I took Zee, Mum, and the boys up to Gleneagles for lunch. It was terrific. Then Zee and I went to Brian Maule’s restaurant for dinner, which was outstanding. Great day. Happy Birthday darling.

Note to Zee: this is boring, don’t bother reading.

I’ve been noticing that my photos on flickr all appear a little soft. A tiny, teeny, weeny, bit soft. This, even after switching to shooting in RAW mode. I experimented a fair bit, taking photographs of batteries no less, to see if my camera had focus issues. All was fine. I checked out my photos in iPhoto, all were crisp and sharp. Then I compared an unscaled flickr export (a plugin for iPhoto that exports to flickr) with a scaled one. Bingo, the scaled one was softer than the unscaled.

However, there is a beta of flickr export 3, which lets you choose the quality of the export. So, some more tests followed, and thankfully I found that at maximum quality, the scaled exports are just as sharp as the unscaled exports. Yay. Of course, this also gives me an excuse to post yet another photo of Rafi.

I’ve had the 40D for a few days now, and have taken it out a couple of times over the weekend (Saturday, Sunday) sampling images from the nice cheap EF50 lens, and my more expensive, mid-range, 28-135 IS. I’ve enjoyed using it very much, to the extent that I am actively trying to become a better photographer rather than a happy snapper.

In terms of image quality, the 40D is better than the 10D. Not massively so, it has to be said. But that’s because the camera body is only part of the equation, with the lenses (which haven’t changed) having a very significant affect on the resultant pictures. Images seem more detailed, a more colourful, a little sharper. However, the biggest leap is in performance. High iso noise for example, when in JPEG mode with NR on, gives very pleasing images in comparison to the 10D. Auto focus speed is very rapid, as is the cycle time between pictures, and power on is near instantaneous.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve debated whether to switch over to RAW from JPEG for many months. RAW supposedly provides far better image results, JPEG is quicker and easier. Is it worth the hassle. I’m not sure, but looking at these two pictures taken one after the other, it would appear that RAW images are slightly sharper, and with more accurate colour representation. It should be noted that in both images, some White Balance adjustment was necessary.

RAW:

JPEG:

I borrowed this little 50mm prime lens from John at work. For a little £60 lens, it exceeded my expectations. For the price, image quality is staggering. Any focusing issues I had were user error - I’ve been so used to IS lenses, whose image stabilisation electronics allow you to take pictures with slower than normal shutter speeds, that I was foolishly taking shots with shutter speeds too slow for the EF50.

At f1.8 it’s a really fast lens that lets in a lot of light. It really shines at portraits, even in low lighting. As a walk about lens with smaller apertures and thus more depth of field, it again provides some good pictures. I’ve created a flickr set with some samples. I also used it for a few shots inside the Botanic Gardens, and for this entire West End Festival set.

With such a shallow depth of field, focus is absolutely crucial. In fact, if you can keep your shutter speed high enough, and the depth of field at 2.8 or less, then you can get some terrific portait shots, and it’s here that the EF50 is strongest. I’d almost go so far as to say that the lens is a total one trick, full frontal portrait, pony. But that would be a disservice as it gives good results with smaller apertures too. When funds allow, I’ll definitely buy myself one, it won’t get used all the time, but it will get use - my wife and kids love to strike a pose.

I’ll post some 40D thoughts later, but food for thought, the following shot was taken with my 28-135IS at ISO3200!

This post was updated on 16th June.

This photo of Ali, all moody and ready to go out, was the last picture I took with my 10D before selling it on. It, and a bunch of other favourites form the basis of my new flickr set. Hopefully it’ll grow as I experiment with the 40D.