Richard

March 22, 2013March 19, 2013

Film Friday – Old and New

While travelling back to Lincolnshire from London, I had a while to wait in Kings Cross Railway Station. Its a very curious mix of old and Architecture and has a number of photographic opportunities. Since I took this photo I have seen a few by another Leica Shooter on the DPReviews called Michael Toye. You can see more on his flicker Gallery here: www.flickr.com/photos/michael_toye. Much better then mine I think you would agree.

My shot here was shot on my Leica M4, with a Leica 35mm Summicron, on Ilford HP5 Plus developed in Kodak X-Tol developer.

March 21, 2013

Fuji X100S Reviews start to appear

If your after a very high quality compact camera then the Sony RX1 is the king, but with a full frame DSLR price tag.

For me its biggest shortfall is the lack of a built in viewfinder.

One of the best Compacts around has been the Fuji X100, it had issues with focus speed but with the latest firmware its a good little camera but out classed in the focusing stakes by just about every other manufacturers offerings.

Well we are promised that they now have the best focusing around with the recently announced X100s.

I love its traditional format and optical viewfinder, lets hope that the third party RAW processors get better as it now has the latest iteration of the X Trans sensor.

Check out the following site for more details:

www.cbphotoblog.com/

If your interested in more information on the sensor and some background in the processing of its RAW file then check out:

http://chromasoft.blogspot.co.uk

March 19, 2013

Profiling Tests

Custom Profile

Adobe Default Profile

Profiling is considered by many to be a bit of a dark art. I experimented recently with creating some custom camera profiles and comparing them with the camera profile built into Adobe Lightroom.

It always used to be the case that to get the best, a home built profile always gave you the best results, but now I like the results with the default Adobe Profile. I am not sure if it is better or if my test card is getting a bit faded and needs replacing. They recommend replacing every year, but mine is about five years old now. I’ll borrow a new one and retest, I have also run off a few prints using both profiles to see which I like best.

Adobe Built in Profile

Custom Profile

These two close ups have been calibrated for the web on a sRGB profile but even so I prefer Adobe’s profile, but to my eyes, both look a little off, with the Adobe profile being a little to Magenta and the Custom profile being to yellow.

While doing these tests it made me think about all the elements of profiling from Camera, Print and Screen, its an area that many struggle with. I’ll write some more about this soon.

March 18, 2013March 18, 2013

Motorcyclists – life style, or commuting choice

Do motorcyclists see it as a life style choice, a cheap method of transport or a thrill for Sunny Sundays.

OK so the photo above is a pair of bicycles, but I could not resist this rather nice image taken with my Leica M4 and a Summicron 35mm lens.

To be honest if you have a small sub 250cc bike then it is a cheap method of transport. But for those of us with larger bikes it can be an issue. For a while my little Honda 650 V twin was considered a commuter under the tax rules and had cheap tax. Then the government decided that all bikes over 600cc where sports bikes used on Sunny Sundays. So the tax rate greatly increased.

Come on; lets be sensible about this, there is quite a difference between a commuter on a little 50cc or 250cc or even a long distance commuter such as a BMW RT which is 1200cc.

Some of us have 600cc sports bikes which we only uses for sunny Sundays, but some of us have 1200cc or even 1600cc bikes which are highly fuel efficient and effective commuters that have far less environmental impact on the Earth then a car.

Lets tax transport sensibly, encourage public transport, bicycles and scooters. But don’t forget those of use who use motor vehicles that are essential due to our location or the nature of our jobs. For some of us, using a car or large bike is the only option. Either put an option in place for us or tax us suitably.

March 15, 2013March 15, 2013

Comic Relief 2013 – Red Nose Day

Well its finally here, Red Nose Day 2013.

A funny way to raise money for charity. We will be having a few events here at work, and I know a few studios that are having studio events. So if there is an event near you please support it.

Hope you enjoy the day and together we can all raise a lot on money for Comic Relief.

March 14, 2013March 14, 2013

How many Lenses do you need

I was reading an interesting article the other day that stated Leica M owners average 1.4 lenses each.

Today the fashion for SLR owners is to try and collect the set, ie own most of the common lenses. It’s something I have found myself doing.

For my DSLR’s I own the lenses from 12mm up to 300mm. Though depending on what I am shooting, I might just use one or two lenses.

Certainly while restrictive, one can have a lot of fun, with a camera and a single focal length. I have often gone out with my Nikon DSLR with just a 35mm prime lens.

Compositionally one can learn a lot, and the restriction can make you a better photographer, because you have to work for the image, rather then just stand still and zoom.

If you own a prime lens I suggest you give it try. Once your eye is used to the focal length and framing you may surprise yourself.

March 12, 2013March 12, 2013

SplashID.bundle Error in Safari

Screen Shot 2013-03-11 at 21.58.17 For a while now, every time I started Safari I would get an error message warning me that a plug-in was not supported and would be disabled. The plug was SplashID.bundle.

I have searched for this plug-in but up to now have been unable to find it. I tried the usual plug-in directories in the main /Library/Internet Plug-Ins and the users library ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins.

Screen Shot 2013-03-11 at 21.58.50

Finally I have now been able to find it, delete it and get rid of the error message. It is in fact located in /Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins and called SplashID.bundle

Apart from this irritation, I have found SplashID a very useful password manager on my Mac and my iPhone.

March 11, 2013March 11, 2013

Bike Options: Chain, Belt or Shaft

With riding all year round and not wanting to spend too much time on bike maintenance, then a bike with shaft drive and not a chain is a must.

So when considering a bike one of the first options I check is whether its a chain, belt or shaft drive.

Chain is out completely. Maybe for a sunny Sunday bike only but not for a daily workhorse. Belt drive is something I would consider.

Because of this my options are fairly restricted. A few Honda’s, the big Yamaha FJ Tourer, but mainly its BMW’s.

Luckily for me the shaft drive BMW GS is one of the best bikes on the planet, but it came to my attention a few weeks ago that the Triumph Tiger Explorer is now shaft drive. The Tiger has always been a great British bike but has always been shaft drive.

The standard Tiger is still chain but the new Tiger Explorer version, a GS ‘wannabe’ is now shaft drive, so its a valid option to consider for when I decide to replace the big GS.

March 8, 2013March 6, 2013

High End Compacts

With the announcement this week of the new Nikon Coolpix A, most camera manufacturers now have a high end fixed lens compact.

Sony RX1

The best of the bunch is the Sony RX1, and the Fuji X100. I had a play with the RX1 a few months ago and apart from needing a viewfinder Sony have gotten just about everything right with this camera. Its expensive and not coming with a lens hood or battery charger is just ridiculous, but it is a very good camera. Personally I like the Fuji better, but then I have a thing about optical viewfinders.

Some manufacturers seem to get it but others are not quite there yet. The Nikon is a little disappointing. Focal length wise 28mm is a good option but is playing it safe. I would personally want 35mm or 24mm; 28mm is really a compromise option that I am not personally keen on. Then there is the lens speed, it really should have been f/2 at least. Still its good to see more options available, and once again Nikon have taken the brave option of not including a low pass filter, the anti-aliaising filter to stop moire.

As the cameras in phones get better and better, then compacts are going to have to go beyond just being a simple small sensor’ed point and shoot.

March 7, 2013March 7, 2013

Choosing the Photo of the Month

Heron in Flight Some months choosing a picture to be my photograph of the month, can be quite difficult. In February I managed to get a good selection of quality wildlife shots as you can see from these two examples. In fact they are far better then January’s picture of the month.

Some months I might have only shot a some weddings or some corporate portraits. With these belonging to my clients there not really available for me to use on my blog.

With January’s picture being wildlife, February really had to be something else. It was quite frustrating with February’s shots were so much better. Luckily as well as some good wildlife shots I also managed to get some pleasing Street Photography shots as well as a few detailed architectural shots.

Chemist

Altogether a good month of photography, and one thats produced a lot of shots to choose from for February’s Photo of the Month. Lets hope March is as productive.

Music Man