A short rant

As the 3 or 4 readers who actually read my photoblog must have realised, I really like colour and there's gobs of it in my shots. Not that I don't like B+W mind you -- I used to shoot a lot of B+W when I shot film and there are a few B+W shots on this site -- but I think it's easy to make an interesting B+W shot, but a LOT harder to take a good colour shot. Why? Well, when working with colour you actually have to additionally consider whether colours in the background are going to impact your shot and distract from the subject matter. You don't have this problem when shooting in B+W.

The other thing is that I notice B+W seems to have gained a kind of snob factor amongst photographers -- some of whom seem to think that shooting everything in B+W makes them an artist. Well nuts to you -- I have more respect for photographers who can shoot good colour candids or street shots than those that shoot 'exclusively' in B+W.

By the way, I do not bump up colour saturation in my shots -- I just set the D70 to the sRGB IIIa colourspace and leave colour saturation at normal. sRGB IIIa gives slightly more saturation than the regular Ia setting on the D70 and this suits what I like to take just fine. I sometimes turn colour shots into B+W or desaturate the background when there's distracting colour.

Young PLA officer

No China trip is complete without a picture of a People's Liberation Army officer! Chinese people are very camera-shy but a little coaxing and this young PLA officer allowed me to take a picture or two. It pays to ask, especially when it comes to taking pictures of officials and such. Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

Dancers in the dark

One of the last shots taken in Kunming, China. This is a Chinese cultural show in a theatre, shot, believe it or not, at ISO1600 -- very nice colour and low noise.
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 28-105mm

Temple and fence

Not the best shot I've ever taken, but I kinda like this shot taken at a temple near the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in Lijiang, China.
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 28-105mm

Jade Dragon

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in Lijiang, China. On the other side of the mountains is Tibet. The air was so thin here (at 5,600metres above sea level) that walking just a few metres I'd run out of breath. But the view was worth it.
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 28-105mm

Portrait of a yak

A true blue yak, all dolled up for tourists. Lijiang, China.
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 28-105mm

Portrait of a farmer

This was the same farmer that was ploughing the fields earlier. Quite amusing for me to see that people in China wear coats to do menial work. ISO400 shot -- noise amazingly low
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

Ploughing the fields

Farmers ploughing their field in Lijiang, China. Check out the cute little dog at the heels of the farmer at the top.
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 28-105mm

Walking in the rain

As you must have guessed, there was rather a lot of rain on my Kunming/Lijiang trip! On top of that, on this day, my bus broke down. While it was being repaired, I stepped out in the rain and waited at in front of this colourful backdrop till a suitable model passed by.
Nikon D70, Tamron AF 70-200mm f/4-5.6

Running for cover

I guess this will eventually be called my "Rain" series. LOL! More children coming home from school in Lijiang. This grab shot was taken just as the wind blew the umbrella open.
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 28-105mm

Small umbrellas

These Chinese children were making their way back home after school on a wet and cold day in Lijiang, China. I wasn't so lucky enough to be carrying an umbrella, so I was just standing in the rain next to them shooting pictures
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 28-105mm

Rainy day cycling

A grab shot out of a bus window in Kunming, China.
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 28-105mm

Cherry tomatoes

Same series as strawberries. Same settings, but with cherry tomatoes this time.
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 28-105mm Posted by Hello

Strawberries, no cream

What do you do on a cold night in Cameron Highlands? You buy some strawberries and shoot pictures! Taken with the help of the SB-600's wireless flash mode.
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 28-105mm in macro mode

Orchid

Just fooling about with a macro shot of an orchid. Natural light, coming in from a window just out of view, provided a nice backlighting and rim effect. A little reflective card was aimed towards the flower bounce some light back on the front. A black cloth provided a dark uncluttered background.
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 28-105mm

Bee on sunflower

Bees are such fascinating creatures. Notice the little sack of pollen on its hind legs.
Nikon D70S, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Barong

Detail of the Barong (lion) motif at a temple in Bali, Indonesia.
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 12-24mm DX ED.

Gateway

A traditional gateway in front of a posh hotel in Nusa Dua to the south of the island of Bali. This is actually a 2.5sec exposure with the camera balanced on a teeny-tiny tripod I carry all the time, carefully balanced on top of a rubbish bin.
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 28-105mm

Pencil pushers

All the touristy spots are full of very pushy knick-knack sellers. These rather cute children were selling decorative pencils at Kintamani (still an active volcano) in Bali, Indonesia.
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 12-24mm DX ED

Umbrellas

Statues outside a tourist centre in Bali, Indonesia.
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 12-24mm DX ED

Wali

Wali, or offering to the gods, is where the island of Bali in Indonesia gets its name. This picture in its full size is sharp, sharp, sharp!
How I love the 50mm f/1.8-- I'll never part with you baby!!
Nikon D70, 50mm f/1.8

Poolside, Bali

Night view of my hotel in Bali, taken from the 'balcony'. Well, there wasn't a blacony as such but a 2-foot ledge-- I climbed out the window and carefully balanced my camera on this ledge while trying not to fall down to take this 5-second exposure.
Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 12-24mm DX ED

Surf's Up!

Surfer on Kuta beach, Bali, Indonesia
Nikon D70, Tamron 70-300mm ED

Dynax 7D Concise opinion

Have been using the Konica Minolta Dynax 7D (Maxxum 7D in the USA) for about a week now and have come to some conclusions:

1) The camera is very nice and hefty in the hands and feels like it can take quite a beating.
2) The controls, though intimidating at first, are actually quite easy and very intuitive to use, especially if you have some experience with old film SLRs. The only problem is that there is no quick way to have things like Exposure Compensation, Drive Mode and Flash Compensation quickly reset to default. However, you can assign your favourite shooting mode (P,S,A,M), colourspace setting, sharpening, contrast and colour setting sets to one of three custom memory modes so that you can quickly get to them.
3) Metering is good -- better in general than the dodgy metering on the Olympus E-1 and E-300, but not quite as good as Nikon's 3D Colour Matrix Metering.
4) Picture quality, and detail is virtually identical with the Nikon D70 (both share the same sensor after all) but colour response is slightly different.
5) The 17-35mm kit lens that comes with the Dynax 7D is pretty good. More empirical tests will follow later. Meanwhile, check out some of the pictures below (since they have been resized, they are NOT to be used as illustrations of quality)
6) Will do some tests on the anti-shake feature soon as well.

Whorls

It's a closeup of a lamp!
Konica Minolta Dynax 7D, AF 17-35mm

Flowers to the sky

Detail of the roof of The Curve shopping centre. Image desturated except for the flowers on the banner.
Konica Minolta Dynax 7D, AF 17-35mm

Konica Minolta Dynax 7D

Managed to get my hot little hands on a Konica Minolta Dynax 7D.
Expect a short review here in the near future -- so far the impressions are very favourable.
The camera has a lot of controls, but if you are familiar with traditional SLR controls, then this camera will immediately feel natural to you.

Viper

Just to give you a sense of scale, the head of this snake was only a little bigger than my thumb.
Fujifilm S2 Pro, AF Nikkor 28-105mm at macro setting