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Worried about the coming election in America? Feeling the chill from the freezing of the world's capital markets? Beset by vague plaguey thoughts of hell and handbaskets?
Try a little free Dylan—until its official release next week, you can listen to Bob Dylan's new album "Tell Tale Signs," volume 8 in Columbia's bootleg series, on NPR.org—no investment decisions pertaining. Just the thing for a darkening Fall day.
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Mike
Photos: left, Daniel Kramer; right, unknown
From Joshua Lutz's outstanding Meadowlands series. Found through Flak Photo. The Meadowlands are a much-abused ecosystem of wetlands in northeastern New Jersey.
C.f. Guido Castagnoli's photographs of exurban Japan.
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Mike (Thanks to Eolake)
Featured Comment by robert e: "I found a three-minute YouTube video of the Meadowlands project in which the photographer talks about how the project and vision evolved.
"As far as I'm concerned, Lutz captured something essential and tragic about the Meadowlands. Incoherence and jarring juxtapositions are, in my opinion, salient qualities of this place where abundances of natural beauty and man made ugliness alike seem to coexist in a careless jumble, as if both had been dumped there like so much unwanted trash—chaotically rich yet hopelessly unharmonious.
"The video shows the photos are slightly squarer than 4:3. That and the shallow depth of field have me guessing large format, though maybe not too large.
"And speaking of 'jarring,' is that a corpse toward the end of the flash slideshow?"
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques, by Chris Orwig of the Brooks Institute, is earning praise around the web for not having an excess of verbiage—just the information you're trying to find in easily findable form.
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Mike
A screen shot from CameraQuest. Site navigation is via the yellow box.
My friend Stephen Gandy's cameraquest.com is one of the oldest, best-established, and most fun camera sites on the web. A veteran camera collector, Stephen is widely known for his "Classic Camera Profiles"—pithy, generously-illustrated profiles of fistful upon fistful of classic cameras. A nice representative sample is the one on the Nicca 5L. He specializes in manual, mechanical cameras of roughly the 1940s to '70s (with some outliers), and he likes rangefinder cameras best (his own favorites are Nikon rangefinders, a subject about which his expertise is formidable).
Not as well known is that he's one of the U.S.A.'s biggest factory-authorized Voigtländer dealers. Definitely the guy to go to for any of Voigtländer's many "entry level Leica" products, like the new, compact, optically improved, and altogether delicioso M-mount 28mm ƒ/2 Ultron pictured below.
Photo: Courtesy CameraQuest
There's more. Stephen trades in old cameras, too—he'll often buy cameras he profiled on the site, and he's always looking for Nikon rangefinder stuff. And he sells choice collectibles, too. Plus, he's an expert on camera adaptors, many of which he has custom-made.
So many people look at CameraQuest that when Stephen profiles a classic camera it can change the market for that model overnight. But for most of us, let's face it, it's just plain fun looking. In fact, there's so much to look at on CameraQuest that it's probably unfair of me to link to it on a Monday morning!
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Mike
Featured Comment by Martin Doonan: "I've been a reader for a while. The site conforms closely (apart from the pop-up) to my ideal for a website: lots of information with limited 'design' to get in the way. It was a prime source of info when I was researching my RF purchase. I also like the way Stephen writes—slightly irreverent and cutting through the fan-boy nonsense to get to the heart of what cameras are all about."
More than half of this site's readers are not from the U.S. (The ratio is about 55–45.) For some reason, some of our non-U.S. readers write to me asking me to explain U.S. politics, customs, policy—recently, even economics(!).
Some are wondering lately why there's so much talk about "red states and blue states," and about the ubiquity of the term "battleground states." Here's how it works:
We don't put the presidency to a national vote. Each state is assigned a number of "electors" equal in number to its Congressional delegation (two Senators plus a number of Representatives proportionate to population), and the vote is state-by-state. It's winner take all (except in Maine and Nebraska, which have more complicated systems for assigning electors).
The states that lean heavily one way or the other are foregone conclusions—as far as the campaigns are concerned, those states might as well have already voted. It's the states in which the vote is close (the paler colors on this map) that close elections comes down to, and where the election is really contested. That's why you hear so much about Florida and Ohio but not as much about New York or Texas.
But a win's a win. If Obama wins Illinois with 90% of the vote and McCain wins Pennsylvania with 51% of the vote, they still each get 21 electoral votes. This explains why a candidate can lose the election while winning the popular vote, as Gore did in 2000. It also partly explains the perception that Americans don't vote, too—if you're an underdog in a "decided" state, there's not as much incentive for getting out and voting. (It also explains the McCain campaign "pulling out" of Michigan this past week—it essentially conceded that the State is going to go to Obama and reassigned those resources to other states that remain in play. It's not a disaster for McCain—other states have already been "conceded," essentially, by each campaign. We just don't hear as much about them.)
In any event, there's only one kind of map in a U.S. Presidential election that matters. I deliberately picked an old one, from last week, so as not to be controversial, but any such map will look something like this (McCain in red):
A map like this should also make it clear why winning Florida (27 Electors) or New York (31) is more important than winning Vermont (3) or Wyoming (3).
So why is the press still so enamored of tracking national polls, when they're relatively meaningless? No clue, except that the real story is more complicated and less reducible to soundbites, and people enjoy popularity polls.
And why do Americans put up with this archaic, piecemeal, some say stupid Electoral system in place of a straightforward nationalwide vote, when virtually the whole rest of the world that used to practice it has abandoned it? Apart from the inertia of "because that's the way we've always done it," I can think of at least two reasons: because changing the Constitution is difficult, and because it tends to benefit one party more than the other (not always the same one), giving at least one party a vested interest in blocking reform at any given time.
You know what they say: Oh well.
End of U.S. civics 101 for today. Please keep any comments non-partisan!
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Mike
X-Rite's "Test Your Color IQ." I almost aced this, leaving room for you to beat my score. Not much room, but room. See how you do. As Colin says, it's not much fun, but it's revealing. I'll post my score tomorrow, after you've had a chance to take the test yourself if you're so inclined.
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Mike (Thanks to Steve Weeks, who got it from Colin Jago at Auspicious Dragon)
Mike's score—damn those blue-greens!
If you didn't score as well as many of those who left comments, note that voluntary reporting of performance-based tests will skew toward those who did well...the colloquial term is "bragging."People reporting scores in double digits probably would score well on a test for something called "honesty."
Both Ctein and I noticed on this test that there are slight luminance variations between some of the tiles, which can tend to throw you off. I'm more sensitive to luminance than I am to chroma. I was aware of my uncertainty in the region in which I showed error.
I'm going to close the comments soon because we're getting too many, and it's a chore for me to approve and post large numbers of comments.
Photo-Arsenal is selling Sebastiao Salgado's Leica, for $140,183. Plus $42 shipping.
Actually, this disappoints me a little. This is a special set made to commemorate serial number 3,000,000, presented to Brazilian photographer Salgado in honor of his work and his contributions. If I were a collector, I might be more interested in a camera Salgado had actually used for a long time.
Leicas that look too new are sort of embarrassing. Look here for some pictures of how Leicas ought to look.
This one's the camera equivalent of what, in book collecting, they call an "association copy," meaning an object that is associated with a certain person. It was made in honor of Salgado, presented to him, and he owned it. But at the same time it was not really "his" camera in the usual sense.
The term for an object's ownership history is "provenance." I've mentioned here that I once owned a Leica that belonged to the actor Jack Lemmon. I once visited Ralph Gibson's studio in SoHo, and he had in his darkroom the Leitz Focomat enlarger that Robert Frank had used to print the original pictures for The Americans. I've always said that one deserves to end up in the Smithsonian. I also got a tip once about a Leitz Focotar enlarging lens that belonged to Lee Friedlander; an internet correspondent of mine had been in a New York photo store when Friedlander came in and sold the lens to them. (That's also how I got the Lemmon Leica, from a photo store clerk who had taken it in trade-in—Mr. Lemmon bought a Nikon DSLR, if I remember correctly. It was only shortly before he died.)
Makes me wonder where some other famous cameras are. Some of Ansel Adams's are at Arizona, although his Hasselblad outfit was auctioned in 1998 and reportedly purchased by that DJ who disgraced himself by calling female basketball players nasty names a few years ago. I suppose Edward Weston's children still have his cameras. I wonder where Stieglitz's view camera ended up? It was already ancient and falling apart when Stieglitz owned it.
For that matter, I wonder where Leica serial number 1,000,000 is? It was made for, and presented to, Alfred Eisenstadt, I think. I also think he used his. Doesn't look like Mr. Salgado put many miles on this one.
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Mike
Featured Comment by Richard: "Did you mention that Africa
Mike replies: For some reason, my readers don't care for Africa. I did a post about it and not one reader ordered one, one of the worst results I've ever gotten from a link! (I do pay attention, to try to get a handle on peoples' tastes.) It is a shame as it is a marvelous photobook—the photographs themselves, their technical quality, and the reproduction quality are all absolutely top notch. (Although I like the Leica pictures better than the Pentax pictures.)
But I decided it was too expensive for me, and I didn't buy it for myself at the time despite my admiration for it, so I guess I understand. Then again, it's a lot cheaper now than it was prior to last Christmas...about the same as the shipping cost for the camera above, actually!
UPDATE: I get to take back my comment above about our readers not liking Africa. In the 24 hours after this comment went up, seven people bought the book. Cool.
I have to say it's fun being able to see what people are buying (I get reports on what's sold through our links, but not who buys it and not what else any given individual bought—just the item and the number sold). It's interesting to get such a "hard read" on what interests and appeals to people.
Featured Comment by Mark S+: "Alfred Stieglitz's 8x10, a Kodak 2D, is in the collection of the George Eastman House (GEH), donated by Georgia O'Keefe. It was on display a couple of years ago, and yes, it's pretty beat. (It was carrying a brass 12" Goerz Dagor lens.) There's lots of historical hardware there—currently on display is the 4x5 Speed Graphic that Joe Rosenthal used on Iwo Jima."
Mike replies: Thanks Mark!
Featured Comment by tbm: "Kim Weston still has his grandfather [Edward]'s and father [Cole]'s camera equipment, but he currently uses two identical Arca-Swiss 8x10 cameras on heavy stands while capturing images at the ocean and in his studio. He bought both cameras, each costing about $7–8 thousand, a while ago. I have photographed with him twice in the last three years, and the quality of the images that end up on his large negatives is stunning! He has an 8x10 enlarger, a cold-tube enlarger, and an old Leitz 35mm enlarger in his darkroom. With the 8x10 he makes enormous enlargements, but dust is a recurring problem. However, he mastered spotting prints while being trained by his father and he is amazingly proficient at ridding his prints of spots and other artifacts."
(Inset: Kim Weston [seated] at Wildcat Hill, Edward Weston's old home in the Carmel Highlands where Kim Weston and his wife Gina now live. Arca-Swisses at right. From kimweston.com. —MJ)
By Christopher Lane
I acquired Nikon's new D700
Ergonomics
I've used DSLRs from Pentax, Nikon and Canon. In addition, I've tried out a lot of others, including Olympus. In my hands, Nikons have the best combination of ergonomics of any manufacturer's cameras, and the D700 is no exception. The D700 retains the D300/200 arrangement of WB/QUAL/ISO buttons. Although the D3's layout may be preferable to a pro, this works much better for me. The OFF/ON switch is on the top of the camera surrounding the shutter button, where it should be. I also like the instant access to shooting modes and exposure compensation afforded by the D700's buttons and wheels. The diopter adjustment is the easiest I've ever used. The back of the camera is sculpted to fit my hands perfectly. All in all a real joy to use.
Features
The D700 shares some features with its larger sibling and adds some new ones. First, of course, is the big, bright viewfinder. Although the coverage is a bit less than the D3 (95% vs. 100%), that is a very small bone to pick. I also appreciate the extended dynamic range afforded by Active-D Lighting and the flexibility of Picture Control which allows you to custom design settings. For example, I have created one that mimics Tri-X.
In addition to all the D3's goodies, the D700 adds a couple of things I really missed on the D3.
Autofocus
Like the D3, the D700 has a very complex autofocus system. On the back of the camera the user must select one of three settings:
On the front of the camera the user must also select one of three settings:
Getting the right combination with so many options can be quite tricky. The fact there are four different point settings adds to the confusion. I am still experimenting to get my preferred settings. I can report that I do not use the single-area mode.
Image quality
Another thing the D700 has in common with the D3 is its 12.1 megapixel sensor and Expeed image processing system. The result is that the D700 delivers superior image quality equal to the D3's. White balance and color rendition are the same, if not improved a bit.
High ISOs
I continue to be amazed at the images that come out of this DSLR. I have shot as high as ISO 25,500 and while an image taken at that setting would not be publishable as artwork, it could certainly be used for photojournalism with the use of some noise reduction software. Images at less than ISO 6400 are very clean as you can see below.
ISO 900
ISO 3200
The Bad News
Like the D300 and D3, the D700 is no compact lightweight. Even mounted with the relatively compact Nikkor 50mm ƒ/1.4, the camera weighs nearly 3 pounds without battery. It is quite large and does not fit nicely in a small case for transport. I carried it around the Minnesota State Fair for three hours and I was pretty darn tired.
The D700 also suffers from something that every Nikon does. Nikon's fast primes (24/35/50/85) have not been updated since the mid-1990s. That means they lack AF-S and a lot of other improvements in lens design. As of this writing Nikon has announced a new 50mm ƒ/1.4 prime that will ship in December. What will happen with the remainder of the line remains to be seen.
The bottom line
Even after two months, I think Nikon's new D700 DSLR is the most perfect camera that I have
ever held in my hands, and I've held a lot of them. In terms of
features, ergonomics, build quality, image quality, and gestalt, I can
find no fault with it. It is a state-of-the art-imaging tool that for me continues to be well worth
its price tag.
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Featured Comment by Aaron Spence: "I must agree with Chris; the D700 is a stunning camera.
"Not since my high school days with the good old Nikon F-801's (N8008) from the late '80s with their high eyepoint viewfinders & great ergonomics have I been so happy with a camera.
"I primarily shoot georeferenced high rez panoramic virtual tours, but I also do stills for display homes and tourism.
"Up until recently I shot the architectural work on the Kodak SLR/n fullframe 14MP Nikon-bodied camera. A real dog I know, but capable of good results if used very slow & kindly.
"I've wanted to move to a D200/D300 etc. for still shooting for a long while, but there is no lens capable of the results the Nikon 17–35mm ƒ/2.8 achieves. I'd looked at the 12–24 Nikon among others, but to no avail. I wasn't about to spring for a D3 to shoot something I don't do a lot of, so I'd given up and resigned myself to the Kodak. Then Nikon pulled the D700 out of nowhere.
"The D700 has revolutionised my shooting, allowing me to shoot lifestyle/selective focus stuff by hand at up to 1600 ISO and still have more DR & quality than the SLR/n had at 160.
"In fact my first commercial use of the camera I shot 500 hand held images in 100 minutes in 5 display homes, not intending to use the images for anything other than testing and record shots to come back and do the 'proper' photos. Once I got the images into lightroom though...I soon realised they were good images, not just demo shots. I decided to show the 'demo' images to the client. They were overjoyed...so I already had the 'proper' shots. Saved me a huge amount of time right there.
"As someone who's owned a Nikon FE, Nikon F-801's (N8008), D1x, Kodak SLR/n, D200, D300 + a number of other SLRs & compacts both film & digital I finally feel like I have the perfect camera.
"I'm also shooting panoramic virtual tours with the D700 + Nikon 16mm fisheye...the perfect combo for amazing quality panoramic work."
Featured Comment by Eric Ford: "I agree with Chris, too. The purchase price of the D700 was very painful for me. Oh, I could afford it, but it seemed outrageously high: how could I explain it to any sane friend or family member? The more I shoot with it, the more that initial price tag seems unimportant. The camera effortlessly smokes any other camera I've used, in every way from operability to image quality. The weight is irritating for sure, and the lens lineup is sorely lacking on the wide-normal end. But on the body/sensor end, I finally feel that I have Arrived. My previous DSLRs always felt like stopgaps on the way to the right camera—this one does not."
Just a couple of items. First, there's now an official web page from the German Voigtländer about the Bessa III 667, in German and English. It appears to be still under construction (the "see larger image" link by one of the pictures doesn't work, for example, and the English page lacks text), but it announces that the camera will be ready by the Spring of 2009. At this time there is nothing on the Cosina Voigtländer Japan site. Oh, and "Preis: noch keine Angaben" (Price: Still no specification). Apart from features already reported, the camera uses an SPD (silicon photodiode) meter, and has parallax correction and exposure indicating LEDs in the viewfinder.
The other note is that I have positively confirmed with Carl Zeiss AG that its Zeiss ZE manual-focus lenses, with fully-functioning Canon EF mounts for use on Canon EOS film and digital SLRs, are being engineered with Canon's consent and cooperation. Although Zeiss demurred when asked about the specifics of the relationship between the companies, saying that it's an internal corporate matter, they did state the following in no uncertain terms: "Reverse-engineering the lensmount without the support of Canon is not part of the business ethics of Carl Zeiss."
This is good news for Canon users, as it means that the Zeiss ZE lenses will work perfectly on Canon cameras and not suffer from any possible compatibility issues that have befallen certain reverse-engineered independent lenses in the past. It also means that Zeiss has stayed true to its previously stated commitment not to reverse-engineer its products. "We as a company always seek a friendly relationship with the other players on the market," Zeiss's representative said.
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Mike (Thanks to Chris)
(Please note that the original contents of our posts are copyright 2008 by Michael C. Johnston and may not be copied and pasted on to other sites. You're always welcome to link to us, however. You can read between the lines and guess why this notice is here!)
Kesha Brown, photographed at the United States Military Academy at West Point during graduation week.
"This summer, the photographer Platon took pictures of hundreds of men and women who volunteered to serve in the military and were sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. He followed them on their journey through training and deployment, after demobilization and in hospitals, to compile a portrait of the dedication of the armed services today...."
READ ON at newyorker.com
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Mike (Thanks to Dave Sailer)
Photo: ClubCapa
People who've been following our "Forgotten Camera" series on Photoborg.org have no doubt noticed how many vintage medium-format folders have turned up there. Unexpectedly, Fujifilm announced a new modern folding camera at last winter's PMA. Here's the state of the rumor mill (all this is as yet only variably and partially confirmed):
Photo: Amateur Photographer
Someone sent us what looked like a press release for this, but the assistant lost the email. (Damned assistant. If we ever get a replacement, he's sacked.)
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And speaking of "level of interest..."
...When you go to the B&H Camera website's Canon 5D Mark II page and click "Notify me when in stock," you get the following pop-up: "Due to unprecedented consumer interest we are unable to add any additional correspondents to this list. Thank you for your understanding." Quoth David Bram, from whom we got this tidbit: "Yikes."
Speaking of the 5D Mark II, in case you missed it, we heard from Vincent Laforet, whose test video made with the camera we dissed the other day. He was a good sport, and pinpointed our objection to the video by saying that it was made in the style of a "cologne commercial." So we take back what we said: it's not his video we disliked, so much as it is cologne commercial style in general. Vincent's comment is now featured below the original posting.
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London anti-globalization t-shirt 'samples' Nick Ut's Vietnam photo
"The thought-provoking London tee-shirt is an example of the edgy take many Europeans have on Globalization." Travel writer Rick Steves, from his blog.
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(Sales benefit Aaron Johnson's "What the Duck.")
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Party like it's 1982
...And and far as shirts are concerned, here in Wisconsin, we're feeling confused. Life's not easy after you get jilted. Who do you root for when your hometown hero is playing for somebody else's home town? We were kinda hoping he'd get homesick, but six touchdowns last weekend...guess not.
On the other hand, New York taketh away, but New York giveth—we're celebrating our baseball team's first appearance in the playoffs since 1982, when we lost the World Series to St. Louis. They struggled mightily to blow it, but, fortunately for them, the gang they were up against for the wild card spot were the famously foldable Mets, who are even better at blowing it. The contest to see who could stay out of the postseason went to the very last day of the season, when the Brewers won a cliffhanger behind CC Sabathia and the Mets obliged by losing. Game 1 of our playoffs is today, in Philly.
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Liquid lenses
Liquid Lenses Promise Picture-Perfect Phone Cam Photos: Rensselaer Polytech researchers develop a new autofocus lens...made of water. They sure are doing some interesting things in optics these days. I wonder if cell phones are going to be driving optical research in the next half-century? I wonder if they are now?
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'But I swear, Sir, I got those pictures off the camera first!'
A 28-year-old deliveryman who lives with his mother in Hemel Hempstead, England, returned from an American vacation and downloaded the pictures from his camera, a used digicam he had just bought off Ebay for £17. His vacation pictures were there, but so were photographs of high-tech weaponry, and documents, fingerprints, and academic records pertaining to multiple terrorism suspects, including Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a notorious fanatical Kurd who had been captured by the CIA in 2007.
The innocent vacationer went to the police, who at first ignored him. Before long, however, his home was swarmed by Special Branch agents, who confiscated the startled citizen's computer and the offending Nikon Coolpix, compensating him handsomely but forbidding him to talk to the media or anyone else about what he might have seen.
Seems the previous owner of the camera is—for the time being, anyway—a spy with Britain's MI6 espionage agency.
Just in case you thought you were in hot water with your boss.
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Mike (Thanks to David Emerick, M.M., Dwight Jones, and Albano Garcia)
Featured Comment by Dayv: "That anti-globalisation T-shirt is a reproduction of a piece by famed graffiti artist Banksy. He doesn't actually make T-shirts of his work, but other people often do, usually without his permission. The 'shop' on his website is amusing, containing the following text: 'Everything in the shop is free, simply download the file and process the artwork.'"
Featured Comment by John Camp: "Banksy is not especially sophisticated in his politics—like most artists—but he may be one of the most creative artists working right now. This particular image's message is too confused to mean much, but some of them are not only right on target; they use the environment and all kinds of other things as part of the art. Not only that, his primary interest seems to be something other than money. His book Wall and Piece
