Why I Program in Go
Go is a fresh new programming language, that has come out of Google and is primarily targeted towards server development. It is developed by some very accomplished computer scientists, like Ken Thompson and Rob Pike. I recently launched a significant new product built with Go at work, and it has proved itself out very well in terms of developer productivity and performance. So much so that many other teams are also giving it a go (oh, how punny this language’s name is).
State of the Camera 2012: Part 2
In Part 1 of this two-part series we looked at some of the dominant technology trends over the last couple of years and the impact they are having on cameras and photography. In this part of the series, I write about my impressions of a few recent cameras that I have had the opportunity to use.
Sony CyberShot DSC-RX100
Voted by Time Magazine as one of the best inventions of 2012 and declared to be the best pocket camera ever made by New York Times reviewer David Pogue, this camera has changed the way people respond to small sensor sizes.
State of the Camera 2012: Part 1
It’s been exactly two years since I last wrote about a camera on this blog. A lot has changed in the camera scene over the last two years and I fell in and out of love with the NEX-5 during this time as well. In this post I shall begin with talking about the recent trends in the camera market followed by short reviews of a few new generation cameras that I have tried or bought.
High on Lo-Fi
The camera industry is going through some pretty big movements these days. Since the advent of digital cameras and social networking websites, more and more people have been finding interest in taking photos and exhibiting them online to friends and public at large. Somewhere in this explosive growth of photography, veterans and early enthusiasts sometimes find themselves in a tight spot.
Big Camera, Small Camera
Since their inception, digital camera sensors have been pushing the boundaries of the quality of images they produce. For most of the last decade, it was a case of bigger is better. For better image quality (detail, focus accuracy, lack of noise), you needed to go for the largest digital sensor you could afford. That led to a lot of people lusting after Digital SLR cameras, with sensors having 10-20x more surface area than those of smaller point-and-shoot types.
Find and Edit File
While working on a huge code-base with several thousand source files, it becomes difficult to remember where each file is. If you use conventions like one file per class, you can at least figure out the file name. E.g. the definition of class Foo would be found in Foo.class.xx or something like that.
Thankfully, ack makes it easy to find the location files in a project. Just say, ack -g Foo.class and voila! it tells you to dig in modules/frob/model/include/Foo.class.xx or whatever abominable directory hierarchy it may be embedded in. So when you decide to kill that error at line 324 of class Foo, all you need to do is:
Need a new Start-up Idea? Mash up Social and Cloud
Are you based out of India and need an idea for a technology start-up? Try thinking of two of the biggest technology buzzwords of the day and mash ’em up together. Social + Cloud!
Back in the ol’ days when system programming and desktop applications were hot, people were trying to create applications that could run on more than one OS. There was a sprouting of libraries, proprietary and open source, that promised abstraction from the operating system internals. Right now, if you think of one thing where the a lot of modern applications run, the answer would be — a social network. Facebook is obviously the dominant player here but by 2015, it will have at least one formidable competitor. Developers wouldn’t want their app to be stuck on one of these.
NEX-5 Early Impressions
It’s been a week since I’ve had my baby camera, i.e. the Sony α NEX-5 and I’ve been enjoying it so far. Here’s a quick low down of the ups and downs I’ve encountered with the camera.
The Good
- Outstanding IQ in any shooting conditions that can only be trumped by careful, deliberate shooting with a DSLR equipped with high quality optics
- Small enough to fit in my laptop bag, if not the jeans pocket
- Excellent iAuto mode for quick snapshots
- Fairly easy to use controls, esp. with button customisation offered by Firmware v03
- Auto HDR and Hand-held Twilight Modes really work!
- Sweep Panorama works really well for hand-held shooting. You can’t do better with a DSLR until you mount it on a tripod.
- Focuses almost as fast as an AF-D type Nikkor with D80/D90 body
- Optical Steady Shot (OSS) on the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Kit Lens is outstanding
- Movie making is super easy and fun!
Top Left: ISO 12800 shot. Top Right: “Hand-held Twilight” shot @ ISO 6400. Bottom: Sweep Panorama
My Imaging Tools and Workflow
As my photos get backed up and burnt on to a DVD, I thought I might just do a quick cataloguing of the software I’ve found useful for developing my photographs and what each does. I’d also outline my workflow as I present each software in the order in which it appears in the workflow. Just to set the context, I use Microsoft Windows 7 for my imaging tasks, and my camera is a Nikon D90, so I do use a lot of Nikon software.
Which Compact Interchangeable-Lens Camera?
These are exciting times for DSLR enthusiasts. We’ve all marvelled at the creative and operational flexibility afforded by the large dial, switch and button infested DSLR bodies and interchangeable purpose-built lenses. We’ve been spoiled for the impeccable image quality afforded by the 8.5-15x larger APS-C sensors (upto 34x larger if you’re a 35mm shooter). It’s impossible to look back at compacts. Or is it?
Most DSLR shooters sooner or later realise that their beloved hunk can’t be their only camera. They can’t carry it all the time to family events. They can’t do anything about it if they happened to dine in a fancy restaurant on impulse. Carrying a DSLR has to be planned ahead, owing to its bulk. In the last couple of years, though, the B-level interchangeable lens system manufacturers (anyone other than Canon and Sony) had been pushing the boundaries of how small an interchangeable-lens system could be made. While I’ve followed this category (dubbed EVIL — Electronic Viewfinder, Interchangeable Lens), it’s right about now that I have finally settled on a system. It’s going to be none but the Sony α NEX-5 for me. If you follow me on twitter, you’d already know about this. Here’s a brief overview of stuff that I considered and what sold me on NEX-5.
Creating Hand-held HDRs
On my recent vacation, I took a bunch of bracketed exposures to turn into HDRs. Before this trip I only used a tripod for bracketing. This time around, however, I had to deal with hand-held bracketed shots. To make things a bit worse, these shots included foliage, which isn’t always stationary between shots. Picturenaut utterly failed to align these images. I tried Luminance HDR (qtpfsgui) for Windows 7 (64-bit), and it simply kept crashing. Then I tried Hugin, which too failed to do much. Besides, it was extremely confusing since it is a tool for stitching panoramas, with HDR and alignment being a part of the whole.