real-world tests of Nikon cameras

I just read Dork Talk in the Technology page of the Guardian Weekend magazine of 21st June.

Alan Rusbridger talks about the Polaroid PoGo, which prints 3″ x 2″ (76 x 50mm) photos with sticky backs from a machine the size of a pack of cards - 120mm (4.7”) x 72mm (2.8”) x 23.5mm (0.9”) to be precise. And which uses zero ink. Actually, ZINK™ technology.

Polaroid describes the ink technology as follows:

The heart of this new “ZINK” category of printing is the ZINK Paper™. The patented ZINK Paper is an advanced composite material with embedded yellow, magenta and cyan dye crystals, activated with 200 million heat pulses, in 30 seconds, in a single pass. With 100 billion crystals in a 2×3″ print, the paper is 100% inkless. A ZINK-enabled printer uses heat to activate and colorize these crystals. Because there is no ink, every ZINK-enabled device has the unique benefits of being small, simple, elegant, and eco-friendly.

And it prints from a Pictbridge enabled camera. Which led me to wonder whether the Nikon P5100 is Pictbridge enabled - it is.

And while I was looking around the manual, I saw that the camera also takes photographs in square format at 2992 x 2992 pixels. And as with its other formats, it allows you to put a black border (of varying thickness) around the image. And here is a shot of the towels in the bathroom in square format.

Obviously, square format is not the format to choose for printing to the PoGo and an unanswered question is what happens if I print from an image that is not 3:2 aspect ration.

The Nikon does have an option to shoot with a 3:2 aspect ratio at 3984 x 2656 pixels, but as I normally shoot at the maximum image size the camera can produce (4000 x 3000 pixels), which is not 3:2, I can’t really see myself changing image size in order to make prints that will fit the PoGo.

Having said that, I can imagine going on a trip somewhere and using a 3:2 format.

But I would have to be going to a place where I couldn’t get to a local consumer lab. Because if I could get to a lab I could have 6″ x 4″ prints made at lower cost and without the capital outlay.

But if I were going somewhere more remote and I wanted to make a scrapbook on the go, then for that, the PoGo has more appeal.

Click HERE to following a link to the Polaroid PoGo site

Square Towels with Black Border

The first two shots were taken in the Musee D’Orsay on the top floor, where the original layout of the building as a railway station is more clearly seen. The third shot was taken standing a small street in the 5th District looking into the frosted glass window of a shop that was being renovated.

As I often do in low-light situations, I propped the camera on a part of the structure of the building - whatever is handy - and in that way I avoid camera shake and can choose a low ISO.