Seeing Red: An Unwelcome Dust-Up Down Under

PC World’s avid photographers, armed with a variety of cameras (ranging in price, from a number of brands and with different features and capabilities), captured scenes Sydney, Australia as the city awoke to an eerie, orange sky caused by a dust cloud of red earth sent straight from the outback. PC World photographer Ian Sharp captured this shot of the North Sydney skyline shrouded by airborne dust, taken on a professional Nikon D2x digital SLR. Image credit: Ian Sharp

Low light levels and a bright orange background haze made shooting difficult — this macro silhouette shows some foliage with a tower in the background. This shot was taken with a Canon Powershot G10. Image credit: Campbell Simpson

Pedestrians all over Sydney used impromptu masks to ease breathing in the dusty air on their way to work. This shot was taken with a Canon Powershot G10. Image credit: Campbell Simpson

Red dust coated cars and anything left in the path of the driving wind. This shot was taken using the macro mode of a Canon Powershot G10. Image credit: Campbell Simpson

Pigeons braved the dust filled sky to catch some morning sunlight. This show was captured using a Canon IXUS 960 IS compact digital camera. Image credit: Imogen Stuart

The Canon IXUS 960 IS image stabilizing lens helps it take pictures in low-light conditions, especially with low shutter speeds. Image credit: Imogen Stuart

Despite the low light the Canon IXUS 960 IS was able to capture dark image details clearly, with a wide dynamic range. Image credit: Imogen Stuart

Cheaper compact digital cameras did not handle the harsh shooting conditions so well. This Fujifilm Finepix J30 struggled to capture images at a sufficiently high shutter speed to prevent blur. Image credit: Campbell Simpson

The Fujifilm Finepix J30 lacks the dynamic range to capture detail in the sky while maintaining darker areas of the picture. Image credit: Campbell Simpson

Later in the day, the red haze cleared slightly and the sky turned to an ugly off-beige colour. Here you can see the Australian flag in the middle of the frame — the next slide shows the Canon Powershot SX20 IS's zoom capabilities. Image credit: Campbell Simpson

At 20X zoom, the Canon Powershot SX20 IS sufficiently stabilizes the image to capture a clean, blur-free image. Image credit: Campbell Simpson

Even at an additional 4X digital zoom (80X total zoom) the Canon Powershot SX20 IS's good performance at high ISO settings helps us to grab a blur-free (albeit grainy) image. Image credit: Campbell Simpson

Even the sun was barely visible through the red dust. This photograph was taken on the Nikon D90 with and ISO of 800. Image credit: Elias Plastiras

The sunlight that made it though the dust, cast everything in an eerie glow. Image credit: Elias Plastiras