CameraRec » Accessories

Geotagging your photos

toby — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:16:51 +0000

These days a fair number of Point and Shoot cameras and accessories sold for DSLRs offer the ability to geotag your photos without carrying a second device and messing with software after the photoshoot/walk, but until camera makers stick a GPS chip in all cameras we will need alternatives. One fairly painless option involves using your smart phone. Both Android and iOS devices have multiple apps capable of recording a “track” that can be later used to write the location into the image file. It is ~~important~~ critical that your camera time match your phone time so that the matching is accurate. For those without a smart phone you can carry just about any other GPS, including many car units, with you or you could consider the Garmin 405 GPS Wrist Watch. A benefit of the 405 unit. . it is a watch, gets a solid 8hrs of battery life when tracking and it is a watch Nothing bulky to carry around. A downside to the 405 is that it exports a TCX file,not all geotagging programs accept TXC files and you may need to convert the track to a GPX file first, something that is easy to do with a program like http://www.gpsbabel.org/ or if you have windows you can go straight from TXC to geotagging with http://www.geosetter.de/en/ Why Geotag? For me it is another way to classify and categorize my shots, I can easily find all images taken in Vermont or at a certain photogenic area when I am planning a return trip. I also enjoy seeing my images plotted on a map. Do you Geotag your photos? UPDATE – the Garmin 405CX is on gold box deal today $174

Best Batteries

toby — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 21:02:39 +0000

Consumer Reports recently tested a variety of non-rechargeable batteries- First place was the Energizer Ultimate Lithium battery. Second Place was the Energizer Advanced Lithium and last place was the Energizer Max alkaline battery. And yes they tested other popular brands. Under the rechargeable heading the Sanyo Enloops (which I have raved about before). And although the initial cost is 2x’s the best Energizers they last and last and their output is amazing.

Don’t buy a UV Filter/Haze filter unless

toby — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:56:53 +0000

You have small children that will want to touch your lens, even then it is debatable. Modern lens are coated and it takes a bit of work to scratch them. And that is really all a UV filter does, protects your lens. In my opinion a much better protection is a lens hood. There are plenty of stories of dropped lenses with lens hoods taking most if not all the damage. Lens Hoods: protect the front element of your lens, eliminates flare and stray light and can upon dropping absorb a good bit of the impact(hopefully). Lens Hoods. Circular Polarizer: The only filter I feel one truly needs is a circular polarizer. In my Circular polarizer post I make that statement that it is the only filter whose effects cannot be recreated in Photoshop / post-processing. This isn’t entirely true. The next two filters will keep help keep sections from “blow-out” when the area is so bright that there is no recoverable data. No amount of post-process will recover data from areas completely blown-out. Graduated Neutral Density Filters: Imagine a piece of glass, heavily tinted at the top and gradually getting clearer towards the bottom. If you are going to be doing lots of sunsets/sunrises you may want to look at a Graduated Neutral Density Filters. Wikipedia has a great write-up but basically they allow you to even out the difference between a bright sky and a dark landscape. Neutral Density Filters: If you love flowing water photos, like I do, you may want to invest in a Neutral Density filter or two which evenly and cleanly cuts down the amount of light reaching your sensor. It is a little ironic that we spend so much money on cameras with increasingly higher ISO sensitivity and software to remove noise from high ISO images and there are times where you can actually have to much light. When you want 8-15 second exposures at times other than dawn and dusk or you want a wider aperture under full sun a ND filter can be handy. You may read this and be thinking that your lens offers f/32 or some other ridiculously small aperture. At very small apertures your images are going to suffer from diffraction which decreases the image quality.

Q: Why do you need a Circular Polarizer?

toby — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:24:49 +0000

A: It is the one filter whose effects cannot be recreated in post-process.

Left - Polarizer On | Right - Polarizer Off

What a polarizing filter does:

Reduces haze
Removes reflections
Increases color saturation. The effect is particularly evident in skies and in foliage.
Neutral density. The natural loss of 1-2 stops of light, without shifting color, makes a polarizing filter a good ND filter as well.

Notes:

The effect of polarization (outdoors) is most prominent at a 90-degree angle to the sun. Make an “L” with your thumb and pointer finger. Point your thumb at the sun, your pointer is now showing you the direction that the polarization will be most noticeable.
If you use a lens

What size do you need?

If you have the Canon Kit Lens (18-55) -HOYA 58CIR 58mm Circular Polarized Filter
Nikon Kit Lens (18-55) -Hoya 52mm Circular Polarizer and Filter Wallet
Nikon Kit Lens (18-105) -Tiffen 67mm Circular Polarizer
All other lenses – Circular Polarizers If you search your lens on Amazon it will show in the Frequently Bought Together section a UV filter that matches your lens diameter, use that to find the correct polarizing filter

Lens List for Michael

toby — Thu, 21 May 2009 01:12:01 +0000

Michael is looking for a new lens setup for his Canon Digital Rebel XSi Wants lenses that are fast and a decent zoom too. Also asked about flash, filters and lens hoods

Michael currently has the Kit lens – on the early models, Rebel and Rebel Xt, the Kit lens was pretty atrocious, slow and quality was just nothing to get excited about. More recently the new version that includes IS, the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS SLR Lens, is fine and suits 90% of the rebel users out there. I feel strongly that it is not worth replacing unless you frequently find yourself in low-light situations where a faster lens would help. If I was going to replace I would take a look at the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC SLD ELD Aspherical Macro Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras Lens Highlights: fixed f/2.8 Allows great bokeh throughout the entire zoom | Sharp – many photographers compare this lens to the “L” series canon’s professional lens that easily cost 2x-3x as much. | Comes with petal style lens hood.

You lose the IS but gain 2 stops which can help with both focusing and capturing w/o having to switch to a higher ISO. Higher ISO equals noisier images.
BUT! I think a much better next purchase would be an external flash like the Canon Speedlite 430EX II Adjustable and comes with a built in diffuser although you may want to buy Sto-Fen OMEW Omni-Bounce Diffuser This is going to give your indoor and even your outdoor pictures a whole new dimension and flexibility. My favorite technique with an external flash is too point it at the ceiling and let it fill the room with light. You subject will be well lit but not suffer from that flash blowout that happens when objects & people are directly lit by the flash.

To add a zoom I suggest the excellent Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras This is a nice lens at a great price.

About lens hoods and filters. Lens hoods should come with every lens and if they don’t it is well worth the ~$30 to buy. I have heard multiple stories of lens hoods taking the brunt of damage in a fall and protecting the expensive lens. UV Filters are a toss-up, if you have small kids it may be worth it to slap one on as little fingers like to touch and smudge your glass but otherwise it is just another piece of glass between your lens and the beautiful photo you want to capture. Now specific filters like a B + W 58mm Circular Polarizer is well worth the money for reducing reflections and increasing the color saturation in your photos. 58mm will fit on the kit lens and the zoom listed above.

Please let me know if you have any questions about these lenses, flash, filters or anything else you come across while shopping.

If you are not Michael and you want your own personalized recommendation