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A near brush with the warthog 9. That’s the best way to describe
the big, relatively unusable digital camera that arrived a few
weeks ago. I’ve come to expect a few basics when a manufacturer
sends out a camera for test and review. The warthog arrived with
a body and lens, some cables, disks and instruction book.
I opened the empty battery compartment and installed a set of my
own AA NiMH batteries. Opening the CF cards drawer, I found it
empty and put in a 64mb card, then turned on the power. No joy.
Back to the instruction manual where I found the warthog needs a
second set of batteries to operate. Radio Shack is not too far
from my studio and soon I returned with $14 worth of Lithium Ion
batteries.
The warthog is reputed to contain some incredible imaging
technology. It should at the size of the files. In the high
quality mode, I was allotted six exposures. Most of the controls
are easy to understand and operated by handy buttons. I shot my
six exposures, removed the CF card and uploaded the files to my
iMac.
Another unpleasant surprise. Photoshop CS’ File Browser showed
the warthog folder to be empty! That’s when I discovered this
big paperweight makes RAW files that can only be opened in the
proprietary warthog software. The genius of the warthog design
team just boggles the mind!
So I inserted the CD with the required software in my iMac. The
installer application repeatedly quit, obviously not comfortable
in the Panther system environment. Then the disk traveled across
the studio to my Mac G4 which is still running System 9.2.
Double clicking the installer icon got me a cryptic “handler not
copacetic” message and a crash.
My disgust was at high tide by now. I removed my batteries
(anyone wanna buy a pair of slightly used CR123s?) and lovingly
packed the warthog back in its box for shipping home when I get
the time.
The warthog company is known for its excellent 35mm (and
digital) lenses. I’ve used and owned several over the years. Its
digital camera is an overweight hog which with proprietary
software and proprietary lens mounts seems doomed.
A Word About The Images
Since this is a column about digital photography, I had to
include some images from our recent camera rests and roundup.
Needless to say, none was made with the warthog.
The two Herons were shot with the Olympus E-1 and a 540mm zoom
lens (150-400 plus 1.4X extender). This was the sharpest of the
lenses tested.
The big gator were shot with the Pentax *1stD and a 100-400mm
lens. The single gator was estimated at 11-feet long. The pair
of smiling suarians was made with the lens set at 100mm from
about nine feet with my wife threatening to leave me on the
Misccosukee Loop Road in the Everglades if I didn’t get back in
the car.
The wide angle of the River of Grass was made with my Nikon
D-100 and the Nikon 12-24mm zoom plus a Moose Peterson warming
polazrizer “Moose” filter. |