Photography
Status: Just notes so far
Last changed: Sunday 2014-11-23 08:52 UTC
Abstract:
writeme
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Table of Contents
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Before you dive into this page, if you want to see the fruits of my
labour, click Photo Albums on the left... right now (mid 2010) it is
all still in its early stages though i.e. more content will go onto
this page plus a lot more photo albums will go into the collection of
photo albums in the future.
Introduction
Why What Where When
How to make good Stills
Hardware
This section is about the equipment I use for one of my hobbies —
photography and filming. As the former sentences implies, this
includes photos (static images) as well as videos (dynamic images with
or without audio).
Miniket Digicam
Around mid 2006 I figured I had the need for a digital voice note
taker and so I walked the net in order to get a nifty gadget that
might serve me as a note taker. Well, nice plan indeed but what would
I do if I also needed to take a still or wanted to catch a hilarious
scene on video?
One does not need to be a genius to figure that continuing like this
he might end up with at least 2 gadgets which was totally unacceptable
to me. I had the need for an all-in-one gadget that would allow me to
take digital voice notes, dynamic as well as static images (photos and
videos that is) and maybe do a few other desirable things. Oh, and
last but not least, it would be nice if I would not need an elephant
to carry that thingy around ;-]
Easy thought but... Well, after surfing the net for ~4 hours I was
pretty much disenchanted. There was no all-in-one-fit-in-my-pocket
gadget on the radar so far. Then, before I decided to postpone this
undertaking for another two years or so came the turning point —
hard-nosed that I am, I made my last click onto a del.icio.us bookmark
and heaven opened up and angels started singing... never stopped
since then...
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| Samsung Miniket Photo |
Go here for more photos...
Samsung VP-MS15 specifications:
- CCD: 5.25 Megapixels
- Optical zoom: 3x
- Digital zoom: 15x
- Format (photo/video): JPEG, TIFF / MPEG4
- LCD display: 2.5-inch and 115K
- Audio: MPEG1 layer 2 / ADPCM
- Interface: USB 2.0
- USB streaming: QVGA, 15fps
- Storage medium: miniSD (currently I have 1GB)
- Built-in memory: 512MB
- JPEG recording size: 2592 x 1944 (I usually go with 1600 x 1200)
- Built-in flash: yes
- Battery pack: 820mAh, 3.7V Li-Ion
- PictBridge: yes.
Samsung decided to introduce Miniket as a range of products that is
versatile in its category. First there was video and photo, later on
MP3 and voice recorder, add data storage and web cam to it and you
have a multifunctional digital camera that will make life easier. The
Samsung VP-MS15 has a 5.25 Megapixel CCD on board and 3x optical zoom.
As a digital still camera the Samsung Miniket Photo VP-MS15 is looking
stylish and has a fresh design. Although the camera only provides a 3x
optical zoom it has a digital image stabilizer (DIS) that will
guarantee sharp images even when someone is on the move and it
eliminates blurry shakiness. When turned around, we see a large
2.5-inch display for viewing or composing the images where one can
navigate around using a little button-like joystick which I personally
find pretty good compared to some two axis buttons with cell phones
that we all hate to the guts for not doing what we want them to do.
Integrated into the Miniket Photo is an MP3 player. Despite the size
of only a business card at 96cc, the Miniket Photo has a large
built-in memory capacity of 512MB. In addition to that, I am able to
store up to ~200 songs with my 1GB external miniSD card. With the
voice recorder function it is possible to easily record meetings and
lectures. I never tried but Samsung states it is possible to record up
to 17 hours in stereo sound with the built-in microphone.
So, that leaves me with 1.5GB storage which is even enough when I go
on holidays for three weeks or so — once I did that and came home
with around 680 photos (1600x1200 pixels) and 4 videos and there where
still 400 MB left for more nerdy adventures stuff. Now (November
2007), a year later you can simply exchange the 1GB miniSD card with a
state of the art 8GB miniSD card.
Besides capturing static images the Samsung VP-MS15 is also capable of
capturing dynamic images. The built-in camcorder function captures
high quality VGA (640 x 480 pixels) clips at 30fps with the use of DIS
(digital image stabilizer). During recording you are able to zoom in
3x (optically). When not recording but only transmitting via AV out
the VP-MS15 digital camera makes clips in a resolution of 720 x 576
pixels at 25fps. Those of you who like chatting in combination with a
web cam can use the Miniket to do so. I do so and it is pure hilarity
since I have the Miniket mounted on a little tripod which is
fantastic in terms of handling etc.
I can just strongly recommend to get a little tripod that can be
carried around and placed on any desk, tree, stone etc. — this comes
in especially handy when you are out in the wilderness on your own and
want to take an image of yourself using the tripod mounted Miniket
Photo with its self timer.
A tripod it is not just great while using the Miniket as web cam but
also when I simply download the multimedia stuff I came home with
since instinctively, I place the tripod mounted Miniket as if it where
another screen in a dashboard... It almost makes me feel a bit like
Spock since I get status information from Minikets's 2.5-inch display
next to the other screens around me.
The Miniket can also be used as a portable hard drive. Miniket Photo's
built-in memory of 512MB makes transferring files and images from a PC
to the Miniket Photo or vice versa via USB 2.0 very easy (especially
when using GNU Emacs with Dired). If the built-in memory is not
sufficient one can enlarge it with an external miniSD card as I
already stated above.
Samsung designed the Miniket with flexibility in mind. An intentional
mode dial key (see image above) provides easy and quick control. For
added convenience. What turned out to be especially useful is charging
the Miniket via its USB connection to PC so that there is no need to
travel with a power cable or optional charger e.g. usually when I come
home, the storage is filled with multimedia data but the battery is
pretty much empty — after plugging and downloading the stuff it is
the opposite again; storage empty, battery loaded. The recharging took
place during the input processing of the multimedia data I came home
with.
My bottom line about the Miniket Photo is easy to summarize: go
get one!
Helmet Camera
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Don't buy a camera because a salesman tries to smoke you with
gibberish like megapixels or ISOs.
— Ken Rockwell
Must Haves
- WiFi
- geo tagging
- automatically fix image orientation/rotation (see DPOF (Digital
Print Order format)) i.e. if a person rotates the camera for e.g.
90 degrees clock-wise then the camera should automatically rotate
the image as well
Body
Shutter
Sensor
Features
File output Formats
Geo Tagging
Lenses
Aperture and Focal Length
Exposure Value
Types
Fisheye
Zoom
Image Stabilization
Miscellaneous
Wireless File Transmitter
WiFi
Power
Light
Straps and Shoulder Mounts
Panorama
Storage
Filters
Gimmicks
Software
Editing
Watermarks
Presenting
Static HTML Gallery
Remote Control
Miscellaneous
Where to buy
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