I have a few different cameras. The one I most use is my Nikon D90. I can take thousands of pictures and all it costs me is a little electricity and the time it takes to process them. Since the dawn of the new digital revolution with digital cameras popping out of people’s chests across the world at a rapid rate, the price of medium format cameras have gone down! Which makes it a great opportunity to get into it.

Although there are exceptions to this rule, a lot of the medium format cameras are now significantly more obtainable.

The camera above is a Zeiss Ikon which cost me around £8. Another camera I laid my hands for a cheap price is the Coronet Captain which cost less than the Ikon at about £5. Shown below, it’s a pretty basic box camera, which was made 20 or 30 years ago by Coronet, who are a Birmingham camera manufacturer no longer in operation. It’s dead simple to operate and the photographs which come out are larger than the standard 12 pictures you get on a roll of medium format, and you only get 8. There are two focus settings, the ability to set a timer, or add a green filter – but the best bit are the two view finders which are both waste level. One is for landscape shots and the other is for portrait. Genius!

The cameras which have waist level viewfinders create a completely different photograph to cameras which you hold up to your eyes and point and shoot. Images of people are in the middle of their body, and so produce a completely different sense of that person. The quality of the photographs which it produces is very interesting and completely unique, and unique per camera too. Each one will have it’s own little discrepencies in the manufacturing process and could have slight issues with the light seal, which all makes it very interesting.

So, if you’re after a new and interesting camera which is simple to get to grips with, cheap to buy and you can throw around as much as you like, here are some to look out for: Coronet Captain, Hasselblad 500c/m, Mamiya C330, Yashica Mat 124G, Lubitel 2.

Photos by me: Zeiss Ikon and Coronet Captain

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I’ve been using my HTC Hero, which is powered by Google Android, for a few months now and really like the jump i’ve taken from my previous Sony Ericsson K810i. It’s quite interesting to use something with such a technology jump, and it’s amazing how easily I have become used to the advances. But there are a few things I would change…

I gladly accept the fact that I can check where I am with GPS and google maps, send twitter updates from the train, broadcast video live on the move, check my emails and upload a picture of what’s in front of me straight to facebook.

But there are a few things which I believe could come in handy in future iterations. These mainly lie under the category of the predictive text. The predictive text simply improves the likelyhood of typing sensible sentences by guessing what the word should be when various letters are pressed in sequence.

In comparison to traditional keys which are physical, where one can touch the key to locate a finger or thumb, and then press the key in two separate actions, the use of a touch screen forces a locate and confirm in one action. This, some might argue, enforces a greater reliance on improved predictive text, as opposed to traditional keyboards which require no predictive text at all.

So, what needs to be improved?

1. Improve hardware spec
2. Additional or subtrational letters within words
3. Optional spaces

Due to hardware issues and the occasional slowdown, the phone often thinks that the keys are pressed for longer than they actually are. This leads to a number or symbol appearing within a word and the predictive text stumbles. Symbols and numbers should be interchangeable with letters within the predictive text.

Additional letters are often pressed by accident or missed out altogether. The preictive text within the HTC Hero should give additional options based upon adding or subtracting letters.

Spaces are critical to a sentence. I will often type two words, one after another without spaces in between. It would be nice if the Android predictive text would offer two-word alternatives when two words are typed next to each other.

So, there we have it, a few worthy upgrades to the Android / HTC Hero predictive text system. Probably, all of which have been addressed in versions of Android above 1.5. Roll on the next version, please!

Photo by Patrick He

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