The Black Hoof w/ @citrusblack

A restaurant that's been in my to go list for a while now. Finally made it there with Mary, and boy am I glad.

Yet another night of great food and great company :)

Write up and pics can be found here.

What is TTL and i-TTL?

One of the fundamental differences that separate a DSLR from a typical point-and-shoot is what we call TTL. TTL means "through the lens", what you see in the viewfinder is the actual composition through the lens, its the picture you are going to make. On the other hand, when you use a point-and-shoot, you're often looking though a viewfinder that is placed adjacent to the lens. 

While the distance it it placed away from the lens is small, it will introduce errors in composition and distortion from what you are photographing. This is called a parallax error, as you can imagine, the closer the object, the greater the impact of a parallax error. Basically, you'll get a different picture than what you see. 

When the light enters your lens, it hits a mirror, a portion is sent to the focus and exposure sensor and a portion is bounce up into a prism that flips the image and is viewable through the viewfinder. This is TTL, its exactly what your lens is pointed at.

Now what is i-TTL? This is Nikon's smart flash metering (Canon has a similar system called e-TTL, though not as advanced). It's a system that uses exposure information that comes from the lens to set the proper flash power. It serves to balance ambient light with light from the flash. It will analyze the composition of the scene and in a fraction of a second, send out pulses of light to evaluate the entire scene. While this system is only compatible with flashes made from Nikon, its a powerful tool that all photographers should learn how to use. 

There may be some of us who love to fuss with the settings of our lights, but the majority of us would rather opt to spend this time shooting and spending time with our subjects. Within a few seconds you are able to dial-in flash settings for your shoot and not have to worry about them for the rest of the day. Its a simple, yet extremely powerful system! 

You can read more about Nikon i-TTL here and the Canon e-TTL here.

Happy shooting.

To wear, or not to wear protection?

Photo by Andrew Ebrahim. RIM BlackBerry 8310Probably one of the most common questions is "Do I need to put on protection?". In the bedroom, thats up to you. The folks at Sex Is Fun can answer that and much more better than I can. So, if we can for a second, get our heads out of the bedroom, lets talk photography.

When I say protection, I'm talking about the use of a skylight or UV filter to protect the front element of your lens. I along with countless others do use this filter to add a layer of protection. While these filters will filter out the UV light, most, if not all, lenses made today already have a UV coating on top of the lens to do it. What I want is an extra piece of glass in front of my front element.

However, some would argue that this lens is not needed and will only serve to degrade the quality of your photos. I hear them loud and clear, what, if any, good will a cheap $10 filter do for your $2,000 lens? Probably what all the critics are saying, degrade the quality.

If you're buying a $2,000 lens from Nikon or Canon, you're buying some of the best glass they make. So do not cheap out on the UV filter. If you can not afford something like a B+W filter, you probably should not be buying that lens in the first place. Lesson here is that the quality of light entering your lens is only as good as what it passes through. 

While a $10 store brand UV filter compared to a top of the line B+W filter, might look the same. The quality of the coatings on the filter and the quality of the construction is what makes the difference. The el cheapo filter will have a single coating, while something like a B+W will have multiple coatings that are designed to last longer. A $100 piece of insurance is a small price to pay for piece of mind.

While I'm not a pixel peeper, I believe that if you are going to buy the best lens, buy the best UV filter you can.

Why even bother using a UV filter, which is after all a clear piece of glass? When you find your self in a hospitable condition, like the beach, desert or other high dust/abrasive environments, its much cheaper to replace a $100 filter than a $2000 that you need to send away to get serviced. Personally, I leave my UV filter on at all times with a few exceptions like when I'm working indoors or when I'm using multiple flashes aimed towards the camera. UV filters can lead to unwanted flare that your lens hood was not designed to work with. 

Finally, I leave you with a personal story. I tend to have bad luck with 50mm lenses, they seem to just want to jump way from me and fly towards the ground! To date, I've manage to drop 4 different 50mm lens, all of which were saved by a UV filter! They were retired for other reasons. The filter took most of the blow, shattering on impact, but all the elements in the lens were safe and sound.

Always use protection, its better to be safe than sorry ;)

Happy shooting.

Keeping It Simple

Photo by Andrew Ebrahim. Nikon D3s 200mm f/11 ISO 200 @ 1/250sec

As with many things in life, the simpler the better. Thats not to say simple is boring; more often than not, simplicity brings along a sense of depth without the clutter or confusion of something more complicated. Simplicity will serve to focus, enhance and define whatever you are creating.

KISS: Keep it simple, Stupid!

KISS is a principle I first learned about in my grade 6 shop class, and its been with me ever since. A quick wiki search says that Kelly Johnson, a lead engineer at  Lockheed Martin, first coined the term. While Johnson was first to says KISS, he's not the first to promote the power of simplicity. You have individuals throughout history, like Einstein and Da Vinci, demonstrating the principle of simplicity and if used correctly, the sophistication it carries with it. Not only do engineers and scientists live by this principle, but so do world class chefs, next time you go out an eat at a fine dining restaurant, look at the presentation of the food. Everything from the size of the plate, to where the food is placed and how the plate is facing you, all works to present the food in a simple, clean and beautiful way. All because something is elaborate, does not mean it is complex.

So what does this have to do with photography? Everything. From the gear you own to what you see in though the lens, it ultimately becomes the image you create. 

When I first go into photography as a hobby, I thought gear was everything. I had to have more lights, more lenses, more stands clamps and other gadgets before I could make the image I wanted. I got to the point where I had a small army of Speedlights and an arsenal of lenses. But where was this image I’ve been so desperate to capture? I had the gear I wanted but no image. I spent more time setting up scene, dialing things in and figuring out how to place all my gear, that I never thought about the image I wanted to capture.

A many moons have past since then and I find my self coming back to the world of KISS. I ask my self, If it doesn’t add to the image, why is it there? Whether is a tree branch in the corner of the frame, things on a table or jewelry on a person, if it doesn’t somehow contribute to the image, take it out.

With the cost of making an image so low, and our cameras being able to shoot 10 or more frames per second, many of us seldom think about what it is we’re really photographing. So before you push the shutter button on your camera, take an extra second to look at the entire frame and ask your self, is everything in the frame what I really want to photograph.

The more I’ve been shooting, attending workshops and working with others in this community, its clear to me that the main thing that separates a professional from an amateur is the ability to take things out. This goes to what you see in the frame, to the images you show in your portfolio.

A photographer may have tens of thousands of images in his or her library, but when you put together your portfolio, you only want to show your best. I would rather show the 10 of my best images than show 50 that are just OK.

Sure there will be times when you need to put together a more elaborate lighting setup, but do not make it more complex than it needs to be. I’ve gone from shooting portraits with one light up to six, but now a days I find my self returning to only using one or two lights. Just remember that the more lights you have, the more time its going to take to set everything up and the more things that can go wrong.

For example, the image above is a picture of a computer heatsink. My goal was to show how kick-ass the product looked. The product came with two fans that serve to move air across the fins, sure this serves a purpose in its function, but not for my image, so off the fans came. I wanted the image to just focus on the product, so its shot sitting on a sheet of opaque glass, so I could get a reflection off the bottom, and the backdrop is just a simple sheet of black fabric. When it came to lighting I went with a sandwich (there’s probably some fancy photography term for this), one light on either side with the subject in the middle. A simple and clean set up that highlights the object and creates depth in the image. Took me less than 5 minutes to set up and create the object.

When all is said and done, the principle of KISS is to avoid any unnecessary complexity in the goal of your project. Whether you're photographing an object or a person, cooking a world class meal or building some of the most advanced spy planes, one theme that unites all these fields together is simplicity.

So the next time you're out shooting, just remember to KISS.

Perseids

Photo by Andrew Ebrahim. Nikon D3s 24mm f/2.8 ISO 2000 @ 25sec

Two nights ago was the peak of the Perseids Meteor Shower, while you can still see meteors throughout the rest of the month, Thursday/Friday was the peak of the show! I spent the better part of the night, 1am to 4am Friday, at the Region of Peels' Community Recycling Centre located at 1795 Quarry Dr. in the Town of Caledon (my first choice was going to be the Badlands, but there were way too many people there), shooting the meteor shower.

Below are some of my shots from last night, along with a time lapse video of the night.

Photo by Andrew Ebrahim. Nikon D3s 24mm f/2.8 ISO 2500 @ 25sec

The time lapse was shot using a Nikon D300 paired with the 10.5mm fisheye shooting at f/2.8 for 13 seconds at ISO 1250. I highly recommend you watch this in HD and Full Screen.

I wrapped up the night by shooting a star trail. This location is almost perfect for some night sky photography, its fairly isolated from city lights, easily accessible and no traffic to worry about. The only draw back are some of the lights from Town of Caledons' vehicle yard, though I did use them to light up some of the trees in other shots.

Photo by Andrew Ebrahim. Nikon D3s 24mm f/5.6 ISO 200 @ 42min.

I would love to see what you all got the other night, so post your photos down in the Comments and share them with everyone else.

Shooting Stars

[Update: when Frank posted a comment, it reminded me to make a note about batteries, look at 4. Odds & Ends] Photo by Andrew Ebrahim

With the peak of the Perseids Meteor Shower coming up in a few days (August 12-13, 2010) I thought I’d share some tips about photographing stars. 

1. Use a tripod

I don’t know how many times I’ve said this, so I’ll say it again. You NEED a tripod! Not just some $15 el-cheapo tripod you bought at Wal-Mart, you need a rock solid tripod. Buy the most stable tripod you can afford, and be willing to carry. This is one area I see a lot of photographers cheap out on, not all tripods are made the same. How do you tell how stable a tripod is? Most manufacturers will give a weight rating for their tripods, say 15kg, I would cut that in half and only put a max load of 7.5kg on the tripod. Also, you want to consider the weight of the tripod. You’re not going to carry a tripod with you if it weighs too much, so consider carbon fiber tripods. Secondly, you’re going to need a ball head, again get the best one you can afford. 

It’s all about having the most stable platform for your camera, especially when you’re going to have extremely long exposures. Things like camera straps and shutter release cables blowing in the wind will cause some vibration leading to blurry photos. You really want to lock down your camera as much as you can. 

Here are some folks who make some great stuff: Manfrotto, Gitzo, Induro, Acratech, and Really Right Stuff. 

2. Get out of the city

When you’re photographing stars and meteors, you want to be as far away from any light source as you can get. Stars and meteors put off only very little light, and light from a city will do two things: 1. Lower the chance of you seeing anything. 2. Over exposing your image before your camera can capture the light from the stars. (You can see the light from small towns at the bottom of my photos).

Drive further than you think you’ll need, and research the area you’re driving to. 10 minutes in Google Maps can save you hours of random driving. Keep an eye out for small towns and villages; you don’t want to be near them either. You want to be in the darkest area you can find!

3. Shooting

This is more trial and error than a science. There’s no one perfect exposure. It all depends on your location, the weather, your camera, the lens you’re using and the lastly, what you want to show? Here are some general tips:

If you’re looking to do star trails, like image at the top of this post, you’re looking at doing extremely long exposures, not 20 sec, or 30 sec, but minutes, many many minutes. You should check with your cameras’ manual on how to perform long exposures, many cameras have BULB function which keeps the shutter open as long as the shutter is pressed. It’s going to take a couple of tries to find the right composition, since your image is being made over a long period of time. You want to also be careful of lights from towns and villages in the area. Where you’re standing, your eye might not be able to see the light from these places, but when your cameras’ shutter is open for long periods of time it will pick up things you might not notice.  

Also when doing star trails, you’ll notice that everything rotates around the North Star. It’s the only star in the sky that stays in the exact same position all night (That’s why sailors use it for navigation). You can use this as a point of reference in your photos for composition.

I made the star trail image, above, using a 36 minute exposure, ISO 100, 10.5mm f/2.8. 

Lastly, when you’re framing your photo, you want to provide some kind of context oh where you took the photo. Include the horizon, trees, buildings etc. Even if you can't see the horizon with your naked eye, when you do long exposures, there will just be enough light to outline objects in your horizon. It just lets the viewer ground themselves in the image. 

When photographing stars or constellations, like the Big Dipper below, you want to be using long shutter speeds again, but shorter than those used for star trails. A good place to start would be anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds. Longer shutter speeds over a minute, you begin to see the movement of the stars and you get short little start trails. Aside from shutter speed, you can use ISO to help make your exposure. Of course this depends on your camera, some cameras can shoot at a high ISO and still have a clean image, others not so much.

I shot the Big Dipper image, below, using a 8 second exposure, ISO 8000, 26mm f/2.8. 

Photo by Andrew Ebrahim 

So this brings me to the meteor shower, it's one of those things that’s in the middle of everything. You want to keep the surrounding stars still, while capturing the movement of the meteors. Also, you don’t know when a meteor will appear, so it’s a lot of guessing and hoping for the best. The Persieds Meteor Shower will be coming from the North East part of the sky, so I would recommend just point your camera in that direction and do multiple 10 second exposures throughout the night.

4. Odds & Ends 

So just a few final notes to wrap up this post:

• Bring a flashlight, its dark, you might not be able to see your camera controls. A red light works best so you’re not ruining your night vision.
• Don’t stand in the middle of the road! While you might be in the middle of no where, you never know if a car is going to come down the road. Stay save and move to the side of the road, or even in a field. If you’re going to be on the side of the road, stand a few meters in front of your car with the parking breaks on. You rather someone hit the back of your car than they hit you. I also bring a few small flashing LEDs at the back of my car to get any drivers attention. 
• Bring a chair and warm clothes,  you’re going to be out there for a while so you might as well get comfortable!
• Have a remote trigger/cable release for your camera, this will allow you to trigger your camera without touching it and have longer exposures.
• Charge your battery and bring an extra. Probably one of the most over looked thing for most people, is the battery, make sure you charge your battery before you go out and shoot (not just for stars, but for everything!). I can't being to tell you how many times I have seen friends of mine run out of juice during a shoot. Many dSLRs can work off AA batteries in addition to the standard battery for the camera, so throw a couple in your bag just in case.

Anyways, that’s it for me. Hope all this helps! As always, happy shooting :)

Which Camera Should I Buy?

Photo by VIOLOK 2009

I've recently been getting a lot of questions about "Which camera should I buy". Huh, maybe there's a camera sale or something going on that I don't know about. Anyways, I thought I'd share one of my recent responses here on my blog.

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First off, do you "need" a dSLR? Do you really really need one? Sure SLRs are great to have but do you need it?

The reason why I asked if you “need” an SLR is because generally SLRs are pretty big and bulky. I know a lot of people who bought an SLR but never uses it anymore because its too much of a hassle to carry around. Also with an SLR you’ll need to buy lenses and you need to be willing to make the investment for it.

That said, 90% of cameras are better that 99% of photographers out there. There really is no bad decision (that goes for P&S too), as long as you stick to the main brands. There’s no perfect camera for everyone. My best advice when buying an SLR would be to look at what your friends have. Are they Nikon shooters? Canon? Sony? If you get a camera the same brand as your friends, you can share lenses & equipment, and also troubleshoot if you run into problems (I gotta be honest though, all my friends are Canon and I shoot Nikon). Which brings me to my second point, what camera feels good in your hands? If its not comfortable or natural, you’re not gonna want to use it. That’s why I went Nikon, they just felt better to me. So go to the store and play with the camera, put it in your hands and use it. If you can, rent the camera for a weekend and really use it.

Lastly, I wouldn’t say this is the most important, but it will definitely define the category of cameras you’re looking at, whats you’re budget? How much do you want to spend in total? You know that thing that sticks out infront of your camera? The lens? Sometimes that can cost as much, or more than the camera its self, and its something you’re gonna need to think about. Yes, there are kits out there and sure it gives you a zoom lens, but normally those lenses are pretty shitty aren't that great and are a little soft. Its great to have a zoom, say 18mm to 200mm, but the quality isn’t always the best and it doesn’t give you that artistic control you get with some of the non kit lenses. 

If you’re just getting into it, buy the best camera body you can afford, but set aside about $130 for a 50mm f/1.8 lens. It is the cheapest lens out there, but its also one of the sharpest lenes, is the best bang for your buck. That goes for all manufacturers (Canon ~$100, Nikon ~$140). Only catch is that this lens is a prime, so there’s no zoom. Buy guess what? You’ve got a pair of legs, so that your zoom! Personally, the 50mm probably my most used/convenient lens to have. It’s small, it’s fast and it’s cheap! Unlike most consumer zoom lenses, this 50mm lens has a constant aperture (most consumer zooms change apertures as you zoom in and out, usually between f/3.5 and f/5.6. you can get zooms with a constant aperture but those usually start around $2k) so you can set is to any aperture and it will stay there! Tons of creative control!

In short, any dSLR + 50mm f/1.8 = great place to start.

Just a quick blurb about P&S, I know a ton of pro photographer who use the Canon G11 as one of their camera, and its definitely a great camera. Small enough to fit in your purse and it gives you all the manual functions and RAW capabilities of an SLR! I think its also got a pretty wide lens on it, something you’ll need for landscapes.

If you've got any questions, post them in the Comment section. Happy shooting :)

Twitter, Rabbits and Wine

Update: I forgot to mention that the fried twisty item you see as garnish in the rabbit rillette dish, is fried rabbit stomach. Actually very tasty.

As mentioned in my previous post, I'm going to highlight some events from my day-to-day life. I recently had the pleasure to dine at Oliver & Bonacini Café Grill's Waterloo location, where my experience was far from ordinary. I've always enjoyed my experience at O & B and regularly visit after a stressful day of classes. However, this time was different, I was presented with the opportunity of having Chef Markus Bestig prepare a tasting dinner for my self and a guest.

Chef Bestig is the Corporate Concept Chef for all the Oliver & Bonacini Café Grills (Bayview Village, Oakville, Blue Mountain and Waterloo). He has risen through the ranks of Oliver & Bonacini's family of restaurants, serving as a sous chef at Canoe and at Auberge du Pommier, and mentored by individuals like Chef Anthony Walsh.

My first introduction to rabbit was back in 2006, when I had my birthday dinner at Canoe. It was only one dish out of seven, a soup to be exact, but that one dish left me wanting to try rabbit again. However, I never got a chance to have it again, and it slowly fell off my radar of things to try. It wasn't until recently when I came across an issue of Meat Paper magazine where they had a feature on rabbit.

I first 'met' Chef Bestig on Twitter during the announcement from Oliver & Bonacini about their new Waterloo location. 

With rabbit fresh in mind, I decided to message Chef Bestig on Twitter hoping to see if he knew of a place in Waterloo I could buy rabbit from. But there no luck in sourcing the ingredient, so he offered to prepare a something for me so I could try rabbit again. 

This was an enormous surprise to me. I don't think I can explain how excited I felt in the days leading up to the dinner, let alone the day of. As many of my friends know, I love food, I love the chance to dine out as often as I can. Not to chain restaurants, but places I can get not only good food, but a great experience. Some of my favourites and most visited include: Canoe, Nota Bene, Reds, Ten, Gilead, Ame, Buca, and recently Ruby Watcho.

While all of the above restaurants provide great food and a good experience, I have never experience anything quite like having an amazing chef prepare me something off menu and special.

 Almost like 'Iron Chef', there was one main ingredient for the night, and with the exception of the amuse bouche, palette cleanser and dessert, rabbit was used in each dish.  

We began the night with a glass of 2008 O & B Sparkle Buzz, which is a special label of the 2008 Cave Spring CSV Brut Sparkling Wine. Our first course was the amuse bouche, which was cured arctic char, with arctic char tar tar and scallop with pickled ramps and some fruit on the inside.

 The arctic char is similar to salmon in texture but much leaner, kind of like a salmon and trout mixed together (if I know my fishes). The entire dish was very light while having a nice mix of flavours and textures. The lemon juice brought a tart flavour which tied everything together nicely. While this didn't contain any rabbit, I have to say that this was one of my favourite dishes, and I'm going to keep an eye out for this on the menu at my next visit to the O & B family of restaurants. if its on the menu that is.

Following that, we had rabbit rillette with muscat raisin and almond compote, rabbit flank schnitzel sandwich and pickled ramps, paired with a glass of 2008 Canoe Riesling, another special label for Oliver & Bonacini named after the Canoe restaurant, commonly known as the 2008 Cave Spring CSV Riesling. 

The wine pairings throughout the night were done absolutely beautifully. Everything was nicely balanced and grew heavier with each course. Until this meal, I can't recall ever enjoying white wines. There's always been something about the ones have tasted that didn't sit well with my palette, maybe it was just a bad pairing. Never the less, I absolutely loved each wine that was paired, and I'll definitely give whites a second look.

This dish was probably another of my favourites of the night. The mix of hard n soft textures from the raisin and the almonds, to the schnitzel and rillette, and the mix of flavours all worked very well with each other and each flavour just comes out in your mouth one at a time.

The next two dishes were paired with a 2008 Henry of Pelham Sibling Rivalry White, which is a blend of Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay and Riesling. 

The third dish was a well done rabbit "pho" with enoki, edamame and vermicelli noodles garnished with mint, basil, lime and hoisin. This dish put a nice twist on traditional vietnamese pho and nicely incorporated rabbit into it. Thinking back on the dish, I wish I had added a little less hot sauce as it over powered much if the flavours in the dish. I guess when I heard "pho" I did what I normally do and add a bunch of hot sauce and hoisin, probably should have pulled back a bit this time.

At this point dishes began to get a bit on the heavier side of things, following the pho we had a hand made pappardelle with shredded rabbit, crispy pancetta and wild leek cream. This dish is another one I would say was my favourite. While it was heavier compared to the previous dishes, it was surprising light for a pasta with a cream sauce. There was something about the pappardelle that struck a cord with me, it was light and delicate, but cooked perfectly. The soft pasta and rabbit worked in conjunction with the crispy pancetta and almond flakes to change up the texture and really made the dish comforting. 

Before the main, we had the pallet cleanser, which was paired with the same 2008 O & B Sparkle Buzz. The pallet cleanser was a Muddled minted vodka, pear, ginger and lemon sorbet with the sparkling wine to top it all off. I need to apologize for this one, I finished it before I remembered to take a photo. Well here's what was left :p

The main dish consisted of a roasted rabbit loin and Niagara Berkshire Prosciutto wrapped confited leg, roasted heirloom carrots, onion soubise and vanilla pan juices. Paired wonderfully with the 2007 Henry of Pelham Pinot Noir. The earthiness of the dish were enhanced by the wine from the fabulous summer of 2007. The various elements on the plate each with its own flavour all worked together to give a real rich flavour that didn't over whelm the rabbit leg.

The night was finished off with a vintage port wine sabayon with fresh berries and the tiniest milk chocolate mouse with ganache, paired with a 2005 #99 Wayne Gretzky Vidal Icewine. A prefect light dessert to wrap everything together! I don't think I could have asked for a better dessert, anything with berries in it, I will absolutely love.

 

Though I'm not sure if rabbit has gained "mainstream" acceptance as an item on the menu, I would definitely want to urge the Oliver & Bonacini family of restaurants, and any other restaurants for that matter, to serve more rabbit. It's not only a very versatile meat, "its almost like chicken if you know how to use it" says Chef Bestig, but its also a very sustainable meat to grow. 

Rabbits are much more sustainable than beef, chicken or lamb, they require less resources and energy and are usually easier to care for as well. Once you get past the "cute" factor of the animal, and just think of it as another ingredient, the possibilities are endless for what you can do with such a small creature. 

Lastly I would just like to thank Chef Markus Bestig for an amazing meal, far surpassing what I was expecting or even what I had imagined. I can't really explain how happy and privileged I was for Chef Bestig to do this for me, so I'll simply end with a thank you. 

ps. In my opinion, my photos really don't do justice to the art that Chef Bestig created. With this kind of food, I really would have loved the opportunity to properly light and photograph each dish. Maybe some day in the future I'll have an opportunity for proper food photography :)

Update

Its been over 5 months since I last updated this blog. Some of you have been wondering what has happen to this site and blog, and have been asking if I intend to continue with it. In short, my answer is yes!

While I am still working out the direction I intend to take this blog, and working with a few people to have guest posts on various topics, I can tell you that this blog will be my outlet for personal projects, journeys and experiences that my photography takes me.

I'll probably highlight some non-photography related events in my life as well.

However, with the introduction of dSLRs cameras that have amazing video quality, I have been slowly diving deeper into that realm and incorporating it into my workflow. I hope to share my thoughts and experiences with all of you, and maybe we can travel this road together.

In the mean time, I have a few things in the pipeline that you'll soon see, and I hope you can continue to be patient with me.

Happy shooting :)

Apple Magic Mouse

Photos by: Andrew Ebrahim

A couple weeks ago Apple announced the Magic Mouse, a replacement to the old Mighty Mouse. I ordered the second it popped up in the Apple Store, and a few days later I got the unit in the mail.

My initial thoughts of the mouse, its a massive improvement over its predecessor. The multi-touch sensor works like a charm and tracks finger movements accurately, and get this, it right-click actually works! (unlike the Mighty mouse where it was hit and miss) Also, having the entire surface, right up to the Apple logo, be one large multi-touch surface, makes scrolling though documents and around photos a breeze.

Apple has again designed a beautiful looking device, that carries from the minimal packaging to the first time you use the mouse. While its much thinner than your average mouse, you'll get use to it after a day or two. It feels like there's nothing under the palm of your hand, actually, your palm doesn't touch the mouse, just your fingers

Final words, Apple has finally designed beautiful mouse without sacrificing function. This really is as close to perfect as Apple has come to making the perfect mouse. The only thing I would add it the Magic mouse, would be the ability to perform the "pinch" expression we all love on our iPhones.

As much as I love the Magic mouse, I'll probably keep my Logitech G5 for the rare time I game.