Photography part 2 : Born of a Digital Camera

Continued from previous post, from film camera to mobile digital camera, skipped something in between, the digital camera! 

After the xia xiang event, i am inspired to own a DSLR but due to cost...i never thought deeply about it, and went for the closest substitute, a fully manual control digital camera whom my sis own and was said to have similar functions of DSLR. Since she rarely use it, thus I borrowed from her and started to enter the world of digital photography!

It was the Canon powershot A570 is, with 7.2 mp (double my phone) fully manual control, runs on 2 AA batteries, 60fps video recording, have built in viewfinder, which was a very powerful camera for me that time!

It was around 2010 while the cam was released back at 2007.. meant i was 3 years lagging... But that didn't stop me from fully explore the capabilities, from taking long night exposure shots to still shots utilizing all the Av, Tv and manual settings!

Canon Powershot A620

Panning shot, utilizing medium shutter speed while panning with the car movement, giving the effect of a fast moving action.

Utilizing the macro focus to simulate a 'bokeh' effect. (only possible with tiny objects)

Those still frame shots are actually controlled by shutter speed, normal digital cams do not have this option, only sports mode. This picture also shows the low dynamic range of the camera, blowing out the sky in white. 

It had been my companion for running events, trips until my sis wanted it back for her trip. I am sure i have taken more pictures within that few months compared to the years it laid on my sister's hands!

For the short period, i finally did a part time job at Brussel's Beer Cafe and had some income. Just get to know there was PC fair at one working day and went there, planning on survey a camera.. and just can't resist a good offer, a one year old model having cash rebate of Rm200 compared to the new one, and even the same powershot series! Having the budget at that moment, i proceeded to own my first digital camera, the Powershot SX130 IS =)

Compared to the old powershot, functions are all the same, have higher ISO, bigger black body (silver and small sized made it seems noob LOL ) 12.1 mp count, 12x zoom (not a priority), and full HD video, but they removed the view finder! (to replace a self pop up flash )

CANON SX 130 IS

This picture could be the proudest pic for this camera, using a CHDK (canon hack development kit) special for canon Powershots, this picture is possible and i am pretty sure normal DSLR will not be able to make this awesome shot !

 Another work of CHDK too, extending the shutter speed until 32s to compose this shot in 16:9 setting.

It is possible to have bokeh with this cam, but target need to be quite some distance away and only possible at day time. ( Aperture will increase when zoom and camera shake is imminent )

The Canon Powershot Sx130 IS is all good at first, but photo shooting at low light conditions are just not good enough.. ISO at 800 will result in noise and flash is not powerful enough. Day light shooting had its own problems too, dynamic range is quite disappointing, in which background will be too bright while subject is too dark, resulting in a blow out if trying to get subject to be visible. It's always to either sacrifice object or background to compose a shot, rarely the color of the sky was able to be captured. Oh, and one more thing, during photo shoots of people, especially cos players, it will definitely being looked down thus reluctant to pose for a shot -.-  

This picture highlights the few issue, as you can see she don't even bother to look at the un-professional looking camera.. just kidding, caught this picture off moment =). But it did show the low light performance where the walking person blurred the picture, even the subject is slightly blurred due to motion. Almost for every shot i took, i need to held my breath to avoid hand shake @@ 

Well, choose subject or background? i choose subject of course!

This pic shows the flash problem, it could not reach every corner of the frame, even with highest flash power output, the center will be blown out. Only way is to use slow synchronous flash, which requires a quite slow shutter speed, might as well just don't use flash at all. 

Photography Part 1 : Image Capturing Device

Well.. not particularly the history of cameras, just those i was born with =)

It started off with a very humble one, which my mom owned, a Yashica film roll camera. It was typically a point and shoot camera. Insert battery, pull the film across, slide open the lens protector and you are good to go. It doesn't require any settings, light compensation, white balance or stuff, focus (focus-free), just aim with the viewfinder, press the button, ka-chak! and the film rolls. Is the picture good? wait until you finish 24 or 36 shots, and wait again for it to develop.

For quite some time, it was the only camera i used throughout, from snaps of me in playschool uniform until end of my secondary school.. almost 12 years of service before it's motor died out. (Digital camera was introduced at year 6 of the camera life) Never thought of any new camera that time as we don't seem to need it.

Yashica Film Camera (Similiar but not exactly the same)

Secondary School Project

Just after secondary school, finally i owned a digital camera, well sort of, its actually a phone VGA camera, sony ericsson K310i. With resolution boost up to 1280x960 pixel, in a 15mb phone, i thought it was enough to serve as camera and was so satisfied with it, until being exposed to a standard 2.0 mp camera with focus capabilities. VGA cams are just crappy cameras ><

SE K310i (right) But there are some "effects" only a crappy camera could take (left)

After a 1.5 year, I finally get to persuade my parents for a new phone, and 2.0mp is too mainstream.. not enough! I went for one the highest mp count for SE phones that period, the SE k810i with a 3.2mp camera, carl zeiss lens with a built in flash! A badass camera mobile phone for that time. Used it as main camera for almost a year and slowly get annoyed with grainy pictures ( which is called high noise ) and a very weak flash. It still served good enough as a 'emergency, compact and okay-good' camera until the buttons start to jam and taking pictures became harder than before

With flash on and Grainy picture (Left) SE k810i (right)

All the while i am just taking pictures just for the sake of putting that object into a form which i can look back later, something to preserve as memory, pose at some background and reminds you of the scene.

After Hui Xiang at 2010, i was finally exposed and get my hands on a DSLR camera. It was a Pentax dono which model with a 50mm lens so called potrait lens, and from that moment, my mindset towards taking picture changed.

I started to realize the power of photos. A well timed, composed shot could tell a better story and are far more better than what you can remember. A good photo itself tells the story to everyone, not just those who knew what had happened.

Like this picture below, you can probably tell what do the kid thought about us upon our visit. 

And this one.. someone seems to be working too hard eh?

Just like what Kai from DigitaRev said, a 50 mm lens just make everything else look better. Both of the photos above are taken by a 50mm lens which blurs the background giving a soft feel and focused on the subject.