iPhone 4 Video

Here is a video I put together to demonstrate the HD video recording capabilities of the iPhone 4 with some comparison video shot with my Sony DSC-H20.

Digital SLR Time

One hobby of mine that has fallen by the wayside the past few years is photography.  Sure, there are times I pull out the Sony H-20 to do some random shoots of stuff but I've not been real serious about getting out and about in some time.  This is something I'm planning to rectify come this fall.

While the H-20 is a fine point-and-shot digital camera and takes some outstanding pictures with some nice features it's still not a DSLR type camera with options for various lenses, RAW file format capability, and other assorted options.  If I want to really get serious about getting back into photography as a hobby I'll need to step up my game, so to speak.

This will be a multi-stage effort on my part starting with purchasing a copy of Aperture 3 by Apple.  I've been playing around with the 30 day free trial and I'm hooked!  It's got some powerful photo editing features that rival and surpass what I've used with previous versions of Photoshop, integrates very well with my iMac, and is no where as expensive as Photoshop.  If you've got a Mac computer and like to take pictures do yourself a favor and try this software out.  You'll thank me later.

Second will be deciding which DSLR I want to get.  Up until my purchase of my Sony H-20 this past spring I've been a hardcore fan of Canon cameras.  As someone who was assistant manager of a photo lab and worked in the lab of a major camera store chain I've always been partial to Canon products and recommended to many friends and customers.  I've used other digital cameras from Nikon and Fuji but always felt that Canon products offered a better quality hardware/picture combination.  The Sony I have has been changing my mind about this somewhat.

One factor in the camera decision will be lenses.  With a Sony Alpha model DSLR I'll be able to use Minolta lenses but I've not had much experience with those so it's a bit of a hedge point for me.  I also prefer lenses made by Sigma.  They offer lenses for Canon, Nikon, and other SLR/DSLR cameras and I like their products.  I have to admit I don't know if they offer equipment compatible with Sony cameras or not, I'll have to get off my butt and look it up later.  One thing is for certain, a trip to the local Wolf Camera at Cameron Village is in the offing as I'll be able to go there and play with various models and lenses to get a "feel" for the current state of DSLR offerings.  I also need to find out if a professional photographer friend I worked with when I worked for Wolf still works there, his is advice that I trust.

My final factor is working out a budget for this project.  I'm including the cost of Aperture 3 in this as it's directly related and will be the first purchase around the end of August.  There will also be various accessory purchases to take into account such as compatible memory cards (at least 32MB), extra battery for the camera, a second zoom lens (at least a 55mm-200 with a preferable 55-300mm range lens), UV filter, and a bag for the new equipment.  An extra zoom lens shouldn't be too big an issue as lots of times DSLRs are advertised with specials including such a lens.  I've already got a decent tripod so that's one less thing to worry about getting.

This is a project/goal I'm looking forward to almost as much as the iMac one was for the first half of the year.  I really do miss going out somewhere with the goal of doing nothing but looking for what catches my eye and thinking of how I want to frame a picture to make it one that others will enjoy as much as I do.

Raleigh Pictures

Here's a link to most of the pictures I took today with my new Sony H-20 digital camera.  For many of the shots I left the camera in "Intelligent Scene" mode while switching to complete manual to compose a few of them.  The picture above is probably my favorite out of all the pictures I took today.  I also shot a one minute video at 720p but I've yet to look at it, much less upload it.  Look for that later on.

I am really liking this new camera!

Oh, be sure to let me know what you think of the pictures!!!

Yet More Test Shots!

Today I took the camera to work with me to do some test shots.  Basically I left the camera in "Intelligent Scene" mode where it decides which settings to used based on the scene being shot.  The idea is to get a good base line on what the camera can do on its own before I start digging into the manual settings.

Here's a link to all the test shots from today.

More Test Shots!

This afternoon I went out in the backyard to do some more test shots with my new digital camera before the clouds rolled in.  Basically I was wanting to test various settings and give the zoom lens a test out.  Here's the link to the uploaded pics.  Overall I am very impressed with this camera!  This is the first Sony camera I have ever owned and I based my purchase decision on a combination of price point, customer reviews, photos I viewed via the camera finder on Flickr, and features.  I am one happy camper with this thing!

Here are a couple of more test shots...

And this one is very impressive as it's a picture of a birds nest near the top of a rather tall tree taken using max zoom.