Ricoh GR, Tokyo, "Daido Mode" by Colin Steel on Steve Huff's Site

This is the beauty of modern internet technology and photography blogs. This morning I got to read about a camera I've never handled, used in a place I know well but only see once a year, view photographs that a guy I've never met took and shared on another guy I don't know (but feel like I do)'s blog.

What I mean is that I got to see the awesome images that Colin Steel made in Tokyo with the Ricoh GR, and shared on Steve Huff's site.

Image Source: http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/colin4.jpg

In his guest post on Steve Huff's site, Colin Steel shares a series of images he made on a quick three day trip to Tokyo. Apparently at least one day was made up of 24 hours straight wandering the streets of Tokyo, shooting with the Ricoh's high contrast monochrome setting, referred to as "Daido mode," after Daido Moriyama, famous Tokyo photographer who also happened to shoot with Ricoh cameras.

(Click Here) to read Colin's post on Steve Huff's site.

Colin writes about how he and most serious photographers usually ignore the in-camera creative presets. I used to feel the same way until one very important thing happened in the cameras I have that include presets: they started enabling most of the presets to be used in raw+jpeg shooting mode! This means that I can get a jpeg with all of the preset effects, view it on the camera display in the preset way, but have a completely unembellished raw file stored on my card to post-process in any way I see fit later on. I can see a high contrast black and white rendition while I'm shooting, then come home and use the raw file to make a low contrast color print, if I decide to. Flexibility is a great thing.

I won't go into the details of the Ricoh camera, as I honestly have not looked at them. So many cameras, so little time, you know. My two points today are: 1) it's great to be able to see wonderful photography from around the world and people I don't know through the internet, and 2) don't ignore anything on your camera. It may come to creative use if you learn how to use it, and learn about things like having the unaltered raw files available, should you change your mind later.

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

AMAZING Photography With New Fuji X100S and X20 - Colin Steel on Steve Huff Photo

Truly Inspired Photography by Colin Steel

Image Source: http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2013/04/15/easter-in-sicily-with-the-new-fujis-by-colin-steel/

 

Every once in a while I see a series of photographs that makes me say "I am not worthy." Well, thanks to Steve Huff's website, and Colin Steel's photographs from Sicily, that is how I feel right now.

 

I will summarize a few key points from Colin's write up, but you MUST

 

(Click Here) to see Colin's images on Steve Huff Photo.

 

Colin used the new Fujifilm X100S and X20 on this trip. I really enjoyed Colin's take on cameras and technology. He says that to him, image quality means "how effectively can I crate interesting photographs with these tools?" Colin concludes that there are many great camera options out there today, including the two new Fujifilm models. Instead of focusing on the equipment, he focused on capturing spectacular images, and boy, did he succeed.

 

He focused so little on equipment, the pictures don't even say which of the two cameras they were taken with.

 

Colin likes to shoot in square (1:1) format, in black and white. He reports that the X100S has a very nice square frameline in the optical finder. He also found the new manual focus tools in the X100S very useful. He says the X20 made a good pairing with the X100S, mostly based on the similarity of the controls.

 

Colin post-processes using Nik's Silverefexpro2 software, which I have just recently gotten myself. Interestingly, he likes the Tri-X film emulator in Silverefexpro2, which is my favorite so far. I tried many times to find Lightroom settings to emulate Tri-X; I never came close to what Silverefexpro2 provides.

 

As I wrote some time back, even though I'm very attracted to the Fujifilm X100S, I don't think a fixed 35mm equivalent lens works that well for me. I prefer 50mm field of view. The X20 is a different story. I handled one in Japan, and really, really liked it. For now, I'm still enjoying my new Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX7, but the X20 still may make its way into my kit.

 

In any case, Colin set a new benchmark for me with these images. I'm so impressed.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Colin Steel Writes About the "Year Old" Fujifilm Model X10 on Steve Huff Photo

Image Source: http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2013/03/07/forgotten-friends-the-year-old-camera-fuji-x10-by-colin-steel/

 

Colin Steel has written an informative post on Steve Huff's blog, about the virtues of taking advantage of extremely low prices on last year's camera models, in his case the Fujifilm X10.

 

(Click Here) to read Colin's post on stevehuffphoto.com

 

Colin picked his X10 up for the equivalent of $350 US. This reminds me of my own recent purchase of the Lumix DMC-LX7 for less than $300. There are some amazing deals out there. Amazon is a great place to find them (hint hint - use my link below).

 

Colin finds the power-on switch in the X10, which is linked to twisting the lens zoom ring, very fast and elegant. He has perfected his technique to end the power-on motion at 35mm focal equivalent for fast shooting.

 

All of these small sensor cameras suffer from the inability to get extremely shallow depth of field. Colin is not concerned with this, as he likes lots of depth of field. In fact, Colin mentions a discussion with Magnum photographer Nikos Economopoulos, who uses f11 or at most f8 for much of his shooting with the Leica M9, so that he can be free to arrange the compositional features within the frame, rather than relying on (or dealing with) out of focus features.

 

Colin finds the dynamic range on the X10 to be pretty good.

 

While the X10 has an optical viewfinder (rare on small cameras, and very important in my estimation), Colin finds that he composes most of his images on the LCD. This would not work for me. Colin says that he adapts to each camera, and composes more through the viewfinder on the Fuji X100 for example. The X100 has a much better finder than the X10.

 

I find it very interesting to read Colin's impressions of the X10. I certainly agree with him that there are some amazingly good cameras that happen to be last year's models for prices that are difficult to pass up.

 

Here's a shot I made with the Lumix DMC-LX7 last week.

Agitated Airline Customers, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX7, out of camera jpeg

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

Please use this link to find your own deal on last year's camera model!