Picture of a deep part of the universe, taken by NASA.

The picture of the universe above shows us what is typical of such pictures: Little bits of light surrounded by a vast ocean of darkness. This picture tells us a lot more about the universe, about nature and about life in general, than most people will realize. One of the most important things to take away from this picture is that the universe is a LOT more about darkness than it is about light.

I wrote before about the fact that we’re living in a world of pain. Every day I look around me and I see lots of suffering and lots of pain. Sure, there are positive things happening here and there, but all of that is surrounded by and drowned in all the pain and suffering. It seems that anything positive doesn’t last for very long, and in fact, like I also wrote before, there can never really be lasting happiness in life. And if you look at the picture of the universe above, that is exactly what it is showing us. Small specks of light surrounded by an ocean of darkness. Small positive experiences surrounded by an ocean of negativity. Little bits of happiness surrounded by an ocean of pain and suffering. The little bits of happiness are like a small drop of water on a hot plate; in the end it really has no effect. This picture tells us what life in this universe is all about.

The universe is more about darkness than it is about light. It’s more about the dark experiences than it is about the pleasant experiences. It is more about the negative than it is about the positive. At its core, life is all about darkness, about pain and suffering, from the moment you’re born all the way up to the moment you die. You cry yourself into the world, you enter a constant struggle to stay alive in an environment filled with hostility and in the end you grow old and die anyway. In between you might experience moments of what most people refer to as “happiness,” but it will always be against the underlying purpose of constant struggle, pain and suffering. Again, a small drop of water on a hot plate. If there really is such a thing as a hell, the universe could certainly be classified as some kind of hell. It could be worse, but it’s pretty bad already as it is.

I’m not a religious person and I don’t think much of religion, but it’s interesting to note that even the bible mentions that in the beginning there was first total darkness until god created light. Darkness must have been the very first thing god created, for obvious reasons. And as you can see in the picture above, the light he supposedly created in the universe is almost nothing compared to the darkness that exists. In fact, all the light seems overwhelmed by darkness. It really doesn’t stand a chance. Stars come and go in this universe, but the darkness will always be there. Happy moments may enter your life to stay for a short period, but the only thing that always stays, whether you like to admit it or not, is the underlying purpose of pain and suffering.

And that sums up my experience with life nicely.

Picture taken for Uniqa Marketing Campaign

When you have to do an outdoor photoshoot during that time of the year when you can’t really rely on the weather to be good all the time it takes more time to prepare for and plan the photoshoot. And if your client has a deadline for delivery of the pictures that’s just a few days away, then you can probably imagine that it can get really stressful. Such was the case with a photoshoot I had to do last April for Uniqa, one of the three telecom service providers in Suriname.

I am happy to say that I did manage to deliver the pictures on time in the end but it wasn’t easy. I can still remember not being able to sleep the night before the photoshoot because it was raining outside and I was worried that it would keep raining until the morning which would ruin our chances of shooting outdoors. I had checked the weather forecasts and had chosen a day when the weather would be the nicest according to the forecast information, but as it turned out, you can’t always rely on weather forecasts, especially not when you’re planning a few days ahead.

Picture taken for Uniqa Marketing Campaign

So I had a plan B ready right from the start. I picked a location for the photoshoot where we’d be able to shoot indoors as an alternative in case we just couldn’t work outside. Cancelling the photoshoot because of bad weather could not be an option since everything was planned for that day and at least one of the models would only be available for that day and rescheduling would have been an issue. This photoshoot was done at Hotel Torarica. They have some really nice outdoor settings with lots of nature that can be used as a backdrop, and this was one of the requirements the client had. In addition they also had some nice indoor locations for us to fall back on in case of bad weather.

Fortunately the weather wasn’t very bad when we actually had to work outside. There was some very light rain in between longer dry periods and we were able to do the outdoor shoots we had planned. The sky was constantly grey so that wasn’t very nice, but on the other hand the sunlight was very soft which as far as I’m concerned is a big plus. All I had to do was to try not to include the sky in the frame when possible.

Picture taken for Uniqa Marketing Campaign

I teamed up again with Euvie Karijoredjo for the makeup and hair, and Taciana Soerodimedjo for wardrobe advice and styling. The model casting was done by the client in advance, and I have to say that the models were really wonderful and easy to work with. The only exception of course was the little boy. Working with children isn’t very easy as they tend to have very short attention spans and get impatient quickly. In this particular case though I think the cute little guy did pretty well and I was fortunate to have his attention for a good while before he started complaining about being tired.

I’m sad to say that I don’t have any behind the scenes pictures to share this time. Normally I take the time to take a couple of quick behind the scenes snaps when I’m working, but in this case I was constantly worrying about the weather among other things and totally forgot about it. It didn’t even cross my mind to ask my assistant to take a couple of snaps.

Picture taken for Uniqa Marketing Campaign

For those of you who’re interesting in the gear I used: I used two Canon EOS 40D bodies with the Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L and EF 85mm f/1.2 L lenses. I am in love with the Canon L primes; the results you can get are simply amazing.  For the lighting I used a couple of Canon 580 EX II Speedlights with some light modifiers such as umbrellas and reflectors. The speedlights were all triggered wirelessly. I tried to blend the additional lighting in with the available soft sunlight as much as possible as I was going for a more natural look in the photos instead of a stylized look where the use of strobes is obvious.

The above pictures are currently being used in various places such as in TV commercials and on billboards throughout Suriname. I’ve included a few pictures of billboards below.

Uniqa Billboard

Uniqa Billboard

Uniqa Billboard

United Magazine June 2010 Edition

About two months ago I was hired again by Global Publishing to shoot pictures for a feature article in the upcoming edition of United magazine. Global Publishing is the publisher of United magazine.

The article is about three succesfull business women and the editor of the magazine, Edward Lee, was looking for some nice looking portraits of these women to go along with it. He also needed a group shot that could be used to open the article with. In the end the editor was so happy with the results that one of the pictures, the group shot, also ended up being used on the cover of the magazine. So this is my 3rd time on the cover of United Magazine. You can read here on my blog about the first and second times too.

The photoshoot took place at Leader’s Group Conference Room. During the photoshoot I had about 15 minutes per person, and 15 minutes for the group shot. I tried to get as many possible poses and settings with each one of them in the time I had. I also got to know the women a little during the photoshoot and tried to get a feel for their personalities, and in the end I chose a picture for each one of them that I think matched the most with their personalities. And from the feedback I got so far I think the pictures really do go along well with their personalities.

You can see the images that were used below:

United Magazine Group Shot

Portrait of Angela Yang for United Magazine

Portrait of Matchameryll Felter for United Magazine

Portrait of Rishma Ratan for United Magazine

For those of you who are interested in the gear used, I used two Canon EOS 40D bodies with the EF 35mm f/1.4 L and EF 85mm f/1.2 L II lenses from Canon. For the lighting I used a couple of Canon 580 EX II speedlights, sometimes with umbrella’s and mixed with the available light.

In addition to the images above, my images are also featured in ads from two other clients of mine who advertised in United. Below are those two ads:

Double page Ad for Nado Computers in United using one of my images of the Independence Square in Paramaribo, Suriname. One of the cool things about this image is that you can see the clouds forming a hand in the upper left corner. This was really there when the picture was taken and was not digitally added.

Ad for Tropical Gem Tours in United using an image of mine

The picture used in the ad for Tropical Gem Tours above was taken a while ago and if you’re interested you can read about it and see some more images taken during that photoshoot here.

Ever since I wrote some posts about the Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR on my blog last year, I’ve continued to get comments from many users around the world who’ve used the camera and had issues with it. Most of the time these users went online after experiencing issues to search for a solution and then found my blog only to wish they had read it before they bought their 5D Mark II. Just yesterday I got the following two comments from two different people:

From Troy:

Being a Canon user makes me feel cheated. The autofocus is terrible, owning a $3000 camera and having so many shots out of focus is unacceptable. Shooting landscapes is most of the time fine (even there AF hunts at times) but anything moving and easy to lose over 75% of your shots. Slow frame rate and many out of focus shots, bad news. I have tried every AF combination and get the same results. I have some great photos but have lost too many. I hate to switch but selling my Canon gear and moving to Nikon. I would love to stay with Canon but AF issues are too much, and they don’t seem wanting to fix it anytime soon.

From Mark H:

Hi Karel,

I haven’t read all the responses but I can’t believe some of the assessments of the camera based on limited shooting situations. I’m a wedding photographer, shoot 2000-3000 images per wedding in all kinds of lighting and all situations, and yes, low light shooting with the MK2 sucks compared to even prosumer cameras like the 40D. IMO it’s the outer autofocus points….focus dead-on with the center point (to hell with the rule of thirds or any sort of off center composition) and you’ll do ok in low light (in most situations), but try “getting ready” shots with a window behind the bride’s head (bright backlight), or low light church shots and good luck getting 30% of them in focus with the off-center focus points. I shoot a lot wide open at 1.4, so I know when it’s on and when it’s off. It’ll focus fine in bright light (so it’s not needing microadjustments or a lens problem), it’ll focus fine with off center points in bright light most of the time, but go indoors and be careful. Get trigger happy if you want some images to choose from. I love the resolution, love most of everything about the camera, can live with the speed of the autofocus, but a “low-light” camera that only has 1 “usable” autofocus point in low light is kinda disappointing.

And there’s a lot more where those came from.

If you’ve read my previous posts about the 5D Mark II, you know that the issues these users are describing are exactly the issues I mentioned in my posts. From the moment the 5D Mark II was announced I saw based on the specifications alone that Canon had seriously crippled the camera with an old autofocus system that wouldn’t be able to let people really take advantage of the other features the camera had to offer. Many users who’ve bought the camera for professional use have had no choice but to sell it again and move to something that worked much better and offered A LOT more, such as the Nikon D700. Here are just two cases:

Case 1: Sold Canon gear and switched to Nikon:

Canon was good to me, especially back in the day when I rocked a cropped sensor and a 35mm lens for 90% of my shoots. It was simple, reliable and dependable.  Then I got a 5d.  The 5d offered great high ISO features, a full frame, a nice big LCD and the worst focusing system money could buy.

Let me preface this next part by saying that I am a hard-core stickler for sharp images; “A little soft,” or “a little back-focused” is not ok by me.  It’s tack sharp or it get’s the hose. So, as you can imagine, the 5d became quite a handicap for me.  But, nonetheless, I figured out that if I only shot on One Shot and kept my aperture up, I could make in-focus photos.

Despite my near-constant frustration with Canon, I held out for the mythical 5d Mark II – a camera that promised even better ISO, an even bigger sensor, an even fancier LCD and (you guessed it), the same crappy focusing system. At that point, Canon had me by the you-know-whats (I don’t actually have you-know-whats… it’s a euphemism, silly) – I had *thousands* invested in lenses (see below). So I shot my 5d Mark II for the entire 2009 wedding season…. on One-Shot…. using a high aperture… constantly cussing under my breath.

Case 2: Sold Canon gear and switched to Nikon:

So, my 5DII came back from Canon’s repair center AGAIN on Tuesday. I took it out for a 45 minute stroll and took pictures of cats, leaves, berries, trees, the water.. etc. I used both the center focal point and the outer focal points. I spent the entire 45 minutes cursing after each shot as it became more and more apparent that it was just the same (if not worse) as it had been when I sent it in.

…

So, I sniffled a little, I paced back and forth, I thought. Then I typed up all the Canon gear I own on a forum and titled it ‘For sale’. I sniffled some more and grit my teeth and clicked the ‘post’ button. There. I said it. It’s for sale. I’ve been a Canon girl for eight years. I busted my ass to buy that 5D, and I love it. If I could afford to keep it and the 50mm lens that’s been with me for four years, I would do it in a heartbeat.

I’m done. I’m switching to Nikon.

In both these cases the users were let down by the bad autofocus performance of the 5D Mark II and had no choice but to switch to the Nikon D700. Even the image quality offered by the 5D Mark II isn’t what you would expect from a $2700 camera with noise and banding issues even at the low ISO settings.

The reason why the 5D Mark II still appears to be selling well is because of the HD video features that are also built into the camera. But as a tool for photography, the 5D Mark II has some serious issues and shortcomings that I hope will be addressed sufficiently by Canon in the next version.

Screenshot of the Grumman Ag-Cat G-164A in Microsoft Flight Simulator X

I’ve been searching for a nice version of the Grumman Ag-Cat aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator for a very very very long time. There’s a post here on my blog where I first mentioned it back in January 2006, and another one where I mentioned it again in 2007. And even before that, I was searching for this aircraft for older versions of Flight Simulator. But every time I would search on the Internet, I would end up disappointed because of not finding anything, or, because of finding something that tried to resemble an Ag-Cat but wasn’t quite finished.

By the end of 2009 I thought of searching for the aircraft again on various websites related to Flight Simulator, and you’ll never be able to imagine how excited I got when I found a very nicely done model by Marcel du Plessis from South Africa. The original version that I found was done for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004, but I was using what is now the latest version, Flight Simulator X. So I downloaded the aircraft and installed it and was happy to see that most of it worked quite well in the newer version of Flight Simulator even though it was designed for the older version. There were however quite a few things that didn’t function correctly. I sent an email to Marcel asking about his plans for an update for Flight Simulator X, and he basically said that he had no plans to update the aircraft. So I asked if I could have the source files so I could try to update it myself, but unfortunately due to bad experiences in the past he didn’t feel like giving me those files. However, he did give me permission to modify the aircraft as much as I could, and fix it as much as possible with just the files I already had.

So I went ahead and tried to fix as much of the issues as possible. Below is a list of things I had to fix:

• Entries in the aircraft configuration files, coordinates and other data.
• The spray effects needed tweaking to work correctly.
• The panel configuration had to change due to missing gauges. All gauges have been replaced except for the stall light warning which won’t work on Flight Simulator X.
• The Boom Pressure gauge needed tweaking to work in Flight Simulator X.

In addition to this, I’ve also created new sounds for the model that sound more realistic. I used the sounds from the Goose G21A aircraft from Flight Simulator X and modified and remixed them for the Ag-Cat. The new sounds come very very close to what an actual Ag-Cat sounds like!

I’ve also added 5 new repaints for the aircraft, two of them are new and one is a modified version of the original texture by Marcel du Plessis. The repaints and registrations on the aircrafts are from actual aircrafts here in Suriname. You can see the repaints in the pictures below:

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Some of the things I could not fix (because I did not have the source files):

• I could not add new functionality to the aircraft for Flight Simulator X, such as the aircraft casting shadows on itself, etc.
• The glass on the cockpit has a minor rendering issue: dynamic scenery (houses, trees etc.) isn’t visible through it when viewed from the outside.

Download

To download the aircraft simply click on the following link: AgCat.zip. Please note that this file has been updated on July 14th, 2010. In case you downloaded it prior to this date, download it again. Two additional repaints (the green ones seen above) were added.

Installation

After downloading the zip file, extract all files into the main Flight Simulator X folder. If you use Winzip or a similar program and choose to extract the files with the directory structure, then all files will be placed in the right folders. After doing this, you can start Flight Simulator X and you should be able to see the 3 versions of the Ag-Cat when selecting an aircraft. Don’t forget to read the original Ag-Cat Quick Guide PDF document for instructions on how to operate the aircraft, how to activate the spray system and how to make the pilot visible among other things.

If you like the aircraft, please take the time to send an email to Marcel du Plessis and thank him for his incredible work in making such a detailed model for the Ag-Cat. Maybe if he gets enough comments he’ll be motivated to do an update . Also don’t forget to leave a comment below and let me know any feedback you may have.

Screenshots

Below are some more screenshots of the Ag-Cat in Flight Simulator X.

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Canon EOS 1D Mark IV

With the release of the EOS 1D Mark IV, Canon has once again demonstrated that they don’t fully understand what photographers are really looking for these days. Somehow Canon can’t seem to let go of the megapixel race and seems to think that what we’re all really looking for is more megapixels on our cameras and even larger images, even if that has to happen at the expense of image quality. This while a constantly growing number of photographers worldwide, who’re using Canon equipment daily, are complaining and asking for less megapixels and a full-frame sports / journalistic camera. Nikon clearly appears to understand this with the release of the Nikon D3s.

Once the king of image quality, for the last 3 years Canon seems to have lost touch with the market. As far as image quality is concerned it started going downhill with the EOS 50D, which came with a sensor that produced more noise and banding than anything else. Then came the EOS 5D Mark II, which also suffers from noise and banding issues even at ISO 100. Other image quality issues on the 5D Mark II such as the black dot problem were ‘fixed’ in a firmware update. Then came the EOS 7D which produces images that contain more noise compared to a 2 year older camera, namely the EOS 40D, while it also appears to suffer too much from diffraction issues when using high f-stops due to the high pixel density on the sensor. The same can be said about the Rebel line of cameras and for example the G10. The G10 got equipped with a 15MP sensor that, similar to the EOS 50D, produced more noise than anything else. It was so bad Canon went back and released a newer model, the G11, which has a smaller 10MP sensor capable of delivering much better image quality.

In the case of the 1D Mark IV (1D4 in short), the image quality is comparable to that of the 2 year old 40D. This is not surprising considering that the pixel density on the sensors in both cameras is 5.7µm. So the noise levels are practically the same. However the sensor in the 1D4 benefits from advances in sensor development in recent years and, among other things, does not suffer from the banding issues that can sometimes be seen on images taken with a 40D at high ISO values. Some reviewers, such as Lloyd Chambers, have argued that the 1D4 produces the best image quality to date compared to previous Canon camera models, and I agree with this. But this isn’t such an achievement when you consider that the last 3 (semi) professional DSLR models released by Canon all suffer(ed) from various image quality issues. It’s like a kid in school who has been receiving D’s constantly and gets praise when he finally receives a B.

Because when you look at it, Canon has given us image quality that, currently, isn’t worth much more than a B. The A goes to Nikon for their image quality on the D3s. If you look at reviews of the 1D4 around the Internet, you’ll find reviewers (who by the way are all Canon users) who are wishing Canon had given us the image quality produced by the D3s. One example is this review done by a Danish photographer, here’s what he had to say (translated from Danish):

It would have been better if Canon had made the files smaller and improved high ISO as such 12,800 were usable.

In another 1D4 review, the reviewer looks at the noise in files produced by the 1D4, and says that it almost looks “D3s like,” but not quite:

As stated previously, regardless of ISO (even 102,500!) there is no banding (even when heavily processed), and the pleasantness of the grain is particularly distinguishable from 12,800 ISO and higher as compared to all other cameras tested. One might say, the grain is almost… “Nikon D3s like” (…gasp! I know!)

If Canon had kept the 1D4 at 10MP or 12MP at most, the 1D4′s image quality could have matched the D3s. But as it is right now, the D3s is the clear winner. Juza Nature Photography has done an excellent comparison of image quality between the 1D4 and the Nikon D3s. You can clearly see there just how good the Nikon D3s actually is. It is really quite unbelievable. I’ve written about such image quality before in my EOS 7D review, and I’ve said there that I am quite sure that Canon today is capable of delivering this kind of image quality, but simply refuses to do so, choosing to compete with megapixels instead. And the old stupid argument about the resolution advantage even though there’s more noise clearly doesn’t apply here. Yes the 1D4 (16MP) has more resolution compared to the D3s (12MP), but clearly the resolution advantage doesn’t matter when you view the images from these two cameras side by side, and in fact, the 1D4 images become so noisy at higher ISO values that you’d have to use noise reduction software on them which will also remove detail from your images. So in the end, you’re actually better off using the D3s.

1D Mark IV and D3s Image Quality

The image crops above are much smaller crops taken from the review by Juza Nature Photography. Head over to their review to see the larger crops and be able to judge things like detail and see the quality at other ISO values. In the small crops above, it’s clear that the D3s beats the 1D4 when it comes to image quality. Even at ISO 100 the 1D4 shows some color noise while the D3s image looks as smooth as you can ever expect to get an image from a DSLR. The colors also look a lot better on the D3s. The D3s is so good that the ISO 1600 image on the D3s comes close to the ISO 100 image on the 1D4!!! Who the fuck would care about more noisy megapixels if you can get smooth and creamy looking images like this?? And if you look at ISO 102400, the 1D4 simply produces unusable garbage. I’ve said it many times before, but apparently Canon thinks we’re all stupid. They did it before when they said they couldn’t include better autofocus technology in the 5D Mark II because the body was too small. Including ISO 102400 the way it is on the 1D4 quite frankly is an insult to our intelligence. In the same way, Canon could have included ISO values up to 819200 and have that on the box as a feature. The images would be absolute crap, but hey, you can make them! Looking at the ISO 102400 sample from the 1D4, I can’t help but think that what happened is that Canon saw after the D3s announcement that the D3s was capable of taking images at ISO 102400, and at the last minute they added that feature on the 1D4 as the H3 setting just so the 1D4 and the D3s features would look more comparable on paper and the D3s wouldn’t have the edge. Stupid marketing at its best. This might also explain why Canon ordered everyone to take down their sample images taken with the 1D4 shortly after they announced the 1D4, because they probably weren’t quite finished with tweaking the higher ISO output.

The good news is that so far Canon appears to have addressed the autofocus shortcomings from the 1D Mark III, and all reviews I’ve seen up till now are very very positive about the autofocus capabilities of the 1D4. Photographer Brad Mangin wrote about his experiences with the 1D4 autofocus system and was quite pleased. Photographer Justin Gryba while also quite pleased with the tracking capabilities of the 1D4 autofocus system discovered some inconsistencies and bad performance in low light conditions. Apparently Canon crippled the Spot AF feature on the 1D4 when compared to the EOS 7D. On the 1D4 the Spot AF feature can only be used with the very expensive long lenses with an AF Stop button, while on the 7D you can configure the camera to use Spot AF with all lenses. Because of this, the accuracy of the AF system on the 1D4 in low light is not as good as it could be, and as Justin shows in his review, is even worse than the 5D Mark II. This is a serious issue if you expect to use the 1D4 for events in low light conditions, such as weddings, where you simply can’t use lenses with an AF Stop button. For the details on this head on over to Justin’s website to read his review. Fortunately Canon should be able to address this issue with a firmware update. The functionality we want is already included on the 7D, it’s just a matter of enabling it on the 1D4. After reading Justin’s review, please contact your local Canon representative to request this feature to be added. This is a very important find by Justin and he deserves the credit. Let’s hope Canon listens.

The 1D4 will be a good camera overall for Canon users. After the 1D Mark III autofocus fiasco, Canon users worldwide were desperate for a working professional DSLR and the 1D4 will be able to keep them reasonably satisfied for a while. It won’t help Canon to win back those users who have already switched to Nikon, because Nikon has the better bodies right now and they’re working hard on the lenses. It probably also won’t convince many users to stay with Canon who have already decided to switch to Nikon. But it will convince many Canon users who already have a lot invested in Canon to stick with Canon gear for the coming 3 years. It’s the easier path to take. But deep down inside, at any event, they’ll all know that the Nikon photographers with the big black lenses and a D3s logo on their bodies will have the edge.

The future currently doesn’t look very good for Canon. They appear to be struggling to keep up with Nikon, and mostly because of their own shortsightedness and stupidity because they have the potential to blow Nikon away. But because of their fooling around they are giving Nikon a lot of room to catch up. Nikon has already surpassed Canon when DSLR bodies are concerned, and they are now working hard to close the gap with their lenses. They’ve released an updated 70-200mm f/2.8 lens that appears to match the new Canon version and just yesterday, Nikon announced the long anticipated 24mm f/1.4 professional lens along with a new 16-35 f/4 lens (read more here). According to recent information, they also have their new professional 35mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.4 primes in the works (patents have been filed) and these should be released soon. In 2011 Nikon will probably not only have closed the gaps in their lens lineup, but will also have the better quality optics. Add this to the already better Nikon DSLR bodies and flash system, and you can start to see that the future doesn’t look very good for Canon. For the short term, the release of an updated D700 body with the sensor from the D3s will be like a knife through Canon’s heart. They know it’s coming, and there’s nothing they can do about it.

As a Canon user, I hope I won’t have to make the difficult decision of having to switch to Nikon in 2011. The only thing keeping me back right now is the huge investment I currently have in Canon gear. Otherwise, I’d have been a Nikon user already.

Update February 11, 2010: Rob Galbraith has just published his findings on the autofocus system of the 1D Mark IV, and it doesn’t look very good. As you may know, Galbraith, a sports photographer from Canada, was the first who pointed out that the 1D Mark III had autofocus issues back in 2007. He has now done some tests with both the 1D Mark IV and the 1D Mark III, and also tested the D3s along with the 1D Mark IV, and although it does appear that the 1D Mark IV is an improvement compared to the older model (which isn’t saying much because the 1D3 had tons of issues), it still has some issues making the autofocus system from the D3s a better choice. Here’s some of what he had to say:

Add it all up and the conclusion is inescapable: the EOS-1D Mark IV has an AF system that is capable of greatness but is also so bewilderingly variable that there’s no way to trust it, especially for outdoor sports. Indoors, EOS-1D Mark IV autofocus performance has been less variable, but our results from speedskating and basketball are simply not up to par. If this is the best the company could muster, after the autofocus debacle of the EOS-1D Mark III, then it’s official: Canon has lost their autofocus mojo.

…

To sum up, our experience with the D3S’ AF system is that it’s trustworthy and dependable enough for us to be confident using it for peak action sports. Not perfect: it needs to be a bit faster off the line, in addition to the other quibbles we’ve mentioned. But it does work as needed most of the time, which is in stark contrast to the experience of the EOS-1D Mark IV in the last month.

Go over to read his full analysis and to check out the tons of sample pictures.

So I guess this makes things a lot worse for Canon than I initially thought and explained above. The 1D4 appears to be an improvement compared to the 1D3, but will it be enough to keep Canon users happy and loyal to the brand? We know that when the image quality is concerned, the Nikon D3s is the clear winner. And now it looks like even for the autofocus performance, you’re better off using a Nikon D3s. It really is quite a sad situation, and as Galbraith briefly shows in his article, the competition using Nikon gear is going to have a real advantage over you if you’re using Canon gear.

Update February 12, 2010: Photographer Lloyd Chambers posted some remarks about the D3s image quality and it’s worth taking a look. Here’s some of what he had to say:

The Nikon D3s handles ISO 3200 superbly. The flag shot at right was also pushed by 2/3 stop = ISO 5000 equivalent. Yet the noise is minimal, and the color true. I also shot at ISO 12800, and I’ll be pitiqualated if I wasn’t even more impressed than I expected. The Nikon D3s is truly a breakthrough camera.

The Nikon D3s is a low light dream camera. Couple that with some good low light lenses and you’re in low light photography heaven! As I mentioned before, Nikon is currently working hard to update their lenses for low light photography (this means lenses with small aperture values). They’ve already announced the 24mm f/1.4 and they’ll be releasing their new 35mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.4 lenses in the future. The fact that these lenses were not yet available is what made a lot of Canon users hesitate to switch to Nikon. Canon users have long enjoyed the ability to use the 24mm f/1.4, 35mm f/1.4, 50mm f/1.2, 85mm f/1.2 and 135mm f/2 lenses. The results you can get using those lenses are simply amazing. But now that Nikon will also have them very soon, especially in combination with an excellent body as the D3s, I think many will make the switch as soon as they can afford to.

If you’ve been following the news you probably heard about the recent issues Google is having with China. However it is important to get a good perspective on the whole issue. And so far I think this article on The Inquirer has really nailed it:

But we should not be surprised as it is starting to look like the whole thing is as much an embarrassment to the US government as it is to Google. Suggestions are that the same software Google uses to snoop on customers for US law enforcement might have provided Chinese hackers with their attack vector.

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…the trend toward building surveillance capability into telecommunications architecture amounts to a breach-by-design and is a serious security risk.

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With the automated process in place all the Chinese would have had to do was hack into it and all the information they wanted would have been available to them.

If this is true, it is running counter to the official story that claims Chinese dissidents were tricked with a bogus Trojan. It highlights the weaknesses in Google’s cloud computing plans and how the US government’s obsession to snoop on its citizens actually puts them at risk.

Fortunately for both Google and the US government, they can sidetrack the problem with a bit of spin that paints them as ‘fighting for freedom’ against the Chinese government’s attempts to clamp down on free speech.

China has been successfully squeezing Internet companies for years and neither Google nor the US government had complained much.

Yet when the future of cloud based computing is threatened then Google apparently feels it is a good idea to threaten to pull out of China.

The US government too has an interest in Google’s cloud based initiative succeeding. Instead of having to get court orders to snoop at many ISPs it will only have to deal with one company, with which it could develop a very cosy relationship over time.

However if Google’s snooping software did provide the Chinese attack vector, then it could make people less happy with both the government and cloud based computing.

So the White House now enters the spin war on Google’s side.

…

Google is onto a PR winner here. With even Reporters Without Borders hailing Google’s move, no one is taking any time to wonder how Chinese hackers were able to get into its cloud.

When Google decided it was the right thing to do to assist the Chinese government with censoring information on the Internet back in 2006, I wrote a post where I discussed the hypocrisy of the situation. In that post I wrote the following:

Similarly, Google thinks, and/or would like us to think, that they are helping the Chinese people by at least trying to provide them with the information they are allowed to view, instead of denying them access to all information, but in the process, they are willingly helping the Chinese government with committing a crime against their people. They are actually helping the government there to restrict freedom of speech and to deny the people there their basic rights.

So much for “Don’t be evil.” Google PR are making all kinds of sharp turns right now trying to explain their way out of this and making them look good, but it won’t work.

And it will only go downhill from here. Once they start doing business there and start to rely on it, the Chinese government will have more power over them and will get them to agree to even more things. Like I said before, corporations are only interested in protecting their interests, and you’d be surprised at the things they can be willing to do in order to protect themselves. In the world we live in, everything seems to be about interests and protecting them. That always seems to have the highest priority instead of moral principles and ethics. Just look at Microsoft. They are willing to fight the EU, South Korea and the US government to be able to release certain software with Windows, but gladly comply to the Chinese government’s request to censor information! Isn’t that just lovely?

It is important to remember the reasons why Google went to do business in China in the first place and why they decided to help the Chinese government with censorship back then. Because this will allow you to see through their current PR-spin bullshit about “fighting for freedom.” This isn’t about freedom, it is about protecting Google’s own (business) interests. It is about hiding the fact that they have holes built into their software that allow people, such as the Criminals in Action (CIA), NSA and other parts of the US government to snoop on people. Before this happened, Google was perfectly happy with helping the Chinese government with censorship. Now all of a sudden they feel the need to “fight for freedom.”

Also take note of the fact that money from the CIA was used to finance Google in the beginning. Google is very much in bed with the US government when it comes to cloud computing, and this is one of the reasons why cloud computing is a bad idea. If you’re new to this, take the time to read the links in this post, and if nothing else, at least read the following to understand just how far this goes: Google “in bed” with CIA.

This is what Google is trying to hide right now. It is important that we not make this easy for them to do.

Distant destinations

So we’ve entered a new year and undoubtedly most people are going to be posting their new year’s resolutions all over the Internet in the next couple of days. I too have been thinking about my life as it has progressed so far, mostly looking at what I’ve been doing wrong and what I’ve been doing right, what worked and what didn’t. I’ve also been looking at some of the posts I’ve written in the past here on my blog, and it occurred to me that I already have a pretty good formula for my approach to life in the new year and I think far beyond. I’m going to list those posts below, but for a detailed explanation click through to read every one of them to get the complete picture. You really have to read the details in order to really understand where I’m coming from.

1. Have absolutely nothing to lose in life.  If you have nothing to lose, you can only win. Stand for what you believe, have principles in life, value your integrity, make your own choices, be free and have some backbone. Make sure you have nothing to lose, because that’s the only way you’ll be able to really have all of those things. Read the details.
2. Listen to the voice inside your head. Our intuition is always there to provide guidance. Learn to isolate it from all the clutter and noise in life and then always listen to it. Read the details.
3. Learn from everyone. You can learn important and valuable things from almost anyone as long as you keep an open mind. The sooner you realize this, and really understand what this means, the sooner you’ll be able to benefit from it. Read the details.
4. Learn how to deal with being wrong. Constantly challenge yourself and/or allow yourself to be challenged by others to find out if you’re on the right track. If not, admit to it as soon as possible and change directions. It will only help you improve and grow much faster. Read the details.
5. See life for what it is. At its core life is a very painful and negative experience. The sooner you realize this, the better you’ll be able to deal with it. Understand what “happiness” is and reset your expectations accordingly. Read the details.
6. Focus on the negative things in life. Don’t fool yourself. Know what’s missing, what could be better and what’s wrong, and focus on those things! It will only make you a better person. Read the details.
7. Understand the world we live in. The world we live in is fundamentally flawed and evil and if you want to be a part of it, it will force you to support that. However indirectly it may be, while you may know it or not. The sooner you understand this, the sooner you’ll be able to deal with it. Read the details.
8. Be prepared to go crazy, but in reverse. You’re going to find out that things are not as they seem, not as you’ve been taught, and not as people want you to believe. In fact, quite often in life the “truth” is a lie and “lies” are true. Read the details.
9. Understand love and relationships.  If you look around you, it should be more than clear that what we’ve been taught about love, and the rules we’ve been told to live by only serve to frustrate our lives, hurt our relationships and make things more difficult for us. Find out what works: Read the details.
10. Watch your weight! I see people everywhere struggling to maintain a healthy weight. The solution is simple: Just follow Donk’s Diet. Read the details.

These are some of the concepts that have so far served me well in life. Upon looking back at the issues I’ve had in my life so far, I’ve noticed that most issues only started and/or got worse when I chose to neglect what I’ve just listed above. Perhaps this information might be useful to you as well in the new year, and hopefully beyond.

Beauty & Home Systems Inc. Headquarters (click for larger image)

I’ve recently had the opportunity to photograph the buildings and offices of Beauty & Home Systems Inc. (BHS). BHS is the distributor of As Seen on TV products and the consultant of AVON products in Suriname. They currently have a number of outlets in Suriname and an office in Guyana. However the pictures I’ve included below are all taken at their main office in Suriname. The buildings and the offices were all decorated for Christmas.

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Back in 2005 I wrote about the “wonderful” Christmas and holiday season. I invite you to go back with me and read that post again by clicking on the following link: Shiny Happy People.

Nothing has changed.