I
ian408
Guest
Photography Marketing Association holds a trade show every year and
this time it was in Orlando.
Knowing you all are interested in cameras for toting along on the bike,
I thought I'd share a couple of thoughts on the subject. Plus, I'll show
you some of why I was really there--the bird shots--no, not that bird
There are a Sierra Lima's worth of cameras that fit the "fits in pocket" bill.
Big this year are disposable digital cameras. There were literally hundreds to
choose from. Most from either Korean or Chinese importers. As I said to my
good friend Andy Williams (smugmug house pro), "it seems as if the Chinese
and Korean mfg'ers have come in force". They brought everything from
$300 light kits (gets the home user going with decent kit) to high end
lenses for some of the, eh-hem, other camera makers.
The big makers, Canon and Nikon, Casio and Pentax, Panasonic and
Fujifilm were on the show floor touting their wares.
Casio launched the EX-Z850 which does 8MP piccies and has the coolest
new feature, eBay Best Shot Mode (yeah, right). Panasonic showed off its
latest stabilized platform in an effort to convince folks that in-camera
stabilization is better than image stabilization in the lens (which is what
Canon and Nikon do).
The two cameras I think most riders will be interested in are the Canon
SD630 and SD600. Both are pocket sized and feature the Canon DigicII
(also used in the dSLR series), 6 megapixels and large LCD's. For
the most part, the feature sets are the same with the differences being
the 630's larger screen (1/2") and slightly different control layout.
Nikon was also showing off a couple of very nice CoolPix series cameras.
The S6 is also a 6MP 3x optical zoom camera that falls into the shirt
pocket nicely. It features built-in WiFi support (802.11g), "scenes" and
red-eye reduction. A little larger version is the P3. It comes in with 8.1MP
and a 3.5x zoom, 9 scenes and Vibration Reduction.
In all, these new little pocket cameras are pretty cool and offer even the
non-photographer a reason to carry a camera that packs the punch of
many a dSLR on every motorcycle trip. Simply put, there's no reason not
to take a camera anymore.
Cameras and camera accessories were the order of the day. These guys,
Crumpler, offer backpacks and soft brief cases that are of top notch
quality.
Of course, Canon's was probably the biggest booth.
The digital boom has totally changed the "mini-lab" business with kiosks
supporting digital springing up everywhere. They even had a shoot out
of sorts.
I really went for the wildlife though.
A butterfly...
An alligator just prior to his lunch attempt...
A red shouldered hawk.
The typical FL landscape shot...
and one spectacular sunset.
Hope you enjoyed the shots of this non-motorcycle journey. But more
importantly, I hope that you non-camera carrying readers will purchase
a small digital camera, upload your ride photos and share them with all
of us.
Cheers,
Ian
this time it was in Orlando.
Knowing you all are interested in cameras for toting along on the bike,
I thought I'd share a couple of thoughts on the subject. Plus, I'll show
you some of why I was really there--the bird shots--no, not that bird
There are a Sierra Lima's worth of cameras that fit the "fits in pocket" bill.
Big this year are disposable digital cameras. There were literally hundreds to
choose from. Most from either Korean or Chinese importers. As I said to my
good friend Andy Williams (smugmug house pro), "it seems as if the Chinese
and Korean mfg'ers have come in force". They brought everything from
$300 light kits (gets the home user going with decent kit) to high end
lenses for some of the, eh-hem, other camera makers.
The big makers, Canon and Nikon, Casio and Pentax, Panasonic and
Fujifilm were on the show floor touting their wares.
Casio launched the EX-Z850 which does 8MP piccies and has the coolest
new feature, eBay Best Shot Mode (yeah, right). Panasonic showed off its
latest stabilized platform in an effort to convince folks that in-camera
stabilization is better than image stabilization in the lens (which is what
Canon and Nikon do).
The two cameras I think most riders will be interested in are the Canon
SD630 and SD600. Both are pocket sized and feature the Canon DigicII
(also used in the dSLR series), 6 megapixels and large LCD's. For
the most part, the feature sets are the same with the differences being
the 630's larger screen (1/2") and slightly different control layout.
Nikon was also showing off a couple of very nice CoolPix series cameras.
The S6 is also a 6MP 3x optical zoom camera that falls into the shirt
pocket nicely. It features built-in WiFi support (802.11g), "scenes" and
red-eye reduction. A little larger version is the P3. It comes in with 8.1MP
and a 3.5x zoom, 9 scenes and Vibration Reduction.
In all, these new little pocket cameras are pretty cool and offer even the
non-photographer a reason to carry a camera that packs the punch of
many a dSLR on every motorcycle trip. Simply put, there's no reason not
to take a camera anymore.
Cameras and camera accessories were the order of the day. These guys,
Crumpler, offer backpacks and soft brief cases that are of top notch
quality.
Of course, Canon's was probably the biggest booth.
The digital boom has totally changed the "mini-lab" business with kiosks
supporting digital springing up everywhere. They even had a shoot out
of sorts.
I really went for the wildlife though.
A butterfly...
An alligator just prior to his lunch attempt...
A red shouldered hawk.
The typical FL landscape shot...
and one spectacular sunset.
Hope you enjoyed the shots of this non-motorcycle journey. But more
importantly, I hope that you non-camera carrying readers will purchase
a small digital camera, upload your ride photos and share them with all
of us.
Cheers,
Ian
