Tuesday 30 September 2008

Photography around London

Me and a good friend of mine recently went for a bit of a photo mission. Our early ideas were to head out east to the grimy parts of London and see what we could find. Turns out that we didn't make it that far as we got rather taken by the London City (The Square Mile) architecture. I personally am not overly blown away by English architecture as I think it can lack imagination however there is a periodic anomaly or blip in the blandness. Cases in point are buildings like London St Pancras Train Station, The Houses of Parliament including the stunning Big Ben (which is actually St Stephens Tower - it's just the clock that is Big Ben) and the Millennium Wheel. They, and a few others, make for an interesting break from the endless lines of samey buildings, the likes of which are commonly seen at the start of East Enders

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The end result were some photos that I rather enjoyed taking. All the shots were taken with a Nikon D80 using a Sigma 10-20mm lens and a Cokin P ND Grad filter. More of my photos can be found on my Flickr site.

Shakespeare Tower - Barbican

30 Cannon Street

The Lloyds Building

A random Building around London Wall

To upgrade or not to upgrade? Is that the question?

The time is getting close when I am going to have the 18 month phone call from my mobile provider telling me that my contract is up and I am eligible for a hardware upgrade. Excellent!...or not...?

There are stacks of options out there however very few of them meet the lofty criteria that I have convinced myself that I will need met by my next upgrade. After all I have gotten used to the idea of being able to... erm... make phone calls and periodically check the weather and significantly less often use Google maps to find out exactly where I am (or within a few 10s of metres) or where I am going.

In all honesty the mobile I have more than meets the hardware requirements for what I want to do and has served me quite well for the last 17 months. I currently have the Samsung D900.

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It's brilliantly slim, easy to use, has a UI designed by Adobe which is quite slick (apart from some rather convoluted processes for sending texts to people) and has my favorite function - the camera flash which can be used as a torch. If there has been any one function on this phone that has gotten more regular use than either the calling or the texting, it is the torch. With my next hardware upgrade, it had better be able to cook me breakfast because the torch bit really had me at hello.

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The real question then is - what will I choose to replace this current device? Should I join the masses of people that have sold their souls to Apple and go for the iPhone or be a rebel and wait for something like the HTC Touch HD? I really am very tempted by the HTC HD - pretty much the same form factor as the iPhone, twice the screen resolution and the lofty promises of Googles Android. The current down side of this 'up and coming' is that it uses windows mobile which is every bit as frustrating as it's parent OS can be - Windows XP.

I've had a cursory play with the new Android phone and at this stage really quite like it. The hardware is a bit clunky and it doesn't have the instantly intuitive UI (User Interface) of the iPhone however what it does have is a really clever set of tools that make the phone significantly more than 'just a phone'. The most important of which I believe is the web browser which is every bit as useful, and usable, as the iPhones. I firmly believe that mobile browsers have absolutely no future in their current stripped down 'mobile' state. It's slow, clunky, and if we're being honest just a pain in the rear end to use. Every conceivable tool that we might desire can be found online and with the support of great hardware, my latest favorite bit of hardware convergence GPS, and a rock solid OS (Operating System) the mobile phone is really coming into it's own as a truly useful bit of kit and not just a constant irritation on the bus or train. I believe that Android is a serious threat to the iPhones 'must have' status and the only thing holding it back is the less than stellar HTC Dream (G1) hardware that it's initially getting release on.

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At this stage I guess I should answer my own question; what am I going to upgrade to? Apple iPhone with it's frankly stunning UI and gorgeous hardware design but astoundingly anal and controlling greater than thou approach by Mr Steve Jobs or the HTC Touch HD? Again very well designed hardware, beautiful screen, built in GPS (that actually works well) and the long distance promise of an open source operating system developed, in the end, by people who have a little more vision and are a little less focused by lining their pockets and controlling the masses (at least that's the image they're selling - the pessimists among us know better!).

The bombshell answer! Neither at this stage. My phone works perfectly well and I have my trusty iPod Touch to keep me entertained and it grants me wireless access for my holiday internet fix. The GPS can wait till Android has moved along a bit from it's early release state and has matured a bit as can the hardware. Unless I get my hands on the HTC Touch HD and get really blown away by it, the fancy screen doesn't really have me sold. Besides, my current mobile phone service provider have a Sony PS3 promotion going on at the moment and I could quite possibly wrangle a 'free' console out of them. A complete bonus as convincing my fiance that spending £300 on a 'must have' piece of entertainment just hasn't been floating.

Monday 29 September 2008

Entry Level DSLRs

I was recently asked for my opinion regarding a good beginners/introductory digital SLR camera. Their preference is for a Canon so the main lean is for them.

I would look at the Canon 450D with 18-55mm IS (image stabilization) lens. From what I understand this is a great camera with few flaws. It has a great balance between ease of use as a point and shoot beginner camera and the fully manual capability of someone wanting to further their photography. The cheapest price I've found is £446.04 incl from Dixons

Canon 450D Review
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Alternatively there would be the Canon 400D (the predecessor to the 450D) but it is much less of a camera. The 450D also has the advantage of having 'Live View' which is a pretty new thing in the digital SLR world. It means that you don't need to look through the viewfinder to see what you are going to shoot, similar to a standard point and shoot camera - a very nice feature when you are trying to shoot over a crowd or from an awkward angle - it's an aspect that I miss greatly when shooting with my DSLR. The best price I have found for the 400D is £354.92 incl from PC World.

Canon 400D Review

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Now to throw some confusion into the subject I would not discount the possibility of a Nikon. It pushes the boat out a bit further if you are buying it new and you would be looking at around £584.99 for the D80 with the 18-70mm lens which from personal experience is a brilliant walk around piece of kit. This is the camera that I can personally vouch for. My initial decision was between the Nikon D70s, the D80 and the Canon 400D. I went into a camera shop and held the cameras, took a couple of shots with each and generally just played a bit. My personal feeling was that the D80 is much more solid and well built camera however in the world of DSLRs it's now older technology (August 2006). It doesn't have things like Live View, has 2MP less resolution (than the 450D) and doesn't have the anti-dust systems that the 400D and 450D have. What it does have is a much nicer overall experience with holding and shooting. Size wise it feels more solid and a little more mature as a camera. The Canons have something of a plasticy toyish feel to them despite being very capable cameras. The best price I have found new is £582.99 from Mifsuds

Nikon D80 Review
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There has just been the release of the replacement to the D80, imaginatively called the D90, which has all the up to date features including the ability to take high definition video recording and the afore mentioned live view. The D90 body only will take you for a cool £649.oo incl (From T4 Cameras with an extra £150 added to get the kit lens (18-105mm VR Lens). Probably pushing the boat out a little far with that but the upside is that there are a whole raft of second hand D80s out there now which you could get well within budget and also pick up the Nikkor 18-70mm Kit lens which is also a great starting point.

Nikon D90 Preview
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I would not look at the lower end Nikon's' (the D40, D40x or the D60) as for the same price you can get the 450D which in my personal opinion is a far superior camera.

Were it my choice I would go with the Canon 450D as it's a more capable camera than the 400D - I think a good part of my preference for the D80 is 'large hands - large camera' however it may well be worth going into a camera shop and actually try the cameras out - see how you feels about them. The thing to remember is that when you're shooting you will want the camera to feel 'right'. The image quality of the Nikons and the Canons are pretty much on par and the nature of SLR photography is that much of the end result is gained through post processing on the computer so the eventual choice comes down to what features do you think that you will use (Does the Live View matter? Does the control and screen layouts make that much difference) and your personal preference for the feel of the camera.

As far as buying lenses goes, keep in mind that the older Canon and Nikon lenses may not be compatible with the newer bodies or functionality and things like the metering and auto focus may suffer as a result. If you friends also have DSLRs then it shouldn't be a problem.

I hope this helps a bit and I hope I've been reasonably clear in my suggestions. There are other options out there - Sony, Pentax, Fuji, Panasonic/Lumix - but I would steer clear of them and stick with either of the two main brands as they have the lens range and the past history for optics.

Tuesday 23 September 2008

Photography

I may as well start out with a bit of my personal photography - something of a passion for me. This is just a random selection of stuff from my Flickr account. Please feel free to drop in and visit it.

The Gherkin - 30 St Mary Axe

Amalfi - Italy

New York City - Off an open top tour bus

Welcome to the way I see the world.


Welcome to this, a little window into the way I see some of the world, some of my opinions, likes, dislikes and personal observations in both a textual and pictorial manner. I hope you enjoy your visit.