Quick Post from the Bay Area - Tesla Motors Test Drive!

 

Tesla Model S, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Zeiss 25mm f2.8 Lens

 

I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area today, visiting friends and attending the LHSA (International Leica Society) annual meeting. I've been running myself silly this week, shuttling between the East Bay and San Francisco; I'll cross the Golden Gate four times today in addition to the cross-bay BART run.

 

Anyway, I did get some time with my friends. One example was going to test drive the awesome electric Model S automobile from Tesla Motors. What a phenomenal machine! As fast as any gasoline-powered car I've ever driven (with maybe the exception of my uncle's '65 Corvette with a 427), this is one luxury sports car.

 

The best thing? No gas station required.

 

Tesla Model S, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Zeiss 25mm f2.8 Lens

 

Our Test Car, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Zeiss 25mm f2.8 Lens

 

The price is hard to swallow. But, you really seem to get a lot for your money. At a minimum of about $70,000, Tesla guarantees they'll buy the car back at 36 months for around 50% of the initial price. A nice bottom line assurance. Not exactly a sports car, or a luxury car, the Model S seems to strike a reasonable balance. While it's pretty large overall, the performance and interior feel certainly tip more towards sports car. And, what other car has a 17" Apple-style display and operating software built like Google? No other car, that's the answer.

 

So, if you have the funds, I suggest giving the Model S a test drive. I won't be buying one soon, but I won't complain if my friend does!

 

Oh, yeah. The Zeiss 25mm Biogon was the perfect lens for shooting in the showroom with the M9. I did forget to inform the M9 that I'd changed to a wide angle lens, so there is more vignetting than I'd like. These are jpegs straight out of the camera.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

It's Here! The Nikon Df.

 

Image Source: http://www.adorama.com/ALC/BlogArticle.aspx?googleid=0014359&alias=nikon-df-is-a-small-retro-full-frame-dslr-first-look&utm_source=RSYS&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Email110513NikonNPA&j=Email110513NikonNPA

 

After much fanfare and mysterious marketing, the Nikon Df has been announced. The best description I've found was on Adorama's page.

 

(Click Here) to read the description and see three videos, by Joe McNally, Bob Krist, and Lynn Goldsmith.

 

Okay - so what's important about this camera for me?

• First, the sensor. A full-frame, roughly 16 megapixel CMOS, reportedly the same as the Nikon D4, will be a monster (a good monster) in low light. The wider spacing between pixels (as compared to 24 or 36 megapixel sensors) provides superior noise performance.
• This camera will work with all F-mount lenses. According to Adorama's page, that includes non-AI lenses! I need to verify this point, as the Nikon site says "non-CPU" but does not specifically say "non-AI." I still have a full suite of non-AI lenses that are a blast to use. They've been incredibly cheap up until now - I just bought a gorgeous 200mm f4 non-AI lens at a camera store(!) for $75. That is likely to change with the advent of the Df.
• While it's styled like an FM or FE classic Nikon manual focus film camera, the Df has auto focus.
• Some people speculated that the price would be less than $2,000. Nope. It's ~$2,800 for the body only. However, I think that's reasonable for what you get.

In the videos at the Adorama link above, I picked up a few things:

 

Joe McNally - "feels like home"

Bob Krist - "more in the moment" when using the Df

Lynn Goldsmith - has always used Nikon only, for over 40 years - "limiting factors" make you work a little harder, but in a productive way

 

For me personally, the most important features of this camera, in comparison to my D700, are the ability to shoot non-AI lenses and weight. My D700 works just fine with AI and AIS lenses, but it won't shoot non-AI lenses. That would be a plus. How about weight? The D700 weighs in at 995 g., while the Df comes in at 710 g. (or 71% of the D700). That's a difference of 285 g., or about .63 pounds. Significant weight reduction to my most comparable camera. One more benchmark, the historic Nikon FM2 film camera weighed 540 g.

 

So, am I excited about this camera? Yes. Am I preordering one? Hmm. Probably not. If I didn't have the Leica M9 I would. I will likely have a Df some day.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Nikon's Promise of the Return of Pure Photography

When I think of pure photography, I can admit that I think back to my early days of photography, and my first "real" camera, the Pentax K1000 (which I still have and use). I shot Pentax instead of Nikon solely because of price. That said, my Pentax gear performed flawlessly for decades, and still does.

 

Anyway, the feel I get in my hands when I think back to then is one of an SLR camera, my right hand clamped onto the right side, finger on the shutter release, while my left hand cradles and sets the focus and f-stop (manually!) on the lens. Shooting an old Nikon film SLR - my FM2N, F2, or Nikomat, brings back that feeling very, very well. That's photographic home for me.

 

These days, "pure photography" to me means a couple of things. First, it means exactly what it used to: a great film camera and some real brass-and-class lenses. I've got no problem continuing to use the nicest old film gear. Second, if I extend it to the digital world, it means the Leica M9.

 

Pure Photography, by Reed A. George

Apple iPhone

 

Ironic, writing about pure photography and shooting what's in front of me with a telephone... Sorry for the poor quality image - I'm traveling, waking up in a coffee shop, and didn't have a mirror to shoot the M9 and iPad in.

 

Anyway, if you follow photography equipment news at all, you've undoubtedly already heard about Nikon's upcoming announcement of a digital SLR that promises to bring back "Pure Photography." Supposedly, we're going to be seeing a manually-controlled digital SLR that is similar to the FM2. The announcement is supposed to come early in November.

 

(Click Here) for a teaser video from the Nikon website.

 

I can say that I hope the camera lives up to the hype. A full-frame Nikon with all manual controls, which can reportedly even use pre-AI lenses (!) will be awesome. I'll want one.

 

I'm quite pleased with the M9, and will not give up on digital rangefinder photography. In some ways, it's more "back to the basics" than an SLR will ever be. However, it's not really my photographic history. I didn't have the opportunity to shoot a Leica until years after my Pentax K1000 days. I really love it, but it's not my roots.

 

So, Nikon, bring it to us. Reports, rumors, blurbs, say this will be an incredible camera, at a reasonable price. Let's see if you can pull it off. If so, I'm very pleased to buy a digital equivalent of my Nikon FM2N.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

New Kodak Lenses for Micro 4/3? This Could Be Cool.

Image Source: http://throughavintagelens.com/2009/11/selecting-a-vintage-camera-ii-kodak-cameras/

Attributed There to Duke University Collectin

 

No longer the case, in the past Kodak was known for lenses, and some really good ones. We may again see the name associated with good optics.

 

The great blog "The Phoblographer" is reporting an interesting find from the Photo Expo 2013 show. Apparently, Sakar, who has purchased at least some rights to the Kodak name, brought some pre-production lenses for Micro 4/3 to the show. It sounds like there was not much emphasis on them at the booth, which could mean it's just a fishing expedition by the company, and may not go anywhere. I hope that's not the case.

 

(Click Here) to read about it on The Phoblographer. They show pictures of three Kodak-branded lenses: a 25mm f0.95, 50mm f1.1, and 8mm f3 fisheye.

 

All manual focus lenses, these could be a lot of fun. It's difficult to tell if this will ever really materialize, but in any case, it's nice to see that the Micro 4/3 format is attracting lens designers to try new things.

 

Cosina Voigtlander and SLR Magic are already making nice manual focus lenses for Micro 4/3. I welcome competition in the market, as it can only help us as photographers to have more options.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

 

Another Autumn Leaves Series, With Motion

This will mark my third small series of fall leaves in motion. As I said before, I did push myself to keep pursuing the idea, tweaking it as I went, to see how far I could push it. Of course, it could go further, but I think the following three images represent something of an accomplishment for me.

 

These shots were all made with the new Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7 and 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 Series II kit lens. What I feel I've learned so far in this exercise is to play with the level of realism and abstraction, which I actually think I came close to in my previous mini-series (on November 1). I really like those previous images, but did push a little further.

 

This time, I paid more attention to color. The shots from the previous post are pretty bland, color-wise. I think these below pull together my intention in terms of both the level of abstraction and in fall color. I know these won't be attractive to everyone, but I am somewhat satisfied with where the exercise took me. Now you can judge them for yourself.

 

Color and Motion 1, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7, 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 Series II Kit Lens

iso 200, f22, 0.4 sec.

 

Color and Motion 2, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7, 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 Series II Kit Lens

iso 200, f22, 0.2 sec.

 

Number 2, above, is probably a little too swirled to stand on its own, in my opinion. In the context of the other two, I think it works.

 

Color and Motion 3, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7, 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 Series II Kit Lens

iso 200, f22, 1/8 sec.

 

If I had to pick one (I don't have to), I'd pick number 3. I love the color. I think it's right at the edge of complete abstraction, but it still says "autumn" to me. But, I think the three in this series hang together pretty well.

 

One thing I'm learning right now is to give my images time before being done with them. I've been playing with this project quite a lot, and living with the images, thinking about them. I think I'll probably print these three, and see if I'm done. At some point, the leaves will all be down, and I'll be finished by definition.

 

One thing I think is that I could crop all three of these to square images. All of them could lose some empty space on the left side. It would change the character a lot, moving the swirl center away from the center of the frame. I'll give that a try before calling it done.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Oh No! Banding on the GX7 Sensor? Not to Worry.

I saw a post by pisanoal on mu-43.com that initially had me worried. You see, I've only had a little time to play with my new Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7, and most of that has been with the surprisingly decent new 14-42mm Series II kit lens.

 

In this post, pisanoal showed an example of the GX7 sensor producing "bands" in the image when shooting with the Lumix 20mm f1.7 (1st series) lens, which is one of my favorite Micro 4/3 lenses. Here's the example:

Image Source: http://www.mu-43.com/showthread.php?t=54486

 

Worrisome. Now here's the good news - it was shot using the electronic shutter.

 

When I was looking at the features of the new GX7, the electronic (silent) shutter came out as a major plus. I have always thought the Micro 4/3 camera mechanical shutters a bit loud. I found myself thinking, why would I ever use the mechanical shutter if I have an electronic one? The image above is one answer. The frequency of the data collection on the sensor when using the electronic sensor can interact with the frequency of some specific types of light, such as the fluorescent lights in the image above. Also, the electronic shutter cannot be used with flash.

 

(Click Here) to read the post and comments by pisanoal on mu-43.com.

 

Remembering those limitations, I have already found the silent electronic shutter to be a real advantage, as in the example below, which I shot inside a Buddhist temple. Photography was permitted in the temple, but I still found it nice to be able to shoot without drawing the attention of others.

 

 

Bathing the Buddha, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7, 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 Series II Kit Zoom at 42mm

iso 1600, f5.6, 1/30 sec.

 

Not bad for iso 1600, at the long end of the kit zoom, wide open aperture, huh? This is a pretty impressive little camera.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Pulled Skyward - Autumn Leaves With a Twist (Lumix DMC-GX7)

I've been feeling that I'm at a creative plateau for quite some time. I'm trying some things that are new, if not to the photographic world, at least to my portfolio.

 

Autumn leaves are not so impressive in my part of the world this year, at least not yet. So, I decided to try adding some motion to those same old fall pictures I take every year. On October 30, I posted a set of five images of leaves with motion, starting with simple lines, then moving on to rotations.

 

I really enjoyed looking at those images. I could hear the photographic mentor in my head saying:

 

Good. Nice start. Now go spend some time with it. See how far you can take it.

 

So, I went out for another session. As I was walking out to the small stand of trees that are my subject, I started thinking about the degrees of freedom I could play with in motion while the shutter is open. I came up with several: f-stop, shutter speed, lateral (x,y) motion, angle (of the sensor, in-plane rotation), and angle of view (zoom). So, I played with them all.

 

Here are three images that show one theme that came out. I call it "Pulled Skyward." The threads of white (there was no fog; it was a perfectly clear day) remind of a spirit being pulled up through the trees.

 

Pulled Skyward 1, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7, 14-42mm Series II Kit Zoom

iso 200, f22, 0.4s sec.

This first one is very nearly completely abstract. For me, abstract means that you can't really tell what the actual subject was. And, for me, it's a little too abstract to stand on its own. Hopefully the next two will give it some context, and help it to remain in the collection.

Pulled Skyward 2, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7, 14-42mm Series II Kit Zoom

iso 200, f20, 0.4s sec.

Number two clearly shows that we're looking up into the treetops. The white streaks show nicely.

Pulled Skyward 3, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7, 14-42mm Series II Kit Zoom

iso 200, f20, 0.4s sec.

 

Number 3 is my favorite of this set. I feel like I am being pulled up through the trees. The white streaks are just prominent enough to connect me to the treetops. However, I do feel that all three go together well.

 

If you know my photography, hopefully you'll recognize that this is a real departure for me. I'm somewhat of a photographic realist. I enjoy razor sharp images of interesting subjects, or street scenes where you can see multiple things going on. These are much more symbolic than my normal work.

 

It's good to stretch the mind.

 

I have a different set of images from this session, with a different color palette. I'm still working on those.

 

To those of you looking for how technically well the new DMC-GX7 and Series II kit zoom work, how sharp they are, sorry. I feel drawn in this direction at the moment, and the sharp, realistic images will have to come later.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com