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Carsten Bockermann
Bonn, Germany
Recent Activity
Summicron-M 35/2, fourth version (the last non-ASPH one). I never found a 35 (or 35-equivalent) the rendering of which I liked as much as I did the one from this lens.
Favorite M-Mount Lens
Just out of (idle) curiosity, do you have a favorite M-mount lens? From Leitz, Leica, or any other maker. If you want to, show us a picture of it, or a picture taken with it. (To add a picture to the Comments section of this TypePad blog, see here.) But no picture required. For me it's down to t...
I'm a big fan of optical viewfinders. Of course they are not perfect for everything (think of extreme focal lengths), but Fuji's hybrid viewfinder on their X-Pro series cameras solved that problem.
They really got the system right on the X-Pro1 and X-Pro2, where the OVF had a switchable magnification. On the X-Pro3 they dropped that feature (I assume to save a few cents per camera), making the OVF unusable for the 18mm lenses (my most-used focal length on APS-C) and only barely usable for the 23mm lenses.
Viewfinders Revisited
[Comments have been added.] - Let me ask you kind of a weird question. At this point in time, this late date, how are you feeling about EVF vs. OVF? EVF, of course, is electronic viewfinder, which Wikipedia describes thusly: "a camera viewfinder where the image captured by the lens is projected ...
As the great Billy Joel sang: "a young man is the king of every kingdom that he sees"
The Difference Between Youth and Age
A spread from Bystander, the bible of street photography I mentioned I didn't take any street photographs on Street Photography Day last Sunday. I'd like to expand a little on that. The difference between youth and age is that when you're older, you've learned what you're not. Those rose-tinte...
No problem at all.
Important Question for You (Blog Note)
I have an important question for regular readers. Say a guest author wrote a post on TOP a number of years ago, and you left a comment. Now, he wants to republish the same post on his own website. He feels your comment is valuable and also wants to include that. He's leaving it in the same conte...
What drives me crazy is that while in almost all lens reviews there is a section about bokeh, it inevitably only shows pictures taken at the widest aperture. For practical shooting I'm more interested in the look of the oof areas stopped down. For instance, I often shoot a 35mm lens at around f/4 or f/5.6 (and BTW haven't so far found one that matches the bokeh qualities of the legendary Leica Summicron-M 35/2 IV).
Blur Never Sleeps
Internet, that big fellow with the scattered brain, seems to think that bokeh or out-of-D-o-F-blur is a fixed property of a lens. It's not. For starters, the higher the resolution of your system (lens + sensor + processing treatment + presentation method), the more will be out of focus and the l...
I always loved the finder on my Leica M6 bodies, although focusing fast, longish lenses like the 75/1.4 Summilux-M was a challenge.
Fuji later introduced switchable finder magnifications on their X-Pro1 and X-Pro2 cameras, which is a feature I truly like. For whatever reason (well, probably cost) they dropped it on the X-Pro3, making the camera's OVF more or less unusable with my most-used focal length, 18mm (28 mm-e). This was a dealbreaker for me, so I stayed with the X-Pro2.
[Don't you hate it when a cameramaker gets something truly right, and then changes it? The late Burt Keppler of Popular Photography magazine said that the more cameras you review, the more of those instances you'll discover. His "perfect camera" was a mashup of features from various cameras he had reviewed over the years, many of which were defunct. --Mike]
What's Your Favorite Camera Viewfinder?
Of all the viewfinders in all the cameras you've ever used, which would you say is your favorite? If you don't have one, no worries. You can sit this round out. "Finding the view" is one of the basic functions of a camera as a device, and has been since the beginning. A history of camera viewfi...
Hi Mike, it seems you keep spelling the former German dictator's name as "Adolph Hitler". In fact it was "Adolf Hitler".
Open Mike: Look What Happened to Them!
["Open Mike" is the anything-goes, often off-topic Editorial page of TOP. It comes around on Wednesdays except on selected occasions.] - It's Friday the 13th, traditionally an unlucky day. Rational, logical people celebrate this occasion by ignoring it and going about their business—particularly...
>>Should I review a medium-format digital camera?<<
Is the pope catholic?
Should I?
Should I review a medium-format digital camera? I've never used one. In days of yore, I left medium-format digital to reviewers who used and have a need for such cameras regularly—like our late friend Michael Reichmann. Throughout my involvement in photography, however, I've tried a lot of thing...
I'm very sorry to read that Ted Grant passed away. We met online at the CompuServe Photoforum back in the 90s. When I was in Seattle on business in '98 or '99, I discovered that I could fly to Vancouver Island, where Ted lived, on a floatplane for very little money.
So I did, and we spent a great time together. I got his photo book about the medical profession, "This is our work - The legacy of Sir William Osler", which is a true classic by now.
Around the Web on a Tuesday
Still the gold standard for creamy bokeh: a comparison of the modern soft-focus Cooke Portrait PS945 and the ancient Pinkham & Smith Visual Quality IV Series II it was designed to emulate. Is it wrong to be a little alarmed by the Black Queen? Yikes! :-) Our friend Peter was featured on ABC-7 N...
It's hard to decide on a single musician, but if I had to, it would be Al Jarreau.
Music Notes: Do You Have a Favorite Musician? (OT)
I suppose a lot of people don't. It's a middlebrow conceit to say "I like everything!" in a chipper voice, which to real music aficionados means that music isn't very important to that person. Nobody who loves music likes everything. Their likes are strong, and their dislikes are strong too—they...
>>Of course, I'd be even happier with the 23mm Fujicron (which I don't own yet)<<
I'd love to read your comparison of said lens to the Fuji 23/1.4 once you get your hands on one.
Age of Inglorious Excess
Roger Cicala, the lens guru whose blog is the only must-read on the PhotoInternet for me [UPDATE: amend that, I do read others], some time ago declared the Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4 Art (available in five different lensmounts) to be the sharpest lens he had ever tested. (I reviewed that too.) Roger has a...
And I always thought that my Zeiss 35/1.4 ZF.2 was big and heavy for a lens of that focal length. Turns out it weighs in at 'only' 890 g.
BTW I hate using it on my Nikon Z7. While the image quality is great, the whole contraption is so front-heavy it isn't fun anymore.
Age of Inglorious Excess
Roger Cicala, the lens guru whose blog is the only must-read on the PhotoInternet for me [UPDATE: amend that, I do read others], some time ago declared the Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4 Art (available in five different lensmounts) to be the sharpest lens he had ever tested. (I reviewed that too.) Roger has a...
With your expertise in all thngs bokeh I'd be surprised if you liked the 56/1.2 R. I replaced mine with the APD version and never looked back.
My Fuji Kit Begins to Evolve
[When it comes to gear decisions for myself, I think it's reasonable for you not to consider me any kind of "expert." Because when we're choosing our own stuff, objectivity tends to fly out the window. As you might have noticed. :-) Critiques, kibitzing, and advice are welcome. [UPDATE: Please...
I've always said that zooms offer one degree of freedom too many for me.
The Case Against Zooms
I’m well known for having a prejudice against zoom lenses. I generally don’t like them, generally don’t shoot with them, and generally don’t recommend them. Again and again, I’m asked to explain this, usually in a sort of bemused way, as if I’m some sort of strange curiosity who can’t get along ...
The 90/2 is a very cool lens. I never liked the bokeh of the 56/1.2 R. In fact I traded it in for the 56/1.2 APD, which is a lot nicer in this discipline.
Weak
I apologize—I said I was going to update today's post this afternoon. But then the mailman arrived with these... ...Along with sundry other tasty goodies, and I just had to play. What can I say? I am weak. I'll try to get the previous post finished up tomorrow afternoon. Because I'll be able t...
Did you get the regular 56 or the APD version? I had the regular version first and truly hated its bokeh wide open at close distances. The APD is in a very different league.
I'm a Fuji Man Again
It's not really important what camera system I use. Everyone here is capable of making his or her own choices, and it shouldn't matter to anyone what anyone else happens to choose. I don't care what you use, as long as you like it. I'm not even a working photographer any more (I worked as a full...
Film: 28 (1976 - 2004)
Digital: 15 (2004 - 2019)
Film vs. Digital (Not What You Think!)
To yesterday's "I Feel Old" post, Steve Jacob wrote: I bought my first SLR in 1981. I bought my first digital camera in 1999. It's now 2019. I have officially been a digital photographer for longer than I was a film photographer. It just doesn't seem like it because time passes so much faster wh...
Got my copy last week and love it!
Random Excellence: Nathan Benn
Nathan Benn, Gatorland, 1981. Edition of 15, $2,800. Remember our friend Nathan Benn? He has a new book out. First, you can see an engaging little mini-portfolio of his Florida pictures over at Photo-Eye. They're JPEGs of prints for sale in limited editions. The book is called A Peculiar Parad...
The Oberwerth brand is named after the Oberwerth district of the city of Koblenz in Germany as this is where the owners of the company live.
REVISED Camera Bags Brand Guide
(I'm finally caught up with the comment moderation—84 comments on the "Settings" post, 205 comments on the "Camera Bags" post, and 102 comments on the "Portrait Lens" post. Sorry to be so late getting them all up, but that was exhausting! Nevertheless, thanks to all who contributed. Some really ...
I absolutely agree with your opinion on "L'histoire de France".
'Finding a Visual Identity in the Digital Age'
I wrote the following yesterday: "Cameras have all gotten so 'good' that what's starting to emerge is a certain tyranny of sharp, clear, detailed, correct-color, adequate-DR digital images. It's not all the same equipment, but more and more it's the same, or a similar, aesthetic look." Richard P...
>>I've always had good contacts at B&H...<<
I would think Henry Posner, who always was very helpful on the old CompuServe Photoforum (and still is today, albeit in other places on the Internet) is missing from your list.
A Visit from B&H Photo
Mike and Izzy A nice thing—my rep from B&H Photo, Izzy Flamm, actually made a trip out from NYC to see me yesterday. I've always had good contacts at B&H—Itzhak (Isaac) Buchinger, then Menashe Wodinsky, and lately Izzy. Izzy lives in Lakewood Township, New Jersey, which Wikipedia calls "a hub ...
You're absolutely right about his work being unfinished. I would certainly enjoy looking at some more of his Hamtramck photos.
Random Excellence: Roy J. Feldman
I'm a fan of the work of TOP reader Roy Feldman, a working photographer from Detroit whose pictures I've seen in bits and pieces over the years. Check out ten of his pictures of Hamtramck, a two-square-mile city bounded on all four sides by Detroit. To me the set seems unfinished; I'd happily ...
>>In my view, the digital M's are not an updating of the M camera concept, not an evolution of the M camera concept, and not an improvement of the M camera concept. Nor are they digital cameras with a usefully different form-factor.<<
True words.
WHY Buy a Film Leica?
Leica M4 and collapsible 5cm Summicron This is the question Gordon and Ken wanted answered when we talked about how to buy a film Leica the other day: why buy one? The answer, of course, is that there are absolutely no good reasons. Well, no, that's not quite true. Actually I can think of three...
1. Rangefinder (that's why I used Leicas in the film days)
2. Fuji X-Pro2
Two Questions
1. If you were going to get one camera to shoot film, small or medium format—removing cost from the calculations—would it be a.) a rangefinder or b.) an SLR? 2. If you were going to get one Fuji, would it be a.) a rangefinder-style (X-Pro2, X-100F) or a DSLR-style (X-T2, X-T20)? Just curious.......
In fact, grainier films look sharper than fine-grain films...
Kodachrome 200 was a great example of that. Even pictures taken with the non-ASPH Leica Summilux-M 35/1.4 wide open looked pretty sharp on that film.
Open Mike: New Old Film!
Kodak Alaris, the imaging division of the old Kodak that was spun off to satisfy the demands of the UK pension fund, has continued to produce both black-and-white and color films. Recently it re-introduced the famous T-Max P3200 in 135 size. Which makes me feel old—I remember when the film was...
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