Tom Rothenberg Photography Blog

Sunday

07Mar2010

Need a new Point and Shoot

Sunday, March 7 |

I was in the market for a new point & shoot. I have had many over the years but never did much research before making the purchase. I almost always came away disappointed in the image quality of whatever I got.

This time I decided to do a little more research. I am very familiar with the product lines in the DSLR market but never paid much attention to the point and shoot world.

For the record I am a Nikon guy. Nothing against Canon or any other manufacturer but Nikon just feels right to me. I suspect if I grew up on Canon or had a significant investment in their glass I would then be a Canon shooter today.

My check list

Stuff I had to have

RAW support
Built in View Finder
Mechanical dials on the body
Good high ISO performance
Not too expensive

Stuff I didn't want

Touch Screen
Interchangeable lenses

Stuff that didn't matter either way

Super Compact
Video

I decided on the Canon PowerShot G11. It feels like a small DSLR to me. Very familiar dials with the functionality of my “serious” camera. It is advertised as the photographer’s point & shoot and I totally agree with that slogan. You can easily put it in "dummy mode" and get good results or use manual controls to finesse the picture, as you would with your DSLR.

photo by Tom Rothenberg - G11

I won’t bore you with the technical specs as you can find out so much more on sites such as DPreview and BHphoto.

It is also not quite as small as some of the other cameras in this space, but small enough to eliminate any excuses not to always have it with me.

photo by Tom Rothenberg - G11

So if your tired getting poor results with your point & shoot camera and looking for a replacement, I can totally endorse the Canon G11 - and this is coming from a Nikonian.

Back on track

Saturday, March 6 |

Tom Rothenberg

Wanted to thank everyone for the kind wishes this week and wanted you to know Blizten is home and doing fine. I will start posting more updates this week including additional tutorials and some product reviews.

Also wanted to let you know that Marc Benton is bringing back the PhotoBlogging DC site along with a new design. Stop by and check out the great work of some of my friends and colleagues in the DC metro area.

That's it for now.

My Pal

Saturday, February 27 |

Tom Rothenberg

This was a tough week for me and my family. We lost our buddy Donner to cancer. It was a very aggressive lymphatic cancer that was only diagnosed a week earlier. He deteriorated very quickly and was brave and loving through it all.

Donner was a special friend from the beginning. He was born on the millennium and was the most loyal companion anyone could ever hope for. He had a wonderful life full of unconditional love and we will miss him dearly.

Donner’s life has spanned the best times of my life thus far. In these brief 10 years I married the woman of my dreams, became a Dad to 2 wonderful girls and later had our son together. Donner and Blitzen were there throughout our life changes and are a significant part of our family.

In an almost unreal turn of events we had to take Blitzen to the emergency vet last night for what they are treating as Pancreatitis. She is on iv’s because she cannot have food or water while her enzymes stabilize. She is expected to make a full recovery and we hope to be able to pick her up Sunday morning.

She will also miss her brother and best friend.

We love you Donner

3 Comments

Sunday

21Feb2010

Is it Spring yet?

Sunday, February 21 |

Tom Rothenberg

Today was as warm as it has been for many weeks. Still far too cold for my taste but I know it is just a matter of time before all the snow melts and we see blossoms on the trees. I have a few trips back home to Florida coming up and excited for the opportunity to wear my preferred photography uniform of shorts and a t-shirt.

photo by Tom Rothenberg

Like many, spring is one of my favorite times to capture landscape images. From blooming Pear trees to the blossoms at the Tidal Basin our photography palette welcomes the colors we have missed for so long.

photo by Tom Rothenberg

And for me, it cannot come soon enough.

Watermarking in LR3

Friday, February 19 |

Tom Rothenberg

In this week's video tutorial I begin a new series to cover some of the new features in Lightroom 3 Beta.

We begin with something that was on everyone's wish list for Adobe - watermarking. They delivered and now it's possible to do it all from within Lightroom.

However, you may not want to. I demonstrate how to add a standard text watermark and then show a more subtle method using an image of text as a watermark within Lightroom.

You can download the free Beta of Lightroom 3 here.

Don't forget - use the maximize button within the video player to increase the size of the video.