Marketing the megapixels

Many of you would have worked out long ago that in the modern digital camera, megapixel counts are at least as much a marketing tactic as they are a technical credential. The higher they go, the more this is so.

That’s because at a certain point file size becomes more of a burden than a benefit. It brings with it upwards pressure on memory cards, hard drive capacity and computer speed in order to enable what are for the most part increasingly superfluous pixels. But still it’s considered the measure of a camera.

Since the beginning it’s been thought good practice to shoot and retain your originals at the highest possible file size, as insurance against unforeseen needs. This was particularly sensible in the days when those files were so much smaller and their publishing limitations much more easily reached.

But resolution has increased a hundred-fold since then and at some point somebody really had to press stop. Not that I’ve ever been able to do it — if it grew a hundred-fold again, I’d sure as houses just keep turning to Lacie and SanDisk before I’d touch that dial myself.

But it appears this time around Canon and Nikon have made the decision for us. Each has announced new top of the line cameras (Canon 1Dx, Nikon D4) and this time they’ve both seen fit to keep a lid on the megapixel counts.

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Photography for the blind

I wouldn’t normally embark upon the gratuitous spruiking of a brand or product without good reason (unless it’s my own). But if this isn’t a worthy exception, I don’t know what is.

I was invited to meet with a couple of gents from that big Californian fruit company recently. They wanted to talk about the iPhone 4S, its iOS5 software, and in particular the new camera.

Having already used it myself for a few weeks, I doubted there would be much in the way of surprises for me. But wrong I was. It turns out, you see, that buried deep within the menus of its new software, and beyond the everyday notice of you and I, this iPhone is bringing photography to the blind.

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Getting there is half the battle

If you’re on location a lot, with loads of gear in tow, you’ll know the logistical pain that comes with photography and travel (the stress too). It’s the part of the process most likely to bring you unstuck with forgotten items or gear broken in transit. And so for working photographers it helps to have a thorough and systematic approach to travel rather than a haphazard one.

Needless to say the more gear you take with you the greater the headache. As a news photographer you might get away with what you can carry onto the plane but as a commercial guy, van loads might be in order. Either way, having a good system down pat means you’ll be much less likely to forget something small but important — like spare batteries — or to find that your cameras are in more pieces than they’re meant to be once you arrive.

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The anti-social art

I heard someone describe photography the other day as being a fundamentally anti-social activity. They were pointing out how the camera itself can isolate you from the subject of your pictures and how photographers tend to be able to hide themselves behind it. I think there’s probably a degree of truth to that.

In some fields of work, like street photography, this is to your advantage. But in the case of portraiture that description raises a good point about a bad practice.

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Nikon from a Canon perspective

Asking photographers about their preference between Nikon and Canon is the faux pas behind many an unending online squabble. Both brands boast no shortage of rusted-on supporters who insist in all sincerity the superiority of white or the supremacy of black.

Others have decided that in the long run it doesn’t really matter. You make a decision and you invest in lenses and accessories and then you bear the brunt of that decision, come what may. And you get on with making pictures.

The truth is that for a long while each brand has tended to leapfrog the other. So proponents of one camp might be upset about their autofocus for a generation, but the next thing they know they have the upper hand in ISO. It’s such a big call to change sides that most never do.

If you’re anything like me that means you haven’t taken a serious look at the other mob’s offerings for years. And if you’ve been at all curious, please read on.

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Ignore the haters

The photographic industry is full of people with drive and passion. It’s that way on account of being the sort of job that so many people want, which means there’s a long and competitive journey involved. So it takes drive and passion to get there.

But photographers will know the story doesn’t end here. Like any other industry, there’s also no shortage of the bitter and the angry: people who seem to find something to complain about no matter how bright the sun shines. If there’s something negative to dwell on you can rely on them to find it and dwell on it.

And unfortunately it’s quite contagious. Given the chance they’ll have you wallowing in mutual self-pity before you know it.

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Foliobook for iPad

When the iPad landed earlier this year many photographers were immediately intrigued by the idea of using a tablet computer to present their portfolios to clients and editors. The hardware appeared to be uniquely fit for that purpose but it took a very long time for similarly qualified software to arrive on the market. While there was no shortage of apps able to display pictures as a slideshow, none of them quite made the grade as a professional portfolio presentation tool for reasons I’ll go into later.

The top search engine query bringing people to this blog has for months now been “iPad as portfolio?” or similar. So presumably there is plenty of demand and where there is demand there is money to be made. Even with that lure, for months we waited.

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It’s expensive being Australian

Australian photographers are getting ripped off by global manufacturers who set dramatically different prices for different regions. In many cases we’re paying through the nose relative to our American friends for the very same goods and services and I would like to know why.

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The iPad and photography? A very certain yes

If anything it would have been the incessant marketing and manipulative PR antics of Apple that might have diluted my interest in the iPad. But knowing this brand as I do and relying on the company’s equipment for years as I have, I was able to put aside my inclination towards cynicism long enough to have a proper look at the iPad. It’s also wise to pay attention when a company like Apple says it’s going to create an entirely new computer platform completely afresh.

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You only need one

The arrival home of a particular young sailor the weekend before last brought with it a lot of public attention throughout Australia. Some was sincere, some contrived by media companies that had spent huge sums on exclusive rights. But at the Sydney Morning Herald we hadn’t opened our cheque-book to cover Jess Watson’s solo-sailing record attempt so we were on the outer from the outset.

In the final week of her voyage, as she neared the heads of Sydney Harbour which would mark a full lap of the globe and the end of seven months of solitude at sea, media and public interest started to build at a rapid rate. But if you were not a party to that commercial arrangement, you would have to locate the sixteen year old and her 34-foot yacht somewhere in the Tasman Sea without any assistance from her land based management team (or should I say “media management” team?).

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