I Need Help Choosing a Camera...

I'm writing this with the intention of helping people choose a camera, but for a moment I digress...

Recently Vija's been helping clean out her grandparent's place. I already have five cameras and I don't really own any of the new ones but none the less I get to use them for the moment. I've been rocking the 35mm Zeiss Iknota from 1949 recently. Here's a photo I recently took and developed with some really expired Kodak B&W 400TX.

From left to right: Mamiya 645 medium format film camera, Linhof Technika V 4x5 film view camera, HD Hero helmet camera, Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 522/24 35mm film camera, Hasselblad EL medium format film camera, Zeiss Ikon Contarex Electronic 35mm film camera, Holga medium format film camera, Diana+ medium format film camera - photo taken with my Canon T1i DSLR.

Anyways, here's the thing, point and shoot cameras are alright for 90% of people and that's fine. Their quality has reached the point where their resolution actually surpasses 35mm film. The point, however, is that no matter what you choose there is always a trade off.

The most important considerations in choosing a camera are:

#1 - the best camera is the camera you have with you.

#2 - the bigger the camera the less likely you are to carry it.

#3 - digital is the way to go. I love and will continue to use film but it's dead except for very niche uses.

The combination of these things is the reason why camera phones are so popular. So that leaves most people with a point and shoot, a few people with a DSLR (digital - single lens reflex - it means that what you see through the lens when you have your eye to the viewfinder) or bigger, and a few confused people who don't like either choice of the $200-300 point and shoot or the $500-800 DSLR.

I'm not going to go into point and shoots - plus, camera phones are making those obsolete fairly quickly.

The middle ground is something like a Canon G series camera - the G11 being the latest. The advantage of these cameras is that they aren't much bigger than a regular point and shoot, they are closer to the price of a point and shoot at just over $400, they have much better image quality, you can control the camera manually, and their ability to shoot in low light is actually better than most DSLRs. I know a few pro photographers that use these and I highly recommend them. They're gaining something of a cult following.

DSLRs are large because they have bigger sensors, bigger batteries, and they have a mirror. By definition one sees through the lens in a SLR unlike a rangefinder where the viewfinder and the lens are separate. Thus, it requires a moving mirror which adds bulk. If you're going to get a DSLR I recommend a Nikon or Canon. I prefer the Canon but to be honest they're nearly the same. I think the Canon rebel series gives more bang for the buck but it's up to you. Get the lens kit and if you want to purchase another lens I recommend the 50mm f1.4 lens. When purchasing a DSLR remember that there's a 1.6 crop factor. This means that any lens you put on the camera will become 1.6x greater in focal length, so all your lenses zoom in more. The 50mm becomes an 80mm - good if you're into zoom/telephoto and bad if you're like me and love wide angle lenses (Tokina and Sigma make 11-16 and 10-20mm lenses specially for these cameras).

The reason I don't advise a DSLR to most people is that the camera ends up laying around because they are too bulky to lug around. Most people also don't use the ability to change lenses which is probably the best reason to get a SLR. Lenses are what make great photos (among other factors). Also, people rarely learn how to use them in manual mode. If you don't change lenses and leave it in manual mode then why not just get a point and shoot? "The image quality is better..." If you want the best image quality a SLR is unsurpassed - true, but who buys an automatic sports car?

The best place to buy camera equipment is a store called B&H in NYC. They more or less have a monopoly on selling camera stuff because they run a great business. If Google owned a camera store this would be it. Also, eBay is a great source for cameras. There are tons on there that are barely used and sold for far below what people paid for them. You can usually save 30-40% by buying the next to latest model of a camera that's barely a year old.

Just Some Articles

Just got back from Europe, so there'll be some posts about that after school gets a little less crazy. In the mean time here's some articles:

The FCC is trying to make broadband (internet access) a right just like water or electricity... I have some stuff I could add to that but in general this is something I've thought about and supported for years. The internet gives an individual the ability to learn about absolutely anything they want, access to any news coverage they could possibly dream of, and even the ability to speak openly. If you look back through history these are some of the most common reasons that people go to war, stat new governments and countries, and in general suffer and strive for. The fact that we can now deliver that ability with a netbook and a broadband signal is nothing short of amazing. If any one thing saves democracy/the human race it might be the internet.

Ah camera gear is so fun and addicting. It always pains me to think of myself as against owning many things but then wanting gadgets. Given the opportunity I would totally have an entire room filled with camera equipment. This is a robotic tripod head that helps you create panoramic shots. Here's the newer version that'd work with say... a medium format film camera.

There's a new social media app that forms communities based on real life proximity. I've read about these before a while ago when they were purely conceptual and being made by sociologists, but I think now they have the potential to have some interesting unseen effects. It goes like this. You have an app on your phone that is essentially like Facebook except that instead of having your usual friends it includes anyone else with the app that is within 300 feet of you. I could see this being really useful for people who move to a new city of country and don't know anyone. It oddly reminds me of Chatroulette (here's the Wired article). What fascinates me most though is the fact that if this app were to become popular wouldn't it make physical places popular too? This app wold be interesting to use from where you live of course, but wouldn't certain popular spots start to draw crowds? Won't cafes become even more popular? What if people use it to hook-up, which they will, won't the 300' radius around a 4 AM bar (around that time too) become really popular? There's a lot to think about here but it all boils down to how much this actually catches on, which if it's like anything else promising from the internet, it most likely won't.

Backlog of Links Part 1

Must read: the national debt clock runs out of zeros.

Must read: Nathan Mhyrivold (former chief tech officer at Microsoft) started an R&D group composed of chemists, chefs, and artists to produce... a cookbook - of scientific proportions.

Missle silo bachelor pad, must see.

3D fractal renderings (from Wired). I have some odd feeling that this is the distant future of architecture. Think about it... you could build an entire structure using the same mass produced piece, and accuracy would be nearly perfect.

Paul Krugman on why the Fed is powerless to do anything and shouldn't raise rates for a long time.

The Scots really do invent everything. There are actually a few I think they left off the list (for example the ghillie suite of WWI that snipers still use for camouflage to this day, the Scots used it to catch livestock poachers). I had been planning to write a whole long post about this, but apparently someone else has watched too much History Channel too and noticed that everything during the industrial revolution was invented by people from the poorest country in Europe.

A tour of the Leica factory... ugh. Anyone got $11,000 for one of those f .95 Noctilux lenses? They make one of the nicest 35 mm cameras and possibly the best glass (lenses) in the world.

New earthquake proofing technology in Istanbul looks impressive as hell.

Videos of rockets exploding during launch including a 1 billion dollar spy satellite.

Military Youtube... sort of. The military can record footage of an entire area, say a city, and if there's a bombing they can basically rewind the tape and see who planted the bomb...? Just read it.

Most sushi you eat isn't what it says it is. Many of the fish are from protected or over fished areas.

Interesting geodesic domes in California.

This has been a long time coming. Road trains. Safer, faster, more efficient.

Foreign Policy Magazine posted a collection of beautiful photos of slums.

Hahahaha, fuck Vista.

A movie gets pirated all over the internet, it's producers are ecstatic; finally.

This is mostly for my reference. Microscale chart... fun.

Wonkish developmental economics talk about the inability to explain growth in the third world - the drunkard's walk.

Scientists say waterboarding is bad... apparently people will tell you anything when they're being tortured.

Philosophical musings as to whether or not we exist.

Recession over - like 3 months ago.

Hilarious - dead salmon fools fMRI.

Plug and charge, cool but... dumb. If it isn't cheaper than conventional energy, or somehow provides something that is more convenient then it won't work economically. Still interesting though.

Plants recognize and react differently to their siblings.

Nudge - how to make more people use the stairs. Psh, turn them into a piano obviously.

Someone finally won the Netflix Prize which was basically a million dollars given out to the team that could improve Netflix's own movie recommendation algorithm by more than 10%.

America's infrastructure is failing massively, not very surprising. Wired talks about the lack of any current "super projects" in the US and the America Society of Civil engineers say we need to spend 2.2 trillion dollars on infrastructure just to bring it up to par. Yikes... this is interesting to me because people don't realize how much these things affect everything. Roads, water, electricity - these are the basic things that allow America to have a strong economy. It's so basic it's painful.

The Future of Cameras

"The best camera is the camera you have with you." - Ansel Adams, The Camera I (great book by the way)

This is a concept I came up with a while ago and it's not really all that crazy original. Although I haven't heard anyone else mention it. Cameras will eventually be insanely tiny, or rather camera phones will dominate the market at be of better quality than any professional camera that currently exists.

There are two main components to a camera; the lens and the image sensor (film). Film is analog, essentially it has infinite depth and is only limitation in enlargement are the instruments used to do so. In order to duplicate film digitally and enlarge (print bigger) it without any perceptible loss in quality you need a 10-15 megapixel sensor. I find that 3-6 MP is adequate for the vast majority of people/occasions. My camera phone is a little over 3 MP and I know some exist that are 5+. Over time sensors will become more and more powerful all the while becoming cheaper. Lenses are a slightly different story. High quality lenses are expensive and in my opinion the most important part of the camera. As image sensors (CCD's) get smaller the lens required becomes smaller. That's why your pocket camera has a tiny lens and my medium format camera's lens is bigger than your entire camera. Phone cameras use a tiny image sensor, so the lenses can be very small. In fact there has been some research done on lenses that utilize a bead of water for the lens and focus (change the shape of the droplet) by passing small electric currents through the water droplet. Crazy stuff. Lenses will become of higher quality and cheaper as image sensors get smaller and as they are further mass produced. Even Zeiss, one of the finest lens makers in the world, has made some lenses for Sony phones. Zeiss makes lenses for the legendary camera manufacturer Hasselblad. They aren't cheap.

Basically my prediction is that camera phones will one day dominate the camera market and their quality will be extremely high. How soon? Camera phones will eclipse point and shoot pocket cameras in just a few years. In the mean time here are some moments when I wanted a real camera but was at least lucky enough to have my somewhat-impressive-for-a-camera-phone 3 MP G1 camera phone.

Evan inside a steam pit we just designed/built in Joliet, IL.

Susie holding a Remington 700 rifle... don't ever expect to see that again.

Thanksgiving '08

The burners of an atmospheric scotch marine boiler. Oh, the irony (I'm Scotch).

A store in Lakeview in Chicago... 3300 N Sheffield-ish.

36"-10" Ridgid pipe wrenches. I find them to be one of the most elegant designs ever conceived.

Evan preping a boiler door for insulation.