New technology releases
 

Lest you think that the digital camera engineers are all down at the Starbucks sipping mocha choco latte yaya decaf ...

Here's a couple of interesting recent entries:

Fujifilm FinePix S6500fd
Thursday, 13 July 2006 06:20 GMT

This 6 mp compact camera sports the following benefit, for those who aren't that good at picking out your subjects face. Pulled from the brochure:

"Face detection"

Photographs of friends and family are among the most popular in day-to-day photography. Yet these are the shots that are hardest to get right because the best photographs are not the posed ones, but those that are unexpected. Previously, face detection concepts have been a slow, software based process, relegating them to a novelty feature rather than a powerful picture-taking tool. The potential delay in

If you still believe that Sony is the one and ony here is a new offering in the 10 mp range.

It appears that the new under a $1000 benchmark for horsepower has jumped from 6 mp to ten mega pixel. For this new Sony camera this will produce a 3872 x 2592 image. This would seem to be a blisteringly good image. It makes you wonder just how much farther they need go. My guess is that photographers are no different than bass fishermen. I think they'll level off somewhere around 150 mp.

Stores are now taking orders for future delivery of the new Sony Alpha DSLR-A100, a 10.2 effective mp DSLR selling for $899 body only.

The announcement read:

In July 2005 Konica Minolta and Sony made an announcement that they were to jointly develop digital SLR cameras. This agreement hinted at shared technology between the two companies such as auto focus, metering and Anti-Shake coming from Konica Minolta and sensors, electronics and batteries from Sony. Some six months later Konica Minolta dropped a bomb on the camera market by announcing that they were withdrawing from the camera business and had transferred certain camera assets including the Maxxum/Dynax lens mount and related SLR technologies to Sony.

Almost a year on since that first announcement we have the new Sony Alpha DSLR-A100, a compact, ten megapixel (CCD) digital SLR with a (Konica) Minolta lens mount, Anti-Shake (now Super SteadyShot) and a definite cross-breed appearance. It's fair to say that while this camera may share some components with previous Konica Minolta digital SLR's Sony's involvement has brought external styling, build quality and finish up to a higher standard. The lens mount is to be called the 'Alpha mount' and Sony has announced no less than 22 lenses which will carry the Sony Alpha branding (although many are based on existing Minolta lenses).

New Nikon coming soon...

Nikon Japan has today started a teaser campaign promoting a new compact 10.2 megapixel digital SLR which will be announced in 20 days, we can only guess that this would be the natural successor to the D70/D70s. The teaser gives away few details other than the fact that the camera will have 10.2 megapixels (just in case you were thinking of buying a Sony Alpha mentioned above).

Face recognition? They can pick out Osama Bin McCarty in his Irish disguise from a space satellite.

It's an amazing thing when you think about the kind of electronic logic that must go into this. It's not something that would send me off to the camera store for a quick purchase, but it is an amazing thing to contemplate.

This is my understanding: lets say you have a scene with five people on and around a couch. Some down on the floor in front, one or two sitting on the couch, and a couple variously standing behind. The problem that can arise if your not careful is one of depth of field. The distance from the face of the closest subject sitting in front to the person standing in the back could be six or more. You nail the focus on grandma sitting in the middle on the couch and the front and backs are out of focus. Dang, you say, I wish I had had some of those face recognition algorithms going for me.

If you had, the camera would have tagged the position of each face and adjusted (made deeper) the depth of field (aperture, fstop) such that it would include the closest and the farthest subject. Also adjusted the exposure for the faces.

I understand that it will also track these faces while in motion.

A horse is a horse unless of course ... it's uncle Harry! I'd like to test this algorithm on some of the faces I've woke up with.

Is skilled labor a thing of the past? It may be in our lifetime.

Speaking of sitting on the couch.

I pulled this off of the dpreview.com site. It was given in the context of this years big photo manufacturers annual convention when all the new products are trotted out.

Under the heading of "future trends" ...

GPS tracker
 

I'm not sure how this could impact our portrait photo taking but I thought I'd post it just because it's kinda neat and pretty high tech. Here's Sony's release of their latest gadget.

Also, if you haven't tried the Google mapping that they speak of below it's a real handy time saver. Just dial up www.google.com and click on maps. Try typing in your own address and then choose the sattelite image option which may show you standing in your front yard!

***

Wednesday, 2 August 2006

Sony GPS tracker for photographers

Sony has today announced a very interesting little device for recording the position where photographs are taken. The GPS-CS1 is a small (9 cm / 3.5 in) cylindrical device which you simply attach to a backback or belt loop and carry with you while you shoot, it records your GPS location and this information can later be synchronized with your digital images to provide a map of where your photos were taken. We assume it does this using date and time information stored in the image header (which obviously requires your camera's clock to be synchronized). Interestingly the mapping solution is an online website with maps provided by Google Maps (it appears that the synchronization software will write the GPS location into JPEG EXIF headers).

Nikon D80 introduction
 

Today Nikon introduced the D80, their new 10 mp digital SLR. The body alone will be $999 and the kit (w/lens) will be $1299. This was exactly the pricing of the first D70 which I bought when it was first introduced about two and a half years ago. The kit lens sounds like a dandy: AF-S DX 18 - 135 mm F3.5 - F5.6G ED (27 - 202.5 mm equiv. FOV, 7.5x zoom). It is one of two new lenses being newly introduced. The other being: AF-S 70 - 300 mm F4.5 - F5.6G VR (105 - 450 mm equiv. FOV, 4.3x zoom).

This camera will produce an image of 3872 x 2592 compared to the D70's 3008 x 2000. If you have all your dials pointed in the right direction this should produce a devastating image. Especially considering where we were in the cost / quality equation just five years ago.

So, I wish I had one but I don't and won't. I have another seven and a half years to go on my D70. By then cameras will be an attachment to our contact lenses.

You can get all the details here including a side by side comparison to the D70s:

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/nikond80/

Thanks Mike for the comparison link.

The D80 looks sweet, and my D100 is getting aged (having exceeded the shutter life projections).

I wish Phil Askey would also compare the D80 to the D200. There are many similarities. Strangely, a same size CF card in a D200 holds more shots than an SD card in a D80. Why? (according to the Nikon PDF brochures for each camera)

Garth

Garth,

It would be a sweet set up, and I like the zoom range of the kit lens.

I think for you to get better reference photos would be a criminal act. You paint way to good with what you have. For the sake of the rest of us, stick with what you've got.

But if you persist - you can create your own side-by-side comparisons on the www.dpreview.com site. On their home page from the list on the left you will see "buying guide," if you position on this you will see a listing of all cameras from which you can select to make your comparisons.

I don't know the answer to your storage question. However, when you do your side-by-side look down to the "storage types," just to the right you will see a "?" click on this and you can read up on all the different types of devices. You may find your answer there, maybe not.

For those favoring the Canon brand they have today anounced their newest digital SLR: EOS 400D / digital Rebel XTi.

Ten mega pixel and NO spot metering! Go figure. That alone would break the deal for me.

This week Sigma has anounced that they will anounce, at the big Photokina photography confab in Germany in September, a new digital SLR: The SD14.

They have set up a teaser website here at: www.sigma-sd14.com. They are not giving up much info, but from the name you might conclude that this will be a 14 mp camera. They also say that this will be a "full color capture direct image sensor." I'm not sure just what that means, but from the tease they suggest that all other camera pixels capture just one color per pixel, implying that this new sensor will capture more.

I don't know much about Sigma cameras but it seems that the pixel race has not yet tired. Of course price is always a consideration, but if what they imply comes close to reality then imagine a camera with more than double the horsepower of a Nikon D70, and each of those horses with additional color capture capability. Yikes!

After a little more research regarding the Sigma camera referenced above I have come up with the following:

It appears that this new Sigma camera will employ an updated "Foveon" sensor which was first introduced in 2002 and then improved in '04.

With standard sensors such as the CCD and CMOS, which appear in other digital cameras, each pixel can capture only one color. The cameras logic goes through some algorithms in an attempt to interpret what is the real color. This method will come up with some amount of color artifacts and image blurring. With the Foveon sensor there are three colors per pixel: red, green and blue. It is written that this is pretty much the 'holy grail' of digital image sensors. It should mean ultra sharp, detailed images with full color single pixel resolution. At least that is the claim.

HI Mike -

Thanks for the info. I've been doing a lot of research and have finally ordered my first digital SLR today. I went for the Sony DSLR A100 and I can hardly wait to try it out!

One deciding factor for me was the anti-shake factor. My lower end digital cameras have that feature: it makes all the difference when I'm trying to photograph a child because I don't have to necessarily keep the camera on the tripod for my shots.

It also has a better range lens (18-70 mm) than many kit lens, AND the price is within my reach :) .

Once I get a chance to try it out, I hope to report back.

Hi Mike,

You know, it all depends on how they count those pixels for marketing purposes! The Sigma SD10 is actually more like a 3-1/2 megapixel camera, but since each Foveon pixel captures full color, it is marketed as a virtual 10 megapixel camera. Actually I believe it has the meager imaging resolution of a 3-1/2 megapixel camera compared to your much sharper D70. That said, I would expect about 4-1/2 megapixel resolution from the SD14, which I don't expect to particularly wow me. Thanks for the news anyway.

Julie: Congratulations on your new camera order! Give us some anti-shake test pictures and report when it arrives.

Garth

Well Julie, that Sony does sound like a real fine camera. I'll be interested in seeing some of your efforts. You may be the first on our block to post an image from a 10 mp camera.

Things seem to be changing pretty rapidly and as usual whatever you decide on will soon be obsolete. However, I think a camera like yours could serve you well for a very long time. After you get to this level of technology and sophistication it will be pretty hard to make really meaningful advances. At least to the point that you would want to ditch your Sony and make another camera purchase for the additional image quality.

I'm hoping this camera will last me a good LONG time.

Dear Mike, and all,

Sheesh, all this cutting edge camera talk has made me succumb to my worst weaknesses! Last night I went out and picked up a Nikon D200. I am still evaluating whether it was a purposeful purchase or not; but the test results look pretty promising so far.

It's one of the 10.2 megapixel generation of DSLR cameras out now. With a generously sized magnesium body, it's pretty hefty (much more than my D100), and with it's ergonomics, no-nonsense controls and finish, it screams "professional" at you. The new D80 is a lightweight plastic bodied version, smaller and more consumer friendly at a better price; however I preferred the more professional feel and customizable functionality of the D200. The D80 feels too slight to me; I know that's highly subjective, as the picture quality has got to be very similar if not the same.

In some respects, I have a renewed appreciation for my old D100 (which just turns four this weekend). It is so much simpler in scope of functionality, however, due to that it is difficult to come up with the finely nuanced results the new D200 can acheive. One apparent surprise: images compress better for the web with the new camera. I suppose the images being less grainy and cleaner, account for that.

I have been attempting to compare apples to apples with test picture comparisons between the two cameras. It might be better to just write that the D200 has better rendering of color, with four years of evolution on its side.

This afternoon, I shot a picture of Lesser Apotheoun, and got the best results ever. To me the photo looks just like the painting. The head detail is from the same shot. I did adjust it very slightly in Photoshop, but I was mostly splitting hairs on some imperceptable nuances. These images are subtle, like the painting.

Edit: It's a bit more murky in the darks, in these images (back to the drawing room).

Yikes, this camera may completely undo my marriage!

Julie: Did you get your camera yet???? Your brand new Sony has got to be very comparable to the D200. Send us a picture!

Another edit: I just lightened the images slightly.....

Garth

Well Julie, Garth beat you to it.

Garth,

I just noticed your previous post regarding the Sigma. I've since read those same comments. It may be that those 14 mp's will actually be spit by a 1/3 as you suggest. It does, however, seem like they have had several years to best their previous efforts by more than just that. The anticipation is for something more than the 1/3's which would be a let down for most I think.

If they do bring out a 14 mp with each carrying the possibility of one of three colors (effectively multiplied by three) then that would really be something to see. We'll know in just a few more days. It won't matter much to me either way, I'm locked in for several more years with my D70. Not a terrible place to be.

That must be one fine camera that you've got your hands on. The eye can only perceive so much goodness, I wonder how much farther down the pixel road we can go before the difference becomes imperceptible.

Mike,

(Yes, Julie should have been first; sorry!)

I was probably a bit too harsh in my Sigma comments above. The Sigma SD10 makes respectable images, and has certainly better resolving power of test patterns and fine lines, at least compared to my 6 megapixel D100 in an online Dpreview analysis. I'll shut-up!

Garth

This is what I am trying to evaluate for myself. The difference can be just marginal from 6 megapixels to 10. To me the images appear significanly cleaner, with better color distinction and definition. But I am still thinking about this. Your D70 is still a marvelous camera by comparison; and for about the same result, your camera only uses a fraction of the file size. I bet consumer and light duty professional cameras top out at ten megapixels for some time to come: It's really plenty to work with.

D100 on top,
D200 below:

The color is certainly different.

Garth

Apples to Apples: Nikon D100/ D200
 

As near as is possible, here is a side by side comparison of the Nikon D100 and it's replacement, the D200:

I took these test shots and details in a halogen light. Same settings throughout between the cameras:

f/3.5
ISO 200
1/40 second shutter
Adobe 1998 color space
neutral "incandescent" white-balance preset.

same lens/ focal setting setting (24mm)
tripod
media card

I scaled up the D100 image to the same file size for comparison. The two crop details are at the D200's 100% therefore.

The D100 is inherently more conservative and greenish in it's color rendering in this white balance setting compared to the D200.

So, which is better?

again (age before beauty)
D100 top.
D200 bottom.

Garth

Those pix look great, Garth! I definitely like the second shots better.

I just got my camera, but haven't really had time to play with it yet. And I'm just not that good at the technical stuff like Garth, but when I get a chance and know my way around may camera better, I'll post a few shots.

Thank you Julie for validating the shots from the new camera. I feel better now. It makes the color from the old camera look dirty and tired by comparison! I am personally impressed how the yellow flowers are so much more deftly rendered by the D200. The D100 lost control on those high value and chroma yellows; they're completely blown out. This is a measureable improvement!

To be sure, your new camera has virtually the same horsepower as mine, so I can't wait to see your first shots. Fire away!

Garth

Exposure latitude!
 

I am so impressed with the new Nikon D200. It makes the old D100 look pretty crummy by comparison. Here's a big plus:

I am delighted to find there is terriffic exposure latitude, allowing for great highlight recovery when an image has been mildly overexposed. The image as shot has losses in the highlights, as all digital cameras are prone to. On my old D100, I might have to kiss an image goodbye if it was even a little overexposed. But the D200 has a great deal of highlight data retained in the RAW file. Thank goodness!

Yesterday we had a spontaneous street fair, including the world's first organic pie eating competition! It made for some great shooting opportunities to try out the camera, and I took full advantage. Along the way i got thirsty and made a donation for a glass of lemonade, which resulted in this shot of the little vendor, below.

The color rendering is just superb with this camera! The exposure is a little brighter than I am accustomed to (at 0 EV), so sometimes like this time, I seemingly lost some highlights critical to the image. However my fears were allayed upon the discovery of tremendous latitude latent in the image file, as I adjusted the exposure in Aperture (a RAW file photography application utility for the Mac, only). All the "lost" highlight information was in there!

Taking the original file and a mildly darkened exposure adjustment from Aperture into Photoshop, I overlayed the images to come up with an acceptable compromise and image recovery. This overlay adjustment can be manipulated any way to one's own liking and preference; and I was trying to retain the freshness and brightness of the original exposure as closely as possible, in my adjustment.

For comparison, below are the original exposure, te maximum exposure adjustment (2 stops) in Aperture, an adjustment of about minus 2/3 of a stop used with the overlay in Photoshop, and the result in Photoshop of the original at 50% in the overlay.

This is an example of how one can recover a paintable image from one that was overexposed. Very important in our business!

By the way, I just noticed I shot this at ISO 320. It would be even cleaner at the best setting of ISO 100 (still, it looks pretty good to me).

Garth

Here are 100% enlargement details of the same:

For those who lean toward the Pentax brand:

Pentax has announced its new ten megapixel K10D digital SLR. A long list of features include a '22 bit' analog to digital converter, CCD-shift type Shake Reduction, dust reduction, environment sealing, eleven point auto focus, sixteen segment metering, selectable program lines and some unique exposure modes including Sensitivity and combined Shutter/Aperture priority. The K10D also provides both Pentax PEF and DNG RAW format options.

Also, Pentax has today announced the DA 70 mm F2.4 Limited "pancake design"' lens. This new lens measures just 26 mm (1 inch) in length and weighs 130 g (4.6 oz). Its DA prefix indicating this is a digital-only lens and on a Pentax Digital SLR would produce an equivalent field of view of approximately 107 mm (in 35 mm format).

COLOGNE, GERMANY, Sep. 26, 2006

Pixel envy?
 

At the Photokina photo equipment show going on in Germany there are a lot of significant announcements taking place regarding the next generation of digital cameras and related equipment. Here are a few more:

Remember the name Hasselblad? Hasselblad was the nuts when it came to medium and large format film cameras. In terms of image quality no 35mm could compete. However, the physical size and price of the larger formats left most to adapt the nimble 35mm slr. Well, it appears that not much has changed.

Hasselblad has just announced its new H2D and H3D digital cameras with 22mp and 39mp respectively. The price is expected to be in the tens of thousands and the weight comparable to an M1 tank.

If you just can't cope with 39mp you may want to check into the Seitz 6x17 digital panoramic camera which will produce a 160 mp image in one second, or a 470 mp image in two seconds. Billed as "The Rolex Of Cameras," and going for $36,000, they state the following:

With increasing image resolution the engineering precision of the camera hardware becomes very important. All Seitz cameras are made from solid blocks of aluminium as used in space technology and produced with state-of-the-art CNC machinery. Machining tolerances are at the decisive 1/100 mm. Uncompromising precision and perfectly adjusted lenses are our guarantee for excellent results. Every Seitz 6x17 camera is hand-made in Switzerland and is unique.

And then there is this from Canon (I want one):

Canon has announced the Media Storage M30 and M80 devices which feature a high resolution 3.7" TFT LCD screen, CF and SD reader, USB 2.0 connection and either a 30 or 80 GB hard disk. These devices are similar to the Epson P series Photo Viewer devices enabling you to backup and store images directly from storage card or camera and display them on the built-in screen. The M30 and M80 also support direct printing via USB and are powered by the now 'Canon standard' BP-511A Lithium-Ion battery. Canon are keen to stress that these products are not OEM but have been developed in-house.

The Point-and-shoot digital camera market is getting increasingly sophisticated. The following new addition was announced by Samsung today. I couldn't come up with a price, but I'd guess something close to $500 which is where the Canon G7 comes in. I'd still settle on a DSLR, but geez, something like this would sure be nice as a back up and a walking around camera:


8 January 2007 - Samsung Cameras today announced the release of the S1050, a point-and-shoot digital camera with a premium quality 10.1 mega-pixel image sensor. Coupled with a super-sharp 5x 38-190, f2.8-4.4 optical zoom lens.

The S1050 includes Samsung

This is one of those " Why didn't I think of that" ideas. Think about throwing this picture frame, which now contains your entire portfolio, under your arm, then setting it up in front a a prospective client. You then, with the use of a remote control, scroll through your presentation set to your favorite Barry Manilow music sound track. Or, you could just put it on your desk or hang it on the wall and turn it on. Another good idea would be to take the video of your wife that the private detective gave you, and using the remote control, start playing it on this picture frame that you set up on her office desk. The following is some of what Ive read:

Kodak has today announced four new digital (LCD) picture frames; a 10 and 8 inch with built-in Wi-Fi (EX1011 and EX811) and an 8 and 7 inch standard (SV811 and SV710). These picture frames are all capable of displaying JPEG images as well as video in MPEG-1, MPEG-4, MOV and AVI formats as well as playing MP3 music files. The Wi-Fi functionality in the EX1011 and EX811 models allows you to either display images from your local network or from an online 'Kodak Gallery'. All should be available in March at prices ranging from $280 for the EX1011 to $130 for the SV710.

Press Release:

KODAK EASYSHARE Digital Picture Frames Enhance Your Life and Beautify Your Home with Kodak Color Science, Wi-Fi Functionality, Built-In Stereo Speakers and 128 MB of Internal Memory for Simple Sharing of Pictures and Videos

LAS VEGAS, NV, Jan 7

Fujifilm FinePix F40fd

To me, the most exciting new advancements are now taking place in the so called point and shoot section of the camera market. The DSLR cameras, which have become stunningly good in the last couple of years, may take a pause and reflect a bit, but the lower end seems to be leaping forward in interesting ways. Because of the size of the pixels, compared to the DSLR's, they will not compete - totally, but when you reach this level of sophistication in a handy shirt pocket camera it makes you want to scratch your chin. These little guys are rushing up from behind.

There have been a whole slew of these types released in the last few months. The Canon, Casio, Panasonic all have their entries. Nikon has been noticeably absent, which makes me think that they will soon throw in something noteworthy.

This just announced 8.3 mp offering from FujiFilm (there are others with 10 mp, but there is a growing belief that for this P&S sized sensor the extra 2 mp might just get in the way) seems to be one more step forward by the group. The following is from their press release, which is not exactly objective, but this model is further building on a series which has been fully vetted already, so their is some degree of believability. I watched a camera salesman get all excited about FujiFilms new octagonal shaped pixel (if you notice the little symbol on the bottom right of the camera, this indicates that this camera has this new sensor), which I think is now being put in their new DSLR's. The last sentence in this first paragraph is a pretty bold statement:

As my daughter used to say - I'm skeptable. And how about this camera taking two pic's simultaneously, one with flash and one without, then displaying them side by side for comparison.

The press release:

Fujifilm

I just ordered the Cannon Rebel XTI. I also ordered the platinum kit with 28-80 aspherical lens and the 75-300 lens. I really wanted some zoom power for wildlife shooting and photographing for larger prints. I hope this camera does what I need. I think I got a pretty good deal on it from BeachCamera.com. I've read some reviews from that site and they seem to be pretty reputable. I'll let you all know.

Its a first SLR for me. The market is definately confusing out there.

Dianne

Dianne,

Good luck, I think you'll be pleased. The market is confusing right now. The digital SLR market seems to have reached a plateau and the so called point and shoot cameras are becoming more and more professional in their feature set.

And for those experiencing Pixel envy we have the just announced Pentax digital 645.

Pentax has issued a press release detailing future digital SLR products it intends to exhibit at PMA. This includes three new DA* (Star) digital-only lenses, a 35 mm F2.8 Macro Limited lens and the long announced, long awaited 645 Digital medium-format camera.

I owned a Pentax 645 in it's antique form. In the old film format (remember film?) these medium and large format cameras used a much larger negative than the 35mm cameras and produced a much superior image because of their brute size. This new digital version will be utilizing the Kodak produced 31mp sensor.

This is of course an over kill for our purposes but interesting to see how photography is evolving on the high end. If you're interested you can read more about the Pentax 645 release here:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0702/07...xatpma2007.asp

I was taking some reference photos for a commission abroad at Christmas, I did not have any lighting equipment with me and unexpectedly found myself in a very poorly lit room.

My Nikon D50 with zoom was pretty useless without flash, so I pulled out my tiny Fuji F30 and worked with that one.
The photos were very readable, with some distortion but at least I didn't have to use a flash. I lightened the head area a little with photoshop, but anyway I work as usual from a B&W version of this pic and my colour notes taken on the day.
I am working on these portrait now and will hopefully post good results soon
Ilaria

Llaria,

I can't imagine that the Nikon D50 could not perform better than the Fuji F30.

There are two things, however, that make your story believable - 1) the one rap on the D50 that I have read is that it came with a fairly poor kit lens, and 2) of all the point and shoot cameras out there the Fuji F30 is probably the best low light camera around. There is now, as I posted just above, a Fuji F40 which will be hitting the market soon.

Still, the D50 has a top end ISO of 1600 which should out match any camera of the F30 ilk. The sensor on the D50 is considerably larger than the one on the F30 or any other point and shoot type camera. I'm wondering if you had a tripod to use, and, did you try to adjust your ISO setting on the D50 to give yourself more light?

Mike, I think I should definetely buy a better lens. I did not have my tripod with me (imagine travelling for Christmas by plane with three kids, presents, a couple of paintings, etc).
I have fallen out of love with my D50 a little. Mainly that is because, despite taking photos in the same way as I always had, I struggle in obtaining good images of my works.
The colours, the reds usually, but also blues are over saturated and not faithful, despite my attempts at adjusting the white balance. And then I have to mess about with the photo in photoshop and I don't always get it right.
I have the lens that comes with the camera, 18-55, but I think it is not the one I need. People don't always have big spaces for posing (this house was the case) and I tend to do portraits that include hands, so I have to squeeze somewhere in a corner and am not always in control of the situation.
Since you are our digital guru, can you suggest me a lens that would perform acceptably both in taking photos of the paintings and do portrait work from quite a close distance without too much distortion?
Ilaria

Regarding the photographing of your artwork - I have had my best results using the methods described in this thread:

http://forum.portraitartist.com/showthread.php?t=6773

White balance is the bugaboo for digital cameras. This is typically the reason our colors don't interpret well in our paintings. I think we are much more sensitive to the colors in our paintings than we are on the subjects we photograph. It was no different with film except we had no way of controlling the temperature of light except with a broad swipe as we purchased the roll. Having done that we were locked in for the 24, 36 images. The digital SLR gives you the means to custom fit the light temperature per image. With so much flexibility it can be bothersome figuring out just what the conditions are and then finding and making the proper adjustment.

Regarding lenses - The usual advice you get is to buy the most expensive lens you can afford. Lenses are mostly priced on how well they gather light, or how "fast" the lens. Personally, I would love to have the most expensive lens out there, but realistically I think you can do the job with something much more modest. I have been pleased with the lens that came on my D70, and my old lens that I used on my Nikon film camera stills serves me well and it's not expensive by any means.

Your concerns about small rooms is real. I find that I can do all the work that's presented to me with two lenses: my lens which is a similar zoom as you describe, 18-55mm (which has a 1.5 multiplier in the 35mm nomenclature), and a more telephoto 70-210mm that I use more in the out of doors. The shorter lens is a necessity in the small confined spaces you describe. In a twelve foot room you would be hard pressed to get anything but a head and shoulder with the short end of the 70-210 (70 becoming 105). You should be fine with the lens you describe in confined spaces as it relates to focal length. If as you compose your image you find that your focal length has dropped below 33mm (50mm after the multiplier) then you're bumping on the edge of distortion and you've got to be aware of how you've composed your subject. This 33mm is however a pretty wide angle and should accommodate the smaller spaces.

Even though it would be nice to have an expensive, fast lens I have managed for many years with what could only be described as mediocre equipment. We must do the best we can with what we can afford. It would be no trouble finding a nice $1000-1500 lens for your Nikon. I've never had anything close to that. My advice, unless you've got the money, is to squeeze all you can out of your lens by understanding just what their capabilities and limitations are. I can imagine that it would be a real drag having purchased all the finest equipment and then realizing that your pictures are still lousy. At this point I still have my equipment to blame.

I know I mentioned this lens somewhere else on the forum, but now that I have it, I really can't recommend it enough! It's the Nikkor 50mm f1.8. I tell you, it kicks butt for low light situations, and it cost me under $130. For twice the price, you can get the 50mm f1.4.

There's no zoom, but that does not bother me any. I just move myself.

I put the camera on shutter priority, and set it fast enough that I don't have to worry about blur, but so that it is still getting enough light. I can take handheld photos with available/low light and it's great. It also gives you that nice soft background.

Also, it has nearly no distortion, and I have found it reproduces the colors in my paintings very well. Of course, I have the D80.

Here's a review of the lens: http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/len..._ais/index.htm

Here are 2 pics I took the first day I got the lens, handheld, with available light from one small, north-facing window. I could've gone even faster here.

By the way, here's a review of the 18-55mm lens:
http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/len...3556/index.htm