“Full Frame Equivalence” and Why It Doesn’t Matter @ Admiring Light
A thorough article explaining the practical differences between camera systems with smaller sensors and systems with bigger “full frame” sensors.
Travel Photo Gear
We are leaving New Zealand and it’s time for a few months of travelling before we will be back in Germany.
We’re going to travel through South-East Asia: Singapore, Malaysia/Borneo, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.
This is what I’m going to take (cables and charger not shown).
- Panasonic GF1 and 20mm f/1.7 pancake. Love this cam, especially in this combination: light, bright, great quality, small and unobtrusive.
- 14mm f/2.5 pancake wide-angle lens. Another great micro four-thirds lens. It’s only 50g.
- Olympus 40-150mm f/4-5.6. Tele zoom. Just bought it. Will probably be used for birds, Urang-Utans and other wildlife.
- Nikon 50mm f/1.8 E pancake with micro four-thirds adapter. Bright medium tele.
- Joby GorillaPod Micro800. Super small and lightweight tripod. Just bought it, so I’ll find out if it’s as good and appropriate as I expect it to be.
- Hand strap for more secure handling while shooting.
- Spare battery.
- Shoulder strap. Always handy and an alternative to the carabiner.
- Small drybag. Keeps everything 100% dry, even in the wettest of conditions.
- Apple camera connection kit. That’s how the photos get from the cam onto my iPad 1.
- A couple of SD cards.
- Small travel towel. Because the gear is going to get wet and needs to become dry again.
- Small bag. Fits the cam + small lens and a few accessories. For a lightweight trip and protection when throwing the cam into a backpack.
- “Big” bag. Fits all my gear. Handy for bigger and/or longer trips. Keeps everything in one place.
Sony announces NEX-6 16MP enthusiast mirrorless camera with Wi-Fi
Nice new mirrorless camera from Sony featuring some intelligent hard- and software-designs.
They also introduced the first full-frame digital compact camera.
Exciting.
Lost in Fern
Samsung's Android-powered Galaxy Camera: the most connected camera?
Seems like more and more point-and-shoot cameras are getting wireless connectivity and a powerful operating system.
I am not interested in these point-and-shoot cameras per se, but it will be interesting to see when and how these features make it into the enthusiast and pro cameras.
Auckland Street Art
I found some more stickers around Auckland CBD.
Nikon Coolpix S800c Android camera first look: Digital Photography Review
Finally, more sophisticated software is making its way onto cameras. This is going to be huge, I think. When you look at the camera usage stats on Flickr, it’s two smartphones - the iPhone 4 and 4S - that take the two top spots amongst all cameras.
Personally, I think having a full Android OS running on a camera, seems to be too distracting. And - unsurprisingly - battery life is greatly diminished.
But WiFi connectivity, great apps for editing and organisation, plus the ability to upload your photos straight to a website and/or your computer/tablet is a huge win and something I miss with “real” cameras.
Custom Google Maps photo overlay class open-sourced
I open-sourced the small photo overlay class I wrote for NZ Walks. It’s a custom overlay for the Google Maps API v3 that can display small photo thumbnails on the map.
NZ Walks now with photos
I just updated my NZ Walks website and you can now see Flickr photos for lots of tracks.
The website displays photos that are published under a Creative Commons license and are geo-tagged with a location around the track.
Example shown above: the Kepler Track.
More examples: Rangitoto Summit Track, Lake Waikaremoana and Godley Head Coastal Track.
Bought a new tele zoom lens for my GF1. The Olympus PEN 40-150mm. (Taken with Instagram)
Kea
One of my photos is included in the itravelnz iPhone and Android app. Nice.
Franz Josef Glacier's 'rapid' retreat (photos)
A spectacular ice retreat at the Franz Josef Glacier has surprised experts. The glacier has retreated 500m in four years, prompting suggestions of a road up the valley as the ice disappears from view.
Wow!
Dinner at Depot
It’s been the second time we visited this lovely restaurant right in the centre of Auckland.
This time we had our seats right next to the kitchen. It was absolutely fascinating to watch all the food getting made. And of course it tasted delicious.
