Rejected

Dear Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity,

Admittedly, your image of May 8, 2010, recently posted on APOD, is a dramatic one. It is hard to imagine our tire tracks across a desert on the surface of another world. It is a truly amazing achievement for which you are to be congratulated. That said, we do not find the image in its present condition suitable for publication. If you want to correct the following technical errors and resubmit it we will be happy to reconsider our decision.

Tilted Horizon Line

The most obvious error and most objectionable is the tilted horizon line. You should turn on the grid display to avoid this in the future. That said, your image could still be corrected using the Crop & Straighten tool in Lightroom.

Vignetting

The second problem with your image is the noticeable vignetting. In certain circumstances, vignetting can be a useful artistic technique. Not so here. This can be corrected in Photoshop, but consider using a different lens next time.

Dynamic Range

This image has a wide dynamic range, from nearly pure white to total black. In this type of situation, you should always consider making an HDR image. There is plenty of information on the Internet about this technique. Otherwise, use the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom to dodge and burn the horizon line.

Black and White

Frankly, these days black and white is only suitable for “art” photography, which this is certainly not. Most of the images of this sort, which appear in National Geographic, are in color. Besides that, your choice deprives the viewer of the subtle reds of the Martian landscape. Please consider shooting in color all of the time.

Sincerely,

WBTL

The Sony α NEX3 and NEX5

Ever since Sony’s entry into the mirrorless market was announced at PMA 2010, I have been very curious to see how their approach would differ from Panasonic, Samsung, Olympus and Ricoh. As of today I need wonder no more and neither should you. Earlier today Sony announced two new mirrorless cameras, the α NEX3 and NEX5. I am a big fan of mirrorless cameras, especially the micro 4/3 design. That said, I have yet to acquire one because no one has yet hit a home run in my view. I was hopeful that Sony might.

The α NEX3 and NEX5 start off on the right foot in a very big way (pun intended). Each features a large 14 megapixel APS-C size sensor with a 1.5 crop factor. Each has HD video capability, 720p for the NEX3 and 1080p for the NEX4. Another great feature is the tilting 3” 920,000 pixel LCD display. Although there is no built-in flash, one is included in the kit. A viewfinder may be coming according some of the reviews.

So is the Sony the home run that I was looking for? Not so much, maybe a double. Now mind you all this is based on the specs, I haven’t actually seen the thing. That said here’s some potential concerns.

1. Proprietary Mount. Here we go again, another new mount proprietary to Sony. For the time being you’ll be limited to the three lenses being introduced with the cameras (16mm f/2.8 pancake, 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 and 18-200 F/3.5-6.3 zoom) or older Alpha lenses which can be used with an adapter. That’s it, period.

2. Small Size. From the photographs the mount actually looks bigger than the camera. Sony claims that the NEXs are the smallest mirrorless cameras on the market, which is not necessarily a good thing. Imagine mounting those older behemoths on these dainty bodies.

3. Questionable Lens Choice and Quality. Judging from the early reviews, I doubt that the kit lenses will win any fans, at least not like the Panasonic 20mm, f/1.7 did. The 16mm (24mm equivalent) seems a bit wide for the first prime. I would have favored a 35mm equivalent out of the chute. Worse yet, early reports indicate the kit lenses are of mediocre quality at best. So, that leads use back to those big ol’ Alpha lenses which, by way won’t autofocus. Sigh.

Nevertheless, each one of us will have to decide for ourselves if the NEX is our “goldilocks” camera. Start your research at Digital Photography School, dpreview, The Online Photographer, Endgaget and Imaging Resource.

Of Printers And Paper or I Do This Stuff So You Don’t Have To Part 1

Some time ago I wrote about replacing my HP 9180 printer with a Canon Pixma PRO9000MkII Inkjet Photo Printer. At the time I had every intention of following up with something about the new printer’s performance. Things being what they are, however, I never really had a chance to properly try it out, so the article never got written. Recently, a reader reminded me that I still owed you something more on the subject. Hopefully, I can rectify that and go a bit further.

The first thing you will notice about the 9000 Mark II is the petite size of the printer cartridges. I suspected that I might go through ink fairly quickly and that has indeed been the case. Since a full set of replacement tanks costs $86.00, I am trying to restrict my use to photo printing only, although it does a fine job on text.

One of the first things that I did was upload the ICC profiles for the papers that I intended to use. Unfortunately, there are not as many profiles available for the 9000 as there are for the 9180. One of the papers I was going to use, based on a recommendation by Michael Reichmann, was Ilford Gold Fibre Silk. I could not find a 9000 ICC profile on Ilford’s website, so I am stuck with a box of 50 sheets. Please email me if you are interested.

I downloaded and installed the remaining profiles from Hahnemuehle and Harman. I had also picked up a box of Canson Infinity Baryta Photographique after reading a very favorable review on The Luminous Landscape and downloaded that profile as well. No matter what paper you use there are definitely some quality control issues to be dealt with as detailed here.

I next explored my print software options. In addition to Lightroom and Photoshop, Canon offers its own software in three flavors: Easy-PhotoPrint, Easy-PhotoPrint EX and Easy-PhotoPrint Pro. Easy-PhotoPrint and Easy-PhotoPrint EX are stand-alone programs, while Easy-PhotoPrint Pro is a plug-in for Photoshop. You can download each from Canon’s website here. After I evaluated each version, I decided to keep Easy-PhotoPrint Pro, which is much more advanced and flexible.

Using the various options in the print software I created pre-sets for each of the following papers: Hahnemuehle Photo Rag, Harman Gloss FB AI, Canson Infinity Baryta Photographique, HP Advanced Photo Paper and Canon Photo Paper Glossy. Now I was ready to run some test prints. More on that, as well as some conclusions, in Part 2.

Canon 5D Mark II Video Sample

All right, I know this is supposed to be about photography, but…. Please check this out. Nikon, are you listening?