All good things come to an end....

My trusty G9 is on its last legs. It is starting to look a bit battered and there is a mark on the sensor, goodness knows how it got there but it has. So I have decided to upgrade? to the G10. A friend of mine has this and she finds it to be a wonderful camera. I have used it and I must say it seems equally as robust as the G9. I am aware of the limitations of the G10 but I intend to shoot on low ISO settings - similar to the G9 - and so many of the image problems shouldn't be there.

Another reason for the upgrade is my back. Since coming back from Pembrokeshire I have been suffering from a back problem - no doubt aggravated in no small part by the amount of kit I haul around. So I have decided to try out the G10 + 1D + a lens as my standard set up. Not sure if this will work but I know the terrain of the Farne Islands, next expedition, and it is a lot easier than Skomer. I also know that the birds are far more accessable, and numerous, on the Farne Islands than at Skomer. So the new set up should not be a disadvantge. That's the plan anyway - we'll have to see if it works.

The new camera has some very big shoes to fill but if it has been as reliable as the G9 - sensor mark aside - then I will be very happy.

5D v 9G

York Minster

This argument has been swirling around in my brain over the weekend.  Which is the better camera, the Canon 5D or Canon G9?  This may sound somewhat silly as on paper there is no comparison, the 5D is simply better in every aspect.  But hold on theoretical performance doesn't really cut it when you are out in the field using each of the camera.  I have found that I have used the G9 far more more in the past few months than the 5D.   I have been able to produce some stunning images with the G9 and yet is it a better camera?

I guess the best place to start is price.   Well the G9 is, was, about a quarter of the 5D's price.  It is a tank when compared to a lot of other compact cameras but for me this is one of its great advantages.   I have stuffed it into all sorts of pockets over the past two years and it has never let me down.  However, there are some significant problems with the camera.  I believe I have mentioned before the dire performance beyond the 200 ISO setting.  I just cannot use the images that it produces due to the appalling noise.  The lens is not wide enough for my liking either, although the G10 has opened up to an equivalent 28mm this is still not that good. 

Now we come to the 5D.  The day in York demonstrated both its brilliance and annoyance.   The photograph above was taken in York Minster with a 24 - 105mm lens fitted.  The ISO was 1000 and the shutter speed was 1/10th of  a second.  Given all these problems the resultant photograph was sharp, due in no small part to the image stabaliser on the lens, and there was no sign of noise.  If I had tried anything like that with the G9 the image would have been appalling.  However, there is a price to pay for this image quality (IQ).  The camera is bulky and requires large hands to handle successfully.  You just can't throw it into a pocket and pull it out at a moments notice.  You have to use the 5D with a certain amount of intention and planning.  It is not a camera that can be used spontaneously.  Given all this you are never disappointed with the results - possibly the best digital camera made to date.

So which is best?   After giving the matter much thought it has to be the 5D.   You very quickly come up against the design constraints of the G9 if you use it a lot.  This is not the case with the 5D as there is usually a fix that can be fitted to the camera to get around most problems.   I would be lost without either and am in no hurry to replace them with their upgrades, I know I was think about the mk II 5D but this has been put on the back burner for now.

Spending more time in the bog

Another day, another day.  Yes it has been a damp and dismal Easter Sunday.  Great.  I spent a couple of hours in the local bog,  taking more photographs.  I have finally cracked the flash with the G9, I found out that the flash works a lot better with the setting on Tv.  Now I know I should have known this but I didn't - always learning something, again if I had read the instructions this would have helped.   Never do!

I had the place to myself and it was great.   This large expanse of woodland and flood meadow is a photography heaven, that is if you enjoy making photographs of damp and decay.  Needless to say I do and the weather was just perfect.  It gave the leaves a wonderful glean, their verdant colours look really great in the flat light.   Back in the studio for can really enhance the colours and and make some fantastic moody photographs.

Crazy about flowers

I'm going through a very organic phase at the moment.  Perhaps it is the feel of spring that is in the air or perhaps my recent dalliance with daffodils has had an effect way beyond what I thought.   Anyway, I find myself making more and more photographs of flowers.  Again the trusty G9 is coming into its own.  I am also trying to explore what it means to take a flower photograph.  I wonder were this will take me?

Its a small world of unintended consequences

I spent some part of yesterday rummaging around on my stomach in the garden.  This wasn't some new form of green protest but rather an attempt to make a photograph of a small flower under the large plants and shrubs.  Unfortunately those photographs weren't that good.  However, whilst I was down there I saw this rather small mushroom (Toadstool?).  I just couldn't pass that opportunity up so I pointed my G9 at the fungi and took a few shoots.   Just to give you some idea of the scale you can clearly see the lens makings reflected onto the cap of the mushroom - wither that or it is the devils mushroom as it clearly is at least one - maybe two - six.

This morning I tried to capture some crazy long tailed tit that insists on flying into the window of the garden shed.  I set up the camera, attached the remote and even put of reflector out to give the scene a little more light.   Nothing.  I waited and waited.  Still nothing.   I was standing in my garage which has a good vantage point of the garden shed.  Whilst trying not to get too bored I started to take some photographs of a wasp as it tried to fly through the window.   I got carried away and became more interested in the wasp than the long tailed tit, which, needless to say didn't turn up until I was dismantling the set up!

Well that is the beauty of photography.  You set out to make one type of photograph and end up with a totally different set all together.   Now I am not sure whether this is an unintended consequence but it was welcome.   Again the G9 proved a show stopper.

Some of the strangest things...

You see some of the strangest things when you are out and about just minding your own business.   So I was shopping in town yesterday when I came across this bizarre line up.   A fashion shop had closed down and some one had decided to line up the clothes mannequins in this way.  I have no idea whether it was a deliberate ploy or what but it just looked so strange.   Another example of carrying a camera around with you at all times.  Thank you G9.

Experimentation

As photographers we are used to failure.  Unless I am unusual, and in this particular area I don't think I am, we are more unsuccessful than successful.   We do a shoot and take a number of photographs, we look at the contact sheets/images on the screen and select only those that meet whatever criteria we have set,   the rest are discarded.  We define ourselves not by our successes but our failures.  Indeed it is what drives us on, to perfect our art, to make the next photograph better than the last.  But we know failure, we know its frustration, its stigma.   For every success we have a thousand failures.  Indeed recently it has been estimated that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become really competent in whatever field of endeavour we are working.

So why this dwelling on failure?   Well I have had one of those shoots.  I spent most of the morning in  Swithland Woods, a popular woodland area.  For the most part it was deserted and so I had time just to ponder and think about what I was taking.  In fact there really wasn't much to take.   I had continued the experiment with the tilt and shift lens.  I also continued to work with the G9 and tethered flash.  But nothing really worked.   So I changed my approach and started to use 2nd curtain flash on bushes as they swayed in the stiff breeze.  This was far more successful,  but not what I had thought about when I set out.   So this is why I started to think about failure.  Sometimes things go totally wrong.  Sometime they just don't gel but perhaps the worst is when they don't do anything at all.  When you get one of those days it is really frustrating.  Today was one those days.   Still there is always tomorrow.

Histograms and the Rain

So there I was trying to brace myself against the gale that was blowing trying to see the LED reading in the view finder.   The rain was driving and my back pack was flapping in the wind.   As usual I had not really thought through what I was going to do.  I had been inspired by some photographs taken by my friend Sarah Brooks to get out into the Charnwood forest.  She had taken some rather interesting photographs with a Lensbaby.  Now I have a tilt and shift lens I thought it would be fun to use this to try something similar.  

So off I went, camera bag packed to one of the highest points in Leicestershire to make some interesting photographs.  The wind was howling a gale and the rain was coming down but I was unperturbed.  It was only when I was standing out in the wind and rain that I remembered - the T/S lens is a manual exposure lens.   Not a problem if I had brought along my light meter.  Guess what - I hadn't.   Instead I had to try and read the meter on the camera - not easy in the conditions.  In the end I reverted to reading the histogram as my light meter.  I know this is putting the  cart before the horse but it worked.  I would take a photograph, look at the histogram to see what the exposure was like and change the setting accordingly.  Memo to myself - make sure you take the correct kit with you in future! Doh!

Daffodils a la Histogram - Beacon Hill

On a more positive note I did get some interesting photographs.    I really like the bizarre focus effect you get from using a T/S lens for other than correcting converging angles on buildings.  It gives you extra options when out in the field.  I know that much of what can be achieved with the T/S can be recreated in photoshop but that is not the point.   It is always a good idea to have as many options open at the capture stage as you can.  The T/S lens gives you that extra dimension.

As I got to Beacon Hill  the rain was beating against the windscreen.  However through the rain I could see this lone tree standing in the wind.   I decided to take photograph.  It worked out really well and was just what I was looking fought against the elements.   It just goes to show that you should always have a camera at hand.

Tree - Beacon Hill

As I explored the exposed hill I was surprised to some daffodils huddling against the wind.  This was another opportunity to indulge my daffodil fascination.  I am not sure what the passing walking group thought as I was lying prostrate on the ground trying to balance my G9 with a flash on a tether.  But if you can't take a joke you really shouldn't be a photographer.   Again if I had thought this through I probably wouldn't have lay on my 5D and dug the lens hood into the ground.    It was worth cleaning the lens afterwards though.  Using the G9 with a tethered flash was an interesting experiment.  Something I will have to work some more.

Daffodil - Beacon Hill

My lovely G9

Canon G9

What a wonderful camera this is.  I have now taken nearly 7500 photographs with the camera.  It is my constant companion and is a little dog eared at the edges asa a result of being thrust into all sorts of pockets etc.   There are downsides to the camera - one being the unusable image quality at anything over 400 ISO (just as an aside I still call this ASA - still thats my age I suppose!).  This is not really too much of a problem as I grew up living with Kodachrome 64.

Apart from this limitation the camera has never missed a beat.   It is made out of very solid metals, unlike many other compact cameras, another bonus as I am not exactly gentle with things - perhaps another way of saying heavy handed.

Canon now make the G10 which maybe a very wonderful replacement for the G9 but I just don't see the point in upgrading.  Perhaps the only thing that would encourage me to upgrade would be an improvement in chip size (not Mb size) as this, I believe, would improve the image quality.  However it will take a mighty good upgrade to part me with my wonderful G9.

Daffodils

You know what it is like.  There are some subjects that you never can master.  There is always something wrong, the composition is just not right; perhaps the colours are off - something is never right.   So it is with me and daffodils.   Never can quite master them.   They are an elusive creature that is one step away.

I have decided to try a different approach this year.  I am not going to try and make photographs of the flowers with my SLR but rather use my trusty G9. Like other compacts it has a first rate macro facility.   Not as powerful as my macro lens but really quite useful.  So we will see how it works out.

Do I take too many images?

Is this going to be my new years resolution?   I must not take so many images.   Well the answer to this as with most questions is yes and no.   Yes when it comes to the majority of my photography - I think this is happening already.  No when it comes to wild life photography.   Much  wildlife work takes place in small windows of opportunity so you have to make the best of it when you can - hence a large number of images.   The only thing that goes against this is the fact that I do a lot of walking and I find that the G9 just too easy to snap the image.   Most of the results are less than perfect but with a bit of work in photoshop they can be lifted to an acceptable level.   

Given all this I should make this one of my new years resolution...only I am not sure I will!