Silly me. I thought I had purchased the perfect camera. The body design is great. The menu...superb. The lens is spectacular. The EVF is beautiful. The Q2 oozes quality. But sadly....it will not allow you, the photographer, to set even a small selection of various aspect ratios. You can shoot in a 3:2 format or you can resign yourself to dicking around with cropping in post. Which is a sad way to get to the crop you wanted in the first place. I know why I presumed the Q2 was capable of aspect ratio-ing; the SL and the SL2 both offer this needed feature. Looking forward to having this capability in the Q3...
I guess the interface designers thought that the digital zoom with frame lines AND the ability to crop to your proportional desire in-camera would be too confusing. Or maybe it just required too much of the interface. But now I am sad. (Not too sad...) because I love working in the square (1:1) and especially so when using shorter focal length lenses. The square crop on a 28mm lens brings sanity back to that focal length and with 47 megapixels of information to pick and choose from the Q2 would be one of the perfect choices for...giving me a choice.
As a consolation prize I would have gladly settled for a grid overlay (always on) that gave me guidance for a square crop even if it did nothing more to help me along. But no. Not even close...
I guess my only solution is to buy one of the 28mm Summicron ASPH f2.0 lenses for the L mount, put it on the SL2 body and set that camera for the square aspect ratio. Jeez. Life is so complicated.
But seriously....I'm not being very serious here. I would like the square crop indicators but it's certainly not a huge issue. Composing with the tools at hand is part of the learning process. And I'm learning. Slow but steady progress toward the total embrace of this particular camera. As the Mandalorian often says, "That is the way."
We're counting down the days until Christmas here and also counting down the days until the arrival of incredibly cold weather (at least for central Texas). Starting on Thursday the Arctic storm that seems to be affecting everyone across the country is set to arrive bringing with it five days in a row in which the night time lows will plunge into the low 20s or teens.
I'm wasting no time here. I spent the morning applying thick layers of hardwood mulch to the land around the Japanese Maple trees, the sage bushes, and the sweet olive bushes. I just received my order of "plankets" from Amazon (these are plant bed covers and I ordered the big, 10 by 20 foot versions - with anchoring stakes). I'm also busy covering all the outside facets and draining water out of all the garden hoses. I've got stuff to sprinkle on the sidewalk so I don't slip and become a geriatric statistic and I've broken out the cold weather, insulated swim cap for those frigid morning swims. Still working on the best way to cover the 250 feet from the warm locker room to the warm (hopefully) swimming pool and how to get back to the locker room afterwards while abundantly wet.
After the record breaking storm last year we don't want to be caught with our pants down. We've stocked in water, canned stuff we think we might like, strike anywhere matches and I'm charging battery banks in anticipation of another ill-forecasted general disaster. Hope those all wheel drive Subarus really are good in rough weather....
As I learned in the Boy Scouts, "Be Prepared." And...Happy Holidays.
Giant mythical character at my favorite gardening store.
Messing around with a 50mm crop and a wide aperture on the Q2. Seems to work well.
12 comments:
I've been yearning for custom aspect ratios in rawtherapee lately, you can have "A" paper size 1:1.4 but my printer wants a 3mm bleed on pages, I'm living on the edge with a height 14 pixels less than it should be but it's been fine so far, it's open source software so I could in theory edit the code to add any ratio I want, might be easier than I think it is, they make the process of compiling the code very easy for people who want to try the latest version, might just be a question of changing a few numbers
Speaking of the coming cold weather, and remembering the electrical grid collapse last time, I wonder: do you have a gas furnace?
The question arises because gas furnaces today usually require an electricity to operate. There’s usually an ignition system (unlike old fashioned pilot flames) and an electric fan for heat distribution. I think there also may be a safety feature which uses a fan to evacuate the combustion chamber just prior to the release of the gas plume which is then ignited.
Local media in Texas may be overrun with how-to articles on how to provide that needed power via a backup battery. If not, Youtube is full of how-to videos. A challenge to engage the photographer’s underlying engineering mind.
Back up plan: a nice room at the Four Seasons Hotel with ample room service. It's in the protected downtown grid shared by the hospitals, the capitol building and mandatory services. If their power goes out the city is dark. It was the one grid sector that had zero downtime during our historic cold spell in 2021.
That's one of the reasons I like (and use) micro four-thirds gear. Its native 4:3 ratio is close to my preferred print size of 14x11, so not much cropping required. All of these 3:2 sensors are at that size because of this bit of history (isn't Google wonderful?):
"Oskar Barnack of Leitz invented a small camera using cinema film rolls, and chose to use a double frame — and a double-4:3 frame is 4:6 — which is to say, 3:2 when you turn it 90°. This is the origin of the 35mm film format, and here we are today."
Stay warm,
Dick
The Q2's inability to provide other than the 3:2 aspect ratio is one of those many Leica head scratchers. It just seems that multiple aspect ratios should be a no-brainer - particularly in such a premium camera.
Meanwhile, on the subject of power outages, I have found that I can get through a week without electric service at home fairly well. But there are two provisos:
1) I have a gas-powered hot water heater - with a pilot light and not an electric ignition. Being able to take a hot shower before hot or in the morning helps with chilly nights quite a bit.
2). I have a gas stove. Yes, both the cooktop and oven have electronic ignitions. That rules out using the oven because the ignition is necessary a number of times during each use in order to maintain temperature. But I can still use the cooktop because I can light each burner with a match. Some stoves have built-in safety features that won't allow the gas valve to open if there is no power for the electronic ignition. It's good to know which type of stove you have.
The problem is, the powers that be are pushing electricity for heat, hot water and cooking in all new construction. And it's only a matter of time before it becomes difficult to buy gas stoves and water heaters.
Maybe there will be a firmware update for this.
Panasonic was the best at this originally. Both my LX3 and my GH2 could do multi-aspect images while maintaining angle of view, with the sensor just extra large enough to handle it. Sadly it was one of those neat things that was probably seen as too costly in later models.
Panasonic was the best at this originally. Both my LX3 and my GH2 could do multi-aspect images while maintaining angle of view, with the sensor just extra large enough to handle it. Sadly it was one of those neat things that was probably seen as too costly in later models.
The Q2 is a beautiful camera that produces vivid sharp images in your hands Kirk. I agree that all serious modern digital cameras should allow you to choose between aspect ratios.
That is the main reason why I still use and love my Panasonic GH5. The GH5 equipped with the Olympus 12-40 f2.8 Pro zoom covers 95% of all my still photography needs. It's 24mm to 80mm equivalent in 35mm terms covers the holy trinity just fine and the exceptional sharpness even wide open produces wonderful files.
I have had images enlarged to 20 inches on the long side with no degradation of image detail and contrast. Would I take a FF L mount Panasonic camera with great video quality? Sure, in a heart beat, if someone gave it to me or offered me a deal I couldn't refuse. But is it worth the price deferential given what I do now? No it's not. I could make a GAS case for it in nanoseconds but not a responsible business case. If I were doing the commercial work you do then yes a business case would exist.
Once you are retired I'm thinking you will find taking some time to do some cropping won't seem like such a burden after all. Maybe Q's lack of ratio settings won't be such a big deal in the end.
On the gear packing side of the equation I have some thoughts on that too. Surprise eh ;)
For many years I would pack up my camera bag with two bodies and multiple lenses. I was a mission to create ART! Most days that didn't happen and I would come home tired and frustrated.
Then I learned to relax. No expectations except to enjoy the day. If an image jumped out at me I would make it. Trying to force it just produced cliche advertising/travel compositions or AA knock-off's. Neither of which brought happiness to me. My new found ZEN approach allowed me to dump one camera body (unless I was shooting colour in one and B&W in the other) and in a lot of cases reduce the number of lenses taken. If I saw something that needed a 16mm lens and I didn't have it, well another day.... It took at least three years to get to this point.
These days I take my GH5 and maybe and I mean maybe, I might throw in an old GX1 as a backup just in case. If I'm overnighting then maybe the G85 as backup.
Enjoy your time off Kirk! Go give mannequin dressers crap for not dolling them up for Christmas! Let the store manager know they have a world wide following thanks to YOU.
All the best to you Kirk, Belinda and of course the "boy".
One more thing, could there be a new puppy under the tree this year??
Eric
Or compose full frame, and buy a different camera?
Pentax 67 or Speed/Crown Graphic 4x5 perfectly adapted for Instagram when shot in portrait format.
Square... well I suppose there are cameras for that too. ;)
The one feature that would make me consider upgrading my elderly DSLRs (seriously, I think one of them can legally drive a car) for a modern mirrorless marvel would be a large, square-format sensor that allowed me to choose aspect ratio. With my 3:2 DSLRs I waste a big chunk of my limited megapixels if I crop, and shooting vertical photos is a pain. How nice would it be to shoot 1:1 at full resolution most of the time and be able select vertical or horizontal formats as desired without having to change my hold on the camera?
On a totally different topic, I'll just note that AWD cars are mostly marketing fluff for the majority of drivers and driving conditions. Proper tires are vastly more important for stopping and turning safely in adverse road conditions. A front-wheel drive car (and even many rear-wheel drive cars) with proper winter tires will go anywhere that an AWD Subaru will go, especially if the Subaru has mediocre all-season tires as most do. As a bonus, when considering similarly sized cars the lighter and mechanically simpler front- or rear-wheel drive car will generally have better fuel efficiency than the AWD Subaru.
ASW, I just leave chains on the tires year round. I think it toughens up the car and makes it more macho. But sometimes I get motivated and put on snow tires and chains. I like for people to hear my Subaru coming...
😆
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