09-09-2009

Leica has major announcement planned on the 9th. See the video here. Whooopee!

A New Full Frame

As the one person who reads this blog knows, I am a big fan of full frame. The Sony DSLR-A850 is the second full frame DSLR in Sony’s line-up. Unlike the A900, the DSLR-A850 has a more affordable price of $2,000. It is built around the same 24.6MP CMOS sensor and incorporates A900's 3.0 inch 921k LCD, sensor-shift image-stabilization and Dual Bionz processors. Read all about it here.

Opening The Vault

For more than a century the National Geographic Society has maintained a windowless, climate-controlled archive in underground Washington. That archive contains more than 11 million images from the society’s collection, many never before seen. Now, thanks to William C. Bonner, the society’s archivist, this treasure trove is being opened to the fine-art market for the first time. The goal is to find private and institutional collectors for the vintage black-and-white prints and later color images. The society chose the Steven Kasher Gallery to open its first exhibition of 150 vintage prints from a dozen photographers. Read more about this historic development here.

A Fake???

Falling Soldier, Robert Capa

Controversy has swirled around Capa’s “Falling Soldier” image for a long time. Now, José Manuel Susperregui, a communications professor at the Universidad del País Vasco, has published Shadows of Photography, in which he concludes that “the ‘Falling Soldier’ photo is staged, as are all the others in the series taken on that front.” Read more here.

Chicago!

A few of you more sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that the link to my flickr gallery disappeared awhile ago. In fact, I closed my flickr account entirely and no longer post my work anywhere. Frankly, I feel (and you are free to strongly disagree) that websites like flickr cheapen the serious work that many of us are trying to do. I decided that I didn’t really like posting images that I worked very hard on along with pictures of someone’s cat. The sheer volume of work on these sites simply overwhelms.

Instead, and because I want you to know that I actually take pictures, from time to time I will be posting some of my work here. Using this space also allows me to provide some background and critique for each image. Recently, my D700 and I took a short trip to Chicago. Although I had another lens with me, I only used the Zeiss 35mm.

Façade, 2009

If you have ever been to Chicago you know that the city is famous for its architecture. One can see nearly every architectural style represented somewhere in the city. I don’t shoot a lot of architecture and this image shows it. Even after applying lens correction in Photoshop, this is the best that I could do. It also shows why you shouldn’t shoot out of a cab window.

Water Tower, 2009

I am sure that at some point in its history this was a pretty massive structure. Nowadays, it is dwarfed by the surrounding skyscrapers. Otherwise, a pretty boring picture.

Store Front, 2009

The stretch of Michigan Avenue known as the “Magnificent Mile” is home to nearly every high end retailer. With this image I was experimenting with a very narrow depth of field, something I rarely do. I like it.

House of Blues, 2009

In addition to its architecture, Chicago is known for the blues. Two of the more popular spots are Buddy Guy’s Legends and The House of Blues. Although the club’s carved wooden entryway is very unique, this image just doesn’t pop for me. Maybe the white balance is off. Even though I have a Whi Bal gray card for difficult lighting situations like this, I can never seem to remember to use the darn thing. Maybe a nose ring would help.

Stairs at Harry Caray’s, 2009

Former Chicago Cub’s announcer Harry Caray was one of Chicago’s real fixtures, like Mike Royko and Studs Terkel. The food at the restaurant that bears his name is excellent, unlike this photo. While I like the composition, it is slightly out of focus and the white balance doesn’t seem right.

Salsa Band, 2009

During the summer months, Grant Park along Chicago’s lakefront, is alive with music. Every night there is someone to see, most of it free. Despite the D700’s vaunted high ISO performance and my best efforts with Neat Image, this shot is simply too noisy for me. To make matters worse, this is true noise, not grain. It might look better converted to black and white which I may try. As an aside, you can never know what might happen at a show so be prepared. This guy spotted me and mugged for the camera for five minutes. Auto focus would have helped here. Horses for course I guess.

Water Lilies, Claude Monet, 1906, 2009

As if this all weren’t enough, Chicago boasts some of the finest museums in the country including the Chicago Institute of Arts where this was taken. Photographers should be aware that some spaces are off limits and flash photography and tripods are not allowed. Below is a detail of this work. Once again, where was my gray card? At the hotel no doubt. Sigh.

Water Lilies (Detail), 2009

File Under "What the @#$%"

"Samsung Digital Imaging, leaders in innovation and technology, today announced the arrival of the ultra slim and stylish ST550 and ST500 compact cameras which boast yet another ‘world first’: front and back LCD display technology.

Delivering an unrivalled user experience, the hidden 1.5” LCD located on the front of the camera allows consumers to take accurate portraits using the front image as a guide – whether it’s a group shot with friends or a snap of yourself on holiday. There is no need to even press the shutter button – just a big smile will trigger the cameras to take the picture.

On the reverse, the Samsung ST550 features the world’s highest resolution 3.5” wide touch screen LCD* , almost four times the size of many other cameras, complete with haptic feedback for ease of use."

Well at least its got a Schneider lens.

Panasonic GF 1

The above images were leaked on the Japanese website Xitek. If true, this will be the fourth camera in the Micro Four Thirds lineup and a direct competitor to the Olympus EP-1. A bit smaller than the Oly, the GF 1 could be truly pocketable. Note the new Leica 45mm pictured. I love this format! Stay tuned.

Convergence

Convergence is a subject that I have never written about, but since I am seriously considering purchasing a Panasonic GH1, now seems to be a good time. Convergence is the combination of professional still and video capability into a single camera, which Michael Reichmann has dubbed a “ComboCam”. Because I am lazy and the term seems to fit, I’ll use it. Michael has been writing about convergence for quite some time, but seems to be the only one doing so. Your average photographer seems to be totally uninterested in the subject. As an aficionado of the visual arts, I am very interested in convergence and all the exciting creative possibilities that it has to offer.

When I returned to photography after a lengthy hiatus, I was also seriously exploring video. In fact I bought my Sony video camera about the same time as I bought my Nikon Coolpix 5400, my first digicam. For the next few years I shot and edited a lot of video. At some point, however, I decided that I could not serve two mistresses and the Sony went into the closet. Recently, however, I had reason to edit the remaining video that still I had. Frankly, I had a blast. In the time since I hung up my video spurs a lot had changed. Now every Mac comes with a decent video editor, iMovie, which is simple to use. The whole process is just a lot easier. In addition, video systems have changed. My old Sony uses DV tape and tape transfer to computer is done in real time. Thus, transferring an hour of video takes an hour. Nowadays, the preferred format is SDHC cards and transfer times are down to mere minutes. In addition, I have seen some of the good video work that Michael has done and witnessed the rise of YouTube and other sites like it.

All that is well and good, but I was not interested in lugging two kinds of systems around. But if I could have it in the same body, I might be interested. In addition, I was intrigued by the flexibility that an interchangeable lens system would bring to video.

Nikon’s D90 was the first ComboCam to come to market. Although an interesting concept, the execution seemed a bit lacking. Still, the D90 was incontrovertible evidence that worlds of still photography and video were on a collision course. Then came the Canon 5D Mark II. Many people were turned on by the quality of its video image, but as just a turned off by the frustration of using it as a video camera. According to Michael, a recent firmware upgrade has “turned it into something that can at least walk on crutches”.




Of late I have been looking hard at the GH1 for a couple of reasons. First, I am still on the hunt for my “Poor Man’s Leica” and the Olympus E-P1 was a disappointment. Second, I tried out a G1 late in the game and I rather liked it. Further research indicated that it’s a very capable camera for what I do. The GH1 seemed just a bit better. And then there’s that video capability. Both DP Review and Luminous Landscape have given the camera good reviews. So convergence which wasn’t all that interesting at first is now a pretty big deal.

If you are interested in a ComboCam yourself (and of course you are after reading this) I strongly suggest that you read Michael’s excellent introduction to video “Understanding Video: A Video Primer for Photographers”.