Graphic design, photography and image restoration in Toronto

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Two somehow related news

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

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.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

The Canon G11 review

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.