The Foaming Cat

My ol' net friend John Farr, an ususual and personal writer, writes about an injured cat. Warning, it's really repulsive, don't start reading it if you might not want to finish it.

Small diffuser (updated)

Here's a quick trial of the small diffuser I bought, for popup flashes.

Here's without diffuser. Hard light. (See the diffuser in front. The black part fits in the hot-shoe.)



Below, here's with diffuser. About a 40mm-e zoom setting. Somewhat softened. But no replacement for professional flash solutions.



Below: with diffuser, but the lens zoomed out to 28mm-equivalent, the diffuser does not cover that wide angle. Not on the Pana G1 anyway, it would depend on how far the front of the flash is from the hot-shoe and thus the diffuser itself.



Update: Mark mentions the LumiQuest ProMax Pocket Bouncer, it seems very promising. Although reviews are mixed: many are very enthusiastic, but some do say that the softening effect is minimal, that it still looks like direct flash. And looking at the smallish surface area, I can believe that it's at least limited.

Sukiho said:

As far as small diffusers go nothing beats a sheet of A4 paper and some sellotape.

Verizon’s New Motto: Why Not Be Evil?

Verizon’s New Motto: Why Not Be Evil?, short blog post.
"I don’t know. Maybe Verizon heard that there were six people left on Earth who didn’t have a reason to dislike it."

Pogue is funny. I've loved him since 1995 when I first read Macintosh for Dummies by him.

Prince William spends night on London streets

[Thanks to TCGirl]

Prince William spends night on London streets, article.
Hats off, I don't think I could do it.

Xmas Snow, photos from today

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Technique: much as I love the Panasonic GF1 with the sharp and compact 20mm lens (40mm-e), these were taken with the G1 with the kit zoom. The kit zoom is sharp, also compact and flexible, and is stabilized. Also, the tiltable screen on the G1 is very helpful in changing the height of your viewpoint, both above your head, and all the way to the ground without having to lie down in mud or snow. I find this camera is my "default" camera for flexible all-round shooting.

The Laughing Gnostic

Here's a highly unusual article about David Bowie. Sort of good fun.
"Bowie (born 1947 as David Robert Jones) is seen by some as a sort of 'Renaissance Man' whose professed 'universality' is an attempt to show the landmarks of evolution by reassembling the fragmentary pieces of our society; and in this, he resembles many occultists. But unlike most occultists, Bowie has considerable wealth, critical acclaim, penetrating intelligence, and enduring good looks; he seems set to go on to even greater heights and achievements. What next, godhead? There is a Faustian/Mephistophelean element here. How else to explain the absolute zenith of this man's worldly trajectory? In fact, there are people who are convinced that his success wouldn't be possible without some kind of otherworldly assist.* I do not share this opinion. It is my conviction that Bowie's work has been seriously underestimated, and cannot be reduced to a series of single topics.
Nevertheless, it can't be ignored that Bowie has constructed his public persona from the various parts of the puzzle that are at the roots of modern occultism."

BTW, I discovered something interesting by accident: some pages, like this one, have a code which prohibits you from selecting/copying any text. But it seems that this can be circumvented by using the highly usuable Readable App. (I find now that I can copy text from the page normally in Firefox, I couldn't in Safari.) (Here's another page/site I can't select the text at in Safari.)

THE 2.0 DIGITAL CAMERA

THE 2.0 DIGITAL CAMERA, article.
"I wonder why Nikon, Canon and Leica just keep on putting a digital sensor into film-camera bodies they designed in the Fifties. And why at Leica ... can not try and invent something like they did in 1925 when the 2.0 film camera was introduced, the Model A.
IMHO Micro 4/3 can really be considered as the Third-Millennium Leica (whereas M8 and M9 can not)."

LA Sheriff vs photographer (updated twice)

Update: OK, I have to admit I can also see the opposite viewpoint here. If the officer has been told, and has no reason to disbelieve (and why would he?), that photographs are used for scouting before terrorist attacks, then he sincerely believes that he is protecting the public. If you listen to him, while he's out of line when threatening the guy, he really is listening to what the photographer has to say, and trying to understand him. I respect him for that.

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LA Sheriff vs photographer, video.
I guess a badge beefs up an ego.

Neeray says:
Fear and inferiority feeling combined with a uniform and some officially given power is a very contagious disease, worse than any influenza ...
Anyway, Merry Christmas!

And points to this English newspaper article...
Grant Smith, who has 25 years experience documenting buildings by Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, was stopped by a squad of seven officers who pulled up in three cars and a riot van and searched his belongings under section 44 of the Terrorism Act, which allows police to stop and search anyone without need for suspicion in a designated area.

The funny thing about police that while they often do a good job and are very nice, sometimes their fear cause them to do total overkill. Seven men to search a peaceful photographer?!

M4/3rds forum

Our friend Amin from the Serious Compacts blog has made a Micro Four Thirds forum, and kicks it off with a contest. Excellent. I plan to participate.

Is there a Santa

"I'm tired and confused... is there a Santa or isn't there?"

"The best camera is the one you have with you"

[Thanks to Joe]

"The best camera is the one you have with you", article/video. (Unusually, the video is a bit down the page. The last half of it promotes a new app for sharing iPhone photos.)

The title is an old maxim, and one that Mike Johnston teaches, although he also confesses that he often fails to live up the implication of the saying, meaning "always have some kind of camera with you, even if the quality is not optimal".

I have a camera in my Motorola Razr, but when I tried it, I just couldn't figure out how to get the pictures transferred to my Mac, so I don't use it. What I do now is that I always bring my Canon pocket camera if I'm going anywhere in daylight. A little bigger, but it has a zoom, and the quality is great.

M9 articles (updated thrice)

Articles about the new connoisseur-camera Leica M9: an English photo journalists tests it.
And M Reichman tries it as landscape/hiking camera.
In general it's fair to say that apart from the very high price (with a lens or two it approaches $10k), the M9 is the digital Leica everybody has been dreaming of for ten years.
[Update: here's another review by Jason Schneider, who is the author of many books about cameras.]

Hehe, just looked up the very fast (lets in a lot of light for low-light shooting) wide-wide-angle Leica 24mm lens. An amazing piece of engineering it is. And $6,000 too! If that don't make your balls pull up...
The friggin' lens hood is $240! :-)

The famous but controversial Ken Rockwell writes:
The Leica 35mm f/1.4 ASPH is made exactly like every other Leica M lens, which is superbly. This is why Leica has the problem of some men buying these lenses as if they were jewelry, instead of tools.
In any case, this lens is made to last far beyond any of our life times. It will be taking pictures longer than I will.
I know: I've bought other lenses made like this that were bought 50 years ago by guys who never thought that the lenses they were buying to take photos of their kids would be inherited by those same kids and still used long after they were dead.
This of course brings us back to the jewelry problem: Leica lenses really are heirloom-grade, so the glitter boys give Leica cameras a bad name.

Are the collectors unfortunate for Leica? I can see how they may make some think that Leica gear is not serious tools. But on the other hand, maybe Leica would not survive solely on the tiny market of photographers who can afford their gear and also uses it to photograph? I'd not be surprised if collectors are essential to Leica's survival, particularly in a time where if you go by numbers only (megapixels and so on), Leica does not appear to be good value for money.

Me, I dunno. I like top-grade shit, but... well, it's a bit anachronistic, innit? Why have a rangefinder instead of AF these days? And why the BS cover on the bottom, which was unhandy even on film cameras, and serves no purpose at all on a digital camera.

Doug said:

"A camera in the hand is worth two really gourmet ones back at the flat"

-famed English photographer Randolph Hughes

Very funny, and very true. And I'll bet virtually nobody can tell pictures apart from a $9000 Leica and a $500 Nikon.