Disappointment!

"The Benefit Of The Doubt"... I am a big fan of giving this... whether it be to people who are behaving inexplicably, or to things that are not working as I think they should... because who really knows what's going on behind the scenes?? However, I only have so much patience when it comes to putting faith in something that repeatedly lets me down. What I am alluding to today is... my Olympus 1030SW camera!
After reading many reviews when it first came out and making an informed decision to purchase it, I was initially quite happy with the little guy. It performed well in cold temps, seemed very sturdy, the picture quality was acceptable, and the macro... well! Suffice it to say it was one of the most impressive point'n'shoot macros I've ever used! Everything about the camera was all good, until the first time it was used under water. I don't believe the rated depth was exceeded, because we were only snorkelling with it. But while we had it in the water, the LCD display quit working... so, that was the end of our video and picture taking for that day (and for the rest of the trip as it turned out). Later that evening, after it 'dried out' or something, the display came back, but only intermittently. Which rendered it virtually unusable since we were not able to see the settings or anything anymore. The camera at that point was less than 2 months old, so I took it back to the place of purchase (London Drugs) and had them send it to Olympus for warranty repairs.
I was super excited to get the 1030SW back, but my excitement was short lived. While the display problem had been fixed, now the pictures that were taken were not viewable in-camera. That's right - we could see all the settings, see how the photo was going to be framed, see the picture for the 3 seconds it was displayed on the LCD after pressing the shutter button... but we had to remove the card from the camera and look at the results on the computer. Inconvenient or what!
Back to London Drugs. Explain this new problem. Wait (more and more impatiently) for the camera to come back from Olympus. Anticipate a perfectly operational camera when the box was delivered. Nearly start to cry when we took it outdoors on a hike a few weeks later! The third problem was an atrocious one: vertical red and blue lines across every photo and throughout every video, no matter what the lighting conditions or camera settings. **SIGH**
Yep, you guessed it... back to London Drugs. Explain this new problem. Have them send the piece of crap away... AGAIN... Don't feel at all excited when the Purolator box arrived a few days ago... read the enclosed repair notice from Olympus, in which they describe their actions taken (that had nothing to do whatsoever with what the problem was!)... pretty much drop-kick the camera across the yard after I fire it up and immediately see the red and blue lines... AAACCKKKK!!
So right now, the stupid hunk of junk is sitting in the box, where it will stay until my frustration subsides. I'm afraid I may throw it at the camera salesperson's head if I go back to London Drugs anytime soon. I do realize that it's not the retailer's fault the camera is a lemon, but should they not offer me a replacement, and deal with the manufacturer themselves on this one?? Also, the lack of problem resolution from the Olympus service department doesn't leave me with alot of confidence or praise for their product. In fact, I will NEVER purchase another Olympus product, EVER. And I will NEVER purchase another electronics or related product from London Drugs, either. Unless of course, they agree with my point of view on this and promptly provide a new camera.
I'll keep you posted on this issue.
Cheers.

Night Lights

Well, I went from ignoring my camera for weeks, to spending three full hours last night trying to photograph one of the most amazing spectacles of Mother Nature I've ever seen. An unbelievably intense thunderstorm lolly-gagged its way over the city in which I live, giving me ample opportunity to test out most of my camera's manual functions. I must have taken two hundred pictures! Of course I ended up keeping only about ten of them... The unfortunate part was that it rained and hailed so hard that I could not be outside; I had to do the best I could through a window. However, it was still a great learning experience.

I shot with a K20D, in JPEG format, which is unusual for me. I always shoot in RAW, but, I figured I was experimenting all around with shutter speeds, apertures, ISO's and focus, and I just didn't feel in the mood for alot of post-processing. I was disappointed with some of the results, as I noticed a couple of 'hot pixels' on a few of the photos. This apparently is a known problem with the K20D when using the 2-second timer. A recent firmware upgrade offered by Pentax was supposed to correct the problem, and obviously it was not successful.

At any rate, it was good to snap the shutter again! I'll be starting a set of two weeks off of work tomorrow night, and I look forward to spending as much of the time I can taking pictures. Did I mention in a previous post that we're heading to Nitinat Lake, BC, for their Windfest 2008? Check out my travel blog (http://www.kidinacandyshop.blogspot.com/) for more information and to read about the trip.

Cheers.

Lights... camera... (blurred) action!!??

The light was perfect - that late afternoon, low-in-the-sky sun... my camera was more than I could ever hope for - a Pentax K20D... and the action was great - an energetic, young, sponsored kitesurfer who was more than willing to throw trick after trick for a photographer. So what the heck was going on?? About 90% of the pics I snapped were somewhat blurred, no matter how careful I was with the focal point. I farted around with the aperture and shutter speed - at one point I was at f/3.5 and 1/1000, which absolutely should have frozen the unhooked backloops this kid was landing. I also switched back and forth from AF-S to AF-C, because the subject was moving, not stationary. I even tried manually focussing, but that went bad quickly - visualize me, standing in the Columbia River in thigh-deep water on an unstable sandy bottom, trying to simultaneously zoom the lens, pan the camera, and focus on this mass of kiteboard and body careening towards me... you should have seen the amazing blurs I captured after ducking out of the way at the last second! Not to mention nearly dunking the camera!

Anyhow, I must say I was becoming frustrated. I was so disappointed when I had to delete many well-composed shots because they were not in focus. Maybe I bought a dud of a K20D? Sometimes there are lemons from the factory, right? I think I even muttered to my boyfriend that I should convert to Nikon or something... ***GASP*** Yes, I really said that out loud! But on the other hand, I had taken way too many crisp, in-focus pics for the camera or lens to be at fault. Then some words of wisdom popped into my head, something I heard or read (I don't remember exactly where this came from): It' s not the equipment, but what you learn to DO with the equipment... a good photographer can take a great picture with even the crappiest of cameras.

Alright then, certainly it has to be a problem with how I'm using the camera in this particular situation. So off to the internet I went, to surf through my favorite forums in search of people who may be having the same trouble.

I couldn't believe my luck, when within 15 minutes I came across this post:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=28665188

This fellow's first point made the light bulb come on for me immediately: I don't think I've ever turned the image stabilization OFF...!! Could that be my problem? Makes sense, because when the IS is turned on, the magnets on the sensor are always trying to compensate for movement. When the subject is moving, and the camera is moving, well that compounds the problem. Jeesh!! Why didn't I think of that?! Perhaps if I had read through my users manual I would have come across that piece of advice? Anyhow, this fellow attached some pics he took of a surfing event in Italy, and every photo was spectacular. Definitely my poor results had to be operator error.

After reading that suggestion and seeing that fellow's perfect photos, my faith is renewed - I've switched the camera image stabilization OFF, and I took the filter off my lens (see the previous post). Hopefully this combination will produce more satisfactory results? I can't wait to find out!

Cheers.