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rundll

By rundll
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zxcvbnm

zxcvbnm

Posted
Posted

The Royal Albert Hall and the Tate Modern spring to mind, as an occasional London tourist. I also understand that the views from Primrose Hill at night are spectacular - you can really see the whole city.

Or head to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and get the view looking the other way! Shooters Hill is pretty cool too, and you can get some fantastic long exposure shots with the planes landing at City Airport.

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Rev

Rev

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I also understand that the views from Primrose Hill at night are spectacular - you can really see the whole city.

PrimroseHill.JPG

Or head to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and get the view looking the other way!

Greenwich.JPG

Personally I don't find either particularly impressive. Definitely the best view of the city is to be had from the top of Monument but you can't do that at night. The London Eye is cool at night, but obviously that provides plenty of extra problems as far as photography is concerned. Maybe a balcony from Tate Modern if you're there on a late opening day - it's a bit limited view wise, but more convenient than any of the others.

EDIT: They look really dingy uploaded. It's too late to fiddle with colour settings though, so just pretend plz.

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Alexlotl

Alexlotl

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I use a Spyder 3 Express too, which is screen only. Can't remember what I paid for it, but it seemed reasonable. It's locked down to one machine, but (on a Mac at least) if you rename the ICC profiles it creates, you can use it to calibrate multiple monitors attached to that machine (i.e. my laptop screen and my external display). For sheer shits and giggles, I also booted a backup of my Mac via Firewire from my wife's macbook and calibrated her laptop screen.

Won't do you that much good unless you have a decent monitor, though. Look for just about anything with an IPS panel, and memory serves avoid Wide Gamut stuff. I got an amazingly cheap e-IPS model that Dell were doing briefly a few years back. The picture's great, but I've already had its power supply die once, resulting in a replacement panel (free under warranty), so they may have cheaped it elsewhere.

Regarding printers - I have a pretty nice A4 Canon Photoprinter, and awesome though it is, I'm not really sure it's economically worth the effort. Canon's soft-proofing profiles actually cover the calibration thing surprisingly well, but the cost of the ink and the paper makes it not much (if any) cheaper than a print shop. If you know a local print shop that's fully calibrated, then it's probably a better bet just to send your stuff there. I'm not sure I'd want to make the financial commitment of an A3 page of ink without the ability to get a free reprint if the colours are goosed.

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zxcvbnm

zxcvbnm

Posted
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I don't what its like in your part of Europe but over here we've got places online like http://www.dscolourlabs.co.uk/. They offer fanatastic commercially saleable print quality (all the prints I've sold or won compeitions with have been from here). I'd look into if there's anyone in your part of the world (DSL may service Europe). I've looked into printers several times and compared to using someone like DSL the cost of running/maintenance is astronmical, never mind the constant faffinf about with calibration.

That said if you're impatient and WANT PRINT NOW then a printer may be an option.

;)

Another recommendation for DS labs from me (and most of my camera club) - fantastic quality prints, fast turnaround and amazingly cheap.

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Talvalin

Talvalin

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Hey guys.

My travel insurance is about to run out and I reckon it would be better to use that photography equipment insurance place Morrius (IIRC) mentioned rather than pay extortionate additional premiums on standard travel insurance (claim up to £1000 but only £100/item you what the fuck? I've got a 400D, a 24-105L a f/1.4 50 and a 10-22. I appreciate that this probably isn't a sensible long-term travelling equipment, but everyone has their vice right? Now if only I didn't have about 13 books as well...).

Except I can't find it. Could someone link me up please? :)

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88h88

88h88

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I don't think I've seen this mentioned in here but it appears a company is planning on producing a digital 35mm film cartridge for old school cameras in 4/8/12mp flavours...

http://re35.net/index.html

There are many reasons to hold on to your classic 35-mm analog Cameras. Wether you invested a serious amount of money or you just all that mechanical goodness - your classic Nikons, Canons, Leicas, Rolleis or Pentaxes deserve to stay. And even if you just love analog photography: the grain, the colors, the image quality - dealing with analog film does have it’s drawbacks. The hassle and the price for materials keep you from keeping it analog more and more often.

With the RE-35 digital cartidges you can have the best of both worlds. Go digital, whenever you want to. And keep using your vintage equipment.

I can see an upside and a downside to this but it's a really cool idea.

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88h88

88h88

Posted
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possible april fools, that.

Possible but the idea and tech have been around for a while... From 2001:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0102/01021201siliconfilmefs1.asp

Silicon Film Technologies Demonstrates EFS-1 at PMA; Electronic Film System Turns Conventional 35mm SLR Into a Digital Camera

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- PMA - Silicon Film Technologies, Inc. today conducted the first public demonstration of its Electronic Film System (EFS) technology to attendees at PMA 2001, the largest exhibition of imaging products and services in North America. The company's first product, EFS-1, is designed to fit into the film compartment of select 35mm SLR cameras and allow the user to capture digital images with no modification to the camera. The systems' three components, (e)film Cartridge, (e)port Carrier and (e)box Storage module, are designed for the image capture, image transfer to a PC or Mac®, and remote image storage respectively. EFS-1 was demonstrated at Silicon Film's PMA booth #3411.

``The genesis of EFS-1 carries us to a new and exciting plateau,'' said Ken Fay, President and Chief Executive Officer, Silicon Film. ``This demonstration is a goal we have been seeking for some time, and we are very happy to be conducting it at this prestigious show. Silicon Film's EFS-1 is a limited edition product targeted at prosumer photographers, which includes the serious hobbyist up to semi-pro and professional levels,'' Fay continued. ``After we conduct the required certification and 'beta' testing, we will announce a confirmed shipping date.''

Silicon Film's patented technology is based on a high-resolution CMOS image sensor and the extreme miniaturization of the required electronics to achieve (e)film's unique adaptability. The value of the EFS-1 design is that prosumer photographers can extend the use of their sizeable investments in 35mm SLR cameras, lenses and other accessories to ``bridge'' the conventional film and digital worlds, all with a single photography system that is both completely familiar and comfortable. Further, the user can easily switch between conventional film and digital, depending on the shooting requirements.

``With the explosive growth of digital photography, we have certainly been challenged to keep up with a rapidly advancing market,'' said J. Bruce Totty, senior vice president, sales and marketing, Silicon Film Technologies. ``We migrated from our original 800k pixel CMOS sensor to a 1.3 million pixel sensor which we are demonstrating here at PMA. Our next generation EFS products will match our product features with other competitive market offerings and have the unique advantage of the (e)film concept.''

``EFS-1 proves a concept that just made sense from the beginning,'' said Doug Howe, Chief Marketing Officer, Silicon Film Technologies. ``The combination of our advanced image science, use of leading-edge CMOS imager technology and the functionality of an SLR camera provides us a strong market opportunity. Plans are in place to expand the compatibility of our product with additional camera models in the future.''

Aaaaaaaaaaaand it is indeed an April fool.

Translated:

On this beautiful Friday, we disclose the secret of Re35. Although it appears that all sides wanted and longed for, it is at this lovely product but, unfortunately, just a finger exercise from the house of Rye & Pott in corporate identity and branding. And when the first April will be launched in the press release.

Apparently Silicon Film closed down the week before Sept 11th, they were said to be 3 months away from mass production. :(

This is an April Fools to publicize a design company. It's interesting to see how the concept still fuels the imagination though.

I was the third employee of Silicon Film (and even named the company), who tried to bring this to the market 10 years ago. There were many technical issues, but we managed to solve them all.

Unfortunately though, we ran out of money. After the dot com bubble burst it was next to impossible to get VC funding for a tech company. We managed to keep going but eventually we ran out of cash. We closed our doors the week of the 9/11 attack, an event that killed off any chance of a last minute rescue package.

We were three months from the start of the mass production ramp and had fully working pre-production units. One of our guys managed to keep one of them and used it for years until he finally bought a Nikon DSLR. He got some very nice pics with it too (he loved taking shots of insects and the hummingbirds in his garden).

Oh, and there's currently no viable flexible sensor technology. NHK has made prototypes of an organic semiconductor-based sensor, but that's a long, long way from a product and may never be suitable for conventional imaging purposes due to low sensitivity and slow support electronics.

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Alexlotl

Alexlotl

Posted
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Sounds a bit like the A33 was about to be replaced by the A35, but the Japanese earthquake has delayed all Sony's new product announcements. Not sure what the differences were going to be.

I'd hold off for a few months - use the time to stalk nice old Minolta lenses on Ebay!

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Dapple

Dapple

Posted
Posted

Hmm, had a scout about online, looks like they have discontinued the a33...

Not sure if that's why it's now within my budget though, I can imagine a new one will sit at a higher price point!

What Minolta mounts are compatible with the Sony?

Any Minolta A-Mount lens (so all of their AF lenses) is compatible with the Sonys. I wouldn't expect the A35 to add that much more so the A33 should still be a decent bet, especially if the price is coming down.

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iwan_canobi

iwan_canobi

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Ha ha, I wouldnt dare go against one of those! Although with the light in that room he probably just ended up with a whole load of black photos shooting at that speed!

I've noticed that during football at times, you can hear the machine gun like sound of shutters from photographers near to the tv microphones!

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