Ian's-tagram

We’ve been hearing a lot of ‘retro’ talk recently – most of it rubbish.

It seems people are convinced that « it was better before » so there’s been a resurgence of LP records (vinyl), radios are coming back into fashion (well, old fashion…) and cameras seem to be in the mix too.

NIKON, not to be left by the wayside, announced the Zfc in 2021

This is a half-frame (APS-C) camera styled on the FM series of film cameras which came out in the late 70’s. It has a modern ‘Z’ mount but relies more on the external dials for control (although a fully featured menu system is available too)

In 2023 this was follwed by a full-frame version, the Zf – this is a light, full featured full-frame camera and with the inclusion of a much better ‘flippy’ screen, a very useable tool.

The ‘retro’ feel doesn’t mean a lot to me – I just wanted a smaller camera – but stick ‘retro’ on anything and people seem to go mad.

Black and white is another ‘retro’ thing which drives relatively normal people completely bonkers. There’s a self-proclaimed photographer in the town where I live who maintains, to anyone who listens, that’s he only uses film and a film camera to make his images. And? Interestingly he uses modern computers and ink-jet printers to produce his prints, so the retro part of his workflow seems to be somewhat limited.

So what ? I can make perfectly respectable B&W images on any of my digital cameras – what’s more, I can see them, work on them, and share them almost instantaneously.

I grew up developing films and working in a darkroom to produce enlargements and frankly whilst I actually enjoyed the process, there are limits both in time and energy and I’m sure I could not produce any of my recent work in this way.

I’m not saying that is no merit in a well produced darkroom printed image, but I can’t help thinking that the evolutionary aspect is inate to photography (as in any art form) and just considering the process leaves a lot of the ‘art’ aspect to the wayside. Sure, it’s nice to say you’ve been able to do it…but frankly the ease and rapidity of modern processes win hands down.

What possible difference does it make what camera or what recording media is used? Ideally it should not make any difference at all. The most important aspect, to me at least, is how the photographer ‘sees’ what he is trying to capture.

Talking of retro, an ex-pat Brit with more money than sense has just purchased a small Leica – seemingly in the hope that this will make him a world class photographer. Personally (and based on what he’s published so far…) I can’t see that this will make him any better or worse than all the other material he’s purchased since his retirement. He has an eye, and can turn out very reasonable stuff when he tries, but I can’t help thinking that it’s more the ability to show-off his gear that is foremost in the equation – 6200€ just to show off? Blimey, give me the dosh mate!

I have to say that the camera (a LEICA Q3) he has just purchased is a jewel, and yes, it must feel very nice to use such precision material, but please oh please don’t get caught up in this ridiculous idea that you’ll somehow get ‘touched’ by a creative ability unseen before your investment. (Although personally I would never have purchased this kind of camera with the 43mm lens – the 28mm is FAR more interesting….)

Typically with this sort of person, I’ve been banished for daring to criticise him – he’s allowed to criticise and be rude etc. because he’s gay and gays can do anything they like.

Oh sorry, I thought you knew.

And this doesn’t concern a new camera (for once) but it does involve something to do with photography…

APPLE have recently started marketing updated products with their new processor – the M4. There have been MacBook Pros, iPads etc. but what interests me is the Mac Mini.

This is (almost life size) the new Mac Mini 2024 – 12,7cm wide and 5cm high – tiny!

As with previous editions, APPLE have actually REDUCED the price (by roughly 200€ here in France) and doubled the base RAM to 16Gb from 8Gb.

The cunning buggers have hidden the on/off switch underneath the chassis instead of it being on the rear face – this is ok, but putting ports (particularly the audio jack) on the front is a pain – I don’t like cable draping everywhere.

To avoid having the audio cable plugged in all the time, I’ve invested 19€ in a Bluetooth dongle which can attach to my sound system – this way I can stream music wirelessly.

There are now 2 USB-C ports on the front face, and three USB-C Thunderbird on the rear, but no more USB-A ports. No problems – most of what I connect is USB-C anyway…

Size comparison with the previous M2 model from 2022

The processor is supposed to be roughly twice the power of the previous (M2) one – whether or not this will help much in day to day stuff, I can’t say, but it will certainly help when it comes to rendering large 45mp images in LIGHTROOM.

Can’t wait…until the 8th November 🙂

Very happy to see Cie L’Oublié(e) and Raphaëlle Boitel come back to Auch for the festival this year.

Raphaëlle is a choreographer, and her latest opus is in fact two shorter works, played one after the other.

La Bête Noir – talks about a woman’s inner struggles – lots of writhing around, but the light and her movements create a very interesting spectacle.

In the second act she climbs a ladder – or what seems to be a ladder – but the ‘rungs’ are in fact large steps that move from right to left creating a really interesting patterns of movement both for the steps, but also for Raphaëlle to perform on.

Petite Reine was the second piece, performed by Fleurianne Cornet (and her bicycle) – and ( I quote) « tackles the issue of being held captive by love » – oh ok…

High on imagery, the lighting was excellent (but there’s never really enough for a photographer…) and created a great atmosphere.

While I very much enjoyed the two, the first one won in my opinion.

The latest circus festival started last night, the 18th of October and will run for the next 10 days.

I’ve got about 16 or 17 pro spectacles to see/photograph, and at the same time, I’ll be covering the Federation of French Circus Schools annual get together which will involve upwards of 50 ten minute shows performed by circus schools from around France.

Here are a couple of shots from last night – the company was « Les Filles du Renard Pâle » and the presented us with « Révolte ou Tentatives de l’Echec »

Aside from an almost total lack of decent light (laughs) this was interesting – it’s always fun to see it actually rain on set…

Tonight I only have one performance to see – and that’s probably going to be pretty dark too…more on this later. I can’t help feeling sure that my fan ‘Someone’ from NIKON RUMORS could do a whole lot better than I, but this is my blog so you’ll have to put up with my rubbish…

NIKON announced a few months ago, a series of firmware updates for the Zf, Z6_ll, Z7_ll, Z8 and Z9.

These were trumpeted as ‘major’ updates for autofocus etc. so naturally, the NIKON users are impatient to see what these can do.

Zoom forward to early October and NIKON anounce that there seem top be problems updating the firmware on the Z7_ll and so they were holding back everything until this problem was identified and fixed. People asked why the update couldn’t simply be launched for the other cameras, without a response.

Mention was made of another update concerning Adobes Content Authentification system, regarding the Z6_lll – in the comments section on NIKON RUMORS I ‘dared’ to ask why we hadn’t any news of the expected updates and was immediately criticised by a total jerk hiding behind the screen name ‘Someone‘ (‘No-one’ would have been more appropriate...)

Bottom feeders like this I generally ignore – their unique existance is to piss people off – they don’t make images or contribute in any detectable fashion, just pollute the fora with inane comments designed to get clicks… Sadly there are many (I’ve often wondered if it’s just one mental case with many screen names…) and it’s frustrating when you see the efforts of the forum managers, particularly of Peter over on NIKON RUMORS, that these morons exist and create friction which doesn’t actually need to exist.

His comment made me smile as it was pretty obvious he hadn’t read any previous blog posts (probably can’t actually read…) as he encouraged me to just accept that my camera is what it is, and not moan about it…

OK asshole, have it your own way

The sad bit is getting back, trying to get all the sand from between the toes, and struggling back to work…

No sand this year, but two weeks almost exclusively transported by train! (Well ok, we also needed three days of rental car to have a little flexability to be able to wander the highlands)

So, RYANAIR who, true to ‘cheap’ form asked one of the stewards to land the plane and we all thought the under-carriage was going to break through the fuselage… to Edinburgh from Toulouse. Simple flight – waiting for the bags took as long as the flight itself, but by mid afternoon we were in Falkirk – our destination for the first 8 days of our stay.

Interesting place with a population of roughly 35,000 – nice people, good grub and beer – what more can a man want??

One of the sights to see is the Kelpies – these are huge horse-head sculptures which, according to Wikipedia were built « to reflect the mythological transforming beasts possessing the strength and endurance of ten horses. The Kelpies represent the lineage of the heavy horse of Scottish industry and economy, pulling the wagons, ploughs, barges, and coalships that shaped the geographical layout of the Falkirk area.« 

Falkirk is also known for the Falkirk Wheel – this is West of the city on the Union canal and is designed to allow the canal boats to overcome the 30m difference between two parts of the canal, without the need of many locks.

We were lucky enough to see this in action – quite a feat of engineering – simple but very effective.

The ‘pod’ containing the canal boat is nearing the top of the arc in this image.

We used this week to visit Edinburgh and Glasgow, as Falkirk is almost exactly halfway between the two cities.

Victoria Street, Edinburgh

The river Clyde, Glasgow

While we were in Edinburgh, we took the train over my fathers favourite construction – the Forth Bridge – we got off at North Queensferry and walked around breathing in the history of this part of Scotlands railway heritage.

Many more sights to see, but we were off to the West, and Fort William – we had an appointment with a very special train…

This is the Jacobite (one of two) which travels from Fort William to Mallaig twice a day – it was used as a prop for one of the Harry Potter films and now the company that runs it charge way over the top for a 4 hour (return) journey. Sadly we were obliged to listen to the life story of a VERY loud American woman with an enromous rear – the two Americans sitting with us were embarrased and made it very clear that all Americans were not like this one. Two hours of « Yaw Yaw Yaw »

This is the famous Glenfinnan viaduct overwhich a Ford Anglia can be seen flying in the HP film! We visited the viaduct a couple of days before taking the train – people were all over the hills waiting for the passage of the train from Mallaig to Fort William.

Fort William is on Loch Linnhe – and our guesthouse overlooked the loch.

From Fort William we went to London (by train) via Glasgow – the clever people at Scotrail ‘forgot’ to tell us that the timetables had been altered since we booked our tickets in March – so we arrived at Glasgow to see our train leaving! This left us with a four hour wait so we had another quick browse around the city…

…before getting on the Euston express and setting off for London.

We haven’t actually visited London since 2010 so it’s expected that things will have changed….I was quite impressed when I discovered that they still use Routemaster busses on two of the regular city routes – the 9 and the 15 – these are not just for tourists !!

In addition to visiting places with stunning new architecture, we had also planed to visit older existing spots – like Tower Bridge – imagine our surprise when 5 minutes after we arrived, it opened for us (And it only does this around 35 times a year, so we were VERY lucky to see it happen)

After Tower Bridge we set off for the financial district, The City – lots to see there…

(The Lloyds building reflected in the building opposite)

Leadenhall Market, no longer a fruit and veg market, was very beaufiful too…competing against much more modern structures!

We also visited Kings Cross station – not to board a train, but to look at the ceiling!

Then after a short walk along the Regents Canal, Camden Town and Lock – what a place !

A great holiday, which just makes us want to go back again – primarily to Western Scotland, but I’d give other places a go too! (If I had the chance)

A complete album is available here – enjoy.

(Warning – Canon info follows…)

Canon have just announced two new camera bodies, both full-frame, the R1 and the R5ll

For once I have to agree with Jared Polin in his analysis of the R1 – this is announced as a ‘Flagship’ camera body – a bit like the NIKON Z9 but it’s anything but.

I have no particular axe to grind with Canon – I don’t own a Canon, and having grown up with NIKON it seemed perfectly reasonable to continue using them (particularly as they DID NOT change their lens mount when AF (auto focus) and then digital became the rage…unlike Canon…

Anyway, the camera body costs MORE than the Z9, has a less dense sensor (25mp instead of 45mp) and aside from (according to Polin) a stunning new auto focus, has not got anything else that makes it that interesting…

Polins attitude is to call it an R3ll – sadly, I’m not really up to date on any Canon models, so I have no idea what he’s talking about – suffice it to say both models are more expensive, and less interesting in terms of innovation, than their NIKON equivalents.

It also seems that Canon lenses are considerably more expensive than their NIKON equivalents – are they better? I simply can’t say – but frankly, NIKON lenses are A: pretty good, and B: expensive enough for me !

An example – the Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM costs 3199€ on the Canon site with the equivalent the NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S costing 2399€ on the NIKON site.

I can’t help reading between the lines with regard to Canons (lack of ) development on the consumer/pro camera bodies – they seem to be spending more time and money developing their video base – this could be very useful to the videastes amongst us, however less useful for the interchangeable lens camera body crowd…

This article is about why photographers have so many lenses, bodies etc.

I mean, women can have 37 handbags and no-one bats an eye, but a photographer with three cameras? How does he hold them all at the same time?

A case in point – I use four camera bags – each has a different camera body inside, fitted with an ‘appropriate’ lens for whatever it is I’ve decided the camera generally will be used for.

I simply can’t get my head around ‘DX’ or half-frame (24 x 16mm) film / sensor format – sure the quality is there, but I have to make such a lot of calculations regarding angles, depth of field etc. I prefer to stick with one format – ‘FX’ or 24 x 36mm where I know instinctively what I will obtain with regard to focal length and / or depth of field.

1st bag – NIKON Z6-ll – 24mp sensor, extremely sensitive in low light, small and very portable, generally using the f/4 group of lenses – 14-30, 24-70 and more recently, the 24-200. Very well adapted to travelling as I can fit all that, and more, into one carry-on bag.

2nd Bag – NIKON Zf – 24mp sensor, very compact ‘retro’ style – perfect for street photography. This bag is really quite small but I still manage the 28mm SE and the 40mm SE and a few batteries etc.

3rd bag – NIKON Z8 – 45,7mp sensor – general do-anything camera fitted with one of the f/2.8 triplet (14-24, 24-70, 70-200) Physically a little larger than the Z6-ll but as with all my camera bodies, all the buttons are in the right (same) places so changing cameras doesn’t phase me. Often used for ‘work’ as the low light capacity (despite what the people on the Nikon Rumors site say) is excellent, and when treated in Lightroom there’s nothing else needed. I’ve also been known to bolt-on the 100-400 which makes a very well balanced piece of kit. As with the Z9, this camera body does not have a mechanical shutter which makes it very discrete – I’ve had artists ask why I haven’t used my camera at all during a performance !!

4th bag – NIKON Z9 – 45,7mp sensor like the Z8 – this I use principally for circus/concert work as the battery lasts forever, and with a 512Gb memory card (actually 2 !) I can shoot practically all day without stopping. Same comments regarding the low-light/noise etc. as the Z8 – with a little tweaking (I have created a pre-set in LR) the files are perfectly useable up to huge enlargement sizes. The ‘standard’ lens for my circus work is the 24-120 f/4 S which is lightyears ahead of it’s old AF-S brother, thankfully.

I have large hands and the Z9 fits perfectly – for me it’s all a question of ergonomics – if you can’t hold the camera comfortably, or your fingers don’t fall easily on the buttons you regularly need, than it’s time for a rethink.

I’ve held Canon cameras a few times, and to me the position of the controls is not as intuitive as with the recent NIKONS – this is not to say that I couldn’t eventually get used to a change, but given that I’ve been using modern DSLR and more recently mirrorless cameras since the early part of the century, I see no reason to change now – and to what advantage?

Yesterday the new Canon R1 was announced – this is supposed to be the Canon equivalent of the Z9 – it isn’t – far from it. Yes, some Canon lenses are very good indeed – much as their pricing seems to be pretty exotic too.

No, I think I’ll stay where I am – better the devil you know… after all !

Acting on A: a hunch, and B: info from the mairie, I decided to plonk myself on ‘my’ hill in an attempt to photograph the RAFALE jet or jets overflying the Cathedrale in Auch.

This has become an almost regular occurence as the jets, based at Mont de Marsan, make their way up to Paris for the 14th July celebrations and Auch is on their way so they make a low pass over the city.

It was warm last Sunday, and I was prepared…

Camera on monpod, hat on head – what could go wrong?

For the technically minded, this was the camera setup

The flypast was scheduled for 11h30 – in the past the timing has been anything but vague – true military precision. However, by 11h45 I was beginning to get a little concerned. My camera was sending me messages about a ‘hot card’ (relating to the temperature of the memory card) which wasn’t too surprising considering I had no shade and the camera body is black…

I had set the ‘rafale’ mode at 15 frames per second so as not to worry about missing the airplane – these things move so damn fast – and interestingly the ‘hot card’ (I later discovered) was more a warning that the fps setting wouldn’t be maintained as the card didn’t have a sufficiently high write speed…

In any event, the jets did not manifest themselves, and all I managed was a light plane (a Robin DR-400) towing a glider (a Schleicher ASH-25)

Interesting but not what I was there for.

When I arrived home we prepared lunch, and at 12h45 a single RAFALE roared over Auch on it’s way north… glad I didn’t wait!

Thom Hogan has recently published a very thought provoking article on his site entitled « Do You Know What’s Automated and How? »

Sadly I have to say that this is the first time I’ve found myself in total disagreement with what he has written.

The bulk of the article is interesting and brings to light what photographers often think, but rarely comment on, all the ‘automated’ bits added to seemingly simple setup parameters. These are done by the camera companies (for whatever reason) and the frustrating thing is that most people either have no idea that they exist, or knowing they exist, don’t know how to get around the problems that they pose. I think it’s important to point this out, and kudos to Thom for doing so, and so clearly.

However, the thing that I don’t agree with is this comment:

« ….but I think I’ve made my point: you need to know what all the automation is doing and whether its going to impact other things you need the camera to do. So:

1. Figure out all the settings you use that do automatic things in the background.
2. Figure out whether you need that automation or not.
3. Figure out what side-impacts the automation may have on your results. »

I’m sorry Thom, while the first phrase is completely correct (to me) it’s also pretty much impossible to achieve without knowing EXACTLY what automatism has been applied/used to each menu item.

Item 1 – How am I supposed to « Figure out all the settings you use that do automatic things in the background. »

If we were to have a list of default values for EVERY menu setting, this would go some way to allowing us to choose…but I can’t see any manufacturer taking the time to produce a manual for it.