beyondis' photostream

Gravitating towards the non-dual

Endeavouring to avoid artifice

Observing perfection in imperfection

I could undoubtedly take more care over the composition of my photos (and use software to enhance them) but I like to be as spontaneous as possible in my picture taking - and prefer not to 'tamper' with the output. So...the only processing done to the images I upload here is resizing - plus occasional lossless cropping. That said, I am currently experimenting with RAW processing - but only to correct exposure 'errors'.

Main camera:

Sony Alpha a300 (10MP, purchased June 2008) - after months of vacillating about which make/model to get I finally took the plunge. The live view facility (which doesn't require lifting of the mirror - unlike some of the competition) with the flip out lcd screen swung it for me really - I figured it would be really useful for macro work. It may be an 'entry level' model, but it seems to do everything I need it to - and I'm delighted with it.

Lenses: Sony 18-70 3.5/5.6 (kit lens), Tamron 55-200 4/5.6 LD Di II, Minolta 28-80xi 4/5.6, Quantaray (Sigma) 70-300 4/5.6 LDO Macro, Helios 44M 58/2 (M42), Hanimex 300/5.5 (M42), Raynox DCR-250

Other cameras used:

Samsung S760 (7MP, 3x optical zoom, purchased December 2008) - yet to upload anything from this camera, so can't really comment on its qualities.

Minolta Dimage S414 (4MP, 4x optical zoom, used to take the vast majority of pictures posted to flickr between Summer 2005 and June 2008) - great lens for a compact (plus it has a screw thread so is extendable with additional lenses and filters), quite a few manual controls, produces clear well-defined images across the focal range - on the downside it's a bit bulky, is rather battery hungry and the automatic focus can occasionally get things wrong.

Kodak CX7430 (4MP, 3x optical zoom) - quite small and light, good for close up shots and portraits and has a 640x480 video mode - however the fine detail in landscape images can be a bit soft and fuzzy

HP Photosmart 318 (2.1MP, used to take pictures in my photostream prior to Summer 2005) - easy to use and produced OK images - however it had no optical zoom or white balance settings and sometimes reproduced bright colours a bit strangely (reds especially)