I did my Christmas shopping online this year. I did it all on the 12th of December. I ordered 6 custom photobooks from Shutterfly and I ordered some games from an online game store located on the East Coast. After placing the custom order on Shutterfly I realized that they might not arrive until after Christmas. We went with a free shipping coupon that we received from them, so for some reason it didn’t occur to us to upgrade the shipping so that we would have more peace of mind regarding the gifts coming on time. I was worried about the photobooks, because they were all different, 20+ pages long, and I figured they would take some time to print. I wasn’t worried about the games that I ordered.

It turns out that Shutterfly also realized that our books might not arrive in time for Christmas and they upgraded the shipping so that we would get the books on time. They upgraded the shipping for free and we didn’t even ask for such a kindness. So, we have already received all of our photobooks and Christmas is saved. But wait, the games from the game store, are due to arrive on the 27th. Sigh. If this game store had upgraded our shipping, or even emailed us saying that there were some delays, to give us the option of upgrading the shipping ourselves, then I would have given them some repeat business. And, I would have written a nice blog post about them too!

Ben

Posted by Ben at 05:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

...Or rather Bonolulu, as we U2 fans like to call it!

For those of you that are not yet in the loop, I wrote a blog entry back in October about a dilemma I had in regards to my lack of a proper digital camera. I was planning to take a trip to Honolulu Hawaii, where U2 and Pearl Jam were due to perform on December 9th.

The concert was amazing! There were actually three acts. The first to perform was Rocko and the Devils. The lead vocalist, Rocko Reedy, is actually U2’s tour manager and has been for the last 15 years. I was not expecting much from these guys, so I was pleasantly surprised with their performance. They had a ton of energy and they did an awesome job! I would love to see them again.

Then it was Pearl Jam’s turn. What we got was everything we expected from a Pearl Jam performance. They certainly did not disappoint, although there were a few Zootopians on the front rail that could have gone without the wine that was being sprayed from Eddie Vedder’s mouth. *eeew*

During the first two acts, I was constantly messing around with my new camera, the Canon PowerShot SD700 IS, because I had just bought it and I was still unfamiliar how to use it in a concert setting. I am so glad I did that, because I had taken a lot of bad pictures of Rocko and Pearl Jam. By the time U2 took the stage, I had it down pretty well.

U2’s last concert of the Vertigo tour was awesome! I could not properly describe how well they did, without doing some injustice. One amazing moment was when Adam Clayton, U2’s bassist, came over to us and he gave my friend Perla Valencia the guitar pick that he was playing with. Wow! The sign that she was holding up “Adam, You’re the HOTTEST” probably grabbed his attention! Well, that and the bright orange “Poptart” t-shirts I had made for us.

My Canon camera did everything that I wanted it to do. I took so many great pictures that it was very hard to pick one to accompany this blog entry. It was a worthwhile investment, because it captured so many wonderful moments at the concert and the rest of my visit in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Pictured: The Edge, U2's guitarist. December 9, 2006 — Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, Hawaii

Jennifer

Posted by Jennifer at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

This past weekend I had an opportunity to spend some time with some friends I normally don’t get to see often. Needless to say picture taking was in order. I took pictures and my friends took pictures, using digital cameras. My pictures were coming out darker than everyone else's.

Crap. This is a problem. For those who do not know already, I am a huge U2 fan, and I plan to go to Hawaii in December to see U2 and Pearl Jam perform in Honolulu, and I want to take as many pictures as I can get away with. A concert setting is very challenging atmosphere to take pictures in. Not all cameras can cut it, as I have now recently discovered. Yup, my camera has failed the low light test. I am now on a mission. I need good pictures of my boys!

Fortunately, I belong to the U2 fan club, and on U2.com there is a chat community called Zootopia, from which I can get all kinds of information if I need it. Many Zootopians have already taken AWESOME concert photos, so who better to ask than them? Well I did, and I got many different models, but Panasonic and Canon were the top choices. It was a good direction to start with, but I still have no clue what to look for when needing to take low light pictures. Flash photography is frowned upon in concert situations, not to mention useless, depending where you are. One Zootopian friend, Debbie, made one post that I thought was pretty helpful. She suggested that I look for the following:

1. High Megapixel count
2. High ISO settings at all MP settings
3. Fast shutter lag time (just how many frames do you want to shoot in a short period of time)
4. Optical zoom length (forget Digital Zoom! This simply gives you very grainy images that usually don't look good in low light conditions)
5. Compact size. Do you want a camera to fit in your pocket? Some of the ones with long optical zooms are not going to do that.

She also strongly suggested going to a specialized camera store, and actually holding the cameras in hand to ascertain whether or not it will be physically comfortable in hand, which is good advice as well.

That is great Debbie, but what in the heck is “ISO”? Well, I looked it up. I found a helpful site that explained it well: Digicamhelp.com. What it said: “ISO is the number indicating a digital camera sensors sensitivity to light. The higher the sensitivity, the less light is needed to make an exposure.” OK, so Debbie was right: I need one with a high ISO setting. But one problem I have found with that is that without a flash, pictures come out blurry, especially when you are standing in the General Admission section, right in front of the stage. It is very hard to stay perfectly still in that area. Many other Zootopians suggested strongly that I find a camera that has the technology to correct a shaky hand in these situations.

*SIGH* Well, I still have not decided on a camera yet. Hopefully I will have it figured out in time for the concert. The picture (above) that my friend Dion Simte took with her Canon Powershot G6 came out great though.

Isn’t he lovely? : )

Jennifer

Posted by Jennifer at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I’ve loved photography all my life, but have never owned a good camera. However, I’ve been lucky enough to get a chance to use the best of the lot, courtesy of my gracious professors and teachers, who loaned theirs out to me. I had been thinking of buying a good SLR camera for quite a while, and last week, the moment felt right. The Nikon N80, one of the best amateur SLR film cameras on the market, had long graced my daydreams. That was until I set eyes on the Nikon D70s, Nikon’s prosumer digital SLR camera and a thing of immeasurable beauty and intense sexiness. I was tempted, but in severe denial of the existence of any such blasphemous emotion (read my first blog post for a brief history of my passionate allegiance to film.) In my defense however, the digital devil has many more temptations at his disposal than any mechanical alternate ever will. The thought of owning a great digital photo printer to supplement the digital camera was my tipping point.

I was shaken, but not broken. A personal shopping adage that I have long adhered to is this: “When in sustained and frenzied doubt about which item to pick, get both. You’ll eventually end up owning both of them anyways.” So I got the Nikon N80 and the Nikon D70s. After some research on the issue, I have realized that film and digital photography are different forms of artistic expression. They both have their challenges and strengths, and provide unique tools and opportunities to bolster creativity.

Life with both a digital and a film camera is pretty sweet. You don’t have to buy separate lenses for both camera bodies, since lenses that work on film SLRs can also be used on the digital outfit with almost no loss of quality or sharpness. (Check individual brand names and models to confirm this; it is true for almost all Nikon models.) However, be careful because it doesn’t work the other way around. Lenses developed specifically for digital cameras will leave huge black corners on the image if used on a film camera. So, if you already own a film SLR with a good set of lenses, buying a digital SLR is not that heavy an investment after all.

Mustafa

Posted by Mustafa at 04:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Several passionate arguments with my coworkers notwithstanding, I have no beef with digital cameras. But old-fashioned romantics like me still defend the film medium--sometimes because we feel emotionally attached to it, and other times because it does still have its advantages over digital photography.

In the course of my research at Become, I’ve compiled a list of lesser-known (compared to, say, CNET) but useful websites that have great news, reviews and information on all sorts of film cameras and accessories. Some of these cover digital cameras as well, but I can forgive them for that. And of course don’t forget to try out Become for your film camera questions. (Blatant plug!) Hope you all find these useful, and may the film brotherhood remain united and stubborn.

• photographyreview.com A great source of very useful user reviews on a large number of film cameras.
• photo.net Professional and user reviews, forums and buying guides for film cameras. A very simple interface and a well organized website, with a variety of information on different brands and camera accessories.
• Shutterbug Has great reviews on many different kinds of 35 mm (SLR, point and shoot), medium format and large format film cameras. Also does a decent job with covering camera accessories in its review section.
• KenRockwell.com One of the best sites out there, with comprehensive reviews of film and digital cameras. Ken Rockwell, the creator of the site, also maintains reviews of camera lenses, and many useful buying guides related to film cameras.

Mustafa Abbas
Researcher

Posted by Mustafa at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)