digicams used in photojournalism and/or street photography

[thomas_sullivan]

J Sevigny'e "street digicam" post the other day reminded me of

several postings...or at least mention of...about at least one

photojournalist, or someone like that, that used (although not

exclusively) a p&s digicam a lot. Did a search, but can't seem to

find any reference to it.

<p>

So, I'll just start this anew. Does anyone know of any

photojournalists, street photographers, etc., that use digital point

and shoot type digitals? Would be very curious to see some pics on

websites also..........provide all the links you want.<p>

 

<i>Moderator's Note - This is the Street & Documentary Forum, not the "People don't care about quality" forum. Please stick to the topic...

[thomas_sullivan]

oh.....by the way.....I mean "notable" photogs...someone already established in one of the fields, or making a big "noise" on his/her way into the limelight. I didn't mean amateur/hobbyists, like myself. Someone who actually expects to, or does, make money off of these P&S Digicam pics.

[andrew_hull]

There is a Magnum reporter named Alex Majoli that shoots with a Nikon digital (5700?).

 

http://www.magnumphotos.com/c/htm/TreePf_MAG.aspx?Stat=Photographers_Portfolio&E=29YL5359F1HU

[chip l.]

I guess I would have to ask that the images be from "notable photographers"? I have seen

much work here from "ordinary" photographers (and on PhotoSig) using P&S cameras. If it

is inspiration that you are looking for, it should not matter IMO whether the photographer

is noted or not.

 

Not slamming you. Was just curious as to why you followed up the way you did.

[tim_gruber]

As metioned Alex from Magnum uses one, but it's not a Nikon it's an Olympus C-5050 Zoom. You can see the work here:

 

http://www.nppa.org/competitions/best_of_still_photojournalism/2004/winners/still/index.cfm?category=MPY&place=1st

[thomas_sullivan]

Chip.........it wasn't the photographer's ability with p&s digicams I was alluding to in the follow up question........it was the wire services, magazine/newspaper publications...or even art galleries...acceptance of them as the hardware used. And not that I care whether they accept it or not (just like I don't care if the art world even considers photography an art form), just curious where the money paying people are at with it all. I mean, not too many years ago they didn't even want digital pics, of any kind.

 

apparentently they are ok with it........at least from Alex Majoli...

[rusl53]

Any working professional photojournalist will have pro equipment and can afford to have the best.

 

That said, there are some of us that are not "professional" but do get some of our work published and ocassionaly get paid, but cannot afford expensive equipment, so we work with waht we have.

 

I do not own any "pro" digital equipment. I use a Sony S-85, and a Fuji S-5000 for all my street work as well as my fashion work (which is how I mostly get some pay). I have been published in a few magazines, most notably for me was the September 2003 issue of Women's Own magazine (UK edition) and the images for a feature on a woman here in Vermont who was a breast cancer surviver was taken with my Sony S-85. I got paid very well for this assignment.

 

So I guess what I am trying to say is that we do the best we can with what we have, learn to use our camera to it's greatest potential and make some great images.

 

And by the way, no one ever asked me what gear I used when they published my images, or hired me to cover an event.

[Ed_Ingold]

Thomas:

Digital images are accepted in all venues, though not in every instance. In particular, photojournalism is nearly 100% digital. The notable exception appears to be local camera clubs run by greybeards.

 

If you had asked whether digital images are accepted by news agencies, magazines, etc. you would have received different responses.

Perhaps I misunderstood when you asked "[Do] ... any photojournalists... use P&S digitals?"

 

The book, "200x Photographer's Market," published by Writer's Digest Books, would be a good place to start if you are sincerely interested. This book is a good list of who buys what, for how much and in which format.

 

The issue with P&S digitals is not the quality of the image, but the shutter lag, which can exceed 1/2 seconds, slow writing and limited buffer memory. These are impediments most competent photographers are unwilling to endure.

[Brad_]

<I>The issue with P&S digitals is not the quality of the image,...</I><P>

Not totally true, especially with respect to low-light shooting at higher ISOs.

[j_sevigny]

I, too, am mvery interested in this but for a slightly different reason.

 

I really feel lucky to be able to take part in most of the forums here, the majority of which

feature at least some excellent photography. I really want to find out what's possible with

point and shoot digital photography when it comes to street stuff.

 

As you folks all know, a lot of the characteristics of little digicams make them inconvenient

for street use. They're generally slow, high ISOs are sometimes exceedingly grainy, and

lenses just aren't wide enough for the way a lot of street shooters like to work.

 

I'd really like to see more of what people on this board are doing with digital point and

shoots AS WELL as what pros are doing.

 

John

[gaius1]

"Any working professional photojournalist will have pro equipment and can afford to have the best."

 

I just finished Shutterbabe by Deborah Cogan Kopaken, a photojournalist who covered the Intifadah, the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, tanks on the streets in Moscow and a whole lot of other adventures. According to her, most PJs operate on a shoe-string budget, many are heavily in debt to their agencies. Only the ones with lucrative book publishing deals can afford all the lenses they want!

 

The book was quite an eye opener, photojournalism is a risky career for the agency photographer (even if you aren't in a war zone), the agency might split travel costs with the photographer 50/50 and if it doesn't result in any saleable images, you're out of pocket, no matter if there happened to be nothing newsworthy happening when you got there. Agencies advance money to their "employees" but it all needs to be earned back.

[j_sevigny]

Agencies are not always great about supplying gear for their people.

 

I was a stringer for the AP in Mexico. I did the job part time, but I knew plenty of full-time

people -- and good photographers -- who had to buy their own gear.

 

There are also pros at small papers all over the country who have to supply their own

cameras.

[john_sidlo]

I received a christmas gift of the book "Subway" by Peter Peter (yup!) who has been not hugely admired here, more compared to the average work you see on this forum. That said, there are a few excellent shots in it, and lots of good ones. He used (solely) a Nikon 880, a 3mp camera, taped inside a little box with a porthole, like you would use for a poodle or something.

[sliu]

I agree with John's observation about the book "subway". Published work isn't always good.

 

The main problem of that book is the subject/content. The camera the author used has compact digital camera's weakness: poor image quality in high contrast scene. Unfornately, many photos in that book were shot in the subway above ground (in Brooklyn/Queens) and they show the ugliest part of these cameras. I wouldn't even post those photos on photo.net.

 

My experience with compact digital is with well-practiced mind, shutter lag wouldn't be a problem. But the image quality problem I mentioned is still the big issue for compact digital, that is why I still use Olympus Epic.<div></div>

[thomas_sullivan]

the oly is a nice film cam for doing this thing..........I was wondering where the bottom limit was in digital that is being readily accepted by the people who actually would put money up for the resulting image.

 

It appears that the so called "advanced digicams" are relatively well accepted. However the bottom end of digicams is still to be determined. You're right John, that book's pics aesthetically have a bit to be desired. So it's not a great example of what a small P&S digicam can do. However Majoli's demonstration of the "advanced digicam's" capability is pretty awesome.

[sliu]

Tom,

 

The image I posted above was shot with a "bottom end" digital camera, Canon SD10 (the tiny one that I used to shoot that 24HrNY vedio clip ;-).

 

As a matter of fact, I also have the same beach shot on Provia 100F with Olympus Epic and medium format Fuji 645. Although the image quality of those 35mm and 6x4.5 slides are WAY MUCH better than the 4MP digital image from SD10, the best moment is still the one caught by SD10.

 

My ideal street camera would be a real pocket camera of the size of Olympus Stylus Epic that could produce images with quality as good as those high end fix-lens digital cameras.

[china243]

Hello J Sevigny

<br><br>

You may take a look at this address:

<br><br>

<A href="http://sememprego.dtdns.net/minhasfotos/index.php ">http://sememprego.dtdns.net/minhasfotos/index.php</A>

<br><br>

All shots were taken with a Canon SD10... the site is in portuguese, but the photos are not. ;)

<br><br>

[]s<br>

China<div></div>