DB_Gallery

<p>Get real optical prints from Bluemoon Camera, you will see a big difference, smooth, tight grain, great tones:<br> http://www.bluemooncamera.com/120MachineENL.php</p>

<p>Cool trio of lenses, love the 1.8 line, have the 20mm, 35mm and 85mm 1.8 lenses. I had the 35mm 1.4G and loved it too but sold it not long ago when I picked up a Leica M240, 28mm 2.8 asph, 35mm 1.4 FLE and 50 2.0 Summicron. The 200-500 has my interest the most though, if it is sharp enough, I think I am in, have 95mm filters for a couple of Hasselblad lenses. </p> <p>I have been doing both professional landscape and professional journalism for over 25 years now, lately most of that journalism has been with one very big high end client. I have a couple of friends who also shoot Nikon in this genre…they all seem to have started with the 24-70 and most have gotten rid of it. I tried it out for a weekend and did not like it at all, did not balance well, thought it needed a tripod collar for tripod work and a lot of the folks that had it for any stretch of time saw it go to the shop for all sorts of reasons, mostly due to it becoming de-centered or flat out busted because the thing sticks out and can strike things like poles, walls and what not. </p> <p>So the new one takes the whole “lets make the world’s longest 24mm lens” thing even further, to a ridiculous level with a workflow gaffing 82mm filter thread and obnoxious weight. I can and do carry a lot of weight, I am in better shape than most who carry a camera, but I have no desire to carry this new lens around. The reason I am saying all this is that I work in the business some are claiming to know something about. And in one case found it pretty darn rude to tell some poor guy that he needs to find a new line of work because of a back problem. </p> <p>The 24-70 is one lens that a lot of my fellow working photogs either use and wish they did not have to or flat out don’t and use primes in that range instead, few are in love with it. But there is a market for it, or else Nikon would not make it and upgrade it. </p>

<p>I love my 50 ZM Planar, don't use a hood, just a UV filter and no cap, always ready to go...</p><div></div>

Got it figured out. For some reason the flash changed the custom function settings on each camera body, really odd.

A friend borrowed my SB800 a bit ago and now it does the monitor pre-flash in every mode on my D750 and D810. I am not sure how to turn it off, is there a master reset or anything since this has basically rendered the flash unusable for my needs..

<p>Leica was at Look3 in Charlottesville over the weekend, had lots of great gear to loan out including the Q. I liked it a lot, felt light and well built, same thickness as a film M. But the lens is huge-a-loid, like a Mamiya RF lens. It's very sharp too, so much so that I found a good bit of moire in shots of people's clothes. <br> I also tried the M240 out, a marked improvement over the M9, files look fantastic and had tons of room to move tones around in a very natural film like way. I found a mint one for 4K and bought it today...</p>

<p>I think it is great! They are sending me one soon for youth outreach and to use at a super high end TED like event I shoot annually. Love the egg safelight too!</p>

<p>She passed away Monday morning at age 75 as per this article:<br /> http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/entertainment/fine_arts/Legendary-Philadelphia-photographer-Mary-Ellen-Mark-dies-75.html</p><div></div>

Lots of good shooters, editors and pubs out there doing a great job of informing and enlightening the curious mind, so is there really a need to always drop it to the lowest common denominator?

<p>From 2006 until about 12:40 PM on January 17th, 2011, I shot a ton of Kodachrome film. Even though I shot plenty of KM-25 in the 80's and 90's, this stuff from 06-11 was far better because I made the color and tones great, not just relying on the film's attributes. <br /> What I did not shoot enough of until the very end was Kodachrome 200, that stuff was just gorgeous, grain and all. So I have a test roll of Fuji Provia 400X in a Nikon F100 that I am trying to see if I can dial it in to at least look close. I don't bother with all the usual BS shots but instead insist on what colors, tones and times of day I know will get me close. It has taken me about 4 moths to shoot 1/2 the roll.</p> <p>Once I am done with that roll and I get a feel for where it meets or falls short of KL-200, I will take the other 60 or so rolls with a pair of Leicas and do at least one, maybe two essays in the hot light regions of the world this year....and that will be it for color slide in 35mm. I have some Velvia 50 and 100 in 120 and 4x5 that I expect to use up on a few projects in the next two years and then that will be it for color film for me as far as I can tell.<br> But a film as good as Kodachrome? I can confidently say there is none.</p>

<p>Among other film bodies, I have a Leica M3 with a 50 F2 Zeiss Planar and an M6TTL with a 35mm 1.4 Aspheric, I also own and use a full darkroom, film use makes up over 80% of my work.</p> <p>But, among a couple of other digital cameras I own a Fuji X100T. For quite some time, Fuji has really been doing great with the X100 platform, so much so that I feel they have been eating Leica’s lunch in terms of digital bodies due to how small and utterly silent it is…until the X100T.</p> <p>After using mine since November of last year, and waiting for a firmware update to fix a particular issue, I am crying uncle and selling it. Here is the deal, like most digital cameras, bringing up and changing many settings usually requires access to the menu or menu like displays. When I go to change menu-centric things on my Nikon D750 or D810, I take my eye away from the viewfinder, hit the menu button and the items pop up on the rear LCD with oft used settings in "My Menu" adding to the speed and intuitive use. I then quickly get back to shooting and keep making images, boom, done, easy.</p> <p>That was the way the X100 and X100S worked too…but not the X100T. For some unbelievably odd reason, in order to change things like white balance, frame rate and any menu item, you have to either keep your eye glued to the viewfinder ignoring the world around you as you menu dive or put the camera in live view to see it come up on the rear LCD. The latter is not a one button toggle either as you have to go through 4 pushes of the view mode button *every single time* you want to view these items on the rear LCD and return to regular viewfinder driven shooting.</p> <p>Some seem to be ok with this song and dance but I find it to be incredibly workflow jarring and in the top 5 of all time digital camera flub-ups in my 21 year history of using them….it’s totally baffling to me how this was given the OK in beta testing.</p> <p>So there you go, be forewarned that as big of a pain as taking that film to get developed and scanned from that incredibly beautiful and simple Leica is, dealing with all the camera specific stupidity of what should otherwise and used to be a very intuitive and easy camera to use in the X100 might very well be worse.</p> <p>It sure is for me so I am selling mine and not looking back.</p>

<p>Jimmy S, oh man, that was priceless sir, glad to hear it coming from someone 11 years my junior too...I actually hear it in person from people 20-30 years my junior as well.<br> <br /> A bit of a point I would like to bring up. It's a disturbingly often occurrence that when one talks of labs closing, film getting harder to find, varieties getting nixed that there is no counter-mention of how well black and white is doing, how easy it is to find and use and how the companies that make it are seeing a bright future.<br> <br /> I think it is important that if you are going to call out the doom and gloom card on film, then one needs to make an at least reasonable effort to distinguish between the state of the industry of color and black and white....because the difference in terms of ease of use and overall viability is at the very least, night and day.</p>

Huh, I guess I need to re-think this a bit....based on the posts since my last: I should tell the 18 and 26 year old shooters who came over to my home last night to develop tri-x and are working on great projects who I am mentoring to not bother, because they are lying. I should delete the edit for the story about a statewide environmental issue I am working for the New York Times and tell them we are BS-ing our selves and they should go into checkout line tabloid works. And I should tell the journalism teacher at a prestigeous local but nationally known program that I will not be speaking at his student portfolio presentation Tuesday morning because we are teaching people to strive for something has has never existed. Gotcha.... Oh, and I guess I had better give Maggie Steber a big hug at Look3 in June as a matter of condolence in how she needs help because what she said in the "Lens" article clearly demonstrates that all the hard work she had done over her decades long career...is also a lie and her statement reflects that. Golly....sure wish I was like some of you...all knowing, all seeing, near divine inspiration for works that somehow the world has yet to put on a pedestal. Better luck next life I guess!

It feels increasingly good to live my life as a photographer under the watchful self imposed eye of employing a strict photojournalistic ethic, and that applies to every genre I shoot. I'm not even remotely tempted to do otherwise, the truth has always set me and kept me free.

<blockquote> <p>and they show only one film type left in 220: Kodak Portra 160.</p> </blockquote> <p>They also make Portra 400 in 220, can be found at B&H and Adorama.</p>

<p>Kerosene much?</p><div></div>

<p>Tools that will be used for many years to come...</p><div></div>

<p>Mark Crown leaves while new young and talented shooters come in, such is life, eh?</p> <p>I mentor 6 who are under age 25 and are really taking to the journey and result that is real photography....IE: Film. So while Mark says goodbye to his FM3A from new, mine ( bought new in 2003 ) gets a fresh CLA, a new exterior of Griptac after a great assignment in Costa Rica along with it's new companion, an F3HP. I have also added a full Mamyia 6 kit with all three lenses and a Leica M6TTL w/ 35mm 1.4 Aspheric...boy, you just don't make that kind of business investment if you think film they require is going away, LOL!</p> <p>Mark's leaving is not the end of the road or any kind of sign of doom to come, at least in terms of black and white. Black and white film will easily live on as it continues to bury digital in a shallow grave with all it has to offer.<br /> <br /> It's a great time to be a film photographer, the film is dead crowd is either dying off themselves from natural causes or hiding in shame as film lives on and on and on and on and on.....<br /> And on.</p>

The interview Bob, nice try, how do you explain the success of photographers using film who's talent is what keeps them at the top? Tell all the people who spend thousands on fine prints by Michael Kenna that they should not do so because he would be a better photographer if he were not "into photography". Perhaps Trent Parke should have been part of that interview too? You want to see this site die off a slow sad death? Keep tossing poop filled dirt onto it's not-well-conceived grave. Tim, sorry you have such a jaded past with film, lots of us made it big time with it and I continue to use both mediums together as I see fit. Good god this place is sad sometimes...

The more media attention film gets in terms of a niche user base, why they are using it and why it is better for them, the better chance it has for sticking around. Most film makers can not afford TV superbowl ads like Kodak and Fuji once used to so its all a grassroots level passion filled spread the word kind of thing. The use of film is great, there is great fresh work being made on it, the niche that is the market is starting to stabilize and it's going to stick around now. It deserves to and the people who love to use it deserve to cheer it on, talk on forums about it and celebrate articles such as this new one by the BBC.

<p>I have read the article and feel it is by far the best one yet on the resurgence of film as a fun and creatively rewarding niche. I have also read posts about it on various forums and damn.....a lot of the responses on this one are by far the most negative I have seen.<br /> <br /> Please...pretty please..?...lighten up folks, film photography is *still* photography and of the 6 or so young people I mentor, none of them are doing it to be hip. They are doing it because they love everything about it, the cameras, the journey and the results. And like me...they *ADORE* the darkroom and their fine work is a reflection of that.</p>

I just picked up an M6TTL after just using an M3 for 4 years. It will be fully customized before going into service full time. Upgrades include griptac covering, the MP finder upgrade getting rid of frame lines such as the 75 & 135. Mounted to it will be a 35mm 1.4 aspheric. I had this combo before, it's the best there is. Plenty of labs, plenty of film, a great darkroom and plenty of good paid work that will pave the way for heavy use for years to come. And not one tiny bit of interest in things like an A7, M9, M240, etc. It's good to live in the here and now instead of the digital death machine....so good....

Thanks for posting the link to VT camera, I'm going to use them to CLA my FM3A.

<p>Well that's easy, my M3...</p><div></div>

<p>Just to reinforce that not only is the film look not forgotten but that film use is not either. Frankly I think it is *really* kicking into high gear lately within the niches that it has popularity in like high end pro and fine art use.<br /> Aside from the New Yorker hiring a <a href="http://www.paridukovic.com">guy who only shoots film</a>, here is a <a href="http://istillshootfilm.org/post/110901745797/10-professional-photographers-who-still-shoot-film">list</a> that does not even put a dent into who is using it and collects a check in doing so. Even more enthusiasts are using it too, often exclusively but mostly along with digital. <br /> <br /> I knew it would come full circle going clear back to the day I joined this site....and here it has, woot!</p>