Camera Firmware

I'm working on a children's book. This is the opening line...

"Once upon a time, camera's didn't have computer chips inside..."

*the kiddies eyes get really BIG*

"REEEEEALLY?!"

Okay, I'm not really working on a children's book. But, our cameras are now small computers with a shutter and lens. No longer just a regular dumb old donkey camera.

Our camera's are controlled by its Firmware. This is the code inside the camera that sets the rules of what the camera can do and how to do it.

After some time a new camera is released, a firmware upgrade will pop up. Sometimes the upgrade will fix color issues on the screen or maybe when you purchased your camera it didn't support high-capacity CF cards. That doesn't mean it CAN'T. It only means the firmware is not written to support such a card.

(For instance, with the Canon 5d you can upgrade the firmware to allow it to use high-capacity CF cards when it originally did not.)

Here are links to upgrade your firmware. Each camera model firmware corrects and/or changes different functions of that camera. It may be that some firmware updates are updates which are totally useless to you. Others may be very useful.

::READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS FIRST::
CANON
NIKON
MAMIYA
OLYMPUS


The above image is Maria looking awesome as usual! But, this time in front of an awesome car, which makes this image double awesome! Shot with one unmodified strobe to camera right.

Double Mega Pixels!

Reading this post title like a computer generated Nintendo voice after I made my ninja character throw out a hard core double combo on 'The Boss" ...made me laugh a bit. Anyway...

Canon released their 5D back in 2005. At that time I was packing my 9d 10d. I remember having a conversation with a friend about the 5d and its superior 12MP+full frame sensor. I remember making the point that I can't imagine needing more than a 12MP+full frame sensor in a camera. Anything more would be overkill and only help out hard drive manufacturers, because I would have to store these monster files somewhere.

My friend replied "oh, but that is what everyone thinks until the new technology comes out...then you find that you want and need what's coming out next."

At that time, I disagreed.

But today, I came to the realization, that I still pretty much disagree. *shrugs* Yep.

I still shoot with a 10d. But, I do want to upgrade to a 5d (mark II) at some point. The only reasons are full frame sensor and the ability to shoot at least 12MP. Two things that will directly improve the quality of my images. I really have no need to shoot larger than 12MP images. I don't care to copy them over and back them up either. Only takes longer. So, unless I'm labeled as a super awesome pro magazine cover shooter who gets paid millions of dollars for every image produced, I'll stick with my mass'ish consumer camera.

"But, Joshua! What if you 'came into' money, then what would you buy?!!"

Two 5d's?! *raises eyebrow* Always nice to have a backup!

Shooting with the Digital Future in Mind

I have often shot multiple exposures (using bracketing) in the past knowing that the technology of digital data is always improving and evolving. One of these technologies is HDR. (High Dynamic Range)

If you don't already know, this is the process of taking three shots of a given scene at three different exposures. Then, combining them to create one image with overall good exposure.

I shot the image to the left once and the sky looked great, but the building was too dark. I shot with a longer exposure and made the building look nice, but then the sky was blown out. Ever run into this? If so, then HDR is for you.

This is the first time I have opened these images to do anything with them and I shot them three years ago! At that time I didn't know much of anything about HDR. But, what I did know is that it was an emerging technology and I wanted to be prepared when it hit the market.

For this image I used a fairly popular HDR software name Photomatix. It's fairly simple to use and many different effects can be created. If you have not had the chance to play with this software you may download a trial version here.

HRD has caught on over the past few years, but I don't think its status has been changed to "overused" quite yet. So, take a few minutes and play with bracketing and HDR software. Especially if you are shooting non-moving objects/scenes.

There is new technology being revealed everyday and it's a good idea to keep up with it. This knowledge will help lead us digital photographers in the right direction and keep our minds aware of what we can do with this new technology.

Digital Camera's in the Future

I was over on Model Mayhem tonight and there was a good topic started titled "The next big photographic movement." I was feeling my brain juices moving around and decided to start throwing ideas on the table. Enjoy!

• HDR capture. Exposure established in post [ARTFORM's made this one up]
• Solid state hard drive IN the camera. (drives made, not in caeras yet)
• built in Wi-Fi to transfer images to anywhere you want (already made, not built in)
• multi lens to capture full Depth of Field, choose DoP in post (already made)
• retouching tools in-camera
• auto tagging a persons name, gender, hair color, eye color, etc.. to meta data by facial/feature recognition (already being used in software..not in camera yet)
• Retina scan of photographer shooting the image and auto-tagging the metadata with the photographers information (personal and business)
• [b]since our future camera has Wi-Fi..whatever info the retina scan takes from the photographers eye shooting the image automatically transfers a thumbnail of the image and the photographers information to the Orphan Works Database[/b]
• the ability to auto configure strobe power by noting their distance from the subject...of course programmable modes and "auto" modes for different automatic light ratios (the subject would only need to wear a pin-head sized chip to get that working) Even busy mom can nail lighting ratios at home! Yaay!

If you have any fun ideas to share, comment away!

Canon and iPhone ...together.

If you are like anyone else who has messed with someone elses iPhone for an evening it's hard not to go out and buy one. It's a killer device.

If you shoot Canon and have an iPhone, your cell phone just became your cameras new best friend. Well, that is because the sexiness of the Canon:WFT-E2 wireless device became involved. If you don't know, Canon's wireless device (WFT-E2) attachs to your camera and allows transmission of images from the camera directly to another wireless device, like a laptop, NAS storage device (Drobo anyone?!), or you guessed it, the iPhone. With NAS and Drobo you would have to be shooting in the range of those devices, like a studio. But, with an iPhone this opens up to being able to shoot on location while transfering your images to your iPhone as you shoot them.