A fine camera for reporters

Strong pictures to illustrate a story are now in reach of reporter two-way folk.

The line separating reporters and photographers is becoming blurred. When a good camera kit with a big selection of lenses cost a small fortune, it was impossible to offer reporters the toys given photographers at the same newspaper. This is no longer true.

The news shooters may have faster lenses but there is no longer any reason for reporters acting as two-way folk to be given a complete losing hand when it comes to camera gear. I would highly advise any paper to give super zoom cameras like the Fuji FinePix HS10 serious consideration.

These cameras may not capture the ultimate in image quality but then newspapers don't require such high quality. My Fuji shoots images that would look just fine printed on newsprint with an 80 line halftone screen.

Reporters are bright people and many are very image literate. With a good super zoom these talented reporters could report both verbally and pictorially and they could do so easily and quickly.

Last night I had to post a response to a feature that ran in my local paper. I made a loop through the suburban area that was discussed, quickly took a lot of pictures to illustrate my points, and within hours of deciding to write my piece I had it online, complete with art.

See: Rockin' On: the blog --- 21st Century Suburbia. You don't have to read the piece, this isn't trolling. Just check out the images taken with the lens on my HS10 set anywhere from 24mm to 720mm. The exposures were set by the camera and saved as simple jpegs. I did nothing fancy. I did nothing that a reporter could not be expected to master.

For another example of what a reporter could do with simple equipment and enthusiasm, see:
Canoeing the Thames (in Ontario). Reporters could do this. They are quite bright people. Honest.

Now, about photographers also writing articles . . .

Best Frame Capture Mode

According to Fuji, "With this mode, you can half-press the shutter button and the HS10 will start to record photos. Then, when the special moment happens, all you have to do is fully press the shutter button and the camera will capture that shot and the 7 previous shots, ensuring that you will have every moment of the action recorded, and giving you the opportunity to select whichever was the best shot!"

A big weakness of point-and-shoot cameras vs. DSLRs is the shutter lag from which point-and-shoots suffer and DSLR cameras don't. The HS10's Best Frame Capture mode delivers images that slipped by during the camera lag moment.

For today's picture the HS10 delivered seven images, taken in quick succession, from which I selected the best. The downside is that the Fuji camera takes more than ten seconds to write all seven images to the SD card. Until the camera is done, no more picture taking is possible. Win some, lose some.

Since I cannot afford the alternative, nor do I want to tote about the weight of a DSLR plus a number of lenses, I'm happy. I think I'm winning more than I'm losing shooting with my HS10.

Now for a note on composition:

I believe with images like the above it is important to have the lines of the stairs perfectly parallel to the top and bottom of the picture. If you've got Photoshop, you can Select -> All and go Edit -> Transform -> Skew to correct the little compositional errors. Don't try to correct too much with skew, do most of the work in-camera while shooting. This keeps the distortions introduced by Photoshop from becoming obvious.

For another post on Best Frame Capture, check out: Best Frame Capture_A Detailed Look.

The benefit of a long lens

Most often a long lens, like the 720mm zoom on the Fuji FinePix HS10, is used to get "close" to a distant subject. When I saw today's picture I wanted to put distance, real distance, between me and the subject. The pavement dust would be bad enough on my camera but, unlike the man operating the cutter, I didn't have a face mask. The HS10 allowed me to get quite a ways away and still capture a fine photo. You just have to love that 720mm zoom.

Another use for continuous shooting

Continuous shooting at 10 fps guaranteed a sharp image.

The thistle looked like a picture but it was waving sporadically in the light breeze. Trying to time the shot to the lull in the wind was near impossible. The shutter lag kept messing up my timing. So, I set my Fuji HS10 to continuous and soon had an image. Don't just think sports action when considering the value of the continuous shooting feature.

Fuji FinePix HS10 Meets Bruce Cockburn

Tonight was a big test of my Fuji FinePix HS10; I took it to a concert.

Remember, I'm a retired newspaper shooter. I once used top of the line Canon EOS cameras. I often shot concerts with an f/1.8 200mm prime lens. I was never concerned about the light; With an f/1.8 there is always enough light. And with such a massive, large f/stop, I could use any shutter speed necessary to stop the action on stage. As for the ISO setting, I always went lightly, no big boosts here; I wanted to minimize noise.

Tonight I had none of that. I had a lens which when zoomed got progressively slower. I'd be lucky to shoot at f/5.6, I thought.

So, I gambled with the shutter speed; I picked 1/320 second. I gambled with the ISO; I set it to 6400. And, I truly threw the dice with the f/stop; I used Auto!

And I won my bets! Or at least I think I did. What's your opinion? Feel free to comment. (This was written quickly last night on returning from the concert. Read on to get the in-depth scoop.)

Everything I've read about the Fuji HS10 made worry about trying to capture a singer on stage with this camera. I read that the lens was incredibly slow when zoomed, the pictures were soft and smudged looking when shot at anything faster than ISO800 and the camera was impossible to use without a tripod when zoomed all the way to 720mm.

Now, one rule of photography is not to decide you cannot get a picture before pushing the shutter button. Photography is not about equipment; Photography is about photographers. Clearly there are limitations imposed by equipment. But more often the limitations are imposed by the shooter. You can't do much about the equipment problems but you control the photographer --- you.

Before leaving for the concert, I brushed up on my knowledge of the camera. The HS10 is one complex piece of equipment for a fellow who places the Canon SD10 in the Parthenon of point-and-shoot. I confess, I still have not truly mastered this hi-tech tool.

Getting to the concert early, I sat down close to the stage and began preparing the camera for the concert. First I set it to Sports Action figuring this would force the camera to make decision based on stopping action. I shot a few quick pictures of the audience and immediately learned that this would not work. The shutter speed chosen by the camera was simply too slow.

I set the camera to shutter priority. If you don't understand shutter priority read the entry posted on Digital Photography School. I set the shutter to 1/500th thinking that was a good starting point and I shot some more pictures. I assumed that the stage lighting would remain fairly constant. Not enough light.

I then started playing with the ISO setting. Remember all major full settings make changes of one full stop (to be technical step not stop but let's not be silly). So, change the ISO from 100 to 200 and it is similar to opening the lens another f/stop.

I moved the ISO from 100 to 6400: A change of 5 stops! And I shot some quick preliminary pix. They looked good exposure wise but they suffered from camera movement. I'd have to brace the HS10 somehow, I thought.

Lastly, I increased the dynamic range of the camera one increment. I'll confess I don't know exactly what this does but it sounds good. I had read the extreme setting resulted in increased noise and I didn't want that and the factory setting, I read, allowed highlights to burn out. I picked the in-between setting.

Immediately before the concert I walked to the front of the stage, squatted down and staked out my position --- not quite in front of the mic. I didn't want every picture marred by a mic blocking my view of Cockburn. The really fine thing about my "seat" was the wooden barrier. I could shoot under it while pushing the top of the camera firmly against the wood. This steadied the camera.

After Cockburn appeared I realized that I didn't need to shoot at 1/500th second. I moved the shutter speed setting down to 1/320th. The camera was picking f/stops in the f/5.0 range --- sometimes a little faster and sometimes a little slower. This looked good to me.

I pushed the high speed continuous shooting button and I was ready to rock.

So, you want to be a better photograher. . .

Yes, this was taken with my simple Canon SD10. Cool, eh?

. . . and you've come here looking for information on the best camera. Forget it. Stop the search. Unless you are a pro or a truly advanced amateur, the camera is not the big deciding factor in whether or not you shoot good stuff. It's you!

I googled "photo club London Ontario." Found the local photo club and checked out the images. Wow! These shooters are good.

This does not come as a total surprise as years ago I wrote a photography column for the local paper. One column dealt with the The London Camera Club. I interviewed the then president and featured some of his work in my column.

Canon has released a new camera. This would hardly be worth mentioning except it has one feature that puts it apart from the crowd: An f/2.0 lens. I'm talking about the Canon SD4000 IS.

With my Canon SD10 I found pictures just outside my door.

For seven years I played with the first camera in the now long series of SD cameras, the SD10. It was laughably small --- I was used to big DSLRs with giant, heavy lenses as I worked at a newspaper. But I soon learned, or should I say rediscovered, that once one learns to work within the limits imposed by one's camera, the joy of photography is there to discover.

I loved that little SD10. With only an f/2.8 prime lens, it taught me to see the picture in the overall scene. No zooming in to crop out unwanted stuff. Make a composition or move was the demand. I got a lot of exercise running about taking pictures with that camera. And it was worth it.

Go to my site Rockin' on: the Blog and scroll down while looking on the right side of the screen. You'll fine a little slide show of images almost 100% of which were shot with my ultra-compact SD10.

Don't get hung-up on equipment. Get hung-up on photography. Get hung-up on you. Go google "photo club" and add your own hometown. Find some like-minded keeners. Document your world and enjoy.

Once you can shoot successfully within the confines of a simple camera, you are a photographer ready to take advantage of the almost unlimited world of high-end DSLR photography.

My SD10 taught me the importance of composition and light.

My look at the Fuji FinePix HS10

Since posting my personal thoughts on the Fuji FinePix HS10 I have been directed by readers to a number of Internet sites carrying full reviews of this Fuji superzoom.

Many of these had serious reservations about the camera. Pictures of playing cards taken under poor lighting were shown to be grainy. Action shots, poorly composed and rather uninteresting, were shown to be poor. (I don't take pictures of playing cards in the dark. Not my thing. So, I really wasn't all that interested.)

One reads these reviews, looks at the pictures, and it is clear that these folk are shooting for fun. I am and I like the HS10. Straight from the box, set to the no-brainer Auto setting, I got some great pictures. Were they too noisy? Too soft? Oh, please . . .

Full post: Rockin' On: Photography.

The first thing that is important in any photograph is the photograph. A camera is nothing more than a tool for taking and making pictures. The HS10 is not only a good tool straight out of the box, it has features that allow it to grow with the photographer. Using the HS10 can be a challenge but that is not a bad thing if rising to the challenge delivers great images while making you a better shooter.

The HS10 is not for everyone. A newspaper photographer would be driven wild by its infuriatingly long shutter lag. And I can see some parents be ticked off when they miss a shot of their child because the camera is busy writing the last picture to disc and is not ready for more action. To these people I say, break down, spend the money, buy a DSLR. There really is no other answer.

But if you're like me and what you want is a serendipitous camera, one that you can have with you almost all the time --- I don't recommend taking the HS10 into the shower --- then this Fuji offering is worth considering.

Enlarge the image below. It was a chance moment. Driving along the Pacific Coastal Highway, I chanced to see some kite-surfers. I stopped and fired off some quick pictures. It was fun to do and it was even more fun to see the fine moments I captured.

For a more detailed look at the ultra-fast continuous shooting capabilities of the HS10 please check out my post discussing the Best Frame Capture mode.

Click on this image and examine the slightly cropped file. I'm impressed.