Are you confused on choosing photographic equipment such as cameras, lenses and so forth? You are not alone. There are so many choices today. Each brand has plenty of models to choose from. Plus there are more from previous years.

Is there any effective way that can help us select the best gear? I have no answer to that, but fortunately, I have some guidelines that I learn from school and personal experience.

There are three main methods:

1. Creating constraints
2. Determining the best value
3. Ask the expert

The first thing to do is determine the constraints. Every time we set a constraint, automatically it will remove some of the options so that we are closer to the decision.

My favorite constraint is price of the gear or or our fund. Next, it is a specific camera feature that we need or desire, such as size and weight, video feature in digital SLR camera, built quality and weather-proofing, and so on.

Another way is to determine the the best value gear in a category. Usually photographic gears are divided in several categories such as for beginners, intermediate and advanced. Then we determine the best value of each gear on the paper. For example, 18 mp is better than mp 12 mp, 51 point auto focus is better than 9 and so on. Many internet websites and magazine provide product specification and comparison.

If you are not confident to make decision yourself, you can  ask the experts. An expert of course, is someone who is experienced in the field of photography. But be careful in choosing an expert who can you trust.

Avoid:

• Photographer or friends who only use equipment from one brand.
• Salesman that will potentially promote merchandise with large commission.

Find expert photographer that honest about the weaknesses and strengths of photography equipment. especially those that have experience about tools that you want.

In the end, if you feel you have made a mistake, do not be disappointed, the most important thing is to learn from those mistakes. Note the advantages and disadvantages of your tool for future reference.

Wedding photography Unveiled by Jacqueline Tobin features 20 wedding photographers who share their philosophy, images and gears. From this book, we can learn about diversity in wedding photography.

Couple decades ago, wedding photography is boring and very traditional. But now, wedding photography has become very interesting. Thanks to digital photography and new breed  of creative photographers. It is interesting to know that documentary/photojournalist style are very popular now and this style has been embraced by many wedding photographer featured in this book, but traditional staged portrait are still there as well.

This book is divided on several chapters which usually represent a stage in a typical  European style wedding such as getting ready, ceremony, portrait session, and reception. On each section, about five photographers will tell their approaches.

The book also discusses briefly about business aspect such as marketing, equipments and getting published in magazines.

At the end of the book, each photographers featured get a profile page, highlighting their bio data and gears. Although I find it unnecessary and redundant. I also find that there are many typo especially in the name of photography gears. For example, there is Canon 6D in one of photographer’s gear list which might be 5D.

I think that this book is awesome for aspiring wedding photographer that has yet to find their style. For experienced wedding photographers that already find their own style, this book might not be that helpful.

Tamron has announced their new development of 70-300mm VC USD, a telephoto zoom lens for Nikon, Canon and Sony digital SLR camera. This lens is high quality lens (SP) and will be significantly better than regular zoom kit lenses.

Tamron 70-300mm VC USD

What interesting is not on the actual lens, but more about the new silent and fast auto focus feature. Tamron calls it USD (Ultra Sonic Drive). This lens will be the first Tamron lens that has this feature.

Tamron has been lagging behind from other lens manufacturer in auto focus technology. All Tamron lenses still rely on old motorized mechanic that make a noticeable noise and not very accurate at times.

This will probably mark the end of the old auto focus mechanic and we can expect more Tamron lens equipped with this feature.

Note: Tamron is a third party lens maker. It is famous for their superzoom lenses.

Specification, Press Release available at Tamron official website.

Price and shipping date is not available at the time I write this post.

Photojournalistic / documentary style has been booming in wedding photography industry in the last decade. Almost all wedding photographers nowadays advertise or incorporate some aspect of this style. Joe Buissink has been using documentary style for a few decades. His images are not hard to recognize: emotional, romantic, artistic and tells the story of the day. Joe has ability to see with both eyes, mind and heart.

This book will help guide you as a walk through on a wedding day. It gives you tips on how to make your images stand out and creative in various wedding scenes, such as getting ready, portrait, ceremony and reception. But the most important of all, Joe prepares your mind and heart so you know how to capture the best moments in the wedding flawlessly.

Beside the shooting aspect, Joe also discusses about business aspect, gears, and also mistakes he made when he first starting the business (which is one of my favorite chapter). Interestingly, Joe also shoots many hollywood celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Hillary Swank, Jessica Simpson, Rebecca Romijn, etc. Joe kindly shares what are the pro and cons and what you need to pay attention to when you shoot celebrity wedding.

However, This is not an technical / creative how to book, but it is more about philosophy. So if you are looking for those, you might want to attend his workshop or get his workshop DVD.

Overall, this is a great book, very good written. Every sentence counts. I gladly recommend this book for photographers and enthusiasts who aspire to be wedding photographers.

Think Tank Photo introduces Restrospective camera and lens bag, which are simple looking bags with soft and flexible interior, allow you to be blend into environment seamlessly. It is designed for digital SLR camera users, especially photojournalists, wedding photographers, street photographers and travel photographers in mind.

It has various size and two color, black and brown. The smallest size will accomodate DSLR camera with battery grip, plus two to three short lenses. The bigger one will accommodate up to 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. Price: From $99 to $179

Think Tank Restrospective 20 Pinestone color

This collection is a blend of old style photography bag (DOMKE) with typical ThinkTank attention to detail and quality.

Competitors:

Boda Bag – Lens bag that is very popular among wedding photographer and portrait shooters. It’s ergonomic is excellent and the latest version is weather sealed.

Domke – Classic old school photography bag

Shootsac – Fashionable lens bag

Recently, Panasonic announces Panasonic G2, successor to revolutionary Panasonic G1, which is the first micro four thirds camera in the market. Panasonic G2 has the same body design with additional movie recording button. At the same time, Panasonic also announces Panasonic G10.

Along the way, Panasonic has released Panasonic GH1. I think GH1, and G10 are transitional or filler products. It is created to give consumers more choices and also an effort to compete in certain price point. Panasonic GF1, an ultra compact camera is another transitional/experimental product which is very successful. We can expect Panasonic introduces GF successor sooner or later.

The improvement from G1 and G2 is more about convenience and movie recording. Image quality for still photography is less likely to be improved since they use the same sensor, however, the processing algorithm are getting better so the G2 is confident to introduce ISO 6400.

Panasonic G2 is available in three eyecatching color

With Panasonic G2 touchscreen LCD, you can easily:
1. Instruct the camera to focus to certain point in the screen
2. Track a subject
3. Adjust exposure and other settings
4. Playback your picture by touch and slide (like iPhone/iPod touch)

Therefore, G2 wil be a perfect camera for beginners or users that looking for a step up camera because G2 is so easy to use (thanks to touch screen and intelligent auto mode). For enthusiasts and pro, you might not interested as much because this camera  is not as responsive as digital SLR system yet. By the time I wrote this, Panasonic hasn’t announce the price yet. It might be around $900 for G2 and 700 for G10. Both with 14-42mm, a new standard kit lens.

I still have some questions though, like how easy is that to use touchscreen while holding the camera and how easy and good the movie recording feature in G2. Hopefully some reviews will come out and shed some light about it.

A quite funny video I found the other day when browsing Photography Bay website. This video is about a professional wedding photographers got sued by the couple because they feel the quality of the photos are not good enough. Furthermore, the judge brings up that the alleged pro photographer was using Canon Rebel XTi, an entry level camera with kit lens. What is the result? please watch it yourself.

At PMA, Ricoh announces two new lens block thats might keep Ricoh fans from jumping to another system such as micro four third system.

Here is an excerpt from Ricoh press release:

Camera unit RICOH LENS P10 28-300 mm F3.5-5.6 VC* (name tentative)

• With an original Ricoh noise reduction function and a back-illuminated CMOS sensor, this camera unit expands the photographer’s range of expression by making it possible to shoot high-quality images in scenes ranging from low light to bright light.
• Featuring a high-magnification 10.7x (28-300 mm) optical wide-angle zoom, this unit has 120 frame/second high-speed continuous shooting ability plus a wide range of other functional capabilities such as RAW image recording, image settings adjustable to nine levels, multi-target AF, and much more.
• Start of sales planned for the summer of 2010.

Camera unit GR LENS A12 28 mm F2.5 (name tentative)

• Featuring a newly developed 28 mm fixed-focal-length GR LENS, this camera unit achieves high resolution and high imaging power.
• A 23.6 mm × 15.7 mm (APS-C size) CMOS sensor is used. The combination of this sensor with the GR ENGINE Ⅲ image processing engine enables the camera unit to shoot high-quality images with smooth tone gradations as well as high definition and low noise.
• There is a manual focus ring that can be used for precise focus adjustments.
• Start of sales planned for the winter of 2010.

Ricoh decision to launch P10 lens block is a bit weird because they recently release Ricoh CX10 with exactly the same sensor and capability with only $399 price tag. However, the 28mm f/2.5 lens block with DSLR quality sensor will be highly anticipated by fans due to the popular Ricoh GRD series.

Ricoh GXR with A12 50mm f/2.5 macro lens block has been criticized because of Auto Focus performance in low light. It is also criticized for its price. I don’t think it is overpriced because the built quality and user interface are the best in the class.

I also hope Ricoh could surprise the fans once more by improving AF and introducing more lens block in the near future.

More about Ricoh GXR

• Ricoh GXR system
• Ricoh GXR pro and cons
• Ricoh GXR impression by three photographers
• [View GXR lens blocks prototype at Focus Numerique]

I read an interesting interview with Kazuto Yamaki, Sigma Chief Operating Officer via Imaging Resource and I find it is very interesting, especially because I used several Sigma lenses (Read Reviews).

Before, Sigma lenses are regarded as inferior lenses to manufacturer lenses. Their business strategy is to produce very cheap lens and let the retailer bundled it with DSLR camera body.

However, time has changed. Manufacturers began to bundle their DSLR camera with kit lens. Through the time, kit lenses have been improved in quality significantly. So, many DSLR users will probably stick with their kit lens for a longer period of time.

To respond to this phenomenon, several years ago, Sigma started to produce many high quality and specialized lenses. Some of the lenses are unique, such as Sigma 50-500mm. Recently, Sigma America launches a new interactive website to make lens finding easier. [Read: Sigma vs Canon lenses]

This year, Sigma brings out another five high quality lens to compete for your attention. It is generally cheaper but their performance are as good if not better than manufacturers lenses.

SIGMA cameras

Sigma also produces compact and DSLR camera. Sigma uses FOVEON sensor, which is almost the same size as an average DSLR sensor. However, it fall short because of the processing speed is very slow.

Via PMA 2010 trade shows, Sigma upgrades some of their enthusiasts compact cameras such as Sigma DP1x and DP2s. Sigma claims that the operating speed and user interface are improved from their predecessor. but we will need to wait until the review is out.

In the same time, Sigma also reintroduces SD15, a successor of SD14, a DSLR with the same FOVEON sensor. However, we don’t know exactly when it will be available. SD15 rumor has been up for a while.

PMA 2010, the great photography exhibition has just finished. From the show, we can get an idea of how the digital camera trend for 2010. From reading news and photographic equipments that has been launched, I noticed some trends for digital cameras this year. Some of them is continuing trend from 2009.

1. Mirrorless camera steals the show

Following micro four third system initiated by Olympus and Panasonic, other companies are joining in mirrorless camera. Mirrorless camera is thinner and smaller than a digital SLR camera. Samsung has launched the NX series, Ricoh launches GXR system, Sony has demonstrated the design concept / prototype of their mirrorless camera. Now only Canon, Nikon and Pentax are not taking the plunge. Due to increasing popularity and technology development, it might be inevitable that Canon, Nikon will take the plunge next year.

2. Video Feature

Continuing the trend from last year, video feature seems to be standard feature in the digital SLR camera. Even Sony, which the only DSLR producer that don’t have video feature in their DSLR camera up to date, will introduce two new digital SLR that will have video feature.

3. Sensor technology

Sensor technology for digital cameras both for SLR and compact cameras is growing. As a result the image quality is increasingly improved, especially in low light situation. Many compact cameras use backlit technology, and digital SLR camera has been able to take pictures in very dim places very well. Thanks to the development of sensors and image processing algorithms.

4. Lenses

Lenses  are growing in number and in quality. Many compact cameras launched in 2010 has a wide lens (24mm equivalent). For DSLR camera, prime lens is increasingly popular because many people want to create image that has shallow depth of field (blur in the background). Macro lens is also became popular for a variety of purposes, for example, food photography.

5. Digital SLR camera and Fashion

Today,digital SLR camera is not only owned by pro photographer or enthusiasts. Interested with image quality and falling price, many people are getting DSLR camera. Like mobile phone or compact camera, it starts to become lifestyle item. Some camera manufacturers  grasp this opportunity and produce cameras with variety of colors to attract buyers. An example is Pentax k-x. In addition, micro four thirds cameras also comes with different color choice.

Maybe there are trends that apart from my observations, therefore I invite all friends to share your opinion here.