Isn’t retire so much nicer than “discontinue”? Still, no matter how you call it, the SB-600 is taking it’s place in history as one of Nikon’s all-time great speedlights.
News, Muse and Reviews for Aspiring Lensmen.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The Jury’s Still Out...
...but the verdict is in.
I just don’t think the horizontal-scrolling table works for a timeline in the blog format. While my years as an experience designer/usability engineer tell me the “long scrolling web page” is first-generation and thus to be avoided, the web and its user base have matured a great deal since the early days.
The beauty of scrolling down is that it reveals the valuable real estate running along the margins, which can contain additional navigation and links to other important information.
So, I’ve decided to add all the available information I have to the timeline page, and organize it in a way to more efficiently present this information. Each year will be broken down into several categories as follows; Artists, Cameras, Events, Movements and Works, in that order, because it’s alphabetical. And new camera releases will also be alphabetical; Canon, Leica, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Sony, Voigtländer, etc.
But this scrolling table does offer significant advantages is presenting information, so I’ll be keeping it on the back burner for now.
I just don’t think the horizontal-scrolling table works for a timeline in the blog format. While my years as an experience designer/usability engineer tell me the “long scrolling web page” is first-generation and thus to be avoided, the web and its user base have matured a great deal since the early days.
The beauty of scrolling down is that it reveals the valuable real estate running along the margins, which can contain additional navigation and links to other important information.
So, I’ve decided to add all the available information I have to the timeline page, and organize it in a way to more efficiently present this information. Each year will be broken down into several categories as follows; Artists, Cameras, Events, Movements and Works, in that order, because it’s alphabetical. And new camera releases will also be alphabetical; Canon, Leica, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Sony, Voigtländer, etc.
But this scrolling table does offer significant advantages is presenting information, so I’ll be keeping it on the back burner for now.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Olympus Throws in the Towel
 |
| The Olympus E-5 DSLR; The last of a long line of compact SLRs. |
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Making More Time for Timelines
I seem to have this thing for creating timelines. I enjoy putting things in historical and chronological context.
I just couldn’t leave well enough alone with the timeline page, so I decided to compile a separate timeline post for camera model releases. Naturally, I’m starting with Nikon, which is complete enough at this stage to publish. The Canon timeline is in the works.
The Nikon was easier to complete, because their line is considerably simpler, which is one of the things that draws me to Nikon. Simplicity is often a good thing. Canon has been much more prolific in the release of camera models, which probably explains why their ergonomics are not up to Nikon’s standards. I may create timelines for other camera brands as well, and it’s quite possible I might combine them all into a single tabular format.
Timelines are best created horizontally, but web pages lend themselves better to vertical scrolling, so I’ll not fight the natural order of things and simply go with it, in descending order.
Take a look…
I just couldn’t leave well enough alone with the timeline page, so I decided to compile a separate timeline post for camera model releases. Naturally, I’m starting with Nikon, which is complete enough at this stage to publish. The Canon timeline is in the works.
The Nikon was easier to complete, because their line is considerably simpler, which is one of the things that draws me to Nikon. Simplicity is often a good thing. Canon has been much more prolific in the release of camera models, which probably explains why their ergonomics are not up to Nikon’s standards. I may create timelines for other camera brands as well, and it’s quite possible I might combine them all into a single tabular format.
Timelines are best created horizontally, but web pages lend themselves better to vertical scrolling, so I’ll not fight the natural order of things and simply go with it, in descending order.
Take a look…
Friday, February 18, 2011
Take a Picture; It Lasts Longer
…and takes up far less space!
People collect a lot of strange items. I have a friend who I haven’t seen in a while who collects fans. It’s interesting to see how fans have evolved over the years.
In essence, photography is a means of collecting things that would otherwise not be feasible. Take birding for example. You could keep dozens of species of birds, but it would be far more practical to collect photos of them. Trees are another interesting subject, but it’s difficult to add a fully grown tree to one’s collection. And architectural subjects like buildings and bridges? Forgetaboutit.
Photography even allows us to take possession of things that don’t actually belong to us. Owning a Ferrari is pretty much out of the question for me, but I have dozens of pictures of them. We can even keep down the clutter by taking photos of objects we seriously need to part with.
This practice of collecting images should probably not be confused with the actual act of taking pictures, or of making photographs. I make the distinction, because while I may only have the opportunity to take a snapshot of an object for reference, with more time I might also make a photograph of the object to capture its essence. There’s a huge difference between the two; one is photography, and one is not. Not that taking snapshots is not worthwhile. It’s just great that we have a name for this aspect of photography that puts things in perspective.
Collecting images is part of the magic of photography.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
The Future Looks Bright
I’m very enthusiastic about the new Nikon D7000 D-SLR. I’m not going to buy one anytime soon, but like all the other cameras I can’t afford, I can still take possession of it, intellectually speaking.
Alternate Plane-of-Reality Parking
 |
| For the first time in many years, Times Square isn’t dominated by Target. |
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
The State of Street
Winter has set in, in a big way. The New York metro area has received record snowfall over the past couple of weeks. We’re just getting over last our weekly storm, which this time delivered ice and freezing rain. So it’s sleep, go to work, shovel snow. Not many photo ops for the family man/photog.
So I’m trying to put my cabin fever to good use by continuing my ongoing research, and staying organized. I hope to get this all out of my system soon, because come spring my life will be consumed with home improvement projects and (hopefully) some serious shooting.
My current project is to find the perfect digital street shooter. The deeper I get into my research, the more I realize that for street, the digital camera is just not there yet. SLR lovers are in good shape because there are many options. Pros have good medium format options. But the street shooters who’s stock in trade are rangefinders have a tough time. I want to explore the rangefinder lifestyle in a digital way, but I keep coming up short.
The Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds systems don’t seem to be taking off. If I wanted to go with a 35mm focal length, I should be able to couple an MFT body with a 17mm prime lens, and add an external viewfinder.
Lumix offers the GF2, and their 17mm f/1.7 lens has received good reviews. No optical viewfinder though, and I can’t see taking a chance on the pricey DMW-VF1, which is designed for the LX3. Not a rangefinder, but perhaps a suitable street shooter.
Olympus has the PEN E-PL2, but their 17mm is f/2.8, did not receive stellar reviews, and doesn’t come in black. Neither does the VF-1 Optical Viewfinder, even though the camera only comes in black.
But I could pair the E-PL2 with the Lumix 17mm f/1.7 and the silver VF-1.
I could fit the E-PL2 with a Leica M to MFT adapter and use the Voigtländer Color-Skopar 21mm f/4.0 and 40mm viewfinder. But even if I could forgive the slight difference in focal length and the enormous disadvantage in speed, the brightlines would be for a 3:2 aspect ratio. And it would render the camera manual exposure only.
The obvious choice, the Leica M9, is out of the question. If it were the perfect camera, maybe; but at $7,000, it’s flawed. And, it will obsolete soon enough. Plus, a Leica 35mm f/1.4 will set me back another five grand. I could live with the f/2.5 though, at a mere $1,700.00.
If I could find a used, Cosina-made Epson RD-1, I could fit it with the Voigtländer 25mm f/4.0 for a 35mm equivalent focal length. I’d be dropping down to 6MP though, and losing considerable speed.
The Fujifilm X100 would be perfect, once it becomes available, except for the fact that it has no interchangeable lenses. Although not a true rangefinder, I think it would qualify as an excellent digital street shooter.
This is simply not a straightforward thing. For me, I think it would boil down to a choice between the Fujifilm X100, or the Olympus PEN E-PL2 with the Lumix 17mm f/1.7 and silver VF-1.
The point of all this is, the choices, especially the lenses are extremely limited. But in the land of silver halide, the choices are enormous. I could purchase a Voigtländer R4M with a Nokton 35mm f/1.4 for about $1,250.00 and be in street heaven with an enormous choice of additional lenses. Or, I could save about $50.00 and get the Fujifilm with only once choice of lens. The compromise is just too great.
So the bottom line is, if you’re planning on shooting street, film’s still the way to go.
So I’m trying to put my cabin fever to good use by continuing my ongoing research, and staying organized. I hope to get this all out of my system soon, because come spring my life will be consumed with home improvement projects and (hopefully) some serious shooting.
My current project is to find the perfect digital street shooter. The deeper I get into my research, the more I realize that for street, the digital camera is just not there yet. SLR lovers are in good shape because there are many options. Pros have good medium format options. But the street shooters who’s stock in trade are rangefinders have a tough time. I want to explore the rangefinder lifestyle in a digital way, but I keep coming up short.
The Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds systems don’t seem to be taking off. If I wanted to go with a 35mm focal length, I should be able to couple an MFT body with a 17mm prime lens, and add an external viewfinder.
Lumix offers the GF2, and their 17mm f/1.7 lens has received good reviews. No optical viewfinder though, and I can’t see taking a chance on the pricey DMW-VF1, which is designed for the LX3. Not a rangefinder, but perhaps a suitable street shooter.
Olympus has the PEN E-PL2, but their 17mm is f/2.8, did not receive stellar reviews, and doesn’t come in black. Neither does the VF-1 Optical Viewfinder, even though the camera only comes in black.
But I could pair the E-PL2 with the Lumix 17mm f/1.7 and the silver VF-1.
I could fit the E-PL2 with a Leica M to MFT adapter and use the Voigtländer Color-Skopar 21mm f/4.0 and 40mm viewfinder. But even if I could forgive the slight difference in focal length and the enormous disadvantage in speed, the brightlines would be for a 3:2 aspect ratio. And it would render the camera manual exposure only.
The obvious choice, the Leica M9, is out of the question. If it were the perfect camera, maybe; but at $7,000, it’s flawed. And, it will obsolete soon enough. Plus, a Leica 35mm f/1.4 will set me back another five grand. I could live with the f/2.5 though, at a mere $1,700.00.
If I could find a used, Cosina-made Epson RD-1, I could fit it with the Voigtländer 25mm f/4.0 for a 35mm equivalent focal length. I’d be dropping down to 6MP though, and losing considerable speed.
The Fujifilm X100 would be perfect, once it becomes available, except for the fact that it has no interchangeable lenses. Although not a true rangefinder, I think it would qualify as an excellent digital street shooter.
This is simply not a straightforward thing. For me, I think it would boil down to a choice between the Fujifilm X100, or the Olympus PEN E-PL2 with the Lumix 17mm f/1.7 and silver VF-1.
The point of all this is, the choices, especially the lenses are extremely limited. But in the land of silver halide, the choices are enormous. I could purchase a Voigtländer R4M with a Nokton 35mm f/1.4 for about $1,250.00 and be in street heaven with an enormous choice of additional lenses. Or, I could save about $50.00 and get the Fujifilm with only once choice of lens. The compromise is just too great.
So the bottom line is, if you’re planning on shooting street, film’s still the way to go.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)