Re-orienting your photography when it's currently impossible to do work in the style you want...

For the first month of the "stay at home" program I felt a bit powerless and lost. I couldn't justify going out on photography adventures and home seemed so (too) familiar a place in which to discover new visual delights. I almost gave up hope of being able to photograph in a style, and in a location that would inspire me. What if we were constrained to stay home for years? What then? 

But I remembered a phrase from a movie that helped give me some perspective. It was: "Wherever you go, there you are." 

If you've been grieving for your lost photography I think you can survive if you are flexible enough to try new things. 

I'm less than happy to be in one spot all day long. When the parks closed over the Easter Weekend, and the State Parks closed down "until further notice" I thought we'd be stuck in a half mile radius of our homes for a long time. Yesterday the Texas Parks authorities announced that they were selectively re-opening a number of state parks. Restrictions will be tighter. Masks must be worn. Social distancing must be observed, and only a limited number of visitors per day will be allowed in each park.

You must make reservations online, in advance. 

But for me it was like Christmas. I immediately booked a reservation for this Thursday and started planning my new side career in Fine Art Photography as a Texas Hill Country landscape photographer. 

I'm charging up batteries for the S1R and pulling out the wider lenses. I've even reacquainted myself with the high resolution mode  in the Lumix camera so I can squeeze every last nano-meter of hyper acutance out of every frame. 

Pre-Crisis I thought of myself as a photographer whose talents lay solely in portrait work. But if I'm willing to be flexible I might even enjoy taking a landscape or two. At least I can instruct my mind to enjoy the process. And the drive. And the time out in nature with Belinda.

But, after coming to this change of perception I started thinking of all the different ways I could change what I aim my cameras at and why I use them to photograph the things that I do. For example, my ideas about video have always veered toward the utilitarian. As in, how will I use this camera to shoot a corporate interview for profit? How will I use this particular camera and microphone to shoot video to help my client sell their service? Now that we can't do that work until (much) further notice I've had time to regard video in a new way. A less regimented way, and something more in line with the snapshot aesthetic with which I approach a lot of my personal photographic work. Something clicked for me when I got caught under a bridge in a driving thunder storm but also happened to have a Sigma fp hanging around my neck, under my rain jacket. It was the quick video clip of water gushing off the bridge that changed my point of view.

Now I bring the video enabled camera along with me on walks and actively look for little scenes, vignettes, that are visually interesting and have nice movement to them. They go into my file. Sometimes I shoot in a different codec and a different color "look" just to see what the resulting files will look like when I play them back on a bigger screen. 

I was coming home from a long walk yesterday when I looked up and saw thin, defined clouds rushing the through the very blue sky. In the past I would have taken a cursory photograph and then headed into the house. Yesterday I rushed to find a camera that does easy time lapse and spent awhile shooting time lapse sequences of the clouds (now) racing across the rich background. 

Essentially, where in the past I was trained to thing of everything in terms of a test or a job, now I am thinking about how much I'd like to see something rendered as a photograph or a video clip just for my own entertainment and/or pleasure.

I think the key to remaining happy and mentally well during these tough times is to create and execute personal projects. Having a series of projects at hand gives me much needed structure and keeps a camera in my hands. And sometimes the external restrictions can provide a very nice framework in which to toil but also just enough friction to make you push back at life a bit more. 

I'll never forget how bleak the 2008-2010 recession felt to me as we were living through it but, in retrospect, it was an amazingly fertile time for me as a writer and a photographer. In the space of three years I wrote five books about photography and lighting, and even finished a novel that had been languishing on the shelf (so to speak). Had the bottom not dropped out of the financial markets and caused so much chaos I would never have slowed down enough to take on, and then finish, so many alternative projects. Remembering this period gives me hope that I'll be able to find similar silver linings this time around. 

But responding in a positive way to chaos only works if you are willing to be flexible and (temporarily?) let go of the ways you've always done stuff in the past. If you are willing to try something new. A new approach. A new subject matter. A new way of sharing work. The more things you play with and the freer you are to disengage the "work/art" from the "commerce" the more opportunities open up to you. 

One of the true joys of both photography and video creation is that once you own a serviceable camera you can shoot and shoot and shoot without incurring any additional financial costs. As you get better and better you can dump the old stuff off your hard drive and try again. And again. And it's equally cost effective to share the work. 

I have a list of silly projects I've come up with. One which is so silly I probably should not even mention it here but....here goes: I've always wanted to buy some Adirondack chairs for the back yard of our home. The plastic ones in bright colors are cheery, comfortable and cheap. I bought three of them and they should come into stock at my local hardware store tomorrow. I'll pick them up curbside in compliance with all local regulations. And every day I plan to reconfigure them and prop them so that it looks like you've come across a grouping of chairs that were vacated only minutes ago. 

Maybe I'll arrange them in a vague circle and leave a couple of coffee mugs near them, along with a legal pad that seems well used, in one of the seats. The aftermath of a casual business meeting? Another set up might be as though you've come across the remnants of a twilight happy hour. One day all the chairs might be lined up facing the sun and have beach towels strewn over them as though you came across the chairs at a pool or resort. 

With each set up I'll document the feel of the scene. I may even print up my favorites as a show. It seems like a fun idea to me and, as I've written, I've always wanted a little collection of Adirondack chairs for the back yard. Having a little personal project to do with them just adds to the fun. 

Regardless of what project I choose having an assignment and long term subject matter to revisit gives me a sense of freedom and purpose that fleshes out an existence current fraught with constraints. 

We have the cameras and the time right now. Best to embark on something fun and personally compelling and not worry in the least about the idea that the photography or video has to be in the service of work/commerce. Staying busy doing things you like is the vital thing. 

I also find having a routine to be emotionally soothing. We've fallen into a comfortable routine here at H.Q.  most days. It consists of getting up by 8 a.m. Having coffee (me) and then doing Yoga for a while. Then a quick breakfast after which we put on our walking shoes and caps and head out for an hour long walk through the neighborhood (which has some amazing and daunting hills!). Back home I read all the news and look at the financial world's press. Then it's on to each of our personal projects. For Belinda now it's about painting the back porch and selecting paint colors for the living room. For me it's a mix of creative concepting for a law firm mixed with thinking about "Merlot" red Adirondack chairs and making time lapse videos of clouds. Late afternoon I do a longer solo walk around the lake and we meet back up for a glass of wine on a bench in the back yard (if the weather is not too hot) followed by dinner (we take turns planning and cooking). Then we each grab the latest novels we're reading and settle into our favorite chairs. The days race by and things are comfortable.

Today I have an assigned project. It's an assignment from Belinda. She is repainting all the wood on our screened in back porch. Before she starts she wants some good photographic documentation of the art on the low wall on the inside of the porch. There are seven or eight small paintings of different cowboys on the deep yellow boards. They were commissioned by the original owners of the house for their two year old son. About a year before we bought the house. Ben was two years old when we moved in and he loved those paintings, and the freedom and possession of that expansive porch as his "personal" toddler domain. 

Belinda wants a perfect documentation of each painted panel to preserve the memory of the way the porch was for Ben when he was growing up. It's a project and it's next on my agenda. 

I better get to it. 

But before I go, a note of optimism. I do believe that mankind will get a handle on the virus and one day it will be safe to travel again, frequent our favorite restaurants, and even do simple things like go into a store to try on shoes. I don't dwell on "when" but it comforts me to think that there will be light at the end of the tunnel and we will savor that time all the more having been though this.

The arduous and slightly embarrassing process of going out to get coffee. And the coffee I ended up with was lukewarm and mediocre.

In Boston with coffee. Early winter 2015.

I was in the studio yesterday thinking about giving a bunch of stuff away. I need to find a struggling, poor, young but brilliant, aspiring photographer (or more than one...) so I can give away a bunch of lights, old light stands, soft boxes and other gear that would be serviceable for them and is now more or less obsolete to me. 

In the midst of my ruminations about limited largesse I decided that I was tired of making coffee at home and, as it was nearly 3pm it was time for a coffee break --- maybe even combined with a trashy cookie full of white flour, sugar and chocolate. An antidote to having read a blog post on broccoli sprouts and their magical healing powers...

The Starbucks in our neighborhood radius closed up early on and left us with only two options; Trianon Coffee (which is my current fave) and Summer Moon Coffee (which is my coffee desperation location). 

Since Trianon is closed on Sundays my choice was quite easy. I'd been to Summer Moon Coffee a week earlier and they seem to have had their virus crisis safety procedures figured out. One could still go in and order a coffee and pay for it at the counter. You couldn't touch the condiments, you had to wear your face mask and you had to stand at least six feet away from...everybody and everything. But you could get steaming hot coffee complete with a splash of half and half. Once you picked up your cup you needed to skedaddle. No lingering allowed. 

I ventured over with thoughts of hot coffee bouncing through my head like a melody you can't dispose of. But minutes later I was standing at the front door reading the latest sign: It told me that customers were no longer allowed to enter the store. All orders had to be made online using their app. Once ordered someone in the shop would prepare the beverage and bring it out to "the pick up table" and once they re-entered the shop you would be allowed to pick up your cup and scurry away.

"Oh hell." I thought. "I guess this is the new normal and I better get used to it or risk getting sidelined from society altogether." 

It was 90 degrees outside so I sought the cool confines of my car while I grudgingly downloaded the company's coffee buying app. 

The first hurdle was with the app. I use an iPhone so my version of the app comes from the Apple app store. I double clicked the button on the right side of my phone to approve the download and Apple asked me to enter my Apple user password. I thought I remembered it correctly, even though it is long and complicated but my memory was not up to the task and after the second failed attempt I thought I'd call for help. The idea of coffee tasted so good...

I called Ben and asked him about my password. He uses my account from time to time to download music; his brain is less full and the interconnections are newer and stronger...

He rattled the 12 digit combination right off. I thanked him and completed the download and installation of the app. I went through the menu and realized, sadly, that we were now reduced to ordering only coffee and coffee drinks and no cookies appeared anywhere on the app menu. So sad. Tragic, almost. I found the large, drip coffee and selected it. I was prompted to customize so I selected half and half and hit "next." 

Then we got to the next speed bump in the coffee process; payment. The actual app isn't set up for payment. That's handled by a second app called, "Chow Now." That app will take your credit card information and allow you to finish your transaction. But there is a fee for the service of fifty cents (half a U.S. dollar). I didn't like that but by this point I was in for a pound so I continued. 

The combination of apps applauded me for my successful completion and gave me a job # to reference. For coffee. A job #. 

A few minutes later a young man came out with a mask and gloves and carefully placed my large cup of coffee on the pick up table and then rushed back into the perceived safety of the shop. I placed my index finger over the little hole on the plastic lid from which you get actual coffee to your mouth and then sprayed the entire cup, and attendant insulating sleeve, with 80% alcohol from the spray bottle I keep in the car for just such emergencies. 

Sadly, sadly, sadly, the coffee was, at best, lukewarm. And stale. Boring. Made hours ago. Unsatisfying. But, of course, once you have endured the painful and demeaning process of overpaying anonymously for mediocre coffee the idea of spending more time trying to understand the logistics of how one might remedy this tragedy seems like a waste of time and  energy. I drove back home with cool coffee and no cookie. 

I put the coffee in a mug and warmed it back up in the microwave. I pulled a Pepperidge Farm Chocolate Chip and Pecan Cookie out of the pantry. Mediocre coffee and a packaged cookie. An altogether unsatisfying experience. 

I went to Trianon today and bought another pound of Organic Ethiopian Medium roast coffee and  I'll just take my chances making coffee at home for a while. At least till my memory of the disappointing coffee experience at Summer Moon is lost to time, and my short attention span...

The take away: Always have a plan "B" when it comes to coffee acquisition. Even in times of crisis.

Now heading out to the back yard to play with the time-lapse feature of the fz2500. Fun in store for me!

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

Why my resurgent interest in the lowly Panasonic FZ2500? Interesting that you should ask...

Dramatic portrait of the FZ2500 taken with Sigma fp at 1/6th of a second...

I have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to video capable cameras with which to shoot; or so it would seem. There are two Panasonic S1's in easy reach. Each has been upgraded with the magic firmware that yields in-camera 10 bit, 4:2:2 capture and V-Log. On the desk in front of me is the Sigma fp which is capable of shooting raw video as well as a long list of high data rate, .Mov files in every configuration you might want. There are Sigma Art lenses and Lumix S Pro lenses littering every flat surface in the studio as well. So why would I want to buy another copy of a camera I owned three years ago, made mainly of plastic, and readily available, used, for around $500?

There is actually a very straightforward answer. It lies in the fact that all the cameras I mentioned previous to the FZ2500 are made to work as cinema cameras. Tools that are engineered to give the very best image quality possible and yet they require a lot of "add-ons" to make them more functional for ENG work (ENG= electronic news gathering, or, stated another way = documentary work without a crew). 

If I want to shoot on the fly interviews on the streets in downtown with, say, a Lumix S1 I'll need to add an assortment of neutral density filters to put on the front of the lens. And I may need several different lenses depending on the subject matter I'm going after. The larger sensor in that camera means I'll need to be extra careful to make sure I've nailed focus because the depth of field can be quite small. And, even though that camera has very good image stabilization it's not in the same class as the FZ2500 because the smaller sensor camera has....a smaller and more controllable sensor. Bring a tripod or a monopod. And then bring a permit....

The Sigma might be an even higher image quality machine but to use it I'll need to carefully manually focus, I'll need an outboard SSD drive to keep up with the data rate of the raw files and, since the camera has neither image stabilization nor neutral density filters built in, we'll have to bring a big tripod and more filters. 

If I want to go out as bare-naked, equipment-wise, as possible I want something that works like a good, old fashioned camcorder. That means I want a package that can be handled in the street by one person. It needs to have a wide ranging zoom lens. It should shoot very, very high quality 1080p in an All-Intra codec, as well as offering full UHD and even Cinema 4K. I'll need peaking and zebras. I want clean microphone inputs, and I very much want the camera to have flexible, built-in neutral density filters. Add to all that good face detect AF and a long run time and you've put together a street ready video camera that can handle a very wide range of subjects. All for (used) around $500. 

Want to use it with a clean output to send less compressed video to an external video recorder/monitor, like an Atomos? No problem. The camera will output up to 4K in 10 bit 4:2:2. Want to shoot an interview in front of a computer monitor or in a situation lit by flickering light sources. Yeah. It's got variable frame rates galore. 

The real question, if you often want to shoot seat of the pants video, on the fly, is....why would you not want to pick up one at a bargain basement price?

Does this mean I'll abandon the above mentioned, full frame cameras? Heavens no! The files out of them look so great and the ability to use a wide range of fast, best in the market lenses gives me so much more image control. The audio adapter for the S1 cameras sounds great. The full frame image is a  whole different aesthetic. The 85mm f1.4, wide open, is magic on the S1 and the Sigma fp. But they work both best on a tripod or slider or jib. They work best when you can take your time and set them optimally, manually and repeatably. 

No, the FZ2500 is for all the other times. The handheld stuff. The "Quick! Can you capture that?" And for those situations when nothing will beat being able to reach in with a 450mm lens and get the shot.

I mean, since you were asking. 

Kudos to M.J. today. I never thought anyone could use over a thousand words to say, "Eat your broccoli. it's good for you." And I never imagined that, if someone did write that much to say so little, that I would have read every word. I wouldn't enlist him as my nutritionist but Man, can that guy write!!!

Cleaned up the studio and put on a freshly laundered shirt so I could do a FaceTime conference with a law firm.

This particular post is aimed at freelance photographers and videographers.

I think it has some universal applications for business owners of all stripes.

I came in from a "hilly" run covered with sweat and breathing hard. Took a shower and put on a pressed, dress shirt (and pants) and sat down in front of my computer to have a FaceTime conference call with one of my clients at a law firm. Seems all their competitors have been doing videos for the web, and television commercials, and the competing firms are getting better name recognition and more market share. I guess, since law firms are considered essential businesses, that the clock doesn't stop. Potential work is out there, in quantity, but we creative folks have to wait for the all clear signal to be sounded for those of us in non-essential enterprises to get back to work. Sounds kind of pejorative to be called, non-essential.

But what this morning's small event tells me is that there is demand. Cash flow might suck for us in the short run but in the medium and longer run there is demand for the kinds of work we do. Our products are one of the many cogs in the figurative machine of commerce and while the machine may run for a little while with some parts missing it will eventually break down; or at least underperform, until those missing parts are replaced or repaired. The down side is that the recovery might take more time than anyone who runs a business like ours would like. 

I know that a lot of freelancers see this whole downturn as something over which they have no control and no way to take action but that's hardly true. If we had 50 good, recurring clients before the shit hit the fan we'll probably still have 36-38 good clients left when the vaccine comes around or a fool proof treatment drug is mass produced. I'm assuming a business failure rate among existing clients at around 25% which seems to me to be just about right for bigger corporations in dire times. If you were specializing in restaurant or event work your numbers will look worse. But here's the deal: those 37.5 clients still working when the lights click back on are yours to lose right now. 

It's a good idea to stay in touch. To remind the clients of the relationship you both enjoyed and both profited from. You can stay in touch by sharing some personal work, by writing an essay on something relevant to both your industries and sharing it on LinkedIn. By sending e-mails outlining how you'll handle personal safety when we all get back to work. Talk about your continuing education in your field and how it will benefit your clients. The important thing is to use your time wisely to stay in touch with people who've proven in the past that they can and will write you checks instead of considering this a time to binge watch Tiger King on Netflix.

Now is a great time to experiment with video if it's a service you aren't already offering. Set up the gear, play with audio. Watch a video by Curtis Judd on recording better audio for location videos. Watch Sean Tucker talk about the way he edits Youtube programming. But more important, try each thing you learn from videos on Youtube with your own hands and your own gear. It moves your education from theoretical to actual and informs you about where your current skills are sub-optimal and can improve. Then it's back to learn > try > and master, again. 

The end result of our call today was a request for me to do some creative concepting around their unique selling propositions. What they do better. How they produce better results. Why working with them makes sense. I'll go back with some broad concepts (which I will bill for) and we'll try to align those concepts with their firm's brand and identity. Once we have some good fits I'll sit here in the safety of my office and write scripts for both web programming and television commercials. We'll have another call to approve or change scripts and then I'll generate storyboards and find a motion graphics pro to produce an introductory logo treatment to put at the front end of every video. All of this is background work that's important, and billable, and can be done remotely. 

The lawyers won't like it but I'll have to let them know that we can't shoot actual, principal video until we get the go-ahead to go back to work from the local health authorities, and even then we'll have to conference about how to ensure everyone's safety on set. (I can tell you one thing, this will benefit solo video artists a great deal as being a crew of one definitely reduces the staff footprint as low as it can go!).  We'll limit the number of people from the client side to just two on set at a time: one on camera and the other from marketing for content approval. When people are not on camera we'll enforce a "face mask on set" rule.  It might slow production down a bit but that's okay if it means we can go back to work and stay safe.

The takeaway here, at least for me, is that we will get back to work. And we'll get back to work more quickly and profitably if we nurture the relationships we enjoyed before everything collapsed. 

A fringe benefit to maintaining good, personal relationships with clients? All bills for work done this year have been paid by my clients on time. Some a bit earlier than usual. Keep your powder dry and be smart about focusing on the future. Don't waste time.

Ah. Take out. Now a significant treat in our house. 

But only once or twice a month...we're cheap.

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? 

Dealing with bureaucracy really makes me want to throw in the towel, sell everything and go live on a mountain top somewhere. How the IRS screwed it up this time....

Remember those enormous checks we sent into the IRS year after year? Huge, debilitating checks that provided funds for our government that they continue to use up trying to fight the cold war. With fleets of nuclear subs and gaggles of unstealthy stealth fighter jets.  The checks my government is using so my "president" can play golf more frequently than Arnold Palmer and Ben Crenshaw's life time rounds combined. Checks used to pay for all sorts of misguided nonsense! 

I never complained until today. this was the day I decided to look and see where my Crisis/Disaster/End of the World check for $2,400 was hiding... (well, not actually a check but hopefully a direct deposit...). 

Apparently IRS widget made expressly for this kind of information has been crashing non-stop since early this morning. Par for the course. I'll try a nine iron...

But here's the insight I gained today.... All the government reports about the one time "relief" payment suggest that if you have filed your 2018 and 2019 tax returns, and have given the IRS your bank information to complete those returns, you need do nothing more and as quickly as you can putt a six incher you'd have the cash in your accounts. Hole in one. It's supposed to be....automatic.

But here's the rub that I've discovered. If you've never gotten a refund from the IRS and all the money has flowed in one direction (to them) they won't/can't use the banking information you gave them for your payments to them to get this one time payment into your account. Even if it's the same account. No. You have to go online and give them your banking information for  this payment all over again. 

And the only way to do so it through the new site widget. Which is broken. But otherwise you can wait with all the other folks for a check to hit your mail box in August --- if we decide to continue the national postal service. Enter information into the site! But the site is broken. It's like being in an endless sand trap with no wedges, only woods. 

Who actually gets refunds? I've never gotten a refund. I wouldn't know what they look like. Apparently we're one of the few households where the IRS money only flows in one direction. 

If I sound angry it's because all of this is such a waste of time and energy. And it's not a service my CPA or attorney is offering to do for me.

But this particular rant is mostly intended as a public service announcement to our readers: If you pay taxes with direct EFTs (electronic fund transfers) from your bank account don't depend on the IRS reciprocating automatically and depositing your money there. You must give them your account information to get money back from them.

But there's this Nigerian man who offered to help if I could just send him all my banking information.....