I’ve been admiring photographs taken with Lomo cameras for a while on Flickr and this week I bought my first Lomo - the Fisheye. I’d seen it a couple of weeks ago at the Baltic Contemporary Arts Centre shop in Gateshead, priced at £40. I got mine for just over £22 on Amazon (store/seller: gadgetepoint) on Sunday night. It arrived Tuesday morning sharp.

I bought a pack of two FUJICOLOR C200 (36 exp) 35mm film for around £3 and popped a roll in. This week I have been a bit pushed with other things so hadn’t really planned on going anywhere special to take some photos. I did manage to pop out on Thursday afternoon for a couple of hours. I must admit it all feels a bit strange to take a photo and not have immediate playback on an LCD screen to see how it turned out. Plus having to wind the film on after I’ve taken a photo is something I’m having to remember. And there was also the weird self-conscious feeling of using a camera which looks and feels a little like a Fisher Price toy!

I popped the film into ASDA Walmart yesterday lunchtime and had a few options. I didn’t necessarily want the photos printing as to be honest I had few expectations of these photos, given it was my first time with something quite different - and I’ve learned positioning is rather important for a camera with a 170 degree field of vision!! A few photos had my sleeve in, knee in and even my hair in! So, I was given the option to have the photos scanned to disc, no printouts. This suits me as it’s just going onto my Flickr stream anyway and if there was anything worth printing I have a couple of photo-printers at home. There were, as expected, some ropey shots - but a few did turn out okay. Best part is it only cost 97p to have the photos developed/scanned to disc in 1 hour.

You can check out six of my Lomo Fisheye photos, here. Those were the best out of the lot. I had to take some random shots to use up the last of the film as clearly I didn’t take many when I was out, but was keen to get it developed. This isn’t a camera I will use a whole lot, but I do like the way it really enhances the clouds in the sky. I will be taking this on some of my photo walks as it takes quite interesting shots.

If my Fuji S5700 Digital Camera was feeling out in the cold after the arrival of the Lomo Fisheye then it needn’t have. Yesterday it got some attention with a new wide angle lens.

I bought it last week for around £10.50, plus £13 shipping from Hong Kong, through eBay. It’s good to have a wide angle - really liking it’s effect. Hoping for a dry and sunny day next week to go and experiment with it.

Today I bought a Joby Gorillapod tripod for my digital camera and HD digital camcorder. Gone are the days when I shove a bunch of books under my camera to get a little more height when taking shots on a flat surface.

I bought it from PC World (I know, sorry!) for £19-99. The maximum weight load for this particular Joby is 275g. I searched through my digital camera manual and discovered the total weight of my Fuji S5700 is 400g. My camera is a bridge, so physically it’s more like a DSLR - but the Joby Gorillapod SLR (max weight load 800g) is more expensive and I didn’t want to pay too much for something that is only for occasional light useage. It takes the weight of my Aiptek High Definition digital camcorder no problem and it will be very useful for that as that won’t happily stand or balance on any surface.

You can check out the Gorillapod range, here.

Since buying my new Digital Camera I’m quite keen to arrange my photos in some kind of order so that they are easier to locate. When I attach my camera to the iMac it brings up the FujiFilm software which will then import my photos to a folder in Documents. It names the folder something like 2008_0330, based on the dates so it doesn’t exactly make finding the photos very easy.

Last week I downloaded the Aperture 2 trial version. I was pleased with the way I could import my photos directly from the camera and sort them into Events. Within there I could also touch up photos and make them look their best before exporting them to Flickr. The price tag for Aperture 2 is £129 and I was seriously considering purchasing. However, I decided to wait until the trial was over before making my mind up. I then fired up iPhoto 08 a few days back which is something I hadn’t bothered with since getting my iMac last October. Before iPhoto 08 I had very briefly used iPhoto 05 on my Mac Mini. Briefly was enough as I found it very limited, but since I had Photoshop I wasn’t too bothered about using another program for editing photos.

iPhoto 08 is a world apart from 05. Like Aperture I can sort my photos into Events and it has a number of touch-up tools, again very similar to Aperture. For my needs iPhoto 08 is absolutely perfect and best part is it’s all free with the Mac. I purchased FlickrExport for iPhoto (£12) a couple of days ago which means I can upload directly to Flickr from iPhoto. I am in the process of sorting my photos into Events, although I will only be adding ones taken with my new Fuji S5700 as they are the nicest ones

So, the iLife package has come in very useful, once again…even if it has taken me 5 months to discover it(!)

Last week I ordered a High Definition Digital Camcorder. It’s the Aiptek AHD200 720p and it cost £109 from QVC UK. They also threw in a 2GB SD Card, but apart from that extra which was exclusive to the QVC deal it also comes with remote control and a case.

It arrived today so I’ve only had a brief time to play around with it but the thing I love about it is the simplicity - it’s very straightforward to use. I don’t need anything expensive or fancy with a ton of features, so this is perfect for my needs.

I’m ill with Tonsillitis and a horrible influenza type virus at the moment, so the chances of me getting out with the intention of shooting any decent footage over the coming days is slim, but hopefully I’ll be able to get something before the Easter Weekend is over and then I’ll give more of my review.

I did take a 10 second test video and uploaded it to YouTube before I realised how that site completely strips any quality. I was pointed in the direction of blip.tv by Graham so I opened an account there and will post any decent stuff there in future. Then I remembered I had an account at Vimeo and was very pleased to see that they now present HD Videos without ripping apart the quality. So, I uploaded my very quick test clip here. I think you can really see how vibrant the colours are on my screen.

So, initial thoughts on the Aiptek AHD 200 from a very quick play while being slightly unwell is very positive indeed. The RRP on this model is around £150 - I’m just glad I was watching QVC at the right moment to bag their special offer. I’ll write more about it when I’ve had a good opportunity to get out and about with it.

EDIT - Wednesday 19th March 2008

Some video shot today of the dog, by my other half. Feel free to add me as a contact on Vimeo

My new digital camera that I talked about here arrived a couple of weeks ago. Not so pleasant weather (wind, rain, stormy stuff) mixed with me being occupied with other things meant I haven’t had the opportunity to get out for a significant period to play with it. I’ve played around doing super macro shots and I’m very impressed with it.

I’ve been reading the manual for the camera and there’s a lot for me to master. I can have so much more control over the aperture which I’m really looking forward to learning more about. I am not planning on any night shots just yet because I’m not quite comfortable with how to do so. Plus, it’s a little bit chilly and murky in the evenings, so not quite the weather for standing still long enough for a slow shutter speed or indeed take lots of test shots to get it just right.

I’ve been buying up some extras for the camera including 2GB SD card, case, rechargeable batteries and a charging unit for the batteries. I’ll always carry four spare batteries with me. They’ll fit comfortably into the front of the case. Of course, the good thing about a camera that does take AA batteries is they’re readily available almost anywhere, meaning I should never get caught short. I’ve also read some reviews for the particular batteries I’ve bought and they apparently have a very long life.

Today has been one of the nicest days we’ve had ever since I bought the camera. Not windy, not wet, clear-ish blue sky and not bitterly cold either. So, I took the opportunity to have a zoom across the Tyne Bridge into Gateshead where the Angel of the North stands, welcoming people into the region via the A1. In all the 10 years he’s been opening his arms to those entering Gateshead/Newcastle, I haven’t once got right up to him close enough to take some quality photos of the big fella. I have only ever taken these two shots as we’ve driven past.

I put the camera onto Landscape mode and took around 35 shots. The sun was in a bit of an odd position but I think I got some nice photos. Luckily it was fairly quiet around there today - just myself and a Japanese tourist taking some photos. Both of us being kind enough to step out of the way while each of us took photos. I really could have used a wide angle lens to fit the entire wing span in. I’d have to stand back some distance to get all of him in. You just don’t appreciate how massive he is until you’re stood at his feet. One of my favourite shots from the afternoon is this one…

The jogger running past just demonstrates the sheer scale of this breathtaking landmark. I am also impressed with the zoom on this camera with these two shots.

You can see my other shots from the afternoon, here.

So, really pleased with how my shots turned out, in this first outing for my new Fuji S5700 7.1MP Digital Camera. I’m so glad I finally moved on from my 2.1MP SONY Cybershot otherwise the shots wouldn’t have been anywhere near as good - and of course the race against time regarding the lacking battery would have taken the pleasure out of it.