Category: Links

The meaning of ISO

DPReview tells usYou probably don’t know what ISO means — and that’s a problem to explain what ISO (sensitivity) mean in the world of digital photography, compared to film, and why it is different.

This brings us to the biggest problem with using a clumsy metaphor for film sensitivity as the way of setting image brightness in digital: it means we aren’t given the tools to optimally expose our sensors.

Digital photography cameras are built on film photography. While some things are similar, when it comes to the image capture, things are totally different leading to a design that is often suboptimal at best.

Published
Categorized as Links

Rumour: Canon full frame mirrorless

Canon Rumors has something about a rumoured Canon full frame mirrorless:

We have now confirmed from a couple of good sources that a full frame mirrorless camera is well into its development cycle, as the camera is being used by select Canon pro photographers.

Petapixel adds:

One of the biggest unanswered questions about Canon’s upcoming camera is whether it will feature a native EF lens mount. Allowing Canon photographers to seamlessly use their entire existing arsenal of Canon lenses would be a huge boon to the camera’s ability to disrupt the market.

I wrote previously whether a SLR mount on mirrorless would make sense?

The answer is a NO.

What I see, if that camera actually exists, is an EF-M mount for full frame, possibly compatible with the actual EF-M downward (full frame on APS-C) but not the other way due to coverage, similarly to the EF-S mount cameras, that can use EF mount lenses. Like for the EOS-M, I also see an adapter available for EF lenses.

Time will tell if that gets to be beyond a rumour. At this time I have no speculation about its specs.

Dear Canon, again

Dear Canon, What Happened To Your Innovation? writes Jason Futrill on PetaPixel.

[…] — since the launch of the Canon 5D Mark II way back in March 2008 it has been extremely hard to be genuinely excited about any new cameras you have released. And here is why: the Canon 5D Mark II is, in my opinion, the last truly “innovative” camera you have developed and released.

I had one specific issue with the 6DMkII before the reviews came around to show it was not just the lack of 4K video. Canon is slow to disrupt itself, which mean that competitors are doing it instead. I also love L glass. Still love my 5DMkII for photography. But recently I have gotten more excited about Fujifilm that has been providing its customers new feature through software, high quality lenses, and not afraid to push the limit for video.

Published
Categorized as Links Tagged

Thorsten Overgaard review of the Leica Q

Danish photographer Thorsten Overgaard has a very comprehensive review on the Leica Q (from May 2015). A camera not without quirks though:

I must say the Auto Focus caused me a few problems at f/1.7 in that I some times unknowingly had been focusing at the background between two main subjects in the foreground that I thought I had nailed the focus on. As time has gone by, I have gotten the hang of it. I think.

Then Overgaard goes on explaining how to use various features of the camera properly. Read thoroughly if you have a Leica Q, or are simply curious.

The Elephant in the digital darkroom

The Elephant in the digital darkroom talks about how Film is coming back to Hollywood:

It’s an inexpensive archiving system, a highly effective means of preserving the motion picture heritage. Archived 35mm film stock remains stable for centuries under proper climactic conditions. With digital, however, the film industry is discovering that its core assets, its digital motion picture masters, aren’t as permanent as the film stock they’ve replaced.

I have always thought the same about still images, that under the guise of looking more convenient, that digital wasn’t as good as an archival medium.

What about the shoe boxes with pictures from your family members?

What about those lost rolls from unknown artists that happen to be an historic treasure depicting everyday life, like for example: Vivian Maier ?

This is the digital conundrum: we shorted the photographic workflow, we make it “easier” for the photographer, we make sharing more pervasive, but we also made the archival life shorter. Between the cloud services that disappear, recordable CD/DVD that disintegrate over the years, the hard drives that crash, the stolen phones, there is a lot of uncertainty whether your photos are safe or not and whether future generation will see them or not.

I wish good luck to the archivists of our future.

Craig Mod reviews the Leica Q

In 2010, Craig Mod wrote the GF1 field test — 16 Days in the Himalayas, a very compelling essay advocating Micro4/3 cameras, with the Panasonic GF1 and the 20mm f1.7. And what a gorgeous location. Later in November he wrote Seeing prime, an essay reviewing the Lumix 14mm f.2.5 and photography with a prime lens.

The in December 2013, not necessarily and change of heart but more like evidence of the shift of the whole industry Cameras, Goodbye where the iPhone quality reach the one of bigger cameras that don’t have the online features — something that the author found important. A testimonial about camera phones, with the iPhone spearheading, taking over the compact camera market.

Then come his essay The Leica Q where he took the Leica Q on a field test for six month:

I now understand the limitations of this photographic instrument, of which there are few. And I trust and enjoy it more than any other camera I’ve owned.

Yes, even more than my iPhone.

Read the whole essay — six month of use in the field is quite long enough to have a definitive opinion. It feels that Leica managed to make an attractive camera priced not too insanely above of the Sony RX1 (+ EVF to compare). This echoes quite well the early reviews back in June.