bonnie & jason

Prime lenses vs. Zoom lenses… which are best for you?

At Reid’s birthday party and in Vegas, I left zoom lenses at home and ventured out with but one lens… my Canon EF 50mm f1.8.  This lens is amazingly cheap (~$75) but capable of taking very good images.  In addition to its price and quality, it’s also light, small, and fast.  Of course, you do give up some flexibility when carrying around a prime lens vs. a zoom lens.  But that’s pretty much all you give up.

So that brings us to the question at hand… is a little flexibility worth sacrificing all the benefits of using prime lenses? Until recently, I would have answered a resounding, “Hell yes!” But advances in camera technology as well as my own maturation as a photographer have started me thinking otherwise.  Let me address both of those items separately.

Advances in DSLR Technology

Three years ago, I bought a Canon 10D.  It was lacking in a number of areas.  First, the camera was not ready to shoot until a couple seconds after you turned it on.  Second, the memory buffer would fill quickly which meant downtime until the buffer had somewhat cleared.  Finally, the battery didn’t last very long which meant downtime to replace it with a fresh one when I could potentially miss a shot.  I’ve also had similar experiences with other equipment.  Certain lenses don’t focus quickly.  Certain flashes take a long time to refresh.  Certain memory cards take a long time to write to.

As such, many of the advances in photography over the last few years have been to improve the responsiveness of the equipment.  Digital SLR’s are now ready to shoot as soon as you flip the switch.  Battery life has improved with materials science and more efficient electronics.  Memory card throughput and size/price get better with every passing month.  I, myself, have upgraded to lenses that focus faster and flashes the fire more quickly.

In addition to being more responsive, cameras (and imaging software) have also improved in terms of image quality.  Advances in noise reduction, resolution, and digital workflow mean that you can now crop images a bit and still come away with an 11×14 print with no problem.  Doing that with the 10D would be difficult to impossible.

So that leads me to the latest advance in DSLR technology, the Canon Digital Rebel XTi.  With this camera, I could probably get away with carrying three bodies with three different prime lenses (combination of 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 135mm, and 200mm.)  With the image quality improvements, I wouldn’t mind using say, the 35mm lens, when I would have zoomed to 42mm since I could just crop it down and not worry about losing too many pixels.  Furthermore, with the advances in technology previously mentioned, I wouldn’t have to worry about managing three different cameras’ on/off time, battery life, and memory cards.

Maturation as a photographer

With the advances in technology, I like to think there’s also been advances in my own technique and skill.  Over the last three years, I’ve studied a lot of pictures.  My pictures, friends’ pictures, other professional’s pictures, random pictures on Flickr, etc.  As a result, I’ve grown to appreciate that semi-tangible quality some people call “bokeh” that is more readily apparent with prime lenses than zooms.  It was something I read about but never really valued since I put such a high premium on the flexibility that zooms offer.  However, now that I’ve shot so many weddings and have found the limits of my equipment, I feel like I’m leaving something on the table by not taking advantage of the image quality benefits (bokeh) of prime lenses.  (There’s also the fact that primes generally are capable of capturing a lot more light which has obvious advantages in low-light situations.)

Conclusion

So what would I recommend you do?  Well, it’s really up to you and the situation.  Personally, I’ll be spending more time with prime lenses.  I’ll enjoy the challenge of “seeing’ and capturing images with just one focal length.  But there will be situations where I’ll want to have just one lens and not have to worry about carrying around a number of different primes.  However, those will likely be casual picture taking excursions.  If I’m going to be doing any serious photography, rest assured I’ll be using primes.

Other resources:

50mm 1.8 vs. 1.4

prime vs. zoom – Garry Black

prime vs. zoom – Fotolia

prime vs. zoom – Timothy Edberg

Vegas baby, Vegas

“Productive,” isn’t a word typically used to describe a weekend in Vegas, but that’s exactly what it was.  First, I delivered my s2000 to my brother.  Second, I hung out with all my Elite investment club/Acacia fraternity buddies at our “annual meeting.”  And last, but not least, I met my brother’s friend Jennifer.  (She’s actually really nice… not sure why she hangs out with him.)  =)

Of course, in addition to being productive, it was also a lot of fun.  What do you expect when you get together with a bunch of your fraternity brothers in Vegas?  Unfortunately, I can’t really talk about it since what happens in Vegas, stay in Vegas.  Just kidding.  Although, I shudder to think what these trips may have been like if we had done this back in the day.  Now, most of us have wives and kids and some of us have even grown up a little.  Just a little.

Anyway, I gotta hop on the plane for my return flight (writing this via free wireless internet access provided generously by McCarran Airport) but I’ll put up some pictures when I get home.

Reid’s 1st Birthday

Reid invited us to his very first birthday party this past Sunday.  Bonnie and I were the only couple that didn’t bring a playmate, but we did take some pictures, so hopefully that makes up for it.  (I guess technically, we did bring a playmate, it’s just that she’s not ready to actually come out and play.)

Anyway, happy birthday Reid, and thanks for inviting us!  I’ll send your parents the link to the rest of the pictures as soon as I get a chance to go through them.  (I took a lot.)

Malace [sic] at the Palace!

This past Saturday, Felix, his brother, and I went to see a bunch of guys beat the crap out of each other at Malace at the Palace.  It was a MMA (mixed martial arts) event kind of like ultimate fighting championships.  The only difference that I could see is that they fight in a 6-sided cage instead of an 8-sided cage.  Maybe the UFC has a patent on octogonal cage fighting?

It was interesting to see the progression in skill from the first fighters to the last fighters.  The first fight was over in 58 seconds and even though it was quick, you could tell that neither of the guys had much technique.  But as the night went on, the fighters got stronger and faster and you could tell which ones were more adept at grappling vs. striking.  As it turns out, striking is a relatively minor part of the sport.  Most of the fights were won with submissions or ref stoppage.  Basically, it seemed like most guys’ strategy was to get their opponent in a defensive position (with grappling moves) where he could just have have his way with him until he cries uncle or the ref thinks he can’t defend himself anymore.  I think there was only one guy who got knocked out from an actual strike.

As an example, check out the picture.  This is from the main event where a local guy, Jake Shields (supposedly his real name) got Steve Berger (probably his real name) in a position where he could just pound on his head until the ref stopped the fight.  Cool, huh?!

Anyway, Malace at the Palace may not be an elegant turn of phrase, but it was kinda cool to see some real live fighting.

Lumbar what-a-opathy?

A couple weeks ago, I tweaked my back. Tweaked? Yes, tweaked. That’s the medical term used for when you bend over to do something seemingly innocuous only to straighten up to a sharp pain.

At the time, it wasn’t a big deal. I’ve tweaked my back on a number of occasions. Usually, it’s from playing tennis or snowboarding. Sometimes, it’s from fighting the forces of evil. In any case, these tweaks can manifest themselves as intermittent hip pain later on. Again, not usually a big deal. A couple days of taking it easy and everything is back in fighting form.

This time, however, the hip pain has lasted for three days and hasn’t gotten better. As a matter of fact, it’s gotten progressively worse and more constant. I also have new symptoms… numbness around my knee and infrequent muscle twicthing. Last night, it was bad enough that I had trouble sleeping. So at this point, I’m thinking, “I think they’re going to have to cut my leg off. How am I going to play kick ball with my baby? Can I install a finger throttle on the go-kart?” So I did what any self-respecting 30-ish person would do and self-diagnosed myself with the internet.

After a quick search for “hip pain nerve” I found all sorts of links to sciatica and other peripheral neuropathy (numbness at the extremeties) kinds of problems. There were also some sites that talked about osteo-necrosis (dead bone), but I ignored those given my vast knowledge of osteoporosis and other metabolic bone diseases (yay pharmaceutical sales training!). Of course, this was at 3:30 am so I wasn’t thinking all that clearly. Even so, I was convinced that it was some sort of pinched nerve.

Fast forward to this afternoon when I have my first Kaiser appointment ever with Dr. Sdao. (Pronounced Se-day-oh… not Chinese, white guy from Niagra Falls). Having never been to Kaiser before, I had no idea what to expect. But it was actually a very good experience. The check-in line was short, efficient, and polite. I was only in the waiting room for a couple minutes before the guy came to check my vitals. And the wait for the doctor was only a couple minutes after that. And to tell you the truth, I was very impressed with Dr. Sdao. He was very nice, very thorough, and spent an appropriate amount of time with me. I even found free parking right outside.

Anyway, his diagnosis was pretty much what I expected… Lumbar Radiculopathy, also referred to as sciatica. That basically means I have some irritation of the nerve root at the lumbar spine (lower back). In my particular case, the irritation is ocurring at the L2-L3 vertebrae indicated by the numbness in my knee. This is a relatively rare scenario. More often, the L4 and L5 vertebrae are the problem which typically causes numbness and loss of strength below the knee, down the calf, and even down to the ankle and foot.

Anyway, after some reflex tests and strength/flexibility tests, he basically summed up by saying that I shouldn’t be lifting 80 lb bags of concrete but I should be able to remain fairly active without worrying about aggravating it. As far as medication, his recommendation was 800 mg of ibruprofen every six hours. Otherwise, as the saying goes, time heals all wounds.

So, do I need to worry about my back hampering my professional motorsports career? Thank-goodness, no. Should I take it easy the next few months to make sure I can pick up my newborn baby? Probably.

So many parks…

If you have spent any appreciable time in San Francisco, you know there are a bunch of quaint little parks tucked into seemingly random corners of the city. Today, Bonnie and I visited one of them, Golden Gate Heights Park, as we were feeling a little cooped up on such a dreary day.

I discovered Golden Gate Heights Park while on a bike ride a number of months ago. Basically, I was just curious as to what would happen if I just kept riding uphill from our house in the Sunset. Eventually, after some gruelling switch-backs, the road levelled off and I saw the characteristic green sign that announces yet another San Francisco neighborhood park.

It’s very small, but has quite a few amenities considering. Two slightly dusty tennis courts, a playground, and a number of benches welcome anyone looking for a quiet walk and some nice views. I was actually thinking that I could use it as an engagement session location if couples were looking for something simple, woodsy, and non-touristy.

Anyway, on this trip, I had brought my camera and tripod along in case the weather cooperated for some landscape kinds of shots. I got a couple very average looking ones but also got some of Bonnie who randomly felt the need to show me how the mannequins moved in the movie, “Mannequin,” (some of Kim Cattral’s best work.) She’s a weird one, isn’t she? And don’t try to defend her by chalking it up to the pregnancy hormones… she’s always been a little off. Click here for the full album.

Karting with Craig

Eric’s friend (and all-things-with-four-wheels extraordinaire), Craig, was home for the weekend and brought his Horstman sprint kart with him. Lucky for us, he also was able to squeeze our kart, our gear, and ourselves into his friend’s extra-cab Tacoma for a day at the track.

It was great having Craig around to show us the ropes as newbies into the world of karting. He had the right tools, parts, accessories, know-how, and even gourmet jam to go with our peanut butter and potato bread lunch. In particular, it was good to get his perspective when we lost the drive gear. Then, he was really helpful when we evaluated our spark plug. Finally, it was nice of him to help us replace our badly worn sprocket and chain. Of course, how do I repay him but by snapping his throttle cable?! Oh well, we got it fixed by using a “spare” part from our kart. No worries. In any case, good times. good times.

More pictures here.

Test post for Viv

The Chan sister’s are working on a web based store front.  Here’s a test for them to see how images might show up for them.

2006 Honda Pilot EX-L Navi Review

With the baby on the way, the 2 door Accord and S2000 are just not going to cut it. So, I’m giving the S2000 to my brother and will eventually buy a Honda Fit to replace it. For the time being, the Honda Pilot will be my photography car. When we sell the Accord and eventually buy the Fit, I’ll likely drive the Fit while Bonnie drives the Pilot.

You may have figured out that I’m a huge Honda fan. I’ve owned three Honda motorcycles and an Acura Integra GS-R prior to the S2000 and now, the Pilot. I even got my parents to buy a Honda lawnmower. The only reason I bring this up is to make perfectly clear that I do have a certain pro-Honda bias. As a matter of fact, Bonnie has joked that I would probably name my first-born, “Honda,” if she would let me. Well, that would just be silly. But, if we ever got a dog…

Anyway, on to the Pilot. I won’t go through any of the details that you can find on any other car review site, but I will focus on the following three items that you might find useful.

• The shopping experience (research, dealer, price)
• Driving impressions
• What I would change

The shopping experience

We had considered getting an Acura MDX as well as waiting for the new Acura RDX and Honda CR-V. (Yes, I know, all Honda products.) Ultimately, I thought the MDX was too expensive and that the RDX and CR-V would be difficult to get a deal on as new models often are. The latter two were also a bit on the small side for what I thought we might need long term. Also, I prefer not to buy cars in their first model year since they occasionally have quality control issues. So at that point, we started looking more seriously at the Pilot.

(as an aside, we did briefly consider Toyota offerings as well. I wasn’t a big fan of the Highlander’s styling and it wasn’t as big as the Pilot. The new Rav 4 was promising, but I hate having the spare tire on the rear and also thought it might be a bit small. Finally, the Lexus was just too much money.)

Initially, we had gone to Mike Harvey where a friend of ours works at the Acura dealership. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to get us a price that I thought was all that great. To tell you the truth, I kind of gave up on the idea for a while after that.

But then, on a whim, I clicked through the “get a quote from your local dealer” ad on the edmunds.com page and received email quotes from a few dealers around the bay area. Some offered ok deals, but then I got an offer from San Leandro Honda for $28,400 plus tax and fees. That ended up being almost $4,000 under the invoice price! Immediately, I thought, “We’re back in the game!” Unfortunately, they didn’t have the silver color that we wanted. But as luck would have it, the Oakland Honda internet sales guy called me soon after that and committed to matching the price as well as having the color I wanted.

Anyway, from there, he picked me up at work (Oakland Honda is literally down the street from my office) and we got the paperwork signed in about 30 minutes. Of course, they go through the whole extended warranty, undercoating, blah blah blah, which I turned down. But all in all, they seem to run a pretty tight ship over there.

So what started out as a shot in the dark ended up being a pretty darn good price and a pretty painless shopping experience.

Driving impressions

The Pilot drives just like my S2000. Ok, not quite. But I will say that the Pilot is very typically Honda. All the gauges and controls are well placed and easy to read, space is used very well, and the engine is ready and willing to go when you are but rewards you with above average gas mileage. The one word I would choose to describe it is “efficient.”

Of course, everything is relative. It’s still a tall, heavy, soft SUV so don’t expect go-kart level handling or econo-car mileage. But I can definitely see myself driving this thing over the next 10 years up to Tahoe, out to the beach, down to soccer practice, and who knows what else. I love the fact that it has seating for 8 and we’ve already had two adult friends comfortable in the third row. (Granted, they’re the skinniest people I know, but still.) Otherwise, it does everything in a predictable manner and I expect will be a reliable family vehicle that I feel very comfortable putting my family in.

What I would change

As I mentioned, I am a big Honda fan, but that doesn’t mean I think everything is perfect. Here are the quibbles I have that I would love to see implemented in the next model year. (note: Mr. Honda – I’m available for consulting services at your request.)

• Make an auxiliary audio input standard. I would actually prefer that it not be ipod specific. How hard would it be to just put a little jack in the front panel somewhere?
• Have the capability to play MP3/WMA in the CD player. Is it too much to ask to catch up to 2004?
• Add trip computer functionality. Bonnie’s Accord has this built into the navigation system and it’s a pretty nice feature. How hard would it be to just use the same program in the Pilot?

That’s about all I have. I’ll probably come up with more as I spend more time with it. But all in all, I’ve been very happy with my purchase so far.

Closing

If you’re looking for a versatile family car that will serve you well for years to come, the Pilot must be near the top of your list. Especially now, with the dealer incentives available, the Pilot is a lot of car for the money.

Commentary on the new Canon Digital Rebel XTi

The new Canon Rebel XTi could be a good “upgrade” from my current workhorses, the Canon 20D and 1D Mark II. Upgrade you say? An entry level $800 camera vs. a mid-level $1500 and high-end $3000 camera? Let’s look at my priorities in order of importance:

1. Image quality – slight edge to 1D2 (minor edge in dynamic range, noise)
2. Speed – slight edge to 1D2 (I rarely take advantage of 8fps, turn on time for both are nearly instantaneous)
3. Feature set – tie (I rarely take advantage of the overwhelming custom functions on the 1D2 and the new Rebel has that new fangled anti-dust feature)
4. Battery life – slight edge to 1D2 (tie when battery grip included)
5. Resolution – slight edge to Rebel
6. Weight – strong advantage to Rebel
7. Price – strong advantage to Rebel
8. Crop factor – tie (depends on if I shoot wide vs. tele)
9. Weather sealing – slight edge to 1D2 (I rarely shoot in the rain)
10. Professional impression – strong advantage to 1D2

So are there any real compelling reasons for me to shoot with a 1D2? Not as I see it. Back when I upgraded from the 10D to the 20D and 1D2, the decision was easier. Battery life was greatly improved, the resolution increase made a more significant difference, start time went from a few seconds to practically nothing, and I wanted the opportunity to go wide angle. Now, battery life on the new Rebel with the battery grip should be more than enough for a full day of shooting, the resolution of the rebel is greater than on the 1D2 with no loss of image quality (resolution does not always correspond to image quality), start time is essentially the same, and I now have a fish-eye lens which gives me the wide angle I would need on a 1.6 crop factor sensor.

So will I dump my 1D2 and 20D for a couple new Rebels? Probably not anytime soon. They meet my needs just fine. However, when it comes time to retire those cameras, I would bet that I won’t be buying their future equivalents. I can definitely see myself making do with a few Rebel XTz/600D or whatever the Rebel equivalent is at that point.