Micro 4/3 3D?

Yep, that’s right.  Just the other day my favorite camera company, Panasonic, announced that they will be bringing a 3D lens designed for the Micro 4/3 LUMIX G series to market by the end of the year.  Although not high on my wish list (yet), once again Panasonic shows that they care about breaking the mold and clearly want to be a market leader.  Paying attention Nikon?  Read about the new lens here. 

A Point N Shoot That Even I Could Love

Are you in the market for a digital compact that isn’t crippled?  If so you must check out the new Panasonic DMC-LX5 which was announced the other day.  The DMC-LX5 is the successor to the hugely popular LX3 and has a lot of new features, including a revised large 10 megapixel sensor.  It sports a 24-90mm zoom with f/2.0-3.3 aperture.  It also gains an improved hand grip and direct movie record button.  The biggest news is that the DMC-LX5 has a connector to add the DMW-LVF1 electronic viewfinder.  Video is 720p AVCHD Lite and its image stabilization is the newest Power O.I.S.  When it becomes available at the end of August it will sell for $499.95.  You may want to consider putting in an order now since the LX3 was constantly backordered.  You can read more about the LX5 and see sample images here and here.

My Lunch With Ctein

Ctein and Me, Unknown Waitress, 2010

On the first day of July it was my pleasure to have lunch with writer, photographer and master printer Ctein at a local Asian restaurant. We sat outside for part of the time on a very warm Minnesota summer day. We discussed the upcoming 2017 eclipse which he had just written about here and he showed off his newly acquired iPad as well as his Olympus EP1 kit. I asked him about his connections to the Twin Cities which he is very fond of. We talked about the goings on at The Online Photographer and some of the upcoming print offers. All I can say is start saving your money because prices are on the rise. He also related his feelings about future dye transfer print offers which may be coming to an end. He surprised me with news of an exhibition at the MPLS Photo Center.

When the sun got too hot we moved inside where he critiqued a set of prints that I have been working on which I wrote about here. He explained that the two with the gray borders are a result of the version 4 ICC profile problem with Snow Leopard. He suggested that I try them again since that has now been rectified. He strongly suggested that I needn’t mess with Canon’s Easy Print Pro and I have since deleted that troublesome piece of software from my hard drive.

We then got down to the meat of the matter. We compared my best print to the lab print and he showed me what to look for in a good print. I learned that the first step to becoming a good printer was learning how to look at a print. A lot of that means honing in on the shadows. Below I have attempted to replicate what we were looking at. In the crop you will see the erroneous magenta tones that need to be corrected, since the background is actually brown. He also showed me a number of other corrections that could be made. I will follow up on all of this in a final article about my Canon P9000 printer.

We wrapped up our lunch by looking at a number of his dye transfer prints, including a couple of new ones of the Empire State Building taken with the EP1 -- very impressive indeed. I can hardly wait for the show. As we parted company I directed him towards the Apple Store to get a case for his new iPad. I hope that he found one.

Eclipsed

There are some great images from the July 11th total solar eclipse making their way on to the Web. See some of them at Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Is Photography Too Burdensome?

On June 29^th, I realized that the World Cup would be taking a three day break. Since I was taking two of those days as vacation, I considered taking my camera out for a spin, something I haven’t done yet this summer for various reasons. Without even thinking about it I dismissed the idea. It was only in retrospect that I realized why. I simply didn’t want to haul all that crap around.

Now mind you, I am no hoarder of camera equipment. I have one DSLR body – my Nikon D700 -- and four lenses, two of which are primes. I have the usual accessories – a small flash, two Pocket Wizards and a compliment of cords, batteries and a couple of filters. All of this fits quite nicely into two bags. Along with my tripod and monopod that’s only four items total. Thing is, those for items are kinda weighty, at least in my opinion.

Even with the 50mm f/1.4 mounted (which is the smallest lens I own) the D700 weighs in at 51.4 oz (3.2 lbs). If I choose my favorite lens, the Zeiss 35mm f/2, it gets even heavier at 61.5 oz (3.84 lbs). This is no small thing since I recently injured my left shoulder. When fully loaded my small LowePro bag weighs in at nine pounds and the large Think Tank tips the scales at nine and a half pounds. The tripod is 56.48 oz (5.53 lbs) and the monopod is 28.8 oz (1.8 lbs). All told the whole mess is a hefty 26 pounds. It’s hard to imagine that for some this would be a lightweight outfit.

Michael Reichmann wrote about shedding a lot of this baggage by using a Leica M9 here. Unfortunately, neither my wallet nor my wife will even consider that solution, even though it’s very appealing. So here’s what I’m dreaming about. A small, mirrorless, interchangeable lens camera -- maybe a Panasonic, Olympus or Nikon’s rumored whatever. I’d like to pair this with the lightest full-size carbon fiber tripod that I can find. I’d get a four section model to shrink the size even further. I feel a research project coming on. Stay tuned kids.

Ahhhh, The Photographer’s Life

(Thanks to Carey Schumacher, Robert Benson and Mike Johnston)

About The Redesign

The fine folks at blogspot (who host this for free by the way) have forced me into a redesign. My videos where not embedding properly and some other stuff was not working right. I have done the best I could with what they have given me. I want the blog title in CAPS, but can't seem to figure that out. Please let me know what you think and feel free to offer suggestions.

I've got some interesting stuff coming up. Some weighty thoughts, a very special lunch and the world's lightest tripod. Please keep visiting.

Yr. Humble Prop.