The Official Head-Case Photography Thread.

[jpelg]

^I get why you'd want the front company logo & model numbers noir-ed. But darkening the top-dial values seems counter-intuitive in a practical use-case (my eyes are bad enough as it is  )

Ric - you are lucky to have such a great & willing subject. My wife has no patience for me taking photos of her.

Edited September 22, 2022 by jpelg

[blessingx]

Thanks. I am lucky with Esmé, though it's more a fight now, than in the past. All part of understanding self-image, I suppose. But if you lock them in a bubble. 

I certainly agree on the dials (though I still kinda want one). Even Leica has reintroduced labels. SL vs. SL2/SL2-S.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2022 by blessingx

[blessingx]

How’s this for a quote? 

“Life is a movie. Death is a photograph.” - Susan Sontag 

 

 

[blessingx]

Breaking news… 

 

[Knuckledragger]

Leica Revives the M6, a 35mm Film Camera it Hasn’t Produced Since 2002.

It will certainly age better than the digital bodies.

[blessingx]

Occasionally photography ads can be fun... 

 

[padam]

Speaking of Fuji https://petapixel.com/2022/11/01/used-fujifilm-x100-series-camera-prices-are-surging-thanks-to-tiktok/

[grawk]

[blessingx]

Anyone phone shopping?

https://petapixel.com/2022/11/02/xiaomi-shows-off-smartphone-that-mounts-full-size-leica-lenses/ 

[Iron_Dreamer]

18 minutes ago, blessingx said:

Anyone phone shopping?

https://petapixel.com/2022/11/02/xiaomi-shows-off-smartphone-that-mounts-full-size-leica-lenses/ 

Pretty hilarious marketing stunt there.

Quite enjoying the Pixel 7 Pro I picked up recently. It's nice finally having AF on the UWA lens of a smartphone.

[dsavitsk]

20 climate photographs that changed the world: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/05/20-climate-photographs-that-changed-the-world

[n_maher]

^^ Some of those are downright heartbreaking.

[blessingx]

On a trip back (time and space) to rural Ohio to visit family for Thanksgiving, I shot film for the first time in at least 30 years. Went with Ilford HP5+ (Nikon F4 and 50 f/1.8) and did my fair share of missing exposure. And I seemed to pick the comically bad lab to develop and scan, but all part of the process, I guess. These are nothing special, but said I'd post some shots in the other thread so here they are. A sampling of digital (Leica SL & CV 35, 50 APOs) at the end on the same trip too. As it was the longest gap of visits (pandemic!), it felt the furthest away from my current Silicon Valley suburban life. Plenty of emotions. Plenty of Trump signs. 

 

The digital... 

 

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by blessingx

[blessingx]

A fun little video on old beautiful cameras. 

 

[dsavitsk]

2 hours ago, blessingx said:

A fun little video on old beautiful cameras. 

Regarding the initial comparison of the Daguerre Giroux vs. the Fox Talbot: the construction of the DG, with the grain running top to bottom, will cause the distance between the lens and the film to change with humidity as the wood swells and contracts thus throwing it out of focus. The front to back grain of the FT will be stable in that regard. It's a minor thing that probably didn't really matter at the time, but it's an interesting form vs function distinction.

Also, the Brownie wasn't produced in the tradition of the Model T as it predates it by a decade

Edited December 27, 2022 by dsavitsk

[dsavitsk]

@blessingx When I was in the used camera business, we had a small stash of old Alpas which are still my favorites.

https://casualphotophile.com/2018/03/21/alpa-10d-camera-review-swiss-35mm-film-slr/

 

[blessingx]

4 minutes ago, dsavitsk said:

@blessingx When I was in the used camera business, we had a small stash of old Alpas which are still my favorites.

https://casualphotophile.com/2018/03/21/alpa-10d-camera-review-swiss-35mm-film-slr/

 

That's a pretty handsome body! Love the advance lever and ASA dial. 

[dsavitsk]

Pictures of abandoned stuff in Russia.

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/08/photos-of-abandoned-russia/566984/

[blessingx]

The Hottest Gen Z Gadget Is a 20-Year-Old Digital Camera. Young people are opting for point-and-shoots and blurry photos.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/technology/digital-cameras-olympus-canon.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare 

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

On 1/7/2023 at 10:30 AM, blessingx said:

The Hottest Gen Z Gadget Is a 20-Year-Old Digital Camera. Young people are opting for point-and-shoots and blurry photos.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/technology/digital-cameras-olympus-canon.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare 

 

One of my favorite camera bloggers has an amusing take on that story: https://bythom.com/newsviews/the-new-york-times-prints.html

[blessingx]

Problems applying anecdotes in the Times piece aside, yeah, I'm not sure what percentage of the whole (Gen Z) a trend makes, but I will say larger objective movement from near zero awareness, even if a minority, upward is hard to deny in this case. Nor is the pretty dramatic rise in the used market prices of late. I know little about TikTok, as I'm not on, but the YT channels of Snappiness, One Month Two Cameras, Shutter Slaps, not to mention a variety of individual dedicated channels and IG accounts, and the Digi Discord group seems to indicate some movement, no? Course much of that was not started by Gen Zers, though followers, etc. seem to be pretty young. Honestly, it's fun to see them make the discoveries. I mean with various ugly software filters, and Lomo, and IG and TikTok's low resolution, why wouldn't a generation want it's own aesthetic (of course by stealing from an out-of-fashion previous generation) and drift this way? Then there's all the newer software options of PureRaw, Super Resolution, Photo.ai, etc. that newly exists if indeed you wanted to improve things and take them in places they've really never been. 

[jpelg]

I applaud anyone who has such a burning desire to produce their art that they do not let lack of resources impede them from getting it out there. In such cases, limitations can produce surprising results, and even provide a unique look, or carve a niche. 

But I have to wonder if these articles are seeking to create the very market trend that they pretend to report? I mean, a 7.1MP camera from 2007 is not that old & can produce some decent, if smallish, digital images. My personal take is that someone is taking advantage of the meteoric rise (very unscientifically determined on my part, btw ) of film cameras to figure how to similarly sell old digicams. 

And really, once something makes the NYT, it is really edgy anymore?

[blessingx]

Well, not that old for us [wink, wink]. And with near zero evidence besides some comments, I suspect the lure of film is all over this for an audience that may not be able to afford film. Hell, the last two cameras I bought were combined cheaper than processing and printing a single roll of B&W. Even just the last two years has seen film prices soar while last decade analog being heavily romanticized. 

As for edgy, I've been in this space for a bit so it seems old hat to me and some of the channels do seem more aimless lately (not a lot of new old digicams  ), so we'll see how long it lasts, if one believes it's a real trend. 

And yes, I was looking at a Nikon D3s the weekend. Only 14 years old. Practically new in comparison! 

 

[Knuckledragger]

Just about every full frame digital camera ever made is still worth using to this day.  There are a few exceptions, the original Leica M8 was more or less a steaming pile of garbage.  It had a host of dealbreaking problems, from exposure inconsistency, UV sensitivity, color rendition, to a very slow and clunky UI.  It was an insult to buyers of a $5500 (in 2006 dollars) digital camera that bore the Leica name and could mount some of the greatest 35mm glass in the world.  Fortunately, the M8 is an exception.  Most full frame digital cameras (SLR or otherwise) are still a blast to use.  Even older cropped sensor cameras with swappable glass are still good for subjects that are far away.

I have an OG Canon 5D (that is, ahem, IR modified) that I am going to dig out, clean off and fire up this spring.  12MP is still plenty for my purposes and a full frame sensor plus a wide zoom (in my case 17-40mm) is just too much fun.

Unedited photo, straight out of the camera.

Fussed over in Photoshop.

Meow.

[blessingx]

Nice IR shots and doubly nice clean up. The 5D Classic (aka MK1) is a pretty big model in this digicam community (as far as I can tell). I picked one up last year. 

Edited January 10, 2023 by blessingx