’ve seen hundreds of HDRs which are really ugly to look at since they werent tone mapped correctly. Therefore, to make a HDR photo look good, you have to spend a decent amount of time getting the processing right. One click processing is definitely not the way to go for HDR and therefore, the so-called HDR Optimiser would be useless. Exposure bracketing is probably the most help a camera can do in the making of a HDR image.

5. Live LCD and Video Recording DSLRs
Before getting a dSLR, I was quite worried about the fact that most dSLRs dont have a Live LCD. But after getting one with Live LCD, I’ve realised that once you use the optical viewfinder, you fail to see the need for a Live LCD. Live LCD is useful certain situations but I can live without it. However, for those who still insist on using a Live LCD, Sony’s newest dSLR, the Sony Alpha 300 and 350 both have a very effective Live View system which can rival a Point ‘n’ shoot. You can read a quick review of Sony’s Live View system here and the mechanism of how it works over here. As for video recording, dSLRs are meant to be the best in shooting stills and if you introduce video recording, you may have to give up some of the quality of still images. Maybe a simple video recording system wont hurt and I’m sure that it is being researched right now.

And there you have it, a complete update of my old post after acknowledging the requirements of photographers and the practical uses for the features. If you havent read the original post, you can read it here.

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My new PC arrived yesterday after a few delays in shipping, and I was quite excited when I went to pick it up from the Postroom.The specifications are as follows -

• Intel Viiv Core 2 duo E6550 2.33Ghz
• Dual Channel 2GB RAM 667Mhz
• ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT 256MB
• Dell 20″ Widescreen Monitor
• 19-in-1 Media Card reader
• Hard Drive 500GB Serial ATA
• 16X DVD-Rewriter
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• UK Dell Enhanced Multimedia Keyboard

It also came with the standard stuff like mouse,etc. I am using my Creative 2.1 Speakers which are really good. The computer itself is quite sleek and thin, I’ve put it under the desk with the sub-woofer to avoid occupying precious desk space. The monitor is simply gorgeous, watching movies on it feels like your in a theatre. I’ve installed most of my frequently used softwares onto it, just a few left to do.

Here are a couple of pictures -

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Day before yesterday, Apple announced their new Macbook Air, which is supposedly the thinnest laptop ever made, and I must add, one of the most incompetent too. Although it looks quite sleek and fancy, it hasn’t got much power under the hood and as a result, is quite useless for the average daily user. And the price is another shocker, retailing at $1,799, which isnt exactly anyone’s cup of tea. Honestly, I could get a much better laptop for a much cheaper price. And along with the extreme portability, you also get extreme fragility, meaning you have to take much better care of it. I don’t know who their target market is, and who they exactly aim to sell this to, but I also know that it will sell, simply because its from Apple and its claimed to be the worlds thinnest laptop.

Picture this, you’re sitting in a cafe with your Macbook Air, browsing the web, using its wifi and a friend pops up next to you. This is the conversation that I think would happen -

Friend - “Hey man, long time, whats up with you?”

You - “Duuude, Check out my new laptop.”

F - “Wow, that looks pretty sleek.”

Y - “Yea, its the worlds thinnest laptop and it’s from Apple.”

F - “Sounds pretty impressive, what can it do?”

Y - “Well, for starters, its got a battery life of 5 hours with everything running.”

F - “Thats amazing, now I can watch 2 entire DVDs without needing to recharge.”

Y - “Ahem, it hasn’t got a DVD drive, so you cannot play any discs.”

F - “Maybe I can plug in my external drive and watch movies”

Y - “You can, but it only has a mono speaker so you wont have the best sound.”

F - “That sucks, so what else does it have?”

Y - “Its got a solid 2Gigs of RAM and 1.6Ghz Dual Core processor!”

F - “Neat! That means I can do a great deal of video encoding on it.”

Y - “That might be a possibility, but its only got 144MB of shared video RAM.”

F - “Oh, well, atleast I can browse the internet all over my university now, without needing to lug around my heavy laptop.”

Y - “I hope your university has Wifi all over because this does not have a Ethernet port.”

F - “What the hell? No Ethernet port? Anyways, I guess I can atleast use it to transfer pictures from my camera to my external Hard disk”

Y - “It only has one USB port, so you cannot attach more than a single device at a time.”

F - “I suppose I could run Photoshop on it, to edit my photos.”

Y - “Yea, this baby can run photoshop like a breeze, but the display is only 6-bit so you wont have the best colors.”

F - “Ah, hope you got a good deal on it”

Y - “Actually, I paid $1,799 for it”

F - “Thats a freaking ripoff, anyways, I’ll catch you later, have *cough* fun with your new laptop”

Y - “Wait, it has a built-in camera and multi touch pad and…and……”

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We went to town yesterday, for a huge shopping trip. Although we spent only about 4 hours there, we went to a lot of places, and spent a lot of money. We picked up many random things that caught our eye, but those things only were a small part of our buys. I also found a used Sunpak 140 Flash, which was a bargain at £2. I didn’t expect it to work but surprisingly, it did work and even though it isn’t very powerful and does not have a manual mode, it’s quite useful.

My main bank-breakers were a pair of Creative 2.1 Speakers, which are simply amazing and definitely worth the money. I also got ‘The Orange Box‘, which I can only play after I get home since my laptop cant handle it and I’m eagerly looking forward to playing it, ‘Warioware : Smooth Moves‘, which was recommended by several friends as a good multiplayer game for the Wii, and finally, ‘GTA III‘, because it’s such a classic and remains my favorite GTA Game to date. I was shocked by the amount of money I had spent on the games, but I guess quality entertainment doesn’t come cheap.

My new Hard Disk also arrived today. Its a 500GB Western Digital MyBook and looks quite sleek and compact. Its silent and doesn’t heat up fast. I’m glad that it finally came since I was rapidly running out of space on the laptop. You can see it in today’s photo of the day.

My only concern from these purchases is the huge amount of wires and cables which are currently behind my laptop screen but are visible once I close the laptop, and to be honest, look pretty ugly. I don’t think I can do much about it for now so I’ll have to learn to live with it.

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Today, as usual, I was hunting around on the internet on ways for improving my photography and came across the whole concept of flash diffusers. I was quite happy with bouncing my flash off the ceiling and walls but I thought that I’d probably take a look anyway. I had already read before that hard light i.e direct light from the flash is quite undesirable unless you want that effect.The all time classic solution to this problem is to diffuse the light. And the rule is that ‘the bigger the light source, the softer the light’ which means that we have to use a large diffuser as the size of the flash head is fixed.

Indoors, this is quite simple, as with a swivel-and-tilt flash, you can easily bounce the flash off the ceiling and walls, and effectively making them the source of light. As they are quite large, the usually give a nice and soft light. Then what’s the problem you may ask, and this was my doubt too. The bounce method may not work when working in places with high ceilings like churches, and outdoors too. And also having some diffused flash directly onto the subject enhances the photograph.

The method by which many photographers continue to swear by is to use a simple bounce card, which is basically a 3×5 index card strapped onto the head of the flash, while having the flash pointing upwards. The card will reflect some amount of light directly onto the subject which supposedly enhances the photograph.

There have been several newer alternatives to the bounce card like the Sto-fen Bounce, Flip-It, the Lightsphere, several products by Lumiquest and so on. You could find about a hundred different types of flash diffusers with a quick Google search but I’ve only listed the well known ones here.

All these various diffusers have the common objective of softening the light from a flash. Personally, I have never used these but after a lot of looking around, I found many posts and discussions relating to the same topic. There were several arguments about the most effective diffuser and many never reached a conclusion. I didn’t know whether I even needed a flash diffused so I thought that I might make myself one just to try it out.

I came across ABetterBounceCard.com which has detailed videos on how to make your own better bounce card, which is an enhanced version of the classic bounce card. The instructions are well described and easy to follow. After watching the video, I decided to get some foam sheet since he recommended using it. He also said that you could use a sheet of photo paper but I, being the perfectionist I am, decided to buy some foam paper.

We went to several stores and spent about 2 - 3 hours before finally coming across a craft store which had the foam sheets. I bought 3, just in case I messed up the first one. It didn’t take long to make the better bounce cards, just simple measuring and cutting. I also made a couple of modifications so that it would fit the flash head better.

However, my first impression of the better bounce card wasn’t too good but maybe I just don’t know how to us it properly. After a few attempts to use it, I realized that it isn’t too useful for me and ditched it. I found that having flash directly onto the subject didnt produce a desirable effect. But I only had the chance to try it out on bags, so I’ll give it a go tomorrow with some portraits and see how it works out.

I had a bonus though, since the foam sheets which I bought were great as backgrounds and I used it for today’s photo of the day. I plan on going and getting some additional colors tomorrow.

And in unrelated news, I have started listening to several songs by ‘The Kinks‘ and a song by Peter Sarstedt called ‘Where Do You Go To My Lovely’ after watching ‘The Darjeeling Limited‘ as they both were featured prominently in the film.

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The Canon 430EX arrived today, and I must say that it is a quite powerful  piece of equipment. I also ordered a set of wireless flash triggers, one of those cheap ones from Ebay. The triggers were activating the flash at random but after placing a piece of aluminium in the right place, everything was alright.

The flash itself is quite big and heavy, with 4 AA batteries. It just fits into my camera bag, and I don’t think I can stuff anything more into that bag. The 430EX definitely gives a professional and impressive look along with the 40D and I felt that it would be quite bulky to carry around. But once I started using the flash, I realized that its worth carrying around that extra weight for its impressive results. You can see all of my photography gear in today’s photograph for the 365 Day Project here.

The wireless flash triggers don’t have the greatest of range and I haven’t fully tested them but they’re good enough for my purpose. I’m sure I’ll be able to try out some new lighting techniques with them. My flash and wireless trigger look exactly like this.

I’ve haven’t taken too many photographs using the flash to its full capacity yet but I will be spending lots of time experimenting with it, trying to achieve new and unusual lighting methods.
And I also wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous Diwali!

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I went and bought a tripod yesterday, after much consideration and thought and encouragement from my father. It’s a Manfrotto 190XPRO along with a Manfrotto 804RC2 Pan and Tilt Head. I spent a lot of time experimenting with it today and I can safely conclude that it is very very sturdy. It has an innovative middle column which can be used either horizontally or vertically. Its little hard to explain so I’ll let this image explain.

I have the same head as picture above and its the perfect combination for the tripod. I took a panorama of my room with the tripod but unfortunately, my laptop takes forever to render it so I’ll try and post it some other time. And while testing the tripod, I also was experimenting with new flash techniques and found out that bouncing the flash off a mirror gives the most amazing results ever. I’m eager to try it out on more things soon.

We have Daylight savings time from today but I didnt realize that in the morning. I looked at my watch, and it said 8:30 and then a few minutes later, I saw the time in the computer and it said 9:45. I was thinking whether I really spent that much time awake, and after checking with friends, I realized that I was living in the past.

More later, I’m off to spend more time with the tripod, camera and flash.

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