I get questions about cameras all the time from friends and associates. Some of them come up regularly enough that i like to answer them in a public forum. Here’s the latest….

QUESTION:

After comparing my point and shoot photos to some slr ones, I think I’m ready to make a move. However, I hate the clunkiness of those babies.

What do you think of 4/3′s cameras?? The Sony NEX 3 looks good.

MY ANSWER:

The problem with all of these micro cameras is that they are small. Really small, yet not as small as a point and shoot. Now almost any SLR will result in better image quality than almost any P&S, but in this case is it really that much better than something that also has the convenience of slipping into your pocket?

I’m not big on micros and i think if you’re going to get an SLR then get an SLR. If not, get a P&S (or use your phone camera). They are small, have very few external buttons (which makes changing settings a pain in the ass), and they don’t have viewfinders (so to focus you’re holding them out at arms length to see the LCD, which leads to camera shake and blurry pictures).

Specifically with the NEX cameras there are three problems:

1. It’s a first generation device and historically those almost always have problems
2. It’s a brand new lens system that doesn’t work with any other Sony cameras, or any of the 4/3 cameras. That sucks and will result in more expensive new lenses and lower resale value on used lenses.
3. They’ve gone away from the camera body based stabilization system (which has been a huge advantage for Sony over Canon and Nikon since it allows stabilization with any lens) and moved to a brand new in-lens stabilization system. This is kind of a hybrid of 1 and 2 above, but it’s still a problem.

I would suggest that if you want an SLR, but don’t want to spend a ton of money, then buy the cheapest and smallest Canon or Nikon you can buy. If not then buy a really good P&S like the Canon S95.

If you’re really set on a micro then l would look at an Olympus or a Panasonic. They have interchangeable lenses that work with any other 4/3 camera, and they are all on at least the second generation hardware and therefore have proven technology.

This is of course all just my opinion, but that’s what you asked for!

The newest eBook release from David Duchemin (called Vision is Better) is simply stellar. This is a compilation of 50 articles from his website that have been rewritten and attached to some beautiful images that illustrate the point. If you’ve never read David’s writing before, now is the time to start. If you have read his stuff before, this is a fantastic opportunity to go back and read (or reread) some of the best and most poignant articles that he has presented in the past.

David’s motto “Gear is Good, Vision is Better” is very easy to understand and to agree with, but it’s much harder to implement. For me it’s one of those things that I have to pound into my brain over and over again. Going through these articles reminded me how brilliant and how important this thought is, and I urge you to read this book.

The really great news is that the book is very inexpensive at only $5. It gets better though because there is a 20% discount available if you buy the new book between now and midnight on May 4th. If you use the promotional code VISION4 when you checkout then you can have “Vision is Better” for only $4, OR use the code VISION20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more books from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST MAY 4, 2010.

For a long time I have had a theory that Nikon photographers are more likely to be Mac OS and Apple Aperture users while Canon shooters tend to use MS Windows and Adobe Lightroom.

Please tell us what you are most likely to use as the primary set of tools in your photography workflow:

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Polls Archive

I previously posted a review of the i-GotU GT-200 GPS Data Logger and that article is by far the most popular post I have on this site. I’ve never really been happy with this device and I had planned to sell it, but I never actually got around to it. I recently started using it again because I went on a couple of photography outings for which I really wanted to be able to record my track and to geotag my photos. Since then I have been using it regularly again and so I thought I should post an updated review. Here are a few comments that I have after a few more weeks of use:

The things that I dislike the most about this gadget haven’t changed:

• The indication lights on it are hard to see and difficult to interpret.
• The on/off button is not a tactile switch, and it is easily pressed unintentionally.
• There is no battery indicator so it’s really a guess as to its charge status.
• The device can’t be mounted directly as a drive on the computer.
• It uses a proprietary USB cable instead of a standard cable.

Honestly, most of the things I like about it haven’t changed either:

• It is very small and lightweight.
• It is accurate enough for my needs.
• The battery life is good.

There has been one major improvement that I have to mention; there is an updated version of the @trip PC Suite management software for the device (that is used both to setup the device options and also to download the data) that actually installs correctly. When I first got the gadget, installation of the included version of the software repeatedly failed, miserably, and I had to jump through hoops to get it to work. The new version installed easily. Note that if you have the 64-bit version of Windows 7 you need to download a beta version of the @trip PC software. I can’t see how it’s any different from the full version, and it also installed perfectly on my laptop.

So that’s about it. I’m going to continue to use the device for now, but I am looking at other devices that will mount directly as a drive in Windows. This would speed up my workflow enough that I would be more likely to use it all the time. I’ve read some pretty good reviews of the Amod AGL3080 and that will likely be the next GPS Datalogger that I pick up.

It occurred to me that in recent posts I’ve talked about what kind of rechargeable batteries to use, how to charge them, and how to store them, but I haven’t actually talked very much about WHY you should use them. I’ll do that now!

This might be obvious to some of you, but for others it’s a pretty hard sell when they see price tags of $10-20 for a set of 4 AA or AAA NiMH rechargeable batteries (I prefer Sanyo Eneloop batteries) when you can buy a huge box of alkaline batteries for less (here’s a box of 48 AA’s for only 6).

Here are 3 reasons why you should use rechargeable batteries in all your electronic gadgets and camera equipment, especially in your Speedlite flashes:

1. Better for the Environment: Millions and millions of batteries get disposed of every year and most of them go into landfills. They all contain heavy metals and they really aren’t very good for the environment. Even when recycled they take lots of additional energy to reprocess, which is simply wasteful when their are excellent rechargeable alternatives available.
2. Cheaper in the Long Run: although alkaline batteries are relatively cheap to purchase, you can reuse your rechargeable batteries hundreds of times and they quickly pay for themselves. For the full time pro or the advanced amateur this is probably a no-brainer. But it’s still true even for a beginning photographer. If you use a Speedlight Flash that takes 4 AA batteries, I’m willing to bet that you have to replace your alkaline batteries at least once a month, and maybe even more often if you use it a lot (even spectators at a wedding often can’t make it through an entire event on one set of batteries). So even if you only replace your batteries 12 times per year, a set of 4 Eneloops for $13 is already cheaper than that big box of alkalines for $16, and you can save even more by buying the rechargeables in bulk packs. If you are using 2 or 3 flashes plus a few other electronic gadgets that use AA batteries these savings multiply (and you can share your spare batteries amongst all the devices!).
3. Better Performance: I find that NiMH batteries recycle my flashes faster and last longer than alkaline batteries. This is counter-intuitive since rechargeables are typically only 1.2v vs. 1.5v for alkalines, but they are different technology and it really is true. You may find that alkaline batteries work better than NiMH’s when they are both fresh, but that alkalines drop off very quickly. I find that NiMH’s continue to perform very well until they simply stop working; alkalines work well initially but then performance quickly drops off to the point where it might take 10 seconds to recycle a flash (compared to 3-4 initially). This was honestly the main reason that I switched in the first place, but in retrospect the other reasons are just as important.

Note – if you haven’t read it yet, you really owe it to yourself to read my earlier article about Better Rechargeable Batteries before you actually buy any NiMH batteries. They are not all created equally…