SionPhoto

Canon G9...I Leica Very Much.

After eBaying my gallbladder I went out and got a Canon G9, which is turning out to be a lovely little beastie, so lovely in fact, that tomorrow I'll be using it to ahem, shoot video.

Hi Def video.

As for stills? Like all compacts, it starts shovellin' in da noize once you get past about 400 ISO, but I can't remember the last time I went above that anyway, and so far, the raw files (hoo yeah, baby) from the camera are lookin' alright.

Cartier-Bresson FAIL

The downside is the viewfinder is complete rubbish, and the external finder I bought ain't much better either, so I might have to get used to using it in either screen-gawp or point 'n' pray mode.

In the meantime, G9 newbies will be doing themselves a favour if they check out the Lifespy with a G9 'blog, which has plenty of practical info on the machine, with links to various handy camera nick-nacks.

Who in God's name has automatic rifles? Dashed unsporting. Probably Belgian.

I've always been a bit bemused by what seems to be a relatively recent trend in photojournalism of using 'retro' techniques and cameras - Holgas, 5x4, Lensbabies...

It is I suppose, as much a symptom of digital disruption as any other (along with the tendency for photojournalism to retreat into elitism), but why re-invent the wheel, when you can have the jetpack?

Or better still, why not just use the best of both?

Viewspaper...

At the recent Edinburgh Television Festival, Guardian newspaper editor Alan Rusbridger said:

“For the newspaper there will be an iPod moment where someone creates
a device that is so brilliant at reading text, the newspaper becomes irrelevant”

Quite.

Pandora's Red Box...

Canon and Nikon recently released their new pro-level cameras, amid much fanfare and collective drooling from photographers. But a couple of days ago, two other new cameras were released which arguably, might already render both those digital housebricks obsolete.

I've mentioned the Red video camera on occasions before - the first 25 Red-cams rolled off the production line on August 31st, 2007. Their 'Mysterium' imaging chips produce ultra-Hi-Def 4K video, which is capable of producing a 48MB screengrab...a 300 dpi 13 x 7 inch print.

Screengrabs from the first cameras sold, show images produced at the cameras default 320 ISO, up to a whopping 6000 ISO.

This is more than acceptable for newspaper or magazine use (assuming both newspapers and magazines exist long enough), and of course the video footage can be re-purposed for multiple outputs across several media, from the cinema screen (the footage is superior to 35mm cinema film), through to HDTV, IPTV, the Web and down to mobile phones.

In versatility and cost effectiveness terms, the Red-cam arguably leaves 35mm stills cameras high and dry.

The current Red-cam records video to a hard drive and Compact Flash, and the next Red-cam will apparently, be a 'pocket' camera...so its an avowedly disruptive machine, one which appears to leave most conventional Hi-Def video cams for dust and can easily give most SLR's a run for their money...but also fundamentally questions the need for people to 'snatch' moments from thin air anymore.

Wait...it gets even more disruptive - the Red camera costs a heavy chunk o' change, so its implementation will be slow (ish).

But step forward Casio, who released their new stills camera on the same date as the Red. It shoots a burst of 6 megapixel Jpegs at 60 frames a second, with a pre-burst mode that even records images BEFORE you've even pressed the shutter, and a high speed video mode of 300 frames per second.

The 'decisive moment' was always simply making a virtue out of a technological necessity, but in the process became an article of faith for some photographers.

The question is now that technological 'limitation' has been 'overcome'...what happens now?

The implications for photojournalism are profound...but perhaps no more profound than when a roll of 36 images replaced the single 5x4 sheet film previously used by press photographers.

Was that a retrograde step?

Obviously not.

Trainspotting...

My leg is torturin' me like an evil genius tonight, so after doing a bit o' late night surfing to take me mind off it, I notice Canon have just released the latest version of their S series of hybrid still/video cameras, the S5IS.

I was going to get an S3 for a while, and dithered, but I must admit this new machine does intrigue me, partially for the video (I've seen S3 video on a TV and thought it was surprisingly good) but also for the possibility of using it as a tool for shooting slideshows with sound, as unlike the higher spec Canon G7, the S5IS has stereo mikes...

Nope, virtual camera shopping just ain't gonna do it. Where's that morphine...mmm...heroin-y.

Point And Shoot Me...

Picture the scene - it's November 29th, the sun is shining and I'm feeling...well, not bad actually. It's my 40th birthday, and after working the weekend, my masterplan was to take a day off...but as a job came in from the Times Educational Supplement, and not being one to turn down work (like I have any choice...), I'm spending the morning photographing a school football team.

The jobs a fairly short one, so I'm thinking, 'I'll just take the one camera, and a few bits...'

WROOONNG...oh, so very wrong, Sion. The Photo-Imps were already demonically cackling and flapping their leathery wings in supernatural glee, at the opportunity to make another mere mortal snapper's life a living Hell.

I should have known...I have Frequent Flyer status with those bastards.

No sooner had I arranged the kids in formation and pulled 3000 quids worth of camera gear out of my bag with a smug flourish, than the sodding thing conked out on me. One frame, and the camera shutter blades shattered with a crunch.

Nice.

But the kids I was photographing were very understanding.

Yeah, RIIIIGHT - they pissed themselves laughing...and the mocking guffaws of fifteen 12-year olds reached an incredulous crescendo of contempt, when they realised the only functioning camera I had left on me, was my tiny Canon IXUS 750 compact...

While I huffed 'n' puffed about trying to get a decent frame with the little gizmo, and they struck various P. Diddy-style 'bad bwoy' poses, a kids voice in the background was heard to pipe up,

"This is a shambles"...

...I have to say, at the time, I couldn't disagree with the lad.

So I was pretty gobsmacked (not to mention relieved) when I opened the images in Photoshop to find the tiny silver widget (at 50 ISO) had produced incredibly clean and sharp 20.3 MB files.

One pic was used on the papers cover - making the final score:

Touhig Academicals 1, Beelzebub Minions Utd, 0

But only due to a last minute substitution, so I'll be sticking to the tradional defensive two-camera formation up front, from now on.

Purple Patch For The Jewellery Crew...

I was gonna go and check out the new Leica M8 at a BPPA preview event today, but after reading this, I'll probably change my mind.

...not that I can afford the thing anyway.

(ta very much to Stuart Freedman for the tip)

Equipment Fetish...

Need some protection in yer bag? Here's the latest saucy item exhibited at Photokina.

A camera condom*...

If you don't use it, would you end up having Lensbabies?

(* or maybe its a photo-gimp mask...)

Clone Me Up Before You Go Go...

Hmm...perhaps Lebanese clone brush-meister Adnan Hajj used this handy new tool a little too enthusiastically?

Now we have cameras which make the subject look thinner, it's not the occasional ahem, 'over-enthusiastic dust removal' scandal which endangers our faith in photojournalistic imagery, but technology...which is increasingly ubiquious.

In future, the only reason people will be willing to believe in an image is because they trust the source, which was why the Hajj issue was so damaging to Reuters.

...and just a random thought - I'm wondering how many photojournalists tut-tutting about the Lebanon photo scandal have taken black and white pictures?

Is that 'real' then?

Dinadinadinadina...BATCAM!!

I try not to put up too much techie stuff, but couldnt resist this one, sent to me by photographer John Stead.

Outputting a whopping 922 MB panoramic file to a connected Mac Mini computer, and with an upper ISO range of 10,000, it makes this camera not only smarter than me, but its got better eyesight.

As I say, I try to keep the geekery to a minimum here, but in the light of recently seeing this, and fellow blogger Martin Shakeshaft's experiments with VR panoramic photography which led me to Jook Leung's amazing multimedia panoramas taken in New Yorks Times Square...

...and the truly midboggling PhotoSynth software being developed by Microsoft, we could end up with incredibly detailed 360-degree immersive environments you could 'move' through.

This could bring an intriguing new dimension to photojournalism - for example, people who want to hammer home what a refugee camp in Darfur is like, could actually take you for a 'tour'.