Reporting from Austin on yet another rainy, super humid Sunday. Today's favorite camera? The Q2. Because it's water resistant...

 

We've made it to another Sunday. It's rained here in Austin for at least ten of the last ten days. I got out of the house yesterday when the sun was lifting moisture from the ground up into the air for a while. At least we had real sunlight to work with.  I took the Q2 and did my old walk through downtown. I took that camera in case it rained while I was walking.  Nothing much had changed. 

Some big bank buildings are in the middle of renovating their large, ground floor spaces to make way for new tenants. There are more homeless people out on the streets than I remembered. People still drive like shit and ignore traffic rules. And even the idea of crosswalks.  Nearly everyone is either kind of too fat, way too fat or Methamphetamine thin. The number of tattoos per capita has risen since I was last out and about with a camera. But mostly it was the humidity that made the walk seem uncomfortable. Imagine standing in a hot shower for a while... A really hot shower. For a really long time. So humid you resist going into air conditioned spaces because you know your front lens element will instantly fog over when you walk back out. 

The test lab at VSL seems to be closing in on the best choice of hats for the Summer in Austin. We've tested many and come to the conclusion that there is no "one hat" which will fit every Summer circumstance. But having three choices seems okay. After all, the two not in use can ride around in the back seat of the VSL staff car until needed. 

The right hat (or hats) has become mission critical now that I've waded through a bout of skin cancer surgery again. My wonderful surgeon made me promise not to let sunshine touch the scar until it is 100% good as new. So now that everything is on the mend I start out every adventure outside the house or the VSL bunker by slathering on sunscreen and then auditioning hats. I actually wore the white (dorky) Tilley hat the first day back outside, mostly because the brim is nice and floppy and flops down just right over my left cheek to keep sun off the X. I bought a new Stetson hat but I'm not fond of it yet. The straw weave is too loose so the sun protection is mostly surrendered. But an even more recent acquisition; the Outdoor Research Oasis Sunhat has a really nice, wide brim which holds its shape well and is lightweight on the head. Anything to keep future visits to the surgeon at bay...

The new air conditioner in the house works so well you could chill a six pack of beer in a short amount of time by propping it in front of one of the vents in the dining room. Now sleeping soundly with two down quilts on the bed and a fire in the fireplace. Nixon-style. Aiming for maximum condensation on all the outside windows...

I'm counting down the hours to my first, post-op swim practice. Tuesday morning. The pool looks good, the weather looks good and the scar is looking good. I'm not sure I will remember how to swim. I might have to start all over again in the slow lane and work my way up. But maybe not. I guess I've only really been out for two weeks come Tuesday. We'll see if my lane mates missed me or gave me up for dead and have already moved on and replaced me with someone new. They can be quite practical...

I'm never going to shoot another video so I'm grappling with pulling out bags and backpacks and rolling cases full of mixers, microphones of all types, endless cabling and too many HDMI connectors with the idea of giving some away to struggling, young videographers or just dropping the whole package to the used equipment expert at Precision Camera here in Austin and accepting like twenty five cents on the dollar for the good stuff. A move that will free up floor space and shelf space. Next up goes the lighting gear. Tired of looking at C-Stands, light stands, a forest of tripods, and way too many softboxes and electronic flashes. Oh, and also a surplus of LED light fixtures of all kinds. 

I'd be so happy to end up with one tripod and a drawer full of cameras and lenses. But even there I am thinking of continuing the process of winnowing down. I've got too much camera stuff. Too many choices. Sometimes I think it would be a fun challenge to dump everything but the Leica M cameras and M lenses and see if it's true that the equipment really doesn't matter. Three cameras, eight lenses and a sack of batteries... Sounds like a plot for a movie. Too bad I'm getting rid of the video stuff....

Found a handwritten, double entry ledger for the business that mercilessly covers the period from the end of my time running a regional advertising agency, the start of my photography business, and right up to around 2004 when we went fully in on QuickBooks Pro and did the accounting on our office computer. OMG!!! I worked a lot over the years reflected in the ledgers. For a while we were averaging well over 250 jobs a year. Keeping one or two assistants on the payroll for years at a time and traveling at least a week out of most months. Photography could be quite lucrative pre-digital. Now I know why I feel like I'm being lazy these days. It's all down to the contrast between then and now. 

Just glad I didn't piss away all the money on crazy stuff. Nice to finally understand what B. was talking about for all those years --- about the power of compound interest. And why, "No!" I could not have a  shiny new Porsche. Or a louche Bentley. Or the analogous example in some other part of the consumer spectrum. Just cameras and lenses. And only ones that could be deducted or depreciated. 

So this is what it feels like to start processing the idea of retirement. Novel. Fun in a way but also scary if one has defined at least part of their identity as a working photographer. Or as an artist. Seems the photograph part and the working part was more important to me, almost always, than the money part.

It's always something. 

Silver lining of the endless rain? The primary lake that provides water for Austin and beyond is Lake Travis. It's been steadily dropping lower as drought after severe drought hits the area. The lake level was  down to under half its full volume recently. All the rains have been incredibly beneficial and the lake is within striking distance of hitting its FULL capacity. Which gives us all some breathing room. I haven't watered the grass for over a month and every blade is emerald green. The mosquitoes are having the time of their short, annoying lives, the frogs are insanely happy, and maybe those water restrictions we've had in place will get relaxed for a bit. 

The weather people have been predicting that we'd have a hotter and drier Summer than average. So far they could not have been more wrong. The highs for July have barely hit the 90° mark. We've had far more wet than dry days. We're still digging out in the surrounding towns from catastrophic flooding and much loss of life. But we're not suffering through the near endless plus 105° days we had in 2023 and 2024. We're halfway through Summer and still expecting more rain. When I drove home from the hardware store today my car's display showed the outside temperature at 79°. A humid and sticky 79 but still not even up to 80°.  It would be even nicer if the humidity dropped. 90 to 100% is pretty obnoxious. 

Today is rushing by. It's always that way when I'm sorting gear to get rid of. Nice problem though. Looking forward to a home cooked meal with B&B. Always affirming and fun.

A small show at the upstairs gallery at the Blanton Museum.

Celebrating the mere idea that I'll be back in the pool in less than 48 hours.

And, as always, celebrating the mannequins. 

Digging around in the old film archives. B and Dad in San Francisco. On the wharf.

Most of the lighting inventory is heading to new owners. Just not yet identified...

Anne with the studio's old Rollei 6008i. Ah....the film days. 

At Jo's Coffee Shop. Mid-1990s. Jo's has been there for quite a while. ..

Umbrellas at the ready

Curious about the Sigma fp? The original? Here's my in depth take on the camera from way, way, way back in April of 2020. Five long years ago. TL:DR? It's still great.

 

My leisurely, Saturday review of the little Sigma fp camera. TLDR? = Eccentric but brilliant. Not for everyone. Very much for me.

What is the Sigma fp? 

The Sigma fp is a small camera that looks like it was designed by an industrial engineering firm rather than a camera company (see plentiful images below). The design disregards most camera body traditions and moves away from the rounded corners and vestigial finder humps that grace a huge range of DSLR and mirrorless cameras. It's designed as a boxy little cog that's not really meant to be anything more than the centralized attachment point for lenses and accessories. No one agonized over the feel of the body beyond rounding the corners and edges so they don't poke into an operator's hand. It's the most minimalist expression of camera-ness on the market that I can think of. And, in terms of operation it's equally rudimentary. No custom function buttons anywhere. Hallelujah. 

Essentially your $1,800 USD buys you a very well fabricated "brain" of a camera and then invites you to outfit it to suit your purposes. The body feels very well made and all the controls are built from good, solid materials and are...adequate. There are only three reasons I can think of to own and use a Sigma fp. One is the very good sensor with its commensurate, wonderful color science. Sigma have delivered a sensor and processing package that makes beautiful raw and Jpeg files. The sensor is a full frame (24 by 36mm) device that is among the current state of the art 24 megapixel sensors in any camera brand. I have no idea whether it's Sony chip under the filter or a TowerJazz but whatever it is it's sharp and relatively noise free; I'd go out on a limb and say that the files it produces are currently my favorite of all the cameras I've tried. If all you care about it really great color, and you can do without fast and flexible autofocus, don't need in-body image stabilization, can adapt to using the rear screen for exposure evaluation and composing, and love small packages, then this might be the right camera for you. 

If you need great continuous auto focus, high frame rates with great AF, and an excellent eye level finder then this is profoundly NOT the camera for you. I can't imagine handholding with camera with a 70-200mm f2.8 on the front. Not for more than five or ten minutes at a time...

And, while I'm mentioning weak points of the camera for general photographers, I have to say that this is definitely not the camera for you if you often shoot with flash in the studio or EVER shoot with flash outdoors. This is because the camera uses an electronic shutter with a very, very slow maximum sync speed. Think about the fact that while using this camera with flash you'll be syncing at 1/30th of a second, or slower. If you want to shoot flash while using the .DNG raw setting at 14 bits you'll be looking at a sync speed of 1/15th of second. Pretty limiting for nearly every flash scenario of which I can think. You certainly would NOT want to use this camera, along with a flash, for events or weddings!

While we're on the subject of the electronic shutter you should also be aware that, like most other electronic shutters, you'll definitely see banding if you shoot under fluorescent lights or most non-professional LED light sources. The banding will get progressively worse the higher you set your shutter speed. So, not a great camera for catching available light shots in a corporate cube farm or a call center. 

If you are still reading and haven't thrown your hands up in the air and yelled "deal killer" at least once then I have one more negative thing to add to the mix: the battery life is mediocre when shooting photographs. Mediocre as in....maybe 250 shots if you've implemented the battery saving settings offered and don't "chimp" too much.

So, who in their right mind would consider this camera? I conjecture that it's made for very advanced users who already use a different and more fully featured system in their day-to-day work. I'll get to why I think it's a useful addition for someone who is already shooting in the L-mount system but I'll preface all the rest of the review by saying that this is not even really a photography camera but a very targeted video camera that, in a nice but limited envelope of capabilities, can also provide stunning photos. But you have to use it in appropriate settings. Only in continuous light and only with small and manageable lenses. But for video it's a whole different equation. 

Summing up what the fp is: it's a small brick with very few features and very limited photographic capabilities but blessed with a sensor that can deliver beautiful files over and over again --- if the use case is just right. No eye level finder, no super fast focusing, no in-body (mechanical) image stabilization. No real flash capabilities. And a body you won't want to hand hold with long lenses for very long because of its "primitive" haptics and small size. 

Who is the Sigma fp really for?

I'm pretty sure Sigma designed and outfitted the fp to be the leading edge in the L-mount system for high end video. Really high end video. That's where the camera shines. But you have to understand what kind of video production this camera is really aimed at. 

Video production has two forks. On one hand you have what we used to call electronic news gathering or ENG cameras. These cameras are meant to be used in the field by TV camera men and documentary film makers who need a solution that can handle lots of scenarios quickly and easily. The average news gathering camera used today is basically a very nice camcorder with a fixed lens that offers a fairly fast maximum aperture and a nice zoom range. It uses a smaller sensor so it's easier to keep everything a cameraman needs to keep in focus in focus. (That also helps when it comes to making fast, long range zoom lenses). These cameras have every bell and whistle you might need to get the shot including professional microphone inputs (XLR) and built-in neutral density filters to handle outdoor lighting scenarios. Most of the current cameras used for this type of work offer autofocusing and good image stabilization. 

But those kinds of all in one, ENG video cameras not made for what is generally called narrative film making. This is a totally different animal with a different set of artists' preferences. High end digital video cameras for film making (TV shows and movies) are almost never equipped with smaller sensors, in fact, over the last few years film makers have moved from using super 35 (basically APS-C) formats to full frame and even larger formats. When these cameras are used for making movies and commercials the directors of photography are selecting very specific lenses for their projects with a current preference for extremely well corrected, very fast aperture prime lenses, although there are a number of cinema zoom lenses that are also superb. The average prime lens for the interchangeable movie cameras is generally two or three times the price of an entire ENG camera set up and can frequently cost more than a nice car.

What these film makers want from their cameras is a beautiful, full frame (or larger) image that doesn't use a consumer, low data rate, compressed video codec. Red Digital Cinema created a stir in the movie production community a little over ten years ago by introducing cameras that output huge raw video files. Just as in still photography the raw files offer a much broader range of color correction capability as well as the possibility of rescuing either over or under exposed files. The cameras also shoot at very high bit depths like 14 and 16 bit which means they don't suffer from banding in skies or weird artifacts in shadows to mid-range transition tones. But the very few cinema cameras that shoot raw mostly come just like the little Sigma fp; they are little more than a box full of processors and an imaging sensor to which any number of accessories can be attached. 

The downside of raw cinema files is that they require very fast processors and very fast memory to recorder and process  the data gushing off the sensor. While a typical ENG camera writes to an SD card and delivers .MP4 or .Mov files that are between 50 and 100 megabits per second of data, the cameras that can do cinema raw deliver files that can be as big as 2700 megabits per second; some even more. The end result is files with amazing color detail and amazing color discrimination. The video from raw files also offers pretty tremendous dynamic range too. The cameras are essentially writing 4 or 5k raw files in the DNG format 24 times a second, or more. Each frame is a fully encapsulated, stand alone raw file. 

A current, middle of the road, Red Digital Cinema camera (with no lens, no finder and no battery or memory) runs about $25,000 and up. The top of the line Red Digital Cinema camera is currently around $80,000. It's fan cooled and weighs a ton. There are other brands, like Arriflex, that offer similar solutions at even higher prices. 

I write all of this by way of trying to clarify the value proposition of the Sigma fp. It's one of the very few cameras under five or ten thousand dollars that offers a cinema .DNG raw file and which can be highly configured for cinematic/narrative projects. With fast Leica L-mount lenses on the front, an outboard digital monitor for composition and exposure evaluation, and an attached, fast SSD drive attached to the USB 3.1 port the Sigma fp can rock cinematic, raw video at 12 bits @23.98 or 29.97 fps, outputting data at up to 2500 megabits per second. And it can do all of this without overheating. 

The weak point of the camera for video production is audio. The input is a standard 3.5mm jack and the controls for gain are pretty rudimentary but certainly adequate for "scratch" audio. Most high end production crews are recording audio to digital audio recorders like the ones from Sound Devices which offer great limiters and a lot more control and redundancy than the ones you will find in just about any standalone camera. But in narrative work and movies you have specialists on the crew to handle each shooting and recording parameter. They would use the scratch files to sync the externally recorded audio to the video clips.

So, if you look at the fp from that perspective then it starts to make a lot of sense to production companies that require the right "brain" or bare camera,  but will plan on supporting the camera with all the peripherals that they already use. At $1800 per camera the fp costs about what a professional compendium lens shade for a cinema lens retails for. The need for small, inexpensive but gloriously file capable cameras like this on motion picture sets is endless. While you might still use a very expensive Red or Arri camera as the primary camera you could use multiples of Sigma fp's shooting raw as b-cameras to capture different angles simultaneous with the primary camera. But there's no reason you could not use the Sigma fp as a primary camera either. Most narrative project crews won't be flustered at its lack of scene modes or face detect AF as they prefer to manually focus their cameras and lenses, want to shoot raw, and are used to working with SSDs as camera storage. 

But why would I buy one? 

I'll admit that I get a lot more use out of a more generic camera like a Lumix S1 but there are things about the Sigma fp that intrigue me. And I've come to realize that many of my camera preferences are eccentric (to say the least). 

First of all the size, for a full frame camera, is wonderful. When you couple the fp with a Sigma 45mm lens it's a great package to walk around solo and shoot with. It's fairly light (though dense) and I've yet to hit an exterior situation in which the camera and lens together didn't excel. 

If you are looking for ultimate image quality in a scene and you can use a tripod and long exposures you can put the camera in the raw DNG still mode and set ISOs as low as 6. Yes. 6. At all the ISOs below 100 the camera takes multiple frames and builds the file by a form of file stacking. This was a feature in the Kodak SRL/n that I loved but it wasn't as nicely implemented as it is in the Sigma. When you shoot this way the camera is assessing the noise in each frame (and electronic noise is essentially random) and comparing with with the other files generated in the stack which allow the processor to separate the noise from real data and kick the noise out of the resulting, final file. 

While Panasonic, Olympus and other's use multiple framing with movement between shots to create files with more resolution Sigma is opting to use multiple frames with no movement between shots to create noiseless very color accurate files. A trade off I personally like. Of course, this feature is not usable with flash. 

It's these wonderfully eccentric additions that make the camera so interesting to me. 

I also notice (from cases where the camera has obviously failed) that the digital image stabilization is also a combination of separate frames which are analyzed and combined for correction. If I'm moving too much I can see overlaps in some parts of the files which the camera is unable to correct. That's okay because the camera does interface perfectly with the Pro lenses from Panasonic's L-mount inventory, and both the 24-105mm f4.0 and the 70-200mm f4.0 offer really good, optical image stabilization. 

The fp also provides me with a different color and tonal look than my other cameras and I like being able to select those "looks" when I want them. A lot of the presets, like "teal and orange" or "cinema" are too strong or over the top but each color profile can be blended back with a control slider in the menu that will mostly get me into the ballpark I want to be in. 

The biggest argument for my owning the fp is that it's control interface and operational controls are all very minimalist and very logical. It took me all of two days to master the camera and compared to other cameras that's a highly compressed time frame. There were still one to two operational things that threw me but I've figured them out and now the camera seems wholly transparent to me, which I love. 

I've tried the raw video files (with the help of video guru, Frank) but to really use them to their best potential I'd have to be much better colorist/color grader than I am. Abject laziness had me ending up shooting some of the lower data rate files in video (1080 10 bit All-I @ 200 Mbs) and converting them in DaVinci Resolve to a more workable file format. But when that huge art project comes rolling around and needs to be shot in the ultimate codec at least I'll be ready. 

I will also say that I like a number of the lower data rate files in the .Mov space. They're fine for most of my current projects but for on camera interviews I would use this camera as a "B" camera since the Lumix S1 with the V-Log update is a more complete solution for that kind of video. 

To end my review I would say that most people who are interested only in photography will (and probably should) reject the Sigma fp out of hand. For around the same outlay of cash there are cameras that offer a much more complete feature and capability set. And for someone who shoots photos with a Lumix S1 or S1R it makes more sense to shoot day-to-day video projects with one of those cameras. For everything but raw files they'll yield the same quality (but with a different overall look) as the Sigma fp. 

It's a camera that requires you to have some nostalgia (as a photographer) for a time when camera controls were simple and straight forward and didn't require massive "customization." Unless you shoot only art for yourself you'll want to have a back-up system for professional work or for those times when someone begs you to shoot graduation photographs of a kid from kindergarten in a big, fluorescent lit auditorium. 

If you are making a film though, a couple of these and a little basket of great lenses would get you into the same technical arena as the big players. You'll need to know your stuff for fully manual film work, and you'll grimace at the micro HDMI port every time you plug in your monitor, but you'll get great files to work with and your editor will be happy with you. 

Or, you can be like me and buy one because it's.....intriguing... and you hope it will be the magic bullet that will make all your work look better (but my rational brain is NOT counting on it in my case). I've already gotten ten or fifteen images from the camera that I really like. I might not have gotten them or even shot them with a different camera --- so there is that. I'd love a second one. And when/if I ever retire it would be fun to see how long I could stand just using this camera and a 45mm lens. Maybe I'll try it.

This is the unadorned camera with the 45mm Sigma lens on it. The whole package is small and light for a full frame camera with a great 24 megapixel sensor. It's extremely likable too. One point I forgot to mention above is that now three of my favorite cameras all take the same Sigma/Panasonic battery. The Sigma fp, the Lumix GX8 and the Lumix fz2500. Nice that they are all interchangeable.

The 45mm is long enough to put backgrounds well out of focus. The white balance is superb.

If you look at the space between the back of the camera and the rear screen you'll see a little grating. The entire back of the camera, under the screen, is a huge heat sink that allows this camera to blaze away at amazingly high data rates without overheating. No overheating means no noise. But the downside is that the sensor needed to be anchored to the heat sync for the best efficiency and that ruled out in body image stabilization.... Also, the camera is weatherproof, splash and dust resistant.

The anchor points for the camera strap are engineered as standard quarter inch screw sockets so you can actually use the socket on each side or the bottom of the camera to attach it to a tripod. This view shows the camera with a small hand grip attached. It works well and the grip provides socket so you can still attached a strap lug. While the grip isn't big and chunky it provides a good hold and has a nice thumb pad to rest your right hand thumb on. 

Close up of attachment point for strap. The company makes a number of useful accessories. Allegedly they make a magnifier hood for the rear screen but I've had one on order from B&H Photo since last year and have yet to see one. I think it's a unicorn product that will only come once I've moved on to the next model.....so sad when production lags demand. But, at the moment it's saving me three hundred dollars... so there is a silver lining.

The rear screen is great and easily viewable in every situation except when full sun is striking the screen directly. A magnifier hood would come in handy. Or you can use your hand to shade the screen. But that seems so "old school." Okay Boomers. Use your hands.....

The menus are logical, straightforward and well laid out. In fact, the menus are one of my favorite things about the camera.

When you switch between the "cine" setting and the "still" setting on top of the camera the camera brings up the right menu. Notice just above that it's showing me time code (top left), a waveform meter on the bottom right and along the bottom of the screen it's showing me shutter angle and fps. You can hit the second button on the bottom row to change the display for more or less detail and clutter. 

Finally, an easy to operate camera with no infernal nest of custom function buttons to confuse or distract a real photographer. Notice the grill at the bottom which gives a better illustration of the heat sinks. That's about as calm a camera top as I could wish for. Ah....

Two of the compelling reasons for me to own this camera are the really, really good 24 megapixel sensor and the L-mount lens mount. I'm saving up so I can put some outrageous Leica SL lens on this camera. Just because it's possible. Works with all my Sigma Art lenses and my Panasonic S Pro lenses. 

This is about as discreet and unobtrusive as I think a full frame camera can be. And, of course, the shutter can be absolutely silent. If you are composing on the rear screen everyone will assume it's just an old point-and-shoot camera and not pay any attention to you at all...

this is the noble 45mm lens hood that broke the fall of a brand new S1 when it tumbled off

a picnic bench and hit the concrete. The tape is covering a shiny spot where the 

concrete shaved off some black paint. The lens still works perfectly.

Come to think of it, so does the camera body.

During the current crisis I am becoming my most popular (but not most favorite) model.

I took all of the photos of the Sigma fp with this Lumix fz2500. It's pretty sharp and easy to do close ups with. Getting reacquainted with its video menus this week. 

So far we're safe and sound over here and doing all sorts of domestic stuff like painting and sword fighting. I've been walking with the Sigma fp and that inspired me to write about it again. It's a fun camera if you have a particular bent toward odd but simple tools. Keep an extra battery in your pocket. One less thing to worry about.

Added next day: Here's a nice video review that does a really good overview of the Sigma fp's strengths and weaknesses: https://www.l-rumors.com/sigma-fp-photographer-review-by-richard-wong/

Added a day later: Here's a nice review from a photographer in Chennai, India: https://medium.com/@hornbill/an-honest-review-of-sigma-fp-cd4e40579212

The VSL Blog was offline for maintenance. We're back---- but on a more limited schedule. Photography is quickly becoming less and less interesting to write about...

It was interesting to read that this will be the first year in which over a trillion images will be uploaded to the web (See M.J.'s column from yesterday). 94% of which are either being done with cellphone cameras or created out of the ether by artificial intelligence. When you consider the dilution of individual photographic work it's beyond daunting. It's demoralizing and seems to make individual efforts like those of current VSL ramblings mostly pointless. 

In the first two thirds of VSL's tenure many of the posts were written about day-to-day jobs that I had undertaken. I discussed what the goals of the jobs were, how we planned them and what gear we used. I also included descriptions of the processes. Most popular of the posts seemed to be the one's where I wrote about photographing theatrical dress rehearsals for marketing. And what made those articles interesting had a lot to do with the evolution of digital cameras from noise rich solutions to, progressively, low noise champions. The upgrade to a new camera or a new camera system was more important than it might be today because one could see the progress of new sensors as we were able to shoot at higher and higher ISOs with relative impunity. Theater documentation was a small niche but it was interesting to the people considering upping their camera's game for low noise performance. And people look more fun in costumes and under stage lighting.

So much changed in my practice of photography back in 2020 when Covid hit. And when we started ramping back up it became apparent to me, and a large number of my peers, that the game had changed profoundly. Companies were reticent to spend the same kind of money they had before. Quick videos took over a lot of the heavy lifting in online advertising that had been the broad-based bread and butter of our photo industry. By 2023 A.I. was starting to make inroads in a way that was not unexpected. Ad agencies and typical end users of photography could use a phone photo as a template for a full on post production production and create their own work to use for clients. They were no longer constrained by usage fees, copyrights etc. 

I've spent a good part of the last two years backing away from the business of photography entirely. I still enjoy taking photographs but I am not longer as connected to the paradigm we worked under in the "old" days ( Pre-2020 ). Back then we were still pursuing the Boy Scout theory of the craft in which we owned a whole tool kit of different kinds of lighting, cameras and lenses. We owned specific stuff for specific kinds of projects and never thought that one set of gear could do everything generalist photographers might need. And in most cases we had duplicates or back-ups for each piece of vital gear. So while we might not use longer zooms for much else I did depend on them for theatrical production photographs--- live on the stage in front of me. And since we were committing to that practice we owned (at least) two. Always being sure to have a redundant back-up on hand. We were...Prepared.

Same with lights. Flashes for some work. Continuous light for video. LEDs for a hodge hodge of situations in which we wanted to use cool running continuous sources. And then support materials (lights and modifiers) for every permutation. There was a certain amount of churn in the gear as battery powered flashes got smaller and lighting solutions got better. LEDs improved by leaps and bounds from the time I wrote the original book about LED lighting. And, as we touched on above, camera performance kept improving. 

Now all of this redundancy and inventory for specific types of photography seems a bit pointless. Most of the projects we undertake are simple portraits or running documentation of processes or events that can be handled by any number of inexpensive cameras and a small selection of lenses. As clients clamor for more and more "authenticity" we have come to understand that authenticity really means less polish, more available light, and a general disregard for noise in an image. Gone are the days when we did lots of day long, week long or month long projects like annual reports which required a big hunk of planning and logistics as well as travel and days spent working to shot lists of things that art directors might want to include in the final brochure. The kinds of jobs I now get are more along the lines of a law firm or medical practice asking me to photograph one subject and sometimes get fancy and drop in backgrounds that we might shoot separately. The most recent job done for an oral surgery practice was done completely with a basic, full frame camera and one 50mm lens. Most are jobs that could be done in several hours...

But doing easy-to-produce jobs like these is hardly the material for exciting writing and riveting reading. And I can only walk through Austin looking for good coffee and different images for so long before it becomes old hat for everyone. The push back on mannequins is already disheartening...

While some bloggers need to keep writing, and pretending that this is all fun and vital work, to make a living I've never depended on the blog for any income. Or future jobs. But I can't think of any of my art director/ad agency friends even read the blog --- although they all like to see work on Instagram --- for the moment.

What exciting thing did I do today? I went to swim practice and then came back home to deal with the death of our home's central air conditioning. It's fixed for the moment but I decided to go ahead and drop $15K on a new system (includes the heater...) since the old one is going on 20 years of service and that's a long and rewarding tenure for an air conditioner in Texas. The $15K didn't come from affiliate income or Patreon members, I wrote a check for it. (Yes my UK readers! People still take personal checks. For cars and air conditioners. Amazing!!!). No big excitement. No thrills or spills. After the current AC got a few bits of maintenance today I feel like it will keep running until Monday. If not, I have an office just 12 feet from the house that's well air conditioned as a .... back-up. Or maybe it will be time for a stay-cation at one of the glorious hotels...

With nothing fun or exciting to work on and write about, and nothing really happening on the streets of Austin in the dead of Summer, and my general laziness, it seems rather silly to continue trying to find reasons to keep blogging on an earnest and every day schedule. 

I have surgery for the cancer on my face scheduled for July 1st. I have several trips planned for post suture removal and general scar recovery. I have way too many cameras begging me for attention. And I'm unsure that there is even an audience for the kind of work I'll want to do on my travels. 

I think we'll just coast for a while and see what happens. Usually I like to be binary and when I decide I am finished with something I shut it down and walk away to start something else. But many of my readers let me know that they value the archive that exists here. Out of 6053 blog posts I do get things right every once in a while. So I'll leave the blog as it is for now and maintain the right to come back on my own schedule and add things as I see fit. Check in and see what's new when you have a chance but be forewarned that the days of a post or two a day are coming to an end. Jeez. I'm gonna to be 70 in the Fall. I've got some other priorities to get to. 

The blog is here if you want to re-read some old stuff. There might be new stuff from time to time. That's all I've got for you today. 

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And no! I won't be documenting the air conditioning install or writing about it. That's just boring. I'll have an assistant here to shepherd the project through but I'll be out having a fun lunch somewhere and hitting a gallery or two. I expect to come back home to a chilly house served by a more efficient and "green" unit. 

Bored just writing about air conditioners. And heaters. And installations. Now heading out to give one of the rangefinder cameras some love...

 

It's Friday Afternoon. At the end of most days I select a few images I've made over the years to spend a few minutes with. And I remember that the hardest part of making portraits is the part where you get started. Where you have to make the effort to create.

 

Amy.

There are some people who have been blessed with faces that conform to cultural ideas of beauty and proportion. And there are some people who've been gifted with beautiful and alluring eyes. The work of a photographer is to learn how to put a collaboration into motion to capture these affects and then get out of the way. The biggest mistake I see from people who would like to be portrait artists is their impulse to rush. To rush through a sitting because they think they may be inconveniencing the sitter. Or because they've been misinformed by "experts" that there are lighting and camera formulas which are the secret to success and, that once they've mastered these techniques they are more or less assured of a successful outcome. 

Then there is the mistaken idea, spread everywhere, that if you can't get a great image in the first dozen or so frames you'll never be able to achieve a good photograph in a session. 

In my experience the default to formula and the press toward time efficiency are an effective way to turn what could have been a great portrait into just another literal documentation. A photograph which lacks the invitation to linger and really examine a face. By not taking the time to know the sitter and engage them in a meaningful and sincere collaboration one robs the audience of the chance to fall in love with the subject. To truly come away with an honest sense of the person in the frame. All surface and no depth.

When Amy came to the studio she was in the company of one of her best friends, Renae. Renae was my assistant at the time and we'd worked together for several years by that point. Amy was comfortable because Renae was comfortable. There was a triangle of trust. There was a shared objective of creating a picture of Amy that was both beautiful but also signaled a real rapport. 

I was working with a medium format camera that day. Shooting in the square. I shot some Polaroids and shared them with Amy. We talked. Renae headed into the office to do some work on her computer. Amy and I worked through a session and shot about ten rolls of 120 film. We both sensed what was working and what wasn't and kept moving in the right direction until we hit a high point, which we both could feel, and then we shot a final, gratuitous roll of film (just to make sure) and we were done with that sitting. 

In my mind this result (above) is an authentic and engaging photograph/portrait of a strong, calm person who was comfortable with herself. 

When I kept a darkroom in the studio just east of downtown I used to print most of the portraits I took as large black and white prints. Usually 16x20 or larger. Always on double weight papers. At one point an art director asked me to do some hand colored prints of subjects I'd shot in black and white for an ad campaign for a national bank chain. I bought a lot of sets of Marshall's Oil Paints and set about learning the ins and out of hand coloring ( use Kodak's Ektalure G surface paper -- perfect for hand painting --- sadly, no longer available). We weren't looking for expressionistic hand coloring for the bank job. Just subtle introductions of transparent paint over faces, neckties and other color friendly targets within the frames. Later, for my own projects, I started getting very loose, less constrained, with my applications of color. The image just above was shot with a 180mm Elmar-R lens on a Leicaflex SL2 

( the film camera, not the recent, digital camera) loaded with Agfapan black and white film. 

We were out in the Hill Country in the middle of August shooting for a magazine spread (New Texas Magazine) that would run the Fall. My model was sitting on a large, long, shaded back porch in the late afternoon. We'd wrapped for the day or I would have been photographing on color transparency film. When I got back to the darkroom I made a large print on black and white paper. It was okay but it didn't knock my socks off. It needed something more. So I started playing around with some of the Marshall's transparent oil paints and didn't hold back on saturation or even odd brush strokes. It's a photo I tend now to look at nearly every year at the start of Summer. A nod to the shift into hot Texas weather. 

I pulled the original print out this morning and tacked it to the wall near my desk. It's a reminder for me to play more and be serious less.

About fifteen years ago I bought some pre-stretched canvases and did a bunch of paintings of coffee cups, donuts, pastries and whatnot; even making some paintings of coffee cups in fields of wild flowers. Once I had a dozen 30x40 inch canvases I asked my favorite coffee shop if I could hang the paintings as a show in their store. The loved the idea. They loved the paintings. It was fun to sit at the coffee shop in the morning as office workers dropped by and waited in line to get their to-go coffee to drink during their commutes. I loved watching their reactions to the paintings.  

Occasionally one gets the desire to do art outside their usual lane. Make paintings. Write  poems. Write a novel. Sing. All the arts reinforce each other and trying new things progressively lowers our fear of....trying new things. 

The images just above and just below are of Fadya. I met her when my friend, Greg, cast her in an advertising campaign for a natural gas company. She was one of a half dozen talents we used in the campaign. Each model was featured solo in an ad. At the time Fadya was a university student. We've kept in touch. Years later I ran into her at a local Starbucks. We'd both swung by to grab some caffeine and were both delighted to see each other. I suggested that she drop by the studio when she had time and we'd do a few photos. 

She came over a couple of weeks later. B., Fadya and I had tea in the house and then Fadya and I walked the twenty feet over to the studio to play around with light and poses. 

I was already into using LED lights at the time and I was also deep into the micro four thirds camera format. The camera was set to the square aspect ratio and I shot in color; in raw. I converted the images to black and white in post production. And I've loved the results ever since. When shown in small sizes, like here on the web, I believe that nothing is lost to the smaller format. 

Fadya is now a very successful psychologist practicing here in Austin. I like to think that next time I run into her at a coffee shop she'll want to do another round of photographs. It's always a nice chance to catch up. We spent a couple hours chatting, photographing, changing the lighting and photographing some more. It's not fun to rush through a session. Especially if you finish and then realize that speed was NOT of the essence and that you lost out by letting that fussy part of your brain convince you that you had to hurry.

Selena. 

As long as I've known Selena she's been a musician. In the last ten years her career has taken off. Recording contracts. Bigger and bigger gigs. More famous. 

I asked Selena to work with me as a model for some of the lighting examples in one of my books. We were showing how to work in ambient light with small, portable LED fixtures. I liked the look above but I like the expression below even more. Shot during my brief Canon camera phase. 

And that's what I'm looking at now, before supper. And it's fun to remember the people who make the other half of the collaboration so comfortable. 

My hopelessly optimistic affinity for cheap, third party lenses...

 

Is it sharp enough???

I've been chilling, laying around on the couch and reading novels since last Wednesday. I'm recovering emotionally from finding out that I might not be immortal. That as I age some shit is just bound to go wrong and I guess I have to accept that. But only grudgingly. I visited my dermatologist. He used a scalpel to remove a pesky cancer spot on my face. It didn't hurt much, at least physically, but I'm still waiting (im)patiently for the wound to heal enough to please my medical staff so they give me the thumbs up to get back into the pool. I'd like that patch of my face to regain it's imperviousness to water before I jump into the Texas water...

Having an imperfection in the system erupt to the surface always depresses me because I interpret each of these physical stumbles as a sign of deterioration; entropy, incipient chaos. 

Today B. and I went out for lunch. We had a wonderful smashed guacamole dish and then split a plate of fried shrimp that was accompanied by a warm corn relish and cole slaw. Being the conservative and austere kind of people we are we had ice tea as a beverage, forgoing the jeroboam of Champagne or the line up of tequila shots. B. took the time to "talk me off the ledge" pointing out that I had survived and would probably be in the pool as early as Wednesday. Yes, early on there was talk about getting back in on Tuesday but my face isn't ready yet. 

In the meantime I've stayed quite busy, focused on two different, vital projects. One of the projects is watching videos about cameras, lenses and lighting on YouTube (interspersed with videos about the Ukrainians spanking the Russians over the weekend). I think I've watched enough Peter McKinnon to hold me until the fourth quarter. And James Popsys seems to be doing not much more than treading water these days. My other project seems to be the capricious buying up of weird and wonderful, dirt cheap, Chinese made lenses for my L system cameras....   Oh how dangerous it is to miss swim practice.

But that brings me to my preferred subject today. My mild passion for these lenses that are changing the choice paradigm for photographers. And presenting folks with a different cost/benefit ratio than those offered by the lens products from long established brands. 

You'll probably remember just a week or so ago when I was writing about the 7Artisans 50mm f1.8 AF lens I bought for my L mount cameras. While both 7Artisans and TTArtisan have been making simple, straightforward, manual focus "dumb" lenses for various mounts for at least the last five years, 2024 was the year that both companies (and one wonders, honestly, if indeed they are the same company....) brought a handful of autofocus lenses with full lens-to-camera communication to a waiting audience. This is different! This is direct competition.

I was looking longingly at the Leica APO Summicron 50mm SL lens (about $6,000 USD) when I stumbled across the 7Artisans 50mm f1.8 AF. It was priced at a whopping $228; if you got the L mount version. Knowing I couldn't really rationalize the purchase of the Luxe/Veblen/Budget-Buster Leica lens I decided to award myself the 7Artisans lens as a consolation prize. When I got the cheap ass lens and shot it on a big Leica camera the universe did not implode. German marketers didn't come to the studio to confiscate my cameras for my sacrilege. And the cheap lens didn't explode in my hands as I was led to suspect all cheap lenses might. 

Instead it fit onto the camera with a satisfying amount of tight-fit-ness and instantly communicated with the camera. And you know what? It makes really nice photographs. It's sharp enough wide open and head-to-head competitive with most other 50mm lenses by the time you get to f4.0. I considered it a win. And I wondered what other bargain might lie out in the real world; masked by our own innate and snobbish brand filtering. 

So I started looking around. There are three Chinese lens makers that seem to enjoy having good chunks of the cheap lens market. These are Meike,  7Artisans and TTArtisan. The first two make competing lenses and both recently launched 85mm AF lenses for most of the popular lens mounts. I looked at these but since I already have the Sigma 85mm f1.4 Art lens I crossed them off my list of potential purchases. But while I was looking around I came across the 75mm f2.0 AF lens from TTArtisan. It gets pretty good reviews from all the usual characters. Nearly all of the inexpensive lenses get dinged by reviewers for having slow C-AF but most of the reviewers agree that the single AF performances of most of the new, Chinese AF lenses are just fine. On par with inexpensive, main brand lenses from the established Japanese brands.

I looked around for the 75mm f2.0 AF for the L mount and found that they are generally available and at a price of under $200 USD; brand new. Since this falls beneath the danger zone for budget destruction I decided to take a chance and order one. It came today. 

The thing that is most striking about the TTArtisan 75mm f2.0 is its remarkably small size. Much smaller than the 7Artisan 50mm and about the size of an old style DSLR era nifty-fifty. It's almost cute small but it features 10 elements in 7 groups (one extra low dispersion element and four high index elements) and feels dense and well made. It focuses down to 2.5 feet and the filter size is 62mm. Overall, the lens is such a nice complement to a bigger and heavier camera body such as a Leica SL2 because its small profile reduces the total volume of the overall package. 

Two interesting touches: One is a typical plastic lens hood but instead of being a rounded tulip shape it's more squared off. Maybe a bit more efficient without being any bigger than it needs to be. Second interesting thing is that the rear lens cap has a USB C connector on its external side and the interior of the rear lens cap has contacts to match up with the contacts on the back of the lens. This should make for easier firmware updates. As long as one doesn't lose that back cap.

While I haven't had time to exhaustively test the lens (just got it half an hour ago) I've chimped it a lot here in the office and it seems pretty well buttoned down. I'll take it for a walk tomorrow and see just how much I like it. But for now it had me at "Hello" with its size and build quality. A nice, refreshing change to the usual, huge lenses. Weather sealed? I think not. No rubber ring at the rear of the lens.

So, since I'm a professional photographer and also still solvent and somewhat successful, why do I buy these crazy cheap lenses when I can afford to get the brand name lenses or the Sigma Art lenses or the etc. etc. lenses? Mostly I am pushed into it by a unique memory from about 45 years ago. 

I was shooting with a Canon film camera. I bought a used Tamron Adapt-All 35-80mm f3.5 zoom lens for not very much money. I brought it along with me when I was meeting some friends for a drink at a lovely little restaurant. B. was there. She was facing an east facing window at sometime just pre-dusk. She was talking to one of my other friends and had her face turned just a bit. The light coming through the window was gorgeous. She was gorgeous. I focused as carefully as I could and tripped the shutter at 1/30th of a second. I was using ISO 100 color transparency (slide) film. I love the photo. I loved the look of it and the way it rendered colors. I've kept the slide safe ever since. When I pull it out or rescan the image I'm always amazed at my visceral response to the photo. It's gorgeous.

In the day that lens was considered to be a crappy, low performing lens. I think I paid $60 for it. I didn't realize at the time that the resulting photo would stick in my consciousness for nearly 5 decades with such strong adhesion. At some point long ago I sold the lens and moved on to newer, "better" lenses but every time I pull out the original slide I wish I hadn't.

I think, when I buy some of these new Chinese lenses, I'm hoping to have the same luck. To discover in an inexpensive lens some hidden level of magic that I am somehow able to unlock. To make happen. I think the makers consider these new lenses the way retailers think of loss leaders. Or introductions to new products. They pull out all the stops they can in the design and manufacturing process hoping to have products that people can afford but which also establish the bonafides of the maker. A way of getting a foot in the door. 

Sure, an early adopter might get burned from time to time. We have no idea if these lenses are going to be reliable over time. We have no guarantee when we buy an early model if the unit we get will be a good performer or something that slipped through quality control with a few pimples. But there is always the chance that in making something different from the mainstream the product will resonate with users who are ready for some differentiation and looking forward to discovering a special rendering or character that results from a different approach to lens design and manufacturing. 

Lens making is both hard and easy. It's a 20th century craft for the most part. CNC machining helps level the playing field so that inexpensive lenses and pricy lenses aren't so far apart, when it comes to performance, as lenses could be in the 1950s and 1960s. 

Chinese manufacturing is, I believe, on par with every other highly developed economies' industries. They are wedging a shoe in the door with the cost effect, but even more image effective, lenses. I'm excited. Ultimate sharpness is no longer the thing that matters most in photography. We've moved on. Now it's all about access and imagination. And it's nice to have choices that we can play with without breaking the bank. 

I can afford to buy a Leica APO 75mm SL but I certainly choose not to. Why? Because my passion is portraiture and sharp enough is good enough. A fun, new focal length lens positioned between 50mm and 85mms? Sounds fun to me. And I think, at $199, this one  is going to be a winner

In the end? It's about making portraits. Not testing lenses. Unless you are a lens tester and then that would be legit. 

Coffee break.