First thing first, if you want a good how-to article on the basics of macro photography composition, head over to dpreview’s featured article, “Composition Basics in Macro Photography“.

In that article, there is a mention of “lead room” — a composition concept based on the idea that there should be a certain extra space in the direction in which the animal eyes are looking. In this photo below, however, the eyes is not the prominent feature of the photograph.

What applies here is the Rule of Thirds, that is, positioning the subject off-centre in a grid of three.

Dragonfly

When shooting insects in their environment, be mindful of the many distractions around them. A blade of grass intruding into the picture, for instance, like the one shown below, can result in unwanted distraction, making the photo look busy and ugly.

Blady grass distraction

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This has been circulating around the web for quite sometime now but it was only today that I had the opportunity to put it to test: using a drop of water as macro lens for a smart phone. When I first read about this over at PetaPixel, I could not help but slap my forehead; it’s so simple I could have thought it myself!

This is how you do it: drop a small amount of water on the phone’s lens, carefully turn the phone over, find your subject and start shooting. You can focus the lens by moving the phone towards or away from the subject.

Here is a macro photo of the metal plate of a household water pump taken with the Nokia N8 at the minimum focusing distance of the phone’s macro mode, which is about 5cm.

Water pump metal label

Below are the macro photographs of the same metal plate with the water macro lens “attached.”

A drop of water as macro lens

Macro liquid lens

Here’s another, at the normal shooting distance:

Flower

And here is the macro shot using the lens:

Although the resulting images are far from being sharp, they nevertheless display a potential, which, in good hands, may result in some kinds of expression or another, mimicking some of the Lensbaby’s effects but at a macro level:

Abstraction, or losing in expression?

On a serious note, there has been a research done on using water or liquid as a lens element. The research began from as early as 2005. The lens being developed is called a liquid lens. At the time the breakthrough was announced, it was reported that the lens would make its way into camera phones.

I’m not sure how the research turns out to be though as not many has been written about it.

One question begs an answer, though: Is “liquid lens” the holy grail which camera designers have been looking for in their quest to defy the law of physics, allowing them to shrink the size of lens for large sensor cameras?

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Here are two low light videos from the new Nokia 808 PureView. I must say this is impressive. Camera phones tend to struggle to capture low-light scenes and often tend to blow up the light source.

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That was quick. Pre-orders are now available for the new super-duper Canon FF camera, the EOS 5D Mark III, barely hours after being announced yesterday. In Malaysia, the 5D Mark III can be pre-ordered from online retailer Shashinki, but with a deposit of RM1,000.

The much-awaited Canon EOS 5D Mark III

Pre-orders are also available at B&H at the price of US$3,499 (body only) or US$4,299 (with the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L Lens).

I won’t repeat all the technical data of the Mark III or offer any opinion. A good place to find such resource is at 1001NoisyCamera which has compiled comprehensive links about the Mark III in the WWW.

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Starting March 12, all newly purchased medium format Hasselblad H4D cameras will include a fully functional copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom software at no extra charge, Hasseblad said today.

Under this agreement, Hasselblad is creating new opportunities for all lovers of medium format photography as well as for aspirational 35mm professionals, advanced amateurs and enthusiasts to perfect, search, process and organize their images in a single solution regardless of their experience or skill level, it said.

Adobe Hasselblad Lightroom...

Full version of the press release, here.

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Canon G1X: A Macro-less Camera?

by Jaxon S on February 29, 2012

in Camera Raves and Rants

One of the best compact cameras for shooting macro photographs has been the Canon G cameras. It’s ability to zoom while in super macro mode allows the camera to put the subject in sharp focus and provide a nice background blur. In fact, this blog was inspired by the Canon PowerShot G6, a 2004 camera which I still use today as a carry everywhere camera for macro photography.

Spider in super macro mode with the old Canon PowerShot G6

To demonstrate the prowess of the G6 as a macro shooters, I recently took it to our backyard and shoot some spiders, ants and foliage with it. The photo above was taken with the G6 without the help of any macro converters.

Ant by Canon G6 (cropped)

Leaves

The latest G, however, seems to have lost its macro capabilities. According to Trusted Reviews which has tested the camera, the G1X poor close focusing distance will be a concern. It says:

Canon claims the minimum focus distance as 20cm when the camera is being used in Macro mode although we measured it as closer to 23cm. Taking the camera out of Macro, minimum focus distance jumps to around 35cm, and that’s at its 28mm widest! Zoom in a bit and you’re soon looking at around 1.5meters minimum distance, and just under two metres at 112mm. The upshot of all this is that it’s hard to recommend the G1 X as a serious tool for dedicated Macro enthusiasts. [Source: Trusted Reviews]

The only consolation would be the G1X’s large sensor, allowing some room for cropping. But then, it won’t be the same as shooting at close range. I guess, this is a trade-off for the large sensor.

Spider at sunset with the G6 (cropped)

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Nokia has announced its 808 PureView smart phone — or shall I call it a compact camera that takes and makes calls, texts and does much more — and slapped in an insane 41 megapixels resolution on a 1/1.2-inch sensor, the largest sensor of any smart phone so far. You know the physics — the larger the sensor, the better the image quality.

So I’m ditching my plan for an Apple again in favour of a Nokia, like the way I ditched the iPhone 4 in favour of Nokia N8 in 2010.

Here’s a disclaimer though: I’m a Nokia convert since the N8 so I maybe a bit bias in my write up. So be forewarned ;)

So here goes: before you accuse me of being swayed by the number — 41MP on a camera phone is mind-boggling indeed — let me assure you that yes, pixel count is not everything and that a 10-megapixel camera phone will be good enough for shooting with a camera phone.

What makes the 41 megapixel useful though is not about shooting an image at that resolution, though you can do that if you wish, but how the resolutions are used in various shooting condition.

Nokia explains this in a white paper, detailing the technology used in the 808 PureView sensor.

Ian Delaney at the Nokia blog explains this further, saying such a resolution isn’t about shooting pictures the size of billboards! “Instead,” he said, “it’s about creating amazing pictures at normal, manageable sizes.”

“The technology means that taking typically sized shots (say, 5 megapixels) the camera can use oversampling to combine up to seven pixels into one “pure” pixel, eliminating the visual noise found on other mobile phone cameras. On top of that, you can zoom in up to 3X without losing any of the details in your shot – and there’s no artificially created pixels in your picture, either.

Otherwise, you can use ‘Creative Shooting Mode’ to capture images at high resolution – 38 megapixels; then reframe, crop and zoom to find the best “picture within the picture” after the image has been shot and before saving it at convenient sizes for sharing and storage.” [Source: Ian Delaney, Nokia.com]

Nokia 808 PureView with Belle OS

The other aspect that makes the camera appealing is its sensor size. At 1/1.2 inch, it is bigger than the sensor on the N8 which is 1/1.83 inch, and bigger than the sensor on Panasonic LX5, Canon PowerShot S100, Olympus XZ-1, Leica D-Lux 5, Nikon P7100, Ricoh GRD IV and Samsung EX1 which are typically 1/1.63 to 1/1.7 inch.

Put the sensor behind a f2.4 Carl Zeiss optics, and you’d probably have the best camera phone on the planet to date, that is, perhaps, until Apple update its iPhone 4S and incorporate a competitive camera package in a smart phone.

Below are sample images of the Nokia 800 PureView. The full resolution samples of the 800 PureView can be seen here.

The only thing that makes the 808 PureView “less appealing” than the iPhone 4S is the fact that there aren’t many excellent apps around for the Nokia; there’s no Hipstamatic for Nokia, for instance :(

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What Is Nokia Up To?

by Jaxon S on February 23, 2012

in Camera Phone

In about less than a week from now, Nokia is to announce a new smartphone that promises “pureness” in depth, details and definition.

Nokia as a camera phone particularly interests me because I own an N8, a camera which I bought after debating with myself whether to go for the iPhone 4 instead. The N8 won over the iPhone 4 because of its superior sensor and therefore superior image quality.

Damselfly macro with Nokia N8 plus Retromatic app

History is now repeating itself: I’m actually planning to buy an iPhone 4S within the next couple of months but with this new Nokia coming on stream, I can foresee myself debating with the option again — Nokia or Apple.

One thing that I can conclude from owning the N8 is this: I’ve got the best camera phone with me but at the expense of not having the best photography apps around, all off which are seemed to be made-for-iPhone only.

Watch the teaser below and mark February 27 in your calendar:

Via 1001NoisyCameras.

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Photographer Peter Hurley discusses a few simple tricks how to take better headshots or what is sometime called mugshots. Get the jawline correct, he basically says. How? Watch the video below:

It’s all about the Jaw from Peter Hurley on Vimeo.

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Pentax K-01 vs Fujifilm X-Pro1

by Jaxon S on February 2, 2012

in Camera Raves and Rants, Pentax

Here is a feature comparison between the newly announced Pentax K-01 and Fujifilm X-Pro1. I’ve tried my best to ensure the accuracy of this table but if there is an error or a feature you think should be included in this table, let me know in the comment section. One of the things that is missing is whether the film simulation on the X-Pro1 can be used when shooting video. Cheers!

Pentax K-10 vs Fujifilm X-Pro1

  Pentax K-01 Fujifilm X-Pro1
Sensor 23.7 x 15.7mm CMOS with primary colour filter 23.6 x 15.6mm X-Trans CMOS with primary colour filter
  16.28 megapixels 16.3 megapixels
Lens Pentax K-Mount (compatible with all Pentax Lenses and made-for-Pentax third party lenses) Propriety Fujifilm X mount
Image stabilisation In-body sensor shift shake reduction In-lens optical image stabilisation
Dust removal SP coating and CMOS sensor operations Ultrasonic vibration
Viewfinder None Optical, EVF, Hybrid
Sensitivity ISO 100 to ISO 25600 ISO 100 to ISO 25600
Image formats RAW (DNG), JPG (Exit 2.3), RAW+JPEG RAW (RAF), JPEG (Exif 2.3), RAW+JPEG
Image sizes (JPEG) [3:2] 4928 x 3264, 4224 x 2816, 3456 x 2304, 2688 x 1792 [3:2] 4896 x 3264, 3456 x 2304, 2496 x 1664
  [4:3] 4352 x 3264, 3840 x 2880, 3072 x 2304, 2304 x 1728 None
  [16:9] 4928 x 2776, 4224 x 2376, 3456 x 1944, 2688 x 1512 [16:9] 4896 x 2760, 3456 x 1944, 2496 x 1408
  [1:1]3264 x 3264, 2880 x 2880, 2304 x 2304, 1728 x 1728 [1:1] 3264 x 3264, 2304 x 2304, 1664 x 1664
Image sizes (RAW) [3:2] 4298 x 3264 TBC
Motion panorama N/A [Vertical] 7680 x 2160, 5120 x 2160; [Horizontal] 7680 x 1440, 5120 x 1440
Movie Full HD (1920 x 1080, 16:9, 30fps, 25fps, 24fps) Full HD (1920 x 1080, 16:9, 24fps)
  HD (1280 x 720, 16:9, 60fps, 50fps, 30fps, 25fps, 24fps) HD (1280 x 720, 16:9, 24fps)
  VGA 640 x 480, 4:3, 30fps, 25fps, 24fps None
  MPEG 4 AVC / H.264, up to 25 minutes, Stereo sound H.264 MOV, stereo sound, up to 29 minutes
Movie processing Custome image (Bright, Natural, Portrait, Landscape, Vibrant, Radiant, Muted, Bleach Bypass, Reversal Film, Monochrome, Cross Processing, Digital Filters TBC
Exposure modes Program, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority Manual, Bulb, HDR (JPEG only) Program, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Manual
Scenes modes Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Moving Object, Night Scene Portrait, Sunset, Blue Sky, Forest, Night Scene, Night Scene HDR (JPG only), Night Snap, Food, Pet, Kids, Surf & Snow, Backlight Silhouette, Candlelight, Stage Lighting, Museum N/A
Interval shooting 1 sec to 24 hours, up to 999 images TBC
Interval movie/Time lapse Minimum 1 sec to 30 minutes, File format: Motion JPEG (AVI)  
Filters Extract Color, Toy Camera, Retro, High Contrast, Shading, Invert Color, Color Film simulation: 10 type (PROVIA/STANDARD, Velvia/VIVID, ASTIA/SOFT, PRO Neg Hi, PRO Neg Std, MONOCHROME, MONOCHROME+Ye FILTER, MONOCHROME+R FILTER, MONOCHROME+G FILTER, SEPIA)
Shutter speed 30 sec - 1/4000, Bulb 30 sec - 1/4000, Bulb
Flash sync 1/180 sec 1/180 sec
Continuous shooting 6fps, 3fps 6fps, 3fps
Pop-up flash Yes None
Hotshoe Yes Yes
Flash modes P-TTL, Red-eye Reduction, Slow-Speed Sync, Trailing Curtain Sync. High-speed sync available with Pentax dedicated external flash Hot shoe with TTL contacts; sync terminal Red-eye removal OFF: Auto, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro, Rear-curtain Synchro. Red-eye removal ON: Red-eye Reduction Auto, Red-eye Reduction & Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Red-eye Reduction & Slow Synchro, Red-eye Reduction & Rear-curtain Synchro.
AF assist lamp Yes Yes
Autoficus system Contras detection AF Contrast Detection AF
  Multi-area, Single, Contiuous, Face Detection, Tracking, Select, Spot Multi area (49), Single AF, Continuous AF, Manual
  Focus Peaking Distance Indicator
Self-timer 12 sec, 2 sec 10 sec, 2 sec
LCD monitor 3-inch, 921,000 dots 3-inch, 1.23 million dots
  100 per cent coverage 100 per cent coverage
Price US$749 (body only) or US$899 with the smc PENTAX-DA 40mm F2.8 XS Lens US$1,699.95 (Body only)

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