I don't usually post dirty pictures, but I'm going to make an exception...
The following image (in addition to demonstrating noise) shows a number of dirt particles representing several of the world's deserts—mostly the Namib. I'm sorry if you were expecting some other kind of dirty ;-)
How do I know this? A while back I sent my camera, a Sony DSC-F717, in for a service. It needed some kind of in-warranty focus adjustment to the holographic AF laser which meant it had to be cracked open. At the time I got a call from Sony Service who were very surprised to have a fine red powder spill onto the workbench when the camera was opened. Now I didn't delivery bury it inthe oxidised Namibian sand—but there was a lot carried by the wind.
The Man at Sony said "You might as well buy a new camera" since the cost of cleaning all the sand out of the body and lens would be prohibitive (a Sony trait I later discovered).
As a result I've been unable to do without the Healing Brush in Photoshop 7, or more recently Photoshop Elements 3.0 for Mac. It's only really a problem in areas of sky (but I do shoot mainly landscapes.) Although there are a lot of things I like about the F717 (and it was the best prosumer camera I could afford at the time) this is one more problem to add to the list of "issues" I have with my ageing Sony:
- Image noise;
- No RAW ability (so JPEG compression artefacts, and TIFF takes way too long to save and too much memory e.g. 15 MB);
- The electronic viewfinder is crap. I realised this by comparison with a D70 shooting a waterfall into the sun;
- Almost every picture needs significant levels adjustment;
- By the time I've attached my wide 0.7x wide converter, gone to the set-up menu, turned the converter setting to on, gone back to the Program setting, and composed the shot - the moment has passed;
- My 1.7x tele-converter is bulky and weighs significantly more than my SLR long lens;
- It's a Sony; Sony are in my bad books.
I guess I need a new camera. A D70 is on order...
Update: A D70 can produce dirty pictures too! See here to witness the diference a CCD clean can make.
0 responses to Dirty pictures