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Neilclasper
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I've had my X-T10 a few months now, and I'm really very pleased with it. Lightweight but feels quality; image quality is great; handles well; and it was relatively cheap. I keep wondering about an upgrade but think I'd be better spending the money on a new lens.
The Smartest Way to Buy a Camera
Hearken ye! I'd like to blather just a bit about a very old word, yeoman. But first: I'm being kind of a stumblebum this year. A sluggard. What used to be called, back in the dim, swiftly receding days of the 'nineties, a slacker. I posted Part I of the "Recommended Cameras" list way back on Dec...
You might enjoy 'The Year of Reading Dangerously' by Andy Miller - a book about re-learning to read in middle age as the author did as a child, complete with a list of book recommendations ('The list of betterment'). Really entertaining and also pretty practical advice.
Open Mike II: The 2017 Novel (OT)
I mentioned science fiction in the P.S. of the previous post, which brings me along to a New Year's topic. I've been racking my brain, but I believe I have read only one or only three science fiction books in my entire life. It was a thing called The Foundation Trilogy and I read it when I was 1...
I enjoyed my visit to the Elton John photo collection show at the Tate Modern: it's an impressive collection, and the better for being focused on a particular period (I'm not sure about his taste in frames, though; but I guess they make a change from a sea of white or black frames). I particularly liked the Imogen Cunninghams - I wasn't aware of her work previously, and I'd like to see a bit more.
In terms of sizing, getting up close to these often very small small prints really adds something to the experience (something I was first conscious of when the Take Modern did a small show of tiny Harry Callahan prints - just exquisite). It made for an interesting contrast with the Abstract Expressionist show currently on at the Royal Academy in London, which I visited a few days before the Elton John and which I'd recommend highly. Some of those pictures (hello Clyfford Still, hello Jackson Pollock) are *enormous*... It's made me think a lot more about the arms race of photo print size (though I'm not convinced the prints from my new Instax are necessarily the answer to everything...).
Print Size (the Turkey Should Just Be Itself)
In the video in the previous post, as Elton John walks around his apartment where his collection is displayed, notice the typical sizes of the prints. Granted, that's partly due to conventions in the periods he mainly collects from. And he does say at one point that he likes tiny prints, but not...
Is there a sense of how long the P600 and P800 while remain current? ie when are they likely to be replaced? I guess printers get updated less frequently than cameras, but I have a history of inadvertently buying cameras just before the manufacturers announce a replacement model...
I Think I'm Falling In Love...
...With a certain Epson. She is proudly black, admittedly blocky in shape, decidedly petite, expensive, and doesn't say much. But oh, my, the things she can do. So do you remember this post? I was reviewing the Nikon D800E, a.k.a. the Big Dragoon, since replaced in the lineup by the current D810...
I am very tempted to get one of these (or the P800!), but space is an issue. Do they need much room around them beyond their actual physical footprint (particularly behind)? I'm wondering if I can squeeze one in to the limited space I have available.
New Equipment Arrivals
I finally got this beautiful thing (it's an Epson P600) unboxed after an embarrassingly long delay, and what would you know, the very first print I made turned out pretty well. On Day Two (yesterday, that would be) I made my first good print. Been doing a lot of reading and a little printing (...
This seems to be particularly relevant to the interests of readers who are on the cusp of buying a portrait lens and who live in a country that's just dramatically tanked its own currency for no obvious rational return. Maybe I should order that 60mm sooner rather than later.
Neil
London
Last Fuji Sale Before the Price Hike
Fuji is about to raise prices across the board. Fuji has also conditioned us to wait for its regular sales to make purchases. Two days ago Fuji announced the last sale based on the old prices. It's logical to assume these are the lowest prices we'll see going forward, although that might vary by...
Isn't Google Streetview doing this for us now?
Jarob Ortiz's Dream Job
Jarob Ortiz, who got the dream job everybody was talking about last Winter. Photo by Casey Paynter. Do you remember about seven or eight months back, when the Tubes of the Etherwebs were ablaze (alas, I can no longer say "atwitter," dang it) with the news that "Ansel Adams's old job" was being ...
More posts about turntables and hi-fi, I say. I've been dipping my toes into audophile forums recently - with a vague view to upgrading some part of my vinyl playing system - and have found it a surprisingly impenetrable world (I speak as one who has spent far, far too much time discussing niche-interest guitars, guitar amps and boutique effects pedals online).
Open Mike I: The Last Post About Turntables
Okay, so this is not today's post. That one's going to be long and it's going to take me a long time to put together, so I might not be finished with it any time soon. To tide you over, this is the last time I'll mention turntables. I realize vinyl is a niche even within the audio hobby, and the...
I use Silver Efex Pro for b&w conversion and had almost always applied one of the film simulations to files from my Nikon D80; usually one of the two slowest speeds - the faster ones looking too obviously like film simulations, where the slower ones just add a very tiny amount of pleasing texture, particularly to skies.
However, when I moved to shooting with a Fuji X-E1, none of the film simulations seem to improve it, or rather seem necessary, so I've pretty much gone without.
I've no idea what the difference is technically, but there is - to my eyes - a real difference.
The Sigma DP2 Merrill and B&W
After grinding ye olde axe, thanks to several readers' comments I spent an entertaining afternoon yesterday checking out the Sigma DP2 Merrill (DP2M) online...reading reviews and looking at all sorts of online samples. You do that sort of thing too, right? I'm not the only one? I was specificall...
Much truth there. I had been taking photos with a vague idea as to what I liked, but a sense that I might be a bit alone in that respect. I started putting them on Flickr, and gained a little audience, which made me think I maybe wasn't wasting my time. Then I gained a (mostly local) Twitter audience, and suddenly I had people sharing my photos and telling me which ones they liked, why they like them, and so on. The most important thing wasn't the attendant ego boost (ahem...ok, maybe a bit), but that it made me think more clearly about the photos I was taking, and the themes I was exploring. You can only talk into a vacuum for so long.
We Need Our Audiences
This week's column by Ctein I know lots of authors, artists, and singer/songwriters. When we get together we talk about the creative process in remarkably similar ways. I've no doubt that my feelings and reactions are not universal (everyone differs) but they cut broadly across ages, media, and ...
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Aug 15, 2013
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