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  • Tripods Aren’t For Shooting, They’re For Waiting
    Name: David Cardinal

    _djc7021Okay, now that I’ve got your attention, of course tripods are for shooting. But the most under-appreciated advantage of a tripod isn’t when you’re shooting it is when you’re waiting. For any type of wildlife photography and many sports there can be long periods of waiting patiently and then a quickly unfolding moment of drama. You may only have a second or two to react and get a shot of the peak of action. If you need to pull your camera up from your side, aim, and shoot, then no matter how fancy you’re camera strap, you’re skunked….

  • Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 AF-S Shoot Out–VR I model vs. new VR II version
    Name: David Cardinal

    djc_0994I really didn’t want to like the new Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G AF-S ED VR II lens. Sure I knew it’d be a great lens but since I already have the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 AF-S VR and the Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM in my bag I wasn’t looking for another $2K lens to add to my wish list. But so that I could pass along a real comparison of the three versions of this popular lens I got a review unit and took all of them out to put them through their paces at the local duck pond. Read on for what I found…

  • Going Inside The Photographer’s Mind with Michael Freeman
    Name: David Cardinal

    Freeman deals with difficult topics like using shapes, lighting and leading the viewer's eye into the image as typified by this Namibian Sand Dune Photo. Image Copyright David Cardinal.There are a lot of great “how-to” books on photography, including some of our favorites like Joe McNally’s Hotshoe Diaries and Moose Peterson’s Captured, but there aren’t many good ones on the elusive subject of composing photographs—which is where much of the true art lies in photography. One of our favorite authors on this subject is Michael Freeman. An accomplished photographer in his own right (his photographic studies of Cambodian temples in Ancient Angkor are still the high-water mark of temple photography) and prolific author, we’ve recommended his excellent The Photographer’s Eye since it was first released. Now he has another ground-breaking book that pushes the topic further into how photographers think about composition with hundreds of examples covering dozens of topics in The Photographer’s Mind…

  • A Leica For The Rest of Us? The Sigma DP1X Reviewed and Field Tested
    Name: David Cardinal

    Siem Reap, Cambodia is a lively place at all times of day and night.Even as a kid I knew enough to lust after a Leica. They represented the zenith of no compromise image quality. At first a Leica was way out of my budget so I didn’t think much about it. And then by the time I could seriously think about buying one I needed the breadth of a D-SLR system for my wildlife photography work. And with the price of the current Leica M9 digital rangefinder camera a cool $7,000 (plus thousands for each lens) I certainly wasn’t going to buy one just for fun. So I was excited when Sigma started producing small, rangefinder style cameras using the same Foveon sensors that they were using in their D-SLR. But the question was whether at 1/10th the price of a Leica I’d found a no compromise solution to high quality images in a small form factor. Read on to learn what I’ve found…

  • Clash of the HDR Titans: Comparison Review of Photomatix Pro and nik HDR Efex Pro Posted
    Name: David Cardinal

    I've posted my comparison of the top two stand-alone High-Dynamic Range (HDR) image processing programs, the brand new HDR Efex Pro 1.1 from nik Software and Photomatix Pro from HDRSoft the longstanding champion on my blog at B&H's blog site. It's already stirred up some great controversy among readers who each have their favorite. And this version left out a direct comparison with Photoshop's own built-in HDR features which I've written about previously but as Photoshop continues to expand its offerings in this area we'll begin adding it to future versions of our comparisons.

    You can see all the articles we've published on this site about HDR by clicking here.

  • Inside a Nikon D7000--Tear one Apart and Look!
    Name: David Cardinal

    Chipworks has dissected a Nikon D7000 and candidly reveals what they found. From the new Sony imager to 512MB of Static RAM it is impressive to see what's packed between our palms when we squeeze the trigger. If you've never gotten a behind the scenes tour of a Nikon service facility this is the best way to get a sneak peek!

     

     

  • YOUBIQ adds all in one Mini-Pod, Grip, and Cloud Based Organizer to the iPhone 4
    Name: David Cardinal

    The YOUBIQ won't turn your iPhone into a pro camera, but for those looking to upgrade their camera phone photography experience the YOUBIQ Gymbl, App & Cloud solution is an interesting set of products and services which aim to make everything from image capture to upload and organization simpler. For, say, real estate agents or others who rely on their phones for quick images for work this could be great. And for families and vacationers who are almost happy with the iPhone as a camera but want to take it one notch further this will be an interesting alternative to getting a point and shoot with an Eye-Fi card. Read on for more details...

  • Southeast Asia Trip Report–Destination Myanmar (Burma)
    Name: David Cardinal

    "Intha Style" boats are family cars for the villagers living on Inle Lake. Here the father takes his daughter to school and his wife to market before beginning his day fishing.After a busy five days in Cambodia we reluctantly took our leave and jetted off to Myanmar. After a short connection in the Bangkok airport (Bill was ecstatic to find they had Durian ice cream there but the foot massages were a bigger hit with most of the folks) we arrived in Yangon (formerly Rangoon and still the largest city in Myanmar) in time to see sunset on the way into town. We get asked a lot about whether it is difficult to get permission to travel in Myanmar and the answer is absolutely not—tourists are welcomed. And once there no country has friendlier people…


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