Check out these three items:
Note that the total price is just over $600, and remember that I said “cheap-ish“. You’ll see a few more posts about this setup over the next few days – this is the setup I took with me to Hawaii for my latest dive trip. Click to continue »
As with any camera, you have to start somewhere. What you see here is the very first (sans flash, I’m afraid) photo that I took with the G11. Light courtesy of Pauline with Mike Severns Diving: they use high-power lights under water.
White-tipped Reef Shark, Molokini
Not a bad way to start, no?
It’s a bit early fir a full diagnosis, but so far I’m tempted to give th’ G11 a thumb’s up for it’s underwater performance. Some sample pics to come later, though – for now, I have more tests to run.
Just suffice it to say, the slowness hasn’t Newman issue in my dirst two days of testing.
Good God, is it slow to take a picture. I haven’t experienced this slow of a burst mode since 1999! Maybe that’s just luck, but it doesn’t seem so.
Rather, it seems that there’s no buffer. Instead of taking shots until memory is filled up, it just takes ‘em one at a time. Which puts you at the mercy of the disk write speed.
Even with a professional SD card, it’s painfully slow. Forget about using this with your kids…
It’s official: I’ve hit the limit of the LX3′s capabilities. The lack of zoom wasn’t what did it in, interestingly – it was the cost of accessories.
To explain: since I spend so much of the year in cold places, I tend to escape to warm places. These warm places tend to be areas where you can swim, and spend time on the beach. And in those places, you must have a waterproof case.
The last two trips that I have taken were effectively without the waterproof housing. You may recall that my old camera died on the first one, and I spent the second trip occasionally borrowing one. I will not go through that again, so it’s time to look for a replacement.
That replacement is now here: the Canon G11. Not sure if I like it that much, but we’ll see if it grows on me.
G11, Sample image (macro)
… For a few minutes, at least. I have to say – I’m both impressed and underwhelmed.
It’s a pretty nice thing. Compact, solid, and surprisingly heavy. The clarity of pictures are surprisingly good, although I could detect some pixellation. The interface is nice & smooth – even nicer than the iPhone. And reading: much, much easier.
I could see myself loving it.
That being said, I’m completely underwhelmed. This is what the whole hubbub was all about? A glorified iTouch, for $800?
Ouch. No thanks.
But feel free to buy me one. I promise I won’t whine about it…
Just returned from a short vacation. It was a personal thing, but also a chance to try out the Urban Disguise as a travel case. I’ll write up more once I get a chance to recover, but for right now take this as a general overview:
Major Pros:
Small, easy to pack, lightweight, carries a fair amount, tons of pockets.
Cons:
Doesn’t carry as much as I’d like, tight fit for a lot of equipment, bulging when overloaded can be a prob.
Overall:
I’m afraid I’m still looking for that miracle bag that does everything. This one won’t be sold out – I’ll keep it in my arsenal, but probably as a carry-on for travel & a daily around-down bag for short shoots. For longer-term shoots? Not quite good enough…
well, for a few minutes at least. The one I had my hands on was one of the older (70′s? 60′s?) models, the type that had originally been used by the press. It was great: bellows (with holes, unfortunately), all manual switches & dials, 4×5 film size, even a plate on the back for viewing – and true to large-format cameras, you view it upside down.
So, why mention in here? Just because it’s cool. I mean, how often to you get your hands on a large-format camera with bellows?
More on the camera (from Wikipedia).
After a short couple of weeks, I can say that I’m starting to like what the urban disguise offers. Give me a month though, and you’ll get a better overview. I have some events coming up that’ll really put it through the paces.
This short in, I just want to say: it does very well at storing everything you need, like a “go bag.” Right now, I can grab it & go, assured that I have the minimum of what I need to get things done.
So after a few days, my first impressions of the Think Tank Urban Disguise 40
Part of that is the pack-rat in me. There are a ton of pockets – you can’t open a flap without getting an extra zipper. It’s extremely well designed for daily walkabout use, and you can pack a crap-load of stuff in it. For landscape an wildlife photography, I’ve packed it with my Nikon d200, the old-style (meaning huge & bulky) Nikon 80-200mm lens
But that’s not all – it also carries my blackrapid strap, filters, memory cards, extra batteries, pens, paper, space for a few magazines…
I’ll update again in a couple of months, but it looks like an excellent carry-around bag. The type that works well for urban photography, travel, and maybe even car camping.