News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
Ever looked over your shoulder at what the other feller in the next town, the next country is doing? I did. And it’s a lesson. I did a swift swoop around the globe to see what the other fellers and damsels are up to. Straight out of the starting gate I am enthralled at the current activity in camera companies as they decide what to do about the internal tussles between compact cameras and dSLRs. Some fixed lens compacts — from the same company — seem to be fighting with dSLRs in terms of features. Take a look at Olympus’s 20x digicam versus Nikon’s 18x job. They both make dSLRs too!
Barrie Smith | May 13, 2008
Flash is possibly the most used, and then again the most misused function on a digital camera. How many times have you seen TV broadcasts at night from a huge sports arena and, just as the player/athlete does his or her magic trick, all the cameras in the audience section fire up and betray their presence with their telltale flash? It’s as sure as the sun rises you can guarantee those poor snappy souls will get nix, nowt, da nada in the way of a useful picture. Most likely, they will get a black, underexposed frame, if anything at all.
Barrie Smith | Apr 15, 2008
From cruising the various blogs it’s obvious that users are getting very savvy about the techy details of digicams. Quite often the comments posted indicate a surprising depth of knowledge on the consumers' part. However, there also appears to be a surprising wad of knowledge about subtler aspects: one of these is the quality of light for superior picture taking. And that means "sans flash". Get the most of the natural light that surrounds you. If you’re shooting a portrait or a group make sure there’s light on your subject: not speckled light that has filtered through tree leaves, not a direct full on blast from the sun — but something in between. Light from the side is ideal as it outlines the subject and allows any front light to be softer and more flattering to the human face.
Barrie Smith | Mar 18, 2008
New owners of mobile phones revel in their clever and multiple abilities. It's not just a phone, it's also a GPS, and a web browser, and a music player, and ... sigh ... a camera. The big plus to taking shots with a phone camera is the "sneak factor". Very quietly, very slyly, you can take shots with your phone’s camera a lot more inconspicuously than using a digicam. Which brings in many issues relating to privacy and security and explains why some locations ban the use of mobile phones outright.
Barrie Smith | Feb 18, 2008
I’ve done a fair bit of macro photography —- both in stills and video—- and, while the current crop of digital cameras promise amazing specs in the closeup department, most them fall down quite badly when the practical aspects are taken into account.
For instance, the Ricoh Caplio GX100 is quite a nice camera and seems to promise the world inmacro shooting.
Myvu has announced that its Crystal video goggles now work with the iPhone. The Crystal glasses require a new cable which costs $US24.95.
