Canon MT 24EX macro flash

I have had the pleasure to get hold of a dedicated macro flash, the Canon MT-24EX. It looks like this on a Canon XSi with a 100mm f/2.8 macro lens:

It makes macro photography a breeze. With some simple snaps and twists and presses of buttons you can do stuff that would take multiple lights or remote controlled flashes to do without it. I think if you have a Canon SLR with a macro lens, this is an item you want. If you do some sort of (small) product photography, this is a neat thing to have. I have posted a quick video that kind of shows how it looks and how it can be adjusted.



I prefer to take macro photos with it in manual ("M") mode where I adjust the aperture to get the depth-of-field I want, the shutter speed to both reflect if I am hand-holding (like 1/200s) or if I have tripod mount (slower), and ISO fixed to 100 or 200 for best quality. Then the E-TTL of the flash system simply adjust the flash strength to make the exposure right. It is a breeze. Only drawback is that it is expensive and somewhat bulky.

iPhone 4 as only camera?

I have been using an Sony Ericsson W810i for many years as my cell phone and been happy with it. On and off I have glanced, a bit jealous, at my friends and co-workers with their smart phones. But now when iPhone-4 was announced I decided it was time to test it out.

I am quite impressed with the camera and video functions on this camera, for everyday social photos. On a trip to Legoland here in California, I decided to only have the phone as an experiment. I tell you, it worked just fine. Sure, there were moments where no (real) zoom felt like a miss, and no zoom in video on top of that. But I tell you, some photos can be made really nice. How about these two? Edited in camera....

New even lower price on Kindle

This is getting interesting. The Kindle with new competition from readers as Nook and the new iPad has gotten yet another price reduction. I cannot speak to the Nook, but for use as a book reader alone, I do not really think the Kindle has much competition from iPad at the current pricing. With the Kindle you get "free" 3G download of books and so, and the most important factor (except price) is probably that the Kindle is really lightweight. The new standard price on Kindle is $189, but if you click through the link, you can see that sometimes it is sold even lower. 

Spare SD cards - on sale at Amazon

Not sure how long it will last (this posted June 2nd) but Amazon has Kingston 2 GB SD card for less than $4 shipped (free with prime, or super saver with more than $25 in the cart). I know, 2 GB and not fast, but for photo frames and as spare cards for point-and-shoot cameras, it good to have around.

What happened?

You might wonder what happened to this blog, and there is not a good answer. I guess it just got busy. But there are new items on the way in the shape of a Logitech Harmony One remote. I have an old version, the Harmony 680 but I felt that it was time to test the new ones out. When I initially got the remote, I actually did not like it at all and it went into some electronic "junk" box. But after a year or so, it surfaced and maybe because we had more A/V equipment, it seemed to work out much better. Anyway, now, the only remote we need and use is a Harmony remote. I will write more on this in a few days, or a week.

Also an TV update, the 42" VIZIO XVT HDTV is no longer in our house. I am not sure it was just my TV, but I had serious lip-sync problems with some sources, like our now quite old Tivo Series 1 and even though there was a specific menu for audio sync delay, it seemed like it would come and go and the adjusted setting was suddenly not ok anymore. That, and the seemingly vary long start time, drove me to return the TV. But once you get the taste of a "large" HDTV, there is no turning back. So now I am enjoying a LG 42PJ350 42-Inch 720p Plasma HDTV . Sure, it is "only" 42" and "only" 720p, but to tell the truth, from where we sit, there is no difference. And for a plasma TV, it is not like the old days, the TV is quite energy efficient (not like LED though), and it is both slim and has a really narrow bezel. And, best of all? No audio sync issue and slow start :) I got it for about half the price of the Vizio TV also... $475 shipped, quite incredible I think.

Sony HX5V - HHT

Thank God for HHT (Hand Held Twilight mode)... Kind of, at least. The new Sony DSC-HX5V that I am using has one mode called this (HHT). This mode take 6 shot really quickly, less than 1 second if the shutter speed allows it, and then combines the shots to reduce noise and improve detail. It is explained more in this review. What can I say, it really does work. This weekend I took my kids to Golden State Model Railroad Museum so they could check out all the trains. I tried the HHT mode here, indoors, with not so much light. Using the zoom also makes the lens quite slow and long shutter speeds, or high ISO is the result. But check these photos out and I can only say that HHT really seems to be working. 

Sony HX5V vs Casio FH100?

No, not another camera, but I stumbled on this picasa web album comparing "identical" shots from Sony DSC-HX5V and Casio EX-FH100. Take a look if you were comparing these two cameras. The casio lacks GPS and other features, but has a 24mm-240mm lens, High-speed video (up to 1000FPS, low resolution) and 30FPS 9Mpixel bursts.

Sony HX5V - barrel distortion at 25mm??

I read somewhere that people had experienced (extreme) barrel distortion at the wide end of the HX5V camera. I have honestly not seen much or thought about it, so I did a test... Seems like this photo (not video) of some boring bricks is ok by me (at 25mm).

Link to original here.

But then this is the "same" scene in AVCHD video, 1920x1080 format, a frame grab:

Link to original here. And the "video" is here.

So... it seems to me that the Sony DSC-HX5V is doing some fancy image processing to correct the barrel distortion when taking photos. That's not that uncommon, the Canon S90 does the same.... Just FYI...

HX5V - XSi

From a walk today, two shots, first with Sony DSC-HX5V and second with Canon XSi (with 50mm f/1.8 II)

Not quite the same focal length and not from the same place, but still. I like the XSi color and sharpness better, but I would not really complain. It is not a D-SLR, but it has a lot going for it. Here is another from HX5v:

SD1300 - final thoughts

So, I have had the Canon SD1200IS and SD1300IS for a while, and I must say that I think both are really similar. The 4x zoom lens starting at 28mm is making the long end about the same as the SD1200 "only" has a 3x zoom. The 28mm is nice to have, for me indoors is where you see the difference, but it is slight. And the lack of the "LP" (long play) lower bit rate 640x480 video and the digital macro are both features I used on the SD1200, although one can certainly be without them. You can find the SD1200 on sale sometimes for a really good deal, making the SD1300 about $50 to $75 more expensive.

All in all, I would recommend both, but if you do not think you care much about the 28mm lens, save the money. The SD1200 is a good performer, and I like the slightly longer lens (at f/2.8) when I take "portrait" style snapshots of the kids. Either way, it is a good _basic_ point and shoot camera. Here are some SD1300 photos.

Sony HX5V - video wobble/rolling shutter

As some of you might know, the new Sony HX5V use a CMOS sensor to capture the still and the videos. If you google a little about CMOS vs CCD in terms of video properties you will soon come upon a thing that is called a rolling shutter or wobble effect. It happens because on a CMOS sensor the frame is normally read out from top to bottom and in video that means that the scene changes in a video frame. If you have a "normal" scene you really will not see much at all. Take all the example videos I have posted here, I bet there's nothing to be seen of the effect there. Today I made an experiment by taking a video of the end of a vertical wall and then very quickly panning from left to right and back. The unmodified videos are here for your enjoyment...

(boring) Panning video in MP4 format
(boring) Panning video in AVCHD format


Now, if you do look at them, you will realize how ridiculous the test is. But there are probably some "real" cases where you could see it (and I will try to get one of these), like a truck driving by on a highway when the camera is still or so.

I personally have not much experience on this effect, but I really think it is not showing much in a normal case, and I would not want to take a video that pans as fast as I did in the example anyway.... YMMW.... :)

Perfect real estate camera?

I remembered when I got my Kodak V570 I was impressed with the 23mm fixed wide lens and also with the in-camera panorama stitching. This camera, after it was discontinued continued to go up in price, much like the newer Panasonic LX3 that also has a wide lens. Why? Well one reason is that they both made great cameras for the many Realtors out there. When you need to present a house on a web-site, you want to capture the full feeling of being right there, in the room or house. The problem with that is that it is hard to capture it all in one shot.

Well, I think the Sony DSC-HX5V is going to give them a run for the money. Sure going full on DSLR with bounced flash and so, will still be the best, but that is a $1500+ investment that you need to do. Take the Sony, it has many things going for it. The "iSweep" panorama function is really good. You hold the camera, either normal or upright/portrait, and the press the shutter and sweep the camera. A few seconds later and you have a finished panorama. Even though the lens is quite wide at 25mm, this is neat to have. Take this photo (mind you, this is at night, low light) of my living room:

That's 25mm and not too bad (for night time shot). But if you really want to be there, this is a quick iSweep panorama from the same place.

Now, the LGB train track would probably not really be there if the house was staged for a sale :) But you get the point, right? The 25mm lens with the panorama makes for a really wide capture without need for Photo Shop or some other expensive post processing program. And no need to lug around an expensive SLR.

And the 10x zoom and full 1920x1080 HD video is not that bad to have at your kids soccer game...

Check out the specs of the camera here: