From the dieline, a design/packaging blog I read regularly.

A student designed a package for ilford 120 rollfilm, that can be folded into a pinhole camera for said film.  Supercool, although it wasn’t clear whether this was an actual product or just a design concept.  Check the link for more images and info on the project.

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The normal is small, light, fast, sharp and versatile.

It does portraits, it does landscapes, it does street, event, low light…

Need to get in closer? take a step forward.  Need to get  wider? take a step back.   Unlike many other focal lengths the normal is almost chameleon-like in it’s ability to adapt itself to different situations, rendering tightly framed shots as well as “wider” with equal aplomb.  (yes I know the actual focal length and field of view don’t change, I refer only to it’s apparent versatility in framing).

In fact, I would estimate probably 75% of my shots overall are taken with a normal lens (50mm on my Nikon, 20mm on my gf1, 75mm on my Mamiya).

The normal lens has a long and influential life in the history of photography.  Many of the seminal images of the 20th century were made with the 50mm.

There is a kind of “Zen Like” simplicity to shooting with a normal as well – maybe it has something to do with the fact that it approximates the normal human field of view, but previsualizing the shot becomes almost unconscious.  As if one of the barriers between concept and image just falls away…

And then there’s the beautiful, beautiful depth of field.  Opening up to f/1.4 (or more!) just creates a whole new world of depth of field effects.

Of course the normal is not a *replacement* for your zoom – especially a telephoto or ultrawide, but if you’re a zoom shooter primarily, give it a shot – spend a couple of weeks with just a normal on your camera.  You might just find it addictive…

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Of course a week and a few shots are not nearly enough to get the real “feel” of a camera, but here are some initial thoughts:

• I bought this camera as a replacement for my G9 (which I subsequently sold). my first thought was “this is just like my G9, only better”
• Image quality is superb – particularly with the 20/1.7.  Plenty of detail, and the raw files hold up to processing well (using LR3 beta).  High ISO is perfectly adequate for me.  I’d use it comfortably up to 800/1250, and 1600/2500 are definitely usable with some NR/processing.  3200 is a bit noisy, but still seems perfectly usable for smaller prints etc… with some NR.
• I don’t miss an OVF at all.  I don’t know why folks get hysterical about composing on a screen- to me it’s just another way of composing.  SLR finder, Rangefinder, Waist-level finder, ground glass… whatever.   as long as I can compose my image, it’s all good.
• Much like the G9 it’s not truly “pocketable” it definitely needs a small bag or coat pocket.  To me this is basically a camera for “good pictures that’s lighter/easier to carry than an SLR”
• Responsiveness is excellent.  Shutter lag is negligible, and focus is nice and snappy even in low light.  It’s not quite as good as my D700 (!) but it’s more than adequate.   I can’t see myself missing any shots due to lag (caveat: I don’t shoot kids or sports, so if you do YMMV!)
• build quality is… decent… it’s not a leica, but it doesn’t feel like its going to fall apart either.  Probably the cheapest-feeling part of the whole thing is the zoom action on the 14-45 kit lens, but even that isn’t terrible (hey it’s a kit lens!)
• Manual focus with the m4/3 lenses is actually not bad at all.  The “focus by wire” doesn’t bother me, and the focus rings (particularly on the 20/1.7) are surprisingly smooth and well damped, unlike many modern AF lenses.  I’m curious to try some real MF lenses on it with an adaptor.
• I’m still getting a feel for the menus/controls, but they seem perfectly adequate.  I wasn’t sure about the whole “push-turn” control wheel but I actually really like it now.  All the necessary info is shown on screen, and all the settings I need to use regularly are easily accessible without digging through 27 menus (<cough> canon mirror lockup<cough>
• I’m curious how the lack of a mirror will affect hand-holdability.  I know I can handhold a rangefinder at least a stop slower than an equivalent SLR, I wonder if the GF1 will have the same advantage…
• So far the main “negative” I can find with the camera is that the grip on the front feels a little slippery (the rear has a nice rubber thumbpad, but the front “fingertip” area is too slick for me) Surprisingly this makes the grip less sure than my G9… it might be worth getting a little stick on pad for the front to alleviate this.

Overall, the “gestalt” of this camera is the same to me as the G9 – not a “pocket camera” per-se, but a “real camera” that I can carry around more easily than a full SLR.  In this regard it succeeds superbly.   For my purposes, the GF1 realizes the dream of “SLR image quality in a compact body” perfectly, particularly with the superb 20/1.7.   I’m actually toying with using it fom a couple of “real” shoots coming up, to see if the ability to go ultralight/minimalist will give added freedom in location shooting.

more to come…

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My photography career started with film.  Black and white negative film, and an old Pentax spotmatic.  I “switched” to digital with a Minolta Maxxum 7d, and shot pretty much exclusively digital from then on- up until about 6 months ago, when I got the itch again…

Now I knew I wanted to get a MF kit, as it’s hard to justify the extra work of 35mm film, given the quality of full-frame digital (ducks the angry rolls of tri-x being thrown).   Medium Format, OTOH, is a whole ‘nother beast…  I also knew I wanted a rangefinder just because, well, I love rangefinders.   That narrowed down the field a bunch – leaving basically the Fuji MF rangefinders and the Mamiya 6 or mamiya 7 in serious contention.   I took the plunge and got the Mamiya 6 (I chose the 6 over the 7 as I prefer the 6×6 negative rather than the 6×7).   Now after about 6 months of using it, I think it’s about time to write a proper review.

be forewarned – this is not an “Controlled Environment, Pixel Peeper” type review.  I’m not going to run rolls of test film against brick walls, or post MTF charts.  This is merely my overall impression of the camera after half a year of regular use (just about enough time to really get “comfortable” with a piece of gear!)

First off, for anyone thinking of getting one of these cameras – if you’ve never used a rangefinder before, there’s going to be a learning curve.  Rangefinder camera’s are different than SLRs in that you are *not* looking through the lens to frame/focus – you look through a separate window.   This window does not change with the focal length of the lens the way an SLR viewfinder does (in other words, your view doesn’t “zoom in” when you attach a longer lens) There are simply “framelines” – a glowing box/outline that shows what will be in the frame for a given focal length.   On the Mam6, these light up automatically depending on which lens you have mounted.  Focusing is also a totally different beast – instead of looking through the lens and subjectively evaluating if the image is in focus, the rangefinder uses a “patch” in the middle of the viewfinder, which superimposes 2 images over each other.  when they are “out of alignment” the image is out of focus – you simply adjust the focus until the overlaid images are lined up – taking a lot of the “guesswork” our of manual focusing.

Out of focus:

In Focus:

Despite the differences (some might say limitations) there is a lot to like about rangefinder framing/shooting:

• Once you get the hang of focusing it can be much faster and more accurate than a SLR.  You don’t have to subjectively evaluate whether the image in the vewfinder “looks sharp” – if it’s lined up it’s in focus!
• No “blackout” – since there is no mirror flipping up to block your view at the moment of exposure, your view through the window is never interrupted.  May not sound like a big deal, but once  you’ve gotten used to it, it’s really nice!
• framing outside the lines.  With an SLR, what you see in the vewfinder is what you get in the  frame – you can’t see “outside of the  frame”.  With a rangefinder, the frame does not take up the whole area of the viewfinder – the the area contained by the brightlines.  This mean that with the camera up to your eye, you can actually see the area outside the actual frame of the photograph.   To me, this is the single greatest part of rangefinder photography – you can see the scene through the camera wholistically – chosing which parts to include, and which to cut out.  You can see elements *before* they actually  move into the frame, and you can see the area around your frame to determine if you need to make a minute adjustment to composition etc…   It’s hard to describe, but it is incredible.  After shooting with a rangefinder for a while, going back to an SLR feels like putting blinders on – like shooting down a tunnel with no peripheral vision.

Now on to the actual meat of the review:

Handling:

The Mam6 is a solid piece of kit.   Tight tolerance, nothing loose or sloppy.   It feels like a brick of metal in the hand.  Size-wise it is fairly comporable to a 5D, but  it actually “feels” a lot smaller.  A lot of this is due to the “collapsing lens mount”.   The mamiya 6 is essentially a “bellows” camera (albeit with a sturdy shell on the outside to protect the bellows) – pressing the button on the left side of the lens mount allows the entire assembley (lens and all) to collapse *into* the body of the camera by a few inches.  Particularly with the 75/3.5 lens mounted & collapsed, the camera’s “depth” shrinks quite a bit allowing it to slip into a narrow/small camera bag.  I find it much easier to carry around as an “all day” camera than the 5D.  Here it is side by side with the 5D+50/1.8.  The 6 has the 75/3.5 normal lens mounted, and the lens mount collapsed.  (for reference the image at the top shows the camera with 75/3.5 with the mount exteded – note the difference!)

And here it is in my everyday shoulderbag along with the 150/4.  To give a sense of scale, that is a pocket moleskine in the side pocket…

Not exactly a “pocket camera” but when you consider that this is a *medium format* kit – it’s pretty amazingly compact.

The camera also just “fits” well in the hand. The grip is nicely contoured and comfortable.  Despite it’s somewhat “boxy” shape, it is extremely comfortable to hold/shoot with.  The controls fall well under the fingertips – the left hand focuses and sets aperture, while the shutter speed dial is positioned in a way that it can easily be rotated with the right index finger without removing one’s eye from the VF.  When combined with the meter which shows the shutter speed in the vewfinder, it makes it possible to adjust exposure without ever taking your eye away from the camera.  The focus is smoothly damped and the rangefinder works well with a decently sized focusing patch and nice bright framelines (which light up automatically depending on which lens is mounted)

Controls:

as with any fully-manual camera, controls are simple – aperture is set on the lens, there is a top dial for shutter speed/ISO(ASA) with EV comp lever under it, a film advance lever (single stroke) and the shutter button.  that’s it.

Having TTL metering, the Mam6 has a Aperture Priority mode, enabled by turning the shutter speed dial to the red “A” on the dial.  In this mode, the camera will meter to the aperture set on the lens.  As I understand it, the metering system is a center-weighted average.   There is also an AEL mode, which is also aperture priority, but has the added feature of “locking” the exposure at a 1/2 press of the shutter – very useful!   The meter shows up along the left hand side of the viewfinder – the currently selected shutter speed is shown solid, while the metered speed will blink above or below it for over/under exposed.

It’s a very intuitive system overall, and enables quick manual metering.  I generally shoot in fully manual, but I’ve had good success shooting in AEL, pointing at the part of the scene I want to meter, 1/2 pressing to lock exposure, and then recomposing and shooting.  Frankly for “fast moving” photography such as street etc… the meter is good enough to just “set it and forget it” especially given the exposure lattitude of b/w neg. film.   In A (and AEL) mode, EV comp is controlled by a little lever under the shutter speed dial.  Honestly I’ve never used it – I’m either always in manual or AEL-meterlock-recompose mode!

Changing lenses:

Changing lenses is the same as an SLR, but with a catch.   The Mamiya 6 uses a Leaf shutter system, as opposed to the focal plane shutters in most SLRs.  This means that the shutter is actually *in the lens* instead of in front of the film plane.   The obvious ramification to this is that if one removes the lens, the film plane is exposed (since there is no shutter to block it!) which would prevent changing lenses while fim is in the camera.   Luckily the Mam6 solves this rather elegantly, by having a “dark slide” that covers the film while the lens is removed.   There is a little knob on the bottom of the camera that enables the dark slide, and a switch that releases it (it snaps back automatically).   The camera also has a series of interlocks which prevent you from “doing anything bad” during this process.  In other words,  when there is film in the camera, the lens-release button will not function unless the darkslide is enabled, and once a lens is mounted, the shutter will not fire until the darkslide is withdrawn.  There is a little warning light in the upper right hand corner of the viewfinder which will blink to let you know if something is set incorrectly when you press the shutter button.   This may sound complicated, but in practice it only adds a few seconds to the process of changing a lens which becomes:

1. turn knob to enable darkslide
2. press lens release button, remove lens
3. mount new lens
4. hit the switch on the bottom to remove the darkslide
5. shoot away

Lenses:

The bad news is that the Mamiya 6 system, only has 3 lenses.  The good news is that it only has 3 lenses.  For me, they cover just about everything I want – moderate wide, normal and moderate tele.  The added advantage is that once you have all 3, there is no worring about “oh I need lens X and lens Y”.   It’s actually rather freeing, in a strange way.   And don’t worry about said 3 not being up to snuff – these lenses are good.  Really, Really, Really Good.   If you are coming from a 35mm system, the quality will blow you away.    The lenses are:

75mm f/3.5:

This is the “normal” lens, just shy of 50mm equiv. in 35mm terms.   Beautifully sharp and contrasty across the entire frame, straight from max aperture. I tend to favor normals, so this is my “default” lens.   Also helps that it is the smallest of the 3, and collapses nicely in to the body, making the camera wonderfully portable.

150mm f/4:

Stunning. An absolutely gorgeous portrait lens (appx 100mm in 35mm terms), razor sharp, with a beautiful falloff and incredible bokeh.   The images from this lens are truly jaw dropping. I have heard some complain that it is difficult to focus, but I haven’t had any problem, so YMMV.

50mm f/4:

28mm equiv.  Don’t have this lens, but from what I’ve heard it’s the best of the 3 (which is almost scary considering how good the other two are).   Saving the pennies for it now

Gestalt:

I’ve shot with quite a few camera systems, and I can say unreservedly that the Mamiya 6 is my “”favorite” system overall.   It may sound crazy, given the limited nature of the system overall – but it’s just one of those cameras that “gets out of the way” and lets you get the shot.  From the smoothly damped action on the focus to the quiet “snick” of the shutter, to the cleverly collapsing lens mount, the camera is simply a pleasure to use – it practically “sings” in the hand.   Needless to say, the quality is superb as well (as one would expect from a medium format system).  Of course it comes with all the caveats of a rangefinder system, but it comes with all the benefits as well.   It seems to hit kind of a “sweet spot” with a combination of simplicity, usability and portability that really just *works*.

Another wonderful aspect of the system for shooters who use strobe/flash lighting is the fact that the leaf shutter of the camera allows syncing at all shutter speeds.  Unlike focal-plane slr users who must spend outrageous sums (and endure huge power losses in high-speed-sync modes) on system-dedicated strobe units to allow flash sync beyond their native sync speed, the Mamiya 6 will happily sync with any strobe right up to it’s maximum shutter speed of 1/500 sec – simply wonderful when working with lights outdoors for dropping down the ambient!

In a lot of ways, it’s hard to exactly pin down the appeal of this camera.   I recently read a review of the E-P1 which called it “a camera that you buy with your heart, not your head” (to paraphrase).  I think in a lot of ways the Mamiya is similar.   It’s certainly not as versatile as an SLR system, and in these days of high-volume shoots and fast turnaround times, it would be ludicrous to imagine using it as one’s primary camera.   But when I’m walking out the door in the morning, it’s almost always the one I grab.   It’s the type of camera that is simply *enjoyable* to use, the one that is just “comfortable”.

Nitpicks:

While I absolutely love the 6 as a whole, there are some nitpicks, nothing major but just some things to be aware of.

• the 1/500 max shutter speed can be limiting if you want to shoot wide open in bright light.  Course you can use ND filters, but that gets cumbersome etc… (although the tradeoff to this is that you get that full 1/500 when syncing with a flash, which more than makes up for it in my mind!)
• the meter readout can be difficult to see when wearing glasses.
• the rather large minimum focus distance on the lenses can sometimes be limiting.

Bottom line:

If you shoot sports, this is not the camera for you.

If you shoot wildlife, this is not the camera for you.

Nor is it for weddings (well maybe) or events, or product photography (no close focus).

That being said – this camera is a unique product that is simply magical in it’s own way, and if it suits your shooting style will quickly become one of your most-loved pieces of gear.

UPDATE: My Mamiya 6 is currently in the shop for a broken film advance mechanism.  Apparently this is a not-uncommon issue with the 6, and something to be aware of before purchasing one.    Personally I wouldn’t let it stop me (and it doesn’t change my opinion of the camera) but just for full disclosure…

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With the big splash the E-P1 made on its release, there’s no surprise that DPreview has their in-depth review up already…

Take a look… every feature and detail of the camera dissected and analyzed to an excruciating level

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And finally the true strength of the 4/3 system is realized…  Just in case there’s anyone who *hasn’t* heard about it yet (my RSS reader already had about 15 articles on it!) Olympus has finally announced their first MFT camera, the e-p1, in a unmistakable homage to the PEN series of old. To me, this is what the 4/3 system should have been from the beginning.  high-quality, interchangeable lenses, supercompact body.  To me, this is more of a “digital rangefinder” than the Leica M8 (dons flame-retardant suit and hides from the leica-o-philes).
check out the size comparison next to the e-420 *already* the smallest dSLR on the market. 
 

All the usual goodies are checked, HD video, 12mp (reasonable for 4/3 sensor – glad they didn’t push it), a multi-apect sensor (very cool! – it shoots 1×1! square love!), yadda yadda yadda…  The dual control wheel setup is unusual, but I could see myself liking it…

for the full rundown, check dpreviews hands-on preview. 

and some more sample photos over at PhotographyBlog.com

Honestly, it’s hard to overstate my excitement at this camera.  I’m not all that much of a “gearhead”, but when something like this comes along it’s just like “wow, that’s exactly what I’ve always wanted in a picture making tool”

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Until now.

The newly announced Eye-Fi pro adds RAW transfer and ad-hoc network connection capability – the two things that were conspicuously missing from earlier versions, and now Im thinking I may never buy another card again.   So for all practical purposes, this card provides a wireless tethering solution in a box – consider:  grab a laptop, set up an ad hoc network, connect the eye-fi.  Now every shot you snap on that camera is transferred to a folder on your laptop.   Set lightroom to “watch” that folder and bam – now as you shoot, images stream to you laptop and pop up in lightroom in real time.

This my friends, to use the parlance of the day, is EPIC WIN.

course it still has all the same functionality of the earlier eye-fi, as well as adding the capability to selectively upload shots instead of just shooting all of them up by default.  Very cool stuff.  Kudos to the eye-fi guys for listening to the community and coming back with a product that really seems to knock it out of the park!

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a MFT, digital PEN.  Oh Joy!

(that sound you hear is all the “digital rangefinder” folks squealing with anticipation!)

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Who woulda thunk it?  in a sea of digicams, Voigtlander goes ahead and releases a rangefinder. An analogue rangefinder.  A *medium format*, fixed lens, analogue rangefinder.  (and a folder to boot!).

Guess film isn’t dead after all   The Bessa III (as it is called) apparently will be available in may for about 2k. not too shabby!

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I picked up a Holga a while back with the intention of just messing around, running some 120 film etc…  At the time, I still had access to a pro darkroom, and intended to do my own processing and printing… Of course, that never happened.  With 99% of my work being digital, my poor rolls of 120 sat un-developed for <ahem> quite some time.

Of course that was before I discovered Diafine.  (for those who don’t know, Diafine is what is known as a “Compensating developer”  It comes in 2 parts, solution A, and solution B.   You pour in A, the film absorbs as much as it’s emulsion can hold, you then pour it out, and pour in B.  B reacts with A, doing the developing until A is all used up – then it stops (as there is no more A left to react.) essentially it is a “self terminating” development process.   What this means in practice is that it is just about the fastest, easiest way to develop black and white film that I have ever seen.  No carefully controlling temperatures of solutions (it works just fine anywhere from 68-80F), no exact timing down to the second (because it is self terminating, it doesn’t matter how long your film in).   You can load your film, pour in A, walk away and eat a sandwich, come back pour in B, go grab a beer, come back a half hour later, and your film will be done.  Just like that.

There are a couple of other cool features as well (eg it gives an effective “speed boost” of a stop or more to many films – my preferred HP5+ becomes effectively 800ISO when souped in diafine) and a few downsides.  It’s definitely not the developer to choose if you demand exacting precision & control over each step of the development process.  But for a low-fi neg like the holga produces it’s a match made in heaven.

Say what you will about film v. digital.  I love them both, I think they both have their place, and I think that every photographer should use both to at least some extent.   Even if you are die-hard 100% “digital is superiour to film in every way”, the “creative experience” of film is very different than digital.  It makes you shoot in a different way, think in a different way, see in a different way.  Not better, not worse, just different.  And that in my opinion is one of the great “creativity juicers” that we get.   So if you are in a creative rut, try it out.  Grab a holga and a few rolls of black and white 120 film ($30-40 bucks) and some diafine, and shoot some blurry, light-leaky, distorted, streaky, vignetted, *beautiful* frames.   Guaranteed to cure what ails ya!

All shot with the holga,  Ilford HP5+ film, processed in Diafine:

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The real excitement though is the new lenses – a 14-150 (28-200 mm equiv.) superzoom and a 7-14 (14-28mm equiv.) ultrawide.    The 14-150 is supposed to be optimized for video as well.

I dunno about you, but to me the GH1 with the 14-150 and upcoming 20/1.7 lenses might just be the ultimate “travel/carryaround” camera setup.  (unless Pentax does in fact announce an EVIL that can use their pancake primes. )

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Seems like the success of the G1 is driving the industry, which is fantastic! There have been a lot of folks clamoring for something like this for a long time.

Of particular interest is the fact that samsung uses the Pentax K-mount for their SLRs, meaning that this camera could potentially work with the full range of K-mount lenses.   A EVIL hybrid camera with the ability to use some amazing Pentax glass would basically be my dream camera.

The real question is, is Pentax going to have one of their own?  (cue the “me kicking myself for selling my incredible Pentax primes”)

EDIT: more images HERE: (Drool!)

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These are scripts for “Greasemonkey” a Firefox addon – and they *dramatically* improve flickr’s interface, and overall user experience (I can’t live without the “autopage” one – being able to scroll through an entire group pool or user’s stream without clicking through pages is amazing).

Like I said, if you’re a flickr (and firefox) user, check them out. Can’t go wrong.

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but now you can do it on your iphone, which is kind of cool:

http://juxtaposer.info/Juxtaposer/ColorSplash.html

but… it’s selective coloring…

but it’s on the iPhone….

Argh… I’m so torn as to whether this is awesome or awful…

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So as anyone who’s been following this blog for any amount of time knows, I’m a pretty big fan of RadioPoppers.  (http://radiopopper.com) I was an early adopter of the P1 system (really the first practical system for wireless TTL with strobes) and I pre-ordered the PXs the moment they came on the market (literally).

So I finally get my grubby little hands on the PXs.  As luck would have it they arrived about 4 hours *after* I wrapped a big shoot, but that’s ok… my P1s still performed admirably…

First impressions – they are small, noticeably smaller than the P1s.  This is a Good Thing™, since the whole point of speedlights is “small and light”  If I wanted to haul around 47 lbs of gear everywhere I would just use monolights and a vagabond, but I digress… No fiber optic = win (the light port is built in) and a removable battery cover for easy access – yay.  Overall if the P1s were more of a “beta” these are definitely the “release product” (see below for PXs vs P1s)

Installation:

Installing the receivers is fairly straightforward – they come with a nice little diagram to show you where to place the velcro for optimal light-port alignment.  Im not crazy about velcro-ing the front of my flash up, but since the recievers are essentially permanent fixtures I’ll deal.

Operation:

The good news first – the PXs in basic TTL mode are pretty much plug&play – slap em on, and fire away.  The bad news is that once you get into the menus it gets a little more complicated.  The menu system is a bit arcane, an unavoidable consequence of a 2 character screen and only 2 buttons for adjustment.   Honestly it’s not that bad though.  Once you get the “cycle” of options down, it’s pretty easy to flip through.   The only downside is that with only 2 buttons, going through the menus is pretty much “one way” only – I think that the menu system could be *vastly* improved with the addition of a 3rd button – essentially giving you “up”, “down” and “select” buttons.

My ONLY real complaint with the operation is that I absolutely cannot use the “down” adjustment on the transmitter’s “group” menu (for clarification – the PX transmitter will allow you to remotely adjust the power on a AB/WL monolight connected to the upcoming PX jr.  This is done by going into the “group” menu on the PX transmitter (G1, G2, G3) and selecting a power level from 00 (off) to 32 (full power).  In theory, pressing the “X” button increments the power level, while *holding* X while simultaneously pressing “P” will decrement it.  Unfortunately despite about 10min of fiddling, I could not get the hang of the “holding x+press p”  every time it would either just increment it, or drop it by one and then increment it again.  Maybe I just need some practice    Again, this would be easily solvable by a 3 button control scheme rather than 2 (you listening Kevin – maybe something for the PX v.2?

Overall I am satisfied with the operation of the units.  Once you get comfortable with the menu system, making adjustments is not bad, and the real point is that in TTL mode, you shouldn’t really *have* to make adjustments to the units all that often while shooting.

One strange “gotcha” – probably more related to Canon than RP – When using the ST-E2 as a commander, it seems like it must be *on camera* with the camera on in order to operate.  Seems like a kind of “well duh” thing, right?  well, I initially started testing the RPs by sticking the TX on my ST-E2 and pressing the test button to try and fire my strobes (ST-E2 not on camera).  This works fine with the normal optical system, however *did not* work with the PXs – the link light on the TX goes off, but nothing on the RX.   Put the ST-E2 on camera though, and the test button functions normally, TX and RX link and the strobe pops.  Pretty weird huh?  Took me about 15min of frustration to figure that one out…

Performance:

Of course what it really all boils down to is “do they work?”

As mentioned I received my units right after finishing up a big shoot, so I have not yet had the chance to put them through their paces in a “real” environment, however from my testing performance seems excellent – it just works.  I did my darndest to try and get them to misfire, but was unable to   I tried using the auto channel select, as well as manually selecting channels and they consistently fired every time.    Tested them out to about 80 feet (stood at one end of my studio with the strobe/receiver by the door all the way at the other end).  No issues.

Not much else to say – we’ll have to see how they perform over time, but so far they have been 100% rock solid.

Conclusion:

Bottom line is – if you use wireless TTL flash at all, these things rock.   All the good parts of the P1 and then some.  Better design, operation, and performance along with the inter-operability with manual flash using the JR system.  Super cool.   Even just the ability to use HSS wirelessly is worth the price of admission.   The P1 was a revolutionary concept and a good product.  The PX is a very good product.   The PX+JrX system combination elevates it to a *great* product.

Of course the big elephant in the room is: how are these going to fare against the 800-lb gorilla that is PocketWizard, and their newly announced TTL system.   There is no doubt the new PWs are cool, and basically do everything that the PXs can do *by themselves*.  The key that I think may give RP an edge is the system as a whole.  The integration of all the units, combined with the abilty to remotely adjust monolights and system flashes is *huge* for anyone who uses a combination of speedlights and studio strobes (which I do frequently).  On the other hand, PW has some neat goodies like “hypersync” so there’s that as well… we’ll have to see how it plays out.  For the time being I am more than happy with my PXs, and will be first in line for the JrXs when they hit the shelves as well.

EDIT:

Details are a bit sketchy, but THIS POST on the RP blog, seems to indicate some “hypersync”-like functionality with the JrXs.  My guess is that they are doing something similar – using the signal to “pre-fire” the flash at speeds over the x-sync, so that the strobe is already ramped up to it’s full luminance as the shutter curtain opens, essentially turning it into a very bright continous light for the duration of the exposure.    This has a number of technical ramifications, but another trick in the toolbag is always good.

stay tuned for part 2 – real world shooting and performance tests!

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Looks like the new P8s are coming soon, and will be far more than we expected.  Syl over at Pixsylated has a bit of an insiders scoop on the new units!

No more fiber optic?  Fires TTL and manual(studio strobes)?

WANT!

I’ve been a big fan of my P1s, but they definitely have their limitations.  They are, well, a first gen product – almost more of a “proof of concept”   However, judging by the hints going round, these new units are going to be an atom bomb in the world of off-camera lighting.    My speculation (hope) is that they’ve found a way to interface/do ttl communication via RF directly through the shoe (no optical required).  Add a 1/8″ “pocketwizard” style jack for studio strobes and well sign me up because I’ll be ordering one for every light I own.

Even cooler is that they’re offering “trade in” credit for your P1s – As I understand it if you purchased P1s after Oct 12, you will get the full value of your P1 in trade in- having only to pay the price difference for the new unit!   Pre-oct 12, you should still get a credit, but not 100% (thanks for the clarification, Kevin!) Either way it’s a really nice move, especially for us “early adopters” who often get burned when “gen 2″ comes out!

December 12 is supposedly the official announcement – let’s see what happens!

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I’ve been playing around with a few different mods to affix the popper without drilling holes in the case or covering my flash with tape/velcro. So far this is the best I’ve come up with. It works extremely well, allows you to attach the popper super quickly and securely, and is dead easy to do (no actual “modding” of the unit required.) The one compormise is that it involves putting a little velcro on the flash body, but there is even a workaorund for that

So without further ado:
you will need the exact same materials described in my DIY snoot/bouncecard -

• velcro wrap (the kind that is hooked on one side and looped on the other (so it can stick to itself, often used for wrapping computer cables)
• a small piece of self-adhesive velcro (loop side, this will form the mount points for the
• “Foamies” craft foam (thin sheets of flexible foam, available at craft/art stores (pearl etc..))  If possible get the sheets that are self adhesive on one side, which allows you to skip the next ingredient
• glue (optional, if you didn’t get the self-sticky foamies)

the procedure is simple.  Cut a strip of velcro wrap long enough to reach halfway around your flash body, with a little extra.   Take 2 small pieces of the self-adhesive velcro, and mount them on each side of the flash, these are the “mounting points” for the popper/strap.  Cut 3 pieces of foam with an x-acto, the width of the velcro strap, and long enough to go across/cover the IR sensor.   On one of the pieces of foam, cut a “channel” about the width of the radiopopper bead, splitting it in two.  Now stack the 3 pieces together and glue (with the “channel” piece on top obviously).  Hot glue works well for this, or if you got the self-adhesive foamies that will work too.   Once done the whole assembley should look like this.

And that’s basically all there is to it!  Now simply slap the body of the Popper on the still exposed loop side of the velcro, and loop the fiber optic over placing the bead in the channel.  Position the whole shebang on top of the sensor on the flash, and attach the loose ends of the strap to the velcro mount points on the side of the flash body.  The channel in the foam hold the bead securely in place, while the thickness provies a “cushion” that makes a flat/secure surface for the popper body to mount on.  I find that this is a very stable/secure method of mounting the poppers – once on I don’t have to worry about the bead coming loose or the body flopping around.  (I cut the fiber optic in half to make it “neater” but you dont have to)

a few caveats:

1. because of the position of the IR sensor this will really only work for Canon strobes (nikon has the sensor on the side of the body, not the front).   I use it on a canon 580exII and a 550ex – it may work on others or not depending on the location of the sensor, as always YMMV.
2. when mounting the poppers this way, make sure you rotate the flash head around 180deg.  (pointing “backwards” from it’s normal orientation)  The RadioPopper folks have pointed out that the electromagnetic pulse from the front of the flash head can damage the RP units if it is in direct proximity – as long as you turn it around it should be fine.

Hope that helps all you RadioPopper folks out there.  I’ve been very happy with this mounting system so far!

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I dunno, maybe it’s the economy or maybe I’m just becoming one of those crotchety old photographers who is more concerned with light and composition than with gear   I think as is common with many photographers as our skills and experience improve, our interest in gear for the sake of gear decreases.  I’ve been doing this long enough that I know what I want out of a camera (high quality, light weight, fast wide glass- particularly primes) and I’m happy with what I’ve got.

I’ll probably take a hard look at the olympus “pseudo rangefinder” micro four thirds camera when it comes out (probably not for another year is my guess) but for now I just want to go out and take pictures

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…and with the announcement this morning, I could practically hear the “digital rangefinder” crowd give off a collective “Oooooooo…”

Sure it’s only a prototype, but the body looks exactly like what we’ve all been clamoring for… super compact (looks about the size of a DP-1 in hand) “EVIL” body… and good lord is that a pancake prime on it?!?!?  Retro-rangefinder styling is just a bonus

DPreview has the announcement here along with photos of the prototype… check it out!

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I have to say, my initial reaction was “somewhat dissapointed”.   The thing looks just like a regular SLR.  I thought the whole point of getting rid of the mirror box was to, well, get rid of the mirror box!  What’s with the big hump on top and pseudo-optical finder.  The whole point of this was to make a more compact interchangeable camera, so why do it half-assed?  Get rid of the finder completely, and either use EVF exclusively, or make a rangefinder style add on finder that mounts to the hotshoe.  (coupling it to the zoom would be easy).  Speaking of which – no primes?  Yeah, I know it’s just the first announcement, but “compact” camera system just *screams* for primes.  The 14-42 zoom it comes with is just “meh”.   To be fair, there is a 20mm f/1.7 on the roadmap for 2009 (40mm equiv – awesome), but hey – lets see a 12mm and a 40mm too.

After reading more of DPreview’s preview however, I was slightly mollified.  From the comparison images the thing *does* look pretty small (and light – 630 grams *with* battery and lens? holy cow!)  Check HERE for some size comparison and “in hand” images

from the reports, the biggest technical hurdle (making a usable contrast-detection AF) has been handled nicely as well, seems like AF is fine (and it has a built in AF assist light).

So what’s the verdict?

Well, it’s definitely cool, and I think a step in the right direction for opening up a new niche in the industry *but* I think they could have done more.  If you’re selling the concept of “small and light” go all the way – commit to the true rangefinder form factor, lose the big grip on the right side, lose the bulky pop up flash (stick it on the side if you must a-la the lumix LX3).  Oh yeah, and let’s see those primes.

Give us something like THIS

or THIS

Honestly if it was something like one of those renderings, I probably would have sold my G9 and bought one on the spot.  As it is, I’ll wait and see what comes down the pipe

(and Olympus hasn’t announced anything yet, so fingers-crossed)

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DPreview and Luminous Landscape already have previews posted  HERE and HERE respectively!

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Samsung is introducing what they seem to be calling a “hybrid” camera system – in other words the “EVIL” (Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens) system we’ve all been drooling over (hopefully!).  Not much said about specs/lenses – hopefully they will at least have a model aiming at a higher level “advanced amateur” feature set rather than the “bridge” market (the folks going from a compact to SLR).

However what makes this really interesting is the fact that Samsung SLRs use the venerable “K” mount.  If they somehow preserved the mount compatibility with this new system that would be *huge*.  Imagine a compact, mirrorbox-less body that was compatible with K mount lenses… drool… of course now then I would absolutely *kick* myself for selling off my DA LTD primes

It’s just an interesting thought, unfortunately I suspect they will likely *not* be using the K mount (registration distances on SLR lenses and all that).  But it’s certainly within the realm of possibility.

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http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS/1217960634.html

I pretty much agree with his analysis, unfortunately even with the contrast-af part (boo).  Hopefully though, Oly/Panasonic will realize the market for a higher end “EVIL” camera will demand a phase-detection AF system and build one in somehow. (crosses fingers)

Regardless, I’m still looking forward to seeing what they actually come up with on this standard.  The sensor technology is already there, we know oly does great optics – the only potential dealbreaker for me would be usability (mainly the af issue).  I dont even mind an exclusively electronic VF as long as the AF is responsive and there is no shutter lag.  If they can surmount those two obstacles I think they will have a winning technology

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There have been a few forays into this territory, Epson and Leica released true rangefinder bodies with digital sensors, using their existing mount, but they were recieved with… shall we say… mixed reviews (plus the astronomical pricetag on the leica put it out of range for most casual shooters.

For the rest of us searching for the ever elusive “compact, quiet, unobtrusive ‘street’” camera, we’ve so far had to make do with high-end compact digicams, such as the Canon G9 (my weapon of choice) and the new Sigma DP-1

However it just may be that Olympus plans to change that…

Olympus just announced a new lens/mount standard dubbed “micro four-thirds” based on their current “four-thirds” standard.   The significance of this is it keeps the standard 4/3 sensor while making a smaller mount, and significantly shortinging the flange (lens->sensor) distance.  Additionally the specification of live vew, *completely eliminates the mirror box* which makes up the majority of the “bulk” in an slr body

What this means in english is that the mount will combine the benifit of interchangeable lenses with the compactness of a digicam (or rangefinder) body (in other words, it’s The fabled “E.V.I.L, or Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens” camera we have heard discussed ad-nauseum)!

Personally I think this is a great (and bold) move for olympus.   They seem to have recognized the appeal of a compact system while maintaining the flexibility & quality of an interchangeable lens setup.   In other words, they are looking at the traditional “rangefinder” market, but instead of trying to work with current mounts/standards they are totally re-inventing the concept, embracing the unique advantages of digital.   Particularly when combined with the absolutely stellar optics of the new zuiko lenses, this could be a real killer combo, and is *definitely* somthing I (and I’m sure many others) will be keepting my eye on!

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(you want a review?  Here’s my review: radiopoppers rock my face 437 ways from sunday.  Get some.)

Now I got them to use with my newly acquired Canon 5D kit, but as it happens I still have some Pentax gear as well.  Officially Radiopoppers do not support Pentax PTTL, but I figured what harm could it do to test.

I mounted the P1 receiver on a Pentax 540FGZ flash.  Flash was set to wireless pttl slave (SL1).  Note that on the 540 the sensor you need to position the bead over is the lower right corner of the face, as you look at the flash *not* the round part in the middle (that’s just the AF assist light)

I set the K10d onboard flash to wireless controller mode, and covered the actual flash itself to ensure no light was coming out and triggering a false positive.   I fired off a few shots, and sure enough no slave firing – good!

Then I turned on the P1 transmitter, and placed it on top of the k10d.  The popup actually seemed to support it’s weight, and the transmitters fit rested nicely against the top of the eyecup.  I think it would be mountable with a little piece of velcro on top of the pop up flash!

The big moment – I fired a shot and sure enough, the slave popped!  Exposure looked correct too (roughly, just by glancing at the LCD.   I ran through a few apertures from 2.8 to 8 and the flash exposure seemed to remain consistent, indicating that metering info is working!  I could visibly see the difference in light output as the flash popped at different apertures as well.
So it seems that at least the basic functionality of the P1s works with Pentax’s PTTL wireless sytem.  it actually fires the flash, and ttl metering appears to work.   Bear in mind however, that this is far from a scientific test and YMMV.  Further testing will be needed

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A quick trip down to Perl (art supply store) yielded the required materials.  2 9″x12″ sheets of “foamies” craft foam (it’s a thin, neoprene like foam material – flexible yet rigid enough to hold it’s shape) one white, one black and 4′ of velcro “wrap” (the velcro that has hooks on one side and loops on the other, so it can stick to itself if you wrap it around something)  The neat thing about the foamies sheets is that you can get them either plain or with one side covered in adhesive.   I opted for a plain black and an adhesive-backed white sheet.

total cost for materials: about $5 (the velcro was $3 and I think the foamies sheets were .59 each)

Once at home, I simply peeled the backing off the white adhesive side, and laid the black sheet on top.  Pressing firmly secured the 2 together.  They can bend and flex together without wrinkling or buckling.

I then cut 2 velcro wraps long enough to wrap around the flash head and secure it tightly.

TaDa!  instant snoot – total time to construct: about 15-30 seconds

the best part about this snoot is that it is adjustable.  For a normal throw, wrap it into a cylinder shape, and secure each end with a wrap.   If you want a tighter throw, wrap it into a cone shape.  You can get a very tight dot of light this way.

Another added benifit is that it can be used as a bounce card – simple wrap one end around the flash head pointing up, and leave the other end free.  presto bounce card.

For five dollars and a minute of work, this is something that will have a permanent place in my camera bag!

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My master plan was to use a laptop to set up a ad-hoc network (meaning the laptop acts as wireless router, creating it’s own network) and set the eye-fi to auto-upload shots to it, in essence creating almost like a wireless tethering solution.

Unfortunately, speaking with eye-fi support, they informed me that this would not work, as the card needed an actual “internet connected” router to send the photos through. Bummer.

However, their new offerings are enough to make me look at them again. Notably they have 2 new models in addition to the basic eye-fi card the Eye-Fi Home, which strips out the internet functionality and just has “upload to computer wirelessly” and the Eye-Fi explore which adds *geotagging* to the photos.

The “Home” looks promising as it may finally do what I need (connect via ad-hoc network), and the “Explore” is simply cool. I love the idea of geotagging. Maybe it’s not a big deal for studio work, but it would be awesome to throw one of those in my G9 and tag my street/travel shots. From what I can tell it needs a wireless AP to do this, so it’s not as good as a dedicated GPS module, but still. very cool concept and definitely something new and cool in the world of photography.

And how often do you say that about a memory card!

Eye-Fi homepage

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Both have worked for me in the past, and have their own pros and cons. However now I’m trying to find a middle ground. basically I’m trying to break it down into 2 categories: camera gear and lighting gear. I love the compact/lightweight pentax primes, but shooting on the beach etc… I’d like to avoid lens switches as much as possible. Luckily the new DA* 16-50/2.8 should give me acceptable quality (*almost* as good as the primes, but not quite while staying on my camera 99% of the time.

I’m also debating whether to take the 35/2 or live with 2.8 as my fastest lens. On the one hand I love the 35/2 but on the other hand its one more piece to carry! I do 99% of my shooting at 50mm or less, so really the 16-50 should serve for 99% of everything. Then it comes down to either the 50-200 for the few times I want reach, or ditching the telezoom entirely and relying on my G9 when I need &gt;50mm. I know it sounds crazy, but I kind of like the idea of just running the k10d w/16-50 and G9. That covers me from 24-210mm equiv. I’ll be missing Fast+long, but I really never find myself needing that anyway. plus no need to change lenses on the k10d.

so here’s my tenative list:
K10d
DA* 16-50/2.8
(maybe) 50-200
(maybe) 35/2
Canon G9

Lighting: (for beach portraits/shots)
Pentax 540FGZ
Vivitar 285hv
2x Bogen compact stands
2x westcot 43″ folding brollys (1 white, 1 silver)
40″ collapsible 5-in-1 reflector

(and of course the various batteries, memory cards, filters etc…)

So what is all of y’alls travel kit?

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Build quality is top-notch, definitely “solid”, what I’d expect in a pro-grade lens. SDM focus is fast and accurate. Image quality is excellent – maybe not quite up to the level of the limited primes, but pretty close – easily as good as the comparable canon/nikon offerings (the 17-55/2.8s) especially when you consider that this lens goes to 16 instead of 17(don’t underestimate the difficulty of engineering that 1mm!) all in all an excellent offering. So without further ado, here are some of the first shots taken with it on the k10d. All were shot raw, minimal post processing in lightroom (just some exposure +/-) (click the thumbnails for larger) Nothing special, just some “walking around” snapshots.

Quite a foggy morning this morning, swallowing up the skyscrapers downtown:

Some fall foliage around Penn’s campus:

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