free variable

This morning, a number of gadget sites drew attention to leaked specs for Canon’s rumored 50D DSLR. While I love my 40D, I can now disclose that I have been testing a prerelease copy of the 50D, and it is a remarkable camera. The most interesting new feature is support for extreme low-light photography, including an ISO 12,800 mode. Combined with the new 15.1 MP sensor, this can produce some truly astonishing images. While I’m unwilling to post these to flickr (I don’t want to be caught by an EXIF search), I’m happy to share some example pictures using this feature on this site:

First up, a picture of the night sky from outside of my house. Here’s a macro photograph of an ancient Roman coin (I post-processed this one a little). Finally, here’s an adorable one of Thomas.

I think that this new high-sensitivity mode will really mark the beginning of a creative revolution. Great work, Canon!

This ersatz lomography technique seems like a good way to liven up a sort-of-boring photo of an interesting subject. Here’s this photo “before” and “after.”

The Canon Canonet GIII QL17 is a classic rangefinder from 1972. It was designed to use mercury batteries that are now unavailable in the U.S.¹; substituting contemporary batteries results in metering errors that change over the life of the battery, according to Wikipedia:

The lightmeter uses a PX625 mercury battery, which is now discontinued. The alkaline version can be used, but the different electric tension, different discharge curve, and absence of electronic compensation circuit, induce a defective exposure metering, between a 1.5-f-stop at the beginning of the life of the alkaline battery, and a 1.5-f-stop underexposure [at] the end.

At first glance, it seems absurd, or at least quaint, that someone would put up with inconsistent exposures and the absence of modern amenities in order to use this camera in 2008. (And people do make a lot of nice pictures with the Canonet even today.) However, when one considers all of the crap that people have to put up with to use a 2007-vintage, $10k Leica M8 digital rangefinder, worrying about a stop or two here and there suddenly doesn’t seem like that big a deal.

¹ This decades-old restriction on mercury batteries looks awfully prescient now, since we’ll need to ensure a ready supply of mercury for light bulbs in the next decade. Good show, lawmakers!

Philip Greenspun, arguing that you should send RAW format photos directly to a competent lab for prints (rather than tweaking and postprocessing them yourself first):

Karl Marx deplored the division of labor inherent in an efficient Capitalist economy. Marx thought workers would be happier if they handled every step of a production process from taking the customer’s order to putting the finished good in the customer’s hand. Marx had apparently never suffered the frustration of being an incompetent Photoshop user.

There’s definitely an analogy between postprocessing your own photos and — for home recordists — mastering your own tracks. What’s odd is the difference between how these two are perceived; few musicians are willing to master their own songs, but I don’t know anyone who doesn’t tweak their own photos.

This arrived via e-mail this morning:

I wonder if JCPenney will be providing deep-discount durable goods to families who have been affected by flooding as well, or if they just needed an excuse to get me in-store to upsell me on ever more pictures of my family. (At least they aren’t asking me to examine and reform my life before offering the discount.)

The Amazon Current Blog asks if a new Sigma 50/1.4 lens is “the un-50mm?” The occasion is the impending release of this pricy ($500), heavy lens.

At first glance, it seems like Sigma is trying to buck the modus operandi of third-party lens makers, who usually compete with companies like Nikon, Canon and Sony by making cheaper lenses…. The new lens, more expensive than 50mm lenses from pretty much anyone besides Leica, uses fancy tricks like multi-layer coating coating and aspherical glass in apparent hope that it will be sharper than the competitors at wide apertures. It also advertises attractive out-of-focus areas, something 50mm lenses are not known for.

It would be great if this is indeed their strategy. I wouldn’t have touched Sigma glass ten years ago, but I’ve been very happy with my Sigma 30/1.4. (People have commented to me that it “looks heavy,” though — and I imagine that the 50mm monster will be even more striking.) The lens is available for preorder at Amazon.

META: Hey, this is my 800th post!

This photo.net query is either pretty hilarious, a sad commentary on the age, or both. (link via markd on twitter) Of course, there are obvious parallels to this question in the audio-nerd world, where novice recordists often ask “which plugin/software will make my recordings sound like artist/producer X” — ignoring performance, technique, instrument, room, microphones, mic placement, and preamplification. For some reason, though, reading this recalled this classic Onion article for me.

DIY $10 Macro Photo Studio from Strobist

(This image, taken well after sunset, is merged from several exposures; the dynamic range isn’t great, but it is better than I can usually get with such a long exposure. It isn’t too grainy at this size, but it is at larger sizes.)