- Knight News Challenge: Round 2 Launches. The Knight News Challenge, in which winners get grants ranging from tiny to huge, is in its second year. It awards big money for innovative ideas using digital experiments to transform community news. The contest is run by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Last year’s winners won awards ranging from $15K to $5 million. If you’ve got a worthwhile idea that’s news-related, by all means, submit it!
- ProBlogger.net has a great post that points out five WP plugins that can help with managing your comments and responding to readers.
- Brian Auer of the Epic Edits Weblog has a post on the differences between exposing for highlights, shadows or midtones.
- A couple of Russians put together a wry video where they demonstrate a new product, the Americanizer. Their English accent is a bit thick, so pay close attention.
- On the same blog, English Russia, you’ll find another post with HDR photos of the Moscow sewers. These are pretty well done, and I do believe I spotted a crocodile in two of them…
- The top tech blogs are revolting against Wikipedia’s “no follow” link policy by using the same rel=”no follow” tag in their outgoing links to Wikipedia. Alright! Wikipedia’s been getting a lot of link love for years, and I think they’ve been entirely ungrateful by not responding in kind.
- Sal Marinello, writing for BlogCritics, has a few words to say about the famed “300 Workout”, the physical regime that prepared the actors for their roles in that movie. A lot of people got it wrong. Also very worth checking out is the site of the physical trainers that put together that workout and trained the actors, Gym Jones. Have a look at the Video section. Very different stuff from what you see in gyms today, but you can’t argue with the results.
- Mental_Floss has a GREAT post on life before air conditioning. Why is it great? Because it points out why today’s construction is so horribly shoddy — our overreliance on air conditioning lets builders get away with using cardboard and plywood for what passes for homes in the DC area. The homes of old were built with thick insulation, out of stone or brick, and they could do just fine without A/C. If we’d be without A/C nowadays, we couldn’t live in our homes. Kind of makes me sad for all these people buying McMansions on River Road and Georgetown Pike and the like. I see the way they’re built, and it’s an insult to millenia of good building practices…
- The Daily Mail has an article on spotting illness by looking at our faces.
- On a similar note, Deputy Dog has a post on the 5 scariest medical mistakes. Don’t read it during lunch…
- Have you ever wondered about the 100 Inuit words for snow? Here they are.
- Hans Rosling gave a speech at TED this year, and they’ve posted it to their website. It’s really, really good stuff. You will not regret the 19 minutes spent watching it, I guarantee it. It’s about poverty and developing countries, but he’s got a very different take on things.
Tag Archives: innovation
Lens review: Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM Zoom Lens
I’m going to talk about the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM Zoom Lens in this review. It’s a wonderfully versatile L series zoom with surprising image quality and great image stabilization built right in. I’m also going to show you lots of photos I took with this lens, to illustrate the various points I’m about to make.
If you’re interested, I also wrote a comparison of this lens and the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L zoom. It might help you decide which lens to get if you’re interested in purchasing either of them.
So, that’s the lens, right there on my table. It’s not as tall as my 100mm macro, but it’s also heavier, which is to be expected. There’s a lot more glass in zoom lenses. When you turn the zoom ring, the barrel extends outward. There’s some zoom creep, but that’s pretty much a “feature” on all zoom lenses I’ve tried, including other, more expensive zoom lenses.
I found its range to be just what the doctor ordered. At the wide end, the 24mm is great for landscapes or other interesting compositions, like you’ll see below, and at the tele end, 105mm is great for portraits and for bringing in distant details. Believe me, there’s a ton of difference between 70mm and 105mm when you’re trying to focus on some distant object. That extra reach is great! (By the way, I just dropped a hint in this paragraph. Did you catch it? It has to do with the 24-70mm f/2.8L zoom… There’s a review of it coming soon.)
The photo below was taken at 24mm after sunset, on a tripod.
This one was taken from the same spot, but at 105mm. See how versatile the focal range really is?
I mentioned something about interesting compositions at wide angles above. Here’s one:
I had doubts about this lens. After all, the 24-70mm L series zoom costs the same, yet it has no image stabilization and the focal range is shorter. How could a lens that packs in a longer focal range plus IS be as good as the other and at the same price? Let’s not also forget that Canon offers this lens as a kit lens for the 5D. Granted, it is an L series, but still… right? Well, prepare to be surprised.
I went to downtown Bethesda at night, and shot handheld, with the IS turned on. Keep in mind that the widest this lens will go is f/4.
The photo above was taken at a shutter speed of 1/15th sec, handheld. At 1:1, those crenels are still sharp. But wait, that’s not all… The photo below was taken at a shutter speed of 1/8th sec — I propped my elbows on a balustrade to take it:
The details here are even sharper than in the previous photo. In my book, this means the lens is great in low light for a zoom. Nothing can beat my 24mm or 50mm primes at f/1.4, but there’s no mistaking the fact that the IS built into this lens does a great job of compensating for the smaller maximum aperture.
What about the contrast, sharpness and bokeh, you ask? Well, let’s look at a few photos:
The photo above was taken at close range, almost macro range. I believe I switched to manual focus when I took the shot. I was so close the AF stopped working. I did very little post-processing to the shot, and certainly didn’t alter the colors. The lens plus the camera did most of the work, including enhancing the colors present on that old barn. Having been there in person, I know the colors were more faded.
Here’s another photo taken at close range:
Look at the photo of the cat below. When I downloaded the photos from my 5D and looked at it, I was struck by how 3D it felt. The sharpness is all there, even at 1:1, the contrast is beautiful, the colors are great. That’s when it hit me: this lens is really good!
Let’s talk bokeh. Every lens has its approximate sweet spot when it comes to it. Stray from that proper distance to focal range ratio, and the bokeh looks all screwed up. Some lenses are better than others, and produce great bokeh across a larger focal range. I think this is one of those lenses. The bokeh isn’t entirely creamy, like you’d get with a fast prime opened up all the way — remember, it can only open to f/4 — but the bokeh’s there, and it does its job, which is to bring out the subject and fade out everything else pleasantly. Have a look at the photos shown below, and you be the judge:
I really appreciated its versatility. I love my primes, but let me tell you, there’s nothing more annoying than missing a shot because I have to switch lenses. Primes are great for controlled conditions — nothing beats them there — but when you’re out and about, you don’t want to be futzing around in your camera bag, looking for your lenses, while your photo op passes by.
Have a look at these next few photos. It felt great not to have to switch lenses and still be able to take all of them.
This is one lens that does not disappoint. It’ll likely stay on your camera body for 70-80% of the time. It’s an L series, so you know it’ll perform over a long period of time. It’s lighter than other L series zooms with similar focal ranges, and the image stabilization works just as I’d expect it. If you’re in the market for one, buy it.
You can find it at:
Camera preview: Olympus E-3 DSLR
Olympus has been working on their new flagship DSLR, the “new E-1”, now called the E-3, for some time, and word is that it’s going to be launched later this year, possibly in November, or sooner. I’ve seen some concept photos of the new E-3 body, and it looks pretty sweet. They’re not the final version of the camera, but still, I think the E-3 will look pretty close to the photos you see below.
At the Olympus press event I attended on 8/1, I got to play with an old E-1 that belongs to Gene Hirschel of Internet News. The body was surprisingly light and sturdy, and I liked the various on-camera buttons that gave me direct access to functions like ISO, bracketing, white balance, etc.
I really liked the shutter action. It was unlike any other DSLR shutter I’ve tried. The movement was soft and made very little noise. It was muffled, but it felt great to keep pressing the shutter button. I took quite a few photos with it in the span of a few minutes. This is the body of the old E-1:
Have a look at the rest of the photos posted below and compare the existing E-1 body with what could be the new one. I’ll be very interested to test and review the new E-1 when Olympus launches it this year.
As you can see, the old E-1 came with a round eyecup, but the new one will likely get the more standard rectangular eyecup. The LCD screen will also be bigger, and quite possibly swivel out, since it will have the innovative Live View feature.
It also looks like the new E-1 will have a recessed function dial, like Canon DLSRs. I really do think that’s more useful than the fully exposed dial. Having it right there, next to your index finger, saves time, as you don’t need to take your hand off the grip to adjust settings. As a matter of fact, it looks like both function dials will be recessed, which is something I haven’t seen on other cameras. I also like the new On/Off switch.
I also spy an on-camera flash, which would be a new addition. The old E-1 had no flash, much like the Canon 5D. Personally, I prefer no on-camera flash. It’s always better to use an external speedlite, but I guess it is useful for most people to have a simple little flash they could use if they needed it.
All in all, I’m pretty excited about it. If it looks anything like the concept body in these photos, it should be a wonderful design.
Camera preview: Olympus Stylus 770 SW
At the same Olympus PR event I attended last week, Michael Bourne from Mullen demonstrated the new Olympus Stylus 770 SW (Shock and Waterproof camera). It’s a very sturdy camera, enclosed in an all-metal housing that can not only withstand drops from up to 5 feet and water pressure up to 33 feet, but can also take up to 220 lbs. of physical/mechanical pressure. Ligia and I have been looking for a new point-and-shoot, and this looks like it might be the camera we want.
While were were talking, Michael casually raised and dropped the camera right onto a concrete ledge, leaving me with a case of drop-jaw. Then he picked it up as if nothing happened, and took some photos with it. Wow! Then, to drive the point home, he dropped it to the ground again, and stood on it with one foot, putting his entire body weight on top of the camera. Again, he picked it up and it was just fine! Here’s a triptych showing that little sequence of events:
I got to use it a bit as well, and it’s got just the right weight for its size. It doesn’t feel flimsy at all. When you grip it, you know you’re gripping something well-made. The all-metal housing looks really nice, and the shutter lag isn’t bad considering that it’s a point-and-shoot. I got to handle it inside a dimly lit store as well, and when I bumped up the ISO to 1600, the photos still looked decent on screen, even when zoomed in. It’s certainly a whole lot better than our current point-and-shoot camera, the Kodak EasyShare v610, which was all the rage in July of last year (2006) due to its dual lenses and in-camera photo stitching capabilities.
Here are a few more photos of the camera (these ones are courtesy of Olympus USA). Notice the sleek lines. If you read my blog regularly, you know I’m a sucker for good design, and I think Olympus did a great job here.
Notice how nicely laid out the buttons are. There’s no confusion about their function, like on some cameras (Samsung, I’m talking about you here). The on-screen menus are also easy to navigate. I had no problem finding my way around the menus as soon as I went in.
All in all, this little camera’s one hot contender in the point-and-shoot market, and a virtual shoe-in for our next ultra-portable digital camera.
More information:
- Stylus 770 SW specs on Olympus website
- B&H Photo listing
Cool science videos
The Japanese have come up with a swimming snake robot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTbZJHRc3qk
Ronald Mallett is a university professor and a physicist. He believes time travel is possible, has a theory about how it can be done, and is working on a time machine:
The first dynamically-balanced robot, Dexter, learns to walk:
Here’s another robot, called Murata Boy, that can ride bicycles:
A home-made anti-gravity kit. Could be a hoax, but then again, I haven’t tried it out for myself, so I don’t know:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb6DA6Y4hjY
A demonstration of the principle of atomic halving through noodle-making. Awesome!
The FLIP is a research vessel that can literally flip to a vertical position while in water. It’s designed so its stern submerges deep underwater. It becomes incredibly stable that way, and this allows scientists to perform very precise measurements at sea.
Raoul Pop 