7 posts from January 2007

Of course two weeks after I bought the TZ1, the TZ2 & TZ3 were announced today. I don't feel that bad about it, though, because cameras always get one-upped for one and these don't appear to have massive changes for two. About the biggest change I can suss out on the pair is that there's now a Program AE mode, which is great news. There's also a wider lens, down to 28mm from the Tizzy's 35mm. The usual megapixel upgrades are there too but I don't really care.

The body is identical outside of larger LCDs. Meh.

I knew that a TZ1 successor would be coming but still feel good about my purchase. Besides, I could always wait for a bigger better camera or just buy one and start shooting.

The Man in Black

As part of my two-camera strategy (one general purpose, one DSLR), I decided on the Panasonic Lumix DSC-TZ1, or "TZ1" or "Tizzy" for short. It was a tough decision, honestly, but after the E18 error on the S2 IS I didn't want to even consider a Canon. The error may have been a fluke, but it was an expensive fluke, and why bother?

By far the biggest concern I had about the Tizzy was noise. This is an issue with all of the Lumix cameras, per the reviews; however there were plenty of clean images up on the flickr taken with the Tizzy and cameras such as the FZ7, which was the other contender.

In the end I was willing to give up full manual controls (remember, I'll get a DSLR in time!) in order to get the 10X optical zoom (!) in a package that is roughly the width and length of my iPod. (Sure, it's deeper.) That's impressive. Here are my first impressions from shooting with it.

• The size is great. I missed having a pretty small camera.
• The detail and design is stellar. Truly, it feels like an honest-to-gosh camera. My friend Marcus has long talked about the "old world feel" of his FZ20 (30? forgot) and I can understand that here. The whole thing looks expensive outside of the lame "10x optical zoom" label. The camera has a great weight about it: not too light, not too heavy. Pocketable for my big jacket pockets.
• Quick startup time. Flip to on, pretty much ready to go.
• The big LCD is nice. It's easy to read, the menus are pretty clear (outside of a few questionable abbreviations), and it's nice.
• Everything was dark. The big problem with the first batch of photos is that almost all of them are too dark; I need to figure out why. Adjusting levels in iPhoto worked wonders, but even photos with the EV up +2 (!) were still dark. Detail wasn't lost, though.
• I miss the easy play/record switch that Canon has. Putting playback in the middle of a rotary dial is strange, just strange. I don't get it. Put it at the end of the dial or the front. Please. Update: Yep, the little "review" button lets me do what I need to do. Never mind!
  
• Noise is present, but not yet to a fault. Can't be denied: there's noise, yes. But it's not to a point where it kills the image (yet), and given I take so many photos in good light this was something I felt I could deal with. I might invest in some noise-reduction software just for kicks.

Above all that, I really like the camera. It's a great little tool. It feels elegant and well-crafted and has been a joy to use. Unlike the D50 post, I'll be sure to check in with everyone on the Tizzy in the future.

I watched a number of Star Trek: Voyager episodes this past week including one, "Non Sequitur", which plunked Ensign Kim off of the ship and into 24th Century San Francisco. Putting the mildly entertaining plot aside (Kim couldn't carry a show in the 2nd season, no way), there were a couple of flaws in the show's logic.

And yes, this is a very geeky post.

First, at one point Harry forgets the equivalent of a briefcase at home. You're telling me that in 300 years' time, we still haven't figured out how to get data from home to the office? And yet we can travel across thousands of light years and send data/etc. between ships - light years away - without a problem. Uh huh.

Second, Harry's local barista (!) knows he likes Vulcan Mocha. Why would the Vulcans ever drink mocha? And think: of all of the thousands of species out there, with their varied cultures... mocha? Is that all the writers could come up with?

Finally, Harry has to travel from his home to Starfleet HQ, also in SF. Yet instead of beaming over (a big duh), he has to take... the transport. That is, the subway. It's not like any scenes were even shot on the transport, so it didn't serve as a plot device! I find it hard to believe that in 300 years, when transporter technology is common, he'd still need to take the train. Come on now.

I think it's pretty safe to say that the New Pornographers are now my favorite band.

I had tried Coke Zero when it first came out last year or so, and thought it was horrific.

However I've had it again recently (today, last week) and don't think it's that bad. How can that be?

There I was, opening a file in TextWrangler - which had just updated itself - when the window opOMG WHAT IS THAT IN MY WINDOW?!?

OMG ICONS

Thanks to fellow local flickrite Paul, I was able to take a test drive of his Nikon D50 setup starting today. So I did what I usually do on Sundays: I went into the city to snap photos. (There are some now up on the flickr device.) Here are my first-day thoughts:

• It's conspicuous. Something I'd grown accustomed to with the A80 and the S2 IS (even though it's relatively bulky) was being able to take shots without really being noticed. That's simply not possible with the D50, because like any DSLR it's big.
• High speed ISO is no problem. Hallelujah! 400, 800, 1600 no sweat. I even inadvertently took a few shots out in daylight at 1600... came out fine (grainy, of course.)
• DSLR photography is way different than regular ol' digital photography. I know that the end results can be similar if not identical, but it's a very different and more formal feeling I had out and about today. I thought more about composition, and of course shutter and aperture, before shooting.
• I miss the long zoom. I had a rough time getting accustomed to the D50's lens, which is the kit lens: 18-55mm. It's a fine lens don't get me wrong, but when you're used to 12x zoom... my oh my. I guess I'll feel the same about the A80's lens. Definitely would need to get a long zoom lens, or something that can handle something in the ballpark of the S2's 36-432mm (equivalent - good golly!)
• The photos were beautiful. Out of the 200+ I shot today, lots were just blown out and crappy. But the depth of field, oh my. I've really missed taking shots like this.
• Controls are a little awkward, but not bad. I found adjusting the aperture to be a little more difficult than it ought to be, but then it's no match for cameras where it's buried in menus - that just blows.
• My eye hurt. After a while I had a hard time keeping one eye closed whilst using the viewfinder. I sometimes shoot with both eyes open, but not normally.

All in all, I'm feeling spoiled right now. Going back to a non-DSLR for what might be a little while (lenses cost money) is going to be a trade off, but, not the worst thing ever.

One fun thing happened today while I was shooting near the Wrigley Building. I was composing a shot when two girls, probably 15 or so, walked by.

"Hey, are you a photographer?!"
"Yes," I said, still looking through the viewfinder.
"Do you do that for a living?"
"Not yet!"
"Keep at it, you'll get there!"

I thought that was sweet.