Arkadiusz Podniesinski, a Polish photographer, has a photoessay on Fukushima and the exclusion zone around the nuclear power plant disaster.
Overexposing colour negative
Petapixel has Daniel Lachman tell us how much you can over expose colour negative film:
“What I took away from this is that film basically can’t be overexposed, it can just be too dense for the scanner to be able to shoot through the negative. But the information will always be there.”
My quick take is that you can shoot it at +2 and it will be more tolerant to under exposure error.
Leica Q
Leica announced yesterday the Leica Q (Typ 116). It is their take on the Sony RX1 product segment: full-frame sensor fixed and fast wide angle lens camera, not in the lower price range either. Unlike the Sony, the Leica has a built-in viewfinder ; the 28mm lens is half a stop slower (f1.7 instead of f1.4) and it has a higher price tag. By ~$1k if you factor in the cost of the EVF for the RX1.
Size-wise it is bigger than the RX1 (no EVF) and smaller than the Leica M.
The camera include a fast autofocus system, that can be controlled from the rear touch screen, and proper manual focusing capabilities, as the lens has a know like on the M lenses and the EVF has focus peeking ; this will make rangefinder users happy. And the others will probably like that too.
The camera is “Made in Germany”.
Early reviews:
- Ming Thein: “I can’t help but wonder if the Q is the harbinger to the end of the M system in its current guise.”
- Jay Cassario: “…this one stands out and might be the first to end up staying in my bag.”
- Jonathan Slack: “The Q is a little larger [than the Sony Rx1r], but it seems to be superior in pretty much every other respect”
Note: This is just news and not a review as I haven’t had it in hand.
Fuji new “body cap” lens
(Petapixel) Fuji’s New XM-FL is an X-Mount Body Cap Lens with Built-In Photo Filters:
Fujifilm has announced a strange new lens over in Japan. It’s called the XM-FL, and it’s a 24mm f/8 body cap-style pancake lens that features built-in photo filters that can be accessed by turning a dial on the side.
Very light, totally “dumb” (ie no electronics), for ~$100, can make for interesting experiments on your Fuji X.
From Fujifilm Japan (in Japanese)
Similar in principle to the Olympus body cap lens in 2013.
DIY waist level shooter
Turn a point and shoot to a waist level camera.
Interesting DIY idea, including the use of the PowerShot N that is currently dirt cheap to do that (~US$130 at B&H) that seem to have been meant to be used like that.
As for the usefulness, I can tell that the way you hold your camera will change the way you see through it – this is why I have totally different results when using my TLR. This is almost like freestyle shooting. And it might bring in question from people – I have had people asking about my TLR when shooting – kind of a conversation starter.
EPSON launches new photo film scanner
EPSON launches benchmark flatbed film and photo scanners.
This to replace the top V700/V750 scanners. It is good to see that EPSON continues to invest in that field. Now we shall see if the quality on small medium like 35mm film is up to the expectations, but it is not like there is plenty of choice since Nikon bricked their expensive CoolScan by abandoning the low quality software that came with it – low quality because it didn’t run on more modern OS, at least on MacOS.
Time will tell.
Fuji X100T First Looks
Zack Arias has had his hands on a Fuji X100T, at least a pre-production model. We know how he loved the first one, how he loved the improvements of the second generation, how he love the X series. Faster, better wifi, classic chrome, better buttons standardized on the rest of the X-series, new hybrid viewfinder.
Petapixel today: Fuji Unveils the X100T with “Electronic Rangefinder” Function, Improved Controls and More gives us some news from the product announcement.
It is great to see Fuji iterating over to improve things and the hybrid viewfinder improvement are, I hope, a shape of things to come for the 2nd generation X-Pro1 that is rumoured.
Goodbye Kodak BW 400CN
Kodak Alaris is discontinuing the BW 400CN.
A very nice film meant to shoot Black & White and have it processed in a regular one hour minilab as it is a C-41 process film.
Now that one hour minilabs are an endangered specie and that it is much easier to find Black & White chemistry than C-41, it was bound to happen. Not sure exactly what to replace it with.
Here are some samples I shot a few years ago:
Fuji X round up
Zack Arias take on the Fuji X-T1: Yep. It’s A Fuji (archived from the original).
Conclusion… I have zero regrets about selling all of my Canon gear and going Fuji. Zero regrets.
I have to admit, I’m not a pro like him, ie I don’t shoot for a living (also I’m less talented), but since I have my X-Pro1 I haven’t used the Canon much nor even lusted on any piece of gear for it.
Last week I have had my hands shortly on the X-T1 and the EVF is absolutely so much better than the X-Pro1. Non-withstanding the other advantages. If only I could try it longer.
Also don’t miss his Mystical Marrakech video (on YouTube) that he did for Fuji:
Camera lost at sea, found with SD card intact 2 years later
CBC report on a Shipwrecked camera found underwater after 2 years with photos intact:
A camera lost in a shipwreck off the west coast of Vancouver Island two years ago is finally to be returned to its owner — with the memory card and its images intact.
The camera, we can’t really say it survive, but the SD card still in working order 2 years later. Kudos to the researchers for locating the pictures owner, this is a kind gesture.
This show how robust media has become. Try this with a tape, with film, etc. Unlikely you’d be able to salvage them. On the other hand this doesn’t really mean we’ll be able to read them in 50 years, the problem being to actually access the media.
via m43 Rumors