Richard & Caroline's Blog

Just a few years ago there was one large sensor compact the Sigma DP, it was slow to use but had excellent image quality, and with each version it has gotten better.  Now though it seems hardly a month goes by without another one coming a long.

Recently we have had the new king of compacts, the Sony RX1, a stunning full 35mm sensor’ed camera, and just the other month the new Nikon A with its DX sensor.

Well now we have the latest version of the Ricoh GR.  At £600 compared to the Nikon at £999 its a bit of a bargain.  Once again Nikon price themselves out of the market.  I love my Nikon DSLR’s and they are very competitive, but on the Compact and System Compact ranges they keep over pricing themselves, as if they are scared of competing against their own SLR’s.  When will they realise that DSLR users also want a good quality compact.  I use the Nikon 1 system as my compact and to be honest that was over priced and with the heavy price drops that followed its release, I may not buy into the system any more.

While checking out the usual Photography sites I spotted on PhotoshopUser the announcement that Lightroom V5 Beta is now available.  I quickly logged into my Adobe accounts and downloaded the beta.  I’ll give it a first test later, but if you want to grab a copy yourself then get a copy from Adobe Labs, please note you have to have an Adobe account to login.

The D800 has had lots of people including myself making comments mentioning that we now have near Medium Format Quality in a small format body.

With the cost of this why spend £20,000 on a medium format camera and lens at £5,000 each.

Or why go the other way, a Leica M, which needs manual focus, has no auto exposure modes, Costs £5,000, and lens which are anywhere from £1,000 to nearly £8,000.

Reading the internet forums people can get quite aggressive justifying their choice and putting down other cameras and users of other cameras.

The way a Medium Format Draws an image, the effect of Depth of Field on an image, and just the robustness of the files for processing means that for Medium Format users there is no comparison.

For Leica users, the small body, the ability to use a real view finder that shows more then 100% of the field of view, and the simply stunning lens that make it the smallest full frame camera system in the world, mean for them there is no other choice, why carry a huge heavy SLR.

Then the SLR user, the ultimate all-rounder that can tackle any job, why bother with any other system when you have such a capable system that can out perform in speed of focus, frames per second any other type of camera.

Choose you artistic tool of choice but please lets stop putting down other people for there camera choices.

There are places we visit every day. Often there are features and scenes that we walk past without a second glance.

Some may seem far from photogenic, often from sheer familiarity.  The Brayford Wharf in Lincoln is a route I walk many times each week.  The buildings and scenes often just walked past without thought.

The area does have some advantages; with it being next to the Brayford Pool there is often wildlife around, if one takes the care and effort to look.  Generally just Black-Headed Gulls but sometimes less common species can be spotted.

As well as the wildlife, over the last dozen years the Wharf area has changed considerably, the old buildings have all gone with the exception of the old library headquarters with its famous hyperbolic paraboloid roof designed by the architect Sam Scorer.  Now its modern buildings and architecture, just lift up your eyes and camera and spot a new view of the area.

Over familiarity can hold back your photography, but try and walk a familiar area with fresh eyes, look up, look down; try to find something fresh that you have not photographed before.

A challenge but a worthwhile one and one that can produce good results when you visit a new area and bring back original shots that other photographers have missed.