Can you guess what this is a picture of? Click the link below to find out.

It’s actually a picture of the night sky, while raining, taken with a Canon G10 with a 580EX mounted on top. Using the flash and a slow shutter speed, you can capture the light of the flash as it refracts and reflects inside the water drop, and as the drop continues down, the light eventually escapes and the brightness diminishes, give the effect of little comets going up and leaving a tail.

Above is another picture, though as you can see, I’ve been in the rain a little too long and my lens has water on it.

And one taken at a higher shutter speed. Good illusion of space.

part 1 // part 2 // part 3 // part 4

The 6 weeks I had in Cambodia were an amazing experience, and since I only took a single point and shoot camera with me, I was able to experience it without the burden of having to lug around large DSLR equipment or worry about theft. If I were to travel with just a point and shoot camera again though, there would be a few things I’d do differently.

Tripod

I did take a tripod, but it was one of those crappy tripods you get for free with your eBay purchase, considered a “gift” and not really meant to support anything heavier than Richard Hammond. I did have a Manfrotto 055 aluminium tripod but it was too bulky and heavy to take with me. It actually broke on me recently during a shoot which wasn’t nice, but I think the legs may have become brittle from exposure to sea water. Anyways, good reason for me to get that carbon fibre 055 I’ve been wanting.

Anywho, a tripod would have been useful in a few situations and would have helped to counteract the G9’s weak high ISO performance by allowing me to use a lower ISO and longer exposure during low light. Next time I’ll consider getting either a table top tripod such as the Manfrotto Table Top Tripod which would be very useful as long as I had something to stand it on, or the considerably more flexible, but only marginally more expensive, Manfrotto 725B Digi Tripod. Both come with a ball head which, compared to most pan and tilt heads, is very fast to move into the right position.

The table top tripod is smaller and lighter than the 725B, but I think I’ll get the 725B for it’s flexibility since there’s no point carrying a tripod if it’s not going to do what you need it to do. Besides, I probably won’t be taking it everywhere and at just over 1.4kg it’s not hugely inconvenient to carry.

Flash

The built in flash on the G9 is really only good if you like that overblown, arm length, self portrait MySpace/Facebook look that so many teenage girls fancy nowadays. I probably wouldn’t take a flash trigger and more than one flash as that would totally defeat the point of travelling light ( no pun intended ), even if it would totally awesome-ize the photos. What I’d take is a single Canon Speedlite 580EX as that would give me the flexibility to have an on-camera-fill during the day time and a nice ceiling/wall bounce light for interiors. It’s fairly small, about twice the size of the camera itself, and weighs less than a kilo with batteries.

Does look ridiculously big on the G9 though.

Camera

Would I take the G9 again? Sure would! But unfortunately for those among us who have not got a G9, you can’t get one anymore unless it’s second hand. That’s because the Canon Powershot G10 is out. I would recommend the G10 just as much as the G9 as I believe it’s pretty much the same camera. The upgrades aren’t really substantial, like going in for a boob job and all they do is add an extra nipple. Some may find the upgrades pleasing, but performance will be pretty much the same. The wider lens ( 28mm as opposed to 35mm ) is the only reason I would choose the G10 over the G9 and really that’s just personal taste.

Another camera I would consider getting is the Panasonic DMC-LX3 which in my personal opinion is a better camera. I do prefer the body of the G10 ( that control dial at the back is unbeatable ) but the sensor and the lens on LX3 is better ( again, in my opinion ). Canon played the numbers game by upping the G10 sensor to 14 megapixels and in so doing worsened the high ISO performance while Panasonic stuck with a 10 megapixel sensor with larger photosites which results in much better performance in low light.

Another feature of the LX3 that helps low light shooting is it’s image stabilised ƒ2.0-2.8 lens, a full stop faster than the G10 lens. Sure, the maximum zoom on the LX3 is only 60mm while the G10 can do 140mm, but I very rarely will zoom in fully with a point and shoot. Also, the LX3 has a wider 24mm lens which I find more useful than longer zoom. The only downside to the LX3 in my opinion is the control layout. It just isn’t as intuitive and fast like the G10. But then again, I usually keep the camera in aperture priority so it might not be such a big deal.

Summary

That’s pretty much it. I fully enjoyed all the benefits of the G9 on my trip and would recommend anyone not on assignment to consider a G10 or an LX3 for their next trip in place of a DSLR. I hope this was of some help and insight to anyone who may be asking “should I take a point and shoot camera for travelling instead of my $10k DSLR kit?”

part 1 // part 2 // part 3 // part 4

A gallery containing some images from my 6 week trip to Cambodia taken with the Canon G9. You might not be able to see them in your RSS reader.

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part 1 // part 2 // part 3 // part 4

part 1 // part 2 // part 3 // part 4

Six weeks. One point and shoot. Could I do it? That certainly was the question I was asking myself as I was stepping onto my flight to Bangkok. Of course, other thoughts crossed my mind too, like “Did I forget something?” and  ”Will that kilo of ham in my luggage go off before we get there?” Well, let’s find out if the G9 was up to the task.

Size

This is the main reason for choosing a point and shoot over a DSLR in the first place and I have to say, it’s a very welcome change. Bulky as it may be ( for a point and shoot ), it happens to be the smallest camera I’ve ever owned, and it was a pleasure to just throw it into a bag or just carry around with a wrist strap. It’s so nice not having to carry a dedicated camera bag.

Though it might look awkward in your gold lycra hotpants, it’s still quite compact and didn’t feel overly bulky to carry or use. It’s not light, but the weight combined with the solid build made it feel very secure in the hand. It’s also fantastic for candid shots since it’s size and the matte black body doesn’t draw any attention. When it wasn’t in use, the lens sits flush with the body and the whole thing became about the size of a large block of soap.

Battery

Battery life is important when you’re travelling. Unfortunately, not having owned other point and shoots, I can’t really say if the battery life was good or bad. I had always used my 5D bodies with battery grips which allowed me to use two batteries in each body, giving me about 1400 shots per charge. Having said that, for what I used it for, the G9 easily lasted a whole day on one charge and a spare battery is quite cheap and small.

Speed

I’m glad to say that I don’t think there was a shot I missed because the camera was too slow. From being off to being ready to shoot takes less than a second which, having used other peoples point and shoots, is quite nice. So, unless you need to zoom in, since it always defaults back to wide when you power it on, you shouldn’t worry about missing any shots if you keep it on auto/program or any of the priority modes. I never used the camera to fire off multiple exposures but at about one frame per second, I’m not sure there’s much use for it.

Screen

It felt solid enough that all I did was put on a screen protecter ( which is just a film of plastic ) over the screen and never had to worry about getting scratches or breaking the thing. Having only used 2.5″ screens on my 5D and a 2″ screen on my first digital camera ( Sony 717 ), the 3″ screen on the G9 was very refreshing. View-ability was good, even in sunlight, but I didn’t use it all that much to review shots since I’d download all the files to my 17″ MacBook Pro every night. I do believe the images seem a cooler temp on the G9 screen than on my Mac though.

Controls

Very well laid out controls made the G9 a joy to use. I don’t think I could ever use a camera without a control wheel on the back as it’s such a good method to quickly make changes ( like the iPod’s click wheel ). Exposure changes where easy and the menu was fairly intuitive. The built in neutral density filter was very welcome in sunny and contrasty Cambodia.

One thing I found a little redundant was the dedicated ISO wheel. While I would gladly welcome it on my 5D, I found it of limited use on the G9. The difference is that my 5D can take decent images from ISO 50-1600 whereas the G9 really only performs well at ISO 50-200. It even has Auto ISO mode and ISO compensation settings so most the time I never needed to change it myself.

Image

Ah, so, the big question. Having used the 5D with L lenses for 2 years, how does the image quality of this point and shoot compare? At ISO 50 – 100 and in the daytime, surprisingly good. There’s a huge amount of detail with good sharpness and colour in a well exposed shot. Pixel for pixel, the 5D wins, but for real usage ( such as on the web ) the G9 is quite outstanding. Though the 5D shoots in 3:2 aspect ratio and the G9 in 4:3, they are both effectively 12 megapixel cameras and on 6 x 4 and up to 8 x 12 prints, I found the quality of the G9 to be quite acceptable indeed.

Once you pump the ISO to 200 and up, however, the gap widens considerably. Colour information goes down as the level of noise comes up. Not being able to use the RAW mode at the time ( because it was too new and Apple didn’t support it ) didn’t help either. But I already knew this when I bought the camera and was prepared for it. I just didn’t shoot much at night. And in emergencies the built in flash did a decent job and lighting stuff 2 meters away. Not pretty, but it does the job.

Purple fringing is visible in high contrast areas but is minimal and isn’t really noticeable at 25%. If it does bother you, you can always turn the picture black and white like my photo above. I found the lens to be quite sharp from ƒ2.8-ƒ8 with slight distortion on the wide end.

Overall I’m very happy with the quality of the images that came out of this camera. I’m including a gallery in part 3 showing some of the pictures I took during my 6 weeks away. Most of them have been processed through Aperture while a few have just been resized. I don’t think an unprocessed image straight out of the camera is necessary for evaluation as it’s what you can do with the image that counts.

Video

Now here’s something I’ve been missing out on for a very long time. The video capabilities on the G9 are great and recording 640 x 480 at 30 frames per second captures quite a lot of detail. The exposure is good but you can’t zoom while recording which is a pity. Sound is typical of such a small device where motion capture is secondary to stills, which isn’t to say that it’s bad, just not fantastic. Another neat feature is a time lapse mode where it can record 1 frame every 1 or 2 seconds for up to 2 hours.

Here’s a short clip of some of my young cousins in Cambodia. It’s hosted at Vimeo and you can download the original AVI file from my Vimeo page.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As you can see the G9 handles different lighting conditions fairly well and the sound is quite acceptable. Movement is captured at a decent rate and for web use, I would have no hesitation to use the video capabilities.

Overall

Very pleased. The G9 is portable, reliable, fast and makes nice images. It’s limitations were easy to live with and is overshadowed by the thing it does well: take pictures. I don’t regret for a moment not taking my DSLR. Sure, some of the pictures would have turned out better, but the fact that I could always take this camera with me probably resulted in me getting more pictures.

In part 3 I’ll have a gallery of some of the pictures I took during my 6 weeks in Cambodia and in part 4 I’ll talk about some of the things I’ll do differently next time I go on a trip. Stay tuned.

part 1 // part 2 // part 3 // part 4

When you’re an avid photographer, you always like to be prepared. It’s hard to leave home without a camera and a lens or two, let alone go on a long trip without all your gear. And being an avid photographer, you probably have accumulated quite a lot of gear. So, when you find yourself going on holidays to some other part of the world, you’re going to have to ask yourself: “What the hell do I take and what do I leave behind?”

I had to make that very decision at the end of 2007, when I was headed off to Cambodia with some friends. What I was considering taking was my Canon 5D body with a 24-70 ƒ2.8 and a 70-200 ƒ2.8 so I would have a nice range from 24-200 that should pretty much cover anything I needed. Oh, and maybe a flash or two. And maybe my Manfrotto tripod, since I was going to see the temples of Angkor.

Then I realised what I had become: a photo freak. That’s over 10 kg worth of gear. Am I really going to spend 6 weeks lugging around all that in a country where the only weather report you need is a small card with 32˚C and sunny written on it? Sure, if I was getting paid for it. But this was supposed to be a holiday, not an assignment. So I did a full about face, sold all my gear and bought a Canon Powershot G9.

Canon G9

I’m actually kidding about the selling all my gear, but I really did go out and buy the Canon G9. So, why did I choose the Canon G9 above other point and shoots? After doing the research, but not having actually used the camera, these were the things at attracted me to the G9:

Control – When you use DSLRs all the time, you come to rely on the control that they offer. Some things I could live without, but I had to have full control over exposure. This meant having full and easy control of the basic trinity of photography: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

Lens – The G9 has a lens with the 35mm equivalent of 35-210, which to be honest, I didn’t really care about much. What was important to me, however, was the maximum aperture of 2.8-4.8 for it’s zoom range. I like bokeh, and it’s important to have the largest aperture when you’re dealing with reduced sensor sizes to achieve decent bokeh. Image stabilisation was a bonus.

RAW – In this matter, I probably should have done my research a little more carefully. You see, I shoot pretty much exclusively in RAW, and I use Apple Aperture exclusively to manage my RAW files. I was quite excited that the G9 had brought back RAW capabilities that were lacking in previous models. What I didn’t realise was that Apple hadn’t yet brought out support for the G9 RAW files. So the whole trip, it was JPEG all the way.

Body – It looked rugged. Metal body, good weight, solid controls. I wanted a camera that I could chuck around and the G9 certainly looked the deal. The 3″ screen was also a nice change from the 2.5″ one I was used to on the 5D.

So, those were the reasons I chose the G9.

In part 2 I’ll talk about whether those features were actually useful once I was on the trip, what I liked and didn’t like about the camera, and how it performed as an only camera. Stay tuned.

part 1 // part 2 // part 3 // part 4

One of the funniest videos I’ve seen in a while. Especially good if you’re interested in photography. In the same vein as this video but a whole lot less musical.

While I think the above video is totally cool, I’m really not sure what all the fuss is about concerning it’s price. It’s competing against the Canon 1Ds MkIII, not the Sony A900 or the Canon 5D MkII. If all you’re concerned with is resolution, then sure, the A900 or 5D MkII will fit the bill, but if you’re in need of the resolution and a rugged weatherproof body, you’re going to have to pay for it.

People have been buying the Canon 1Ds range for years because it’s had no competition. Now Nikon can compete with the 1Ds almost feature for feature, and if it’s better than the Canon ( which I think it will be ), then Canon will have to either improve their camera ( win for us! ) or they’ll have to drop the price to compete ( win for us! ).

Lenses, on the other hand, well, that’s why I still use Canon.

I was watching Top Gear today and I saw they were doing the High-Speed-Water-Balloon-Popping™ thing when they introduced one of the cars. It’s always pretty to look at but I’ve been seeing it used quite a lot lately. Awfully fun to do and certainly great to view if done well.

More examples, plus my own attempts at it from earlier this year, after the jump.

Top Gear Season 12 Episode 6

I love Top Gear’s use of slow motion / high speed cameras. For a show that’s mostly about speed, I think it’s very appropriate that they borrow some of David Attenborough’s toys. I’d love to get my hands on one of those cameras.

The Schweppes Ad

Click here to view the embedded video.

Beautifully made ad. Strong visuals combined with appropriate music and you’ve got a winner here. No purpose than to look good. I like.

Chase Jarvis on High Speed Photography

Click here to view the embedded video.

Good explanation of how to achieve the high speed shot but unfortunately it’s a bit slim on the Photoshop techniques used.

My Own Examples

These three shots were hand triggered ( yes, using my finger on the shutter ) at 1/8000 of a second with my Canon 5D. I prefer these shots to some of the more clinical shots that you find on Flickr as they’re mostly done the Chase Jarvis way using flash on a black background. I think the colour and composition of these shots make them more interesting because they feel more complete as opposed to just balloon popping on black/white background.