PhotographyBanzai.com

Went on two small shoots this week with a friend. The first was just a survey of the location an the second we had a subject to photograph. I tried to stay out of the way as he was the one who rounded up the model. I used the DA* 55mm f1.4 SDM for both. As you can probably tell, the weather is getting bad around here. It’s quite cold outside and the conditions are usually dreary. Although I look out my window today and see a blue sky…

If you have used add-on flash much, you probably realized that the light directly from the flash can cast harsh light onto your subject. To get around that you can bounce the flash, or use something to soften the light. I have three light modifiers that attach to a standard add-on flash unit that are designed to soften the light. My test today will demonstrate just how much of a comparative difference each one makes. Diffusers tested: STO-FEN Omni-Bounce diffuser (designed to fit my Sigma flash) Impact Universal Bounce diffuser Fotodiox 3.5 x 3.5 mini soft box diffuser Testing conditions: A green camera bag was placed on a light stand around 4 feet from the camera to act as a subject. The camera had a 14mm lens to maximize the possibility of vignetting. Each diffuser was tested with it facing directly toward the camera bag (direct) and tilted upward toward the ceiling (up). The room was small, so there was probably some amount of unavoidable light reflection. Lights were turned ...

I took the time to revise my book yet again and am now able to offer it on Amazon.com. It’s using the self publishing service called “Create Space” instead of “Blurb.” Create Space is owned by Amazon, so it just made sense to try them out and I’m glad to say that I’m happy with the result. I was able to offer a substantially larger book (from 110 to 160 pages) for around the same price yet have the same or better quality. Amazon link to the Convention Photography   book . As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases! A about the book. Print quality wise the two companies seem pretty similar. I think Blurb might use slightly thicker paper, but I like the inking quality as well as the cover and cutting exactness a bit more with Create Space. The biggest difference comes in the way of tools, features, and business related offerings. Blurb can handle straight PDF submissions and they offer Adobe InDesign templates, but to get started I used their Booksmart application (I don’t...

It’s time for another new Android app! My first photography app was for astrophotography. This time I wrote one that generates histograms of pretty much any sized jpeg, gif. png, or bmp you can throw at it. Here is a link to the app on the Android Market. Check out the video I made (Pentax K-5 at 720p 30fps, edited in Kdenlive) As with a lot of my apps, this started with a need that I saw for myself. I wanted to be able to have nice large histograms of my camera images. I also wanted to be able to see histograms of photos I downloaded on my phone or copied over by hand. The app description from the market page: Check the exposure of your images on Android with this histogram generator! Are you interested in checking out your jpeg, png, bmp, and gif files to see if they are properly exposed? It’s easy with this image histogram generator. This application loads those formats in any size, large or small, and allows you to see how luminance and color data is distributed throughout the imag...

So I noticed a while back on Facebook that a camera store called Lundgrens was setting up a photo walk to coincide with something called the World Wide Photo Walk, so I signed up. It was fun to take photos around a great park in the area. If you happen to be one of the people I asked for a photo, send me an email and I’ll respond back with a copy of the photo you want without my watermark on it. Here are a few photos for your viewing enjoyment!

It’s official. The assets of Pentax, both in Japan and the 9 subsidiaries, are transferred to Ricoh on October 1st. No real useful information for users of Pentax, but a few interesting bits of information to mention. Pentax consists of around 1900 employees. So all of our neat photography tools come from the efforts of 1900 people. Manufacture and sales of optical equipment such as digital cameras, binoculars and lenses for security cameras Lenses for security cameras… I bet the c-mount lenses Pentax makes have seen an increase in sales since mirrorless-ILC cameras started showing up. If I had a Q, I’d try some out for sure. The ones on B&H have the occasional review from a m4/3 user. By forming the new company, Ricoh will strive to further bolster consumer products and services, in addition to its existing digital camera business. So we should be seeing new tools and improvements to the existing lines such as K, Q, and 645.

I just noticed on Pentax Forums that Nikon allegedly posted this message: A photographer is only as good as the equipment he uses, and a good lens is essential to taking good pictures! Do any of our Facebook fans use any of the NIKKOR lenses? Which is your favorite and what types of situations do you use it for? Basically implying that photographers are only good if they are sporting expensive Nikon SLR equipment. Everyone and their brother who thinks their a photographer will take offense to that statement because they think everything about producing a quality image is up to the photographer and always use the debating point that the great photographer can use a Holga or some other junk camera to produce amazing works of art. Now, I don’t really disagree with saying it’s the photographer, however… I think both sides of the argument are full of BS. The smart and skilled photographer will get the best gear they can manage. Things like control, ease of use (ergonomics), rendering qu...

The Pentax FA 31mm f1.8 Limited was first offered in 2001 and is still in production as of this writing in 2011. It’s one of three FA Limited prime lenses. FA is the designator for full-frame lenses that are not specifically designed for digital cameras.  FA Limited lenses come with film-era features like an aperture ring and all metal casings with an emphasis on a hand-assembled feel of quality. There aren’t many lenses offered these days that have such properties. Look for the Pentax FA 31mm f/1.8 AL Limited Lens through my links: B&H , Amazon , Used on KEH , and eBay .  As an affiliate of these shops, I earn from qualifying purchases!  Technical specifications for the lens: Lens Mount: PENTAX K AF Lens Construction: 7 groups 9 elements Angle of View: 70 degrees Aperture: F1.8 Number of Diaphragm Blades: 9 Minimum Aperture: 22 Minimum Focusing Distance: 12 inches Filter Diameter: 58mm Maximum Magnification: 0.16X Dimensions: 2.6 x 2.7″ Weight: 12.2 oz. Case: N/A Objective Cap: N/...

This lens was available from 2004 until around 2008 as the primary kit lens for Pentax DSLRs. Currently you can find it around at used camera lens sites like KEH or auction sites like eBay. It’s easy to find and very cheap. This is actually my second AL lens as I sold my first and acquired this one when I bought a used *ist D camera body recently.  The 18-55mm AL fits the standard kit lens properties well, with a few positive exceptions as I’ll go over later. I’ve never been too impressed with kit lenses in general and was not fond of my first 18-55mm AL. Let’s see how this one is… Technical specifications for the lens: Lens Mount: PENTAX KAF2 Lens Construction: 12 elements in 9 groups (1 aspherical element) Angle of View: 76-29 degrees Aperture: F3.5-5.6 Number of Diaphragm Blades: 6 Minimum Aperture: F22-40 Minimum Focusing Distance: 9.84 inches (0.25m) Filter Diameter: 52mm Maximum Magnification: 0.34X Dimensions: 2.7 x 2.7″ (68.0 x 67.5mm) Weight: 7.8 oz. (220g) Case: S80-120 Obj...

The full details can be seen on their site .  As well as a multitude of other sites . Nikon 1 I’ll throw in my two cents along with a few facts about the cameras. The first thing I noticed was this engadget photo showing the J1 next to a Sony e-mount camera and thinking to myself… It’s the same size, but Sony’s sensor is a lot larger. There is a little bad and good to be seen. While the new Nikons appear to be unappealing from a comparative size standpoint, their lenses should be smaller than most mirrorless systems out there (excluding the Pentax Q that has the smallest system and lenses). All that said, the Nikon might be slightly more pocket-able, but I’m not sure the smaller sensor is worth the very slightly smaller size. I’ll be curious to see how the image quality of the new Nikons stack up against the Pentax Q’s digicam sized sensor… The initial lens offerings seem very odd given the sensor size. The fastest is a prime at f2.8 and the slowest zoom is a f/4.5-5.6. You woul...