I see the successor to the Panasonic LX3 has been announced, the LX5. More details of which can be found on the main photo review sites (dpreview.com for example). The new features don’t seem to justify an upgrade for someone who already owns an LX3. What was particularly disappointing was the fact that the lens cap is still detached from the camera. I will be very interested in the successor to the Canon S90 if it arrives in the near future.
The second project in my photography course was shot way back in September in Munich. The purporse of this project was to shoot the same scene but focusing on different dimensions. This would concentrate attention on different parts of the photograph.
This first image focuses on the closest feature of the scene which was the back of a woman’s head as she watched a street band on Kaufingerstrasse. This photo is not that interesting as the background is too blurry and out of focus while the head is not so interesting from the back.
This is the medium view where the focus is directed at the accordian players in the band. They back of the woman’s head is still visible but out of focus. It is still interesting that it is contained in the image as it gives the impression of a crowd watching the band.
The furthest focus was taken after many attempts to find something interesting to focus on in the passing crowd behind the band. Here, a man comes out of the Kaufhof shop and seems to focus his attention past the band to the camera. This is probably unintentional and was a result of the luck of the shot. Here the accordian player is slightly out of focus but in a much more clear way that in the first photo. In my opinion, this is my preferred photo of the three.
I have taken a course called The Art of Photography with the Open College of the Arts, a distance learning institution based in the UK. As part of the course, students are required to record their work, thoughts and influences throughout the period of study. I thought that it would be a good idea to incorporate it into my existing blog.
I got the pack on Sunday after they were mistakenly delivered to my apartment in Munich rather than in Berne. Since then I have been reading and re-reading the course information. This is something similar to what I have done with many other books on photography but this time, there are projects and assignments to be done. Tomorrow I will tackle the first project and record the results here.
It seems the success of the LX3 by Panasonic has produced a reaction from Canon with the introduction of the S90. After years on auto-pilot, it seems that the market is waking up to the demand for better photo quality, especially at low light.
Where the S90 seems to have surpassed the LX3 from looking at the specs is that it seems to be much smaller and there is no need for a lens cap. When I had to get a new lens cap for the LX3, it cost €25. In addition, when an opportunity for a shot arises, taking the lens cap adds another step to the process. It will be interesting to see if Panasonic responds to those advances in the near future.
DP Review reports on a cool new product from Sony. The Party-Shot is a device where a (Sony) camera is attached and automatically takes photos in the surrounding area. The idea is that the party-shot is placed somewhere central and then using face-detection and motion sensors, takes appropriate photos. I would love to see this released for other cameras like my current compact, the LX3.
DP Review reports that Pretec has just released a 64GB and 100GB CF card.
Pretec 233X 64GB and 333X 32GB CF cards with suggested retail price of $399 and $630 are slated to start delivery by Photokina 2008, and 233X 100GB and 333X 50GB are expected to start shipping by the end of 2008.
Valleywag has a funny story about a Google employee who used Street View to propose to his girlfriend. Basically he knew when the Street car taking the photographs of the street would be coming around to his house and arranged a sign that the car would see. Impressive.
image: detail of installation by Bronwyn Lace
