Las Vegas, Ready or Not

Every year I know CES is just around the corner, and every year it surprises me.

This Sunday I'll board Southwest Airlines in Oakland and touch down in Las Vegas 90 minutes later. By 4pm, I'll be at Mandalay Bay for the first press event of the week.

Aside from the usual suspects, CES (short for the Consumer Electronics Show) will highlight home automation and wearables. Of course, the biggest wearable of the year, the Apple Watch, won't be present. So that feels weird. How can I get excited about anything else until that shoe drops?

As for home automation, well, it has been a slow train coming. I think 2015 will be the year, however, where some of this stuff becomes practical for the average, somewhat nerdy, consumer. To be honest, I would like a coffee pot that I can turn on from my smartphone. 

There will  be lots of news about drones in every shape and size. Lots of them. I might write a story on the latest and greatest quad-copter. Or I might not.

As for photography, which is our collective first love, there will be some news. I'm just not sure how much of it I'll be able to report right away. I have a handful of meetings with nondisclosure agreements, presumably about new products in the pipeline. I'm hoping that I'll be able to discuss some of those in January. I like new photography announcements. 

CES will also be my final dry run before stepping on a plane to Miami later this month for the Cuba assignment. I'm feeling confident about my gear selection. If my final test goes well, I'll publish a report with the kit I've packed. There'll be some surprises in there. And I think you'll enjoy the post.

Until then, it's Las Vegas time. You'll hear from me there. And I promise,

there won't be one article about 4K televisions.

-Derrick

A Short Pause in the Program

I'm already thinking about 2015. I can't help it.

In my line of work, which is flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants entrepreneurship, I constantly have to think ahead. A perfect example was earlier this year. When I felt my days were coming to an end at Lowepro, I started a search for a new client. As it turned out, I lost one and gained three. (It doesn't always go that well.)  

My crystal ball is still a bit foggy about 2015. On the plus side, there's the trip to Cuba, two fresh titles for lynda.com, a new photography workshop in June, and for the most part, my clients seem happy. On the negative side, there's all the stuff that's going to happen that I don't know about yet. And to be honest, there's probably not much I can do to prevent it, especially right now.

So I should take a little break. Visit with my friends and family - share a few stories, have a beer or two, and give thanks for an amazing 2014. 

I don't think it makes any difference what particular holiday we celebrate. There's a theme that runs through all of them: be thankful for the blessings and share them with others.

2015 will be here soon enough. And when it arrives, I'll be ready. But for now, I'm going to press the pause button and think about how darn lucky I am.

Then go spend the evening with my family.

-Derrick

Dry Run

I'm not clear on the origin of "Dry Run."

My personal favorite is from, "...prohibition when moonshine runners would run the route without carrying any alcohol to get to know the route better, and improve their speed for the actual run (hence a "dry" run)." (Joel Glovier). But it's most likely from fire departments giving exhibitions of their prowess at carnivals or similar events.

Regardless, I'm on one right now.

Even though I'm traveling by car through Southern California, I'm pretending that I'm in an exotic land with few services. That is, except when I'm hungry and need to make a dash to the nearest Mexican restaurant. (BTW: I had a chicken mole yesterday to die for!)

So far, I've discovered just a few flaws in my packing strategy. My approach is to put what I think I need in my Lowepro Pro Tactic 350, which would be my carry-on across the hemisphere. Then put the questionable items in my suitcase. If I discover that I need something that isn't in my backpack, I still have it with me.

So far, the only adjustment I've made was moving the WD My Passport Wireless hard drive. It was in my suitcase. I need to find a place for it in the backpack. I've discovered that I have to have it with me.

Other than that, just a few tweaks here and there. I still have a couple days to go on this trip, so there might be more fiddling to do.

But for now, I'm ready for the whiskey.

(Hmmm, that might not be allowed on the plane.)

-Derrick

How Much Camera Do You Really Need?

Yesterday, while I was writing a piece about the Nikon D810, I was thinking to myself, "How often would I need 36.3 megapixels?"

Certainly, my spontaneous candids of Dibs the cat don't need that much resolution, nor my vacation photos, high school basketball games, or product shots for the blog.

When digital photography was emerging, the common thinking was that a 6 megapixel camera would approximate the quality of a 35mm negative. Looking back, I think that was a bit low. But 6 megapixels was a rarity in those days. Now I'm more inclined to say 16 megapixels will get the job done.

One of my cameras, the Canon 5D Mark II captures RAW at 21 megapixels. The only time I use that body is for commercial shoots. I like having it among my choices. But I'm also happy it's not my only camera. Quite honestly, the body and the lenses that go on it, are too big for my nimble lifestyle.

For 90 percent of the work I do, and I'm serious about photography, I would say that 16 megapixels is the sweet spot. 12 megapixels feels a bit light to me, especially if I need to crop the image. And the 20 megapixels on my Canon 70D, or 21 on the 5D Mark II, feel like luxury.

The one caveat I would add, is that I do like a decent-sized sensor. I think 16 megapixels on a Micro Four Thirds or APS-C sensor performs better than on a sub-1" sensor that we see on many compacts and smartphones. This is especially true in low light.

And yes, I do walk my talk. The most important trips of my life, such as two weeks in Europe this past summer, or my visit to Cuba coming in January, have been and will be recorded with my Micro Four Thirds kit. 

Will I someday regret leaving my DSLR behind?

I seriously doubt it.

-Derrick

The Miracle of Micro Four Thirds

There are days when I just marvel at the design of my cameras and lenses. Today is one of them.

I'm testing the new Panasonic LUMIX G VARIO 35-100mm f/4.0-5.6 ASPH. MEGA O.I.S. lens that solved a real problem for me. I needed a longer zoom for upcoming trips, but did not have the room or the spare weight for my larger Olympus 75-300mm zoom. (Yes, by Micro Four Thirds standards, the 75-300mm is a big lens. How times have changed!)

By contrast, the new Panasonic weighs less than 5 ounces and is only 2" long. Yet, it provides me with the equivalent of a 70-200mm zoom. Let's take a minute to digest that. This optic is smaller and lighter than a plastic 50mm lens for DSLRs, yet covers 70-200mm. Incredible.

So what's the catch? I mounted the zoom on my Olympus OM-D E-M10 and went outside to take pictures. After studying the results on my Retina Display Mac, I'll tell you that the catch IS NOT image quality. The photos looked great, edge to edge.

Maybe chromatic aberration is the problem. I photographed tree branches against a bright sky and studied the edges at 100 percent on the computer. Nope. Not that either.

Well, then it must cost a lot. Wrong again. I bought it for $397 at B&H. And that included a lens hood. Cheap design. Nada. Beautiful metal housing and mount.

So the only drawback is the f/4.0-5.6 maximum aperture. This is not an indoor zoom. It is for working outside in the light of day... which is exactly what I needed. If I want a tele indoors, I'll use my trusty Olympus 60mm f/2.8. (A miracle lens itself, BTW.)

This Panasonic optic, and so many like it, are what I call the miracle of Micro Four Thirds. It's the sweet spot of nimble photography - with a sensor big enough for great image quality, but small enough to allow for amazing, compact lenses like the Panasonic 35-100mm.

I am truly impressed.

-Derrick