Family, Photography and other misc news
January is the annual CES show, and rumour has it that Nikon will be announcing some more glass and bodies for the Nikon Series 1 range.
A few fast primes would be nice and there looks to be another body on the way, a replacement for the J2, to be called the J3, and a new body called the S1.
It will be interesting to see what they have in store. As a compact replacement there great little cameras but definitely second cameras and not a primary camera.
During a test shoot earlier in the month, after changing the lighting and taking meter readings, I then forgot to change the settings on the camera. Luckily when shooting digital I always check the shot and the histogram after the first shot after lighting, set or positional change on the back of the camera.
So the above shot is over exposed but the rest were correct. This over exposed shot would normally be rejected, but with the help of the recovery slider in Adobe Lightroom and some adjustment of the back point, it has made a nice and striking high key photograph.
Its always a good idea once you have the photographs you need, to then go on and experiment a little, as in the above mistake, you might a nice shot hiding.
It was my Birthday recently and I asked for a few unusual presents.
Now me and Chris have an interest in coffee as well as cameras and a few weeks ago Chris emailed me a link to a blog from a guy mad about Leica’s and Coffee; just like me.
The site was CoffeeGeek.
It was while reading this site I spotted an interesting post about shaving. As you may be able to tell in the photograph above, I usually have a few days of stubble showing. Shaving has always irritated my neck and whether I use one of the latest multiblade cartridge shavers or an electric razor, I still get a sore neck.
The post linked to a few shaving forums, and these guys are real shaving geeks. Very knowledgable and trying to put a bit of fun and ritual back into what most consider a chore.
So after a bit of reading up and learning how bad for your skin modern canned saving cream and multi-blade shavers are, I had family members buy me a new shaving kit.
It consisted of a Badger Hair Shaving Brush, a Merkur 34C DE Razor, Traditional Saving Soap, Bowl, Stand and a multipack of different blades ranging from Derby Blades from Turkey right up to Japanese Feathers, some of the most fearsome and sharp razor blades money can buy. While the products are a little more expensive then the standard, the soap is very concentrated and will last a long time. The blades can be found for as little as £11 for 100 blades which means after a year you are saving money.
Though its not the money saving I am interested in. It is whether this stops my sore neck and makes shaving a pleasure instead of a chore. If it succeeds then it will be one of the best birthday presents yet. If I get on well with the DE razor I might take up Caroline’s offer to buy me a straight (ie a cut throat) razor; maybe for my next birthday.
If you are interested in finding out more then you ever wanted to know about shaving, check out www.badgerandblade.com and sharpologist.com.
Oh and thanks for The Shaving Book Andrew, an interesting but also very funny read.
If your after a cheap (well thats relative), full frame 35mm DSLR then now may be the time to buy. When the Nikon D600 was announced it was close to the price of the D800 here in the UK, well now the price has fallen by about £500 in just a few months.
Looking at how the little V1 plummeted in price I for one am wary of buying a camera now until its been out for about twelve months. Not only does the price fall but any issues are found and resolved, such as the early focus issues on the left hand sensors for the Nikon D800 when it was announced.
15th April 2012 – Post dated blog entry
This is going to one of many post dated blog entries generally about film photography. One of the delights and difficulties about shooting film is the time between taking the image to actually viewing the image. This can be a benefit and also a negative.
Today I set out to visit Hartsholme Park in Lincoln. It is a location I visit often in the spring, as it is a great location to get some really good bird shots.
Today though, it was not wildlife I was after but two landscape shots.
When I arrived the sky was a little too blue and lacking in some cloud but I had hopes that at least one of my two ideas would work.
I parked up and as I walked over to the lake I was surprised to lots of old Austin 7 cars arriving. I would definitely have to check them out later but for now I needed to get setup to make the most of the low sun.
Today I was shooting film on large format and small format, with digital being handled by my trusty Nikon V1.
I arrived by the lake and started to search out the position I had spotted on a previous visit. I soon found the spot I wanted but was disappointed to find that there was someone in the water marking out a model motorboat course. With the foreground I wanted those nice bright yellow markers floating in the lake would be right in the middle of my picture. Time for a re-think. A slight move to the right would mean I would lose the foreground I wanted but would give a clear view of the main focal point.
Well it would still be a nice shot so I decided to go for it. I setup the tripod and got out my meter and started to measure the scene.
The shadow on the far bank looked to be about the darkest part of the scene so I took a spot meter reading. It measured at 9.6EV which I loaded into the meters memory, I then measured the highlight on the water which was 13.8EV, and the sky was 15.6, that was a six stop range, bit much for film, but I thought I could afford to let the shadows block up a little so I would risk a shot using the Large Format Ebony 5×4.
Setting up I shifted the camera back to move the focal point lower in the frame, as there was no foreground interest in this new position. I some close trees framing the shot on the bank but being so close there were out of focus. Time for the scheimpflug effect. The great thing about large format is the camera movements, its like having photoshop built into your camera.
Not thinking I used some front tilt to drop the lens board forward to allow me to shift the focal plane and give me more depth of field. I rechecked the focus and something was not quite right. I used a little more front tilt and checked again. Things seemed worse, thats weird I thought. I stopped and thought for a moment, what was going on. Then it hit me. Dropping the front with front tilt is used to bring the foreground into focus, but this shot was unusual, my foreground was the tree cover; I was tilting the wrong way!
I soon reset and started again, tilting the ‘wrong’ way this time to bring the overhead branches into more focus, time to grab the film.
I took a dark slide loaded with Fuji Provia 100 and put it in the back of the camera. Time to re-meter.
That gave me an average 13.2EV, a bit more manageable. I closed the lens and set a aperture of f/36 (thats f32 and a third) and a shutter speed of 1/8 second and took a shot.
Time to pack up and move to the next location. This was a scenic view of the lake, I walked over but the light was not right and there was no cloud interest, it would have been a pretty shot but nothing spectacular.
Time for a walk.
I had a bit of an explore and found a number of areas that could produce promising pictures. The shot above was a quick snapshot with the Nikon V1, certainly an area that needs more investigation.
I then headed back to the cars, and took a quick snapshot of the cars.
A good days photography, I did not get the shots I wanted but I certainly got some new ideas for more shots in the future.
I also tried a snap shot of the cars using the Ebony, a shot bound to end if failure you would think, well I like it even with the blur of the people.
I was pleased to see that the much anticipated Adobe updates to support the Mac Retina displays were released today.
I cannot provide a lot of feed back yet, as I will need to prise the MacBook Pro Retina out of my wife’s hands in order to test. Maybe I can get her to make a blog post about what she thinks to the updates?
I was asked today about sensor cleaning, after a friend of mine spotted some spots on his landscape shots.
Its generally landscapes that spots become visible. I’ll have to blog about sensor cleaning in more detail when I have the time but here are a quick few tips.
How to test for sensor dust? Well set your camera to aperture priority, and set a aperture of about f/8 or greater, the more the better, f/22 or f/32 if your lens can stop down that much. Then at your base ISO or at least not too high, take a photography of a plain even toned subject. A bright blue sky is ideal. Then examine the result in some detail on your computer. The spots should be fairly obvious.
To do the easiest clean then I recommend a good blower such as a Giotto Rocket. With the camera switched off and the lens removed, turn the camera upside down and give the sensor a good blow with the blower. Don’t use canned air, and most certainly do not try blowing with your mouth.
There seems to be a growing interest in Black & White recently, and as part of this tread Ilford have now released some Black & White Disposal Cameras, so if you want to give Black & White a try you can, even if you do not have a film camera.
You have the choice of sending the camera to Ilford or getting it processed yourself or even have a go at processing the Black & White yourself.
Its interesting how the negatives or in some cases positives can become amplified and grow on the internet.
The Nikon Series One was dismissed by most before anyone could review it. Too small a sensor, not worth considering. I also dismissed it but on trying it was actually very impressed. Image Quality is not up to DSLR standard but its better then most compacts and I decided to make one my compact camera.
The Fuji Range of X series cameras have garnered a fan base of people who like there traditional use of a optical viewfinder, traditional shutter speed dial and aperture dial. The X100 was a great little camera but its focus was hit and miss. Other X series cameras came such as the Fuji X Pro1 and many dismissed them because of there focus capability.
I really liked the concept of the X series, with its hybrid optical viewfinder and I remember reading an essay from Michael Riechmann about how he felt the Leica M should develop. Many feel that the Fuji X series is what the Leica M should become.
The Fuji is considered my many to be a poor mans Leica, but Fuji Glass is up there with the very best. The current Hasselblad Medium Format Glass is rebadged Fuji and they still make some of the best Large Format Glass available.
One should never judge a camera until one has tried it ones self. I really wanted like the X100 but found with my big hands, the aperture dial was a little difficult to use.
Well today in the office I managed to get my hands on and try the Fuji X Pro 1. The focus for a mirrorless camera is fine, but this was running the latest firmware.
Its one thing to admire Fuji for. Since the release of the X100 they have continued to support it and release new firmware improving it and overcoming its shortcomings. So while a camera may have limitations they have continued to listen and improve on it.
Most will say the Sony NEX-7 is a better camera and while this is true, the Fuji currently has better glass. Its the great strength of Leica that their glass is hard to beat, many will put up with lack of weather sealing, slow performance and manual focus on a Leica M, for the ability to use the hard to beat Leica glass.
Of the current mirror-less options, ignoring the Leica M range, the Fuji has the best optics money can buy; and being autofocus its considered a better option for most people.
After briefly testing the Fuji today I have to admit there is nothing to worry about with the focus. My only concern is the ability of none Fuji software to process the RAW files. See the CromasSoft website for more details.
For those worried about manual focus, it should be noted that up to today I have only produced one out of focus Leica picture.
Post date Blog Post Day 3 Monday 3rd December.
Today we were off for a walk, not a long one, just a five mile loop from the edge of Whitby, across the fields heading North.
Its actually a few miles to walk before you get to the start on the outskirts of Whitby, but then its through a farmers yard and across the fields. After a while you cut through another farmers yard (watch out for the sheep dog, he will want to lick you to death), and then down to the coast where you come to the old Whitby Lighthouse and Whitby Fog Horn.
From here you are on the Cleveland Way.
On the camera front I was travelling light. After yesterday’s excesses carrying the Large Format Ebony, lens and a Nikon V1 as well, my back needed a rest. So I just packed the Leica M8 and a Summicron 35mm f/2 lens.
Very different to the last time we undertook this walk it was 2009 and I carried a Nikon D200 DSLR and a wide angle zoom plus a telephoto zoom.
Having a 12-24mm and 70-200mm zooms give you a lot of flexibility, but its tiring to carry just as the Ebony Large Format Camera is.
Carrying the small Leica or the Nikon V1 is a breath of fresh air and the reason why mirror-less cameras are getting so popular.
With any camera system it is about shooting to it’s and your strengths, there is something strangely liberating about going out with just a single camera and lens. While it did mean I missed shots, the wildlife on the cliffs for one (Nikon D3s and 400mm f/2.8 anyone?) I feel I got some good images from the walk.