Micah Walter

All this giving back to the community is making me feel really good, and also full of Turkey. This weekend Kendra and I and her local chapter of Physicians for Human Rights brought a Thanksgiving feast to a local retirement/assisted living home in Portsmouth.

The event went off without a hitch and I think I got a new Dominoes partner out of the deal as well. When I return to the states next month I may make a photo album for them to keep, but for now, check out this small selection of pictures.

Click the photo to see more.

Also, check out Kendra’s post on the Physicians For Human Rights website.

Ever since the Nikon D3 was announced I have been thinking about whether or not full-frame cameras have really come into their own. For a long time Canon has been the only full-frame player in town with their 1Ds line of cameras and their very affordable and popular 5D.

But now that Nikon has their D3 on the horizon, I have to wonder which camera maker is on top of things at the moment, and really, if full-frame cameras are really there yet in terms of the specs that matter to me.

Below is a quick comparison I put together that includes the current full-frame models as well as the Canon 1D Mk III. I wanted to look at the technical specs that really interest me the most. I’m not looking at image quality at all, and just sort of assuming that all cameras produce great images at high ISO. (I will get to that topic on another post.)

To be fair, no one really knows what the Nikon D3 will boast in terms of frame buffer. The pre-production models that are floating around seem to have room for about 9 RAW frames, which in my opinion is really too low.

The Canon 1D Mk III, while still a 1.3x sensor, seems to have some pretty good numbers with 10 fps, 10 mpix and a RAW buffer big enough to hold 30 frames. That’s nearly an entire roll of film!

If you have the money, the 1Ds Mk III looks pretty viable with 5 fps, and a 12 frame RAW buffer. But wait a second, that’s 12 frames of 21 mpix images! I wonder if that equates to 30 10 mpix frames on the 1D Mk III!

If Nikon ships the D3 with a larger buffer it will really be a viable Canon killer. Full-frame shooting, 12 mpix, and 9 fps for only $5000. It seems to me that all they need to do on this camera is up the buffer to match the 1D Mk III.

And what about an update to the 5D? Maybe a 6D? This camera has been so popular in the pro and pro-sumer market since it was introduced, but it hasn’t seen an update at all. Maybe Canon is following the old adage that if something aint broke, don’t fix it.

Upgrading the 5D to add 5 fps, a few more frames in the buffer, and better weather sealing would really be nice. 5D Mk II?

I’m really dying to shoot full-frame, but I think my minimum requirements are as follows:

5 fps
12 mpix
12 frame RAW buffer
A price tag less than $5K

Hmmm, maybe a used 1Ds Mk II would be a good choice, it comes pretty close.

What do you think?

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.3 was released last week adding amongst other things an export API. This means that developers (myself included) can now create Lightroom export plugins. The Lightroom plugin architecture is written in Lua which is a scripting language that apparently much of Lightroom was written in.

Ian Lyans at Computer-Darkroom.com has a pretty good synopsis of all the new improvements and bug fixes in 1.3. It’s worth a read.

Link: Computer Darkroom

So I see that Mamiya and PhaseONE have joined together to create a new camera system which will be out early next year. No one knows what it will be as of yet, and what will happen to the Mamiya ZD back, but it is very exciting.

I have been interested in getting into medium format digital for a while now. If it weren’t for the insane price tags that most of these backs seems to cary I would be pretty inclined to jump on board. I have this feeling that I will be doing more work that will require something like a medium format system. But who knows. Until then, it is certainly interesting to learn about from afar.

Check out the PhaseONE press release here.

As well, I have added a new forums section, using a much better forum engine. So, if you want to school me in the ways of medium format digital, be sure to check out the starter thread I just put up by going here.

The following is part of a series of articles describing the type of camera and computer equipment I use on a daily basis. These are not exactly reviews of the equipment, but more of just a synopsis of what I like to use and why. I will be adding to this section as time permits, and you will always be able to read through them by selecting the In The Bag category or one of its sub-categories in the sidebar.

The Canon Speedlite 220EX is a great little flash to have around. It is pretty feature limited in that you really can’t control it much, but for a dedicated TTL flash that is really small it makes for a great backup.

I have used this flash quite a bit in conjunction with my 70-200 f/2.8 when I knew I just needed to add some light, but I wanted to leave the 550EX on the wide angle camera. It’s just enough light to brighten someone up form across the room.

It is also much better than the built in pop-up flash on the 20D. In fact it will cover my 17-35 f/2.8 without casting a lens hood shadow.

My main gripe with the little flash is that it can’t be slaved with the ST-E2. It would be really nice to have it available as a little portable 2nd light. Oh well!

The following is part of a series of articles describing the type of camera and computer equipment I use on a daily basis. These are not exactly reviews of the equipment, but more of just a synopsis of what I like to use and why. I will be adding to this section as time permits, and you will always be able to read through them by selecting the In The Bag category or one of its sub-categories in the sidebar.

The following is part of a series of articles describing the type of camera and computer equipment I use on a daily basis. These are not exactly reviews of the equipment, but more of just a synopsis of what I like to use and why. I will be adding to this section as time permits, and you will always be able to read through them by selecting the In The Bag category or one of its sub-categories in the sidebar.

The following is part of a series of articles describing the type of camera and computer equipment I use on a daily basis. These are not exactly reviews of the equipment, but more of just a synopsis of what I like to use and why. I will be adding to this section as time permits, and you will always be able to read through them by selecting the In The Bag category or one of its sub-categories in the sidebar.

The following is part of a series of articles describing the type of camera and computer equipment I use on a daily basis. These are not exactly reviews of the equipment, but more of just a synopsis of what I like to use and why. I will be adding to this section as time permits, and you will always be able to read through them by selecting the In The Bag category or one of its sub-categories in the sidebar.

The following is part of a series of articles describing the type of camera and computer equipment I use on a daily basis. These are not exactly reviews of the equipment, but more of just a synopsis of what I like to use and why. I will be adding to this section as time permits, and you will always be able to read through them by selecting the In The Bag category or one of its sub-categories in the sidebar.

The Canon 10-22mm EF-S was the third lens I bought after switching to Canon some time ago. I was pretty skeptical about this lens at first. It’s pretty slow at f/3.5-4.5 and it isn’t an “L” series lens. But I really wanted something much wider for my 20D. The other main criticism I had about this lens was that it is an EF-S lens, which means it only works on Canon’s 1.6x crop factor cameras. This means the 20D, 30D, and 40D and the Rebels, and that’s it. If I ever upgraded to a 1D series camera or a 5D I wouldn’t be able to use this lens.

After much debate, I decided that it the price was right (I got mine used for about $500) and I really wanted my wide-angle back. The 10-22 equates to a 16-35mm lens on my 20D.

(more…)