Here’s some of the shots from yesterday’s outdoor adventure.  Click the pictures for full resolution (15mp) images.

Focal: 55mm, Aperture f/5.6, Shutter 1/500, ISO 1600

47mm, Aperture f/5.6, Shutter 1/640, ISO 160

43mm, Aperture f/5.0, Shutter 1/640, ISO 250

Cropped View of a wasp that tried to eat me. Click to open cropped high-res image.

Read the Pre-Review first if you want my initial thoughts about this camera.

I’ve been using the Canon T1i extensively over the past week.  At first, I was having a hard time taking decent shots due to lousy weather conditions, but it was a beautiful day today and I finally had a chance to really get down and dirty with the T1i.  Pretty pictures at the bottom.

Some things to note:  I am not a professional photographer, but am a photo hobbyist/enthusiast.  The T1i is designed for someone in my category, so this may be a good thing.  My previous Digital SLR was a Minolta Maxxum 5D 6.1mp, so you may see me comparing the two cameras on a few points.  Also, I read the Canon T1i manual from cover to cover, so I would be well prepared to go over every aspect of this camera and make sure I am using it properly before thinking about reviewing it.

I strongly recommend reading dpreview.com’s first look at the T1i to get a really good idea of how the camera looks and it’s capabilities.  While they don’t have a hands-on review at the time of this writing, they have a great rundown of every part of the camera.  EDIT:  I found that they do in fact have some sample photos of their own, viewable here: http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canoneos500d/page13.asp

So let’s get to it.

The initial thing I noticed about the T1i was how light the body is.  I had purchased the camera kit that included an 18-55mm Canon Zoom lens with Image Stabilization.  There are no other filters or lenses that come with it, so I’m limited at the moment with telephoto or macro capabilities.  However, 18-55mm is a nice range, and can do pretty good close-up shots as well as ranged.  I figure this will be sufficient for now.

I won’t get into too much detail about the look of the camera.  The link to the preview that I posted above at dpreview.com covers it very well, and I would be wasting your time to repeat what they say.  I can just tell you that I found the camera very easy to operate, and the instruction manual was written very well.  If you read the manual, you won’t have any trouble at all figuring things out.  If you want to see how this camera feels in your hands, I suggest going to an electronics/camera store that carries the D450/Rebel XSI.  It has virtually the same body frame as the T1i, and it’s hard to explain the feel of a camera with words.

Of course the first thing I wanted to do was start shooting pictures, but I had to charge the battery first.  While it charged, I installed the software that came with the camera.  I was surprised to find out that the software can control the camera remotely via USB, and can control every aspect of the camera.  You can adjust the shutter, aperture, ISO speed, exposure, menus, and pretty much everything else.  To top it off, you can enable a feature called Live View, that lets you see what your camera sees in real time on your computer monitor or on the Camera’s LCD screen.  It shows you how your photo will look before you press the shutter release button.  This blew me away.

Live View

I’d say Live View is one of the best features I’ve had on a Digital SLR.  I don’t exactly have perfect vision, so when a shot looks crystal clear through the viewfinder, it is sometimes blurred when viewed at a 1:1 ratio on a computer screen.  Also, autofocus isn’t always 100% perfect all the time.  For a 15 megapixel camera, this can negate the benefits of a high megapixel count when you want to see the fine details on a shot.  Live View has a great option that lets you zoom into the pixels and see them at a 1:1 ratio before taking the shot.  You can make sure that your picture is as sharp as possible, with no blurring at all between pixels.  This function is going to save me a lot of grief for non-moving targets.  The LCD on the T1i has a full VGA resolution (640×480 pixels), so previewing your shots on such a sharp screen is another huge bonus.

The downside of Live View is that autofocus doesn’t work the same way as when using the view finder.  It has to focus in increments — slowly.  Manual focus is almost necessary when using the Live View function, although if you aren’t in a hurry, the autofocus still works.  Live View’s zoom ability is really for the benefit of manual focus, however, so using Live View and autofocus defeats the whole purpose.  Also, Live View will shorten your battery charge by about 50% if used constantly.  It can also heat up the internals of the camera, which can affect the quality of your shots if it gets too hot (I found this out the hard way, and the camera will warn you with a big red thermometer icon on the side of the LCD screen).

First Test Run

My first day out shooting was using nothing but what came in the box.  I didn’t bring any filters or extra lenses, just a tripod.  The weather sucked, with medium cloud cover and very gusty winds in the 40 mile-per-hour range.  The clouds were moving very fast and were casting shadows at random intervals all over the place.  This really screwed with the ability to manually control the camera.  I’d get the aperture and shutter set to exactly as I wanted, and then the lighting would change so my shot would get screwed up.  Because of this, I had to rely a lot on the shutter priority or aperture priority settings and stay away from the full manual control for quite a few shots (this lets the camera control the shutter or aperture automatically, while you can adjust other settings manually).  The shots came out ok overall, but with the amount of wind, everything was blowing around and out of focus.  See my pre-review for some of the sample shots from that day.

The camera has preset shooting modes as well as what they call the “creative mode” settings.  The creative mode lets you control all of the aspects of the camera such as shutter and aperture, whereas the preset modes are fully automatic and control everything for you.  It does a fairly decent job with the preset modes, but when I use an SLR camera, it’s because I want control over everything.

After my first photo shoot, I reviewed the pictures on my computer.  I noticed that a lot of shots had serious chromatic aberration.  This is a phenomenon that occurs typically where white edges meet dark edges, and a bluish haze comes between the two.  It occurred on occasion with my old Minolta dSLR, but not that often.  From what I’ve researched, it’s a common problem with virtually all digital cameras.  However, I’m seeing it occur a lot with the T1i.  This could be something I’m doing wrong, or it could be the lens, but I need to try and find the reason it keeps happening.  It’s also quite possible that I’m just not used to 15 megapixel images, and being able to zoom in so close just makes it more apparent to me.  I’m going to try some filters and see if they correct the problem.
EDIT:  I recently tried taking similar shots with a circular polarizer, and it dramatically reduced the problem.  Just something to note!

A tree branch over dark water. Zoomed at 400% to really show the blue glow. The sun was directly overhead for this shot and no filters were used.

HD Video Capability

One of the big reasons I purchased the Canon T1i is it’s ability to record full HD video.  I’ll be posting some samples here very soon (they’re HUGE files and will take time to upload).  It does a nice job with the video, but there are some downsides.  First, forget autofocus.  You can press the special ‘focus during live view’ button, but it’s incredibly slow, and the camera’s microphone will record the sound of the motors turning.  It’s very annoying.  Manual focus is really the only solution, and you won’t hear it.  Unfortunately, with a lens designed to keep the subject in focus and the background blurred, it becomes a pain in the butt to record video at close range.  You have to constantly adjust the focus.  You would really need a lens that has equal focus at both short and long range.  I had read a rumor on another photo blog that Canon was going to release a lens specifically for shooting video.  I would say to take this rumor with a grain of salt since I haven’t researched it any further.

Getting back to the microphone, it does a pretty good job of recording audio.  It was picking up sounds from near and far, and seems pretty sensitive.  The problem with a sensitive microphone is that it also picks up every little bit of wind.  During the windy day I went out shooting photos, I tried switching to HD video.  The wind was blasting the microphone so hard that it sounded like a constant explosion during playback.  You’ll need to cover the microphone with a piece of foam or something to prevent this, but that’s a hokey way to solve the problem.

Conclusion…

Overall, I’d say the camera is worth the price.  It does a pretty nice job, and having 15 megapixels is a huge step up from my previous 6 megapixel camera.  I’ll be purchasing a Canon Telephoto zoom lens soon, so I can get a better idea of the camera’s capabilities and report them back here.  Expect this soon.  I can say I’m very happy with this camera so far.

Here’s my final rundown (pros and cons).  I won’t be putting technical specs since they are available elsewhere, but will instead put my personal opinions.

Pros:

• Very easy to use
• Light Weight makes it easier to hold steady
• Live View makes it a heck of a lot easier to focus with a tripod
• Ability to record video lets me keep the camcorder at home
• High megapixel count (15mp) is downright amazing
• Does an excellent job in dark conditions
• Auto zooms pretty quickly when not using live view
• Ability to view a histogram in live view so you can see if your shot will be over/underexposed before you even press the shutter release.

Cons:

• Live View lacks a speedy autofocus
• When reviewing the shots at 1:1 on a computer screen, they never seem to be perfectly sharp unless I had manually focused with live view.  It could be the standard lens that comes with the camera that is the issue here.
• 1080p HD video is only 20 frames per second, whereas the 720p is 30 frames per second.
• Image Stabilization is dependent on the lens, which increases lens cost.  My Minolta dSLR had image stabilization built into the body of the camera.

Some sample shots from today at full resolution (15 megapixel). HD video will follow soon once it’s uploaded:

Flowers with bugs

My daughter with a rarely clean face

I recently purchased Canon’s latest Digital SLR, the Canon T1i.  After i give it a heavy workout, I’ll post a full review here in the next day or two.  So far I’m loving this camera, and it has definitely lived up to my expectations.   I took it out yesterday for some test shots, but the conditions were pretty frustrating to get decent photos.  The area had overcast clouds, and the sun kept coming and going.  I’d get the shutter and aperature set, and then the lighting would change, making it tough to get the settings where I wanted them.

Here's a shot from yesterday's test run. Not the greatest since there's little color and it was incredibly windy (blurred slightly), but you can still check out the resolution. Click for a full 15 megapixel view.

My next post will be a dedicated page with full resolution photos as well as the review.  Stay tuned!

EDIT: I took extensive photos yesterday, but we were having 30 to 40 mile-per-hour winds, which made the conditions even worse than the day before.  No matter how hard I tried to keep the camera steady, I had to fight the wind blowing my target subject, my camera (even on the tripod), and myself.  These pictures do not do the camera justice, as they appear blurred when it wasn’t the camera’s fault.

Here’s a good sample – this bee was blowing around so much that it was nearly impossible to get a focused shot.  I’m also including a half-resolution cloud shot to show the contrasting of the sensor.

Click for full resolution image

Half-resolution clouds - Contrast Example

Today is supposed to be a relatively calm day with no clouds, so I’ll try to get some better shots to show.  If you have any requests of shot types you’d like to see, let me know and I’ll see what I can do on my next photo shoot.

At my old job, we did whatever it took to save the company money, and this ended up as extra cash in the employees’ pockets in the form of bonuses.  One way we saved thousands of dollars was to set up a Linux server, and kept our Windows 2003 server simply for file storage.  We installed open source software such as GIMP and Inkscape on ten workstations, and in the end, it saved us over $14,000 for the first year.

You could literally save over $7000 per new employee or software upgrades by utilizing open source software.  This isn’t including a Linux operating system.  I realize that it is difficult to integrate Linux into the mainstream operations of a business since few people know how to utilize it (or are simply afraid of it), but there is other software that could still save thousands for a company. 

In this economy, I would figure that companies would swoon over the idea of free software versus spending thousands of dollars.  If you are such a company or just an everyday computer user, then you should check out this excellent list of free software alternatives.

http://www.nothingbutsoftware.com/blog/2008/11/8-linux-apps-to-save-you-money/

I know the link above mentions that this is all Linux software, but many of these programs have Windows versions as well (Gimp, Blender, and OpenOffice are a few good examples).  I have personally tried most of the software in that list, and can say they are downright awesome.  The average person who uses Photoshop can find GIMP to be just as powerful, and free.  Now you don’t need to pirate…er…buy Photoshop if you’re doing basic to moderate photo editing.

Also, check out this rocking site:  http://www.osalt.com/

You can find free alternatives to almost any program out there, for both Windows and Linux alike.

Save a few bucks during these bad times — it may be good for your sanity.  Now to work on an open-source oil product…

Well, it looks like that has changed.  Now GIMP can use Photoshop filters.  This is an awesome development, because this brings GIMP up a notch in the photo editing platform battle.
Read more about it here

I’ve become a fairly large advocate for Open Source software ever since I spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on software for our office, only to find out we could have saved a ton of money by looking at free alternatives. Open Office vs Microsoft Office, GIMP vs Photoshop, Citadel Groupware and Mail Server VS Microsoft Exchange server, Ubuntu Linux server VS Windows 2003 server, etc. I figure we could have saved over $15,000 over the last year if we had used the open source alternatives instead of the expensive, over-priced big-name software.

I suppose the biggest item on my wish list is something to compete with AutoDesk’s Civil 3d (Autocad 2008) software. The software is severely bloated, buggy as hell, and over priced. When you post to their support forums about the wide range of bugs in their latest version of Civil 3d, their answer is almost always “Just spend $2,000 per employee and upgrade to the new version.” A new version comes out each year…