So...at one point I really was smitten by small sensor, long lens, compact cameras. I think I still am.

 

I was looking for an older photograph that I wanted to send to an art director who works in an ad agency in San Antonio. We'd been e-mailing back and forth about a project and I remembered an image of a woman working in an office that more or less encapsulated the look and feel that I was trying to steer him towards in a contemporary project. I found the image but I also stumbled across this image from about a decade ago. If you compare it with images from a similar viewpoint today you'd find that this image is missing three or four (or more) tall buildings. 

It was taken with a Sony RX10-2. A camera with a one inch sensor and a lens that went from 24-200mm. Just right, I think. The f-stop for this photo was 6 and the focal length for the shot was 8.8mm. The shutter speed was 1/125th of a second. 

It's not a particularly clever shot but it does show off what smaller sensor cameras can do well. The can include huge swaths of a scene in sharp focus. The depth of field is different from current tastes. 

I walk through this area frequently and seeing this image from a long time ago brings me back to how fresh this particular retail development (a re-use of a retired electric generating plant) looked and felt at the time. And how much fun it was to document progress in the downtown Austin area. 

I haven't seen any announcements or rumors that would lead me to believe that Sony is on the cusp of introducing a new model in the RX10 series and I think that's too bad. The final one, as of now, is the RX10-IV and it's pretty darn good. It's got an enormous range of angles of view, fast AF, great color, good 4K video and also good image stabilization. 

The retail price is still around $1600 for the camera and to my mind you are getting an amazingly good lens; it may be the selling point of the whole package. If the camera used a bigger battery it would be close to perfect for those photographers and videographers who really aren't smitten by super thin slivers of sharp focus. This camera trades "bokeh" for information. 

I'll be a bit sad when the RX10-4 is finally discontinued. For some people it's the perfect imaging solution. 

Just a quick walk down memory lane. 

Deceleration.

SL2 + 50mm. 

Regression to the mean. Secondary derivatives. Life goes on.

I've been keeping an eye on the stock market lately. I would guess that you have too. I spent some time with an economist several weeks ago and we traded perspectives about the market. He was interested in both the rate of change and rate of the rate of change but in the end I think what we're seeing play out, in the markets and in cultural life, is the long arch of a regression to the mean. The stock market tends to go up, on  average, about seven to ten percent per year. In 2021 the S&P Index zoomed up by about 30%. Most of that, I think, was driven by pent up demand from the first year of the pandemic. Some was driven by the underlying euphoria of dodging (just barely) the burdensome yoke of authoritarianism. And a good deal of the general froth in the markets was a secondary effect of federal money pouring into the general consumer market in terms of stimulus checks. All combined to distort the normal trajectory of the markets. Add to this the psychology of considering every fiscal upside as the new normal. 

Now my friends, who saw their net worth leap skyward last year (factoring in the elevating values of their real estate) are dismayed and tormented by this quarter's stock market correction. While I'd love to see my simple investments return 30% every single year I think that's irrational and that what we are seeing right now is more just a regression to the mean. A return. A somewhat painful return. To bringing the market back in line with statistical averages. 

I also see a corollary with the hobby of photography. The newness of digital drove the market for cameras like a runaway freight from 2001 to 2013. Sales nearly doubled every year. The components of the basket of camera goods constantly changed and rebalanced but the acceleration of overall growth was impossible to argue against. But since 2013 cameras sales have dropped in almost an exact expression of "Kirk's Laws of Market Parabola." This states that the rise of a market or a company's value rises to a high point and then because of market pressures, new competition, maturing tech or some other reason the value or the market then descend. The rate of acceleration before the high point generally equals the rate of deceleration after the high point. The trajectory of the curve up and then down is more or less the same on either side of the midpoint. In an artillery analogy a bullet shot into the air completes an arc at the end of it's flight (if unimpeded) that is equivalent on both sides of the apex of the bullet's flight. 

I think the camera market is a perfect example of R to M. We're heading back to a time when only advanced amateurs and people bent on making money with their passion carried around cameras and shot lots of images of things other than selfies and food shots. We're heading back to the late 90s when you either did photos for love or money but you didn't switch stuff every few years. The market reflects this now. At some point the decline in sales will stop and camera makers will adjust back to a sane parametric. 

I more or less believe in the regression to the mean in both culture and finance. The markets may dip this year but over an X year period I'm betting we'll continue to see a seven to ten percent rate of return per year. Painful in the short run but comforting over the long haul. 

I believe that what we're seeing in our cultural landscape is an attempt by conservatives to force a regression to the mean on social issues. My only curiosity is just how big a curve are they trying to address. Will we go all the way back to biblical times and pass laws allowing us to stone adulterers and to also make slaves of peoples that we conquer in war? Or will we just be asked to give back more recent achievements of kindness and civilization? It will be interesting to see where the mean lies in the whole social equation and whether those pushing for regression really understand the math and how it will inevitably affect themselves.

Here are some building shots I took this morning. I like them. They came from the Leica SL camera and the Panasonic 50mm f1.8 lens. 

 

Good camera. Good lens. Good location.

 Photo from rural North Carolina. Camera: Panasonic G9. Lens: Olympus 12-100mm Pro.

Over the weekend I grappled with the idea of picking up a used Olympus EM-1X at a low, used price. I looked at a bunch of reviews and they tossed cold water on the idea not because of the quality of images that one could get from the camera but because both the EVF and the rear screen of the camera are so...unappealing. The EVF in particular is very old tech and uses an LCD screen instead of the mostly current OLED screens. The consensus is that the view through the viewfinder is quite flat and that the shadow areas are milky and veiled. I may be a bit eccentric but I still like a good finder image much more that I like a nasty one. 

I'm glad I considered the EM-1X though because it convinced me to chalk it off the list in perpetuity and that's probably a good thing. 

But in the process I started pulling up images I'd made with G9s almost four years ago. And I still find them to be among the best images I've made. Not necessarily because the sensor is special (it's not) or because the lenses are magical (they are not) but because it's a camera and a system that just gets out of the way. I found myself consistently not concerned with the well-being of the cameras because I knew I had a backup in the bag and that if a camera met its demise via my neglect it would be inexpensive and easy to replace. It's the same kind of transparency you can get from a good point and shoot camera if you let your mind go there. Insouciance maybe. Diffidence to a certain extent. Since the camera is "nothing special" it becomes incumbent on the operator to actually supply whatever magic might be in the resulting photograph. And knowing that the camera is no "silver bullet" means less leaning on instruments and more time and energy working on the images themselves. Does that make sense? I think it does. 

The image above came from an early morning photography project at a rural construction site. I believe the company the subject worked for was in the process of making a.....lake. It was a big project but my brief had nothing to do with the actual construction and everything to do with the people who supervise and do the work. I'd flown into some town (no longer remember which) around 1 a.m. that morning, grabbed a rental car and some quick sleep and then drove a couple hours to be in place when the half dozen or so people on my shoot list showed up. Since the overall job called for me to be in nearly 30 locations over the course of a couple weeks it was important to me that the cameras travelled well. That meant safety for the gear but a small enough complete package that would fit anywhere. Under any airline seat. In any overhead compartment. 

If you've read the blog over time you'll know I have a thing about back up gear. Redundant equipment. Fault tolerant inventory. It was no different on this trip. My small backpack contained two identical G9 bodies and two lenses that both covered the focal lengths that were most critical to me; a 12-100mm lens and also a 12-60mm lens. In my mind, at the time, they were interchangeable tools and one accompanied the other in case of a singular catastrophic failure not because one had different visual properties than the other. There were also plenty of batteries for the cameras as well as some wider and weirder lenses; just for fun.

When I look at images from 2018, either from Iceland or from the P&J shoots out on locations, even in 2022 I don't see many (if any) faults. The files seem to have good dynamic range, great flesh tones, very good sharpness and everything else that we use as a measure of image quality. The only thing that's "missing" is sheer resolution. The G9 is a 20 megapixel camera. 

If you are doing an art project where you'll be doing profound manipulations to the images and then outputting at very large print sizes I can see that advantages of a 50 or 60 megapixel camera but the reality for most of my commercial jobs is that the images "might" get used as a full page or double truck print asset in a brochure, and 20 megapixels is fine for that, but mostly the images will be used as content on websites and in email marketing. All well within the realm of "no problem" for almost any modern camera. 

Will I now rush out and buy yet another G9? Probably not. I understand that there is a certain placebo effect that goes along with successful projects and the success, while real, might not be assignable to something as simple as the right camera. It could have been my motivation at the time, my insertion into new and interesting environments with new people. It could have been all down to the general positivity of the times for me. Or just having a fun, new challenge.

I don't think the G9 will give me files that are any better than those I can get from the GH6 and I can't think of a feature that the G9 delivers that the GH6 doesn't match or exceed. 

Some have written to say that the G9 is old tech and that they are pretty sure the sensor being used in the GH6 will find itself integrated into an upcoming G10 model. But that's really not the point of our general attraction to the G9 right now. The real attraction is the combination of that camera being a proven commodity, a workhorse, a highly reliable tool, a full featured, modern camera and being offered at the low, low price point. 

I too am almost certain that a G10 or similar camera is on the horizon (far horizon or close? I don't know) but I am always cynical that camera makers will figure out how to make what was a great camera worse in a newer model because they find ways to make it cheaper and less rugged while goosing up sales with better specsmanship. They'll bend to pressure to make the new model smaller or lighter and in that quest will also make the battery smaller and ever more incompatible. I don't know that this is a certain pathway but consumer marketing can be a nasty brew of giving people mostly what they think they want even if it is to their own detriment. Right?

I finished up two environmental portraits today both shot at ISO 800 with the GH6. The files look good. A bit more "computational" than the old G9 files. But that's only when I'm peaking at 100%. But still, I think there's a lot to be said for less computer assistance and more attraction to less processed and more authentic files. And that keeps the G9 in the running. At least for now. 

Leica issues new firmware for the SL2. Once again, DP Review totally fumbles the link.

 

First I have to thank DP Review for alerting me to the fact that Leica has released firmware 4.0 for the Leica SL2. They've also released new firmware for the SL2S but I don't own one of those so it's not really on my radar. 

Then I have to take a poke at DP Review and Leica USA for completely fumbling the link that actually gets one to the new firmware. The link at DPR takes one to the USA site's Italian .PDF about the firmware but has no clickable link to actually access the firmware. None. Not at all. You are welcome to download the Italian language .PDF and read a dozen pages of fun details but it won't get you any closer to upgrading your camera. I would think a big, global site would at least click on the link they are sharing to make sure it works. This applies to either/both DPR and LeicaUSA. 

The solution is to track down Leica's international site and go straight to the support page. They actually make the upgrade quick and easy to find. 

The download is straightforward and the installation is quick. All the usual caveats apply: fully charged battery, clean, formatted SD card, no monkeying with buttons during the process.

The firmware tightens integration between the camera and L mount lenses from companies other than Leica. It adds layers of controls to face detect AF. And allows for greater customization of some of the buttons and wheels. 

I like firmware updates. They are generally always things that improve either image quality or operational flexibility. Or both.

We're all set and ready here. 

Wanna go straight to the source and start your download? Here's a good link: 

https://leica-camera.com/en-US/downloads?download_area_category=1171&download_area_subcategory=1127&field_media_document_topic=1074&field_media_document_language=984

Summer Arrives. Interest in weirder cameras grows. Life is mellow.

The combination of the Olympus 40-150mm f4.0 Pro and the Panasonic GH5ii. They play well together. 
 

Lately I've been in a mellow mood. Since I came back from Santa Fe last week I realized just how relaxed and anti-dramatic my home life is. B. and I get along so well that it's almost eerie. The house runs like a precision machine. The external domestic tasks such as lawn care and general upkeep have been relegated to trusted suppliers. In the next few weeks the painters will arrive and repaint the living room, the entry way and a long hallway. I thought about painting stuff myself but the living room ceiling peaks at 28 feet and I have no desire to stand on high ladders anymore. Accounting and bookkeeping are handled by a CPA I've trusted for years. (decades).  Everything seems to run like a little retinue of perpetual motion machines, most of which require no intervention from me.

B. and I are both good enough and efficient enough cooks and we've long learned to make weekly menus and shopping lists in order to spend minimal amounts of time shopping for groceries. Generally I hit the store only when I want to pick out fresh fish or veggies for same day cooking. Otherwise we take turns once or twice a week roaming Whole Foods with a shopping list that mostly covers the majority of ingredients for home cooked meals. It's fast and easy and if it's my turn but I'm feeling unmotivated I can always have produce and staples delivered.

We learned early on to take things easy when there's nothing pressing. In the mornings I go to swim practice and then read the "papers" online over coffee at my neighborhood coffee shop. Sometimes I get a breakfast taco. Occasionally I splurge and add a danish or croissant. B. spends the morning at yoga and then out walking the hills in the neighborhood. We generally fend for ourselves for lunches during the week but a Saturday lunch together is a ritual we rarely break. There's a little bistro called "Blue Dahlia" and they make lots of healthy food. We go there by default but we change the routine when it starts to feel a bit stale. 

We nearly always have dinner together. Sometimes I cook. Sometimes she cooks. And sometimes, if the weather is pleasant, we make reservations at one of our favorite restaurants; the ones that feature outdoor patio dining. 

Leading a leisurely home live gives me energy to spare for art projects and my photography. Lately I've turned down more work than I've accepted. And I've turned down my old publisher's requests that I write more books --- several times. It's a wonderful feeling to be able to say..."NO." Nothing about life seems rushed now. Nothing work-related seems to gnaw unbidden at the edges of consciousness. There are no insurmountable deadlines. 

Of course nothing perfect lasts forever in its current form. There's always entropy and an erosion toward  chaos but you have to savor the good things while you have them. Change comes soon enough.

Weird cameras. "Those whom the the gods would destroy they first make bored". (and NO. I don't care what the exact quote is or where it came from..). My biggest fault in my pursuit of photography is that I get bored working with the same gear over and over again. I also get bored lighting things the same way ad infinitum. No sooner did I get the Panasonic GHx cameras back in the studio when I stumbled across three used Olympus OMD EM-1X cameras. 

Have you seen these beasts? They are basically the Canon 1DX or Nikon D5s of the micro four thirds world. Big bodies that are made with integral vertical grips and ample space for holding two big batteries simultaneously. They use the same imaging sensor as was first introduced in the OMD EM1-2 but the features that separate the EM-1X from the rest of the Olympus cameras (Pre-OM1) is that the big EM-1X was one of the first dedicated cameras to incorporate machine learning and very high speed processing which allows for creative autofocus modes but also things like electronic neutral density filtering and also handheld high resolution modes that seem to work beautifully. 

The camera was created to win some of the sports photography space. It features super fast frame rates and has a tenacious focus tracking ability. But, of course it's very big compared to anything else in its format family and when it was introduced it was pricy. The list in 2019-2020 was $3,000. I don't think the camera sold well at all. The current NEW price has been dropped by dealers to a uniform $1795. That's over $1,000 off the intro price. 

Crazy cameras like this really attract me. I find over-engineering fascinating and somewhat endearing in a camera body. It was one of the first popular, interchangeable lens cameras to boast a IP rating for water and dust intrusion. Although, to be fair, Leica has been publicly rating their camera bodies such as the SL and the SL2 with IP ratings for years. The SL2 boasts an IP rating of 54 which means it can also withstand a nuclear explosion or being run over by a cement truck. While being sprayed off with a fire hose.

The Olympus OMD EM1X came to my attention when I dropped by Precision Camera to pick up a lens. There were three of the EM1X bodies sitting in the m4:3 used equipment case just calling out to me like the Sirens trying to lure Odysseus and his crew onto the deadly rocks.  

To be clear, this not a camera I need and if I did need a third camera (m4:3)  for work, or even for my personal imaging, it would make much more sense to add another GH5ii or GH6 because of the similar menus and handling. If I was squeezed for cash it would make much, much more sense to buy a new Panasonic G9 now that they are back on sale for under $1,000. But there's something about big, weird, purpose built cameras that transforms them instantly into a collector status camera. It's an oddity that presages an inflection in changing camera capabilities that are coming in newer generations. 

I made an offer to the used equipment manager for one of the bodies. I sent him my offer via e-mail but he won't see it till Monday. Maybe by then I will have come to my senses. Or someone with a greater passion for the eclectic and absurd will venture into the store tomorrow and clean out the supply. That would make my decision not to proceed much easier... But fate works the way fate works. 

Is there anyone who reads the blog that owns or has owned one of these "Lockness Monster" cameras? If so please let me know your experiences and if you've kept yours. You may or may not be reading more about the X camera here. Who knows where the  weekend will take us?

Summer Arrives. It was just plain nasty outside today. The temperature here in the hills West of downtown hit about 96° today but the real story was the mix of temperature and humidity. The "feels like" temperature of the combined measures was something like 105° and more disconcertingly the heat wave came out of nowhere after a very mellow and well behaved Spring. I looked at the forecast and was a bit dismayed to see that it's supposed to be in the high 90s all through the next week. And beyond. No chances for rain either. It was a quick fall off the cliff into another Texas Summer. 

I went to swim practice this morning but was happy to spend most of the day cleaning up the studio and reading parts of several biographies and autobiographies of or about Vladimir Nabokov. Just reading his essays makes one feel smart. But the real lure of the experience is sitting quietly in the cool currents of the air conditioning and occasionally closing one's eyes and drifting off for a moment or two. Conflating the Russian emigre's writing with stories made up on the spot by my subconscious about industrial strength cameras. It all seemed pertinent --- in the moment. 

I've been thinking about the people of Russia lately. Especially so after reading some Nabokov. I spent the better part of a month in St. Petersburg in 1995. Just a few years after the fall of the wall and in the flux of the breakup of the Soviet Union. My heart goes out to the Ukrainians but also to the average Russian citizen who is no better informed than the Americans who get their news from Fox. 

Such desperate times in which to be so poorly informed. Such desperate times to live under authoritarianism and even more haunting to live in a free country where some of our fellow citizens pine to drag us all into the same authoritarian hell here. In our own country. In our own home. It all makes cameras seem so incidental.

How's that Olympus 12-45mm Pro lens working for me in the "real world"? Not bad.

 

I'm really enjoying the new lens. Well, both of the new Olympus lenses. In each category they are small and light while being first rate imaging tools. I kept the Panasonic GH5ii with the Olympus 12-45mm Pro lens on the passenger's seat of my amazingly wonderful Subaru Forester for my entire two day trip to Santa Fe a couple of weeks ago. If I saw something I liked I pulled off the two lane highway onto a wide shoulder and took the shot. The 12/45 is pretty much the perfect range for me when shooting casually. It's the Ff equiv. of a 24 - 90mm lens and that just about covers everything I want in a walk around lens. 

It's sharp at its widest aperture and seems to handle diffraction well to at least f11. The increasing depth of field probably compensates psychologically for any loss of ultra fine detail...

It also makes for a small and light package which is low profile. And I think that becomes more important as cameras in general start to disappear entirely from most Americans public lives. The 12-45mm is on sale right now for chump change at most Olympus dealers. This week, at least, it's $100 bucks off the usual price. If I didn't have at the moment I'd probably go out and buy one. 

Funny quick tale about my car. I traded a two year old Subaru Forester (also white) for the latest model at my dealer last year. I paid a very small difference to upgrade. When I got back from my road trip last week I idly looked up the value of my newer Forester. If I do the math I paid something like $26,000 total to own this one. But the new pricing on the used models at the dealer is now over $30,000 for a same model and year but with 15,000 more miles on it than mine. I can sell the car right now for more money that I paid for it brand new. I'd consider selling or trading again but, at least in Austin, there are very few new cars to choose from right now. Still, I think the ramp up in prices is weird, perplexing and hopefully transitory. Cars. So silly. Right?

Ah. Site seeing in West Texas. This is THE view for dozens and dozens and dozens of miles...