Archive for January, 2012

Gentle reader,

Those of you who are regular visitors to this organ will no doubt have initially welcomed the increase in posts this month, only to find that the majority of them were concerned with camera tech, a subject in which you probably have no interest. How disappointing for you. Probably of little comfort for you to know that January marks a new high in visitor numbers to Pattaya Days, mainly due to a link to my GX1 review from the DPreview site which has a zillion visitors per second.

Anyway, I have got all this gear stuff off my chest now and I can assure you that there will none of that nonsense in February (apart from on the 8th, you have been warned). Instead, we will revert to the usual petty whining and trivial chatter for which this site has rightly not become famous. Of course there will also be photos; and some of them may include creatures with four legs. And there will be grammatical errors, because otherwise genuinej became (sic) restless.

Thank you for your patience, normal service is about to be restored.

The Canon 1D is a pretty amazing piece of machinery. Consider the shot below (and yes, I know I promised no more polo; sorry):

The polo pony is heading towards your intrepid photographer at considerable speed. I point the camera at it and half press the shutter. The camera immediately locks focus, and it also starts a process in one of its many onboard computers to calculate where the horse will be if and when I want to take a photo. It’s called predictive focusing and it is needed because:

If I press the shutter to take a shot, there is a very small delay while the lens is stopped down, the mirror is lifted and the shutter is opened. During that delay time, the horse will have moved closer to me and if the focus is based upon the position of the horse when I pressed the shutter, then the shot will be slightly out of focus. So instead the camera works out how fast the horse is coming towards me, the direction of travel, whether or not is accelerating or decelerating, and, after allowing for the delay that will occur before the shot is taken; predicts where the horse will be at the time the image is captured.

I find that rather mind-boggling; but it gets even more technically impressive if I keep my finger on the button.

To take the first shot, it had to take a meter reading for the exposure, lift the mirror to an upright position, shut down the aperture of the lens to the F stop required, move the glass in the lens to the predicted focus position, and then open the shutter for the appropriate length of time to capture the image. Then close the shutter, open up the lens aperture and drop the mirror. Job done; but if I still have my finger on the shutter it will immediately do all that again (including recalculating the focus and aperture), and it will do that for up to ten shots every second. Quite extraordinary. And quite necessary; the shot above was one of seven in a sequence, the rest are boring. Without ten frames a second, I may have missed this moment.

Of course, to make all this work you also need a lens with a good wide aperture and a focusing mechanism which will work in speedy unison with the messages coming out from the camera body; a 300mm F2.8 perhaps.

Then all the photographer has to do is point the camera in the right direction, anticipate,and be ready to pump the shutter when the time comes; and out will pop photos like the above. Oh, and you need about $10,000 to buy the camera and lens combination.

A little on the pricey side, is there not a cheaper solution, a Panasonic GX1 perhaps? Let’s find out.

First thing to note is that DSLRs like the 1D use something called Phase Detection to obtain focus and cameras such as the GX1 use something called Contrast Detection. Traditionally, Contrast Detection has been considered inferior because, unlike Phase Detection, when it is out of focus it doesn’t know whether it is front or back focused. So it moves the lens one way and checks. Oops, wrong way, and it goes in the other direction in a series of iterative staggers until focus is obtained. This made it much slower than the DSLR solution. But progress, particularly by Panasonic and Olympus, means that the likes of the GX1 can focus on a static object as quickly as, and often quicker than, a DSLR. Once obtained, Contrast Detection focus tends to be more accurate and is not plagued by the calibration issues that many DSLR/lens combinations suffer from (been there, been frustrated by that).

In practice I can’t differentiate between the 1D and the GX1 in terms of focus acquisition time on a static subject, they are both almost instantaneous.

But what if your subject is moving?

Prowling Walking Street at night, I had already established that focus tracking on the GX1, even in the near dark, works really well:

Next step was to try something a little faster; motorbikes on Pratumnak Hill:

Not in the same league as the “got focus in a nanosecond and will never let go, not ever, not even if you paid me” 1D, the GX1 nevertheless found focus reasonably quickly, locked onto the subject for several seconds (although it sometimes lost interest and wandered off), and then delivered a sharp shot when required. Certainly acceptable and much better than my previous failed attempts with the GF1.

And so to the big one, polo. To be fair to the GX1, I could only sneak shots when the pack was doing something unexciting at the far end of the field, and I had to take every shot with approximately ten kilos of Canon swinging from my neck. But I did manage to grab a few, e.g.:

Panasonic GX1 with 100-300mm lens at 300mm (effective 600mm)

Grabbing focus was a bit of a chore, especially if trying to pan a sideways shot, and maintaining focus while waiting to take a shot was hit and miss. When I did take a shot I could usually only get one before the focus gave up; although it occasionally staggered through the three per second it was meant to be taking.

What to conclude from all this? The GX1 is a stunningly fast camera when taking static subjects and does a good job of tracking slow to medium speed objects. If you wanted some shots of a high-speed event, and were not weighed down, literally and contractually, to having to concentrate on gathering shots with another camera; then I am sure it could give you enough keepers to serve as a record of your attendance, whilst simultaneously annoying the crap out of you when you missed certain shots.

If you really need/want to nail endless perfect images at sporting events, then you are going to have to pony (sic) up for a monster DSLR and associated fast lens. If you are just an occasional sports shooter, then I reckon the GX1 will give you enough pleasing images to satisfy you without having to drain your energy reserves and your bank balance.

Trust you had a pleasant day yesterday. I spent it stood on a field at a spot where I usually stand, but this time I was joined by a large number of ants who found it amusing to bite my ankles throughout the afternoon. And it was hot, brain-melting humid heat which sapped my will to live.

But it was worth it for a handful of shots like this:

Canon 1D with 300mm lens at F3.2, Topaz Black & White Effects

More again this afternoon; already looking forward to my post-event shower and beer.

There comes a time in life when a gentleman has achieved much of what he set out to achieve. He finds himself comfortably well-off and able to indulge himself in the finer things in life. A pleasant home, a motorised carriage with at least 500 horsepower and all the accessories for the living of a civilised life.

A most necessary item for any gentleman is an appropriate timepiece to sport upon his wrist. Known by the lower classes as a “watch”, a real gentleman knows that his horological enhancement exists not just remind him when it is appropriate to open the gin (10:30, if you didn’t know), but it is also a statement of his class, his achievements, his status within the world.

So, how about a Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso 80th anniversary special edition in pink gold?

The idea for the Reverso was born in India during colonial times when the army polo players used to smash their watches during a game. So the Reverso was invented, with a design where the watch face can be reversed and therefore protected, with the added bonus that the back can then be personalised. So, why not recognise the history and personalise this one with an engraving based on one of my photographs.

I am sure you agree that any man wearing this would be accepted in any club, could attract any woman, and would instantly have larger genitals.

Sadly, it’s not mine, I just borrowed it from the polo player owner to photograph. I’ve got a shitty three year old Casio, which pretty much sums me up.

Just when you were getting comfortable with assorted camera related ramblings, you may have forgotten that, in the background, lurks the inevitable polo photo.

So here it is.

Nice photo Spike. Yes, thank you, I rather like it too.