Mike McNally wrote: > A guy named Phil Greenspun at MIT has an excellent webpage on photography at > www.photo.net. I don't know what he advised for water proof..., but he has > some super information on a 150$ point and shoot by yashica (t4), that has a > zeus fixed 35mm lens with outstanding lens quality. To be able to pick up a > point and shoot pocket camara with a professional quality lens for just 150 > bucks is to my mind not to be passed up. Hope this helps. I'm going to get > one and it will be my mountain vista slash kayaking camara. I have a Yashica T4, and the Zeiss Tessar lens is extremely sharp and has excellent contrast. But it has a severe light falloff problem (which means that the image is not evenly illuminated, but rather is brighter in the center than in the corners). This is a very common problem with point-and-shoot cameras. It is *not* a problem if you only shoot print film, since print film has sufficient latitude to mask the effect. It is a major problem, however, with slide film (which is the only thing I use). And before you ask, it is not just my camera--it is a widely acknowledged problem with the T4, and was recently discussed at length on the rec.photo.equipment.35mm newsgroup. It's really a shame, since the lens is sharp and contrasty, the light meter is excellent, and it is possible--using certain tricks--to use filters (including polarizing filters) and to exert substantial control over the exposure. But it's all for naught if you are using slide film and are at all picky about uneven illumination. I have given up on using point-and-shoot cameras for anything other than snapshots. Fortunately I have an excellent, waterproof deck bag (with a drysuit zipper) that makes it possible to access my SLRs from my kayak. But I would prefer using a smaller camera at times. I wish that someone would make a point-and-shoot camera that can match *all* of the optical qualities of my SLR equipment (and not just the sharpness and contrast). But even the high-end Contax and Leica point-and-shoots suffer from light falloff. Dan Hagen *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Oct 28 1999 - 12:52:31 PDT
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