As promised, here is the first lesson report from our gap year teenager. Seems the photography bug is biting from day one. Don’t forget you can win an intermediate course with Vega as well.
How to operate your camera and Time exposure photography
“Understanding your camera equipment is the first and probably most important step, you will take in developing your skill as a photographer”
– Intermediate Photography 2011 Module Manual Revised Edition (2010)
Let me introduce you to Tristan (popular name these days) Wrench, your typical teen who has completed his schooling and has taken a gap year to figure out whats next in his life. He’s into parkour, drama and has done some great video editing for us in the past. To help him fill his gap year we arranged for him to attend an Intermediate Photography Course at Vega. First things first though, we needed a camera and on a tight budget we thought we would look second hand. KAMERAZ held the answer.
The Vanguard GH100 is more than just a pistol grip head for your tripod. It can act as a ball head, pistol grip and panoramic head. Check out this video from our Photokina trip and see what I mean.
In the midst of all the excitement of the Sony Alpha A55 and it’s Translucent Mirror technology, there seems to be little attention being paid to it’s more traditional counter part, the Alpha A580. Since this camera accompanied us to Photokina as well, we thought it time to give it a chance in the spotlight, even if its a little bit late.
Handling
I tend to tackle this first in a review as for me it is the most critical part of the camera. The ease of use, whether the camera fits well in the hand etc have become almost more important than anything else. Even if a camera has brilliant image quality, if I cant bring myself to hold it and use it then I am not going to shoot with it.
As you will have noted, we were @photokina 2010 with Sony Alpha which entailed not only giving the best exposure we could to Sony’s latest products but more importantly, using the latest Sony products and putting them through their paces. If you have read our earlier post about what gear we took then you will know what our first impressions were. If not, here is the list.
In addition to this we took one or two other lenses, flashes etc. So how did the new Alpha A55 shape up?
i’m one of those irritating “artists” who doesn’t like showing off my work because of how critical i am of myself. seeing my photos in the photo comment mag however, kind of made me go…”hang on a sec, this feels pretty awesome”. i need to keep sharing. i need to open myself up to an onslaught of crits or praise and be equally gracious about feedback in both categories, instead of brushing off any compliments…
…so, i went ahead and uploaded a few of my recent images. as you might notice i have played around with editing a bit:
for some reason i have noticed that some photographers try not to divulge where their photo-shopping (or in my case “gimping”) has helped the creative process.
why?
personally, i think that’s a bit narrow minded. you need a great image before you even begin your editing. editing can enhance a fantastic image. if we carry on trying to hide any editing, we start to become like those people who say “photographers aren’t artists because the camera does everything”.
WHAT!?
exactly.
as a photographer, you preconceive the image. you make the photo in your head before the shutter comes down. and that process is just extended into your editing. if you have no creative vision, editing won’t help you much. right?
some might say “keep telling yourself that”. i will, thank you very much.
my unprofessional opinion counts because this is my blog post.
Some of you may recall that we tested the first generation Sony Bloggie back in our March 2010 issue of the magazine. At the time we were impressed though it was not without it’s faults. The 360 degree attachment made for a lot of fun. Below is a brief video walk through of the new Bloggie Touch from our trip to Photokina. We look forward to a full review soon.
Over the next couple of days we will be wrapping up the last of the exciting things we saw at Photokina 2010. In addition we have a few products that we took out to review on our journey. One of these is the Sony Vaio VPCW217 Netbook.
Some of you may be asking why on earth a photographer would use a somewhat gutless netbook over a more powerful laptop when traveling? Here is my reasoning:
I had the chance to play briefly with Sony’s new Carl Zeiss® Distagon T* 24mm F2 ZA SSM (model SAL24F20Z) – that is a mouth full so excuse me if I use only portions of the name or designation from here on out. While this did not allow for a definite conclusion on the lens I can openly admit to putting it on my Christmas Wish List.
It’s Friday and and for us at least, the day to wrap up our Photokina Experience. We head to London tomorrow and get back home to South Africa on Tuesday, so long as there are no flight delays. Its has been exciting so far – and this is by no means the concluding post – however in the very little spare time we have had, we have tried to be tourists and I thought you may like to know what gear we’ve been using.
We must give a big thank you to Sony South Africa for making some of the latest gear available to us to mix with our own.
We have been walking the halls of Photokina trying to spot some of the different or often overlooked products at such shows. We will aim to share some of those with you kicking off with the Kenko Variable NDX (Neutral Density) Filter that was on display.
What makes this filter special? If you use ND filters you likely don’t just have one, but several offering different levels of intensity. If you shoot video you more than likely have found that is is near impossible to get just the right strength of ND for your needs.
A Variable NDX replaces the need for multiple filters plus if give you the chance to go from ND 2.5 all the way to ND1000. This moves beyond the realm of nice to have, it is a necessity.
Sony’s stand at Photokina is amazing, particularly if it’s your first time at Photokina. We will bring you more pictures of the stand which is filled with areas for hands on shooting, and talks by Professionals shooting with Sony like Nick Webster who you will hear in the background of the video below.
The video – shot with Sony’s A55 – is of the BMX half pipe where visitors get to use the A33 and A55′s HD video and Speed Priority Mode while professional skate boarders and BMX riders show their stuff.
Sony has introduced a new range of SLT cameras, the A33 & A55. SLT stands for Sinlge Lens Transluscnet. These cameras feature a transluscent mirror. This means that the mirror doesn’t move when you take a picture, the picture is transmitted through the mirror to the sensor. What does this mean in real life? Well the point I am focusing on in this post is the speed priority mode. In this mode you are able to shoot 10, yes thats right ten frames per second.
Here is a video you may already have watched in our post on the Sony Press Conference here at Photokina, if not take look at the difference between 3fps and 10fps, if you have already watched watch it again it’s pretty cool!
Here is a series of still I shot today on Sony’s stand at Photokina 2010. There are 26 shot in this sequence shot at 10 frames per second. The only reason I had to stop was that I was using a slower memory as my fast card was already full of other stuff. But the important thing to note here is that you are only limited by the speed of your card when shooting in high speed, the faster your card the more shots you get. In an ideal world where we could fast enough cards you could probably shoots 10fps all day.
As some of you may have picked up by now I enjoy shooting video even more than shooting stills, provided I have the right equipment. We also know that all the DSLR manufacturers are trying to get in on the action of the 5D MkII. We also now that Sony has been hanging back.
We recently reviewed the NEX-5 which is a crossover camera offering the simplicity of use of a compact camera. This camera was the first interchangeable lens camera available from Sony to shoot full HD video. The NEX-VG10 I am talking about here is the video form, big brother of the NEX-5.
I have always maintained that although a DSLR can shoot HD video and the quality is unquestionable, there is a reason a video camera has always had a very similar shape or form. This is because you hold a camera differently when shooting video as opposed to shooting stills. The reason people ‘struggle along’ with a DSLR is the size of the sensor. The bigger sensor of the DSLR allows better low light performance and the ability to use faster aperture lenses gives you more control over depth of field.
We have just stepped out of a very interesting Sony Press Conference here at Photokina 2010. We were given information on the future and a little more insight into the A700 replacement. We were also shown a road map for NEX lenses. For all this and more, click on ‘Continue Reading’
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