A couple of years ago Google launched a new service in America called Google Business Photos, this allows businesses to show their customers the inside of their premises using an online virtual tour linked to their Google Places page (Think of Google Street View but for inside!) This has been tremendously successful in America with businesses using the service noticing a dramatic increase in customer traffic and sales.

In December they brought this to the UK and have started by setting it up in London and Glasgow. They are now expanding their services to cover other cities, Leeds included. The way it works is, as a business owner you sign up for a Google Business Photos listing, they then show you a list of their ‘Trusted Photographers’ in your area. The photographers have been trained by Google to a very high standard to take the 360 degree photos of your business to create the virtual tours. You arrange a time with the photographer for your shoot, and then within a few days of the shoot your photos will be live on your Places page. The price of the service is to be agreed between you and the photographer depending on the size of the business.

In case you havn’t already guessed it: I have been selected to become one of Google’s Trusted Photographers! I am still going through my training but very soon I will be up and running and able to photograph your business to produce one of these fantastic 360 degree vertual tours! If you get in quick I am offereing a discount rate for my first 10 businesses! Email me to book your shoot.

Here is the link to find out more about the process: http://maps.google.co.uk/help/maps/businessphotos/

Watch this cool video to find out how it has helped this business.

 

After much deliberation over which 50mm prime lens to get, I finally decided to go for the Sigma f/1.4. I had read many reviews saying this lens was fantastic from both review sites such as DP review, and photography forums with people saying it was the best lens they had ever owned. However there were also many reviews by people saying that they had terrible focusing issues with front and back focusing and often the lens would just miss the focus all together. The general consensus with this lens is, that if you get a good copy, you have yourself a fantastic lens.

So I sat in all day eagerly awaiting my delivery from Wex Photographic with my first fast prime. To my dismay as soon as I got this lens on my camera and started shooting at f/1.4 I immediatley noticed the error I had been reading about all week. I tried the lens in many different controlled conditions as well as walking around and shooting as I would do normally, and in both cases the focus was interment, switching from front to back focus with each shot and even when the focus appeared to be in the right place the subject was far from sharp. As soon as I stopped the lens down to f/2 the lens became pin sharp and I could see what all the fuss was about over this lens, f/2.2 was even more magical!

However, I have lenses that are f/2.8, the reason for this lens was so that I could shoot wide open. So, heavily dissapointed and deflated, I sent the lens back to Wex.

I decided that this lens wasn’t for me after being stung like this, but after a good nights sleep (and a lot more reading of forums) I decided to give this little lens another shot! This time I went down to my local camera shop where I could try the lens out myself. I took in my own camera to ensure that this copy worked on my own body and to my delight, even when wide open, this lens did exactly what all those great reviews said it does, producing outstanding results even at f/1.4.

I bought it immediately and brought it home and caried out the same tests as I had done with the first copy. The new lens still had a little front focusing but this was easily corrected in the 5D ii micro adjustment making it spot on. It is still the sharpest at f/2.2 (to be expected of any fast prime) but you have to have a pretty keen eye to notice any marked difference.

I am so glad I gave this lens another try! it feels beautiful to use, is a nice balanced weight on the front of my 5D ii and it looks fantastic! But the most important thing, is that the images quality is superb. Please see the images below to see the comparison between the bad copy and the good copy. In each photo the focus was on the front middle flower.