10,500 feet is way the heck up there!

"mike regish" writes:

What's with the 3.1 megapixel/6 megapixel effective stuff?

What is it. 3.1 or 6?

It's 3.1.

This is something Fuji keeps screwing up on, and it annoys the heck
outa me.

Here follows more photo-neepery than most people probably care
about....

The Fuji "super-CCD" is a good design. It uses octagonal cells (yes,
8-sided, not 6-sided, and not 4-sided), and they're arranged in more
of a diamond grid (definitely not in a simple rectangular array).
This lets more of each cell be the actual light-sensitive part, which
increases sensitivity and lowers noise. Practical trials of Fuji
cameras show definite improvements in noise levels and a small
increase in resolution compared to a normal, rectangular, array of the
same number of pixels (see reports at http://dpreview.com, a very
good site for digital camera info). The reports on the Fuji S2 Pro
are the ones I'm most familiar with, since that's the camera I was
studying (and decided in the end to buy).

Now, to get an actual rectangular array of pixels out of this, some
processing is needed. The way Fuji does it involves resampling the
funny array up to a rectangular grid of twice as many pixels.

Then some marketing dweeb decided to try to market those cameras as
actually having that many pixels. This, of course, caused lots of
people to go off like rockets!

On my Fuji S2, except when I need raw mode, the most useful mode is to
have it store a 3kx2k (i.e. 6MP) jpeg. So the data path is from 6
million sensors (each reading only *one* of red, green, and blue --
standard Bayer pattern sensor) to 12 million RGB pixels down to 6
million RGB pixels, and then jpeg compression. Luckily the S2 has
enough processing power to handle it (it shoots very slightly *faster*
than the Nikon D100, the closest model for comparison).
--
David Dyer-Bennet, , www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
RKBA: noguns-nomoney.com www.dd-b.net/carry/
Photos: dd-b.lighthunters.net Snapshots: www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/
Dragaera/Steven Brust: dragaera.info/

In article dKbjb.137319$%h1.138211@sccrnsc02,
Jay Honeck wrote:
That was through a window?

Yep. Photoshop does a good job of taking away that "Plexiglass haze" look,
no?

I've had pretty good luck shooting through the open storm window on a
Cherokee. Of course, looking through my pictures, I can't find one
without the Bay Area's famous fog making the picture look hazy.
The plexiglass haze isn't too bad on most of the planes I fly, but
I was getting some bad reflections messing up my pictures.

Golden Gate Bridge with an annoying reflection:
http://www.panix.com/~jac/baytour/118-1845_IMG.JPG

Downtown San Francisco from 1500ft through the storm window:
http://www.panix.com/~jac/baytour/118-1867_IMG.JPG

There are bunch more at http://www.panix.com/~jac/baytour/ and
http://www.panix.com/~jac/fly-1-31-03/ . I haven't remembered to
take my camera up in awhile.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.panix.com/~jac

Golden Gate Bridge with an annoying reflection:

Great pix, John.

BTW: I have that IDENTICAL pic -- of the Mackinac Bridge in northern
Michigan!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Do an autolevels or contrast adjustment. You'll get rid of most of that
haze. Not much you can easily do about the reflection. I've got a little
window I can flip down on mine.

mike regish

"John Clear" wrote in message
...
In article dKbjb.137319$%h1.138211@sccrnsc02,
Jay Honeck wrote:
That was through a window?

Yep. Photoshop does a good job of taking away that "Plexiglass haze"
look,
no?

I've had pretty good luck shooting through the open storm window on a
Cherokee. Of course, looking through my pictures, I can't find one
without the Bay Area's famous fog making the picture look hazy.
The plexiglass haze isn't too bad on most of the planes I fly, but
I was getting some bad reflections messing up my pictures.

Golden Gate Bridge with an annoying reflection:
http://www.panix.com/~jac/baytour/118-1845_IMG.JPG

Downtown San Francisco from 1500ft through the storm window:
http://www.panix.com/~jac/baytour/118-1867_IMG.JPG

There are bunch more at http://www.panix.com/~jac/baytour/ and
http://www.panix.com/~jac/fly-1-31-03/ . I haven't remembered to
take my camera up in awhile.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.panix.com/~jac

In article , (John Clear)
wrote:

I've had pretty good luck shooting through the open storm window on a
Cherokee.

One word of advise for folks doing that, it's really easy to lose a
lens cap out that window if you have it attached to the lens with
one of those elastic things. I lost a lens cap twice (duh) before I
decided to leave lens caps completely disconnected.

real_name wrote:
In article , (John Clear)
wrote:

I've had pretty good luck shooting through the open storm window on a
Cherokee.

One word of advise for folks doing that, it's really easy to lose a
lens cap out that window if you have it attached to the lens with
one of those elastic things. I lost a lens cap twice (duh) before I
decided to leave lens caps completely disconnected.

Another pointer -- if you have the ability to screw on a filter on the
front of your lens, it's a good idea to put a Sky-1A UV filter on. Not
so much to filter the light, but to protect the lens. 100+ knot
slipstream can be pretty abrasive on expensive glass.

--
David Hill
david at hillREMOVETHISfamily.org
Sautee-Nacoochee, GA, USA

filters, they're not just for coffee anymore
The following needn't bother to reply, you are filtered:
Juan E Jimenez, Barnyard BOb, Larry Smith, John Nada

Another pointer -- if you have the ability to screw on a filter on the
front of your lens, it's a good idea to put a Sky-1A UV filter on. Not
so much to filter the light, but to protect the lens. 100+ knot
slipstream can be pretty abrasive on expensive glass.

Gee -- that's one advantage of a non-SLR camera, I guess: I can't stick any
part of it out through my little storm window!

(Well, I suppose my little Canon Elph *could* just fly right out, it's so
small...)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

David Hill wrote:

Another pointer -- if you have the ability to screw on a filter on the
front of your lens, it's a good idea to put a Sky-1A UV filter on. Not
so much to filter the light, but to protect the lens. 100+ knot
slipstream can be pretty abrasive on expensive glass.

Ah, aerial photography 101. The camera should never be out in the
slipstream in the first place. You can't hold it steady.