Tag: finepix

Zebra, Giraffe, and Meerkat ~ a tour of Altina Wildlife Park

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Just down the highway from Darlington Point is Altina Wildlife Park. I admit that zoos and wildlife sanctuaries, private or public, present something of a dilemma for me. I am wholly in favour of conservation efforts when it comes to endangered animal species – though many such travesties are due to human activities. I understand there might be scientific and educational aspects too. Yet, I also can’t shake the feeling that there’s a commodification of animals happening.

Not only do zoos cage exotic animal species that are endangered in the wild, they also often display other species that face no threat of extinction at all. Is there a reason a common Cockatoo or Dingo might be caged other than to simply complete a menagerie for an audience? It might be argued that increased ticket sales support further efforts in conservation, of course. True, perhaps. I’m no expert in these things, other than to relate some vague feelings and thoughts that gnaw at the edges of mind.

Still, a tour of the large back pastures of the park did draw my attention to numerous amimals I’d not seen before – most notably the African Painted Dog and the long-legged Maned Wolf (a curious canid omnivore with a sensitive stomach and a delicate diet that walks in the same manner as a Giraffe – both right legs, then both left legs, and so on).

Despite the promise of the above words, I have no pictures of these exotic creatures, partly because I don’t like steel cage wire in my photos and also because I’d not packed the fastest camera in the world to acquire focus and record unpredictable animal movements. Yes, I could have switched the camera to a high-speed recording mode, but the heat of the day clearly melted my problem solving skills.

Instead, I give you a handsome Meerkat, and some closeups of a Zebra and a Giraffe – not overly exciting, I know:

Meerkat alert
Zebra’s Eye
Zebra fur

Apparently, Zebras are considered one of the most dangerous animals by zookeepers. People tend to get fooled into a false sense of security, thinking they’re just friendly horses with stripes. They are, by all accounts, very skittish and don’t mind kicking anything that freaks them out to death, zookeepers included.

Giraffe fur #1
Giraffe fur #2

Giraffes, on the other hand, are quite gentle. We were taken to see both the Zebras and Giraffes and could hand feed them apple and carrot slices – the flighty Zebras only through the wire, of course. This was all part of a purchased package that permitted us exclusive up-close access to some of the animals. It was actually great to see them this way.

A Sunset Series ~ Darlington Point, NSW

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How often do we think that no photograph can ever record the majesty of a sunset? Rather than record an accurate scene, the best we can do is render an approximation that allows us to, perhaps, amplify certain attractive qualities during the editing process.

During this endeavour, liberal use of the tone curve – Highlights, Lights, Darks, and Shadows – may provide the tonal characteristics that produce a pleasant enough photo that one might imagine themselves, just for a moment, watching the sun in real-time as it illuminates the sky.

Sunset #1 – Finepix S200 EXR

As charcoal clouds largely obscured the sun, underexposing this photo at the moment of recording deepened the colours, revealed the delicate sun rays, and rendered a sky full of contrast and dynamic light. Though possible to adjust exposure settings during editing, having a final vision for the image in my mind – moody and dark – necessitated a faster shutter speed and, therefore, slight underexposure.

Visualising the final look of a photo and adjusting exposure accordingly is like scribbling in a notebook of ideas that informs the editing process many months later – oh, the clouds are moody and dark, I’ll go with that look! In this way, ideas for editing begin before pressing the shutter button.

Sunset #2

Retaining the moody clouds through a careful decrease in Darks and Shadows, and increasing White Point and Light to amplify the sun’s aura produces an approximation of the golden illumination I witnessed at the time.

Sunset #3

Here, I wanted to focus on the orange yellow, and pinkish hues that defined this section of sky. Less contrast produces a more harmonious rendering – my feeling at the time of recording.

Sunset #4

As the sun moved below the horizon, the clouds absorbed night’s early shadow and languid bands of amber, magenta, and vermillion brushed the edges.

One sunset and two photos for the opacarophile ~ looking for something different

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There’s nothing better than slow moving light that turns everything gold and warm, especially in small coastal towns where the rough sea meets rocky beaches. The regular opacarophile might love every sunset, but I fear that not every sunset is so easily framed as to be visually interesting. Maybe I’ve just seen too many sunsets? Maybe too much time spent looking through the viewfinder pondering settings turns the mind to a need to make every photo a winner? I suspect the latter is closer to the truth and is another story worth exploring.

Sunset glow below – Fujifilm Finepix S200 EXR

Another sunset and another horizon. How to make this one something different? How to avoid the same bright sun and carefully placed horizon line composition?

I filled the frame with the orange glow of the sun just as that bright sphere dipped out of sight. The Finepix S200 EXR is an old camera and is quite soft at the long end, but who needs sharpness for the photo above? It’s all about the colour field and the deep orange glow. Underexposing by two-thirds of a stop deepened the colours. Everything is smeared to a sunset abstraction to fill the frame.

Minutes later, I caught a line of rough dark clouds marking the transition from golden hour to blue hour:

Suspended between orange and blue – Finepix S200EXR

A restaurant no more ~ two images

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Sometimes, even on the sunniest day in a busy tourist town, you find an abandoned corner filled with dust and old newspapers yellowing at the edges. Once a licensed restaurant, the empty windows were of immediate interest and led to a hastening of my pace. I switched on the old Finepix camera and thought about initial settings and composition.

The old restaurant #1 ~ Fujifilm Finepix S200EXR

I like the way the sunlight illuminates key parts of the image and creates borders and frames: the white textured walls, the plank of timber, the blue wall, the papers stacked on a table, and a ceiling joist. Curious how this photo would look in a black and white conversion, I adjusted settings in Lightroom:

The old restaurant #2

Light and shadow tell much of the black and white photo story. I always start with those foundations. The contrast here is bumped a little more, the sunlight spilling gently over timbers and walls is pushed, and the shadows are pulled down to create depth and mystery. The plank of wood resting on the crate becomes more of a focal point and draws the eye further into the dust and darkness of the rooms beyond.

The Fujifilm Finepix S200EXR ~ strange sensor alchemy from 2009

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The Fuji Finepix S200EXR was released in 2009. It features:

  • A 12 megapixel SuperCCDEXR sensor,
  • A big optical zoom that starts at 30.5 mm and ends at 436mm (F2.8 to F5.3),
  • DSLR-like styling and external buttons,
  • A largish, by bridge camera standards, 8x6mm (1/1.6th inch) sensor,
  • And a 200 000 dot electronic viewfinder.

In many ways, it feels modern, though the speed of processing is definitely of the 2009 variety. Still, I can save in both JPG and CCD-RAW, unlike previous Fujifilm bridge cameras.

The old red lighthouse – Fuji Finepix S200 EXR

The octagonal pixels that Fujifilm packed into these old sensors might seem odd by today’s standards, but the tech produces photos said to contain extra highlight information. It’s not terribly easy to verify this, as I’m still trying to work out the weird digital alchemy that results in:

  • Strange cross-hatch image artifacts in some 12 megapixel images,
  • 12 megapixel TIFF files that can only be created from RAF files in an aging program called S7raw – built almost exclusively to read CCD-RAW files from these later Fuji cameras,
  • JPGs and RAF files that are 12 megapixels in any of the PASM modes and High Resolution EXR mode, or 6 megapixels in the Dynamic Range or Low Noise EXR modes.

It’s a lot to digest and also explains why some people describe this camera as a JPG machine ~ they clearly have better things to do with their time than mess with TIFF and RAF files. This makes it a complex camera on the inside. And as much as I like that the S200EXR offers classic Fujifilm JPG recipes – Provia, Astia, Velvia, and BW – the menu organisation also reflects the complexity of options available.

Ahoy Captain! – Finepix S200EXR

The seperate EXR option on the dial offers three special modes: 12 megapixel High Resolution photos that use all of the sensor pixels, 6 megapixel Dynamic Range photos that preserve more detail in shadows and highlights, and 6 megapixel images in the High ISO Low Noise mode. Weirdly, the regular PASM functions don’t offer any of the three EXR special modes and create regular 12 megapixel photos that use a different kind of dynamic range preservation technology.

Rails and pipes – Fuji Finepix S200 EXR – plenty of detail in the shadows, even in this 6 megapixel image

I’ve found that importing the RAF files into Lightroom is the most convenient option in all cases. The imported 6 megapixel images from RAF files recorded in two of the EXR modes seem to be the darker of two exposures – or at least the darkest part of whatever data lives in the mystical RAF files. It seems likely that Lightroom is throwing away some of the data from the smaller octagonal pixels that preserve extra highlight information. A RAF file recorded in any of the PASM modes results in a 12 megapixel image, and Lightroom imports them just fine – this is my preference going forward.

Balls balls balls – Fujifilm Finepix S200EXR

It seems that the EXR line of cameras represented the pinnacle of Fujifilm’s longstanding SuperCCD sensor technology. Not too long after these premium bridge cameras and their strange alchemical sensors, the company moved to CMOS and their X-Trans technology. Despite the complexities of the camera, I find the images very pleasant.

Behind the plywood wall

A waterfall, tourists, and different camera generations

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Finally, I’ve started to edit some of the photos from the recent road-trip. I made so many that I’ll probably have editing fodder for the next two years! The recent laptop upgrade has taken up most of my spare time ~ copying thousands of files across, wrangling new software installs, and adapting to a non-OLED screen. The upside is that the new laptop features desktop power in a portable plastic shell, so any photo editing software runs as smooth as glass made by NASA for the latest Space Shuttle build.

The third of three waterfalls, Atherton Tableland – Nikon D3400 and Nikkor 35mm lens

On this day, we were driving through the Atherton Tableland, via Atherton and Herberton. Somewhere along the road, we happened on short walking trails for three waterfalls. Not having had an opportunity for hiking up to this point in the road-trip, we leapt at the chance to enjoy the cool forests in the area.

As serene as the waterfall looks, the mess of tourists waiting on the viewing platform to make photos was anything but quiet! Having made my way to the front, I hurriedly reached for my Nikon D3400 and made some quick photos. I’d screwed in the Circular Polariser to minimise the stray reflections on foliage and water. Using a slower shutter speed of 1/60th of a second blurred the fast-running water to give it a milky effect. Because I was using the Nikkor 35mm lens, such a slowish shutter speed was unlikely to cause a blurry image, as long as I was still enough. Even if I’d wanted to use a tripod for extra stability, finding room in the crowd was not going to be easy.

Within moments of completing those initial photos with the D3400, I pulled out the Nikon Z5 and made some more. After a minute or two of switching settings and trying different positions on the muddy viewing platform, I felt the pressure of the tourists behind me waiting for their turn.

Just as I was about to put away the camera, a guy approached me casually swinging his Sony A7III and asked me to make a photo of him and his family – “Always best to ask a person with a good looking camera, right?”, he said (I wondered what he might have thought if I’d been using a glacially slow 20 year old Finepix). After checking the settings – shutter priority and face recognition – I obliged and handed it back. Almost as soon as I’d done this, a young woman walked up to me and handed me a one-shot film camera. I made a photo of her and her young overseas tourist group and wound on the film.

From a Nikon D3400 to a Nikon Z5 to a Sony A7II and then a cheap film camera. As I was the last of our group still lingering, I quickly left the scene and made my way back to the waiting car.

Walking the old goldfields with the Fujifilm Finepix S6500fd ~ ghostly gums and Fuji-Chrome

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It was the perfect afternoon for us to ramble along a walking trail through century old goldfields nearby. I’d decided to pack the Nikon D40 and the Fujifilm S6500fd. I totally forgot about the Sony RX100 sitting in the zipper pocket of my camera shoulder-bag – the usual go-to in case an old camera flakes on me. I’ll say this about the Finepix S6500fd: the combination of the tiny Super CCD sensor – ancient in digital photography terms – and the long, sharp lens, produce some really interesting photographs at times.

Ghostly gums – Finepix S6500fd

Setting the camera to the Fuji-chrome setting and Fine JPG seemed to enhance the blues and purples in this photo. Maybe it was the combination of the cloud, sunlight, shade, subject, and white balance, but there’s a really strong look to the image. I haven’t added additional colour in editing.

Gum trees along the trail – Fujifilm Finepix S6500fd

For the above photo, I decided to set the camera to generate RAF files – CCD-RAW in the settings menu. I wasn’t even sure they’d open in Lightroom, but they did, and I’m pretty pleased. This provides more latitude and flexibility during editing. As you can see above, I was able to draw out pretty good detail in the shadows and sharpen the image in specific areas. It’s not easy to see without magnifying in Lightroom, but there’s some beautiful detail and tonality in the bark. Hard to believe from this piece of old gear.

Beneath the bark – Finepix S6500fd

Finally, one of my favourite features on old bridge cameras is the Macro and Super-Macro modes, at the touch of a button. It’s so handy for getting up close when there’s good available light for a decent shutter speed. I usually wander handheld, so there’s no tripod involved. Steady hands and good light are a must under these circumstances. It’s a JPG (wish I’d set to CCD-RAW), but the colour and range of tonality is still impressive. The best photos from this camera, like the S7000, seem to have a versimillitude about them. Note to self: set this camera to make RAF files from now on!

Two sunsets ~ no pretensions

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Things have taken a grim turn recently. I’ve been pre-occupied with thoughts of the small web / indieweb / personal web and then followed it up with some murder in the small outback town of Larrimah. It’s fair to say I probably need a sunset or two!

Looking out from The Point – Fujifilm Finepix S6500fd

This small bridge camera from Fujifilm only has a small – 7.44 x 5.58 mm – digital sensor, but it features Fuji’s SuperCCD sensor technology, which seems to have some special sauce about it. Can you believe the electronic viewfinder even has a nice live histogram so that you can alter exposure compensation quickly? It even looks like a mini-DSLR. Along with the clunkier Finepix S7000, I think the S6500fd is one of the best bridge cameras from the 2000s era between film and digital.

The moody golden spill – Olympus E1

These aren’t great light conditions for an old CCD-based camera like the Olympus E1 that loves more light, especially when pushing the ISO introduces the type of visible noise that 20+ year old digital cameras are known for. My steady hand and the vestiges of bright sunlight helped keep the shutter speed usable. I still love what this camera can do even more than 20 years after market debut! It can make very painterly images.

A few more from the Olympus E-1

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The Olympus E-1 is quickly becoming one of my favourite cameras. There’s a certain solidity to the photos from it. The mid-tones are strong and the tone curve applied in-camera produces really attractive images. If there’s anything to the CCD versus CMOS sensor argument, the E-1 is likely one of the best arguments for CCD being inherently superior. None of this is to suggest that modern cameras can’t produce amazing images, of course.

Crystal Lake – Olympus E-1

With my time currently limited, the fact that the RAW files from the E-1 require far less editing than expected is a big positive. And I still think that people are overpaying for cameras like this. It may be a really nice camera, but it lacks many of the niceties we’ve become accustomed to on our modern cameras. The limited dynamic range can be a problem in difficult lighting conditions and there’s no Histogram or highlight blinkies to check exposure. This does lead me to more carefully consider the tonal range of a scene and whether I use ESP or Spot metering, so it’s a good thing for learning, really.

Mine also has a few issues – a missing eye-cup and the mode dial is stuck in either Program mode or Manual mode. The eyepiece is not an issue but the mode dial is frustrating. I can live with it though. It does serve to remind me that this is an old camera now and it won’t last. Yet another reason not to overpay for old tech!

Table for Three – Olympus E-1

I’d also taken out the Finepix S5600 along with the E-1 in my camera bag, but once I opened up the Finepix files at the end of the day, I was disappointed. If I hadn’t been using the E-1 all day, the Finepix would likely have pleased me enough. But looking at those photos side by side, the E-1 completely blows the Finepix out of the water.

I feel a sense of melancholy when I use the E-1 though. Olympus isn’t the company it used to be, with the imaging arm now sold off and owned by OM Digital Solutions. The E-1 is every bit a lovely camera from a different time. It was a time when digital photography wasn’t quite yet mainstream and venerable companies like Olympus were putting every effort into the new digital market – enticing film shooters with the promise of not having to pay for film development.

I can’t help but feel that the E-1 contains as much technical mojo as Olympus could pour into it. The collaboration with Kodak represents the shared vision of two traditional companies focussed on surviving in a rapidly changing photography landscape. Ultimately, neither company managed to escape a brutal market where smartphone cameras defined the new rules, with severe decline causing them either to be sold off piece by piece or handed over to new owners divorced from company tradition.

Antiques – Olympus E-1

The Nikon D40 – a perfectly small classic

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In the days between film and the mainstream take-up of digital, traditional companies like Nikon were doing what they could to persuade people to finally make the jump to Digital SLRs. We’re now a long way from the days of the Nikon D40 – featuring 6.1 megapixels and an APS-C sized sensor – but it can still surprise with excellent image making. And after going out with a number of Finepix cameras recently, the D40 feels fantastically Nikonian, which is to say that the ergonomics are comfortable and familiar.

Dodge and polished chrome – Nikon D40

Note the lovely reds of the car body and the blue of the chrome preserved in the above photo. Plenty of detail with this old sensor too. I was using the 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 Nikkor kit lens, version 1. Plastic feel for sure, but decent optics, especially for a 6.1 megapixel sensor, where any shortcomings of the glass aren’t a deal-breaker. It turns out that the shutter mechanism isn’t faulty at all, as I thought last week, just my inability to note that the Exposure Compensation goes in reverse on these Nikons! That’s some good news at least, and rather makes up for the Finepix 602z I recently purchased, with a bent CF pin and non-working EVF. At least it was cheap!

Garden of colour – Nikon D40

I was fortunate to have some great sunlight late in the day. These old CCD cameras definitely love the light, and I’m looking forward to also receiving my Olympus E1, even if it does have some usability issues. I’d heard a lot about the colour of the D40 and it doesn’t disappoint in this kind of light. I won’t say there’s something magical about CCD colour, like others do, but these photos do make you wonder whether image making has really advanced as much as we’re told?

As the leaves catch last light – Nikon D40

My Nikon D40 settings: JPG Fine, base ISO of 200, Exposure Compensation often set to -0.3 or -0.7, and Vivid picture mode. There’s barely any noise at 200 ISO and reputation has it that noise is not much of an issue up to 800 anyway. Old forums also suggest that the D40 has a tendency to overexpose, so I did often dial in a touch of negative Exposure Compensation just to preserve highlights.

The above photo was one that I made in Nikon’s native NEF Raw format. The Raw files from the D40 definitely have more latitude than the JPGs and it’s easier to tame highlights and shadows, but there’s certainly less editing potential in these files compared to the NEF files from modern Nikons. Nevertheless, the photo is pleasant, and working with NEF does provide the option to use a different White Balance setting and fine tune any sharpening.

The D40 was one of Nikon’s most popular early consumer cameras and I can understand why. I like that it’s so small and fits easily in a smallish camera bag. I’ll have to seek out the G version of the 50mm 1.8 lens for it, as the D version requires a screw drive motor, and the D40 lacks this feature. Really, the D40 proves that picture quality wasn’t a problem for digital cameras even in 2006.