Some photographers of note:

• Henri Cartier-Bresson, (1908-2004) famous for shooting with Leica camera with a 50mm lens, and saying if you want the image larger just get closer (Ken Rockwell has an amusing take on why Henri Cartier-Bresson used a Leica with only one lens). Amongst other things Cartier-Bresson was an early (war) photojournalist, and founded Magnum as a cooperative with several other photojournalists of the time.

• Ken Rockwell who writes detailed equipment reviews, particularly (but not exclusively) for Nikon camera equipment (and Canon lenses) and photography tech discussions (eg the importance of flash sync speed and how the electronic shutter in Nikon D70, and many point and shoots, and leaf shutters in professional cameras avoid this issue; lens limits due to defraction suggesting f/8 or f/11 as smallest apeture for DSLRs and how to select the sharpest aperture); he has been amusingly compared with Chuck Norris; he recommends replacing a DSLR back every two model generations, which means that my Canon EOS 400D is due for replacement by the Canon EOS 500D (Ken's review).

• Harold Davis is a photographer and author who has written extensively about photography, after an extensive career writing about software. He takes amazing night photos, and macro photos.

Canon EOS 500D

The Canon EOS 500D (which Ken Rockwell likes more than the 400D that I have) is two models on from the 400D that I bought about 2 years ago, and has a few features that I'd like including:

• SD (Secure Digital) media (rather than CF), which is the same as my Canon IXUS 80, and directly readable on my laptop

• LiveView (ie, LCD display of image through lens, like Digital Compacts; 400D is viewfinder only), although this is apparently slow enough to mostly be useful only for still scenes

• Larger LCD and better ergonomics (eg, play/all settings more easily reached ("quick control"), faster image processor)

• Auto ISO (although not with the same shutter speed priority as Nikon), and in general improved ISO range (1600 is apparently usable, cf only 800 on 400D)

but I'm not sure it's worth the NZ$1500 or so to purchase the new back. Especially since that NZ$1500 could be spent on new lenses, or books on techniques, instead. Especially since the 15MP sensor has more issues with noise, and the noise reduction is pretty noticable on images displayed at 100% resolution (cf, Nikon) according to Ken Rockwell's review -- although there is an 8MBP mode, and appear to be options to reduce/disable the noise reduction algorithm. (NZ$1500 buys a couple of pretty good lenses; although the 400D seems to be selling second hand around NZ$500-NZ$700, which potentially reduces the net cost, and there are various TradeMe sellers/parallel importers selling new (ex Hong Kong?) 500Ds for about NZ$1300, some with kit lens.)

The review of the Canon EOS 1000D (which is Canon's budget SLR -- released 2008 -- pushing the 450D/500D further up the price/feature scale than the 400D was) contains a useful comparision between the 400D and the 450D and the 1000D. Much of the review comparisions also apply to the 500D, when compared with the 400D. From a quick glance it appears even the 1000D would be worth considering as an upgrade to the 400D, which may explain the relatively low resale prices on the 400D, since the 1000D retails around NZ$1000. (Overall I think if I were buying a new back it would be the 500D since it appears faster and has some other useful features.)

Other photography links

Found while trawling things linked above:

• Attaching other lenses to Canon EOS cameras

• Cambridge In Colour Tutorials including:

  • Defraction and photography (also how sensor size interacts with defraction and resulting noise effects)

  • Depth of field and circle of confusion

  • How digital camera sensors work and how can they can introduce noise such as moire patterns (and image interpolation algorithms and how they can introduce noise like aliasing, bluring and edge halos)

  • Understanding image noise

  • How unsharp mask works, which illustrates how it gets its name (slightly defocus original, then use that as a mask of original -- what is left is by definition more sharp) (and what sharpness is in an image, as well as a similar technique for contrast enhancement with a much larger "sharpening" radius)

  • Lens quality factors

  • RAW file format benefits, which are basically use more CPU later to be able to use better algorithms and higher bit depth; also DNG (Adobe Digital Negative) format, which some cameras seem to be adopting as their native raw format; DNG Spec

• iPhone photo gallery and The Best Camera (is the one that's always with you) (iPhone app and book)