Graphic design, photography and image restoration in Toronto

Restoring Prokudin-Gorskii's Photographs

2010-10-20T15:04:00.000-07:00

I have been fascinated about the antique colour photographs taken by Russian photographer and inventor S. M. Prokudin-Gorskii a century ago, since I first saw the online exhibition The Empire that was Russia. A few years ago, I downloaded and restored some of those photos, but then stopped doing that and concentrated more on my own photography.

Recently, I decided to continue this project and added about 20 new restorations to Prokudin-Gorskii gallery of my new website. Here is one of the latest restorations and one of most difficult I've done so far. (Click to enlarge).

Not only was the original badly damaged, it also had heavy vignetting on the top, which occurred when the photographer used camera movements to correct perspective. The topmost cross was on one plate only, so I had to actually "repaint" the sky.

While colour rendition is subject to artist's taste, I can tell that technically my restorations are better than those done by the Library of Congress, even those done manually not to mention computer generated. When restoring manually, they mostly left the blue channel intact, and I correct defects in all channels.

I am going to upload at least a couple new images per week, depending on how busy I am, so please check my gallery from time to time.

Later I hope to put together a book of PG's photos and make it available for online purchase.

My new website

2010-10-08T11:26:00.000-07:00

Haven't updated this blog for a long time, so I will post a few short news to let all my 14 faitful readers know what's going on :)

Finally, after very long procrastination, I have redone my website! I changed my mind several times on how it should look, making it simpler and simpler and finally decided to go with Zenfolio engine. Zenfolio.com is a website for photographers providing a very convenient content management system which graphic designers also can use. Here is the link: http://www.gridenko.com

C & C are welcome!

Spring in High Park

2010-04-27T08:25:00.001-07:00

Mamiya 645, 80/1.9, Kodak Portra 160VC

Click to enlarge

Spring Necro-Pictures

2010-04-26T09:43:00.001-07:00

Toronto Necropolis and Crematoria

Crematorium 1:

Crematorium 2:

Mamiya 645, 80/1.9, Fuji Astia 100

Click to enlarge.

Riverdale Farm

2010-04-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

Mamiya 645, 80/1.9, Fuji Provia 100

Click to enlarge.

Retro

2010-02-27T13:28:00.000-08:00

Some antique photos ca. 2009.

Click to enlarge.

The long awaited Sigma SD15 is finally announced. Again.

2010-02-21T17:45:00.000-08:00

Here is the brochure with camera specs and a brief history of the Foveon sensor: http://www.sigma-imaging-uk.com/pdfs/SD15%20Brochure.pdf

On paper it looks like a decent upgrade, most of the critical flaws of SD14 fixed, or at least there is some improvement. The camera buffer was increased to 21 RAW files, maximum ISO to 3200 (which probably means usable ISO 800), thew new LCD is 3" and 460K dots (just like my favourite Canon G10!). SD15 shares the same TRUE II image processing engine with DP2 which means better white balance. Everything else is about the same: it still has 4.6 megapixel sensor that is equivalent... not to 14, of course, but about 10 megapixel* of traditional Bayer sensor.

Nothing really exciting and tempting, which is GOOD news. I am not planning to buy any photo gear in the foreseeable future and can patiently wait for prices to drop. Hope it will not take another year before SD15 hits the shelves.

Sigma also announced several new lenses, mostly stabilized versions of existing ones, but there is a unique one with crazy focal length of 8-16 mm! It is the widest rectilinear lens ever made for APS-C cameras. Looks really cool, but I am afraid the price will be prohibitive for amateurs. I think my next lens will be 17-70 OS.

__________________________
*I mean equivalent in resolution only. Besides resolution, Sigma photos have some unique quality, so called Foveon Look™ that no other digital camera nor good old film can match.

How to Shoot "Professionally" with the Canon Powershot G10

2010-02-05T13:04:00.000-08:00

At first, this short manual was intended for my friend Tania to whom I lent my Canon G10 for a trip to Europe. Then I decided that it might be interesting for the readers of this blog. It is not for advanced amateurs, but casual street shooters or tourists.

Why did I put "professionally" in quotation marks? Because it doesn't mean: "shoot like a pro", but "shoot in P-mode", which used to be called "program" and now is called "professional". I use P-mode for about 95% of my shooting with the G10 and get the best results with it.

Why Not the "Auto" Mode?

The G10 is a fine camera that in most cases can produce acceptable results in fully automatic mode, but it can't think for you and sometimes makes mistakes. It also has some drawbacks inherent to all compact point & shoot cameras, the most serious being low dynamic range and poor image quality at high ISO. To work around these drawbacks and correct camera's mistakes, manual adjustments are required that can easily be done in P-mode.

The following are a few simple tips that allow you to greatly improve your image quality in comparison with fully automatic shooting:

Shoot in P (Professional) mode.
Adjust exposure carefully, avoid highlight clipping, use exposure compensation.
Check exposure and focus after taking every picture. Reshoot if necessary.
Keep ISO sensitivity at minimum
Use proper white balance and colour settings.

These tips are explained in detail below.

All this can be applied to Canon G11 as well, except it has better high ISO performance.

All photos of the camera and screenshots © Dpreview.com.
Sample images taken by Tania and me.

How to Shoot "Professionally" with the Canon Powershot G10. – Part II.

2010-02-05T12:27:00.000-08:00

Getting Right Exposure

These are my usual settings for outdoor shooting at daytime: P-mode, ISO 80 and exposure compensation -2/3 EV.

Why do you need exposure compensation? The camera has low dynamic range – it means it has problems with high contrast scenes containing both very dark and light areas. Automatic exposure is often calculated incorrectly, and the camera tends to overexpose. In these cases some lighter areas turn out completely white (highlight clipping). You can recover shadow details later in post-processing (though with some graininess and discoloration), but details in white areas are lost permanently and cannot be recovered. If important parts of the scene are clipped, manual exposure compensation is required. Fortunately, the G10 has the dedicated exposure compensation dial on top left of the camera that allows easy adjustments without going to menu. As a rule I set it to -1/3 or -2/3 for outdoor shooting to avoid highlight clipping.

In some cases positive compensation is required. For example, shooting a winter landscape with lots of snow requires exposure compensation about +1 or more. Otherwise it would turn out dark and gray.

When shooting against the light, flash can greatly improve the exposure. Even in bright sunlight use flash to fill shadows and make your photos less contrasty and more pleasing.

You can adjust exposure before taking the picture judging by the screen, but the good idea is to check it afterward, too. After taking a picture, press DISPLAY button to review it. The G10 has 3 review modes that can be switched in cycle by pressing DISPLAY. The first mode is full screen image review, the second shows the little image along with technical information like aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc. In this mode overexposed (clipped) parts of the image are blinking.

Below the image the histogram is located. It shows distribution of pixel brightness between black (left edge) and white (right edge). It is OK to have lots of black in night shots, but for properly exposed day shots brightness is distributed evenly across the histogram with blacks and whites close to zero.

The third review mode is called Focus Check. A small portion of the image is magnified, and you can navigate across the frame using direction buttons to check focus of different areas.

It is a good habit to check exposure, histogram and focus after each shooting. If any important details of the image are clipped or blurry, delete and reshoot it.

Sometimes clipping cannot be avoided for very contrasty scenes. Try to keep main parts of the image exposed properly and sacrifice insignificant parts. If necessary, shoot several times with different exposure compensation.

In some cases i-contrast can help, but I prefer to avoid it as it makes photos look artificial.

How to Shoot "Professionally" with the Canon Powershot G10 – Part III.

2010-02-05T11:32:00.000-08:00

Keeping Minimum ISO

The lower is ISO sensitivity the better is image quality. The G10 produces best quality images at ISO 80-100, good at 200 and acceptable at 400. Increasing ISO introduces digital noise (grain), reduces image sharpness and colour saturation. I don't recommend using ISO 800 and 1600 for colour shooting.

When shooting outdoors during daylight, set ISO to 80. Switch to a higher ISO only if it is getting darker and your images are getting blurry. Keep the image stabilization always on. It reduces camera shake and allows taking sharp photos at shutter speeds as slow as 1/15 or even 1/8 sec. When shooting at dusk or indoors, Auto ISO works fine.

To keep minimum ISO, use a tripod or flash. A mini-tripod is very useful for a tourist. It is light, fits in your coat pocket and can be put on any flat surface like a table or bench.

When shooting with a tripod, use minimum ISO. Pressing the shutter button can introduce camera shake, so it is a good idea to use a delay. Press this button and select 2 sec. delay, it would be enough.

If you purchase the optional Canon RS-60E3 remote release, you can shoot without a delay.

The G10's built-in flash is very powerful, and can be used not only for portrait and interior shots, but outdoors as well. It can produce interesting creative effects. Here are the examples of the same scene shot with and without flash.

Use HI ISO only if it is too dark, and you can use neither tripod nor flash.

The left shot of the clock tower was taken at Auto ISO and 1/60 sec. (too dark); the middle one at Auto ISO and 0.8 sec (too blurry); and the right one at ISO 1600, 1/30 sec. It is properly exposed and not blurry, but look at the 100% crop below!

You wouldn't want such a quality for your colour pictures, however black & white ones can turn out good. Here are a couple of examples taken at ISO 800 (top) and 1600 (bottom):

Click to enlarge.

How to Shoot "Professionally" with the Canon Powershot G10. – Part IV.

2010-02-05T11:21:00.000-08:00

White Balance and Custom Colours

You can't go wrong using Auto White Balance (AWB) most of the time, however, using appropriate white balance presets can improve colour accuracy. Considering weather conditions of Western European winter, the most suitable would be Cloudy. It can also be used under sunlight to make pictures warmer.

It is subjective, but I think that default colours of the G10 are too dull, and default sharpening is too high. Combined with automatic noise reduction it makes small details and sharp edges look coarse and introduces sharpening halos, which are ugly and difficult to get rid of. Here are 100% crops taken at default sharpening:

To fix this I created the Custom Colour setting with sharpening set to -2 and saturation to +2. Here is an example:

Colour modes also can be selected by pressing FUNC button. You may experiment with different mode (black & white, sepia, etc.) but after that I recommend switching back to the Custom Colour.

Toying with Cars and Time

2010-02-05T08:32:00.000-08:00

While Dmitry Popov aka Alzheimer drives back in time, Michael Paul Smith creates the time of his own, and his own toy world seamlessly blended with reality.

Via: http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com

iPhad

2010-02-05T07:56:00.000-08:00

Via: http://www.nu.nl/cache/sevensheaven/

Aputure Gigtube

2010-01-29T12:09:00.000-08:00

The Aputure released Gigtube, a very useful accessory, which is much needed by photographers since first DSLR's with live view appeared. It is an innovative remote viewfinder device that includes a LCD screen. Compatible with any camera with a video output, the screen can automatically display an image immediately after shooting it, or can stream the video feed from live view. Moreover, the LCD screen is rotatable for different angle views and this gadget offers the remote shutter release function.

There are several models available for most well-known Canon and Nikon cameras. The one for Canon Rebel series should work with the Powershot G10 also, since remote release sockets are compatible. Not as versatile and convenient as articulated screen on the G11, but still very useful.

Available at Adorama.com

Two somehow related news

2010-01-26T08:19:00.001-08:00

1. "This past Saturday, reports the BBC, more than 2000 photographers protested the indiscriminate harassment of innocent photographers under Britain's anti-terrorism laws. The protest took place in London's Trafalgar Square. The photographers say police are intimidating people with cameras in tactics to target possible terrorists."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8476318.stm

2. "Uzbek photographer Umida Akhmedova is awaiting trial and is facing a potential sentence of six months in prison or three years forced labor. At issue is a 2007 work called Men and Women from Dawn to Dusk that contains approximately 100 of her photographs of life and customs in Uzbekistan. (50 of the photographs here.) A special commission tasked by the government prosecutor has analyzed the photographs and charged Ms. Akhmedova with "defamation and insulting Uzbek traditions."

Via http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com

Uzbekistan is one of the most notorious regimes in the post-Soviet Central Asia (probably the second worst after Turkmenistan). British police and justice still have a long way to go to catch up with their Uzbek colleagues, but they have made the first steps…

Window Shopping

2010-01-26T07:36:00.000-08:00

This is the window of the Holt Renfrew store on Bloor, the most creatively decorated in Toronto.

HDR images taken handheld with the Canon G10. Click to enlarge.

The Canon G11 review

2009-12-17T13:54:00.000-08:00

The review of the Canon Powershot G11 is finally up: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong11

It confirms what I suspected: the G11's high ISO quality isn't dramatically better than G10's. The difference is about one stop and it is achieved by more aggressive noise reduction rather than by better sensor quality. If you shoot RAW with both cameras, run the photos through the same noise reduction program and downsize the G10's photos to 10 MP you wouldn't see much difference. However, at low ISOs the G10 has visible resolution advantage. I still think producing a camera with G10-like sensor and articulated screen makes sense. Well, until more micro 4/3 cameras come out and their prices start to drop. Notice how much better the Panasonic GF1 is in terms of image quality! Of course, it HAS TO BE given the 2X price difference, but I'm sure in the next couple of years the m4/3 cameras will kill the G series, unless Canon puts a much larger sensor in it.

Camera Chow, Picture Wow!

2009-12-11T12:26:00.000-08:00

Kevin Spacey advertises the Olympus PEN to low-tech snobs (video): http://www.dpreview.com/news/0912/09121102spaceyvid.asp

Polish Cemetery Part II

2009-11-09T13:24:00.000-08:00

Click to enlarge.

Sigma SD14, 28mm f/1.8

Portrait of an Unknown Man

2009-11-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

Click to enlarge

Random pics from the Polish Cemetery

2009-11-06T12:34:00.001-08:00

Click to enlarge.

Sigma SD14, 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 and 28mm f/1.8

A love story about a man, a dog, and the woman that stands between them.

2009-10-31T07:43:00.000-07:00

And other funny stuff: http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com

Faux Film

2009-10-29T15:06:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge.

Nocturne

2009-10-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

Here is a pretty cool new video shot by Vincent Laforet with the new Canon 1D Mk IV:

It's a short 3-minute movie (not including the titles) of something like 'David Lynch meets John Carpenter' style shot in 'available darkness'.

Elton John's Boots

2009-10-22T17:55:00.000-07:00

Shot at the Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto. Click to enlarge.

Canon Powershot G10

2009-10-22T17:28:00.000-07:00

Got a spam about "electronic cigarettes". I wonder when they invent electronic vodka and electronic women?

The Canon G10 vs Medium Format Film

2009-10-18T06:41:00.000-07:00

Michael Reichmann of luminous-landscape.com compared picture quality of the Canon Powershot G10 with that of Digital Hasselblad and found them very similar on print. Since I don't have a Digital Hasselblad yet, let me show you a little non-scientific comparison between pictures of my G10 and Mamiya 645 film camera with 80mm f/1.9 lens. The film was Fuji Reala scanned with the Epson V700, resized and cropped to match the G10's images.

Canon 1:

Mamiya 1:

Canon 2:

Mamiya 2:

Click to see full resolution images on Flickr.com

As you can see both cameras can resolve similar amount of detail. Mamiya's images look overall better, but don't forget: we are comparing an average consumer grade zoom with one of the best manual prime lenses made by Mamiya.

However, the most obvious difference is in dynamic range. The film got more shadow details on the first photo and beautifully captured all subtle gradations of the overcast sky on the second one, while the G10 blew out the sky completely (I added the blue fill later in Photoshop).

Even though top models of compact cameras are getting close to medium format in resolution, they still have a long way to go before they can match the dynamic range of film.

The new Nikon sees in the dark

2009-10-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

Nikon announced the new D3S with 12 megapixels and base ISO 12,800 that can be pushed up to astounding 102,400!

http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/digitalcamera/slr/d3s/sample.htm

Check out the pictures of yak and bear shot at ISO 12,800. They don't look very beautiful but are usable, unlike anything I've seen before shot at this ISO.

The megapixel race is over and the ISO race began? Canon, your move!

Autumn Lake

2009-10-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge.

Canon Powershot G10

Boat

2009-10-14T08:43:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge.

Canon Powershot G10

Canon G10 with a flip-out screen?

2009-09-25T06:39:00.000-07:00

As I have written already, the most significant improvement of the G11 over G10 is the flip-out screen giving a photographer much more creative flexibility. However, not everyone would want to trade it for 4.7 megapixels, especially landscape shooters who appreciate every extra pixel under good light and don't care much about low light performance, which, however good, still sucks in comparison with a DSLR. Not to mention 10 years of "the more megapixels the better" propaganda has taken its effect that cannot be undone overnight.

I think Canon should make something like Powershot G10 Mark II with flip-out screen and the same 14.7MP sensor. No doubt, it would be a great hit!

Reflections

2009-09-24T10:51:00.001-07:00

Click to enlarge

Canon 20D, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5

New samples from Canon Powershot S90

2009-09-21T17:36:00.000-07:00

Dpreview.com has published a gallery of S90's photos: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09091802canons90gallery.asp

The pictures don't look exciting to me – noisy, not very sharp and with quite a bit of purple fringing. PF was a plague of my old G5 and I'm happy that G10 almost doesn't have it. It's an unpleasant surprise to see it again.

Of course, it's good that ISO 800 and 1600 are usable now, but at low ISO pixel quality isn't any better than G10's, maybe even worse, and it's 10 MP, not 14.7 Since S90 and G11 share the same sensor and image processor, I expect similar quality from G11. Probably better, because of sharper lens, but not MUCH better.

Of course, those are JPEGs from the camera, not RAW conversions, but Canon's in camera processing is so good that I wouldn't expect much better results from computer RAW conversions. Maybe better and less aggressive noise reduction and little more detail.

So the only actual advantage of the new G11 is flip-out screen, which is very useful, but cannot really justify an upgrade from G10. Soon we will see whether my conclusions are true...

How the Camera Controls Should Be

2009-09-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

Look on top of your camera. What do you see? If it is a DSLR or advanced point & shoot you see a shooting mode dial with the letters: P, A (or Av), S (or Tv) and M. You know what it means: Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and Manual. In Program mode the camera determines the aperture and shutter speed automatically; in Aperture Priority you turn some on camera wheel to set aperture value and the camera determines shutter speed; in Shutter Priority you use the same wheel to set a shutter speed; and in Manual mode you either use two different wheels (as on the Canon 20D-50D) or have to use one wheel and press some obscure button to switch between aperture and shutter adjustments (as on the Sigma SD14). A bit confusing, huh? Especially for beginners. Eventually, every photographer gets the hang of it, but I must say, it's not nearly the best possible layout.

Now look at the new Leica X1:

No mode dial! Just aperture and shutter speed dials. Simple, logical and brilliant! This layout makes the whole concept of shooting modes unnecessary. Set both to A and let the camera control exposure for you, or use all possible combinations to control it yourself. This layout saves you at least one extra movement every time you change settings. You don't need to look into the viewfinder or at the status LCD to see the exposure settings, one quick glance at the camera is enough. You can even adjust it when the camera is off. Just turn it on and shoot!

And finally, the medium format Pentax 645N:

In addition to aperture and shutter speed dials, it has the third dial – exposure compensation, which allows much finer tuning. This is by far the most logical, straightforward and easy control layout I have ever seen. It alone makes me want to buy this camera, even though I don't need it that much :)

Faces from Brazil Fest

2009-09-11T10:07:00.001-07:00

Click to enlarge

Sigma SD14, 70-200mm f/2.8

Leica Needs an Autofocus

2009-09-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

I am not a Leica owner and will never be. Even if I had lots of money, I would find a better way of spending it. However, looking at some early sample galleries I can tell that the new full frame Leica M9 is a remarkable achievement not only in expensiveness and coolness but in actual image quality. No kidding. Especially wide and super wide angle shots are stunning. But... some photos are just not sharp enough. It seems to me the new 18-megapixel sensor outresolves... Leica's rangefinder. It was fine for film, but just isn't precise enough for hi-res digital.

Leica needs an autofocus with live view, contrast detect, central magnification and all that stuff – in addition to the rangefinder. Of course, they will have to make a new series of autofocus lenses and dig more money out of rich snobs' pockets.

Wonder if the M10 will be the first autofocus Leica M?

Toronto Harbour Evening

2009-09-03T19:40:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge

Sigma SD14, 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5

The Summer Is Over

2009-09-01T12:30:00.001-07:00

Sigma SD14, 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5

Click to enlarge

The 78 Rulez of Gawnophotography

2009-09-01T11:50:00.000-07:00

The Gawno Magazine published 78 rules for beginning photographers: http://gawno.com/2009/05/78-photography-rules/

As far as I remember, I deliberately violated the following rules: 4, 7, 13, 16, 19, 30, 37, 47, 53, 56, 58, 64, 75, 77, 78. Breaking the rule #37 got me one of my favourite pictures:

Guess I'm not that much of a gawnophotographer :)

The New Canon Powershot G11

2009-08-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

Canon announced its new flagship compact camera.

The new G11 features an articulating screen (Great!!! Finally!!! Why the hell didn't they put it on G10? :(( and a new sensor that is only... 10 megapixels instead of G10's 14.5MP.

I think reducing megapixel count makes sense only if it dramatically increases high ISO quality and dynamic range. Canon claims 2 stop ISO improvement, whether it is true remains to be seen. Only 3 full size photos have been published so far, all shot at ISO 80. Pixel quality in my opinion isn't much different from G10's and there is still some noise in shadow areas. Under good lighting G10 will probably outresolve G11 and some people (esp. landscape shooters) may prefer the older model. I wonder if Canon will discontinue G10 or continue to produce both models.

Although 14 MP is good for large prints and cropping, 10 MP is enough for most applications, and the rotating screen gives lots of creative possibilities. If they manage to make ISO 800 and 1600 usable, it will beat Panasonic LX3 and will be a viable competitor to the new Olympus EP-1 (at half price!). But... there is one important thing missing that LX3 and EP-1 have – HD video! Both competitors have 720p and the G11 only has 'lousy' 640x480. Why they omitted it I can't really understand...

The problem of 'media tank' is finally solved

2009-08-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

In addition to my previous post. Recently a whole bunch of new media players came out, but I was reluctant to try any of them after my fiasco with HDX 1000 NMT. I decided to buy the new Mac Mini instead (needed a backup computer anyway as my 'Big Mac' getting older). Connected it to the receiver thru optical, to the TV thru VGA cable, plugged in an external hard disk 'toaster', installed the VLC player for HD video and the Cog for HD audio. Voila! Now it does flawlessly everything the media tank failed to do. The only thing I'm missing is a full featured remote, the Mac has a very basic one. Some day I'll get a wireless keyboard & mouse and will be all set.

One can say it is not a fair comparison, considering 3x price difference, but this cute little box is not just a player, but a full featured computer that can do many other things :)

Mein Kampf Against the Network Media Tank

2009-03-27T16:38:00.000-07:00

Recently, I read many favorable reviews about network media players (or "tanks"), and decided to get one. The most popular device of that kind is the Popcorn Hour made in China, of course. Actually, they all are made in China, except the much more expensive Dune made in Israel. I didn't want to buy the Popcorn Hour though, because of its ugly design with that silly imprint on top, lack of power switch, overheating and other drawbacks I read about in reviews. Instead, I decided to buy HDX 1000 NMT – basically the same chipset and software but in more attractive package.

Yes, it was attractive indeed. Heavy and solid body made of black brushed aluminum looked similar to the front panel of my Marantz receiver. Remote was also very good with nice metallic top and smooth and soft rubberized bottom. Its size and shape were similar to those of Marantz's remote and one could think that player and receiver were from the same manufacturer. I was really impressed with look and feel of HDX 1000. Unfortunately, this is the only good thing I can say about it.

Before listing all my gripes about that device, I probably should answer the main question: can it do what it is supposed to – play media files? Yes, it can and pretty well… if you manage somehow to get those files onto it!

It was probably the most user unfriendly device I have ever used. First of all, it did not have any user manual whatsoever. On the only sheet of paper in the box there were two diagrams showing how to install a hard disk and connect the player to other A/V components. That was kind of information I could easily do without. A quick reference chart of the operating system would be much more helpful, but no! Electronic user manual doesn't exist either, at least I could not find one on the web. The only way to learn its cryptic interface was trial and error.

Operating system looked like a poor copycat of Playstation OS and was buggy and unstable. I updated firmware (first attempts to get files from the internet failed and it worked only when I put the files on a flash card and plugged it in). It helped but not much.

Video playback was quite good, it played much more formats than Sony PS3 although not as much as VLC player on my computer. It played AVI files with Dolby Digital soundtracks, subtitles in SRT format but not IDX/SUB. I liked picture quality and features like incremental zoom and time seek. I wonder what other good features left unknown to users, because the manufacturer didn't bother to make a user manual?

It very smoothly played a couple of 1080p trailers, but couldn't handle heavy videos from Canon 5DII – playback was slow and jerky.

There was a very annoying glitch though – screen blackout. After pressing STOP button, screen sometimes went off and the only way to turn it back on was to restart the player by pressing power button off and on, which took quite a while.

Music playback was fine. It played WAV, MP3, FLAC but not APE. A pleasant surprise was its ability to play HD audio in WAV and FLAC formats and output it through optical without downsampling. I tried 24/88 and 24/96. Funny, it played my HD recordings made with Edirol 09HR, but not demo files supplied with the recorder.

Photo playback was bad: very slow zooming and panning and all wrong colours, but I didn't care. I wasn't planning to use it as a picture viewer anyway.

I am a Mac user and don't have a PC. Since HDX formatted its disk not in common FAT but in Linux EXT3, I was unable to connect it to computer via USB. Mac OS did not recognize the disk. The only EXT driver for Mac I could find honestly warned in its readme file: "This driver can corrupt your system, use it on your own risk". No, thanks.

I started Win XP through Parallels desktop, downloaded an EXT driver for Windows and tried to connect again. Connection worked but only in one direction: I could copy files from the player to computer, but any attempts do otherwise would freeze. As a result I got a bunch of corrupted files on the player's HDD and the only way to get rid of them was re-formatting.

USB slave mode was not the only way to get files onto the player. It also had 2 USB ports and a slot for SD cards. I tried to connect my hard disk dock with a 1 Tb drive and some flash cards in it. Also tried to plug cards directly into the player's slot and connect a USB keyboard. That was hit and miss. The player could never recognize all devices plugged in simultaneously. Sometimes it recognized one or two of three, sometimes none at all. It was absolutely random and I couldn't find any system in its behaviour. Well, those were first two days. On the day 3, its behaviour finally became consistent: it recognized the keyboard but refused to see the external HDD and flash cards, no matter how I tried. On the same day it started freezing during startup, and I decided I had enough.

The "tank" went back to the store. The above were only major problems I had with the box. There were smaller ones I don’t want to list. And I never tried networking and torrents! Can only imagine what cans of worms I would have to open there…

Anyway, it looked like a promising player, just not ready yet. The technology is at the beginning and evolves quickly. I hope next year or so, we will get many properly working and user friendly devices.

A couple of pictures I restored recently

2009-02-01T09:17:00.000-08:00

This is a family photo ca. 1900. It was preserved in poor condition and got torn and stained by cockroaches or other insects. The photo was about 10x16", too big for my scanner. I had to scan it in parts and then stitch in Photoshop. The Digital ICE did good job in removing cracks, but screwed up some other areas – it doesn't work properly with opaque and monochrome images. I had to scan it again without ICE and use parts of that image to cover ICE's errors.

Here is the restored picture. Apart from some corner unsharpness, those large glass negatives captured very good detail (check out the grandpa's beard!). It shows that sensor size does really matter!

The second picture was a pencil drawing cracked so badly that ICE and usual small brush cloning technique were useless. I took a large soft cloning brush and actually "painted" the whole image trying to preserve pencil texture wherever possible.

All pictures clickable.

The new AGO is a usability nightmare. Part Deux.

2009-02-01T08:38:00.000-08:00

Last week I visited the new AGO myself and found out that everything written here was true. And more!

The miniatures were amazing but the lighting was so dim that my eyes immediately started to hurt. When I finished the exhibition, I felt like there was sand in my eyes. Is ivory afraid of light?

Another "surprise" was in the photo room. There was a wall with quite interesting photos of 1930s Germany, placed in 4 long rows, as 20x4 matrix. Needless to say, there were neither captions nor numbers near the photos, just three shabby booklets, one in English and two in French – perfect demographic decision! To find info about an interesting photo, I counted and memorized its position in the matrix and opened the booklet. "Row S... Row T..." What the hell?! Right! What they called "rows" were, in fact, columns. Probably, the unknown "genius" who created this layout had never opened Excel...

I saw just two exhibitions that evening, but I don't feel like going there again.

2009-01-25T14:47:00.000-08:00

Canon G10 shooter VidarNM on Dpreview.com describes his image processing workflow. IMO it's too much trouble for casual shooting, but if you want maximum quality, this is the way to go: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1010&message=30052640

1,474 Megapixel Inauguration Panorama shot with the Canon G10!

2009-01-25T14:41:00.000-08:00

It contains over 2GB of photo data and comprised of over 220 images shot from a Canon G10 Bridge camera on a Gigapan robotic camera mount.

http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c

Via dpreview.com

Vintage Computing

2009-01-19T09:46:00.000-08:00

Multiprocessor System

File Server

Database

Printers

Wireless Router

Tape Backup

All clickable
From the Library of Congress via Shorpy.com

The new AGO is a usability nightmare

2009-01-19T07:03:00.000-08:00

"If you ask me whether I am going to come back to the gallery or buy a membership, the answer will be a definite “no”. I do not feel welcomed there." – from the article about the new AGO building written by my friend Tanya, whose keen and critical eye I've always admired.

Lenticular Blog

2009-01-18T06:21:00.000-08:00

All about lenticulars – magical animated 3D cards – in the new Lenticular Blog: http://lenticularblog.rrd.com.

Lots of beautiful images and interesting info from very creative people of RR Donnelley, world's largest printing company. Turn animation on in your browser!

The rules of good Flash design

2009-01-17T05:50:00.000-08:00

There must be three prominent buttons on the front page:
1. Sound off
2. Skip intro
3. HTML version

Canon Powershot G10

2009-01-15T11:00:00.000-08:00

After selling my Canon 20D and Mamiya C330, Canon G10 is (and will be for a while) my only camera. I bought it in the end of last October and paid early adopter's price, which I don't regret, because I got a chance to take some nice pictures before the end of beautiful Canadian fall.

When the first pictures of the G10 appeared on web, I liked it immediately. Its classic rangefinder-style design appeals to serious shooters. In real life it looks (and feels) every bit as good. Build quality is very solid and finish is nice (click on the image to enlarge). It is reasonably heavy to hold it steady, but not too heavy to carry all day in a jacket pocket.

Ergonomics is good and I especially like the new exposure compensation and ISO selection wheels. Very handy!

The new high-resolution screen is just gorgeous, and pictures look better than in real life, no kidding! It reminded me Apple iMac glossy screens, which I didn't like because of too much reflection, but for a small camera screen it doesn't matter. The viewing angle is very wide and it compensates a bit the fact that screen is not flip-out.

About image quality. Does it really have 14 megapixels? Good question. I compared my old Powershot G5 (5MP) with the newer A720 IS (8MP) and didn't find any difference in detail, despite larger file sizes. Here the resolution increase is obvious. Not sure if it's exactly 14 MP, but under ideal lighting it may be close. Of course, this huge resolution comes at a price of higher noise. It is a problem of all compact cameras and the G10 is no exception. Noise reduction is visible in shadow areas even at base ISO 80. To make things worse, G10's default sharpening is way too strong, which in combination with noise reduction makes fine detail look coarse. I set sharpening to lowest -2 and saturation +1, saved it as custom colour and got much better results. Unfortunately, in-camera noise reduction cannot be adjusted and custom colours are not available when shooting RAW+JPEG.

Is RAW really necessary? Only if you shoot something very important and want the highest possible quality, or shoot at high ISO and want to apply better noise reduction. Otherwise, if you shoot at ISO 80-100 and care to set correct white balance and exposure, your JPEGs out of the camera will be as good as you can get from a RAW converter.

My only gripe about G10's image quality is very pronounced chromatic aberrations in 28-50 mm range. There is no way to correct them either in camera or in supplied software, which is too bad, rival cameras from Nikon and Panasonic can do that. I hope the lens profile will be included in later versions of DPP program. In the meantime I'll have to use Photoshop 'Lens correction' filter.

Per pixel quality is not exactly as good as DSLR, but for prints it doesn't really matter and for screen preview 14 megapixels are just too much. I downsize photos to 8 MP and without sacrificing much detail get smooth and sharp pictures very similar to 20D. Photos taken at ISO 200-400 can be downsized to 5 MP with good results. As for ISO 800-1600, I think they are not usable for colour shooting at all. Though you can shoot RAW, convert to black & white and get pictures very similar to 35 mm film scans, not too bad :)

How does it compare to other digital cameras I used?

Canon EOS 20D One can say it is not a fair comparison, but I think it is. In terms of image quality, focal range and maximum apertures, the G10 is almost identical to the 20D and Sigma 17-70, my favourite walkaround lens. Worse high ISO performance is compensated by the image stabilizer, which can gain extra 2 stops.

G10 advantages: Better screen, faster preview, movie mode, small, light, quiet, non-intrusive.

20D advantages: Much faster and more reliable autofocus, faster continuous shooting, interchangeable lenses.

Canon Powershot A720 IS The G10 is simply better in every aspect. Its shorter lens (140 vs 210 mm) is compensated by higher resolution.

Canon Powershot G5 This is the most interesting comparison. How did the Canon's flagship compact camera change in 5 years?

G10 advantages: Much faster (start up, shutter lag, preview and everything), higher resolution sensor, large and higher resolution screen, wider lens (28 vs 35mm), no purple fringing, better ergonomics, more compact (lens is fully retractable).

G5 advantages: Faster lens (F2-3 vs 2.8-4.5), no CA and sharp corner to corner, flip-out screen, IR remote control.

I miss the last two features most of all and think dropping them was Canon's biggest mistake. It is possible to connect the camera to an external display and buy the optional cable release, but it would be not nearly as versatile and convenient. Even smaller but flip-out screen and IR remote could make this very good camera really great.

Autumn in Asia 100 years ago

2009-01-15T07:00:00.000-08:00

Taken by S. M. Prokudin-Gorskii near Samarkand, Russian Empire (now Uzbekistan) between 1905 and 1915.

Winter morning

2009-01-15T06:48:00.000-08:00

Taken with Mamiya C330, 65 mm

Fuji Provia 100F