Seeing in the dark
August 14, 2010 by Juergen Specht · 2 Comments
Next Monday I will publishI just published my newest series called “Apocrypha“, here is a preview:
What I saw…
Ironically the picture above is not just a black image, its exactly what I saw while shooting.
But thanks to modern technology, an infrared flash and an infrared camera, this is what my camera saw:
and what my camera saw!
This was definitely the first time I didn’t see at all what I was shooting and had entirely rely on my gut feeling and the instructions I gave in the darkness to my lovely model Sanaxxx and my assistent Ken. Neither of us saw a thing. The results however are amazing!
Am I the only one who finds this ironic?
January 11, 2010 by Juergen Specht · 1 Comment
No comment…
Sign on a Canon Booth
D1scussion’s 10th anniversary!
December 10, 2009 by Juergen Specht · Leave a Comment
Today exactly 10 years ago I founded D1scussion, a mailing list for photographers using Nikon Digital SLR Cameras.
10 years! Amazing! I remember it vividly, in 1999 I moved to Japan armed with a Nikon F5 and a F100 and a couple of lenses, than I saw the just released Nikon D1 in a shop for a whopping 700,000yen. While interested, I thought that I will never spend that much money on a camera alone. But after a couple more visits to the camera store, I just bit the bullet and bought one. Since I just sold one of my Internet projects, the money was not really the problem, but I realized fast that this new camera has quite a learning curve…it just didn’t behave at all as it should.
After some initial excitement, frustration set in and I looked for other people having experience with this camera. I joined several Nikon mailing lists, but whenever I mentioned that I owned a D1, people mocked me and rejected this camera more like an expensive toy. It became even more frustrating, so I took matters in my own hands and created a mailing list called D1scussion – a wordplay out of D1 and Discussion – dedicated to this new camera. After announcing it in several analog forums, the first members poured in. It was not my first mailing list, in fact back in 1996 I started a public mailing list service named KBX in Germany, which soon was used by more than 1/4 of all German Internet users.
D1scussion became an instant hit, in January 2000 already more than 200 photographers became members and even several Nikon employees joined. It became the de-facto support address for all digital pioneers and the discussions really helped everybody to get the most out of the camera. After a short while I learned that the part which frustrated me (mainly the totally unreliable flash behavior) was not my fault at all, but Nikon’s. D1scussion members came the the rescue and the group found a way to work around the problem. Nikon soon answered with a better flash, but it took a few more flash and camera generations to fix this problem completely. Another initial grief was the choice of the NTSC color space as the internal camera color space and back in 1999/2000 there was not much public knowledge of color management. The forum members were just amazing and even while practically all professional photographers were in some kind of competition with each other, everybody shared freely their knowledge, making us all better photographers.
Lots has happened in the last 10 years. D1scussion moved several times to new servers, cameras and software made an incredible jump forward in usability and quality and digital workflows are way better understood than back then, still there is demand for a knowledgeable group helping out when the need arises.
D1scussion now must be one of the best behaved Internet forums out there, I cannot remember when we had the last internal flame war or a troll annoying everybody, they simply don’t exist in this forum. Its also amazing how long people stay subscribed to D1scussion, in average longer than 5 years.
I must admit, having founded and maintained D1scussion for that long makes me a little proud. ;)
A photo of an analog photo shooting taken with my Nikon D1 10 years ago…
The mystery camera reveals their secrets
October 20, 2009 by Juergen Specht · 1 Comment
Some years ago my wife found an old disposable camera near an abandoned hotel resort somewhere in the mountains. In all these years we kept it on a shelf and wondered what kind of secrets this mystery camera will reveal when we finally bring it to a lab…now we know!
Looks like it was a lavish party :)
The DORYU 2-16 Pistol Camera
October 8, 2009 by Juergen Specht · 1 Comment
This Pistol shaped camera gives the word “photo shooting” a totally different meaning.
Originally made in 1952 for the Japanese police, the pistol-shaped image capture device was used to photograph criminals in the act, as well as to record the faces of protestors. It even came with an adapter for Nikkor lenses!
(Via World Famous Design Junkies and Spartagos.)
Redundancy
October 7, 2009 by Juergen Specht · 2 Comments
Photographers at work at a Japanese wedding
The world of disposable digital cameras starts now
October 7, 2009 by Juergen Specht · Leave a Comment
Yashica just announced the EZ F521 (Google Translation), a new just 8000yen (~$80USD) expensive digital camera. The specs are not that bad, it sports a 5MP CMOS sensor and has just 2 settings, macro or land scape.
Photo: Exemode
CNet calls it a digital Holga and I agree, it might be the perfect “disposable” camera or perfect for all kinds of experiments involving many cameras. Very interested!
(Via CNet.)
The Panasonic GF1 is out and why I don’t buy it
September 18, 2009 by Juergen Specht · 11 Comments
Today the new Panasonic GF1 went on sale and I had a look. What a fantastic camera. Its exactly the kind of camera the Olympus E-P1 wanted to be.
Because it has a grip the handling is much improved over the Olympus, in comparison the Olympus is as slippery as a piece of soap. The control wheel is admittedly worse, but you can get used to it. Alone the fast auto-focus and the optional digital viewfinder (albeit grainy) is worth it. The layout of the controls is very similar, so is the size.
And this is exactly what is wrong with the camera, its too big.
As a photographer I want always carry a camera with me. There are just too many moments which need to be documented. And here the size comes into play. The new range of cameras are able to deliver great quality images, but if I have to carry a rather big body and the attached lenses don’t collapse, its makes for a way too big package. In this case I can just carry my DSLRs with me.
My demands on a carry-around camera are actually quite simple: It must shoot in RAW format, it should have a zoom lens starting at 28mm, the quality should be the best of its class, low light pictures should be usable until ISO800, the resolution should be higher than 6MP and the controls should be easy to change without digging too deep into menus. Plus of course, it should be “pocket-able”.
The good thing about living in Tokyo is that I can go into only one shop and can play with practically all current cameras to get a first hand impression.
Over the years I checked so many cameras and the first camera which fit the bill for me was Canon’s G9. Except the low light ability (I never shot it higher than ISO400) and having a zoom starting at 35mm, it was nearly perfect. As last year the Canon G10 came out, I instantly updated and was very positive surprised: the controls got even better, the zoom started at 28mm and the low-light ability was slightly improved.
Even not everybody would agree with me on “pocket-able” with the G10, but it somehow works. A near perfect walk-around camera… until the Guava-Juice incident happened. I was in a plane with the camera on my lap, opened a Guava-Juice and suddenly the plane dropped a couple meter down. In an instant, my camera was “juiced” and the lens cover was all sticky, so it hardly opened. I was able to fix it temporarily, but later decided to bring it to Canon’s service center, only to hear that the price for a repair was practically the same as a new camera (one of the reasons I don’t get attached to my walk-around cameras).
Since then I was waiting for the next camera to come out and hoped that a camera maker managed to get a bigger sensor into a G10 sized body. The Sigma DP2 came out, but is just awful to handle. The Olympus E-P1 came out, but it was just ever so slightly too big and has a lousy auto focus. Now today’s personal review of the Panasonic GF1 shows me that I probably have to wait a bit longer and have to go for my 3rd Canon G camera in a row, the G11.
Its basically all I liked from the G10, only the low-light ability was improved and the LCD can now be turned at any angle, which might come handy. The size is the same. The sensor size is still small, but since the resolution got decreased, I have hopes that the image quality is actually better than the G10.
It might work for me for another year and I have high hopes that Canon manages to squeeze an APS sized sensor into this small package in their next G-series incarnation, but leaves the lens fixed and collapsible to keep the camera “pocket-able”.
Random Images
