Film to Digital: A journey

Been dying to write this post for a while! Now that I'm a proud owner of a DSLR, I surmised I should dedicate a post to all the cameras Iused since childhood. The cover picture is pretty much everything(plus the one that clicked it!). I used a total of 6 cameras before going PRO...ehh...budget pro anyway.


Back when a camera was a dream gadget(for me) clicking pictures on film, I stared awestruck at photographers clicking away on their filmSLRs and reloading their rolls like soldiers repleininshing their magazines. I had no idea what lenses were or how the whole photography stuff worked. I'd haggle my Dad to let me take one photo...just one photo pappa.... He even taught me unloading and reloading rolls that later helped me in my School trip a decade later!

The camera: Yashica P-500. A typical rangefinder of the early 80s era, the bold red color is typical of that age too. No autofocus, no motor rewinding... just frame the picture and click the shutter. Howewer there were a couple of dials for changing ISO and ASA which Dad had told
me were for "photographing fast objects". This Yashica has the honour of taking all my Childhood Photographs.

The year was 1999 and it was my uncle's wedding, I was gleefully eager to click away with my Dad's camera. The shocker came when my Dad handed it over to an elder cousin who I was sure hadn't used one her whole life. I was heartbroken....Mom came to the rescue and bought me a brand new Kodak KB10(second from left), an ultra basic point n shooter. I spent hours playing
with it photographing mostly my grandma and uncles. Their was no motor winding in this one either and Autofocus was unknown. On our Araku trip,when Amulya ma'am handed me her camera to take a shot, she instructed me to press the shutter button half way until the
light went green. I didnt know what she meant. I pressed the button all the way doen and got the shot, It'd long before I came to know thatshot must have come out blurry...

In 2006, when digital cameras were fast becomng the norm and Dad just wouldnt hear about it, I decided to get one myself and ordered one from Indiatimes shopping. Benq DC1500, a small 1.3 mp camera which looked more like an oversized webcam. What's funnier was that the
LCD screen at the back ws 0.80 inch in size, that's smaller than an optical viewfinder on some cameras! It turned out the CMOS sensor on the cam was too noisy for my taste and before long I was looking for replacement soon enough.


Next came Benq DC2300, this was a different beast altogether. A 2 megapixel CCD sensor and a decent screen at the back and an acceptable body shape made this a winner. The Autofocus was still missing but 3-way focus selector made things easier. All my Ooty tour pics were shot with this obsolete piece of hardware(at that time). Some were so good they'd easily be mistaken for pro-camera pictures.

My dream for a performance camera was fulfilled when I bought a Panasonic LZ8 in 2008. I know a decent photography enthusiast will probably die laughing reading the last line but the truth is... being financially very very constricted... I have always settled for budget stuff. LZ8
maybe basic but it's one those rare cameras that has P, A, S and M on the control dial. And that's what matters. And who gives a 60 second shutter on a basic camera? I took numerous abstract photos as well as landscapes which recieved good praise online.

All was going well when one day my cousin commented I should get a DSLR. I was bitten and there was no stopping me...but no matter where looked the cheapest kit cost atleast 20k. the now discontinued Nikon D40 itself came at a hefty 18k price tag. Bhaiya saved the day
again and recommended a Dubai classifieds website which I scoured like crazy for weeks until I hit the Jackpot. A Sony A200 at a throwaway price. Bhaiya sent a friend over to check if the deal was genuine and had it bought. It took a full month to reach me. I was entralled... a piece
of advanced hardware with a sensor larger than all my previous cameras combined! The great thing about this cameras is the backward compatibility with Minolta lenses of the 80s and 90s, manual or autofocus.

Guess what I'm hunting for now? Lenses, of course! The journey continues...

Points of light

Trying to sleep in 90% humidity and 40 degree temperature is no mean task. And I was sleeping on the floor, for &^% sake. When I looked up at the monitor for updates(I do that often), the chair with it's "Jaali" made a nice composition with the orange monitor wallpaper in the background. I got up and grabbed my camera. I bumped the ISO sensitivity to 800 and shot several pics some upto 6 seconds long.

Water games

Photography with fast shutterspeeds requires an elaborate arrangement of tripods, remotely triggered flashes and most importantly, a capable camera. I have none :-(

I used the manual mode of my Lumix to set the shutterspeed at 1/800 and activated the camera's timer mode, having no one to assist me with the ball. I waited for the red focus light to blink twice before dropping the ball into the glass. It was very frustrating as manually synchronising a shot is not easy at all. It took over half a dozen shots before I got one right.

I need a DSLR....

ToothPix

Langford & Andrews' book on Starting Photography defines five priniciples:
Color Texture Pattern Line Contrast

The book urges us to find the above elements in daily life scenarios and capture them. I looked around for something to photograph and found these: Toothpicks!





I used ACDsee to convert the images to grayscale and tweaked the intensity values and the results are pleasing...

Why I love home...

Maachis

Fire makes an interesting subject for photography

It's been a week since I got my Panasonic LZ8 Digital Camera. I have used it extensively indoors and to be frank I am a little dissapointed with the performance. The photos are too noisy for my liking. I'd expected much more.
The outdoor performance may make up(I'm counting on it).

Review:
My first observation when I first held the camera was that it is chunky. Way too chunky actually, considering the uber slim cameras companies are rolling out these days. It weighs almost 120gms with the batteries.
The boxy look howewer has it's advanteages as in case of the handgrip which is nicely designed. The camera is strictly ok in the looks department.

A quick look at the specs:

-8.1 effective Megapixels
-32 mm lens with 5x optical zoom
-2.5-inch LCD with 230,000 dots resolution
-Optical Image Stabilizer
-ISO sensitivity up to 6400
-9-Point Autofocus with Face Detection
-11 shooting modes including Intelligent Auto Mode
-Program, Shutter-Priority, Aperture-Priority and Manual Exposure Modes
-20MB Internal Memory ,SDHC card Support

The 32 mm equivalent lens gives a wider view compared to cameras in the same category. The telephoto end extends upto 160mm. The optical image stabiisation works flawlessly though it has it's limitations like when using full zoom. The LCD is 2.5 inch with good viewing angles and the easy to use menu system complements it nicely. The most noteworthy feature of this camera is that it provides PASM mode which is hard to find in the segment. It provides full freedom to the user on Aperture and shutter control. There are various focussing modes and even a provision for custom setting of white balance which is commendable. The continuous burst mode is fun to use. I shot twenty shots straight in 2MP mode and the camera didn't slow down. High speed photography is wicked fun with this cam. check out my older posts for samples. Starry sky mode is one more noteworthy scene mode seldom seen elsewhere.

Now the brickbats.Noise is simply too high in indoor shots,even at ISO 100! I don't know if it's a production fault but it's very annoying. I took some shots from my balcony of nearby buildings and tress and they came out fine. I'll do some further study on the noise issue later. Next, the camera uses only two compression modes(others use three). I'd have loved to see a RAW shooting on this one(I know it's asking too much). The flash performance is questionable too.

All in all,a great point and shoot camera with incredible manual control. Noise is my only problem with this camera so using ISO higher than 400 is out of the question.
Hope someone writes a CHDK like program for panasonic cameras. If that happens, I bet all other cameras are doomed.

Total e(in)ternal Relection

"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water"




The water looks mesmerizing shot with high shutter speed. The reflection of light indeed gives it a magical feel.

I've been dying to some high speed photograhy for quite a while.
I decided to do a water splash photoshoot.I enlisted my bro's help to drop a tomato in a glass of water as I pressed the shutter. Had to try a few shots coz my cam does not support continuous shooting.
Wish the background was neater.

pic info: F5.8 shutterspeed 1/800 ISO 100

My first abstract shots

I just got a kodak charger and a couple of batteries which turned out to be fake.
I'll get a decent memory card tomorrow.
I can't sleep so decided to take a few abstract shots o the inbuilt memory.

At last!

I got my digicam at last! It's a Panasonic Lumix LZ8.
My cousin got it from Dubai and it's awesome. 8mp resolution and 5x zoom for starters and manual control too.

more about it later. I'm engrossed in it right now.