The Online Photographer

Two readings, one about gear, one about digital imaging in culture.

Twee
...Before I start, a blog note: I read a stat recently which claimed that most Internet readers read only the first half of every article they read. TOP readers, being four times better than average, read all of every article twice. But to get this in the half that those average people will read, I just wanted to mention that I'm Tweeting alerts to new articles now, and will doubtless keep up this practice for the rest of time because I'm so thorough and so consistent. Well, no need to rag on myself. I'll try, is what I'm saying. Follow @TheOnlinePhotog.

PetaPixel
The first reading, the gear-related one, is a controversial article on PetaPixel by Sator, an Australian photographer, called "Why Sony’s Full Frame Pro Mirrorless Was a Fatal Mistake." It has caused a furor not only in PetaPixel's Comments section but in dpreview's Comments section as well—741 comments at PetaPixel (and 11,984 shares), and the top thread at dpreview. Whew. I didn't even read the whole article, much less all the comments. (Whoops! Am I saying I'm average?)

I get to post my comment here. Muaahahahaha.

First, note that the author reveals at the very end of the PetaPixel piece (right, most people won't read that far) that he's a Fuji X user. The article originally appeared as a multi-part post at the Fuji X-Forum. So maybe this is really just one of those "here's why my camera system is better than your camera system" timewasters.

Second, I think the whole argument misses the point. Sony A7-series mirrorless is a proliferating platform only because it's popular—people like it and like the results they get. It's a camera. It happens to be mirrorless. This whole idea of "[x] is supposed to be...." just never convinces me. I've said so before about that idea you run into from time to time that because someone bought an ƒ/1.2 lens, say, they think it's logical to shoot only at ƒ/1.2—because why else pay for ƒ/1.2? Which is like saying that because your car has a top speed of 140 mph, you should always drive at 140 mph. Similarly, mirrorless doesn't have to be small. (Neither does Micro 4/3.) Some are, some aren't. The Sony A7 is a little more compact than some systems, and some of the lenses are smallish and some are very large. So what? You make that decision when you decide what to buy. All cameras have tradeoffs. None are perfect. Many have "negatives" that are just matters of choice...like the Panasonic GX8 having a flip-out style viewing screen. Personally, I dislike those. I much prefer the type that just tilts up (and a little down) like the Fuji X-T1 has. But so what if I hate that? Other people prefer it.

So should you buy a Sony A7[x] or a Fuji X? I'll just quote myself from long, long ago: "Should you buy a Nikon or a Canon? Yes. Buy one or the other and get on with it."

My friend John Lehet just bought an A7r II, and he loves his Olympus OM-D E-M5II and he also has a Nikon D-810. If he comments on the PetaPixel piece (say that three times fast), I'll pass it along.

The New Yorker
Meanwhile, the third most popular and shared article yesterday on the New Yorker's website (swamped this morning by articles about Tuesday's primaries) was a nice thought piece by Om Malik called "In the Future, We Will Photograph Everything and Look at Nothing." The author uses Google's abandonment of the Nik software suite to kick off a meditation about how the fundamental uses and meaning of digital imaging is changing rapidly. A nice read, and I think worth your while if you like that kind of thing, or if you want to read a considered opinion about what Google is doing to Nik and why.

Mike
(Thanks to many tipsters)

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

Still the superduperübercamera o' the moment

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

David Mantripp: "re the New Yorker article, it may well be the case that 'in society where we are all taking too many photos and spending very little time looking at them,' but that does not necessarily have to impact on each one of us as individuals. For me there is a huge, huge gap between random iPhone snaps and what I think of as photography. I'm sure I have iPhone maps I've barely looked at once, but I look at every single photograph I take—not that many actually—and value that experience as much as before.

"I'm sure I'm not the only. As film can still live alongside digital, I'm really not convinced that (ahem) 'proper photography' cannot live alongside selfies. After all, before all this, I doubt that the proportion of the population seriously interested in photography—i.e. people who print, who buy monographs, who visit galleries—was much different. But yes, the disappearance of 'serious' software is worrying. Not so much Nik, but 'boring' stuff like keyboarding, cataloging, editing, is becoming extinct."

Dennis: "My daughter has been studying argument writing in her 8th grade classes this year. She has to make a claim, provide evidence to support the claim, then list some counterclaims and refute them.

"The author of this article makes the claim that Sony made a fatal mistake. He provides no supporting evidence. He lists five things that are supposed to be great about mirrorless (i.e. 'counterclaims') and then refutes them to varying degrees, but never ends up saying why Sony is supposedly making a 'fatal mistake.'

"From that point of view, it's a terrible article. It boils down to:

Sony's FE system is a fatal mistake.
1. It's not really smaller than a similar DSLR kit.
2. It's not really lighter than a similar DSLR kit.
3. IBIS isn't all that great.
4. Adapting any and all lenses isn't all it's cracked up to be.
5. Yes, live view is great, but Canon might be catching up.

"There's no need to debate the five points, because they don't serve to support his claim, even if you accept them.

"I'm not a huge fan of Common Core standards, but I do appreciate the emphasis on both critical thinking and argument writing. It can't be a bad thing, teaching kids not to accept everything they read."

R. Edelman: "I was a long time Canon user, starting back in the 1970s. I like Canon, and I think its repair service is very good. A few years ago, I tried using a Sony A7, and I loved it. The smaller size was just one attractive feature. I liked the menu system. No more custom functions with labels such as 'C04.' I liked that I could use my EOS and older lenses on it.

"But something initially unforeseen happened. For a variety of reasons, I grew to really appreciate the electronic viewfinder and the focusing accuracy. Of course, some large-aperture lenses are on the large size, but I also have the option of smaller lenses. Although the smaller size and lower weight are still appreciated, these now matter less to me compared to the benefits of mirrorless technology. At this point, an optical viewfinder would be a 'downgrade.'"

Alan Fairley: "Re Sony: Want a 'full frame' camera with an EVF? You can pick the Sony, or...oh wait, there isn't anything else.

"I am missing the 'fail' here."

kirk tuck: "Hello? Hello? The whole reason for existence of mirrorless cameras has nothing to do with size; it's all about live view and EVFs. I think I wrote about that here in 2012!!! And it remains exactly true today."

Bob Adelman 1931-2016

Commitment above all: Bob Adelman was found dead last Saturday in his apartment in Miami Beach. The funeral was Wednesday. The police are investigating because he had a head wound when he was found, but there were no other signs of foul play and he might have died of old age at 85. The obituary to read about Bob, who was one of the great photographers of the Civil Rights movement in America, is David Walker's at PDN. The quintessential reporter with a cause, Bob Adelman "had unusual access to Civil Rights insiders and events because he covered the struggle from its beginnings in the 1950s," writes Walker, "and approached the movement as an activist first, and a journalist second...'his subjects knew which side he was on. And he stayed the course.'"

Nik Software is free, uh-oh: Google has announced that it is giving away Nik software plugins for free. Nik, which was founded in 1995 by Nils Kokemohr and includes the sharpening protocols developed by the late Bruce Fraser, was bought by Google in 2012 to help lure photographers to Google+. Google dropped the price from $500 to $150, and development slowed and support slackened. Now, as Kevin Purcell writes, there are "many questions, but the big one is 'will this software ever be updated again?' (Just to keep it going on future Windows and Mac operating systems.) Or is this a step towards discontinuation? Has tech support ended too? It's starting to look dead. Google hasn't responded to the many questions or put up a FAQ." Maybe orphaned software is the 21st century version of a discontinued but much loved and needed film or paper: different category, but I still miss WriteNow, the lean-and-mean word processor that was architecture-specific to 680x0 and died when the newer chips came in. Still the best WP I've ever used.

Digital color book: In our discussions of color photography recently, a book surfaced that has gotten glowing reviews from people who've read it. It's an e-book by Russian photographer Pavel Kosenko called LIFELIKE: A Book on Color in Digital Photography. As far as I know it's only available as a download; here's the page. Sounds like it might be a good one if you're engaged with improving your relationship with color. We've heard good things.

How successful are Kickstarter photography books? Overall, photobooks on Kickstarter have been an astonishing success. "Here's an interesting statistic: The top 100 photo book campaigns raised a total of $5.7 million dollars. That's an average of $56,708 per campaign. But—the total raised by these 100 campaigns is more than one-quarter of all dollars raised by the 8,599 photo book campaigns that have been successful so far. This gives a whole new meaning to the term 'one-percenter,' since this 1% of successful photographers raised 26% of all of the money raised for photobooks." The quote is from Tim Greyhavens' recent article "Top 100 Kickstarter Photobooks." Tim pressed all the data and extracted all the juice. Number one, if you're curious, was British art photographer Kirsty Mitchell's The Wonderland Book, which raised a whopping $464,496 from a goal of $97,300. Very interesting article if you either like photobooks or would like to get one crowdfunded.

Shocking: Nikon and Canon are ending new product development. Every day is April 1st at New Camera News.

Mike
(Thanks to Kevin Purcell, Tom Kwas, and Oren Grad)

TOP is off on Saturdays. See you on Sunday for a new 'Open Mike.'

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

Good cheap SD cards; and the best SD cards.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

David Cope: "I've just downloaded Nik Collection and it's awesome. Totally making me rethink my digital approach (from toe dipping to hey! come on in, the water's fine!). I love Silver Effects Pro's darkroom-inspired methods, and control points are to die for as is Zone mapping. The collection can be used standalone too, so even if Nik is longer developed then that, for me, future proofs them against incompatible host applications. I use the 'Edit with...' option in Capture One and that works fine, giving me a variant after external editing in Nik. I'm going to test sending out B&W files to Ilford's Photo Lab for printing onto real silver paper (RC) and also exploring using that process for paper negatives for alternative and contact printing/toning on to fiber paper."

Dying for a photograph
Did you know that males who take lots of selfies are more than statistically likely to be psychopaths and/or narcissists? Learn something new every day.

Selfies are often meant to glorify, well, oneself, so the narcissism notion makes intuitive sense anyway.

As you might know, taking selfies can be dangerous, too.

An excellent, well-written (and I must say, pretty darn mature for the Internet) article at Priceonomics called "The Tragic Data Behind Selfie Fatalities" tracks fatalities associated with selfie self-glorifying.

It won't surprise you that the median dead self is 21 and male, which, as the father of a just-turned-23-year-old, I have to say does throw a bit of a scare into my heart. I don't think my son takes a lot of selfies, though, so maybe he's safe.

And I don't think he's ever been in India, where more selfie-related deaths happen than anywhere else (it appears to be connected to the danger of drowning, which is high in India.)

A 17-year-old Russian teenager identified only as Andrey R., weeks before he fell nine stories to his death while attempting a daredevil selfie.

After laying out the statistics and some examples, author Zachary Crockett adds, "Then there are the truly bizarre cases: The 21-year-old Mexican man who accidentally shot himself in the head while taking a selfie with a gun. The Cessna pilot who crashed, killing both himself and a passenger, after his cellphone selfies led him to lose control of the aircraft. The two Russian teens who blew themselves up while posing for a selfie with a live grenade in the Ural Mountains. The man who attempted a selfie at the running of the bulls festival in Spain and was fatally gored in the neck."

Really, Bill?
As regular readers know, I hate irony. And here's a big one. I think the title says it all: "With Corbis Sale, Tiananmen Protest Images Go to Chinese Media Company." Ouch. Of course everybody's jumping up and down to reassure anyone who will listen that there's nothing wrong here, that everything will be hunky-dory and keep on truckin' as normal. But I wonder how that feels to the photojournalists who risked their lives to get the Tiananmen photographs.

Corbis, which was founded by and up till recently owned by Bill Gates, also includes the Sygma Collection and the Betteman Archive.

Easier? Hold on there, hoss
And here's another irony. As we all know, photography has taken a quantum leap in convenience and easiness over the past twenty years—after decades of striving and struggling to find ways to make sharp, clear color pictures with a minimum of expense and effort, the floodgates opened and the "digital tsunami" was unleashed on an unsuspecting world, which is still more than a little unsure how to make sense of it all and sort it into a coherent culture. By the best, albeit still very rough, estimates, humans were making six billion photographs annually in the United States the year I got into photography seriously, 1980. The latest estimates of photos taken range between one and ten trillion per year.

But at the same time, the climate for photographers out in the world doing their work has become much, much worse. Suspicion and hostility are rampant; often, even the police don't know the laws; and, increasingly, photographers are being seen as a resource to exploit—a recent (2010) article from The Australian called "Not a Good Look" includes an account of a photographer being charged money to take a photograph of a sunset.

So is photographing getting easier, or harder? Easier in some ways, yes, but don't overlook the other side of the coin.

The article is a long one, but I recommend it to anyone who's interested in what it means to be a photographer today.

Mike
(Thanks to John Hogg and Carl Weese)

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Kefyn Moss: "I have to admit I was shocked to read The Australian article 'Not a Good Look' as I live in Cairns and have been taking photographs here for a long time with never a single hassle. I don't tend to  do much 'street' photography here, but mostly because it's just boring little Cairns to me. I have definitely taken quite a few pictures at or near the lagoon mentioned in the article within the last few years, sometimes with a tripod, and never had a problem (including at sunrise and sunset).

"Nevertheless, whenever I return from overseas back to Australia, I am always hit with the impression of it being excessively controlled and regulated in comparison to the places I have visited. However, those same places have complaints by the locals in the same vein which I didn't experience, so in perspective, our home environments are sometimes the most oppressive and most people just don't notice it.

"It seems all the more ridiculous for a city like Cairns to be doing something like this when tourism is the lifeblood and sole reason for its modern existence. The photographers mentioned in the piece use large cameras and would be instantly pegged as 'professional' but as I mentioned, I have used a tripod there before without anyone saying a thing. Just lucky?"

Kenneth Wajda (partial comment): "We live in times when it's tough to be male with a camera, but I'm still going out to shoot on the street. I keep the camera in plain sight, and shoot like I belong there, working on a story—which I am—and people assume I do. I also worked for years as a photojournalist for a daily newspaper, so I have that confidence from frequently shooting in public spaces. Fearfulness and hiding our camera is the thing that we must avoid. I sometimes walk with my camera to my eye for a whole city block. That tells people you're shooting and they come to accept it. Other times, I just walk with it around my neck and shoot without picking it up to my eye. Both work great.

"Own the street. We have a right to be there."

John Robison: "Ten trillion! That's mind boggling. I think about my output—more recently 4x5, and since I really can't afford film I'm shooting paper negs—is about six or eight a week. Well at least, it's cheap fun. I sometimes take a snap or two with my iPhone, after having it about six months I think I have about 100 pictures on it. Ten trillion. (Shakes head, is distracted by sudden idea for next paper negative, moves on.)"

Mike replies:  :-)

Graham Smith: "I feel I should provide some balance to the article 'Not A Good Look' that Mike has linked to in his post. It was written five and a half years ago and although some points are valid in any context the article generally is a highly exaggerated account of the position of amateur photographers then, and most certainly now.

"Some councils and authorities do impose restrictions and fees on commercial photography at various sites in their jurisdiction but I can assure all TOP readers who are contemplating a visit to Australia that you will be able to freely take pictures of The Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Bondi Beach and Uluru (and far more tourist sites than your memory cards will hold!) all without a fee.

"Members of my camera club regularly go on Urban Landscape outings around the city of Melbourne. We photograph inside and outside public buildings and except where security is an issue we are never questioned. The only rules that will apply are the ones of common sense. Don't intrude on anyone's privacy. If in doubt—ask. Don't photograph children without asking their parents permission. I have followed those guidelines in all my travels around Australia, and overseas, with little disappointment.

"And as the person in the article being charged a fee to a photograph of a sunset—did you really believe that? My parents had a wonderful old saying when people got a little excited (as the two main photographers in the article—Dupain and Duncan—seem to be): 'They should have a cup of tea, a Bex (mild sedative for headaches) and a good lie down.' If you come to Australia—you wont be disappointed. And you will go away with some wonderful photographs to remember your trip!"

Doug Thacker (partial comment): "Back when Gates was acquiring the Betteman Archive, and subsequent archives, it was presented in the press as an act of corporate or oligarchic stewardship. I remember reading an article that went into some detail about the climate controlled vault he'd had built for the purpose deep inside a mountain. Made it sound like the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Saving Our Photographic Heritage For the Good of All Humanity. (I heard that when Gates made the recent deal he offered to include for a small surcharge his own mother's heart, but the Chinese didn't want to pay the freight.) Oh, well. Probably in safer hands at this point with the Chinese."

John Gordon: "Re Australia, Andrew Nemeth, photographer and lawyer, has written an excellent article summarising the law here. It is not quite as bad as the article makes it sound. Two extracts: 'As Justice Dowd put it with ruthless clarity in R v Sotheren (2001) NSWSC 204: "A person, in our society, does not have a right not to be photographed."'  'In Australia most forms of "unauthorised" photography have in fact been authorised since the 1937 High Court decision in Victoria Park Racing v. Taylor (1937) 58 CLR 479 (at p.496). This was reaffirmed recently in ABC v Lenah (2001) HCA 63, where the Court ruled that despite the passage of decades since Victoria Park, any concept of a "Tort of invasion of privacy" still does not exist in Australia.'" 

Stuart: "While public reaction to photography and the hysteria around public photography is a problem, the increasing difficulty of taking images in a public space is also symptomatic of the larger problem of the increasing privatisation of public space. This exerts a greater level of control of action, unfettered by concerns about freedom of expression. Here is an excellent piece about this in The Guardian."

Thud! What was that that just hit the ground like a limp sack of deflated ego?
Enter "loser dot com" in your address bar and see what comes up.

(For 21 years now, the owner of the domain, Brian Connelly, a South Carolina system analyst, has used it to imaginatively poke fun at whomever he cares to. Every now and then you can get a laugh by signing in to see who he's puncturing this week.)

How do you handle losing when you've said a bunch of really nasty things about losers? Kinda hoists you by your own comb-over, doesn't it?

Hoisted!
Speaking of hoisting one's own petard...recently Todd Vorenkamp at B&H Photo's Explora wrote an exhaustive and thoroughly researched article about "bokeh." Todd said he contacted twenty lens manufacturers for their comments. I, for my part, did not know there were twenty lens manufacturers.

He kindly name-checked me, so I made a comment and replied to a few others.

In one of the responses I wrote, responding to a particularly screechy and semi-literate outburst, I had a little mean fun. I ridiculed the writer for his poor spelling and punctuation. It reminded me that I used to be good at the art of the deftly-turned insult, a pursuit to which I may return in my retirement. Made myself laugh, anyway.

Later, though, I realized that I had made word-salad of my own first sentence, misspelling a word and getting the syntax wrong! Ouch. Hoisted.

Years and years ago, I realized that this almost never fails. Every time you get on your high horse and ridicule someone else's grammar, chances are very good you'll make a stupid grammatical mistake in your own writing. Make fun of a typo, and you'll for sure make a typo. I decided, way back then, that it was nobler to refrain from indulging. It's a practical thing. You're never safe.

Todd and I decided to delete my reply rather than just correct it. It was funny, but it wasn't kind, so I don't mind that it's gone.

I had fun answering some other comments, though. One Explora reader said, "'Bokeh' is pronounced 'bouquet,' just like a bunch of flowers. Why not just use the French word?"

To which I responded:

Their are aunts on the alter and they eight the communion waivers and got into the whine! Quick, beet them with an acts! Give them several wax!

Where words are concerned, homonymity doth not equivalency imply!

More name checks
Reading up on the Pen F, I came across myself being name-checked again. (This is apparently going to be a good day for my own, decidedly ordinary-human-scaled ego.) It was in a lovely little blog piece by the late Harold Feinstein, who died last Summer, about the original Olympus Pen.

It's a nice piece, and worth reading in the context of the new Pen F. He does a nice job of explaining in practical terms the philosophy of the original.

(By the way, I hope you bought Harold's book when I recommended it. Look at the price of it now. Wow.)

And speaking of fun with words....
I was reading Bill Bryson's Notes From a Small Island the other day and, in a wonderful set-piece about English place-names, he mentioned a village called "Rime-Intrinseca." Turns out that was a typo, or a mistake—the village name is spelled "Ryme," not "Rime." Intrinseca, which was what made me curious enough to learn more, is evidently a Spanish word that relates to philosophy, somehow. Anyway, Ryme-Intrinseca is right down the road from Yetminster, a name which for some reason struck me as hilarious. Then, as I was reading the Wikipedia page about Yetminster, I learned that medieval Yetminster was well stocked with a variety of tradesman, which included a maltster....

The Maltster of Yetminster. Would that not be the perfect title for an English historical novel? Sounds like undiscovered Hardy. Hilary Mantel, where are you?

I searched for a place in England called "Notyetminster," but in vain.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

John Krumm: "I always wonder about those hugely inflated book prices on Amazon for some out of print titles. Are they actually moving copies? Maybe there are enough wealthy collectors out there who don't bother looking at a book until it's in the stratosphere. I still enjoy my signed copy bought during the Kickstarter campaign. Sits on the 'tall books' shelf next to my two Turnleys and my Bruce Davidson monster, Outside Inside, all TOP recommendations."

Mike replies: It really just has to do with the way books are sold. Many books sell in the "blockbuster" manner, with a huge surge of demand which quickly tails off to nothing. Photography books tend to be the opposite, with a small but steady demand. So when the book is in print, there's usually not enough demand to justify keeping it in print. But after it goes out of print, the demand for it doesn't diminish. So, relative to the demand, the supply goes from a condition of exaggerated abundance to a condition of exaggerated scarcity in a relatively short time.

In fact the demand for a photobook might even go up after it becomes unavailable, for the simple reason that lots of people are interested in many books and almost nobody buys all the books they want. When a photobook goes out of print it prompts people who wanted it into thinking, oh-oh, I'd better get a copy of that before it's too late! So there can be increased demand when there are just a few copies left here and there. That's what drives the price up so precipitously.

By the way I notice Outside Inside is still available new, which is pretty amazing. It will be interesting to track that the value of that one when it's all gone.

Alan Kett: "Mike: Your Maltster of Yetminster probably grew up in Once Brewed. Once Brewed is in the county of Northumberland, just south of the Roman Wall (a.k.a. Hadrian's Wall), about three miles from the booming metropolis of Haltwhistle. Fire up Google Maps if you think I jest....

"P.S. Oh yes, there's also Twice Brewed just a handful of miles down the road."

Kevin Purcell: "The phenomenon you write about was given the name Muphry's law (read that again, carefully) by John Bangsund. Muphry's law states: 'If you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written.'  The name is a deliberate misspelling of Murphy's law.

"I think I got away with it...this time."

Mike replies: That second link is treasurable. Thanks for that.

Peter Croft (partial comment): "A coincidence of typos: The Guardian ran an article yesterday about an Australian company that sells globes of the Earth, with country names, etc. This company made an error, naming Palestine but leaving out Israel. But the Guardian’s caption under the photo was: “Sold by Australian stationary chain Typo.” How’s that for a tautology? A typo in a sentence about a typo by a company named Typo. Must be a record."

[The typo is that "stationary" means unmoving, whereas the word for letter-writing supplies is "stationery." Missed that my own self. —Ed.]

Richard: "I too have the Feinstein book from the Kickstarter campaign, with cover letter, signed in the book, and with signed postcard 'print' too. If I did not love it so much I might consider four figures for it!"

Paul Mc Cann: "There is a town in Ireland called 'Horse and Jockey.' The story goes that an English man asked Paddy where he was from. 'Horse and Jockey, sir.' The Englishman laughed and asked him where that was, and Paddy replied, 'not far from 'Two Mile Borris.'' Both genuine town names. But then everywhere has its share of weird place names."

Mike adds: Never mind the Indian names such as Peshtigo, Oconomowoc, Poy Sippi, Tichigan, Kewaunee, and Manitowoc, and my favorite, Wauwautosa (you know you're home when you hear someone say "'Tosa" with a strong Wisconsin accent); and French ones such as Prairie du Sac and Trempealeau. My former home State of Wisconsin also boasts the towns of Blueberry, Husher, Embarrass, Chili, Fence, Disco, and Herbster. And—the laziest naming job in the State, probably—the small country town of Rural. If your name is James and you're clumsy you might want to move to Jim Falls.

Our former summer home was nearest a town in Michigan called Alanson, so my cousin Ham had a T-shirt made up. The front said 'Where the hell is Alanson, Michigan?' and the back said, 'Right between Brutus and Ponshewaing." It is, too.

Dr Tom Bell: "I live on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon...in South Zeal...but more interestingly, an old friend...a psychologist...lived nearby in Inwardleigh...which seemed appropriate for a Jungian!!"

Courtesy Meagan Abell

Who is that? "Woman" as an archetype has a very powerful hold on human beings' imaginations—for all people, perhaps especially men. We did a post about this in 2007. Stephen Edgar, in Ireland, was trying to find out more about an unidentified woman in some old slides.

Now, another Mystery Woman has surfaced. Who is she? Everyone seems to want to know. Meagan Abell found the 120 negatives in...well, what else, a thrift store, and is asking people to use the hashtag #FindTheGirlOnTheNegatives on Twitter to share information.

The mystery woman is more an idea, isn't she?

Although it's curious that, after reading Don Craig's link about The Life of Frederick Jury on Sunday, and following up on Alan Hill's recommendation of Herodotus, I learned that the Greek word "historia" (ἱστορία) literally means "inquiry," or "knowledge acquired by investigation." Maybe trying to find out about the mystery woman is just how history is done.

Ilford sold: "Harman technology, manufacturers of the famous Ilford Photo range of monochrome photographic products, have been purchased by Pemberstone Ventures Ltd. for an undisclosed amount." (From the press release.)

Peter Elton, Managing Director of Harman, said "Film has become an interesting medium for young photographers to work with again.We are seeing this very clearly. Our new owners will assist us to connect more effectively to this younger generation in the future, and we will prioritise this as our main goal over the next five years."

It never does to parse press releases too closely, so take my advice, don't think about that paragraph very hard.

Most expensive Pentax camera case: Ned Bunnell is selling a Pentax K-01 case for $99, only a third of what it cost new, and he discusses it on Facebook. It costs as much as some Pentax cameras because it was designed by Marc Newson, who also designed the K-01, one of the few future collectibles among digital cameras. Newson now works for Apple. See Annie Leibovitz's fine portrait of Newson with Jony Ive here.

Wasted ink: Ars Technica has published some findings. What they've found is that when their 9900 says an ink cartridge is "empty," it's still pretty full...namely, that a 700ml cart stops printing when it still has 100 to 150ml left. That's awkward when you're being charged more than $120 per liter for the stuff.

The change has just begun: Hold on to your hats, folks, it's starting already at National Geographic, previously one of the world's leading voices of environmentalism.

Allow Photos NEIN: "Camera Restricta is a speculative design of a new kind of camera. It locates itself via GPS and searches online for photos that have been geotagged nearby. If the camera decides that too many photos have been taken at your location, it retracts the shutter and blocks the viewfinder. You can't take any more pictures here."

Tell me
Seen anything interesting on the Web lately? Tell us about it.

Mike
(Thanks to Eric Kellerman, Roger Bradbury, Ned Bunnell, John Camp, Doug Thacker, and psu)

Ctein adds, re the printer ink: I have officially spent way too much time thinking about this ink business.

First thought: where have these guys been for the last 10–15 years? Unused ink left in cartridges? That was news around, oh, 2000. Not so much, since.

Second thought: but, wait, Epson fixed that in later printers. It was common in earlier printers like the 2200/2400, because engineering couldn't monitor ink consumption really accurately, and they didn't want the cartridges to run dry—potential for trouble like air bubbles in the system and dry heads overheating when they fired. Later models suck every bit of ink out, like my 3880. I've checked. So I'd have expected a 9900 to do the same; it's an even a later generation. (I am not certain about my 9800: I think I've cracked an empty cartridge and it really was empty, but it was long enough ago I don't entirely trust my memory.)

Third thought: this is backwards thinking. Ink isn't sold in standardized defined units like quarts of milk. Every model of printer uses a different cartridge size. Customers have no expectations whatsoever. So there's no percentage for Epson in selling 700 ml cartridges that withhold 20% of the ink instead of selling 550 ml cartridges that use all their ink. Customers would pay exactly the same price for a 550 ml cartridge, because the price is entirely arbitrary (it's still relatively cheap per milliliter, compared to smaller printers and smaller cartridges). Epson would just be throwing money away on additional ink and larger cartridges unless there were good reasons for this.

So it's gotta be an engineering thing. I just don't know what.

But the whole notion that customers are somehow getting “cheated” out of 20% of their ink? That's just silly.

Mike replies: I think it's at least a truth in labeling issue. If you buy a box of cereal and it settles so it looks like the box is half full, they'll explain that to you by saying there's still 13 oz. of cereal in the box (or whatever) like the label says. Even if Epson still charges you the same amount of money for it, the label should say 550 ml if that's all that's available and usable.

Dishonesty in marketing and labeling is a pretty slippery slope, and a pretty difficult thing to excuse, in my opinion. The whole issue of "forced wastage" is a dirty little secret of many kinds of marketing (even if it's not happening in Epson's case). A lot of pretty smart people spend a lot of time and money figuring out how they can get us to waste what we buy.

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"The creamy walls [of Jeff and Jeannette Wall's house] are largely devoid of art, both to afford Wall a bit of mental space ('Too many artworks are hectic in a house,' he says) and because they are still deciding what might go where. (Even his books are kept hidden inside cabinets, not on open shelving, since Wall finds 'all the spines endlessly distracting—you keep reading the titles and then you keep thinking about that book.')"

—from a nice article about photographer/artist
Jeff Wall in, well, what else? The Wall Street Journal

Mike
(Thanks to Zack S)

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Albert Macfarlane: "In view of TOP's recent discussion (28 Aug.) on Benedict Evans' estimate that 2–3 trillion still images will be shared this year, I find it instructive that Jeff Wall is quoted in this article as saying that he only takes 3–4 images per year. Would that the rest of us had this self-control."

Globules: "I was reminded of the old debate about limited editions and the infinite reproducibility of images when I read this: 'I feel like the actual artistic part of photography is concluded when a negative is made into a positive—a print,' he says. 'The only reason to make a second print is a social reason like reproduction or publication. I have no artistic need to make more than one.'"

A Scandinavian art student had a scare when the making of an art video went wrong.

With a video camera running, 26-year-old London-based artist Hilde Krohn Huse hung herself upside-down by her ankle from the branch of a tree, naked, with her face in the grass below.

The intention, Huse said, was to show a subject "being unable to free herself."

The problem arose when the video was finished and...Huse was unable to free herself. She had to scream for help for half an hour before finally being rescued by a friend.

Huse later appraised the video as "quite decent." The judges of the Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition apparently agreed, naming the Norwegian "one of the 37 brightest art prospects graduating in the UK."

(Although perhaps in this case "brightest" might not necessarily be the absolute most appropriate word...just sayin'.)

Mike
(from artnet news. Photo at the link might not be work/school safe.)

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Marc: "Let he or she who has not got their head temporarily stuck in a railway overpass guard rail while having a look at passing trains cast the first stone. What? No-one? Dammit!"

Bryce Lee: "I'd call that the inversion factor. Crazy kids!"

Maggie Osterberg: "Two words: 'Photographer's Assistant.' She needs one."

Amazon is having a big Sale Day today for Amazon Prime members called "Prime Day," which I assume is to, er, prime the pump.

Here's the link to Amazon and Amazon U.K., Amazon Germany, and Amazon Canada.

If you shop on Amazon with anything like regularity, it's well worth it to become a Prime member. You can make up the cost with just what you save on shipping before long.

And thanks very much for using my links; it doesn't cost you anything extra, and it's what keeps the lights on around here. I appreciate it.

Mike

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Timprov: "Part of Amazon Prime now is unlimited cloud storage for photos, including raw files. The system is a bit awkward, but it's become my main online backup."

Funny. Yesterday's is the lead-in. Sorry, I dasn't reproduce 'em here, I could get in trubba.

Mike
(Thanks to Benjamin Marks)

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Stanley Kubrick's cameras:

One of the few films among the works of art I've "engaged" with over my lifetime was Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon. The film was based on the novel Memoirs of Barry Lyndon Esq. by William Makepeace Thackeray, the first true occurrence of the "antihero" in English literature. It was and is a ravishing visual feast and a particularly effective conjuring of the past in a modern work of art.

If you're interested in the psychological basis of the story, I highly recommend Mark Crispin Miller's essential critical essay "Barry Lyndon Reconsidered" from The Georgia Review Vol. XXX Number 4, but read it just after seeing the movie, not before. (If you've seen it before, note Miller's remark: "All of Kubrick's films demand repeated viewings.")

Cameras Cameras Cameras: A great number of TOP readers have contacted me over the weekend (a weekend lost to work, as my girlfriend was visiting, and I don't think I've ever known anyone whose mere company is more delicious) excitedly pointing me to an auction of a camera museum in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, which is up the road from me and down by the lake. But easy does it, fellas, this collection has been up for auction before and I linked to it back then.

One friend o' TOP advised, "C'mon Mike, you gotta go visit this guy. Only a one and a half hour drive...I think it's your duty to TOP readers to report on this story  :-)  ." If we had a reporter, okay. But here's the thing: My ankle is chained to the leg of the desk. Anything I do that isn't writing is bad for the site, my exchequer, and, I might add, the interests of readers, i.e., thou. Alas and alack, but 'tis what 'tis.

(I think that will be my new buzzword, now that "I'm just sayin'" has been forcibly retired due to protest. I have an unaccountable attraction to dopey catchphrases: as my teaching colleagues were learning ever-deepening Artspeak, I went around claiming that my highest term of critical approbation, and thus the keystone of my personal critical apparatus, was "that's really neat!")

Back to that mini-camera-museum: I once wrote a letter to the city fathers of Milwaukee proposing, in the vicinity of the Harley-Davidson Museum, a "Museum of Cool Stuff." It would feature all sorts of the things conventional museums don't collect: cameras, models, stereo equipment, guns, games, a working model railroad, sports gear, on and on. I never got a response, but I thought a museum like that, well done, would draw boys of all ages from all over the country. My reasoning is that we'd have to be totally different to stand a chance of drawing tourists. What, are tourists going to come to see our art museum? Every city has an art museum, and half of them are better than ours. Every city has a concert hall, too, but there's only one Branson Missouri. A Museum of Cool Stuff would have made a perfect home for a really neat collection like this one.

What Ansel meant :

"The negative is comparable to the composer's score and the print to its performance. Each performance differs in subtle ways."

—Ansel Adams

Here's an example of what he was using as an analogy:

(The video presents eight different pianists playing the opening bars of Mozart's Fantasia in D minor, K.397, in very different ways. I always think of myself as a gentle guy, but I quite like Friedrich Gulda's "rude, aggressive" approach.) Fascinating.

Here's a nice window into Ansel "performing," from Marc Silber's "Advancing Your Photography" series:

Camera non camera:

Shot by Paul O. in Chicago, Illinois

Michael Perini says of his iPhone 6+, "It is simultaneously not a camera, and one of the most sophisticated cameras I have ever used." Here's a link to a nice portfolio of iPhone photos, courtesy of the cameramaker.

By the way I haven't replaced my iPhone yet. I have choice paralysis: can't decide between the 6 and 6+.

The Littlest Pentaxian: Meet Emma. Her grandfather Ned says, "She's actually pretty good at taking pictures though she prefers my DA35 Macro versus her mom's 18–250mm. Lighter and easier for her to handle." What do you think, would little and cute be good for special access when you're trying to scoop the pack?

Mike
(Thanks to Eolake Stobblehouse, Henry Heerschap, José Luis Galache a.k.a. Miserere, David Lobato, Michael Perini, and Ned Bunnell)

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Elisabeth Spector: "Your Museum of Cool Stuff sounds pretty interesting to me. I'm sure I'm not the only girl who would enjoy a visit, alongside all the boys. Just sayin'! (I still like that catch-phrase, by the way. I hope you don't drop it altogether.)"

The composer and pianist Franz Liszt by Nadar. Notice that neither resolution nor bokeh are problems here...and before you complain
about it not being in color, check here.

Face it: There are roughly a quarter of a billion photographs uploaded to Facebook every day. That's 10,000 times the number of photographs in the Library of Congress. To look at one day's worth of uploads, assuming you looked at six photographs per second 24/7/365, would take roughly 1.32 years.

Of course, if you did that, it puts you behind on most of tomorrow's uploads, not to mention yesterday's.

The F stops here: The F-number of the human eye is about ƒ/8.3 in bright sunlight, opening to about ƒ/2.1 in the dark.

My other car is a Rolls: Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei has a car collection consisting of over 7,000 automobiles. He is especially obsessed with Rolls-Royces, of which he has more than 600. Throughout most of the 1990s, the Sultan and his extended family accounted for more than half of all sales of new Rolls-Royces worldwide.

Only my good side, please: Studies by dating sites have indicated that the greatest number of people of both sexes most prefer photographs of women taken from slightly above, with the subject making eye contact with the lens. The pose most often liked for males show them from a side to three-quarters view, and looking away from the camera.

Oh, and people really do have a "good side": for most, it's the left side of the face, which is also the side of the face that dogs look at first in order to appraise our mood or emotional state. (Source for that last: the wonderful Nova show "Dogs Decoded.")

Kitchen knife. Sort of.

Unkindest cut: Japanese knives are now more popular for the kitchen (and, in most shops, more expensive) than German knives, which in past eras were thought to be the best. An example is the 15.4" Nenohi Honyaki Dentokougeishi Sakimaru Takobiki with Corian handle forged by master blacksmith Yoshikazu Ikeda. It comes with a hand-painted Wajima lacquer sheath for $6,980. (If you're a cook, what's your favorite kitchen knife?)

Honey dear: Mānuka honey comes from bees which mainly pollinate mānuka trees, which grow uncultivated in New Zealand and Southeastern Australia. (Honey can be analyzed to determine which plants the bees used to make it.) Because it is believed by some to have medicinal properties, mānuka honey sells for many times what other honey sells for. For this reason there are 10,000 tons of mānuka honey sold worldwide, according to its trade association, out of a total annual production of 1,700 tons.

(Look at those numbers again.)

My girlfriend thinks this is the best honey ever.

Up in the air: Nadar (real name: Gaspard-Félix Tournachon), a former caricaturist turned early master portraitist (that's his portrait of Liszt at the top of the post), was the first person to make a true aerial photograph, from a hot-air balloon over Paris, France, in 1858. He also made this pseudo motion picture self-portrait composed of photographs he made of himself at different positions on the posing stool.

The reason I wrote this post was so I could use something hilarious I came across last night, but now I can't remember what it was.  :-(

Got a fun fact? Leave it in the comments.

Mike
(Thanks to Carsten Bockermann)

UPDATE: I'd forgotten about this, but the best online backgrounder about Nadar is by Roger Cicala of Lensrentals.com. A fine read and a great job by Roger. Thanks to Marc for the reminder.

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Glenn Allenspach: "I've owned for about ten years now a Wüsthof 8" (approximately) Santoku. Japanese design filtered through German craftsmanship. It's light as a feather, well balanced and holds its edge through thick and thin. Of all the cutlery in my kitchen, it's the one I use every day.

"By the way, I prefer the monochrome of Franz Liszt over the color. I used to love printing on Ektalure G paper developed in, if memory serves, Selectol Soft developer. Gave very similar, beautiful warm tones on a cream-white base."

GRJ: "Re: Knives, I have a 10" carbon steel Sabatier that I love immensely. It is similar to this, although I understand the 'Sabatier' trademark is rather loosely applied and mine is not this brand. The balance is perfect and it takes a great edge."

Steven Ralser: "Has she tried Leatherwood Honey (from Tasmania, Australia)? This is one of the best as far as I am concerned."

Andre Y: "My favorite piece of trivia: there are pi (ie. 3.14...) seconds in a nanocentury. That's correct to 1 percent. It's useful figuring stuff like how many photos you could look at in a year. I think you have an extra couple of decimal points: I get 1.3 years." [So did Carsten, whose figure I used in the revised post. —Bad-at-arithmetic Mike]

Mike R: "Victorinox Fibrox 8-Inch Chef's Knife. I use it every day. It beats the Wüsthof knife I also have in sheer everyday utility. Good clean slices, non-slip grip, easily washable. A swipe or two with an AccuSharp 001 Knife Sharpener keeps the edge in fine shape. Cheap? Yep! Effective. You bet. Bragging rights? Who cares?"

Ruby: "I have the same favorite knife as Glenn Allenspach. We have a whole set of Wüsthof knives, but that one is far and away the most used."

Bron: "Current favorite is the relatively inexpensive Mercer Culinary Genesis 8" Forged Chef's Knife with a short bolster, and no slip handle."

NASA / GSFC / ASU

On February 1, 2014, as Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter approached the north pole, it rotated to catch a view of Earth rising above 180-kilometer Rozhdestvenskiy crater. Twelve such Earthrises happen each day for the spacecraft, which is in a polar orbit around the Moon. (NASA caption)

More information here.

Mike
(Thanks to Sam Grover)

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Bill Wheeler: "There we are. What a wonderful photograph!"

Aashish Sharma: "I think I want a print of that hanging on my wall, because I can't stop looking at it!  :-) "

Photojournalist Lynsey Addario, who became widely known outside the photojournalism community when she was abducted and held captive in Libya in 2011 along with three other journalists, was among those profiled by German carmaker Audi in a series of ads during March Madness, the annual college basketball tournament in the United States. Apparently both Lynsey and the Audi A3 have something to do with being uncompromised. Others who are uncompromised according to Audi include a boxer, a chef, and two comedians. (Whatever, Audi.)

It's good to see a photographer profiled, though, and a big slap on the back to Lynsey for pulling in some of those endorsement dollars. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving person. She really is a great photographer—here's her website.

Charles Baudelaire. No, not the guy in front.

Actor Nicholas Cage and the 19th century photo that proves
he's really an ageless vampire.

Of course, it could just be a guy who looks like Baudelaire. Let's not forget the whole Nick Cage vampire thing.

• And now as long as we're in 19th century France...the redoubtable and protean (both!) Roger Cicala, who runs the very effective and efficient LensRentals company and by this writer's lights has more energy than any two people would know what do do with, has written a delightful long article about the very famous 19th century French photographer Nadar. Including, apropos the foregoing item, an animated GIF showing Nadar from every angle. In focus and not motion-blurred.

Very enjoyable article.

Incidentally, if you are jonesing for any of the latest greatest cameras or lenses, I suggest renting from LensRentals first. It's easy to do and lets you try out equipment without laying out all the long green needed to buy.

• Tom Westbrook is keeping his review of the Mamiya 7II current. The Mamiya 7II is a 6x7cm film rangefinder camera that costs a whopping $3,859 new at B&H Photo, sans lens (I recommend the 65mm ƒ/4, the reason being that it's not any slower than the normal lens so you might as well go a little wider). They are available secondhand for much less on eBay.

The Mamiya 7II is perhaps about as far from a general-purpose camera as you can currently get. It's for people who only need a few focal lengths, don't care about precise framing, don't want to photograph close up, always work in good light, don't mind lugging around a 3 lbs. camera, and prefer the hassle, expense, and delay of film to the relative immediacy of digital. It's really not very well suited for snapshooting, architecture, low light, or fast action, being best, perhaps, for environmental portraits, scenes, and landscapes—and for a more contemplative, deliberate approach to photography.

Mamiya 7II rangefinder with 65mm lens, showing the
handmade leather case from Japan Exposures.

Why then, with all that, would anyone want to use one? Because it's also among the easiest medium-format cameras to load film into, and it's refreshingly simple to operate and uncommonly fun to use. It's actually light and handy for a camera with such a large negative, and it can be focused by the legally blind. And the lenses are absolutely superlative—really just the kind of optics that will keep a smile plastered on your face continually. Mostly because the results can be spectacular, especially in larger prints. For the right project, could make for a welcome diversion from computer cameras.

• Miss your visits to old-fashioned camera stores, the kind that were stuffed to the scuppers with cool stuff? If you live in the vicinity of Staunton, Virginia, USA, you're in luck, because you can stop by the Camera Heritage Museum. Staffed by volunteers, it contains a collection of cameras and related gear worth more than $300,000.

Staunton is right near the Shenandoah Valley (and Shenandoah National Park), which features some of the most quietly lovely countryside in North America. Perfect for a photographic-themed jaunt, especially in Springtime (there's nothing like a Virginia Springtime—gorgeous).

The O. Winston Link Museum is nearby, too. (See Kent Wiley's Featured Comment below.)

• Institutions on the move...: News has been confirmed that the International Center of Photography will be moving away from its Midtown Manhattan location, where it has occupied the old Kodak building since the 1980s. The reasons have not been confirmed, but one NYC TOP reader pointed out that the real estate has been getting astronomically more valuable, and the ICP, which has reportedly been paying only nominal rent or perhaps none at all, might have been asked to start ponying up (that last bit is speculation only, not reporting!).

Here's a brief history of the ICP's chunk of the island.

The Corcoran is two blocks from the White House in Washington, D.C.

...And not: Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., apparently The Corcoran Gallery of Art will not be moving, after previous plans to do so drew an avalanche of complaints from many quarters. Now it has agreed to a takeover, but will remain in its present quarters (a beautiful Beaux Arts building just west of the White House that Frank Lloyd Wright thought was the most beautiful building in Washington. The Corcoran College of Art + Design, Yr. Hmbl. Ed.'s alma mater, is in the same building). Under the new arrangement, the collection will be absorbed into The National Gallery, and the School, although continuing to operate independently (or so they say), will become part of George Washington University, which will assume ownership of the building and become the degree-granting institution.

The deal, however, is not quite done yet.

Miyako Ishiuchi, 2014 Hasselblad Award winner

• "The Hasselblad Foundation is pleased to announce that Japanese photographer Miyako Ishiuchi is the recipient of the 2014 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography for the sum of SEK 1,000,000 (approx. EUR 110,000). The award ceremony takes place in Tokyo on 6th March, 2014. An exhibition of her work, Miyako Ishiuchi—2014 Hasselblad Award Winner, will open on 7th November, 2014, at the Hasselblad Center in the Gothenburg Museum of Art, Sweden. The same day, the Hasselblad Foundation will host a symposium with the award winner, and a book on the work of Miyako Ishiuchi will be released."

Here's the page. The Award is among the most generous available to photographers.

• Ctein in Yellowknife: Yes, that's really him beneath all that winter garb. We have his word for it and the word of his friend Viv, the cinematographer. I have chosen to believe them  :-) .

Mike
(Thanks to Arnaud Réveillon, MM, Jeffrey Schimberg, Michael A. Smith and Frank Marshman, Roger Overall, Hugh Crawford, David A. Goldfarb, Cal Amari, and Ctein)

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

Buy yourself a present. Sorry, but you have to.

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Miserere: "The other day we discussed selfies from before they were selfies. Are you presenting today the first historical instance of a celebrity photobomb, courtesy of Baudelaire?"

Kent Wiley: "If in the vicinity of Staunton, Virginia, stop by The O. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke, a little farther south on I-81. A lovely little museum located in the Roanoke passenger rail station with lots of prints of Link's work from the '50s."

Mike replies: That link is a Link link. I'm just sayin'.

Peter (partial comment): I have a Mamiya 6 and the leaf shutter of it and the 7 makes handheld exposures of 1/8 sec. normal and with luck 1/4 and 1/2 possible.

I fail to understand the economics of buying the newest great digital camera every year or so, yet finding film shot on a 25-year-old camera too expensive.

Mike replies: Hey, you're the second person to say that! About the speed I mean.

No sale here on that idea. I have lots of experience of DSLRs and Mamiya 6's and 7's, and for speed there's no contest. Sensors are three stops faster than film—even being conservative—and fast lenses for DSLRs are three stops faster than the ƒ/3.5 normal for the Mamiya 6 or the ƒ/4 normal for the Mamiya 7. That's six stops advantage to the DSLR. Even if you assume I can't hold anything faster than 1/30th with a DSLR—two stops slower than you say you can—that's still a four-stop advantage to the DSLR. You'd need to be able to handhold one-second exposures reliably to come close to matching the DSLR.

In fact the speed advantage for the DSLR might even be more than I've assumed here. The numbers above assume 400 speed film, ISO 3200 on the DSLR, and don't even take IS technology into account. If you say you can use 800-speed film, I'll just counter with ISO 6400—well within usable quality range on pro DSLRs. And with IS I could easily match your best hand-holding shutter speed and very likely do you a stop or two better. 

Also, I do buy too many cameras, but that's because I write about them. As we've discussed here before, you only need to replace your digital SLR once every four to six years.

Don't get me wrong; I agree the Mamiyas are darned nice cameras. I love 'em and frequently admire the work I see done with them. But for low-light photography, which I do a lot of, digital SLRs win going away.