Panasonic DMC-GH2 Preview

Preview based on a pre-production GH2

When Panasonic first launched the GH1, its second Micro Four Thirds camera, it was widely seen as simply being a G1 with video shooting and a considerably more expensive kit lens. And, if your primary concern was stills photography then this wasn't an entirely unreasonable assessment. However, its real appeal was not that it had video, but that it offered what was, at the time, some of the most flexible, high quality video available. Again, the 14-140mm F4.0-5.8 kit zoom may not have been cheap but it had been specifically designed and built with fast, quiet autofocus and stepless aperture control to allow AF during movie shooting and exposure changes without sudden changes in brightness.

Now that the G2 (along with the majority of contemporary cameras) is able to capture HD video, the distinctions between just being able to shoot HD and to really control it become more apparent. Stills shooters may get some advantage from the new, higher resolution sensor but the main differences between the GH2 and G2 are the ability to control the movie shooting process (both in terms of frame rate and shutter speed).

In the twenty five months since Olympus and Panasonic jointly announced the Micro Four Thirds standard there have been eight models launched to date, seven of which share the same 12MP sensor. The only exception was the GH1 which, despite its 12MP output actually featured a 14MP sensor. The sensor was slightly larger than the format's imaging circle, which allowed it to deliver images in different aspect ratios while retaining the same image diagonal. And now the GH2 follows the same pattern, shooting 16MP images using its brand-new, similarly over-sized 18MP sensor.

This sensor is capable of much greater output speed than its predecessor, bringing a host of benefits. Videographers will see an improvement in the quality of the highest quality output - the 1080i output is derived from 60p or 50p capture, rather than doubled-up from 24p or 25p on the GH1. However, the faster readout also means the AF system can more frequently check the accuracy of its focus, meaning faster autofocus (on lenses that can respond quickly enough). Finally, the faster readout means the live view is updated 60 times a second (rather than 24fps displayed at 60hz), giving a smoother viewing experience with less tearing.

The viewfinder has also been slightly widened - it now shows 852 x 600 pixels (rather than 800 across) to allow it to show 16:9 and 3:2 previews without the need for such extensive cropping as before.

Lensbaby Fisheye

Any hobby or pastime can get stale after a while without new challenges or ideas to excite you. The folks at Lensbaby have built their company around providing equipment to help photographers get out of a rut. They have continued to expand their optic-swap system and now have a fisheye optic to go along with the rest of the line. It’s wide, it’s distorted, it’s fuzzy and sharp at the same time and might be just what you need to create some images to help get you excited about your photography again.

How it Works

For an overall primer on the Lensbaby system, please read this Photo.net review here.

The quickest way to explain what exactly a Lensbaby is to read about what the company itself says about the lenses:

The Lensbaby is a unique SLR lens that has a sweet spot of focus with blur all around the sweet spot. Unlike a tilt-shift lens, which has a flat field of focus and a slice of of focus from end to end, the Lensbaby field of focus is curved, producing a circle of focus.

The Lensbaby Optic Swap system is a series of 6 different optic inserts that you can use with the Lensbaby body to achieve different effects and image styles. Think of it as taking the engine out of a car and being able to swap in one engine for good gas mileage and another the next day for trailer towing power. The optic choices are double glass, single glass, plastic, pinhole/zone-plate, soft focus, and fisheye.

The Lensbaby Fisheye Optic has a 12mm focal length and a 160 degree field of view. It can focus as close as one half inch and has an f/4 maximum aperture with aperture plates from f/5 to f/22. While Lensbaby does a great job of trying to keep their newer products compatible with their older products, but some designs make that more difficult and the Fisheye Optic is one of them. The Fisheye’s aperture plates aren’t compatible with the other optics and the Muse and Control Freak Lensbaby “lenses” will require adapters (purchased separately) to mount the Fisheye.

Film Riot

Privacy

You might call Brin's enthusiasm premature, especially since privacy criticisms prompted Google to make a series of quick changes a few days later. Activists have asked the Federal Trade Commission to "compel" Google to reprogram Buzz a third time to adhere to the no doubt well-informed specifications of Beltway lawyers. A class action lawsuit filed on behalf of an aggrieved second-year law student is underway.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the courthouse: relatively few Google Buzz users seem to mind. Within four days of its launch, millions of people proved Brin right by using the messaging service to publish 9 million posts. A backlash to the backlash developed, with more thoughtful commentators pointing out that Google Buzz disclosed your "followers" and who you were "following" only if you had elected to publish that information publicly on your Google profile in the first place.

My hunch is that Google Buzz will continue to grow because, after nearly a decade of social-networking experiences (its great-granddaddy, Friendster, started in early 2002), Internet users have grown accustomed to informational exhibitionism. The default setting for a Buzz message is public, and Buzz-ers using mobile phones are prompted to disclose their locations.

Norms are changing, with confidentiality giving way to openness. Participating in YouTube, Loopt, FriendFeed, Flickr, and other elements of modern digital society means giving up some privacy, yet millions of people are willing to make that trade-off every day. Of people with an online profile, nearly 40 percent have disabled privacy settings so anyone may view it, according to a Pew Internet survey released a year ago. The percentage is probably higher today.

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На границе с РФ стоят 1170 автомобилей

Во вторник в очереди на латвийско-российской границе стоят 1000 грузовых и 170 легковых автомобилей.

Как сообщили в Государственной погранохране, сегодня утром въезда из страны на пограничном пункте в Терехово ожидают 690 грузовиков и 100 легковых автомобилей, а в Гребнево в очереди стоят 280 грузовых и 70 легковых автомашин.

Как сообщалось, очереди на границе начали расти после того, как Федеральная таможенная служба России усилила контроль всех грузов, транспортируемых литовскими автоперевозчиками.

Руководители литовской и российской таможенных служб пришли к соглашению, что Россия смягчит контроль, если будет ограничена деятельность 29 литовских предприятий, поставляющих грузы в Россию.

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