I’ve been discussing filters for a while now, and I guess I need to go back one step and explain what a filter is and what it can do.  In photography, a filter is a camera accessory consisting of an optical element that can be inserted in the optical or light path. The filter can be a square or rectangle shape mounted in a holder accessory, or, more commonly, a glass or plastic disk with a metal or plastic ring frame, which can be screwed in front of the  lens.

Filters allow added control for the photographer of the images being produced. Sometimes they are used to make only subtle changes to images; other times the image would simply not be possible without them. The selection of the proper filter is actually far more important than any choice of lens or camera. The filter has a large and real effect on your image. Lens brand and sharpness does not.

The negative aspects of using filters, though often negligible, include the possibility of loss of image definition if using dirty or scratched filters, and increased exposure required by the reduction in light transmitted. The former is best avoided by careful use and maintenance of filters, while the latter is a matter of technique; it usually will not be a problem if planned out properly, but in some situations does make filter use impractical.  Worst case is that the light degradation is inevitable and is something I have to live with when using some filters.

Photographers classify filters according to their use. If you are aiming for cleaner, sharper pictures with less haze, photographers would pick up UV Filters which absorbs ultraviolet rays.  In fact, most photographers leave a UV filter on their camera lens at all times to protect the lens from dust, moisture, scratches, and breakage.

There is what are called Sky Filters - which reduce blush tones in outdoor shots.  We do not have to worry because this keeps skin tones natural and free of reflection from nearby objects.  It can also serve as a permanent lens protector.

Protector Filters are filters which protect your lenses from expensive front element damage which could be caused by dirt, knocks or scratches.

And you can choose also polarizer filters.     The circular polarizer and moose filters  are essential for outdoor photography; deepens intensity of blue skies; reduces or eliminates glare.  Circular Polarizing filters are used on auto focus cameras.  When using non-auto focus camera, use linear polarizer filters and linear focus.

The Neutral Density Filters are devised to reduce the amount of light without affecting the color.  This also eliminates overly bright, washed out images. This is also great for video.

One special kind of filter is the HOYA HMC Ultra Thin Filter.  This is a series or set of high end filters designed to avoid vignetting problems which occur with wide angle lenses.

Filters are commonly used in black and white photography to manipulate contrast. For example a yellow filter will enhance the contrast between clouds and sky by darkening the latter. Orange and red filters will have a stronger effect. A deep green filter will darken the sky too but will lighten green foliage and will make it stand out against the sky. Also see diffusion filters, which are used to reduce contrast.

Yes, filters are needed even if you use a digital camera and edit with Photoshop. Polarizers and grad filters need to be used before the lens and are not well, if at all, simulated electronically. Digital cameras are excused from most of the color conversion filters, since you dial these in as white balance settings. I still use a mild warming filter (81A) on all my digital cameras since I prefer the look I get, even with the WB adjusted warm.

Every time Leica releases a new model it becomes an instant classic.  This time it released a new model which was so unexpected that it created a class of its own.

The Leica S2 is a 37-megapixel camera in a body the size of a 35mm DSLR.  It has a 30×45mm CCD sensor, which is about 56% larger than a full-frame DSLR sensor.  It’s a weather-sealed body, with dual-shutter capability and saves to raw, JPEG and DNG.  It has a 3-inch LCD  at the back with a control display at the top of the camera.

And what’s more is that there are nine lenses designed specifically for the S2 which were also announced at the same time.  This indicates that Leica is intent to make this camera the start of a whole new series.

However, contrary to what this looks like, the S2 is not a regular DSLR, but what Leica calls a “middle-format” which is a new platform.  Leica noted that photographers who use medium format cameras also have a second camera, usually a Nikon or a Canon SLR for field work.  And the S2 was designed for that market of professional photographers (with the expected price tag to boot).  It has a sensor the size of medium-format film, in the body of an SLR.  A relatively medium-sized SLR.

Traditionally, large printing was done with transparencies shot with medium-format cameras.  The film size is larger than those for a 35mm SLR.  You can blow up both films, but the optimum blow up size for a 35mm film is considerably smaller than those for a medium-format camera. With the migration to digital format, the analogy is that of more megapixels for larger prints.  If you have a 3-megapixel picture, it’s optimum size would be that of half-A4 size.  When printing a 3MP picture to the size of an A4 page, the resulting print would be showing artifacts and blurs.  You would have been better off with a 5MP or an 8MP file for A4 size printing.

(Another way of looking at it is if you used an 800×600 jpeg file as a desktop background on your 1280×960 screen. Same thing happens, you’ll be getting blurs and artifacts.)

In terms of printing area, a 37MP would be more than enough for printing on a big poster, showing details even when you have your nose up close to it.

My take on it is that the S2’s only compromise is the use of CCD instead of CMOS.  Then again, it would have taken them a little bit more research and development, and a larger budget if they had used CMOS sensors.  On the other hand, the use of CCD means that the this is still slightly slower than DSLRs with CMOS sensors.  Come to think of it, at 37MP, it doesn’t make sense to have CMOS sensors because of the sheer size of the resulting file.  The bottle-neck would just move from the sensor translation to the file saving part of the software.

At a rumored price close to $30,000, the Leica S2 will be available Summer of 2009.

Official website:  Leica.com

In an earlier post, I mentioned that the first accessory I buy for a camera is a UV filter.  This is mainly for the protection of the camera lens.  Even now now with a UV neutralizing factor built-in with today’s digital cameras, rendering a UV filter unnecessary to filter out unwanted UV rays, I still use one for the protection.

Ultraviolet light is something we can’t see. However, your camera can see it. From an optical standpoint, a digital camera is not as vulnerable to ultraviolet light as film, but a UV filter can cut down on “purple fringing” and/or blue hues that occur in film and some digital cameras. Also, the use of an ultraviolet filter can protect your camera lens.
With the ultraviolet filter, we can achieve improved contrast and color saturation when shooting sunny landscapes, marine and mountain scenes. This filter specifically reduces the effect of ultraviolet light and atmospheric dust.

To maximize the use of the ultraviolet filter, experts have provided us seven steps on how to use this high-end.

Step 1.  Write down the diameter of your camera lenses or take your camera and lenses with you to buy the filter.

Step2. Purchase an ultraviolet filter for each of your camera lenses or opt for a filter system. In this case, you buy a filter-holder for the camera and interchangeable rings that fit your lenses. This is good for people who change filters often.

Step3. Screw the ultraviolet filter onto your camera lens.

Step4. Protect your camera lens from breakage, scratches, dust and moisture by leaving an ultraviolet filter on your camera lens whenever you’re not using a different filter, even when storing it.

Step5. Use a blower brush to remove dust and sand from your camera lens and filter.

Step6. Breathe on the filter or lens, and carefully wipe away any fingerprints or smudges with a lens tissue.

Step7. Take your photos as you normally would. The filter blocks the ultraviolet light.

In theory, UV filters add clarity by cutting UV scatter in high UV environments—e.g., at extremely high altitude (well over 10,000′) or in long shots over water, but most digital cameras are too UV-insensitive to benefit here. Post-processing can suppress or sharpen a hazy blue channel to good effect, particularly in B&W work, but an effective UV filter (most like a haze) might allow you to improve clarity while preserving blue channel data in your color images.

Source:  Cameratown.com

Tamron recently announced the development of their newest high power zoom lens in the AF18-270mm Di II VC Ultra High Power Zoom lens.

Tamron of Japan is a third-party manufacturer of lenses for SLR cameras.  One of their most famous innovations came in 1992 with the introduction of a 28-200mm f3.8-5.6 zoom lens which was barely 4 inches in length.  This at a time when zoom lenses were typically at least 6 inches in length.  Effectively, this development made zoom lenses very practical for regular use.

Further development along the years have been to push the envelop towards higher ranges.  With the new model 18-270mm zoom, it is the first effective 15x lens for SLRs.  It is the lens with the longest zoom range specifically designed for digital SLRs with sensors smaller than 24mm x 16mm.

For all of that, it is still the same approximate size as older Tamron models. It’s light, and easy to manipulate when zooming.  There have been several manufacturer’s which have released zoom lenses which approximate it’s size.  But none have gotten close to the performance of being extraordinarily sharp through out it’s zoom range.  For the most part, lenses from other manufacturers with comparable zoom ranges are almost twice the length and weight of Tamron models.

Among it’s features, it has built-in electronics with its Vibration Compensation (VC) which minimizes handheld camera shakes.  This is a great help for handheld photography considering that shake is more noticeable when the lens is zoomed to the max.  A regular user wouldn’t notice that he’s zoomed to the point where handheld shake is evident in the picture.  The mechanism is really a great help.  In terms of philosophy, Canon and Nikon zoom lenses also have the image stabilization mechanism in the lenses rather than in the camera.

The AF18-270mm Di II VC Ultra High Power Zoom lens will be available for Canon and Nikon cameras.

Official Website:  Press Release

Most cameras have flash units.  This is a matter of necessity for the most part as most people are not comfortable shooting in low-light or natural light settings.  In fact, most casual photographers don’t know how to take pictures without the flash, and worse, they don’t realize that a flash is very much important in harsh lighting conditions.  It’s a common enough problem, mainly because the regular casual photographer is not really concerned about the small things, but only about the big picture: did the subject appear in the picture?

A flash is an attachment to the camera to provide much needed focused light on the subject.  Normally this is mounted on top of the camera.  And there lies a story about making the shot better, if only the flash was at the BOTTOM of the camera. I’ll explain this in another post.

The nature of the flash is that it provides an instant of bright light to illuminate the subject.  The light lasts just long enough for the image to appear on film, or to be captured by the scanning element/sensor of the camera.  And since this is focused light from a single source, the shadows would appear emanating outward from it.

There are strategies to make the light more diffused or for it to appear from a different direction.  But as long as you’re using a camera-mounted flash, the light will hit the subject and the shadow would be behind it.

If the subject is too close, usually less than 10 feet, there would be uneven highlights.  It it is too far, usually more than 15 feet, then it would be a bit darker.

[An aside, notice that when in an arena, there are lots of flash from the audience when taking pictures of the performers or sports players?  The cameras are automatically set for flash, usually the picture will turn out fine.  But this is not due to the camera's flash unit.  This is because the subject is already bathed in light and the flash is not needed.]

For the most part, the ideal camera mounting is a ring flash.  This is a ring of flash elements mounted around the lens.  The purpose is to have the center of the picture and the flash one and the same.  There would be no shadows.  However, ring flash elements are expensive.  It’s quite rare to find a ring flash cheaper than $300.  However, these really are great accessories.  A side-effect is that if the background were too near the subject, there would be a halo-effect.  Not an altogether bad side effect.

Sources:

Cameratown.com

Digital Photography Review

Casio is, like most Japanese multi-national companies, almost a conglomerate with a whole lot of product lines.  It started out with calculators and watches (thing G-Shock) and now is putting it’s strength into cameras.  In the same way that it put a GPS into a wristwatch and sold at an affordable price, this time the innovation is almost on that scale, and relatively less pricey.  A $700+ 10 megapixel camera with full HD capability, high speed burst speed on stills, and slow motion capture on video.

With the release of the newest model of its Exilim series of cameras, the Casio Exilim Pro Ex-FH20, it’s showing innovation in unexpected ways.  Among other things, this camera is fast.  It has a burst mode of 40 frames per second on 7 megapixels.  It is so fast, it can take a picture even BEFORE you press the shutter button. It stores the images in the camera and you can choose which pictures to save.  This means that even if you missed the picture you can still recover it.

It is so fast, it can capture video at 30fps for full HD quality 1280×720; 210fps at 480×360; 420fps at 224×168; and 1000fps at 224×56.  That is faster than a speeding bullet.  We’re no longer talking about catching a drop of water in the air, but of seeing a bullet pass through a balloon before the balloon bursts.  Well almost.  But you get the drift.

Usually when a camera comes along boasting something extraordinary, most other features would pale in comparison.  Except that this camera also has a 20x optical zoom, equivalent to 26mm to 520mm on a standard SLR.  Casio is serious about this camera.  It uses a CMOS sensor which allows it to capture images faster.  And to round it off, it also has a high-speed anti-shake function, as well as a high-speed night scene setting (a natural result of the anti-shake setting).

Priced at £399 in the UK, it should weigh in at around $700 to $750 in the United States.

Official website:  Casio Press Release

Source:  Digital Photography Review

The lines have blurred between high-end digital photography and Full HD video.  One of the first DSLR camera manufacturers to go into Full HD video was Nikon.  Now it’s Canon’s turn. With the release of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II there is a lot of pressure for every other camera manufacturer to follow suit.

An interesting sidelight of this development is that traditional digital video cameras have been based on the mini-DV format.  One limitation of the mini-DV cameras was that not all the pro model cameras had interchangeable lenses.  Except for Canon.  The top-end Canon pro model mini-DV video camera had an adapter which allows EOS lenses to be fitted to the video camera.  This extended the quality of the video beyond the standard camera lens.

With Nikon leading the way with the release of a full HD video capable camera, Canon is trying to catch up. This is an evolutionary step for DSLR cameras.  Capable of capturing at 1920×1080, it can save the file to Quicktime MOV format.  At 30fps and 1080p HD, it can store up to 12 mins of video.  Maximum file size is 4GB.  More than enough for saving and editing purposes.

One thing missing from the EOS 5D Mark II is a built-in flash.  Though it has the necessary software for controlling flash and white balance compensation for the use of flash.  And it has a relatively low 3.9fps burst mode.

By all means this is not a shabby camera.  This may not be Canon’s top of the line, but it definitely ranks higher than other camera manufacturer’s top of the line model. It’s important to note the direction these two camera makers are going.  The hefty $2,700 price tag (body only) is relatively  cheap considering that it is a full-featured HD video camera.  Now if only CompactFlash disks were able to catch up with faster and larger capacity flash drives then this would be a well-defined niche with the other major players coming in with their own full-HD video DSLR camera models.

Official Website:  Canon Press Release

This is for all the camwhores out there.  Pardon my french, but the most common camera pose nowadays sucks.  Yes, the most common camera shot is with a camera held at arm’s length and pointing at oneself.  I say it sucks because there is no possibility of composing and expanding the picture.

No offense meant to anyone who’s done that before.  I know I have.  On my wedding day, even.  And that was with a film camera.  But really, there’s only that very close shot and if you’re lucky, you occupy the whole picture.  If you’re unlucky, it might show an ear.  But considering that the digital camera might have a wide-focus lens, the ear only shot is a very slim possibility.

I don’t mean to say that I don’t like the shot.  I actually hate it.  First off, because in all probability, the lens is wide angle, the resulting picture would be distorted.  The face would be a bit fatter, and the nose wider.  As an aside, this is also what happens when you have an ID picture shot at an arcade booth.  I will not go into the psychological study of people who have no better things to do than take pictures of themselves.  To them I say, knock yourself out.

I would much rather use a tripod.  Or at least a camera’s timer.  If there’s no tripod available, you can always set the camera down somewhere and hope it doesn’t fall and take a shot at the sky.  Now if I only had a camera remote control, I would not have ran uphill those several times I went to some hill top spots.

Tripods are cheap.  At least these are much cheaper than the camera.  Come to think of it, I have two cameras of my own, and two tripods.  One camera and tripod set was bought twenty years ago.  I don’t use the camera as often as before, but the old tripod still gets a lot of use.  And I expect to be using it for a much longer time than my film-based camera.

And yes, I bought the tripod so I won’t have to take a picture of myself at arm’s length.

There is however, one exception to the camwhore-camera-held-at-arm’s-length-sucks picture. If a celebrity on the red-carpet was bantering with fans and shot the photo at arm’s length to show him and the fans, then that is way cool!

In an understated bid at a crack at the top of the DSLR market, Sony has unveiled it’s top-of-the-line (alpha) DSLR-A900. Boasting a top of the heap 35mm full frame 24.6MP CMOS, the A900 is one step up from the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III with 21.1 MP full-frame CMOS sensor.

The reason I say it’s understated is because Sony advertises this as designed to “meet the demands of serious enthusiasts.” I wonder why Sony would have the most sensitive full-frame CMOS sensor in a camera and not go loud in the drum-beating. The only reasons I can see in that marketing strategy is if they are already working on the next big thing. Or if they know something’s coming up from Canon or Nikon.

Among other things that this camera lacks is a built-in flash. The specs on the Sony page clearly says so. Seems this is going to be more common in high-end DSLRs, as rumor has it that the next two cameras Canon is set to release also don’t have any built-in flash. I can understand that as it would be a balancing act with regards the power requirements on the battery: with more power needed for the capture, processing, and saving to file, the flash would be a relatively big drain on available resources.

And it also doesn’t have an in-camera sensor cleaning system. This is practically a standard feature in other cameras of its class. And no Live View nor a video mode.

Other standard features clearly signal this is more of a pro-user camera rather than for an advanced enthusiast. With the on-chip dual noise reduction, dual BIONZ image processing engines, 5 fps burst shooting speed, shutter speed of 1/8000 to 30 seconds plus bulb mode, 3-inch LCD, and HD output (through HDMI).

The camera will be in stores in November at a hefty $3,000 (approx.) price tag, clearly this is a pro-user trying hard to pass itself off as a hobbyist-camera.

It would be interesting to see what Sony would do for an encore.

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