A mini re-review of a mini camera. April 16th.

In the car, getting ready to go walking in the appropriately designated area.

It's been interesting reconciling the need for exercise with the desire to carry a camera with me to make random photographs for pleasure. I used to swim every day. Who knows when or if that will ever come back. But I never took a camera into the pool. That was a "walking" thing. So, now I walk. Three days a week I also run, but everyday I walk. At the beginning of the crisis I walked through downtown because we were allowed to and that was where I was used to taking photographs. But now downtown is more or less closed down for all but the most essential enterprises, and the homeless. 

Group thought momentum has made walking anywhere without appearing hell bent on just exercising is infectious. I can feel the judgement from a hundred yards away. And I feel sorry for all the people living downtown in the high-rises who will be judged for merely leaving home to walk to a grocery store for food. They'll have their heads down, and the kindness and courtesy that Austin has always been famous for will die a bit more.

In the past I felt comfortable carrying any camera I was interesting in at the moment along with me when I walked around the Lake on the Hike and Bike trail. I hardly pulled a camera off my shoulder and shot anything with it but it seemed natural and sanctioned to have on at hand. At worst it was a clear sign that there was a "boomer" under the strap, as we seem to be the only ones left who still carry a single purpose camera with them everywhere.

Now relegated to the trails, and working under the current assumption that the trail is only open for the exercising of exercise, I've started to feel more and more self-conscious for bringing along a full size camera. I've downsized from any camera to something the size of the Sigma fp (small) but still wasn't feeling it so I downsized to the Panasonic GX85 and even that felt obtrusive. Unwelcome. 

Today I woke up and looked outside. It was beautiful. Spring is in full bloom, the temperatures were mild and close to perfect, and the skies were that good old fashion, horizon one hundred miles away  Texas blue. I wanted to take a long, brisk walk but couldn't bear not to take a camera along so I looked in the equipment tool case trying to find the perfectly sorted, briskly walking man takes along camera as casual afterthought camera. 

I think I found it. It's the Canon G10 Powershot that I bought from a friend about a year ago. This is my mini-review of that camera.

I've owned a couple of the G10 cameras and keep rediscovering just how good this small, dense, point-and-shoot camera is. 

The whole G series of Powershot cameras from Canon were really superb small cameras. This particular camera was launched in 2008 and was initially criticized by the all-knowing photo press for having too denser packed (and therefore too noisy) a sensor. I agree that it isn't the best high ISO camera ever produced but it had/has such a rich feature set, and it created such great images, that it could not be ignored. 

The camera featured a 14.7 megapixel 1/1.7 inch CCD imaging sensor. It was, I think, the last of the CCD sensor cameras from Canon and I think it was that older technology that gives it such a good and uniquely photographic image . The lens was a 28-140mm f2.8 to 4.5 zoom and, again, the gear critics at the time were also not at all happy to have a lens that slowed down so much at the long end. Now they just take it in stride.

I bought the camera just before starting a new book project for Amherst Media Publishing in 2008 and I used the camera, on a tripod, and at its lowest ISO (80), for every single product shot in the book. Just like my Kodak CCD-enabled professional cameras, the DCS 760C, if you used it in the best part of a narrow window of parameters you could expect very, very good results. The combination of a sharp lens, a very detailed sensor and a stout tripod yielded files for me that were very satisfactory for publishing images at up to a full page in a printed, four color book. 

The G10 was/is a wonderful camera for seasoned photographers to use in good lighting. It provides a Canon raw file and can be set up to shoot a Raw+Jpeg file as well. The camera has complete manual controls and plenty of dedicated knobs and dials so one doesn't have to jump down into the relatively clean menus to make small changes to things like exposure compensation or ISO. The ISO dial surrounds the mode dial on one side of the camera while the dedicated exposure compensation dial sits on the other side. Right in the middle is a hot shoe that allows the use of Canon dedicated, TTL flashes but can also be used with generic flashes that have a single contact. 

One result of having a camera with a conventional hotshoe and an electronic leaf shutter (as opposed to a focal plane shutter) is that the camera can sync at very high speeds. I used to use it at swim meets in the Summer at shutter speeds up to 1/1000th of a second with very good results. The shutter actually goes all the way up to 1/4,000th of a second.

The camera was, at the time, one of the first to offer decent face detection autofocus and it also has very good image stabilization. I find I can generally shoot at any focal length at a shutter speed down to at least 1/15th with very sharp results. The one parameter that won't get it much praise was its video capabilities; it only shot 640 by 480 or worse. But, it was a different time....

The little, chunky batteries are good for about 400 images with the LCD on and up to 1000 image if you turn the screen off and learn to trust the evaluative meter in the camera. But to shoot in this mode means you have to frame your shots in the optical finder and that's the one other (besides movie mode) crippled feature of the camera; the optical finder is "blessed" with both massive geometric distortion and a lower magnification. It's also showing only 80 to 85% of the final image. The OVF was not the G10's best feature....

Like all contrast detect AF systems the Canon takes a second to lock onto whatever you've put under the AF indicator square. I'm sure you could try the C-AF settings but I'm equally sure you would be frustrated in most situations. This camera (and most like it) was made for taking travel shots, quick portraits, and other types of photographs that showcased mostly non-moving subjects. 

There are two G series Powershot cameras that I really, really like and kind of own. The first is this one. The G10. To make an analogy with another camera system I own, the G10 is the high res version of the family in the same way that the S1R, with its 47 megapixels is the high res Lumix camera. In the Canon G series the camera with better ISO performance is the G15. The designers throttled back the pixel count from 14.7 to 12 and implemented a new CMOS imaging sensor that handled higher ISOs with more grace than any of its predecessors. The G15 was the Lumix S1 of the Canon G series family. 

I say I "kind of own" the G15 because, in reality, I lent it to Belinda for a vacation trip and never got it back. She really, really likes that camera. It's small, fast to use, has a faster lens and takes better images under low light. For someone who has no desire to play with accessories or to change lenses the G15 may be one of the great travel cameras that you can buy (used) for less than $200. 

So, I took the G10 with me this morning because I could "palm" it and carry it in my hand without a strap. Its smaller profile probably looked more like just a chunky cellphone at a quick glance. Funny that it's commonplace for nearly everyone to hike or run with their cellphone clutched like pure oxygen in their clenched hands but at the same time to begrudge people for carrying conventional cameras.....

I've made peace with cameras that mostly depend on the rear screen for everything. Maybe my bifocal prescription is just better. But I'm able to make photos in stark daylight using the rear screen and that's pretty cool for a camera screen that's twelve years old. 

This morning I shot raw and then post processed in Luminar 4.2. It does a very nice job converting these old raw files and I find a lot of the hokey presets in the program are fun and...endearing in their kitsch-y aesthetic. So Eggleston. When I got back home I was happy to see that I'd gotten about 20 images that I really wanted to play with and look at. Nice. See images just below. Some even have captions....

 Systems check in driveway. Camera? Extra Battery? Glasses? Face Mask?

Small bottle of hand sanitizer? Pants? All yes? Then we're a Go. 

Barton Springs. Totally empty. No swimming allowed. 

And I'm too egalitarian to even try bribing someone for access...

 Don't worry. The little train that runs through the park is also shut down. 

These are not Union Pacific Railroad tracks. I was not in mortal danger at any time.

But I took the photo to show off my skills at social distancing. 

Again. Social distancing. No harm, no foul. 

New for today!!! The powers that be have decided (and I agree) that the trail should 

have all traffic going in the same direction; especially since the trails are laid out in interlocking circles. Now we all go clockwise around the trail. This will alleviate (somewhat) people blocking 

the entire trail and breathing towards the oncoming people traffic. 

And yes, I read the European study saying we need more distance if we are running behind someone...

Loving the creative examples of distancing. Nice. Fun. 

It's okay to have fun in times of crisis. Gets the message across better.

Canon G10's monochrome is first rate. At least I think so. And lots of detail!

No conflict with safety on this little used part of a branch trail...

Maybe I'll take up disc golf. Like I need a new hobby....

So far Austin and Travis County have done a better than average job of keeping infections down. We are no where near seeing a trend toward exponential contagion. The number of cases per day seems to be flat for now. Hoping all of our mask wearing and social distancing is paying off. Helps to have an educated population that pays attention and is generally able to work together for the common good. Makes me proud to live here. 

Stay safe. Buy more cameras. Take em everywhere. We don't want people to get acculturated to a camera-less society. Right? 

"A Night With Janis Joplin" is coming to Zach Theatre and they asked me to sit in on an early rehearsal and take some photographs...

Last week was a full one for me as a working photographer. I spent a couple of days shooting corporate portraits on location for a large, national accounting firm, I photographed a couple of radiologists here in my studio for a big radiology practice, and then shifted gears for the next two days and photographed a fast moving event/symposium, produced for spinal surgeons from all over the country, at the Fairmont Hotel here in Austin, Tx. By the end of the week; the end of the day Friday, I'd already put an additional 5,000 frames on my Lumix S1 cameras. But we had one more project to shoot on Saturday. It was a rehearsal of "A Night With Janis Joplin" over at Zach Theatre's rehearsal facility. And it was the most fun job of the week. Few other jobs are so self-directed and also accompanied by lots of Janis Joplin's music. Plus, actors are a blast to work with.

Mary Bridget Davies plays the lead and has Joplin's voice and mannerisms nailed down with incredible accuracy. Living close to Austin I had the opportunity to see Janis Joplin live, at Threadgill's on Lamar Blvd., back when most of us got just about everywhere in this (used to be) small college town on bicycles and traffic was just a laughable idea. I've seen several different Janis productions in recent years but Ms. Davies just gets everything so right...

At any rate, I was just off a week of non-stop commercial work and feeling pretty exhausted when I packed up to head to the theater. I'd been shooting mostly with zoom lenses all week and wanted a complete change from the f4.0-f5.6 mentality. Knowing I could work in close to the performers I selected three lenses for the Janis project: two Sigma Art lenses (the 35mm and the 85mm) along with the Panasonic Lumix S Pro 50mm f1.4. The space we would work in has boring walls and hideous lighting so I wanted to work nearly wide open with each of the three lenses in order to drop the back walls out of focus and to eliminate as much clutter as I could. I was also ready for a bit of limited depth of field. And I'm always interesting in putting the cameras and lenses to tests at the limits of their operational envelopes. 

I chose the S1 model over the S1R cameras because I knew we'd never need these files to go really big. Most of their use will be in advanced press, and on social media, and even the 24 megapixel files will be greatly downsized before use. But my real reason for choosing the lower resolution cameras is my new found appreciation for their wonderful image quality at ISO's I used to consider emergency use only. 

Under the most dreadful lighting around I was able to generate nearly noiseless image files while shooting mostly between ISO 3200 and 6400.  And to give you an idea of how low the lighting is from ceiling mounted florescent light banks hanging 40 feet up I was sometimes using exposures like: f2.2 at 1/250th of a second with ISO 3200. The misery of the rehearsal space is that there's a wall of mirrors along one of the long walls and the stage markings (to match the actual stage next door) are faced to the mirrored wall so people can work on the choreography together. What this means for me as photographer is the banks of fluorescents that provide all the lighting in the cavernous space are behind the actors most of the time. 

I almost cried in joy when the actors' blocking occasionally placed them in the middle of the room and I could get front light on their faces....

The first thing I do after getting and giving hugs to cast and crew is to pull out the camera and set a good, solid custom white balance in the middle of the space. While this is a good thing to do you have to be aware that when an actor moves into a space where light bounces off a different part of the floor or a different part of a wall you'll probably get different color cast that you'll want to tweak in post production... But having a legit starting point makes life easier. Of course, I could just shoot it all in black and white and forget all the color stuff but not everyone wants to flash back to the 1950's with me, as far as photographs are concerned.

Nothing I'm showing here was set up for me or posed. I'm supposed to be like the proverbial fly on the wall trying to capture good shots of the actors  that the marketing team can use to generate pre-show buzz before the costumes are ready and the sets are done. I did as much as I could in terms of moving trash cans out of my view lines and moving people's backpacks and stuff out of the line of sight as well. 

The downside of shooting something in a really dark space, using lenses at or near their widest apertures, and trying to nail focus on the eyes of moving, dancing and singing people is that even the best eye AF has trouble nailing focus every time. I spent much of the day with the camera set to continuous AF at a high frame rate with face detect AF engaged. I won't call what I did "spray and pray" but at some point you have to trust that the camera will drill in and nail the focus you want and that the event of nailing focus corresponds to one of the decisive moments you might be looking for...

Yes, the S1 and S1R do the wobbly in and out of focus thing in the EVF when you shoot with the camera set as above but the hit rate can be very good if you let the camera settle in before mashing the shutter button. I used the faster frame rate with the continuous AF to give myself a better statistical chance of getting technically good stuff. It's a decent technique if you are trying to cover your ass but the downside is that I generated something like 2800 images by the end of the five hour session.

Mary Bridget Davis as "Janis."

I ended up using the 85mm f1.4 for almost everything and tried keeping it right at f2.2 or 2.5 so I could get the thin depth of field but using the hysterical edge of the cutting edge by attempting f1.4 all the time. Being down one stop gave me at least a fighting chance of getting and keeping and eye in focus most of the time. The other two lenses are great and I'm sure they are as sharp as the 85mm for what I use them for but the 85mm had the focal length I wanted so I would be able to get a tight crop without stepping across the line into someone else's personal space. Had there been more "two shots" and small group shots I probably would have defaulted to the 50mm or the 35mm.

I had always hated shooting in this room because of the flicker and exposure inconsistencies I would get from the ever present florescent lighting units. On this foray I experimented a lot with the flicker control feature offered by the camera. In the past I was too impatient and it didn't seem to work but the reality is that you have to (this is conjecture, but working conjecture on my part) half-press the shutter button and let the camera figure out the flicker rate before you proceed. Once the camera figures it out your can shoot for as long as you want in a single series --- as long as you maintain at least a half-press. Once you let go of the shutter button you'll need to half-press and hold while the camera finds its pace again vis-a-vis the lighting. 

You can actually see, in the finder or on the rear panel, a dark diffuse line slowly roll up the screen. That's the darkened line or area that you would capture if the camera wasn't helping you by getting the exact timing of shooting the frame calculated. Once you let the lines go through a time or two if you keep the shutter half pressed you'll most likely notice no repeating dark area scrolling across the screen. This is a godsend for event photographers since we are mostly now working under either flickering florescent lights or flickering, commercial LED lights. 

Shooting at a fast frame rate and not spending much time (at all) in review, I was able to get about 1250 shots out of my first, freshly charged battery. I was using the grip so the camera automatically switched to the second battery. I'm sure I could get double that rate out of a DSLR but it's certain not a "deal killer" for an very advanced mirror-free camera that incorporates such a high resolution EVF. The EVF and the image stabilization put a heavy load on the batteries...

Yesterday I was shooting to a C-Fast 128 GB card that writes at 1400 megabytes per second. I was also shooting in Jpeg fine. You'll just have to believe me that it seemed as though the camera had an infinite buffer. I could shoot sustained bursts and never have to wait for the camera to be responsive. I like the C-Fast cards, they are pricy but fast and seemingly indestructible. They are the same form factor as the XQD cards but are more advanced, internally. Now I'm back to having a mix of cards by generation. This includes: UHS-1 SD cards, V60 and V90 UHS-2 cards, several sizes of XQD cards and two of the C-Fast 128 GB cards. Some work well with conventional card readers but the C-Fast cards download more quickly and reliably just using the cameras USB-C connector.

The cast did a partial run through of the play at the end of the day and wrapped a little bit before 7pm. I was happy to join them because I felt less like a "supplier" and more like part of a very sweet and hardworking team of artists. It's a whole different mindset. 

After doing a quick edit I was able to peel down from 2850 to about 1,000 files which I then color corrected by groups and also tweaked contrast and clarity. Mostly, my post is about neutralizing color and opening up shadows in Lightroom. Easy stuff. But I did want to share that I was very, very happy with the lack of noise and the very detailed and beautiful files I came away with even when facing bad lighting....and not much of it. Good to have some fast, sharp primes in your back pocket...just in case.

Click the images to see them bigger. Look for noise. You won't find much....

A sample from the Lumix S1 and the "kit" lens. I think it all works pretty well and I'm happy with the way the camera handles skin tones and color.

I started using the Lumix stuff in earnest back in early October.

The image just above is from the "Day of the Dead" parade in 

downtown Austin. Lumix S1 + 24-105mm.

I've been pretty much delighted with the Lumix stuff so far. It's big and heavy and so it makes me believe my work must have more gravitas than usual...

The "kit" lens (24-105mm f4.0) is great and I find myself using it a lot for everyday stuff. It's fast enough and seems to be sharp enough, wide open, to match up well with the 24 megapixel sensor in the S1 camera. I tend to try and stay around f5.6 with the S1R camera. 

There are just a few things I wish were a bit different. First, I wish the batteries lasted longer. There is a power saving mode where one can select to have the camera go to sleep either immediately, or in 1,2 or 3 or more seconds after you take your finger off the shutter if the rear screen is in the quick menu display mode. That works, unless you want the camera to wake up super fast. But you have to remember to set it and, if you are in that display mode you'll have to hit the display button at least once before you review files or else.

I don't wish the cameras were lighter or smaller. I'm happy with those things.

I do wish that Panasonic would come out with a line of slower, smaller and less expensive lenses that are native to the system. I don't mind splashing out for expensive lenses in focal lengths I use most often but a second, smaller and lighter set would be nice for travel and street photography. 

I often replace the 2.5 pound 50mm Lumix S Pro lens with an adapted Carl Zeiss 50mm f1.7 lens because it's easier to walk around with. But I envision myself doing more stuff in the studio and in static locations this year, and less walking around in the street (concentration on portraits) so it's not a "make it or break it" deal. 

I'm going to say that at the four month mark I'm plenty happy with the Lumix S system and delighted with the images. 

Some notes from the field: I've been shooting with Fuji and Panasonic stuff for the last two years so I haven't fired up a Sony A7 series camera for video in a (relatively) long time. I got a text today from a friend who is shooting video at the CES show this week for a corporate client. He just ran into the nightmare scenario: important stuff to shoot, Sony A7iii in hand, and 20 minutes into a take the camera overheats and shuts down. He's concerned because he's got CEO interviews on the agenda and now can't trust his two primary shooting cameras to finish a long interview. He's shooting in 4K and my only two suggestions for him were to go to 1080p (much less processor intensive) and to set the "thermal shutoff" menu item to "high". That, and to pull the battery between takes to help cool down the camera interior. 

He took a couple of the Sony A7iii's with him because he predicted he'd spend a ton of time shooting "B" roll, and also wanted to travel light. It get that. Working on a gimbal on a fast moving, chaotic trade show floor is much better than trying to drag a big camera all over the place, or a big tripod for that matter. 

I gave up shooting video on the Sony A7 series back in the A7ii and A7Rii days for the same reason; overheating. I also never warmed up to editing 8 bit files from those cameras either, but I never had the same thermal issues with the Sony RX10ii or iii. They would plow through a 30 minute take without breaking a sweat. And I used the RX0iii to very good effect in Toronto on a long day of shooting with temperatures having around 10-14 degrees (f). No issues. 

My friend is also reporting that one of the cameras shuts down without warning when the battery is depleted. That's never fun. 

I've run the S1 in 4K for a full half hour with no temperature issues to speak of, same with the Fuji X-T3 and the Fuji X-H1 with the battery grip. Those cameras seem to be able to go all day long without fainting.

Some thoughts about the Nikon D780: I liked my D750, I really did. It was a good all around camera that produced great files and worked well for stills with the caveat that it, like nearly every DSLR Nikon I ever owned, was prone to backfocusing with some lenses. The D780 is more an upgrade and refresh than a big leap forward. Same 24 megapixels. A bit better video. More responsive when in "live view" mode. But the big, new positive improvement, in my view, would be the on chip phase detect AF sensors. That should go a long way toward curing the annoying tendency, when using some lenses, of getting nicely sharp earlobes and unhappily unsharp eyes in some portraits......

I'm setting a timer now and waiting for the first recall. You'll remember that the D750 had two or three recalls during its long lifespan. 

The one interesting thing (to me) about the new Canon 1DX mk3:  I watched a few videos about this new sports camera from Canon and found myself nodding my head about most stuff but I sat up and paid attention when they showcased what was new in video. The camera will now shoot full on, heavy duty, video raw files! Not just V-Log files at good bit rates but full raw files which should allow an enormous flexibility in changing the look, feel, color, exposure and overall quality of video files in editing/post processing. 

The downside is that a 64 GB card fills up entirely in about 5 minutes. Just like the old days of shooting with a 16mm movie camera and a 400 foot film load.....

The other feature that should be of interest to everyone who loves to shoot Jpegs is the introduction of a HEIC file which, I believe, Canon is called a HIF file. These are better compressed than Jpeg and feature a ten bit color space for thousands of colors rather than 256 colors. A big step in the right direction for future cameras. Just right if you have an upcoming assignment shooting at the Olympics...

Aqueously speaking: I've found the right mixture of antihistamines and mind altering coffee blends to mute the symptoms of Cedar Fever allergies so I was back in the pool Sunday and again this morning. We had a great set today courtesy of coach, Jimmy  Bynum, and my lane leader suggested finishing off our 3750 yard practice with five shooters (swim 25 meters underwater/no breath and then swim easy on the way back). Holding your breath at the beginning of workout is psychologically easier at the than after an hour and a half spent grinding out fast yards. 

Hope everyone is happy and healthy. I'm booked all of next week on photographic assignments so I'll probably slow down the pace of posting a bit. Don't construe that as a surrender....

A second image from Day of the Dead, 2019, in Austin, Texas.

My favorite photography location in Montreal. Of course it would encompass food and (unrecorded) coffee.

There is a food market in Montreal that I found to be very much fun to visit, look at, photograph and play in. We took the Metro to the Jean-Talon stop on Tuesday morning, then walked a few blocks more to find the outdoor market. As the weather was still in the 50's and the day was sunny and nice, there were no winter walls up, no space heaters, no big coats to lug around. The whole market was wide open, breezy and top lit by hard daylight diffused through the white tent tops. As I understand it, the market at Jean-Talon is the biggest (and nicest) open air market in the city. Regular people flock here to buy the freshest produce, specialty foods, and things like maple syrup candies. The place is spotless, welcoming and a wonderful riot of color. 

We got to the market around 9:30 in the morning and started walking slowly through row after row of produce, flowers, and cheeses. I was hesitant at first to just snap away with my camera so I slid into my picture taking slowly to gauge how welcome or unwelcome it would be. In the markets in San Antonio there are even signs at vendor stalls attempting to forbid photography. It was definitely not the case in Montreal, at Jean Talon. I felt welcome everywhere. Especially so if I took the time to greet the vendor and smile. We struck up conversations with a young man who grew up in Calgary and suggested a car trip from Calgary through the mountains to Vancouver (sounds great). Belinda chatted for a while in Spanish with a vendor who moved to Canada from Guatemala about 20 years ago. He gave us hot peppers to take home (coals to Newcastle?). We spoke to a women who came from the south of France to follow her fiancé. They're moving back to France after he gets his degree... We spoke to the shopkeeper who made me one of the finest cappuccinos I've ever had. The conversation was universal; all about how friends change and vanish after they get married and have kids.

Each person we engaged with gave us samples, told us stories and suggested interesting places to see. I should have taken notes so I'd be prepared on our next trip back.

My camera and lens choice of the day was predictable: the only camera I brought was a Pentax K-1 (no back-up!!!!!) and I had a choice of only two lenses. I brought the 28-105mm for the day and it was beyond perfect. I'm just getting a handle on how sharp and snappy that zoom lens is. It's one of the best performing standard zooms I've used. I can see that the camera is making some big corrections for distortion and vignetting but with a 36 megapixel sensor there's a lot of information available to manipulate and I haven't seen a downside to the "computational" correction of the lens's few faults. 

Everything in this post was done with that lens. From close ups to more distant shots, it just flat out works. After spending the two previous days with this particular camera in my hands I find I've gotten used to it much more quickly than I anticipated. Pentax offers some weird controls and weird features but you don't have to use them. You can use the camera in the most straightforward fashion and never get bogged down with menus.

I actually gave up being a control freak for a while and used a mode setting that's marked, "TAV." It's essentially the same as having Auto-ISO in manual mode. You set the aperture you want and the shutter speed you think is best and the camera attempts to change the ISO to provide correct exposures. It's fun and mostly accurate but I often find myself wanting images that are darker than normal so I can mess with them without them breaking down in post production.

So, without further ado, here is my small gallery of initial takes from the Jean-Talon market. 

Belinda achieves mastery of the Canon G15. I tried to get her to 

take along the Fuji X-E3 and the 18-55mm but she says, 

It's too big.