IMPRINTS@Yesterday.sg - Megapixels Magic

Posted by ndroo under Blogging, Hobbies and Toys, IMPRINTS@Yesterday.sg, Reflections
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A friend who stumbled upon this blog of mine contacted me and asked me a question that I found very hard to answer. She told me how she remember seeing those digital photos I used to take (from 2003 to 2007) and how much she loves them (I’m not lying!) … and the question was … ‘but what happened to you?’. I knew she was curious about why I let digital photography take a backseat and is now crazy over plastic cameras, old cameras and analogue photography in general. I ain’t good at explaining … so my answer was … ‘I got fed up!’. She didn’t stop there. Here’s what roughly how the short Q&A session went …

Her : ‘… but what happened to you?’
Me : Ermm … I got fed up!
Her : ‘Fed up with?’
Me : Everything
Her : Everything? You mean there isn’t any ideas or subjects for you to photograph?
Me : No. Not that.
(by this time I guess she got a bit fed up with my short answers … hahaha!)
Her : So with those new kind of cameras (the plastic/toy/analogue), you are having more fun?
Me : Of course! But I still shoot digital … but way less.
Her : Oh. Can I ask you a question?
Me : Sure! You wanna pickup a Lomo cam or something like that?
Her : No. I mean … you shoot film … right? So the photos … how many megapixels eh? I see the photos … some are very blur.
(I was trying not to laugh … but then it was though MSN Messenger and she can’t see me grinning)
Me : Oh! Megapixel? Blur? I don’t know. I don’t really count them.
(I grinned again)
Me : You are using a 10MP digi cam … right?
Her : Yes, the one I told you about.
Me : Cool. Strange. Perhaps there ain’t enough megapixels in it because those photos you showed me the other day … many were blur.
(she probably got the drift and stopped chatting with me)

Hahahaha! Yeah! That is a true story! It was funny and she might kill me if she sees this post but I just had to blog about it. Why? It is because this ‘incident’ led me to start thinking about some other stuffs that I once thought of blogging but they somehow got left out from the old hard disk in my old brain.

How many of you (who shoot digital) ever got asked by some friends, relatives or strangers about your camera and questions like ‘Cool cam! How many megapixels eh?’, ‘This camera … good? Photos sharp?’ etc? I decided to list down a few (that I can remember) and then try answer them … my way.

* Warning : For your own safety, be sure to read and take these stuffs below with a pinch bucket of salt.

Q : “Cool cam! How many megapixels?”

One of the most common question. Duh! I know how those ads are misleading people with all that jazz and it might take a while for people to realize how good a camera is … is not determined by the number of megapixels. Well I know megapixels do play a part but it is not everything!

Q : “I just bought this lens and how do I check for back focusing? Do I need to send it for calibration?”

Many people seem to be paranoid about back/front focusing … even before they really find any problem with the lens(es). Strange. I remember having a lens that back focus (quite badly) when I using a Nikon D70 but then it took me quite a while to realise it. Now people are asking as if the lenses come with back focusing (problem) as a feature. Duh!

A : “Oh! Back focusing? Never a problem to me! As a matter of fact … like those face detection features …. I usually put the back focusing problem ‘feature’ to good use. Don’t believe? Here’s a sample photo …

See? Back focusing is spot on!

Q : Hey I heard that you are into photography. Do you shoot weddings? My sister’s wedding is in December and are looking for an affordable photographer to cover the actual day photography.

‘Affordable’ is the keyword. Here (in Singapore) we have like maybe more than half the population lugging around DSLRs trying to be ‘professional’ and thus finding ‘affordble’ photographers (at a risk of getting photos that make the couple scream) isn’t too much of a problem. I’ve heard some wannabes taking up actual day photography for as low as a hundred bucks! In these times … affordable means ‘cheap’ or ‘free’! Hahaha!

A : I’ve covered some weddings in the past (with my DSLR) and hated doing it … For your case, since I don’t have a DSLR now … I do offer a different kind of ‘affordable’ photography. You just pay for the film, developing and scanning.

In this case … usually the person will go ‘Huh? Film? What film? Not digital? Do you have some sample photos or a portfolio?’. Then I will show them a sample …

Thank God for photos like this (above), I’ve hardly been asked to be an ‘affordable’ photographer anymore.

Q : Why do you say that this camera is good? How many times zoom does it have?

To some … zoom is everything. Strange. They’ll then buy the camera and come complaining that the photos are blur (usually due to handshake at max tele and of course sometimes (most of the time?) the image quality at max zoom (for those compacts/prosumer) is something far from perfect). Why are people so obsessed with ‘zoom’? I spoke to some of them and I get answers like ‘Oh … because I wanna take nice photos of my child!’. Huh? Child? Can’t you just walk closer to him/her instead?

You don’t need a zoom zoom zoom camera to ‘get close’ to your child. Just walk up to him/her. Tada~

Q : Do you know I’m so happy with my new camera? I can take Japanese magazine quality photos of my friends with blurred background!

A : No joke! I really had someone telling me this after she bought the camera for a week. A link to some images followed that statement and I almost fainted looking at the photos. No … don’t get me wrong. It is not that the images are bad or anything. They are pretty decent but … it is either I’ve been living in a cave or has the Japanese magazines been employing newbies to photograph their models? Why are people relating photos with blurred backgrounds as great photos?

Oh duck it! My own ‘Japanese magazine quality’ masterpiece. Enough blur?

Q : Wow! A DSLR! You must be a pro!

A : Okay … this one is a little outdated because these days … almost everyone has a DSLR hanging from his/her neck … even when out shopping or eating. Those were the days when people make such statement when they see you with a big black camera. That sometimes make me not wanna be seen with one because I ain’t no pro and I don’t wanna feel like a wannabe.

So if a DSLR makes me look like a pro, does this one above make me look like Freddy Krueger?

Q : How many lenses do you have? I just bought another! I have 6 of them in my dry cabinet now!

A : Show off!!! :D You really wanna know? Okay …

Sixteen …

Nine …

Four …

Now that’s excluding a 8-lens one, another 4 lens one … and those single lens cams. So you tell me how many lenses I have!

This next one has nothing to do with all that digital madness. It was a question that someone asked me when I sold him an extra Lomo camera some time ago …

Q : This camera you are selling me … does it come with warranty? It does look fragile. Do you think it will still be working after a year?

A : Why worry when these cams come with 2 years warranty and should there be any problem with them … they’ll just ask you to smash up the cam, email them a photo of the wreck … and they’ll promptly send you a new one. Wanna try that with your DSLR?

Can you do this to claim warranty for your big black DSLR?

If only I have more time to sit down and recall the many other weird stuffs I get asked sometimes. Hmmm. Maybe I’ll just end this entry here and do a part 2 sometime later. Do you have any funny questions about photography to share?

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