Poker Perambulation

Well, my new camera arrived and I took a couple of pictures. I’ve been more serious about photography at times. I had my own darkroom. Most of that was black and white stuff with the local photo lab handling the snapshot side.

I had a Nikon with multiple lens and a nice Bessler enlarger. It has collected dust for years. To be current at anything is an ongoing commitment. What I say here then is to be taken with a grain of whatever.

If you wanted to go beyond black and white, the investment back then was huge and the commitment rigorous. Today, we can do a lot with a fairly modest investment. There’s some great editing software that can manipulate a shot like I could in the darkroom. A pretty modest investment in printers will get you all but the really large prints.

My new camera is a Fujifilm S1000fd. If you go to their site the specs and user manual can be downloaded. I paid just over two-bills. That is about twice the price of previous snapshot cameras. This is a step up and in the category called a bridge camera. It is a SLR type camera but has a fixed lens. To get interchangeable lens capability would about double the price. It isn’t a professional system but it is pretty close in a lot of ways.

The way that is typically not close or at least less close is in the Charge Coupled Device. This is equivalent to film in the early generation of cameras where all the varied films are now combined. What a more expensive camera bring is a larger CCD. This makes for less noise. Noise is a problem with electronic signaling. I had it as an amateur radio operator. You get it in your car radio as it travels strain the range of your station. And, even cable or other TV viewing methods will periodically display problems. It is always there to some degree but we only notice it at times.

So what is the difference between my camera and one that is multiple times more costly? A lot of the time, little to nothing. But, when we get to fringe reception on our radio we can translate that to an available light action shot. I will see noise before the top of the line stuff. My wall size print won’t have the snap. But, I’m not planning any oversize prints. Whether my shot using available light at something like the WSOP are as crisp or even possible is guestimating. I’m hoping/guessing I could get satisfactory shots to show in a blog. I’ll likely be able to get some very decent shots along the strip at night. But, if compared to a similar shot by Flipchip, it will come up short. Craftsmen are known by their tools.

My old Nikon was not a camera for snapshots. This one is. I could get as artistic as I could on the Nikon. Artistry is not a snapshot because it controls features that may not be optimal in getting a picture with a quick point and shoot. The two main components are framing and depth of field. Framing is accomplished with focal length and on the Nikon that was lens at boo-coo bucks a whack. Depth of field revolved around a whole bunch of options from film to lens to f-stop which combine to make the picture you envision. Being an SLR you were able to preview that.

I don’t have the experience with the Fuji to say with certainty. But, the adjustments that I had on the Nikon are possible in manual mode. The lens probably isn’t as crisp as my old 105mm that had a great reputation. The wide angle isn’t quite going to be able to duplicate my old 28mm. But, it clobbers my old telephoto capabilities with a 12x range — a big telephoto was big bucks. And, I can even convert to black and white shots and get artsey.

This isn’t Ansel Adams grade photography. But, neither was my Nikon capable of what he was getting with his large negative shots. Every camera is a compromise of features that provide certain enhanced capabilities while crippling others. For what I hope to accomplish, this camera is beyond my capabilities and will be until I’ve used it and am used to all its features. That may be never but a camera 4x the price would be in the same boat.

Looking at my most sensitive available light lens. The Nikon had a normal lens that was f1.4. The Fuji is two full f-stops away. That looks problematic. However, my fast film was ASA 400 in most instances. The Fuji will go to 1600 at full resolution and higher with reduced resolution. On paper it looks like I can shoot with less light with the Fuji. On a full feature digital, another lens would give more. Problem? I hope not. And, if it is, it will be an infrequent occurrence.

Whether it is camera or computer or your favorite electronics device, many have a sweet spot. There is a huge difference between a $395 sale computer and a $4000 state-of-the-art computer. The dirty secret is that most of the time they are interchangeable. Just how bad you need that lesser percentage is the reason you must have rather than would like to have.

I think I’ll be happy with this setup. The way I will uses it should seldom if ever challenge its upper limits.

Thought I’d throw in the see if it works shots. They are from my patio, apple tree, apple blossom (macro shot) and a view down our little lake/pond. Looks like things aren’t working for pictures for me. Not a biggy.

ADDENDUM:

Does anybody out there play stud at any but the ‘big 3′ – PokerStars, Full Tilt, Bodog – I’d like to try a site that has the occasional stud table up.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Off Topic, Journal.