Monday 29 June 2009

LONDON - CAMDEN MARKET

It's all about the colour on this image ...CX1 colour rendition is great - good job, considering there isn't a RAW file option, and isn't likely to be in the future, either.

In the compact camera market, Fuji had previously built a great reputation for fantastic colour rendering, and made some really excellent cameras ...F10, F11, F30 ... to the extent that it would previously have been awkward for its users to change to another brand. The feeling was that they'd have to 'put up' with the way the image would look, from a colour viewpoint ... clearly an area that Ricoh have worked very hard at, and a good sign for future models.

Monday 22 June 2009

SHILLINGFORD ST, ISLINGTON


A b&w image from this morning - Shillingford Street, London Borough of Islington, on an overcast but reasonably bright day.

Islington is hugely mixed ... in this part, there's a superb Greek coffee bar, which also sells some unidentifiable food and odd ingredients, a high-end kitchen showroom, interior designers, music shop, you name it ... makes for an interesting place.

LIKE CAMERAS ?





Just as well ... they really are everywhere. These taken at the long end of the zoom on CX1 ... definitely something my LX3 unfortunately can't manage, which is why I use them both.
What's impressive is that I've not had a single blurred image with the CX1 due to camera shake - the image stabilisation works brilliantly at all focal lengths, right up to 200mm, which along with its ultra fast-focusing ability means its easy to grab a shot when there's little time.

Thursday 18 June 2009

E-P1 £799 ...or £24.95 ?

Well the new Olympus E-P1, after so much speculation, should see the light of day in the UK sometime around early July. No doubt, a great camera, with the 'dream spec' for some photographers. So much anticipation & excitement.

Suggestion from me : whether you're planning to buy it or not, invest less than £25 -first - in what's probably the most interesting general photography book I've read in ages. Absolutely guaranteed to improve your photography ...can the same be said of the E-P1 ?

Saturday 6 June 2009

ARTIST'S IMPRESSION ?

LX3 f/4.5, 1/640, ISO80, -0.7EV

Struck me when processing this image earlier how similar it looks to some of those architectural 'Artist's impression' images you see in marketing brochures for new housing and commercial developments ... this image shot at the Hub, Milton Keynes ... one of the most recent, and therefore thoroughly modern in styling - very fitting for this modern city.

LX3 DYNAMIC BW

LX3 f/4.5, 1/2000, ISO80, -1.3EV

Digging through a 'to be processed' folder of fairly recent LX3 images, reminding myself just how great a camera it is - and the 'Dynamic Black & White' output, with a very film-like feel, was one of the big attractions in acquiring an LX3. Advantage over the CX1 is the customisation of the 'film' type, which perhaps Ricoh will learn from ?

Friday 5 June 2009

DxO COOL TONE

CX1 f/5, 1/1620, ISO80, -0.7EV

Captured in the Hertfordshire countryside, this image has also had a touch of DxO FilmPack processing - rather than the original wispy-clouded blue sky, I went for a cool toning on this for a more interesting look that's decidedly more moody and less 'summery' than the original. Had to be 1:1 format for this one.

BITTERSWEET

CX1 f/4.8, 1/104, ISO130, 0EV

Varying textures became the theme for this image, which I also processed in DxO Labs FilmPack - this time I chose a Fuji Provia 400X film type, for rich colours and great contrast. CX1 lens quality shines here especially, as it picked up superbly the textural detail of the different finishes on the packaging.

THAT'S SOME GATE

CX1 f3.9, 1/176, ISO80, -0.7EV

I've walked past this gate in Cambridge so many times, and it always strikes me as the strangest, most modern-looking I've seen ... and a different photographic subject that I wanted to capture in decent light.