Amateur Photographer

Here are the camcorders I’ll be taking on my trip:

Sony HDR-HC1

Prior to purchasing the HC1 in March 2006, I had owned a JVC miniDV cam (not so great) and a sony Digital8 (good cam). The HC1 was the rirst consumer camcorder to shoot in the then new HDV format. All I can say is that when I first showed footage from the cam on my HDTV,  the reaction was that it was “impressive”.

The camera has a really good lens and build quality, although it lacks some features of today’s cams, it does include a useful spot focus on the touchscreen, and a focus-by-wire system. The camera only shoots at 60i, and I’ll be using it to dupl;icate shots I takje with the Canon, as well as for slow motion. My HC1 doesn’t get a lot of use since I purchased the Canon HF10, but that’s mainly because of convenience, not quality.

Canon HF10

Once you switch to an HD camcorder that uses solid state memory/memory cards, it is really hard to go back to the hassle of hooking up an HDV camcorder and transferring in real time to your computer.

The Hf10 offers a lot of features, including a surprisingly robust still photo implementation. The build quality is nowhere near my Sony Camcorder. I plan to use the camcorder with 4Gig SDHC cards. I can transfer the files easily to storage and then make a backup to a single layer DVD. I can also use the internal 16gigs of memory to record up to two hours of video, which I will probably use for long takes for eventual timelapse shots.

Flip UltraHD

I have two UltraHD camcorders that I have planned to use for 3D work. Although I’m not going to do any 3D shooting on my trip, I’m going to take both units and use them mainly for blogging purposes.

Video from the UltraHD does have an oversaturated look, as do many of the other “shoot and share” fixed-focus cameras. However, I’m choosing the Flip over the Aiptek because it has decent stereo sound

Aiptek Action HD

The Action HD actually has fairly accurate saturation, although auto white balance can be a bit wonky. The camcorder also exhibits over aggressive auto-exposure. If the sound was better I would use it more than the Flip, but it will still get some use attached to my in-car camera mount.

New Techniques

I plan to shoot using the PF24 mode of my HF10, mainly to help me gain a little sensitivity in low light scenes.. With the Sony HC1, I’ll be shooting with a higher shutter speed, with plans on getting better slow motion on the 24P timeline. I’m hoping these techniques, coupled with extensive use of the Glidetrack and Kessler Crane will help me achieve a very cinema-like quality

I’m going to try and shoot a fair amount of video with my Nikon D90 with plans to edit together any usable footage from it into a 720P-only version geared for online viewing.

Tags: aiptek, camcorder, canon, d90, flip, hc1, hf10, Nikon, Sony, ultrahd, Video, Videography

I was disappointed in the new camcorder announcements at CES this year. After the quick progress of adding video capabilities to DSLRS, I was hoping that manufacturers would up the ante for prosumer camcorders and offer some innovation and useful new features. Not so.

I thought Canon’s announcements were just too incremental as usual: better LCD/Menu system, EVF, 24P native. a LANC port.  and an extra card slot. If I had an SD cam or older HDV cam, I might be tempted to upgrade, but it’s not enough to get rid of my Canon HF10. I already have Cineform NeoScene, so I don’t need native 24P, and while an EVF is great, I’ve been able to get by without one on my current Canon, and I can always use the one on my Sony HC1 HDV cam if I need to in very bright or dim conditions.

Speaking of Sony I did find the new HVR-CX550V to be a bit more interesting than Canon’s offerings: 24mbps (finally), built-in GPS, a single slot for either Memory Stick or SDHC cards and a new shutter. The early reports of this cam had me excited because they mentioned a 28mm(in 35mm terms) lens. After checking Sony’s site the actual specs are: 35mm Equivalent : Photo: 28.7 – 287mm (16:9), 26.3 – 263mm (4:3); Movie: 29.8 – 298mm (16:9), 36.5 – 365mm (4:3). Not as wide as I’d like, but a definite step in the right direction, and certainly better on the wide end than the 40.5mm of my Canon HF10.

Interestingly, Panasonic only showed low and mid-range camcorders. The rumor mill suggests a new higher end camcorder that includes a Leica lens and 1080P recording. That’s all the info I’ve heard so far, but it sounds promising. Perhaps we’ll hear something as soon as PMA next week.

It looks loike PMA won’t have many announcements in the DSLR category. Canon isn’t participating, and it looks as though Nikon is saving announcemnts for later in the year. From Nikon I’m expecting an announcement of a new Pro DSLR that will mainly add video capability, and possibly the replacement for the D90 will be announced this year as well, because its 18-24 month product cycle is coming to a close in August.

I was hoping for an announcement of a new high-end Micro 4/3 camera to replace the Lumix GH1 from Panasonic. I’m sure the new camera will offer 1080P video, but Panasonic promised they really wanted to improve video in this productr line, so maybe they have more up their sleeves. Again, rumors say the GH1 successor will not be announced at PMA.

If I had the money, I would love to own the Panasonic HMC-150 to take on my trip this year. You can check out the model by doing a search for it on Vimeo and you’ll see that it takes beautiful footage. The twe main features for me are the wide 28mm zoom and CCDs instead of CMOS, so no worries about rolling shutter effects.

Speaking of rolling shutter, the problem has been with us in HD since Sony introduced the CMOS chip HC1 in 2005. I really thought that this year camcorder manufactures would introduce some sort of feature in their firmware to minimize the problem as you capture footage. That would be a feature worth the price of an upgrade.

Tags: camcorder, canon, ces, panasonic, Sony, Video

I ran across a thread in a video forum awhile back asking “are DSLRs  that shoot video a fad?” The majority of posters seemed to think “yes”, because they see the cameras only being used to create shallow depth of field. Invariably, someone brings up the tired old argument that shallow depth of field isn’t needed because of Gregg Toland’s work on Citizen Kane. as if his deep focus work on the film was a mandate that all future film should be shot with focus from front to back. In my opinion, shooting with deep or shallow focus should be an artistic choice. Most modern films use both techniques, and even video games use shallow depth of field, especially when they want to draw a player’s attention to a specific spot on the screen.

I can see why most posters in the thread see that video DSLRs are a fad. Take a look at a video site such as Vimeo, and you’ll find loads of “depth of field test” shots with these cameras, but in comparison there aren’t that many actual finished pieces of work. I believe that if most people are wanting to shoot video with a DSLR because they want shallow depth of field, they are buying for the wrong reason, and actually missing the best feature of these cameras.

First, if you want shallow depth of field and you already own a camcorder, either shoot at full telephoto or get some Neutral Density filters. A set of NDs and maybe a closeup filter set can give you most of what you want, and is a lot cheaper than a DSLR. True, unless you have a high-end camcorder you probably won’t be able to get focus pull shots, but really, how often do you need to do that? I see lots of focus pulling on DSLR video test shots, but not much in a finished video.

Below are two shots from my Summer Light video on Vimeo ( http://vimeo.com/5752303 ) shot with a stock Canon HF10. I have actually seen comments from people on other videos where some idiot makes fun of someone because they would have to shoot further away to get such shots from a camcorder. Really, if you’re  too lazy to move your camera around, you need to find another hobby or profession.

When I was ready to upgrade my Nikon D70s, I was ready to pull the trigger on the D300, when I received a call from my Pro Photographer friend that Nikon was due to release the D90, the first DSLR to shoot video. I bought mine the first week it was released, not because I would be able to do shallow depth of field shots, but because I would now have a wide selection of different lenses. Sure, I can use a fast Nikkor 50mm f1.4 or 1.8 lens for shallow depth of field, but I was more interested in wide lenses for my landscape work. The frame grab below was shot on the D90 using my Sigma 10-20mm lens (a favorite), cropped to a 2:35 ratio. The video is available at http://vimeo.com/6415353. In 35mm terms, this is a 15mm focal length shot:

The above shot is something I would not be able to get with my Canon HF10, even with a resolution-sucking wide-angle attachment.

Video DSLRs are not a fad, just another tool in the arsenal.

Tags: canon, deep focus, depth of field, dslr, hd, Nikon, sigma, Video, Videography

Most of the time when I start a new photo or video project I try to work with a new technique or tool. First, here are the still cameras I’ll be taking on my trip:

Nikon D90

The D9o will be my main workhorse camera. I think it is fantastic, and after almost 18 months on the market it is a top selling DSLR. There are plenty of controls for a model in its price range, beautiful color, and can shoot good photos at ISO speed 1600 and 3200. the 18-105mm kit lens is also very good. In addition to that lens, I’ll be taking my favorite Sigma 10-20mm. I plan on using the Nikkor 50mm f1.8 kens with a close up filter set for plenty of shots. Still in the “maybe” category is the Nikkor 70-300mm f4-5.6 lens. The lens  is a bit soft and I’ve never liked the color I get from it. Still it’s always good to be prepared, so it will probably go in the bag if a situation comes up where I need its longer range.

Olympus E410

My E410 is a fun, small DSLR that I use as my “carry everywhere” camera. It’s going to be a nice companion to the D90. It has a pleasing, punchy look to it’s jpegs, and I get the bonus of the square format photos that are standard to the 4/3 format. For the type of shooting I’ve done with the camera, I’ve only needed the two kit lenses. The 14-42mm  is definitely a cut above most kit lenses, and the 40-105 has decent resolution on the long end, and works well at that range for flower and plant close-ups. I imagine it will get a lot of work off-tripod, when I’m shooting video and timelapse, and I want square format.

Nikon D70s

The D70s will perform duty as a backup for the D90, and as my secondary timelapse camera. I like to shoot timelapse as jpegs, because I don’t want to take the time to do all of the batch conversion from RAW that would be required. Unfortunately, one of the Achilles heels of my main timelapse camera, the Olympus C-8080, is its slow write times. So, the D70s will fill in when I want to shoot a slower timelapse (shorter intervals between shots). On the minus side for the D70s, its jpegs usually require post processing to make them punchier.  Because the speed pf this camera is so much better than the Olympus, C-8080, I may try an HDR timelapse or two. I personally don’t like to use a DSLR for timelapse photography because it wears out the shutter faster, as compared to the electronic shutter of compact cams.

Olympus C-8080

Not pretty by a long shot, but as I’ve posted  before, my C-8080 probably has the best lens for any camera I own. Its main duty will be for timelapse, although I’m sure I’ll do some still shots,because the camera has such good quality. The camera has a slow auto focus, and I’ve never particularly liked the manual focus feature either, but that has not made much of a difference to me with landscape work.  Because of the slow write times after a shot, I have been limited to a minimum shot interval of four seconds when doing timelapse, so as indicated above, I’ll use my D70s when I want a slower timelapse.

I also have a battery grip, and rather large, high quality wide angle attachment for this camera. NOTE: I’ve had a few readers ask me about the C-8080. It is fairly easy to find one of these cams, but you must have the battery grip to do timelapse work using a wired intervalometer, and the battery grip is now almost impossible to find.. It may be possible to do timelapse with an infrared controller, but I’ve never tried that with the camera.

Nikon N80

I’m still debating whether or not to take my N80 35mm SLR.. If I take it, I’ll shoot Fuji Velvia slide film and then scan the slides in my post production workflow. The cost of film/processing, the number of other cams I’m taking, plus the added workflow times are  factors making me lean towards not taking the camera

New Techniques

For most of my tripod work I’ll be shooting RAW+JPEG with the D90 and E410. I’ve always been a JPEG shooter because I don’t like spending  a lot of time in post workflow, but for this trip I want to squeeze every last drop of quality I can from the cameras. I’ve already planned for a long post production workflow for this project.

I’m also planning on shooting extensive HDR, and plan to use my ND grads only when there is too much motion in a shot (wind/water). I’ll also be doing panoramas in HDR when feasible.

Another completely new technique for me will be night time long exposures. I’m going to do a bit of reading and then work on the technique once the weather warms up a bit.

Tags: c-8080, camera, d90. d70s, e410, hdr, landscape, Nikon, olympus, panorama, Photography, time lapse

In the Fall of 2008 I decided that I wanted to take a major photo/video road trip. I’m going to keep the destination secret, because I’m hoping to blog from the road once I get started. Originally I was planning to take the trip in Summer 2009, but decided to wait and spend the year purchasing equipment, so that I wouldn’t have a truly huge outlay of funds all at once. Now that 2010 has arrived, the date will soon be approaching and I’m starting to get excited.

One of my last major purchases for the trip was this:

I still need to get a set of sticks and a fluid head for it in February, then I hope to get in lots of practice with the system. I’ll have more info and a review later. After I get the tripod and head, my equipment purchases will be for more mundane items: batteries, memory cards, chargers, maybe some more filters, etc.

I’m still debating whether or not I’m going to purchase another wide-angle adapter for my vid cams. I bought  a Raynox HD-5050LE, and I’ve been really disappointed in the resolution and extreme amount of Chromatic Aberration., which you can see in this latest video I have posted on Vimeo. The shots with the Raynox begin at 1:14 with the ship rigging, and end with the shot of the boats docked at the marina.

Summer II from John Rappold on Vimeo.

Best Laid Plans

One of my nephews is making the trip with me, and I really think he’s going to be up to the task. I’ve had a few friends and relatives ask about making the trip with me, but if you regularly shoot landscapes, you know that after maybe 1 or 2 days of getting up before dawn and setting up ahots, any casual companion isn’t going to enjoy the process. My nephew has been getting into photography a bit. He’s had my Olympus E410 for about 6 weeks, and is planning on getting an Oly E620 for himself. He also likes the tech/geek factor of all of this, so I’ll be giving him some lessons on using the Glidetrack and Kessler Crane, as well as showing him how to setup for time lapse. Besides helping me out, I want to give him the freedom to shoot on his own without me giving a lot of specifics, except in cases where I really want to cover somehting from multiple angles at the same time.

With all of the equipment we’re taking plus the fact of setup times, a few things I wanted to do are going to fall by the wayside because of time. So, no 3D video or Gigapan work.

In my next post I’ll write about what I have planned for photo work on the trip.

Tags: crane, jib, kessler, Photography, Video