Has Hasselblad and Leica Gone Loony?

I always think highly of Hasselblad, for a long long time I think they make some of the best medium format cameras around!

Their 500C was a classics! It even went to the moon, the first man on the moon was shot with a Hasselblad!

I had great admiration for Hasselblad, until two days ago...

Hasselblad proudly launched their new LUNAR at Photokina two days ago, they called the monstrosity "Italian-designed ‘ultimate luxury’ mirrorless, interchangeable lens camera"!

I hasn't stop laughing :)  Ha ha ha ha...

Wait... the best is yet to come...

Konnichiwa こんにちは Canon G15

Say sayonara to my G12 and konnichiwa to the new G15 :)

Blurity Deblurs Shaky Photos!

One year ago I read with interest Adobe was showing off an advanced Image De-blurring feature that may appear in an upcoming CS6.0 of Photoshop. The demonstration got everybody work up but alas this magical feature did not appear in the latest version of Photoshop.

What I didn't know Blurity was on the same track promoting a stand alone app that do the same magic of making blurry photos sharp!

Nikon D600 The Disruptive Full-Frame DSLR?

By now the whole world know Nikon has launch their "affordable" D600 FULL-FRAME DSLR!  Priced at US$ 2,099 (body) it is a thousand bucks cheaper than big brother the D800.

So what it is 12 MP LESS than the 36 MP big brother, who or how often do you need all those extra pixels anyway?

Every photographer worth his/her pixels knew the full-frame DSLR is the ultimate upgrade, trouble is a decade ago; you will have to take out a second mortgage just to upgrade to a full-frame system!  It was that expensive ;)

Prima Facie - Nikon D800 DSLR

After talking and anticipating about it for a week, last Tuesday thanks to Ben of Photo Warehouse, we were given a chance to try out the 36.3MP Nikon D800 DSLR!

Our manager Simon told us we have just three days to play with this "King of Mega Pixels" and he is interested to know how this full-frame DSLR compare to the Mamiya 645DF he bought for the office 3 weeks ago.

Simon's intention is to find out if the D800 can deliver the kind of sharpness and dynamic range like a medium format digital back is able to.

Prima Facie - Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II

Three days ago, my colleague Martyn received his spanking new Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II lens! I was the first person he show the 1.6 KG, NZ$ 4,000.00 chunk of glass to ;)

Alright Martyn, I don't have one :)  The fact is, I can't afford one!

Fondling this cold metallic wonder optics bring back memories of those great time I was with the papers, most of my news pictures were shot with a similar lens but WITHOUT the luxury of IS (Image Stabilizer).

Canon launch their first generation EF 70-200 f/2.8 L in March 1995, rapidly the versatile zoom became the "must have" of all EOS totting pros.

In September 2001 Canon delivered the same lens with an advance image stabilizer and priced it 3 times more than the non IS version.

Canon claimed their version two IS zoom have a three stops advantage over the non IS, what they meant was if you are able to shoot a shake free shot with your non IS at 1/125 (@ 200mm), you will be able to do the same at 1/15 with the IS lens!  A bit of exaggeration, but possible ;)

1st Man On the Moon Dies

Saturday - Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, dies aged 82.

On that historical day, July 20th 1969; Armstrong, the commander of the Apollo 11 mission,became the first human to set foot on the moon. As he stepped on the dusty lunar surface, Armstrong said: "“That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." 

Those words endured as one of the best known quote in the English language. 

Portrait of Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander of the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing mission in his space suit, with his helmet on the table in front of him. Behind him is a large photograph of the lunar surface.  Image Credit: NASA