I noticed that there was an attribution problem with FeedBurner and posts from blogger blogs that did not have titles. FeedBurner wasn’t attaching any link that attribuited the photograph in a title-less post back to the original blog. That just isn’t right.
I find this to be very interesting. It is a program that will resize images on the fly. It determines the paths of your image that can be removed or added without losing interesting features. For software that guesses what you want your photographs to look like at different scales, this really does a pretty good job.
My coworker is a die hard fan of PINE. Even though there are many e-mail clients to choose from, he has held firm that Putty is the best way to go. He has been on this system since he has had his e-mail address. Yesterday, with some help from tech support, he had Putty installed on his PDA. Now he not only has the smallest (in terms of file size) e-mail generating program, but he can carry it around with him in his pocket.
I wasn’t very impressed with this lens. It left me wishing I had more room when I was shooting a scene and I wanted more focus when I was shooting portraits.
Like the Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D and the Nikkor 35mm f/2D this lens focused quickly, produced very crisp images and is small. Unlike it’s siblings, the 50mm on my Nikon D70 doesn’t work well because it is neither focused enough to be a portrait lens, nor wide enough to capture scenes.
I finally found the lens that will bring me back to the origins of my photography experiences.
My first camera was a Minolta and I had one lens. I shot everything with a fixed length 45mm lens. It was dreamy. I loved it.
When I moved to digital I primarily used the kit lens (18mm-80mm) . As a result I have become lazy and I use the telephoto to change my composition, not my body.
That is all over now that I have the 35mm. On my D70 this lens becomes a 52mm and it is the closest thing I have found to having my old camera back.
The lens is crisp, focuses very quickly on the auto setting, has a fine tune on the manual setting. It performs well in low light and it is small. This lens will be on my camera 90% of the time.
It focuses quickly, it performs well in low light, f/1.8 produces dramatic portraits, f/4 seems to be a sweet spot. It is a lot of lens for $400.
There is nothing I don’t love about this lens. Here are some good reviews at B&H.
The one thing I learned while testing it is that f/1.8 was very difficult to control when I was shooting with manual focus. I was shooting portraits in a studio setting and I switched to manual focus to save time and capture expressions. As my subjects moved forward and backward they went in and out of focus. In retrospect, I should have shot those frames at f/4 to have a bit more flexibility in the focal plane.
While doing some research about the fastest CF card to buy for a Nikon D200 today I came across Rob Galbraith’s fantastic chart for write speeds for a Nikon D200. I was going to get a 2GB Lexar PRO 133x card, but I see that for only a few dollars more the SanDisk 2GB Extreme IV is a touch faster. Thanks for doing all this work Rob!
I’ve photographed with this camera for three and a half years. I’ve shot about 18,000 frames, taken it on buses, airplanes, thrown it in my backpack, played soccer with it, taken it to the dusty countryside, the humid seaside, made a pinhole lens for it and stored it for long periods of time. I am still using the original battery I purchased with it and I only replaced the 2GB micro drive/CF card that came with it about a month ago. I shoot with the SB-600 flash instead of the on board flash.
I use these lenses:
18-70mm kit lens
Nikkor 60mm F-2.8 macro
Nikkor 70-300mm F-4 telephoto
Tokina 12-24mm F-4
What I love about this camera:
It is durable, reliable, shoots quickly as soon as you turn it on, it feels good in my hand, the menus are easy to learn, I have complete aperture and shutter speed control, there is a wide range of lenses that I can afford to use with it and it has been a very good value for the initial $1100 price I paid for it. I can shoot for two days all day before the battery runs out of juice.
This is a fantastic camera for the average to advanced DSLR photographer.
What I don’t like about it:
It can only shoot 4 RAWs in rapid succession before it has to stop and think about writing to the CF card. ISO 800 and 1600 are very noisy, I can’t afford a lens for the D70 that will let me shoot in low light situations without a ton of noise.
If I could improve on this camera I would:
buy a D200 to increase the range of ISO I could shoot with.
buy the Nikkor 85mm F-1.8 to be able to shoot in low light settings.
This is the toned down version of the Leica D-LUX3.
The Lumix uses a Leica lens, has the same menus and similar controls to the D-LUX3. The major differences are that the Lumix does not shoot RAW and there is no manual shutter speed and aperture control.
The advantages of shooting with the Lumix vs. the D-LUX3 are that the preset scene settings mimic shutter speed and aperture control without the small and very sensitive nobs of the D-LUX3. This allows for easier shooting. The easy setting on the Lumix is surprisingly good.
What I love about this camera:
It is small, easy to use, the menus are intuitive, the battery life is fantastic, the lens is crisp and the video and audio are surprisingly good. The preset scenes are pretty good at mimicking settings I would use with manual aperture and shutter speed control. This is a great camera for someone who wants to get into digital photography but feels overwhelmed with all the options on many cameras because a beginner can grow into an advanced user before they run out of options on the camera. It only costs $175 from B&H.
What I don’t like about this camera:
You can’t shoot in RAW, you don’t have aperture and shutter speed control, 800 ISO is very noisy, the LCD screen sticks way out from the back of the camera and is susceptible to damage and it is the only way to look through that fine Leica lens.
Buy with it:
I recommend buying an extra SD card, a screen shield, and a case. I picked up a case at my local photography store for $8 that works very well.
This camera is light, small, easy to use and powerful.The Leica D-LUX 3 is stealth in appearances. It looks just like any old point and shoot camera but there is hidden power. It allows for aperture (F 2.8 to F8) control and shutter speed (up to 1/2000 second) control. The manual focus is sharp and easy to use. The macro auto focus option practically turns the D-LUX into a microscope! Minimum focus length is a mere 5cm. The huge LCD screen makes detailed focusing a breeze. You can control white balance, ISO and you can shoot RAW images. This camera has most of the amenities of a digital SLR in a lightweight point and shoot body.
Overall, this is a whole lot of bang for your buck.
Problems I encountered with this item:
The one huge, overriding downside is that all previewing happens through the huge LCD screen. While the big and crisp screen makes manual focusing a breeze it is big, high profile and easy to scratch. Since this is the only way to preview your images I foresee lots of militant “don’t-touch-the-screen!” and “stop-cleaning-it-with-your-T-shirt!” screaming at my
co-workers. I’m looking for a plastic cover right now but I see nothing. The cover would make me much less stressed out about ruining the only optic I have on this camera.
