Saturday, September 22, 2007
We went for a short trip just outside of town this evening so I could have a play with my new camera.These are the first half decent results.
All of these look better in larger sizes. Click the images to view them on Flickr, then click the "all sizes" button the pics, to get larger versions.
Several of these pics have been processed on Photoshop CS3, as if it wasn't obvious. I'm liking this software as much as the camera.
Steve 4:23 AM [+] (2) comments
Friday, September 14, 2007
Busy busy busy, work work work, etc etc....So, it was my birthday a week or so ago, and among other cool pressies, I recieved a Sega Nomad (handheld genesis) from Andrea, which is incredibly cool, and in the uk at least, rather rare.
In other news, after much messing around with another supplier, resulting in a cancelled order, I placed an order for a new camera... a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ50. It should arrive tomorrow, or monday.... certainly no later than tuesday.
Impatient? Me?
Never!
I want it!
Is it here yet?
Also, I've been messing around a little with last.fm, and found I can do this...
Benway Radio Mk II, or something. All the tunes this thing plays are ones in my collection, if I'm not mistaken, so no randomly chosen rubbish that I didn't select.
Enjoy.
Labels: camera, consoles, photos
Steve 11:09 PM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Here are a few pics taken while experimenting and getting to grips with the new camera. These were just tinkering shots, so I could figure out how the aperture and shutter speed worked, and while the results aren't something I'd put on flickr, I figure I'd like to let people see them here.
No prizes for figuring out who this is. Self timers are handy things.
This is the kitten cleaning himself, with a 5 second or so exposure time.
This is my street at around 1am. No flash and no photoshop processing.
The back garden, in the rain at 2am. No flash, and no visible ambient light. It was quite literally pitch black to the naked eye. This shot used f2.8 aperture, 30 second exposure and ISO 200 'film'. Again, no photoshopping to boost the brightness.
Steve 1:17 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, August 24, 2006
I have a new camera. Yay!Andrea was clicking through the Argos website the other day when I stopped her as she scrolled down, saying "What's that? Scroll back up a bit."
There was this funky looking camera that for a split second had looked like the Panasonic I'd been drooling at for the past couple of months. As it turns out though, it was a Sony DSC-H1, and at the stupidly good price of £175.
However, this being a reduced price clearance item, none of the local Argos stores had it in stock. Never mind, I thought.
Andrea being Andrea, though, spent the next I don't know how long searching all of the local, and then not so local, and then downright miles away Argos stores untill she found one that had the camera in stock, whereupon she reserved it, before coming back to me and asking "So did you want to buy that camera then?"
Best.... girlfriend.... ever.
So now I'm sitting here playing with it, and trying to figure out all of the manual controls.
All of the photos you've seen on this blog and on flickr were taken on my Fuji Finepix 2800, which though it's a nice camera, and allows for some flexibility and creativity, is largely automatic in function. This Sony can be used in exactly the same way, with very effective automation, but with the option to go semi-auto, or full manual in focus, exposure and apature.
The zoom is double that of the Fuji, at 12x, while the resolution is 5.1 megapixels, up from 2 on the Fuji.
So, once I've got to grips with it, expect to see a marked increase in the number of fancy pics appearing here :D
Labels: camera
Steve 7:49 PM [+] (0) comments
Friday, February 14, 2003
Ah, how I love digital cameras.I've had this fuji camera for a while, and always knew it was capable of recording digital video, but untill the other evening when arry sent me some footage she'd taken on hers, I'd never actually tried it.
Well... today I went and took a series of clips shot during my trip into town, ammounting to 1min 40 secs, including sound, which when compressed into mpeg format comes to 14 or so megs, and totally filled the memory card in the camera.
"Not enough!" I said to myself, and promply bought a 128meg smart media card. Epic home videos to follow... hehehe.
Anyone who's curious, bored, or dumb enough, and has broadband, who'd like to see these clips is welcome to come into the chatroom, #Benway on irc.blitzed.org, using mirc or whatever, and I'll send them to you. I can't send to people using the chat applet on the website, as it doesn't have a file send feature.
Labels: camera
Steve 1:32 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, August 21, 2002
A nice day all round.I was woken early by my mum, phoning to tell me she was going to be in town earlier than usual, so it was a bit of a mad rush to get bathed and up there to meet her. We had our usual coffee, and then wandered round the town centre, walked to Campell Park and stuff. Needless to say, I had the camera with me (pics on page 5 of the photo album).
Now for a little demonstration, just to show off the effectiveness of the zoom on this camera. I dare say you're all bored to death of it... but I'm having fun, so there :P
This is the unzoomed image of the view from my balcony. Yeah, I know, you've all seen it before. Anyway... see the box in the image? That's the area I zoomed into. Click on the picture and you'll see what I mean. The zoomed in image shown is actually reduced in resolution by 50% and highly compressed, purely for the sake of download time, and to fit on the screen... needless to say, the original image is very detailed (and about 350k).
Steve 5:51 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, August 15, 2002
Night photography has always been something I've wanted to try, but using conventional SLR cameras with 35mm film, it was just too complicated. Film speed, aperture, time exposeure and whatever... over my head, and too expensive in film to experiment.So... along come digital cameras, and my first few experiments were quite encouraging, but the camera wasn't really up to the job. The pics came out, and you could see what was on them, but the images were always very grainy. I tried a few night shots last night with the new camera, but the longer exposure time meant they came out blurred, as it was impossible to hold the camera steady enough, especially at full zoom. Today then, I nipped into town and picked up a cheap and chearful tripod. Nothing flash, but it's nice and tall, and fully adjustable... doesn't weigh too much either.
HERE is the result. You saw the shots I took yesterday of the Milton Keynes skyline from my balcony? This is the same view at night... a shot I've wanted to take for the whole 10 years that I've lived here. (I scared the crap out of two women walking past when I was taking pics. Forgot to turn off the flash on the first shot. Duh!)
Now I just need to wait for winter to get the shot I REALLY want.
There's a field not far from here, with a stand of trees in it. One Christmas Eve, I was coming back from my favourite pub, around midnight and took a shortcut through that field. There was a heavy frost on everything, and a full moon shining through the trees. No street lights, buildings or anything. Utterly breath taking. I happened to have a cheap happy snaps camera with me, loaded with a stupidly fast film, so decided to try and capture the scene. It might have worked too, but I never found out. When I took the film to be developed, something had gone wrong, and none of the shots on the entire roll came out. Bummer.
Anyways, I'm now determined to get that shot. I have the equipment, I have the location... I just need a good heavy frost and a full moon.
*Looks at his watch*... Is it December yet?
Steve 9:58 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, August 14, 2002
I have a new toy.For a while now, I've been taking pics with a Kodak EZ200, which doubles up as a webcam. This is fine for taking quick snaps or whatever, but the image quality leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to taking pics for my artwork. So, now I've got one of these...
A Fuji FinePix 2800 Zoom
I've been playing with it a bit, though not nearly got my head round all of the manual options. Looks like it should be able to do everything I ask of it though, and a whole lot more. As for the image quality... it's awesome.
Here's an example. I shot this from my balcony looking out across the town, a view that up untill now, I've been totally unable to capture with the Kodak. The pic here isn't even prepresentative of the original quality, as I've reduced the size and compressed it an ammount, just to reduce download time. Still pretty good though eh?
Here's a group of pics strung together in photoshop to give a panoramic view from my balcony. I honsetly think I have the best view over Milton Keynes from anywhere on the north side of town.
Steve 6:53 PM [+] (0) comments
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