2.04.2021
Crazy Weather in Austin. But nice for swimming and photography.
2.03.2021
Thanks to all who responded about the intricacies and strategies of moving gear onward from my ownership to someplace else.
While it's always fun to move stuff around when you get right down to it what you are looking at is just another work process. Pulling stuff out of inventory, assessing the value, keeping paperwork for tax purposes and then some standing around while others apply their idea of value to the same equipment. If one doesn't really need the cash there's no smart reason for a quick explosion of action.
I made one stupid mistake last night. I was thinking of selling off some MFT gear but I picked up the Panasonic G9 and the 25mm Summilux to go out for an evening walk. It seemed like no matter what I pointed the camera at the images on the screen were great. And I realized that I had finally gotten the black and white settings on the camera just right (for my taste). Had I just closed my eyes for a moment and picked a different camera for the evening...
While, on paper, there are so many reasons to think that the smaller formats don't hold a candle to the larger formats some emotion intrudes when you use them that lets you know that the overall difference between most formats is small enough to ignore. Especially when it turns out that they are so much fun to use. At least I was able to get rid of a bunch of lights and modifiers today. It's a start.
Remember when a good light lasted forever? Welcome the age of ever improving LED lights and their rapid obsolescence.
When I learned photography we all used the same "kind" of light. It was electronic flash. While some were better constructed than others or had features such as faster light burst (shorter overall duration) most of them worked in pretty much the same way, and outputted very similar light. There were differences in studio electronic flash equipment which mostly centered around the way different makers handled excess UV output which could cause some color issues. But once we hit the early 1990's UV coated flash tubes became the rule rather than the exception and a good worker could expect pretty much the same results (in terms of color accuracy) from a wide range of products. The nice thing about consistency across product lines was that there was no logical impetus to rush out and buy a new generation of lights every few years. If the lights did what you needed (mostly giving you the right power and recycle times) you would not see qualitative differences between this year's model and the lights you bought 10 or 20 years ago. You could mix and match with abandon. A change to a new system didn't demand a new working methodology, instead it usually just required changing speed rings for mounting modifiers.
The progression of LED lights has been a bit different. Well, a lot different.
The first useable (for photography and video) LED lights were panels that didn't have very high output and had some glaring deficiencies in their color output spectrum. Early LED fixtures were designed around the only cost effective LED light units then available which were the small, 1/8th inch diameter "bulbs." In order to get enough power out for a workable lighting fixture the manufacturers had to group hundreds or thousands of the small bulbs together onto panels. The panels were big, heavy and, even with over 1,000 bulbs on them, not really bright enough for a lot of different applications.
Since the panels were big you couldn't practically use them in soft boxes or mount umbrellas on them so modifying the light coming from them required photographers to adapter lighting methods cinematographers have used since the dawn of movie time. They had big diffusion panels set up in front of the LED light fixtures, and each panel had to have its own light stand and attachment gear. It wasn't until LEDs built around Chips on a Board (COB) were made in a form that was similar to a flash monolight that photographers could directly mount umbrellas and soft boxes on them.
But the big issue, and the thing that fueled a legitimate upgrade enthusiasm is that every few years the actual spectral accuracy of LEDs improved, and continues to improve. Those improvements have a direct impact on the quality of the lights we use to make photographs. And with each generation it became possible to make the LED lights more powerful.
People in general are very sensitive to color accuracy in portraits and this is a field where the improvements in parameters like red response and overall color balance had the most effect.
While CRI is a kludgy measure of non-continuous light color accuracy it is a measurement standard we've had in place for a long time and it's a good, blunt tool for discriminating between generations of fixtures.
My first LED panels had a CRI rating of 83. They needed to be filtered, and the resulting files needed to be worked over in post processing. They were deficient in the areas that most affected portraiture so, as you can imagine, each improvement in those measurements has led me, like Pavlov's dog, to trade up to the newest tech.
Three or so years ago Aputure put out a product line called, "LightStorm." I bought their big panels as their rated CRI was around 93 and the upgrade over my previous lights was pretty amazing. Portraits were easier to finish out and the new fixtures were a much easier match when mixing in daylight. I liked them enough to also buy the half height models, the LS-1/2. Since all of these lights were panel designs I still had to pack twice the number of stands as there were lights in order to use modifiers with everything. But the color issues were mostly resolved.
Recently Aputure, Godox and a number of higher end makers have turned their attention to making more accurate COB style LED fixtures. These have small (think 1.5 by 1.5 inch) output devices which makes them as convenient as traditional flash monolights to use. Most have a Bowen's mount which means you can mount an endless inventory of soft boxes, octa-boxes and similar modifiers at will. Most have fan cooling to ensure reliability when using on-light modifiers. And the newest versions are now rated with CRIs that are very, very close to daylight. Almost all boast CRI's above 95. The lights do well with other, more stringent light measurement standards as well.
So, unlike flash gear, upgrading isn't just a result of boredom or the desire to have a different internal triggering system; when doing most upgrades from older LED products you'll likely see big improvements in overall color accuracy and overall spectral balance.
The best lights currently on the market are also remarkably consistent in the magenta/green output which means they are easier to mix and match across brands.
My Aputure LightStorm LED lights are exiting the studio today. They've been replaced by a small flock of Godox LED lights, all of which are the non-panel variety. They are the contemporary, continuous light version of the standard monolight configuration flash photography uses. I can use them on locations without having to bring extra frames and light stands for modifiers. They are sturdy and easier to pack.
The models I've purchased all have the power supply parts internal to the light fixture so I don't have extra control boxes or power converters hanging off stands. I have fewer cables of which to keep track. It's a net improvement in logistics but the big payoff is: higher CRI and TCLI ratings for more accurate color.
Four light units are leaving today. They've been good, reliable fixtures. I hope they go to a good home.
It's more interesting to consider upgrading for rational reasons rather than having to justify intangibles. It makes for a more emotionally comfortable transition. Better color is generally always a better choice.
Back in the days of electronic flash the only compelling reason to upgrade, after a certain technical quality level was reached by strobes, was to make your location package smaller and lighter or, conversely, to make your studio light more powerful in order to better handle the combination of slow films and large format cameras. The old ways; f64 @ ISO 64 and be there. It's totally different now.
We are almost totally LED here. We have some vestigial flash gear but nothing like we used to keep on hand. That's nice. No more waking up in a strange hotel in the middle of the night anxiously wondering if you had packed the sync cords. Or extra batteries for radio triggers....
2.02.2021
A couple more colorful images from yesterday. And a question for my readers.
Walking over the bridge at night. Standing in a chilly breeze waiting for the LED lights to change colors.
2.01.2021
Trying different stuff. Just experimenting for the fun of it. A feeling of freedom.
The "Widow's Cart."
1.31.2021
Photographing a glorious afternoon and early evening. Eighty degrees and beautiful yesterday. If you weren't outside....
I walked on Friday with a friend but I went right back on Saturday afternoon to take another look. It really is different when you go out by yourself. Yesterday was gorgeous. The temperature got all the way up to 80° which meant everyone was in shorts and t-shirts and just enjoying the heck out of the day.
I grabbed the little Fuji X100V and got to photographing. The images below are in reverse order, chronologically. Don't know why but that's how Blogger presented them to me. So we start at the end of the day and work our way back.
1.30.2021
Two Friends Talking on the Phone. One Trying to Rationalize a New Camera and the Other Trying to Talk Him Out of Buying it.
Long time readers of my blog can be forgiven for thinking I buy every camera I see or hold. I have been through an enormous number of cameras over the years and at times the ones I buy seem like irrational choices. I entertain the conceit that I'll figure out how to use them in my work as a professional photographer and will find a way to make each of them return more money into the coffers than the sum I yank out to buy them in the first place. Sometimes it actually works out that way while at other times the wheel of non-profitability just spin and spin. And my partner and my CPA just stand by shaking their heads. "Opportunity costs!" they say.
Given this you would think I'm the last guy any of my friends would call to get a "thumbs up" or a "thumbs down" on the wisdom of purchasing a new camera. I certainly would not depend on me to be a backstop for anyone else's reckless spending; especially not in the sweet and savory world of cameras. But in spite of my flagrant disregard for logic and common sense spending I still get a call every once in a while from a friend who is trying desperately to convince himself that it's a great idea to spend a large sum on something new.
I was sitting around the office on a gloomy and cloudy day last week when my phone rang, my computer also informed me of an incoming call, and my Apple watch piled on and notified me, physically and with an annoying sound, that I was being summoned to conversation by a caller. I looked at the caller I.D. and saw that it was one of my close friends.
We spent a few minutes talking about the GameStop affair over on Wall Street and we disparaged our elected leaders again, for a spell. Then he got down to business. He was calling to get my take about the idea of buying the new Fuji GFX 100S and "three or four of their better lenses." I suspect he wanted me to join him in an optimistic assessment of the future of commercial photography by agreeing that this new purchase would be a wonderful way to greet prosperous times ahead. It might just be the camera....
I didn't agree but there's a way to approach disagreeing with a purchase decision of a good friend and it's never the right thing to do to just laugh at his idea and denounce it out of hand. You have to go through the right process. It's a version of allowing one another to "save face."
My friend is no novice with cameras or photography. He's been working in the business as long as I have. He's owned more expensive MF systems and, in fact, just sold off a Fuji GFX 50R and a lens the week before. As I've never owned a Fuji medium format system he's got to be much more knowledgeable about the advantages and pitfalls of ownership than I am. So, no, he wasn't fishing for technical information; in a very understated way he was looking for tacit approval to pull out his favorite credit card and buy a new object, right now.
I started out by talking through the advantages of the new system with him. The amazing resolution. The reduced price compared to the previous model. The quality of the lenses Fuji is making for the system. And the idea of making this his primary system which, without a trace of irony, he says he could live with for the next ten years. At the end of this portion of our program we were both in agreement that the camera and the system was great and it would just make perfect sense for everyone to buy one and be done with camera shopping for a while.
At this point I threw in a "But......" And we proceeded to break down all the stuff we agreed to about the system's miraculous features and benefits but looking at them from a different angle. We started with resolution.
It's my belief that soon 90% of all our assignments will be to make photographs that are destined to be viewed and shown on monitors, TVs, and computer screens of all sizes. If we take that as a given then the two camera systems he currently owns, based around a Nikon Z7 and a Panasonic S1R, are certainly more than capable of far exceeding the potential of current media. Even if a client did want to use a photograph across a magazine spread in one of the most luxuriously printed magazines in the world either of his current systems would do a fine job. In a different way than my business he is lucky that most of his work is in the field of architecture. A subject that doesn't have to confront subject motion and doesn't impose the need for high ISOs with super low noise. Also, both of the systems he owns are among the top contenders for extended and useful dynamic range.
While the new Fuji sensor might exceed the single frame dynamic range of the sensor in the S1R the ability to use the S1R's hi-res, multi-shot feature is certainly an effective equalizer. Remember, he's photographing static buildings and interiors. Not moving models and never sports or outdoor adventure.
I reminded him that his desktop computer is nearing retirement age and, coupled with the slower hard drives he's been running for years, if he wants to take full advantage of the Fuji's full, raw 100 megapixel files he'll be spending a lot of time making coffee and playing Mind Craft as he waits for files to import and process.
This, of course, led us temporarily down the pathway of computer replacement as an alternate option. But he valiantly fought his way back to the original subject, tabling the computer upgrade as being something "uninteresting" to him.
We moved on to lenses and I asked him which lenses really stuck out to him. Which ones did he have targeted to buy with the GFX100S. He hemmed and hawed on this one for a bit since he works primarily (almost exclusively) as an architectural photographer and has spent years amassing arcane, wonderful and frightfully expensive tilt/shift and perspective control lenses for previous medium format systems (Leica and Hasselblad). In fact, he was already, at this early point in the Fuji GFX100S launch, investigating which adapters he could source to cobble his existing lenses onto the new system.
This led to a discussion of how he is working on stuff right now. Which lenses? What format? He admitted that he was working happily, and with a huge selection of lenses, in the 35mm digital camera ecosystem and had previously abandoned larger formats because of how kludgy they were to work with and how much cost and effort it was to marry the right lenses to the right cameras. The current Nikon and Panasonic cameras offered rich pools of lenses, adapted and otherwise, that worked well for him.
Next up we discussed how many of his clients were disappointed with his current format. How many were clamoring for more resolution, bigger files and higher fees? He admitted that his clients were already groaning under the sheer bulk of the finished Tiff and .PSD files he was already delivering. None had even hinted at any need for technical improvements. If anything they were begging for more manageable file sizes.
At this point I thought I had _________ on the ropes. I thought, for his own financial good, I'd shut down this discussion with the old "one-two" punch. I asked him why, after skating through at least as many cameras and systems as I have in the last 20 years he had any conviction that he'd settle in on this particular system to spend the next ten years with. And I followed up with, "I don't know about you but my business is way, way down and looking ahead for the rest of the year I really don't see it getting much better. How about you?"
He admitted that, like me, he'd just done a handful of smaller projects over the last several quarters and the work calendar for 2021 was currently sparsely populated. We commiserated about the lack of work for a bit (a common topic for most photographer I meet with these days) and I thought we'd pretty much worked through the reason why I would "keep my powder dry." I also asked, "What if you buy the system now and don't have much opportunity to work with it for 2021 and then, just as work picks up Phase One drops the price of their 100 MP sensor camera, which has a much, much bigger (dimensions) sensor, and you have to scramble to sell the Fuji (at a loss) to grab onto the Phase One?" Could that be a thing?
Like a self-help life coach I tossed in one more thing. "If you have a spare $12,000 hanging around burning a hole in your pocket why not wait till the stock market drops 10% and stick that cash into an index fund? The way the market has grown in the last six years you might find that instead of losing money on a depreciating camera you end up with enough new, free money to pull enough out of your investment to pay for a newer, better camera."
He thought that sounded pretty good. We wished each other's families well and then ended the call. As I walked into my house I thought, "Wow. That sounded pretty good. Maybe _______ will take my advice and save some more cash. Then I patted myself on the back and told myself that I sounded so wise. I might even want to start taking my own advice!
But by the time I got back to the office and checked my phone I had already gotten a text. It read: "I always enjoy our chats. Thanks for your point of view. I pre-ordered the camera and just a couple lenses from XXXXXXX. Who are you going to order yours from?"
the heart want what the heart wants.