Another stroll
My previous post is from last Monday, and while I had some plans do some more posting this week, I had hardly any time to do so. But there are photographs I wanted to share. All photographs I took with the Sigma DP1 in my attempt to really start to learn and appreciate this camera. It is so different then the Ricoh GX200. I really need to work hard. When you slow down I get the feeling that I go in a flow, but when you speed things up the camera starts to hesitate.
The autofocus is slow and in low contrast situations it becomes a problem. So I try to cope with the manual focus. Many owners complained about the batteries of the DP1, but I had no problems and it works just like the battery of the GX200 in my opinion.
The first series are photographs I took last week on my favorite road in the Gelderse Vallei where I life.
For this series I used the sunny f/16 rule, because the lightning was constantly changing and the light meter gave me ever changing readings. To put things simple, in bright sunlight when the shadows are strong there is no reason to use the camera meter. The rule is to select the camera at f/16 and choose the shutterspeed closest to the selected ISO setting. With ISO 100 you can choose 1/125 sec (most digital cameras do 1/100 sec). When you want to use another aperture change to shutterspeed too. At f/11 you select 1/250 sec, f/8 and 1/500 sec, and f5.6 and 1/1000 sec, etc.
When the light changes and the shadows become less strong, still good visible, but with softer edges, open up one light stop. So instead of f/16 you select f/11. When the shadows are hardly visible select f/8 and when there is no shadow select f/5.6.
Earlier today I took this photograph of an older lady enjoying here icecream.
My next series are photographs I took today on another stroll through the neigbourhood. I wanted to see how higher ISO would work with the DP1 and I was amazed. The first two are ISO 400 and the rest are all ISO 800. It worked really well, the image quality is still very good, and I got fast shutterspeeds despite being taken in the evening.
All photographs by Wouter Brandsma
Filed under: 2009, Photography | 8 Comments
Tags: another stroll, B&W, DP1, evening, Gelderse Vallei, neighbourhood, Netherlands, Photography, Sigma, Sigma DP1, stroll, sunny f/16 rule, Veensteeg
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I really like the balance between light and dark on the higher ISO photos. I’m amazed shots in that ISO range came from a compact camera. I understand it has a larger sensor and all of that but I’m still quite impressed.
It is a pretty amazing camera, although it isn’t as responsive as your dSLR. The sensor gives a crop factor of 1.7 which is close to your 1.6 crop factor.
True, but portability is nice. I’m passively looking, and have been for sometime, for some sort of compact that is reasonably pocketable.
You might also want to look at the Panasonic LX3, but the image quality of the DP1 is very tempting and pretty close to a dSLR with a really good 28mm lens.
The LX3 is what I’m primarily looking at. It has an attractive to me zoom range and some other functions I’d be interested in quite a bit. I know it is a small sensor camera, but as you mentioned, I already have a large sensor camera when image quality is of the utmost importance.
By the time I save up for whatever I get something new might be on the market.
I agree Jer. Wait for the Ricoh GX300 later this year. The step zoom with traditional focal lengths and registred personal settings are wonderful to use.
Very nice series Wouter.
I find your DP1 pictures have a softer, more dreamy look to them, this works very well for this series.
You know Cristian. I find the photographs from small sensor cameras like the GX200 and the GRDII harder with more and stronger contrast. This is probably the result of less dynamic range. The DP1 certainly gives more tonality and subtleties.