St. Mary's Cathedral

Canon A570is

My 2nd image for the May Project.

The shadow across the side of St. Mary's Cathedral caught my eye.

For June, how about an environmental portrait?

--Warren

Polka Dotted Grace Cathedral

Canon A570is

Changing gears here, on Christmas Day, Gail and I parked our car near Grace Cathedral and after the Christmas Service, we went for a walk to downtown for lunch. On our way back to the car, we walked up the steep hill on Taylor Street to California. As we crested the hill, I saw this view of Grace Cathedral lit up with polka dot reflections from a building across the street.

--Warren

Christmas at Grace Cathedral

Canon A570IS

We attended Christmas Service at Grace Cathedral today.

Happy Holidays! I hope you had a good day today.

--Warren

Imposing Facade

Canon A570is

This is no small town church (like the one in my previous post: DOM in Davenport). Here are two views of the imposing and impressive front of Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill.

--Warren

This was taken while standing in Huntington Park, which is across the street from the church:

Feng Shui Mirror

Canon A570is

The strategically positioned mirror probably serves a Feng Shui related function. This was shot from the steps of the Chinatown Branch of the SF Public Library. A brick wall of the library can be seen reflected in the mirror.

--Warren

Chinatown Buildings

Canon A570is

The Bank of America building looms in the background. This was shot from the steps of the Chinatown Branch of the SF Public Library.

--Warren

Chained in Chinatown

Canon A570is

--Warren

View of Pyramid from Nob Hill

Canon A570is

--Warren

I Adopted Another Orphan, Canon SD300

- Photo taken with Canon A570is, in Macro Mode

A friend of mine was done with this camera. She had already moved on to a new Panasonic digital. So one day, I found this lonely guy handed to me in a brown paper bag along with some older vintage equipment.

I found the camera in excellent condition except for the two batteries that it came with. Both of them could no longer hold a charge. The included 128MB memory card is low capacity by today's standards. The SD300 is a 4MP camera, and the 128MB card will only hold about 60 full size, full-res pictures.

I did some research and found the best deals for batteries and SD cards on Ebay. In total, I spent less than $20 on a 1GB Sandisk SD card (holds 480 pictures), and 2 generic Lithium Ion batteries. Not that I'm complaining, but why is this stuff so cheap???

Ever since the original Digital ELPH came out in 2000, I've always been impressed by this series of cameras. Canon pioneered the ultra-compact form factor, and now there are so many choices out there from different companies. The SD300 was introduced in Sept. 2004, and I believe it was the 10th release in the lineup. It has a 2" LCD screen, 35-105mm optical zoom (35mm equivalent), and an optical viewfinder.

I'm going to have fun taking this little jewel of a camera everywhere, and I have a feeling that Gail might end up using it more because it's so easy to slip it into a purse or pocket. But before she gets around to it, I'll be doing some shooting with it first :).

--Warren

p.s. Lea, do you still use your SD400?

--Warren

My Friend in Cabo

photo by Gail, w/Canon A570is

I couldn't resist posting this :).

--Warren

p.s. The search feature on Blogger is broken again, in case you haven't noticed.

My Leica M3 (!)

Canon A570IS

With the assistance of a very kind benefactor who wishes to remain anonymous, I now have my first Leica. It's a 1959 vintage M3 in excellent condition with a 1959 vintage 50mm f2.8 Elmar. The Elmar is collapsible, which makes the entire kit more compact for carrying. I've always been intrigued by the idea of owning and using a Leica that is as old as I am, and this one is around the right age. This one is most definitely a keeper, forever.

There is lots of information on the Web about the Leica M Series, so I won't bore you with all the details here. The M3 was the first of the M series and a real icon in the 35mm camera world.

The last time I had an opportunity to experience a M Series camera was when I borrowed Martin's M2 w/35mm Summicron many years ago. At that time, I was seriously considering buying one, but in the end, I decided that I could not justify the expense. So I ended up buying and using a number of different rangefinder cameras, many of which I still have today. [Correction, I had an opportunity to handle a couple of M's over the last year or two, including shooting a few frames on Ted's M4 while we were on an outing. Even after those pleasant experiences, I STILL couldn't justify buying into the Leica system because of the cost, and probably my own stubbornness.]

I'm thankful that the previous owner of this M3 took care of it well. It only has a few nicks and scratches here and there, but otherwise is in fine shape. I found a chrome Leitz UV filter for the lens, and I put a Domke "Gripper" strap on it. After handling and dry firing my M3 for a bit, I find that even for a 50 year old camera, it feels extremely well built. This is one solid and substantial hunk of metal! All the knobs, levers, and mechanical bits seem to be engineered, made, and fitted with incredible precision and smoothness. Any description of a Leica would not be complete without a mention of the quietness of the shutter. The shutter click is an almost imperceptable, short "click" or "snick", and that's in a quiet room. Out and about in the real world, the shutter would certainly be unnoticeable by most people.

I'll be using this camera a lot as soon as the weather clears up around here. The forecast is for more rain for another week. I just got my new order of film in yesterday, so I'm ready. What do you think my first roll through the M3 should be, color (Fuji Superia 400) or B&W (Kodak 400CN) and why?

--Warren

First Sunset at Sea

Canon A570IS

This shot was taken on our first sea day on our way down to Mexico.

--Warren

Anchor Point

Canon A570IS

Hi Everyone,

I'm back from vacation. I ended up taking two compact cameras on our Mexican Riviera cruise, the Canon A570IS, and the Yashica T4. I shot only Tri-X in the T4 and it will be a week before I see the results from that.

On this trip, Gail took the majority of the digital pictures (and she did a great job with it). I managed to wrestle the camera from her a few times for a few shots of my own from the A570IS. This picture is one of the few that I got from it.

It's a picture of one of the incredibly heavy duty anchor points for the awning that stretched over the aft deck where there were tables for outdoor dining.

Be sure to also check my personal blog once in a while because I'll probably be posting more vacation pictures there.

--Warren

Chihuly at the De Young Museum

Canon A570IS, 1/13 f3.2 ISO 200

We went to see the Chihuly art exhibit at the De Young Museum last weekend. This is one of many shots that I took. It was a challenge to get the right angle and to avoid the throngs of people who were also there to see the amazing glass work. Flash photography was not allowed, so I feel that I brought the right tool for the task. The image stabilization really came in handy in this situation. These are glass orbs in a real boat. 

--Warren

Greg at Ferry Plaza

Canon A570IS

An impromptu outdoor portrait of my friend Greg.

The color of his shirt happened to match his surroundings.

--Warren

*edited the picture per SteveR's suggestion to warm the tones a bit. I like it better than the original. Thanks for noticing, Steve!

Just Legs

Canon A570IS

This was taken on a warm, sunny day at Union Square.

--Warren

San Francisco City Hall

Canon A570IS

This is one of the first shots that I made with the A570IS. I took it out with me at lunch time and took a few quick snapshots with it. My office is just a block away from City Hall.

The gold trim on the dome really stands out on a cloudy day.

Hey, we're coming up on our 4th(!!!) anniversary of the forum! Where is everyone?

On one hand, I'm glad that the forum is still alive and that there are still a handful of us that keep it that way, but on the other hand I'm a little disappointed that even though we have a large roster, many on the roster seem to have lost interest, perhaps permanently it seems.

--Warren

Gail at a North Beach Coffee Shop

Canon A570IS (!!!), 1/25 f4, ISO 200

Hi Folks, are you paying attention? I bought a Canon!!! It's my first Canon camera. This is historic!

Here's what prompted this. I was actually looking for a digicam with excellent video capability. As you recall, I borrowed Eric's old DSC-H1 mega-zoom for a weekend to see if that would fit the bill.

That camera did have great video, and the 10x zoom was certainly useful and handy, but I decided that the camera was on the bulky side and somewhat oddly shaped, and some of the controls were not very intuitive. As you saw, it was capable of great pictures, but I decided to search for a smaller camera with some other features that I was interested in.

So after reviewing tons of cameras, I decided to get this one because it had the best combination of price, features, and form factor for my current needs.

A quick review of the pertinent features:

- 7MP, optical viewfinder, 2.5" LCD, full manual mode, Image Stabilization, 4x zoom (35mm - 140mm equivalent), Powered by 2 AA sized batteries, 640x480 30fps video, face recognition AF, compact form factor (jacket pocket sized) and a few other things that I probably forgot to mention.

- I bought a 4gb SDHC card for it that is good for over 1250 pictures or 38 minutes of max quality video.

As for this picture of Gail, I am very happy with the camera's IS performance. This shot was recorded at 1/25, f4 at ISO 200, with available window light. Even though I can see compression artifacts and other pixel-level irregularities at full magnification after my post-processing, I am still very pleased with the resulting image.

--Warren