Pentax K10D, SMC Pentax-FA 50mm f/1.4, ISO 320,  f/1.4, 1/60 sec, +.3 EV, IS on

This photo was taken while waiting in line at Moe’s in Auburn, AL. It was shot from the hip without being composed in the viewfinder. The composition turned out OK but I had to apply a fair amount of post processing in Lightroom to get to this point. Here’s the original unmodified as-shot image:

As you can see, it was a bit underexposed and the white balance was a little out of whack due to the mixed lighting conditions. After playing around with various white balance settings I settled on “Auto” as the best choice. Next all I really did to fix the exposure was jack the Exposure up to +1.42. While I was at it I also dropped the Blacks level to 0 and dialed in more contrast to darken things back up a bit without loosing shadow detail. Finally, I added in a touch of saturation to bring back up the color that was lost when I cranked the exposure.

Pentax K10D, Pentax SMC-A 50mm f/1.7 (manual focus), ISO 100, f/1.7, 1/800 sec, +0.7 EV, IS on

While my wife was doing a little shopping I wondered around 18th street in Homewood, AL and took a few photos. I used to work at the bike shop right down the street from here.

Bouchon Bistro @ The Venetian, Las Vegas

The rest of the meal for those interested in such things:

Fresh oysters.

Warm pistachios.

Blood pudding sausage with roasted apples and potato pureé. I had the bar tender pick the wine for dinner. He selected a cabernet. Later he had me try a pinot gris he was thinking of suggesting. The cab was pretty rich with a peppery finish that matched the mild gamey-ness of the blood sausage. The pinot gris, on the otherhand, absolutely exploded in my mouth and provided an incredible contrast to the flavors in the meal. In hindsight he should have gone with the white ;-)

Day 2 I took another lap of the show floor looking for things I may have missed yesterday. Click through to see what I found.

This idea in some form or another showed up in several Asian vendors’ booths. The idea is simple: provide a remote display that uses the video out feed from cameras with live view. This version is wired to the camera and features an articulating screen. Others seen on the show floor featured wireless technology to transmit the video signal to a remote release. The basic idea is pretty clever but I have to wonder just how many people really need such a thing (voyeurs not withstanding).

CropLines is a specialty product that adds custom-designed crop lines to focus screens. They’re not particularly cheap (close to $200 per screen) but that is mostly due to the degree of handwork required. I’m thinking I could use one with square crop lines. If you print a lot of photos an 8 X 10 crop would also be useful. The focus screen pictured is for standardized studio portraits.

Those wily Germans at Novoflex have one-upped the tripod by adding a fourth leg. They call it the “Quadrapod”. Not content with adding an extra leg, they also made the whole thing modular. Each leg screws off to create monopods. Also, additional accessories can be attached to the head mechanism to further expand its usefulness:

Add two more mini legs and you have a packable table-top quadrapod. Add suction cups…

…and you can stick it to a window. In typical Germanic fashion, the build quality is second to none. I didn’t ask how much ’cause if you have to ask…

I figured if I was going to spend $15 on lunch I should get my money’s worth so I headed over to the Hilton to the Noodle Bar in the back of the Benihana restaurant for some Hong Kong style stir fry noodles.

Back to the show and I discovered Olympus’ cut-away version of their E3 DSLR. Is it just me or does this look more complicated than the Nikon D3 version from yesterday?

With the crowds dwindling I took a few moments to play with the Panasonic Lumix G1. It is quite a tidy little package though it feels a little on the plasticy side for my tastes. The electronic viewfinder (EVF) is quite strange for someone coming from a true SLR camera. The weirdest part was the fact that the EVF displays the exposure preview just like a PnS (point ‘n shoot) camera does. I can see this being sort of useful sometimes but could turn into a real turn-off as the image fluctuates back and forth looking for “proper” exposure. My guess is most users will just use the big LCD display on the pack like a PnS camera. I stand firm in my assertion that this camera (and others like it) are either pocket cameras that are too big to fit in a pocket or DSLRs that are too small to keep up with their larger brethren. BTW, I overheard a Panasonic employee boasting that their were a total of 6 lenses for the G1. Me, I’ll just keep carrying a PnS (an old Panasonic Lumix FX-07 actually) in my pocket and a real DSLR around my neck for the time being.

Finally, I wondered back to the Nikon booth to take a look at their new AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G lens. Obviously, I didn’t get to take any sample photos with it but it looks and handles pretty nice. I’m sure at $200 Nikon will sell a ton of these. If you have a Nikon DX format camera (anything other than a D700 or D3) I suggest you look at this lens. Having shot fast fifties on both full frame and DX sensor cameras, I can safely say that a 35mm lens on a DX sensor camera (52.5mm equiv focal length) is much more useful than a 50mm lens (75mm equiv)  for everyday use.

Tomorrow I’m planning on making one more pass. I wouldn’t hold your breath in anticipation of any more great finds.

Benihana Japanese Steak House, Las Vegas Hilton Hotel and Casino.

I had lunch today in the noodle shop in the back of the Benihana restaurant. The main part of the restaurant was closed and I was leaving I was struck by all the decor all lit up for nobody. I stopped, switched my camera to manual mode, dialed in f/16, ISO 100, and 30 seconds of exposure. I set the self timer to the 2 second delay and set the camera on a flat top of a wooden handrail support post. I didn’t compose the shot with the viewfinder (due to the low height of the railing) nor did I review the shot after taking this single exposure. Later, in Lightroom I dialed back the exposure -0.42 EV and set the white balance to tungsten. Not bad for a “snap shot” :-)

Bouchon, The Venetian, Las Vegas, NV

I have to say, this shot would not have been possible without my Pentax K10D’s in-camera shake reduction. I mean, they didn’t have IS 20 years ago when this lens was made ;-)