The good old days to the norm with compact image transmition devices

I have to say I really enjoyed this post as it reminded me of when I was working as a sports photographer for a national press agency.

It is also strange to think that photographers use common soloutions to their problems, as I have been using the Pocket Phojo and a PDA for the last year to do remote transmitions, with the Nikon D2x or the Canon G9

(using the G9 by swapping the memory card or just using the USB cable to view the memory card while plugged into the camera; It does not automaticaly send from the G9, like it does from the D2x)

With the Pocket Phojo software on a PDA and Canon G9 it makes for a very compact reporting kit as the G9 can redord audio and video good enough for the web as well

Read the full article bellow to see how things have changed

The Sydney Morning Herald Blogs: Photographers

For newspaper photographers, the single greatest advantage of dumping film has been faster and easier delivery of pictures.

Before that, a photographer on an away-job might turn his hotel en-suite into a makeshift darkroom, or pay a local mini-lab to stay open after-hours, then transmit one or two prints back to Sydney in a tedious over-the-phone process making you very late for dinner.

Sports photographers needed to work for several hours after full-time to get their pictures back to the paper, while now they can generally get away with the last of the fans.

A decade on, things have progressed to the point where you can transmit your photographs (live) from a smart-phone in your pocket, all the while continuing to shoot the action you were sent there to cover. Read More >>

Designer Straps for the G9

Well you have all the gadgets and attachments for your G9, but then so do a lot of people so how do you make your G9 stand out from the crowd…with a one off designer strap from Luxury Beads.

These straps are also ideal for the ladies who want to make there camera a little less macho and more ‘girly’ as they see fit, there is even a Suicide Girls designs in the pipeline with skull beads and punky pinks. The straps are designed in strength for a point and shoot cameras but equally work on mobile phones (Cell Phone) and PDA’s

The straps come in two lengths one for wrist and the other a neck strap, that is mounted to one of the strap points on the camera. Each strap is unique and a one off, you can’t buy two of the same strap, so no worries of bumping into some one and being embarrassed you have copied some one else’s set up!

This particular strap consisted of seed beads, black agate, and a large glass focal bead, separated by Tibetan silver bead caps and tube beads. Attaching the camera was a small corded loop; these are replaceable in the event of wear (and needs to be checked on a regular bases) and was easy to fit to the G9, unlike some straps that seem to be incompatible or require a screwdriver to force the fitting.

The straps are strong and can take a lot of weight but I would not say they are heavy duty and are more for the social photographer than those covering riots or working at the extreme end of life. That said only time will tell if I am wrong on that one.

Price for the wrist straps are £11.95 and £19.95 for the long/neck straps in the UK and Luxury Beads will be shipping them abroad in the near future.

Can you use the Canon G9 for a Fashion Shoot?

Oh yes…

This is a very interesting video by Photoshop Retouching & Photography Tutorial Videos. However it does not surprise me that much as I used the G9 for some art nude, but just shows how versatile this little point and shoot is, as a backup for a photojournalist or as a stand alone camera.

The adage its the photographer, not the camera springs to mind!

The retouching is also interesting to see as well, although I try to avoid it as I am a bit of a purist

Click here to watch the video 

Enjoy…

Canon G9 Vs Canon 5D

Well here is an interesting way of comparing camera performance, not by using or setting them up to be the same, but by using the best settings for the subject matter, surprisingly (or not) the image quality of the G9 stood up very well and all this without fine tuning the image in post processing which would correct some of the obvious lens flaws like barreling and fringing

Click to read more>>
Canon Powershot G9 and Canon 5D Comparison | The Cleverest

Canon G9 in Ariel Photography

Well here is a novel use for your G9 by www.maineaerialphotography.net and before you rush out buying a remote controlled helicopter, as the latest G9 accessory, be warned they cost thousands of dollars.

Read the full article >>
Miniature choppers offer bird’s-eye view – Fosters

Using the G9 as a discrete recorder

OK, sometimes it can be really useful to be able to record a conversation without other people knowing you are doing it, especially when you are being hassled by the police or jobs worth for taking pictures when you are in the right doing so and the situation looks like going from bad to worse. On the other hand you might have a set of photos and need to do a write up of all the details or interview a person in the pictures and you can use the audio feature on the Canon G9.

You could of course use the video feature, but when the lens extends out it might arouse suspicion, but there is a neat way to switch on the audio without opening up the lens and is a quicker way than going through the menu.

From the camera being switched off press the Play/review > button right of the optical viewfinder, press and hold the Microphone button * top right of the LCD (you should see the recorder display come up on the LCD) press Func/Set  in the middle of the command dial to record.

That’s it 3 buttons to press and you are recording… a short press of the Mic.* button brings up the audio recorder for tagging the image on display (normally the last photograph you took) when you press the Func/Set

Another little trick of the Mic.* button is if you have the camera sounds on (beep for focus, shutter sounds etc.) pressing this while turning the camera on mutes all the sounds from the Canon G9 and is ideal if you want to do some candid shooting, but remember when you play back video or audio you won’t hear it, as you have muted the sounds so you need go into the menu, go to the settings (hammer and spanner) tab and set the MUTE to off

Photojournalist uses G9 for assignment

There is a great post on Strobist for the Canon G9 users on how to get the most out of your G9 using flash and  how they used a G9 shooting for an assignment.
It is no wonder that many PJ’s are now using the G9 as it is a pocket size  DSLR. Heck you can even use Nikon speedlights with this baby so why wouldn’t you buy a G9

Still not convinced?
Magnum Photographer Alex Majoli also used Olympus point and shoots in 2005  and shot many assignments using an Olympus C-8080 in remote and dangerous places and won awards

Now back in 2005 that is considered very old technology for a digital camera compared to today’s G9 era, so when you here some one complain of shutter lag tell them to read this article
It’s the photographer, not the camera that is the important piece of the kit in the equation.

Rob Galbraith: Alex Majoli points and shoots >>

Strobist: On Assignment, Par for the Course >>

 

Free, yes Free Photoshop!

You heard me right!

Just launched today, free version of the Adobe Photoshop, well online version anyway. So now if you wondered what your Canon G9 images would look like processed in Photoshop you can find out.

You can have your own gallery, browse other peoples work and share photos too . Further the Photoshop Express version works from any browser and operating system so it might be useful to some pros working in the remote back yard.

Photoshop Express is currently a basic version in beta testing….I am going to break of now for some testing:)

On the Web: http://www.photoshop.com/express

Ricoh GX100 Review

The people over at Luminous Landscapes have a review on the Ricoh GX100 another RAW shooting compact (which shoots in Adobes Digital Negative, .dng) There are some comparisons to the G9 in the article as well but as the GX100 takes 5 seconds to write the RAW file it’s not one for me

Go to article >>>

Solo Photo Book Month

Over on Musings on Photography they have started  a SoFoBoMo due to start on 1st April-ish 2008 which lasts for a 31 day month. The idea is you make a book (of photo’s) in a month as an intense mini project, it can be a Scribus PDF book, a printed book from a print house like Blurb or other formats of ‘book’.

What better way to get to know your G9 and all its functions, and you may even bump into other G9 users as well. Its also quite interesting to see how some photographers are gearing up for the month project as well.  For more information read bellow