Here’s a pensive portrait of Jeff, “The Teknostik.”

Had a few minutes to play around with some of the organizers of The Hive meetup at the second floor of The Old Spaghetti House in Ortigas. Wonderful venue by the way. It’s like some sort of old school lounge, great for shoots. I brought along my Canon 580 flash (despite being a Nikon user) and Gary Fong Lightsphere (a rip off, actually but it looks intimidating to get me into venues!).

Here are some photos of Tiffany from Manila Foodistas. The originals are in black and white. I decided to play around a bit with iPhoto and blur some edges and antiquate the shots above. When Phoebe did her makeup for the Philippine Blog Awards, she told Tiff that she already had good skin and a prime look would be perfect - I agree! Tiff is very photogenic in front of the lens. I told her that she needs to work a little bit on her smile as it feels a bit forced if she knows she’s in front of the lens. The trick is to get her to laugh and do more candid shots. In the first photo, I had Tiffany pull her neck forward, a tip used in portrait photography.

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS/Kiss Digital F/1000D
Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n
Nikon D700
Olympus EVOLT E-420
Olympus EVOLT E-520
Olympus SP-570
Samsung GX-10
Samsung GX-20
Sony DSLR-A300
Sony DSC-R1

I mean, really. I don’t know why all the other blogs find it elegant. It looks like a cheap birthday cake.

And blinging up a DSLR isn’t a very good idea when you’re shooting in the streets.

To prevent lens flare, Canon’s on the job with new anti-reflective lens coating technology:

TOKYO, September 17, 2008—Canon Inc. today announced the development of Subwavelength Structure Coating (SWC), a new coating technology for camera lenses that minimizes ghosting and flare caused by reflected light. SWC is used in Canon’s concurrently announced large-diameter, wide-angle EF24mm F/1.4L II USM lens for EOS-series SLR cameras.

Reflections are caused by large changes in the refractive index of light at the glass-air boundary on the surface of a lens. To date, efforts to take advantage of light interference and minimize reflections have consisted of applying a thin film of coating onto the lens surface, but this approach can fail to provide adequate protection depending on factors like the light’s angle of incidence, and sometimes leads to ghosting and flare. [Canon Global]

You can read more about the new technology.

It’s hard to find an elegant bag for lady DSLR photographers. Not that the bags don’t look elegant - it’s the way they hold them around, half opened, while they run (in heels!) to take that next photo.

The Bowler features quilted satin lining, allowing cameras to easily slide in and out, and providing protection for the goods inside. There’s an adjustable padded divider, which can be moved to suit your camera and accessories. Hidden side accessory pockets hold things like memory cards. [Crave by CNET]

Well I’m not too sure how this one will hold out in terms of poise, half opened. But from the design, it’s crafted to become rather efficient for pulling out your camera from your lady bag easily.

Speed is everything when it comes to CompactFlash. Although there is a gravitation towards using smaller physical storage cards like SD (Nikon for instance), CompactFlash or CF is still “big” (pun intended) in the industry. The new 16Gb CF card from Sandisk is not just bigger in storage - it’s faster too. I was huge on CF because it was cheaper back then and I can tell you that speed really matters!

SanDisk Extreme IV CompactFlash 45MB/s (300X) memory cards offer advanced technologies that are fully compatible with all CompactFlash cameras including the latest UDMA-enabled cameras. SanDisk Extreme IV CF cards have undergone internal testing with many leading manufacturers’ cameras and DSLRs, such as Canon’s EOS series, Nikon’s D300 and D3 cameras, the Sony Alpha A700, and the Olympus E500 and E3 cameras. Depending on the camera used, the increased performance of the SanDisk Extreme IV memory card line may help reduce the delay between shots, enabling photographers to take more photos overall. The high-speed cards let all photographers save time and improve their workflow with faster card-to-computer data transfer speeds.[Sandisk]

Would you spend $2,000 for a camera? Well yeah you would right? What if it’s attached to a laptop? Hmmm. Well, I always thought that ultraportables SHOULD all have cameras, and Sony’s new Vaio, the TT ultralight comes with a standard Motion Eye camera.

By the way, if you’re a Sony fan and need the drivers for the Motion Eye to work, you can check this link out to download the Motion Eye driver.

I am just hoping that by this time, Motion Eye can be native to Windows, unlike before where the driver installation would corrupt because of a bad install or reformat.

microSDHC storage is not compatible with older devices and you might need additional hardware to make it work. Next time you buy a device, check for compatibility.

Here are pertinent snippets from the press release:

SanDisk’s 16GB microSDHC card has an MSRP of $99.99 and the 16GB M2 card has an MSRP of $129.99. The new 16GB capacity will be available at Best Buy Mobile stores in October and Verizon Wireless stores in November – the only major retailers in the United States to carry this mobile storage capacity in 2008.

MicroSD cards are designed for slot-equipped legacy mobile phones and can hold a maximum capacity of 2GB. Today’s microSDHC cards are available in 4GB, 8GB and now 16GB, are ideal for newer mobile phone models, most of which are compatible with these higher capacity cards. The Memory Stick Micro (M2) cards are designed for Sony Ericsson’s new generation of mobile phones, all of which are compatible with the 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacity levels. SanDisk’s 16GB mobile memory cards come with a five-year limited warranty.[Sandisk PR]