Sushicam

Check out the Tallinn Photos by clicking this image

Here is a gallery of some of the photos I took while in Tallinn, Estonia.

The two cameras I used were the aging, yet still very capable Sigma DP2, and the new, hot off the shelf Sony NEX-5.

I pretty much stuck with the 16mm (24mm equivalent) f2.8 lens on the NEX-5, and when I needed a bit more reach I used the Sigma DP2 with its 41mm equivalent field of view.

And as happy (dare I say ecstatic?)  as I am with the NEX-5 and 16mm pancake lens, I do have to say that I actually prefer the images from the Sigma.  The sharpness, color fidelity, and dynamic range of the Foveon sensor continues to astound me.

While I was travelling, the excellent LCD on the NEX-5, and the comparatively horrid LCD on the DP2 had me thinking that the Sony was going to be the one with the superior image quality.   But after downloading the images and viewing them on a large monitor, I am once again caught between two systems.

I love the wider choice of focal lengths on the NEX-5 due to its interchangeable lenses, as well as its superb image quality at higher ISO’s.  The flip out LCD is also a great feature, especially when doing street shooting as it lets you shoot “Rollei-Style”, looking down at the LCD, instead of upright and pointing the camera from your face.  I could do with a few more external buttons and less menu digging on the Sony, but after a day of shooting that part became pretty transparent to me as I got more used to it.

Yes, the new Sony NEX-5 coupled with a pancake lens is a very compact, and portable travel camera.  It really is a pocket camera, and I very much enjoyed travelling light and not toting around a DLSR with a sack full of lenses.  Considering all this, it would seem that the Sony had pretty much nailed it with the NEX-5, making it the perfect travel camera.

But in situations with adequate lighting, the Sigma DP2, with its seemingly anemic resolution of 4.7 megapixels, actually mops the floor with the Sony NEX-5′s and its 14.2 megapixels when it comes to resolving power and pure sharpness.

This could be partly to blame because of the Sony lenses, which do not have a reputation for being very sharp.  But I think it has more to do with the sensor technologies being used, and the resolution advantages of the Foveon sensor technology compared to CMOS and CCD type sensors.

The Sigma is capable of producing astounding images, if you know what you are doing, AND you can put up with its horrid user interface which pretty much cripples what could have been an excellent all-around travel camera.

The DP2 used to be burdened with an extremely slow focusing system, but some recent firmware updates actually solved that problem.  (THANK YOU SIGMA!)  And while you are not going to be doing any sports type photography with it (not without manually pre-focusing anyway) it now has a respectably fast and responsive auto focus mode.

So once again, I have come to the conclusion that there is no single perfect camera.

Although, if a person were to use a Sigma DP2 with its 41mm field of view, AND a Sigma DP1 and its wider 28mm field of view, you may be able to cover most all of your bases for a lightweight travel cameras setup, the benefit of which would be you could share batteries and memory cards between the two, carry only a single battery charger, AND not have to take along a netbook or other portable photo storage device since more than 1,000 RAW images fir on a 16GB SD memory card.  This is all thank to that measly 4.7 mega-pixel resolution.   But don’t let number fool you into thinking the image quality will suffer.   The proof, as they say, is in the pictures.

click here for the photos

It is just after midnight.

Saori is sacked out after taking a shower, and I did a little wandering after we checked in to the hotel.  The Old Town area of Tallinn looks to be beautiful.  I took some photos, and now I’ll take a shower and hit the hay myself.  No alarm being set for tomorrow, this is a vacation.  

07:43 – Woke up about an hour ago after a very solid nights sleep.

Spent a glorious hour just lying in bed enjoying the feeling of having no schedules and no deadlnes.  Saori is in the bathroom getting ready to go while I am lying on the bed typing this out.  The weather looks to be really good again, light high clouds with quite a few patches of blue sky poking through even at this early hour.

No real plan for today other than to wander the streets throughout old town and soak up the traditional architecture, local food, and of course local beer.  Saori is just about ready now (07:46) so I will sign off for now.

11:46 pm – What a day!  Had a great breakfast at the hotel at 08:00, from there we started wandering though Old Town Tallinn.  Made a circuit of pretty much the entire place by 2 pm, even with stopping off at a coffee shop for cappuchina, cake, and a beer.  The part I enjoyed the most was being able to get up close and experience the medieval architecture.  There is a certain “authenticity” to some of the structures I saw today that made them feel more directly connected to history that what I saw when I was in London a few years back.

Took a lot of pictures, and generally just enjoyed the perfect weather.  We went back to the hotel at 2 pm, planning to take an hours nap.  That hour turned into six hours, and we then caught a late dinner near the hotel.  I had a Cinnamon beer (sounds bad but was delicious) with salmon, barley, and beans.  Saori had stewed lamb with barley and beans.

We’re thinking abou going to Club Hollywood since it is located right ocross the square from our hotel, but then again we may give it a miss and just get some rest.  It’s supposed to be a very cool place, but I’m not that interested in waking up with a hangov er tomorrow morning.  Instead, I’ll liky go to sleep soon, wake up extra early due to jet-lag and then go take some more early moring photos prior to checking out from the hotel and catching the ferry to Hellsinki to see what Finland has to offer.

Estonia has been great though.  Beautiful weather, more hsitorical buildings that you can shake a stick at, and extremely friendly people.  This is a place I would not mind coming back to in the future.  The guy at the coffee shop said that Old Town Tallinn is like a mini version of Praha.  If that really is the case then I guess I will really love Praha!

OK, off to bed with me so I can get an early start tomorrow and capture more Estonian light befor catching the ferry back to Helsinki.

ps: The Sony NEX-5 has performed brilliantly so far.  As I had guessed, the 16mm prime has been pretty much glued on to date, and when i need a tighter shot I pull out the Sigma DP2 with it;s 41mm perspective.  I am very happy to have chosen to travel light versus going for the absolute maximum in image quality that a more bulky camera would have provided.

Click here for todays photos

At the end of May Saori and I took advantage of a beautiful day and spent a few hours exploring Sarushima, or “Monkey Island” which is about a mile off shore from my apartment in Yokosuka.

If you want to learn about Sarushima, just open up the first photo for today and you will be able to read the information sign that is on the island.

The week previous we had spent a Saturday on the island for a barbecue party with a group from the photo club.  But at that time there was no chance to do any exploring, as we were busy cooking, eating, and drinking.  So on this day we made a point to walk the entire island.  It’s not too hard to do and you can see thee entire place in a couple of hours, and that’s if you go really slow and check out all the interesting corners and ruins.

My camera for the day was my trusty Epson R-D1 with a 28mm f2 CV Ultron, 15mm f4.5 SWH, and 50mm f1.5 Nokton.  The 28mm was used for most of the shots.  Saori was using a Sigma DP2, which after its most recent firmware update has turned into quite the usable little tool.  Sigma really did their customers a service by improving the speed and accuracy of the auto focus system in their recent firmware update.  The DP2 is no longer a great image maker thats a pain in the ass to use.  Now its a great image maker thats usage is very transparent to the image making process.  This still does not keep me from lusting after a Leica X1 though…  :)

“Finely orchestrated chaos”, or as I like to call it, “Tsukiji Fish Market”.

Click here for todays photos

On Saturday I woke up at O’ dark-thirty, packed my Nikon D700 and four primes in a bag and caught a train up to Tsukji to spend a morning shooting pictures as part of a Japanorama workshop.  Due to the frenetic pace of the place (it is a fully functioning fish market) the group size was restricted to six students and two instructors.  As soon as I saw this one posted at Japanorama I rushed to sign up, knowing that the student slots would fill up fast.

For those of you you plan on going to see the Tsukiji fish market I have one word of advice.

Go early.  (OK, maybe that’s two words, but you know what I mean)

The place is a beehive of activity, and it only starts to wind down shortly before 10 a.m..

To sum the place up in a phrase I would have to choose, “finely orchestrated chaos“. Everyone and everything is in constant motion, including a lot of the fish!

The game plan was to make a couple of loops through the heart of the action, shooting short telephoto (85mm’ish) on the way in, and wide (20mm’ish) on the way out.   I was solid on the 85mm department, since I had my Nikon 85mm f1.4 with me.  But on the wide side I went a little nuts and tried using a Tamron 14mm f2.8, which turned out to be entirely too wide.  I rather quickly swapped that out for a 35mm f2 (my next widest lens).  I did shoot a few images with a 50mm, but that was the exception.  The idea was to obtain some reportage type shots through the use of these two focal lengths.  The wides to set the scene, and the telephoto to fill in the details.

This was not my first (or second, or even third) trip to Tsukiji, so adding some external structure to my shooting was a very good thing.  The tips and guidance provide by Alfie and Hunter were very much welcome as they helped open my eyes to some new ways to see and capture things.  This prevented me from falling back into my own personal comfort zone of shooting.

I definitely feel that I got a higher percentage of keepers that on my previous trips to Tsukiji.

This time I used the two extreme focal lengths

The real lesson for me was that I need a 20mm lens.  There seems to be no better focal length for dragging the shutter and getting some closeup people shots.

And there is a lot of people to see:

People hauling Styrofoam boxes on their shoulders, men pulling two wheeled carts heaped with seafood, and funny looking self-propelled three wheeled wagons that can turn on a dime and give you six cents change. (A very necessary feature in the crowded rows of fish mongers.)  The real change since my last trip to Tsukiji is that now a lot of these self-propelled carts are electric powered, so you can’t hear them coming.  You really have to keep your head on a  swivel to make sure you don’t get run over.

One thing that always strikes me about the place was just how clean it is. For a place that moves more than 5 million pounds of fish (worth nearly 30 million dollars) daily, the place has no fishy smell.

Part of the reason is that everything is so fresh. The other reason is that the place is given a very thorough cleaning at the end of each day.

5 million pounds of fish a day.

Think about that for a minute.

That is more than 10 times the volume of New York City’s Fulton Market, the largest seafood market in America.

Pretty impressive.

Tsukiji has already been reported to death on the internet so I will not try and give the whole history behind the place. Anyone interested in learning more need do nothing more that a quick google search and you will have loads of information to read.

It’s a must see for anyone who wants to get some interesting photos, as well as a snack of some of the freshest sashimi you are likely to ever come across.

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FYI – I just fell off the wagon again and ordered a Canon 5D Mark II.  Soooo,  I will soon be putting my trusty 5D mark I up for sale.  The going rate for used 5D’s seems to be about $1,200, but I figure I would offer it up here first for $1,000 (plus any insured shipping costs and/or paypal fees).

If I had to guess I would say it has about 40,000 actuations on it (the 5D shutter life is rated at 100,000 actuations) and it is in very good condition.  It comes with 3 Canon batteries (all hold an excellent charge), an 8 GB memory card, and all the original odds and ends (battery charger, strap, etc.) and the original packaging/box.

It has been lovingly used by me for the past four and a half years, but selling it will help fund the Mark II, so I will have to let it go.

If anyone is interested, please let me know.  If there is no interest here I’ll be posting at the usual online photo gear selling websites.  (But I would much prefer to give a better deal to one of my regular viewers.)

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ps: My heartfelt thanks go out to all of you who have been ordering prints from my Smugmug page.  Your continued purchases have helped to fund the 5D Mark II, and I will be sure to do my best to keep serving up fresh content for you all.  The video capabilities of the 5D Mark II particularly intrigue me, so expect to see some videos in the future.

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For those of you in Germany, check out page 28 of the February 2010 issue of FHM.  You’ll find one of my photos there.

For those of you in Japan, pick up a copy of the Metropolis 2010 calendar, one of my photos has been used for the month of February.

Seems like February is a hot month for me…

Koi - Click the image to see todays photos

I apologize to you all for the delay in posting an update that includes some of my more recent Kyoto photos.  Right after I returned from Kyoto I had to (got to?) go to Hawaii for a business meeting.  While in Hawaii I managed to catch a nasty cold and have been pretty well sapped for energy ever since.  I feel like I am starting to get the best of it, but I’m still plagued by a nasty persistent cough which just doesn’t seem to want to end.

But enough about that.  Let me now tell you a little bit about Kyoto.

I can’t quite remember how many times I have been to Kyoto so far, and up till this trip I always made sure to hit Kiyomizu Temple, and a few other of the more famous places.  And almost every days worth of shooting was always to be capped off by a few hours in Gion shooting Maiko and Geiko.

But on this trip I decided to take it slower.

Maybe I needed a break more than the last times.  Work has been quite taxing as of late.

Or maybe I just wanted a different experience.  Whatever the reason, I kind of surprised myself by not seeing Kiyomizu Temple, or Kinkakuji at all.  What’s even more surprising is that I only went to Gion once, spending only about 90 minutes there.

In addition to changing my normal  sightseeing routine, I also seemed to unconsciously change my shooting style as well.  After all is said and done, I figure I shot about 60% – 70% less photos that I normally would during a 5 day trip to Kyoto.  There was only one day when I had to actually poop in a fresh memory card, with an 8 GB card usually lasting me all day and then some.

This is not to say that I was not enjoying myself.  Quite the contrary actually.  I had a marvelous time and felt like I truly relaxed and unwound during that week.  Much more so in fact that on my previous trips to that part of Japan.

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I know some of you were wondering why I decided to drop my original plan to shoot medium format this time.  The reason I did it was mainly due to the weight difference between carrying a medium format kit versus an SLR kit.  And I definitely made the right decision to go with the lighter of the two.

Since I had ran a half-marathon race on the same day that I left for Kyoto, my legs (right knee mostly) were definitely the worse for wear.  During the first two days of my trip I could definitely feel that I was pushing myself a bit too hard so soon after the race.  This forced me to take little breaks here and there, and I think that is was these  forced pauses that allowed me to down-shift into an overall lower gear and slow down, taking in more of the view with my naked eyes, and less of it through the viewfinder off my camera.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it reminded me not just look at something, but to also to take the time to really “see” it.

Thanks go out to Tregix for remindding to bring it all back to basics.

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For those of you that are interested, here is what I ended up taking to Kyoto:

Nikon D700
Nikon 35mm f2
Nikon 50mm f1.4
Nikon 85mm f1.4
Voigtlander 58mm f1.4
Voigtlander 40mm f2
Tamron 28-300mm VC

I also ended up buying the following two lenses while I was there since I found great deals on both of them:
Tamron 28-75mm f2.8
Nikon 180mm f2.8

Click here for todays photos

Having lived in Japan for about 10 years now, I’ve been to Kyoto quite a few times, each time with a camera and set of lenses at hand.

My most recent trip starts this coming Sunday.  I’ll be taking a night bus from Shinagawa, departing at around 11 pm, and arriving in Kyoto just before 7 am.  I could take a Shinkansen there, but I will be running a half marathon in Yokosuka earlier on Sunday, and taking the bus that night gets me into Kyoto earlier than if i were to catch the shinkansen the next morning.  I’m betting that I will be tired enough so that I sleep like a baby during the night bus ride.  Just to be sure I will pop a couple of sleeping pills as I board the bus, that way I can hope to get a good nights sleep and arrive feeling relatively refreshed.

On the way back home the following Saturday I will be taking the shinkansen as that is the absolute fastest way to travel, and I will be able to leave Kyoto after sunset and still make it home in time for a late dinner in Yokosuka.

This will be the first time that I will be shooting (digital) medium format in Kyoto.  Usually I shoot DSLR or Rangefinder, but this time I decided to trade off my more light weight kit and go for maximum image quality.

Here’s what I plan to bring:

Mamiya AFDII
Mamiya ZD back
Mamiya 35mm f3.5
Mamiya 55mm f2.8
Mamiya 80mm f1.9
Mamiya 150mm f3.5
Set of 3 extension tubes for macro work
A sack full of CF cards

While I am there I will also be checking out the used camera shops in Kyoto and Osaka to see if I can find a good deal on a Mamiya 200mm f2.8.

All of this fits nicely into a Lowepro Micro Trekker 200, which is my favorite backpack to use. I may change bags and instead use a Domke wax-wear F2, it depends if it looks like there will be a high likelihood of rain as the Domke is very water resistant.

Since I have not really had time to put the ZD back through its paces yet this should be a good opportunity to really see what it can do.

To date I’ve only used this medium format setup for single day type shooting (6-8 hours at a stretch) so I think I have a pretty good idea about what to expect as far as weight goes.  I am still a bit concerned, but I do also know that the results will quickly make me forget about the increase in weight compared to a DSLR kit.

But I do also have a backup plan/sanity check: I will also take along an Olympus E-P1 with a 20mm f1.7 and 14-42 kit zoom. This will serve as my backup in case I don’t feel like carrying so much gear on any particular day. The PEN will also serve as my nighttime low light camera.

Since this is a solo trip, and the only point is to take photos, explore more of Kyoto, and relax, I don’t think I’m going too nuts here with the gear I am bringing.

I just wanted some other people’s perspectives about this plan. Given the same choice of gear, would you do the same thing?

My alternative DSLR setup would be a Nikon D700 with some fast primes: 14/2.8, 35/2, 50/1.4, 85/1.4, and 180/2.8

Last Sunday I met up with about 30 of my closest friends.  On the third Sunday of every month the Tokyo Cameras club gets together to shoot pictures, and last Sundays location was Rikugien Park in Tokyo.  It’s near Komagome Station on the Yamanote line.

Club votes on the location for each months get-together, and the last two finalists were Rikugien park, and Yokohama Chinatown.  I was pulling for Chinatown as it is a whole lot closer to where I live.  And to tell the truth i was a bit bummed when Rikugien ended up winning the vote.  But, not to be deterred by a 90 minute train ride (That’s what iPods were invented for) I happily hopped on the train.

After getting to Komagome station, Saori and I stopped in at Matsuya for a quick meal of beef with rice and a bowl of miso soup.  Speaking of Matsuya, I am completely impressed with traditional fast-food in Japan.  Be it Udon, Ramen, or Gyudon, it’s always completely and satisfyingly delicious, not to mention worlds healthier than western style fast food.  Think of Puppies frolicking through a field of MORE puppies and you will get an idea of how satisfying a good bowl of gyudon and miso soup can be.

Thinking that I may find it hard to find interesting things to shoot in a park, I stopped in at a combini for a couple of cans of liquid inspiration  (aka: BEER)  ans set off down the street towards the park.  Polishing off the second can  just as I was passing a recycling bin near the park entrance, I dropped the can into the bin, and pulled my camera of the day out of my backpack.  (Olympus E-P1) I pulled off the lens cap, checked to make sure the battery was charged, the memory card was empty, and the lens was clean.  Check, check, check.  ”OK, time to go see if I can scrape together some images from this park” I thought to myself.

Boy, were my feelings wrong.  The park ended up being spectacular.  Not at all crowded, and beautiful.  It also helped that the weather was absolutely perfect, the ideal autumn day: clear skies, dry, and moderate temperatures.  It turned out that I didn’t need the beer after all.  (Although even knowing that ahead of time would probably not have stopped me)

The lenses that say the most use while using the E-P1 was the standards kit zoom (14-42mm f3.5-5.6), and a manual Olympus Zuiko 55mm f1.2 .  The kit zoom is spectacularly sharp, and built in such a manner that it can collapse down into a quite compact form when not in use.  The 55mm f1.2 equates to a rather ridiculous 110mm f1.2 on the E-P1s cropped sensor, so the shots and perspectives you can get are pretty fun.  It’s soft as hell wide open, but the bokeh is to die for.  Stopped down it gets satisfactorily sharp.

To make a long story short, the three hours of shooting went by all too fast. but now that I have gotten a taste of the place, I will be sure to return when the maple leaves are in all their full autumnal splendor.

So I guess the moral of the story is, ” Don’t be too quick to judge something before you get a chance to experience it” and also “Beer never hurts”.

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In case anyone is interested, I took part in another episode of “Cool Japan”.

It will air at the following times:
Nov. 17 (Tue) 22:00〜22:44 (NHK BS Hi-vision)
Re-run – Nov. 22 (Sun) 0:10〜 0:54（NHK:BS-1)

Click HERE for today’s photos.

Could the megapixel race finally be over?

Let’s hope so.

Here’s the headline: “Canon releases a new camera with lower resolution and better image quality.”

While this seems a bit counterintuitive, it does make sense.  You see, cramming ever more and more pixels onto the same sized image sensor is NOT the way to improve image quality.

In my view Canon did a VERY smart thing in reducing the pixel count with the G11.  And to make the news even better, they upped the sensor size, so you get a double whammy effect that results in larger photo sites, meaning a higher signal to noise ratio and lower overall noise.

I don’t want a super high resolution 100 megapixel image that is so noisy it looks like it was taken during a snowstorm.  I’d much rather have a sub-10 megapixel image from the same sized or larger sensor as that will dramatically improve final image quality.  Sigma, with their 4.7 megapixel Foveon sensors in their DP1 and DP2 cameras have proved this.  Granted Foveon sensor technology is something entirely different from CMOC and CCD, but the fact remains that the 4.7 megapixel resolution images have the sharpness, clarity, and detail of 10-12 megapixel images shot using CCD or CMOS technology.

The only thing that really puzzles me is why Canon decided to grace the new S90 with an f2.0 lens, whilst only giving the G11 a widest aperture of f2.8?  I am sure anyone who knows anything about taking pictures would have easily traded the 140mm zoom on the long end of the G11 for the 105mm on the long end of the S90 if it meant they could get an f2.0 aperture on the wide end.

S90: f/2.0-4.9 28-105mm (35mm equiv)

G11: f/2.8-4.5 28-140mm (35mm equiv)

In its defense, the G11 does have a very useful articulated LCD screen, although it is (marginally) smaller than that on the S90, AND on the long end of things, the G11 has the S90 beaten both on aperture, as well as reach.

It seems funny, but I think the biggest threat to Canons new G11 is their very own S90.  The again, maybe not, since they seem to be marketed towards slightly different groups.  The S90, being very pocketable is a “take it with you everywhere” camera that is sure to be popular with everyone.  But the G11, while still compact, is certainly not something that you will want to stuff in your front pants pocket, not unless you want to make people think you are happy to see then anyways…  The G11 seems geared toward the same crowd as the G10, those serious about their pictures, and after an all-around best-fit camera to fit as many photographic situations as possible.

I also see that they left HD video out of both of them, further ensuring a solid upgrade path for those that buy into the current lineup.    So neither the S90 not the G11 are perfect cameras.

Smart.  Very smart.

And in truth, I don’t think it is in any manufacturers best interest to produce the ‘perfect” camera.  After all, their goal as a manufacturer is to make money.  If they made a perfect camera then why would people fork over more of their hard earned (or inherited, or ill-gotten, or whatever type) money for a new model?

Businesses are IN business to DO business.  Period.

That’s why we see such incremental product updates most of the time.  It cuts down on R&D and manufacturing costs while maximizing the mount of units being sold, and this translates directly into profit.

It is a fine line though, and I am sure Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, and everyone else I watching each other like hawks to make sure than no one manufacturer gets too far ahead of the curve and upsets the balance.   I can just see the CEOs of all the big camera companies getting together once every year to decide what features to release on the public, how much to charge, and what features should be reserved for future product updates.

Following is a brief summary of my thoughts on some digital camera manufacturers.  Basically, I attempted to describe each companies philosophy when it comes to making cameras:

Canon: Full frame is where it’s at, ergonomics are for pansies.

Nikon:  Full frame is overrated (oops, that was last years line…) “Full frame is where it’s at, and oh by the way, our ergonomics wipe the floor with Canon.

Olympus: Damnit, 4/3rds IS full frame!  (if you can accept the logic that the original Pen was a full frame camera this may make sense, otherwise, it’s a bunch of rubbish…), and lets make some really good glass, but lets also make the mistake to price it outside of most peoples ability to afford.

Panasonic:  Yes, we really do make cameras, not just electric shavers and flat panel TVs.

Leica: Screw sustainable business models!  We’re making rangefinders and medium format digital cameras that nobody can afford.  But just to hedge out bets we’ll partner with Panasonic and place one of our fabled red dots on a few of their models which will allow us to instantly charge $400-$600 more for the exact same camera.

Pentax:  It’s all about the glass.  (And they are absolutely right)

Sigma:  No, really, it really IS a 14.7 megapixel sensor!    (all the other makers roll their eyes)

Kodak:  Someone has to sell cameras to the people who bought Yugos

Mamiya:  Isn’t that Italian?

Casio:  Someone has to sell cameras to people who are ready to step up from Kodak.

Ricoh:  Yes, yes, I know this shot looks like it was taken during a snowstorm, but look at just how sharp that palm tree is!  Ricoh should sell their cameras with a disclaimer: “Use Only In Direct Sunlight”

Hasselblad:  Let’s make our equipment even more expensive than Leica.  That way we can feel exclusive and justify our high prices.  Never mind that our digital backs cost more than a mid-sized SUV.

Fujifilm: We’ll take a Nikon mount and put one of our bodies and sensors on it and instantly charge $400-$600 LESS than the comparable Nikon.

Epson:  Epson?  I thought they only made printers?

Contax: R.I.P.

Sony:  A little late to the DSLR game, but since buying up Konica/Minolta they have really come into their own.  Now if only they could increase their focus speed, and decrease their high ISO image noise.  They have been making solid point and shoot cameras for years.

HP: I thought they just made printers and computers?

No camera is perfect.  I know because I seem to have tried darn near all of them.  But it certainly is an interesting time to be alive with the steady progression of technological advances creeping ever closer to the end-goal of what had been developed in the film world years ago, but with the added bonuses of better high ISO image quality, huge storage capacity for pictures (can you even imagine changing your memory card after just 24 shots?), and immediate image/histogram review.
Click HERE for today’s photos.

Click HERE for todays photos.

The recent solar eclipse was quite the sight to see here in Japan.  It was cloudy near Tokyo during the event, but thank to the power of the internet I was able to view it live via streaming video.   It did get spooky-dark during the eclipse, and it made me wonder about what people used to think way back in history when things like that would happen.

Were they scared?  Excited?  Did they care?

I have no idea, but what I do know for sure is that many thousands of years ago people were really about the same as people today.  They just lacked the scientific level of knowledge to help explain all of those inexplicable things that they experienced in their daily lives.  The rise and fall of the tides, solar (and lunar) eclipses, the changing of the seasons, and why Wayne Newton was such a popular entertainer.  Yes, the list of things not explainable was long, and varied.

And as people generally like to understand their world (or at least feel like they understand it) a group of enterprising individuals came up with a solution.

Religion.

All of a sudden there was a cause and a reason for everything.  Nothing was random, and everything happened according t some grand plan.  But these people who created the gods and such had ulterior motives.  Yes, they did hand the general public an explination for all of the worlds unknowns, but they also used it as a manner to control those same people.

And they did it in a very interesting manner…

By making people feel important.

We were no longer insiginificant.  By George, we had an all knowing , all seeing individual (or group, depending on the local gospel) that took a vested interest in every little thing we do.

We mattered.  We were important.

The only catch was you had to be careful no to stray from the “rules”, otherwise instead of things being wonderful, you were slated to endure an eternal procession of misery and pain (like attending a Wayne Newton concert) .

Pretty clever actually.  Tell somebody that the reason behind everything is “X”.  With “X” being whatever religion developed in each region of the world.  People feel satisfied that they now “understand” things, and life can continue on, just so long as you continue to “believe” in something that nobody can prove.  (And they call those that believe in extra terrestrial life/intelligence nuts…)

I do have to give the Pope credit though.  He did state his believe that intelligent life on other panets is a possibility, even if he did add a disclaimer to the statement by saying that it will all have been part of Gods plan.

Personally I would like to think that there is intelligent life in the Universe, but before I have proof  cannot believe it as fact.  But I do sincerely hope that there is something else out there, becasue if that were true then there would be at least one intelligent planet in this vast cosmos.

But here we are in the 21′st(!) century, all smug in the satisfaction that we “understand”, that we somehow know better than those ignorant boobs from the past.  But I would argue that we are, in general,  are even more naive than our ancestors.   In our predecessors defense, they did not have the scientific method to help explain things to them, so they had no choice but to accept the only explination being offerd.

But we have started (and just barely started, there is so much more to learn) down the path of science, and have been able to explain so many of those past mysteries, using the scientific method, that we now know that many (if not all) of our prior “beliefs” were flat out wrong.

For example: Without a shadow of a doubt, we all now understand why solar eclipses happen.  We also understand why the seasons change, and why Wayne Newton is so painful to listen to (he is the Anti-Christ).

But so many of us still choose to be blinded by religion, and fail to accept the fact that we don’t matter.  The only rules are those that we and the society we live in place on us.  This is why things that seem so abhorent to some (like killing a girl that was raped  in order to save the “honor” of the family) are accepted as normal in other cultures.  But even then, many of these cultural differences are the result of divergent religous paths conflicting on basic ideological levels.

I can understand the siren song of religion, I just don’t buy it.   It would be nice to be able to accept a simplified explination for things, to feel important, and to be given some level of comfort that when my time on this earth is done it will not really be the end for me.

I hope you are not thinking that I am diametrically opposed to religion, as this is not the case.  Most religions have a very positive message, and if parts of this message are followed, the result can be a more harmonious existance.    It’s just that I for one have not yet bought the explinations for things that religion provides.

There are a few things that, if religion were able to explain them, I may become a believer.  Here is my top-ten list:

1. why are the wicked not punished in the here and now instead of some afterlife where nobody really knows if it happens or not?

2. Why do bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people?  Isn’t there supposed to be some kind of justice if there is an all powerful being orchestrating this silly show?

3. Why do so many people chose Adjustable Rate Mortgages?

4. Why is it that is you don’t believe in the same invisible person as me, you are “wrong”?  Isn’t religion supposed to be all about tolerance?

5. Where does that other sock go when you put it in the dryer?

6.Why doesn’t The Vattican publicly release ALL of the gospels?

7. Why is Wayne Newton so popular?  (See question 1: Maybe we are ALL already in hell)

8. How do Jehovahs Whitnesses ALWAYS know when I am at home?  (Even here in Japan!)

9. Why do whales and snakes have vestigial leg bones?

10. Why are top-ten lists so polular?

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In other, less contoversial, news:  I recently bought an Olumpus E-P1.  It’s a micro 4/3rds mount camera, and as far as I can tell so far, goin got be a HUGE hit for olympus.

Click HERE for todays photos, all of them were taken with the E-P1 in 6×6 mode with the “pin hole” art filter.  Other than converting from Raw to jpeg, no post-processing work was done on my part, these are straight out of the camera.

The kit lenses (14-42mm, and 35mm f2.8 pancake) are great, but what makes this camera really exciting is the fact that it accepts darn near any other type of lens.  This is possible because the register distance, from the lens mount to the sensor plane is very short, thus you can use an adapter ring of the appropriate thickness to make up the difference for other makers lenses.

I’ve been shooting with it for about two weeks now, and while it is not perfect, it is one solid piece of equipment.  The only real gripe I have is the fact that there is a 2x crop factor on all lenses used, so finding a nice fgast normal or wide anle lens is a challenge.  My wonder normal zuiko 50mm f1.2 ends up “looking” like a 100mm f1.2.

It’s also got the best high-iso image quality I have seen from a 4/3rds camera.  Its good enough in fact that this has become my default street shoting camera, and my beloved Leica M8 will soon be hitting the auction block.  I like the M8, but I can’t justify keeping such an expensive camera if I won’t be using it.

Here is a quick list of the Pro’s and Con’s of the E-P1 after my brief experience with it:

Pro’s:

• Very compact build, yet still very solid
• Great high ISO image quality
• Very compact 17mm f2.8 pancake lens (35mm equivelant) , but I am really waiting for the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 pancake
• Kit zoom lens is tack sharp, and has a cool collapsing design to make it much smaller when closed
• Built-in art filters and aspect ratios are fun
• Nice array of external controls, easy to adjust exposure on the fly
• I can use many different makes/types of  lenses on it

Con’s

• 2X crop factor (ouch!)
• no built-in flash or viewfinder
• low frame rate when using some of the art filters (especially my favorite, the pin hole)
• auto-focus could be faster

So while it’s not perfect, it’s certainly close enough to make me a very happy shooter.   All cameras are a compromise between cost, size, weight, speed, etc…

With the E-P1, Olympus seems to have boiled that conflicting equation down to a very pallatable mix.

Click HERE for today’s photos.

The GAS attack strikes again.

What do I mean by gas attack? The G.A.S. stands for Gear Acquisition Syndrome.
It all started back in 1999 before I came to Japan when I bought my first digital camera, the Olympus D340r. A fantastic little piece of kit, 1.3 megapixel, no zoom, AA batteries, and SmartMedia cards. And at that time I was spending about $100 for a 64 MB memory card. Hard to believe that I recently picked up some 16 GB memory cards for about $38 each.
Unbelievable!

From the D340R I progress through quite a few different cameras sticking with Olympus for a while: C3000, then an E-10. But then I believe in 2004 I got my first digital SLR, a Canon 10 D.
And Man that I love that camera!

But it was was then that the gear acquisition syndrome or really started to affect me. Because the beauty and at the same time curse of digital SLRs is all the fantastic lenses that go along with them.

As the years rolled by I traded my 10D for a 1D Mark II, a great camera with loads of functionality, but also unfortunately loads of mass as well.   So after getting tired of lugging that brick around, I “downgraded” to the Rebel XT. (Which I ended up just loving due to its diminutive size)

Then Canon released the 5D which I immediately bought, selling the XT to help fund the purchase. IN the meantime I continued to acquire new gear, an Epson R-D1, then a Leica M8, and more film cameras, mostly medium format, than I care to admit.
A

bout a month ago I was trolling around on eBay. Not really looking for anything in particular, just window shopping. But what did I come upon, but a Mamiya AFD with a Kodak DCS Pro back!
The Kodak DCS Pro back was one of the original medium format digital backs that did not need to be tethered to a computer for shooting. And since I do absolutely no studio shooting, this was the optimum shooting solution for me.

I did not plan on buying anything, but the “buy it now” price was less than 200,000 yen for teh camera boody and back, along with a box full of batteries, memory cards and the like.
An added bonus was that the seller was from Japan so the camera was delivered to me very quickly. The camera did not come with a lens, so I went to my favorite camera store, Map Camera in Shinjuku, and picked up a couple of Mamiya AFD lenses: a 45 mm f2.8, and 55mm F2 .8. They’re both pretty close in focal length, but the price was right so i got both of them.

So far I am enjoying the 55mm more, but I’ll do some more shooting before I decide if I want to get rid of the 45mm.

I had heard how great medium format digital was, but to be honest I wasn’t expecting entirely too much from a digital back built in 2001, which is literally eons ago in the digital camera world. And the rather crappy LCD screen on the back of the pro back did not serve to further increase my confidence about the output quality of the camera.

But once I dumped the file onto my computer and viewed them on my 24 inch monitor I was absolutely blown away by the image quality. It absolutely blew the doors off of any digital camera I had shot with so far; The 5D, the 700, the Leica M8, all of them. The dynamic range was incredible, and the sharpness was truly breathtaking. Straight out of the camera the files look great, and in many cases no post processing is needed.

Just this past weekend I was up in Shinjuku shootings pictures with the Tokyo Cameras photo club. And I brought my brand-new used camera long to put it through its paces. We started shooting in the late afternoon. So by the time we’re finished the light was gett9ing pretty feable so I pushed the ISO up to 200, and shot the 55mm wide open at f2.8. But even still, the picture quality was amazing, due inpart no doubt to that fantastic mamiya glass.

It does focus really slow, but with such a big bright and beautiful viewfinder is relatively easy to do manual focus with the camera as well. I am also pleasantly surprised at how well I am able to handhold this camera at slow shutter speeds. It’s a relatively big and heavy camera and has a big beefy handgrip. Very comfortable ergonomics, but I do wish it was a little bit smaller.

I could go on and on about picture quality, but I think the pictures from today are the best explanation of what this camera is capable of producing.