Cameras on Nanikore

Current Cameras

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 02:18:00 +0000

I thought I’d do a very quick post about my current cameras. This blog did used to have more ’technology’ posts, but many of those are now private (or on brightblack) as over the last few years I’ve tried to focus more on outdoors and motorcycling here, though I thought for a change today, I’d do something about my current cameras.

Let me be up-front here though - I’m not a photographer, I just want to take photos to remind me of times I’ve had on the road, or wherever I happen to be. I’ll be honest - I have hundreds of photos of my bikes in front of beautiful vistas.

The ’larger’ camera

For many years I had entry-level Nikon dSLRs - a D40, then a D3200 - and I really liked both of them. I amassed a kit 18-55mm lens, an f1.8 35mm prime and a 55-200mm telephoto lens for them too. They were great value for money cameras and lenses.

Then in April 2020, I moved over to an entry level Fujifilm mirrorless camera system, the X-T200. I like taking photos but my skill level and disposable income for cameras doesn’t justify huge expenditure, so better to get a cheaper body so I can afford a few lenses down the road. So for the Fujifilm, I have the small and light kit 15-45mm, then a 23mm prime lens and a 16-80mm travel zoom I bought used. When possible I sell off old gear via online auction or more recently to Fujiya Camera, which is where I got that used 16-80mm Fujifilm lens.

As it’s a small APS-C based system, I find these don’t add much bulk or weight in a backpack or my topbox, so on days out I actually enjoy stopping, getting the camera out and looking around. And drinking tea.

Why the X-T200?

The X-T200 is light and small. It’s takes great photos, and like all Fujifilm mirrorless, has great colour and film simulations in JPG which is what I mainly shoot in. It also does very good video, which my previous dSLR cameras didn’t. The X series of cameras is being actively developed and I could move into weatherproof bodies going forwards, and there’s also plenty of weather sealed lenses - including two of the ones I have - which might not be a bad idea given some of the places I end up.

The Action Camera

My first action camera was a GoPro Hero HD2, which I thought was great, even with the required case, as it was a camera I felt safer mounting to helmets or taking snowboarding. After quite a few years, I sold it and got a Hero 5, then a few years later sold that when I got a Hero 7black as a gift. The 7black is great for video, especially it’s amazing stabilization. The downside was it was very buggy on launch (mostly fixed), and can be temperamental in sub- and near zero temperatures if care isn’t taken. I often use it for time lapse too, and I find it actually takes decent photos with a bit of patience.

Why GoPro?

Their hardware seems mostly well thought out and durable, which I think is where they lead cheaper brands and is mainly why I’ve stuck with them - I’ve never had one really fail on me. Their software and other business strategies seem to be all over though, which is concerning since I see action cameras as a niche and declining market as people just use water-resistant phones, or put the phones in waterproof covers. For example, their idea of charging 50USD to use an external mic is my favourite example of trying to make money where a lower margin would likely drive more sales. I even did a post about it. Again, well built cameras and better image quality if that’s really a factor.

The Smartphone

Yes, the best camera is truly the one you have with you. I don’t buy high end phones unfortunately, but I use whatever I have if I just need to take that photo. I used to have point and shoot cameras, like the small Canon Ixy range, but ultimately found I used the big camera more, and then the phone or the GoPro if I had them with me. Eventually the point-n-shoots never got replaced when they wore out. Currently I have a Google Pixel 4a, and yes, very happy with the photos.

A more flexible option?

Pricey, but I know a few bikers who swear by the Sony RX100 range, pocket sized cameras which take great photos and videos. There’s similar ones such as Canon G5 range that perhaps could be an option in the future. Who knows!

In Summary

Basically then I don’t have a massive number of cameras, but fairly specific ones I suppose, and I do like to take photos even if they may not be ‘good’ photos, I treat them very much as a way to trigger memories, or a way to share them with people - usually they’re a great aid when explaining something. So for example, when explaining how I stalled my bike on an inclined curve, and had to slowly lower it to the asphalt, I can describe the road, but I think this photo makes it a little easier to understand:

Sorting Out : GoPro

Thu, 30 May 2019 12:30:17 +0000

Rather than just review a product, I thought I’d review a whole company and make sweeping and simple recommendations on how to improve their business with the benefit of having no experience in their market. So, sorting out GoPro.

That said, I often think reviewers and opinion pieces on the internets should spend a bit more time talking about what they wanted or expected from things in the first place, and what their experiences have been, so we as readers get a little context. So first then, let me explain my history of usage with GoPro action cameras.

My GoPro History & Usage

My first GoPro was a Hero 2 HD in early 2012. I loved that thing, in its plastic case with spring mounted buttons, 720p video and distinctive look. I had the screen ‘bacpac’, and replaced that with the wifi bacpac, which in hindsight was a mistake. I actually had 2 of them - I lost one in Guam whilst swimming with my family. I had to quickly help someone, and the floaty the GoPro was on just floated away somewhere! On the positive side, I had backed up all the footage the night before, so I didn’t real lose any memories.

I soon bought another Hero 2, whilst on sale before the Hero 3 came out, as I found it was really filling a niche for me, and it helped a lot with getting footage for family movies, snowboard and motorcycle days, and be a camera the kids could use at the beach and all the other outdoors stuff we do without worrying about it getting wet and such. I also really liked the timelapse on it, which continues to be a key use for me even now.

A few years later I sold the Hero 2 on Craigslist, and with a bit of saving, I bought a GoPro 5 Black in late 2016. I liked the higher frame rates, lack of need for case, and the touch screen. I was then gifted a new 7black for Xmas 2018 from the family, and sold off the 5 (I really don’t need 2 action cameras at a time). Broadly I’ve liked the stabilization, the new timelapse modes, the photo improvements. The crashing [potentially] due to orientation? Not so much.

So that’s me and GoPros. So what’s my opinion, and thoughts on the company, products and directions?

The Hardware

I find GoPros to be generally well made. Everything seems to fit well, and of course their mounting system has been the standard for the market for quite a while, which helps since their own brand accessories and batteries are usually at least double the cost of anyone else’s and explains why most of my accessories are third party.

The one aspect of the hardware I think is ridiculous is the DRM’d mic port. It’s just a silly way to spin up some revenue. I don’t know why GoPro don’t just let people use any adapter or even BlueTooth for mics. I’d be keen to see the economics on that.

In newer models you can now do portrait video. I’m no young InstaInfluencer, so maybe there’s a market for this, but all the people I see with action cams, and all the footage I see online from actions cams? None of it is portrait. Vertical video is from the smartphone market. I could be tainted here since watching the ‘Community’ forums, it seems that the auto orientation feature they have now seems to be causing more crashing for very little benefit for people who actually use it in social media.

The Applications and Services

Software is not GoPros strong point. At all. I suspect they know this since much of their application range has been bought in.

The first desktop app of theirs I used was Studio, which was a very, very basic, not to say clunky editor, but did let you stitch together time lapses and I used it for that a few times.

It helped organize footage, but I already have workflows for that, so I didn’t use that side so much. It also helped update the cameras and indeed it seemed to work fine for that. Ironic now that GoPro’s own support steps start with ‘manually update your GoPro’ and not use Studio’s successor for that.

They replaced Studio with Quik on mobile and desktop, but now you had to log in to GoPro to use it (since sort of dropped). It has some nice functions, but is a more limited editor than Studio in some ways (e.g. no timelapse now) if that was your need. It doesn’t help that it doesn’t recognise HEVC capable hardware correctly in many cases including mine, meaning it refuses to play those files which are often high resolution, high frame rate clips, so often I don’t use it for playback, which is ironic given GoPro market so much of their product appeal as high frame rate / high resolution… which requires HEVC. Of course you can still play it back in VLC or Quicktime if the underlying hardware supports it (mine does).

I don’t use it at all then on the desktop, and have only a couple of times on mobile where the story maker function is quite good, and it will edit non GoPro footage also. On the desktop it does let you select the overlays for the data-logging the camera does, showing GPS location, speed, orientation etc., but that’s a novelty at best, and the doesn’t seem to work with other editors anyway.

I’ve submitted a few feature requests to GoPro to enhance Quik, to make it more useful, such as for lossless cutting, SD card testing, and file fixing - things the GoPro users specifically need, so we’ll see if any of that happens. Having a basic editor is OK, but beyond that I think they’re better pitching it as a utility on the desktop, and doing a deal with an existing ‘free’ editor company like BlackMagicDesign (who also make cameras…hmmm).

The Plus offering of cloud storage and damage cover was initially too little, too expensive, and initially restrictive on quality of footage and didn’t really fit into many people’s workflows. Here in Japan the Plus pricing is 7,200JPY a year (for ‘unlimited’ storage). A 200GB Google Drive is 4,560JPY a year, but doesn’t get you the insurance aspect.

As ever, the idea of on the road cloud backup is nice, but implementation is clunky. It also shows that subtle weakness - it needs a smartphone or other connected device to get the most from it, and for most people, they’re just going to use their phone. I do think this is a good idea for the product though, because again it plays to the core - usage of cameras outdoors, in difficult conditions with the risk of damage.

Live streaming was another new feature rolled out, and unfortunately another I don’t really have a usage scenario for personally. Again, this isn’t a GoPro issue, this is my issue. I’m interested to see how this catches on compared to people just using their phones and apps like Periscope for this functionality.

Bottom Line: I don’t think the Insta crowd use GoPros more than active outdoor people use GoPros. The insurance concept is nice and to make it better for the GoPro usage scenario, so perhaps less time on chasing those ephemeral social media users who broadly aren’t the core market, and more resources on action cam users who are?

By The Numbers and the Business

I don’t believe that share price etc., should or does have an impact on product mix all the time, nor do I think equity share price reflects a company’s success or value all the time, but let’s just look at 5 years of share price for GPRO. It peaked on October 3rd 2014 at 86.97 USD just after the IPO in early 2014. It’s spent much of the last 3 years between 5 and 10 USD. That’s not healthy in the broadly capitalistic system.

Again though, latest figures show the company is showing improvement with an increase of 11% in cameras shipped, and the Plus product is seeing some improvement with an increase of 50% sales, year on year, which I suspect may coincide with allowing any footage to be uploaded. It seems clearing up the Karma drone situation seems to have helped too, and they’re done writing it off. A nice idea the Karma, just not done well, and the plug pulled.

The Bottom Bottom Line

Years on from their founding in 2002 then, they’re still a camera company. They still sell a lot of cameras, but the smartphone trend of an annual refresh cycle seems to leave GoPro with serious quality issues on release and increasingly annoyed users on the community forums. Perhaps they need to lower their cadence to every other year, and use the off year to build support and fix firmware, or the company operations need rethinking.

GoPro should acknowledge that the ‘mainstream’ days are going away. They need to re-embrace their original and new niche customers who need cameras that work in odd places, stuck on odd things, and see the target more as YouTube/Vimeo than FaceBook/Instagram. Everyone else will use a waterproof smartphone, or use ‘real cameras’ for higher quality.

As for other markets, I think there’s room for action cameras for a while yet, and whilst GoPro missed the drone market both by a wide margin in terms of the time window and delivered a seemingly flawed product in the Karma, ‘rugged smartphones’ could still be a market for GoPro until they can identify something else.

Less marketing, more support for grass roots - for something designed to capture once in a lifetime or out there footage, a level of support on forums etc. is vital. The ’ Community’ is OK, but there’s so little official comment on there or letting people know what’s considered a problem and what isn’t. Whilst Asia only accounts for ~15% of sales, getting a chat session for support outside (and sometimes inside) US hours is not easy, which is a shame, and in my experience, whilst the support is friendly, it’s very heavily scripted, and not always conclusive. (My experience was that we went through the generic troubleshooting, and when I could still replicate a freezing issue, was told to turn auto-orientation off, and there, fixed. Turning off a feature to stop a problem is not a fix. I received 2 case numbers, but didn’t get a transcript for either.)

Given DJI has just entered the high end action camera market with the Osmo Action which does 80% of what the 7 Black does, this isn’t like the days gone past of Yi jumping in and taking those ’lower end’ GoPros sales, this is really attacking GoPro’s core.

The Very Bottom Line

So that’s it; a view of GoPro, my history and usage of GoPro, and some notes on where I think they are and aren’t. I generally don’t do brand loyalty, in the same way that companies don’t really do customer loyalty, but I’ve liked what successions of GoPro engineers and the business have done, and I’d like to see them succeed, but their continued seeming belief that they’re Apple and that they’re selling a lifestyle I don’t think will translate into success in the very long term.

New Header Image: Water

Thu, 11 Jul 2013 00:34:08 +0000

It’s been a while since I posted, and it’s been a while since I updated the head, and since I’ve moved the blog theme to the Twenty Thirteen fit a little better. This time the header image is focussed on water.

There’s been a lot going on of late, hence the lack of posts, and much of it has been in the outdoors, and as the temperatures climb higher and the humidity makes Japan a nation-wide sauna once more, it’s good to get into the water and trees of the countryside and cool off.

I took this shot quickly as it’s a park of some steps which make waterfalls for the kids to play in, and it gets decent traffic on these hot weekends in Kanagawa.

New Header Image: Wooden Posts

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:05:35 +0000

It’s been a long time since I updated the header image - about 9 months in fact, so I decided it was time for a change. Nothing amazing, as usual, but I thought I’d keep with images from out and about the local area. This one was from a local children’s play park, where they have a trellis on supports over a seating area. The steel supports have these wooden post sections bolted to them for cosmetic reasons, and you can see here, they don’t touch the ground any more, meaning there’s a quirky look and a nice texture.

The image was taken on my Nikon D3200 on the 35mm lens at the slightly silly 24MP, but cropped all the way down - that’s a benefit of lots of pixels - cropping becomes a lot simpler.

Suddenly, lenses for my D40

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 05:27:41 +0000

Something must be going on, as I now own 3 lenses for my Nikon D40 dSLR, whereas up until six months ago, I only had the one which came with it.

To recap, towards the end of 2006 I bought a Nikon D40, with it’s stock 18-55mm kit lens. I actually bought it a month or so after our first child was born as I’d been playing with a friend’s D40 and frankly, the difference in photo ‘quality’ between that and the Ixy point and shoot camera I had at the time was amazing, and so I talked myself into buying my first digital SLR camera.

Since then, I must have taken thousands of photos with it, and never had a problem, whilst getting some truly memorable images, even with my poor grasp of photography. During that time, I think I’ve gone through three point and shoots by comparison.

However, despite one of the main advantages of dSLRs being the ability to change lenses, I’d never bought another lens. I’m actually hardly unique in that, as the vast majority of entry level SLR buyers never buy anything beyond that kit lens.

That all changed earlier this year when I found a couple of situations where I really wanted a bit more ‘zoom’ to get some photos of the kids, and the 18-55mm just wasn’t quite getting it (to be fair, it’s hardly a real zoom lens) so I spoke to some friends who really know about this, and read some well known blogs on the matter, and consulted the amazing dpreview.com site.

In March, I bought the 55-200mm VR lens from Nikon/Nikkor, and was impressed at the zoom and the great images it gives, which meant I could get pictures of the kids without them being distracted by the camera being so close, and them ‘posing’, which is not what you want sometimes. It’s also allowed me to get photos of the quirky local buildings and landscape features I wanted to take pictures of, which usually gets comments like ‘Why do we have a picture of a rusty pipe?’ now and then from the family. The ‘VR’ part of the name is ’ Vibration Reduction’ which is Nikon’s take on image stabilization and often they achieve this in-lens, rather than in the body. VR is now available on the 18-55mm kit lens now I think, and it really helps image quality on a zoom like this, reducing the need for a tripod in some situations.Note that with these AF-S lenses, their focussing motors are also in the lens, as the D40 body does not have one built-in.

The only downside of the 55-200 VR obviously is that I can’t take quick shots of the kids and things up close with it - it’s not designed for it - so I can swap to the 18-55mm, but that in itself seemed to be a compromise, and increasingly I was reading that a better compliment to the 55-200 VR would be a shorter 35 or 50mm prime lense (i.e. it doesn’t zoom, having a fixed focus). I like to take photos at events, which is where the other end of the need is

After quite a bit of reading (and saving), last week I chose a 35mm lens, again from Nikon - the 35mm f/1.8, essentially over the 50mm, partly on cost, but also on reviews of the lenses themselves, including photo blogger Ken Rockwell seeming to prefer the 35mm, putting it into his lens Dream Team, Steve Huff also liking it, and website Gizmodo having it as a top combination. It’s worth remembering that due to the way the DX works, a 35mm lens is the equivalent of a 53mm lens in ‘film’ photography parlance apparently.

So now I have my 55-200mm and my 35mm lenses in my camera bag, and after 5 months with the extra zoom, I’ve gotten shots I couldn’t have before, so I’m really pleased with it. I’m still learning how to use the 35mm properly, but already I see why Steve Huff says this lens will help make you a better photographer - it really makes you want to move and get the picture you want.

Although this is all at the bottom end of what can easily become a very expensive hobby, I’ve always been impressed at the quality of the photos my D40 gives me, and impressed at how even though I thought the kit lens was great, these two new lenses get even better images, and because of the way the camera designs work, in the future I could buy a newer DX based Nikon like the D3200 - with yet more pixels (6MP on my D40 compared to 24MP on that) and HD video, and still use these same lenses with it.

Although this level of SLR is now being challenged by newer mirrorless cameras, I’m fine to invest a little still in this well built kit, whilst remembering that the best camera, is always the one you have with you.

GoPro Hero 2 First Impressions

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 09:41:44 +0000

After thinking about getting one for quite a while, I finally bought myself a GoPro Hero 2 2 is often described as a ‘sports camera’, or a ‘point of view’ camera in that it’s a rugged design, comes with a durable waterproof casing, and is designed to be bolted to things, stuck to helmets, surf boards and such, to get closer to the action. It’s also different from a point n click in so far as it has a wide angle fixed lens (f2.8) thus no zoom, and is designed to be modular, allowing users to add to it as needed.

For example, I invested in the LCD bacpac (add-ons are usually suffixed with ‘~pac’ in the GoPro world) so I could view video as I go, set a shot up, or review the footage. The screen uses battery though, so I set mine to power down after 60 seconds, or you can just detach it after you think you’ve got the shot set up properly, reducing the weight, which is likely a key factor if you’re mounting it to a helmet or some other item where you want the least weight on you can get, and since you can’t see the LCD, there’s not much loss!

The accessories like the LCD also come with their own range of covers to attach to the supplied waterproof casing, so the whole unit profile is kept to a minimum but still waterproof. Some of the covers are also open to allow better airflow and mic sensitivity when you don’t need total waterproofing. My usage scenarios as really for my motorbike trips (on the bike or helmet), my bicycle runs, for the snowboarding and ski trips, and for down by the beach or swimming to get some more footage of the kids where I wouldn’t be able to take the point n click, which not only lacks a waterproof case, but is a bit unwieldy.

First off I tried some of the modes out; I wont go through all of them, but the ones I played with were the 1080p @ 30fps, 720p @ 60 fps, and 848*480 @ 120 fps all at the wide 170deg. field of view setting. The 1080p/30 looked fantastic, though this is the first camera I’ve had which supports it, and has a solid frame rate. The 720p/60 I think is where I’ll spend most time - it gave a smooth, slightly slow motion effect, and a solid picture even when moving. The 848*480@120 (WVGA) is good for when you really want some slow motion, which I tried out by running the shower at putting the GoPro in it’s casing on the floor, and seeing the droplets hit.One note for this is that it requires good lighting.

Overall, I really like the video performance - it’s h.264, and for me slots straight into iMovie, though GoPro do provide a basic editor called CineForm which isn’t bad at all for a free download, and allows you to convert the videos to other formats. Audio isn’t bad from the built in mic, but it’s very much secondary I suspect, though you can plug a mic in if you like.

The Hero2 also does stills at 5 or 11MP, and supports time lapse, and timed photos, which look very decent also. I put in a 32GB SDHC Class 10 which cost me less than 3,000yen, and complies with all of GoPro’s requirements for running 10fps still bursts, which are also useful. I bought the ’ Outdoor kit’ which comes with a lot of ways to attach the GoPro, including to handlebars, but have a look at the motorsports or surf kits if that’s more your thing.

Unlike the original GoPro Hero cameras, this has a more detailed front facing LCD which makes changing modes and settings much easier than its predecessor’s by the sounds of it, and has small LEDs on most sides so you can see it’s still recording. Another nice fringe benefit is that it charges from a mini USB connector, which is something I wish more cameras did!

I actually picked mine up on a business trip to New York, as the JP distributor’s price was 31,500yen after taxes, and I could get it for 25,000yen in the States - I think that’s a fairly generous mark-up given the exchange rate to be honest. Here’s a quick sample of some footage I shot straight off the handlebars of my motorbike. You’ll notice there’s a slight ‘fish eye lens’ look about it, which is due to the lens type. It’s rendered out at 720p/30 though there’s some loss of quality due to Vimeo’s encode and adding the player, here in SD, so it looks even better if you go to Vimeo to see the high definition version: [Update: April 2012 - I paid up for Vimeo Plus so this can be viewed in HD from here - at least until April 2013!]

https://vimeo.com/38397836

Overall then my first impression is that this is a quality product - image and audio is well above what I expected, and the build quality is very decent, so I’m looking for this to take some abuse and still get me some footage I just wouldn’t have been able to get otherwise.

If you want to see what the GoPro cameras are really capable of, search for ‘GoPro’ on Vimeo.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

Gen Kanai — 2012-03-18

If you want better audio for your GoPro videos, (and while I’m no expert, I do know that audio quality makes a big, big difference- in my experience it’s more important than the video quality) you might want to consider an external audio recorder like a Zoom H1. You capture the audio separately and then sync it to your video footage with an app like DualEyes or the new Final Cut Pro has this functionality built in. You get much better audio than using the mic on the GoPro.

gurahamu — 2012-03-19

Hello Gen,

I was just looking at that H1 (http://www.samsontech.com/zoom/products/handheld-audio-recorders/h1/) and realised it’s one a friend was talking about a few months back for a project he was doing. I’ll drop him a line and see whether he got it or not. Years ago I used an Aiwa MD recorder at live bars around Kanagawa to record some great gigs, and it’s certainly something I’d like to get back to, so maybe that is the way forward on that. (I’m pretty sure it was more than the 90USD the H1 costs!).

I think you’re right though, for the amount I’d spend on a mic on-site for the GoPro, I may well be better off getting the H1.

Nikon D40

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 14:29:52 +0000

After three years with my little Canon IXY 500, I recently received a new camera, and it’s my first stumbling footsteps into the world of D-SLR cameras in the shape of Nikon’s new entry level model, the Nikon D40 ( Japanese).

Whilst I’ll still be taking my IXY out for quick point n shoot bits, like snowboarding, I wanted to learn to use a ‘real’ camera, and hopefully get better family and day to day pictures. The Nikon sports a 6.1MP sensor (only 1MP more than the IXY) but excels way beyond the compact in image quality - even I was amazed at the different in depth, light and colour the Nikon has, so as someone who stuck with tiny cameras for years, I would definitely advise people to check out the weird, and increasingly ‘cheap’ world of digital SLRs. As ever, before we bought this, we spend time at DPReview.com, where the D40 got a great review.

Hopefully, after I’ve finished learning what all the buttons do I can actually upload a few decent pics to the Gallery and spend a bit of time doing spot the difference.

New camera

Wed, 17 Mar 2004 22:46:41 +0000

After 3 years of great service, I’m semi-retiring my Canon Ixy (2.1 Megapixel) in favour of my new Canon Ixy 500 (5 Megapixel). I can’t go into all the details here, but needless to say, this thing has a whole raft of new features, and the picture quality really is amazing, as I think you can see in the Niseko gallery. I’m really loving how many more pictures I can attempt now, and see if I can do some more justice to the things I see around me.

All I have to do now is figure out how to take decently framed shots of interesting stuff. I think I should head over to Bastish.net for some inspiration. His stuff is amazing (and I thought that even before he left some comments on this blog !) I just wish I could find the shot of the monk looking at the girl on the train again - curse my failing memory!

On the subject of cameras, the best reviews seem to be on DPReview, and Steve’s Digicams.

If you’re a Mac owner and have .Mac, they also have some good tutorials as part of the iPhoto information.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

Rudolf — 2004-03-21

Monk Checks Chick Out:

http://www.bastish.net/rememberwhen/002392.html

Kevin is a rock star:

http://www.thewesternworld.net/blog/pics/BloggerMeetup2.html

kevin — 2004-03-21

The trick is to take hundred, and hundreds of photos…. about ten may end up with interesting stuff… of those, one or two may be interestingly framed :)

BTW, my camera is only 2 megapixles, but I too am thinking to upgrade to a DSLR. Not because I am not happy with the quality, but because I want to play with all the cool photographer-lingo features, like aperture, and other things I have been learning about, but can’t control with my camrea.

graham — 2004-03-22

Thanks for the comments. I really liked my little Ixy, but it did sometimes do odd things with colour and such. The new one is great though, but yeah, I think I should maybe just take more and abuse the 512Mb worth of Compact Flash I have (50% donated or came with camera!)