Around the Web on a Wednesday

Photo: ClubCapa

People who've been following our "Forgotten Camera" series on Photoborg.org have no doubt noticed how many vintage medium-format folders have turned up there. Unexpectedly, Fujifilm announced a new modern folding camera at last winter's PMA. Here's the state of the rumor mill (all this is as yet only variably and partially confirmed):

• It's a joint project between Fujifilm and Cosina;
• The camera was shown as a mockup at PMA, when Fuji had not decided whether to go ahead with the project, but as a greenlighted prototype at Photokina;
• Rumor has it that Fuji has been surprised at the high level of interest, especially from pros;
• The camera will be marketed as a Fujifilm in Japan, with a Fujinon lens, and probably the designation GF670, but as a Voigtländer in the rest of the world, where it will probably be called the Bessa III 667;
• Lens is an 80mm ƒ/3.5 (for all you film virgins, 80mm is normal on 6x6 and slightly wide on 6x7);
• Although the Voigtländer's lens will be called a Heliar, it isn't one—it's a 6-element, 4-group double-Gauss type;
• Adaptable/switchable between 6x7 and 6x6cm;
• Aperture-priority AE and manual, with 2-stop exposure compensation in 1/3rd stops;
• CR2 lithium battery;
• Could be officially announced soon, and might ship by the end of this year; and
• Price could be as low as the $1,200–$1,500 range...which would be nice.

Photo: Amateur Photographer

Someone sent us what looked like a press release for this, but the assistant lost the email. (Damned assistant. If we ever get a replacement, he's sacked.)

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And speaking of "level of interest..."
...When you go to the B&H Camera website's Canon 5D Mark II page and click "Notify me when in stock," you get the following pop-up: "Due to unprecedented consumer interest we are unable to add any additional correspondents to this list. Thank you for your understanding." Quoth David Bram, from whom we got this tidbit: "Yikes."

Speaking of the 5D Mark II, in case you missed it, we heard from Vincent Laforet, whose test video made with the camera we dissed the other day. He was a good sport, and pinpointed our objection to the video by saying that it was made in the style of a "cologne commercial." So we take back what we said: it's not his video we disliked, so much as it is cologne commercial style in general. Vincent's comment is now featured below the original posting.

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London anti-globalization t-shirt 'samples' Nick Ut's Vietnam photo

"The thought-provoking London tee-shirt is an example of the edgy take many Europeans have on Globalization." Travel writer Rick Steves, from his blog.

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No comment

(Sales benefit Aaron Johnson's "What the Duck.")

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Party like it's 1982

...And and far as shirts are concerned, here in Wisconsin, we're feeling confused. Life's not easy after you get jilted. Who do you root for when your hometown hero is playing for somebody else's home town? We were kinda hoping he'd get homesick, but six touchdowns last weekend...guess not.

On the other hand, New York taketh away, but New York giveth—we're celebrating our baseball team's first appearance in the playoffs since 1982, when we lost the World Series to St. Louis. They struggled mightily to blow it, but, fortunately for them, the gang they were up against for the wild card spot were the famously foldable Mets, who are even better at blowing it. The contest to see who could stay out of the postseason went to the very last day of the season, when the Brewers won a cliffhanger behind CC Sabathia and the Mets obliged by losing. Game 1 of our playoffs is today, in Philly.

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Liquid lenses
Liquid Lenses Promise Picture-Perfect Phone Cam Photos: Rensselaer Polytech researchers develop a new autofocus lens...made of water. They sure are doing some interesting things in optics these days. I wonder if cell phones are going to be driving optical research in the next half-century? I wonder if they are now?

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'But I swear, Sir, I got those pictures off the camera first!'
A 28-year-old deliveryman who lives with his mother in Hemel Hempstead, England, returned from an American vacation and downloaded the pictures from his camera, a used digicam he had just bought off Ebay for £17. His vacation pictures were there, but so were photographs of high-tech weaponry, and documents, fingerprints, and academic records pertaining to multiple terrorism suspects, including Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a notorious fanatical Kurd who had been captured by the CIA in 2007.

The innocent vacationer went to the police, who at first ignored him. Before long, however, his home was swarmed by Special Branch agents, who confiscated the startled citizen's computer and the offending Nikon Coolpix, compensating him handsomely but forbidding him to talk to the media or anyone else about what he might have seen.

Seems the previous owner of the camera is—for the time being, anyway—a spy with Britain's MI6 espionage agency.

Just in case you thought you were in hot water with your boss.

______________________

Mike (Thanks to David Emerick, M.M., Dwight Jones, and Albano Garcia)

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Featured Comment by Dayv: "That anti-globalisation T-shirt is a reproduction of a piece by famed graffiti artist Banksy. He doesn't actually make T-shirts of his work, but other people often do, usually without his permission. The 'shop' on his website is amusing, containing the following text: 'Everything in the shop is free, simply download the file and process the artwork.'"

Featured Comment by John Camp: "Banksy is not especially sophisticated in his politics—like most artists—but he may be one of the most creative artists working right now. This particular image's message is too confused to mean much, but some of them are not only right on target; they use the environment and all kinds of other things as part of the art. Not only that, his primary interest seems to be something other than money. His book Wall and Piece has got to be one of the best-selling art books of our time, if not the best."

Comments

[Iñaki]

A "bokeh" thong?
Do I have to make EVEN MORE assumptions and second guessings?

[Janne]

That Fuji folder has been on the top of my wishlist since I heard about it. Now, if only I had a salary more in line with my interests...

[charlie d]

Loads of interesting things this AM Mike

Lens is an 80mm ƒ/3.5; Care to educate me on why they chose this lens?

Brewers?

Puleeeeze!

[Mike J.]

"Lens is an 80mm ƒ/3.5; Care to educate me on why they chose this lens?"

I have no inside information on this. I would suppose it's because 80mm is a standard lens on 6x6 and is slightly wide on 6x7 (on the latter it's about equal to a 40mm lens on 35mm; actually slightly less wide with slightly greater height).

Mike J.

[John Igel]

As a life long 49er faithful, I completely understand your feelings with Favre as a Jet. I had the same emotional upheaval when Montana went to the Chiefs! It just ain't right...

[David A. Goldfarb]

There has been lots of discussion about the new Fuji folder on APUG.org and rangefinderforum.com, with photos and information from various people who have seen and even handled it at Photokina, including Roger Hicks and others. Rangefinderforum owner and U.S. Voigtländer importer Stephen Gandy is looking to see how many people are interested in actually purchasing the camera, so if you want to get on the list, his e-mail is stephen[at]cameraquest[dot]com. Presuming the price doesn't turn out to be absurd, this will likely be the first camera I'll have purchased brand new since my Coolpix 990, circa 2001/2, and the second since my Canon New F-1 circa 1982/3. If it lives up to expectations, it will replace my 1950s Voigtländer Perkeo II.

[aizan]

official press materials call it the "voigtländer bessa iii", while some people on the internet have been tacking "667" on the end because of the front label. i'm pretty miffed that someone went and carelessly butchered the camera's face, and i've been saving to get this camera since pma. did the marketing department get carried away?

"hey, we need to make sure everyone knows that this can switch formats."

"you're right! how about we print '6x6/6x7' on it?"

"no, fuji's already using that."

"what about putting '667' on the front of the camera?"

"what's that supposed to mean?"

"you know, the first two numbers mean '6x6', and the last two numbers mean '6x7'. it makes perfect sense!"

*crickets chirping*

oh well. there's always the fuji version. good news for megaperls, bad news for cameraquest.

[Ken Tanaka]

You will also get the "Due to unprecedented consumer interest we are unable to add any additional correspondents to this list. Thank you for your understanding." message if you request a Canon Powershot G10 notification.

I'd say this is some evidence that Canon "won" this year's Photokina,

[Antony Shepherd]

667: Across the street from the beast.

I don't care what number they put on the front, I still want one. There's always the black tape option if big numbers offend you!

[StephaneB]

The t-shirt is not that much anti globalization. It is anti American, a sentiment sadly widespread in Europe so-called elite. And no, that has nothing to do with your current government. That sentiment was already common with the european intellectuals by the end of 19th century.

[john robison]

Re: the Fuji folder, $1.2 to 1.5 K? I know I'm really out of touch but that seems like a bit too much. Oh well, guess I'll just keep respooling 120 for my Kodak folders.

[MBS]

"But I swear..."

Clearly eBay needs an informational checkbox that sellers can click that says, "must comply with Official Secrets Act when purchasing this item"

[XebastYan]

The Voigtländer version was also shown on this years photokina behind glass as an upcoming new model.

I was there to have hands on the Bessa R models (35mm Cams). "It isn't able to have hands on the Bessa III 667" said the woman behind the Voigtländer desk. "but it will soon be available."

[charlie d]

Mike said: I have no inside information on this. I would suppose it's because 80mm is a standard lens on 6x6 and is slightly wide on 6x7 (on the latter it's about equal to a 40mm lens on 35mm; actually slightly less wide with slightly greater height).

Just what I was after. Thanks

[Kent]

Right now that Fuji folder is somewhere just above the top of my wish list.

Not only do I love the camera for what it is (or promises to be), but I also love the fact that a major film manufacturer is going to deliver a brand new medium-format film camera.

I guess that means we'll have a good supply of 120 film for a while.

[Robert Noble]

The featured comment by John Camp says, "Banksy's primary interest seems to be something other than money."

Well gosh, he has an agent and Banksy's work sells at Sotheby's well into the six-figure range (highest selling price yet for a single work of his is $576,000).

Knowing that, it's hard not to view many of Banksy's antics in a Damien-Hurstian "The more outrageous I am, the more the rich idiots will pay for my work - but I'll take it!" kind of way.

[mcananeya]

I don't know anything about Banksy (yet), but I was amused by the review of Wall and Piece from A. Tchirkine (a.k.a. "antoine") over at Amazon. He simply wrote:

"this is a nice coffee table book for suburbans like me who want to appear edgy. banksy's work is brilliant."

[mcananeya]

I'm back. Checked out Banksy's website and I have to admit that I'm impressed. Very creative. And even if the message is muddled in places, I think the overall theme is clear. Besides, a slightly muddled message fits in well with his manifesto...

http://www.banksy.co.uk/manifesto/index.html

[Mark Hespenheide]

I would go so far as to say that medium format film might be the best possible format for intensely-dedicated amateurs and aspiring professionals. I'd probably catch a lot of flack for that on most internet forums, but the combination of inexpensive equipment and incredible resolution make me hope that 120 and 220 are around for a long time to come yet. If you are willing to put up with a slow turnaround time, ScanCafe does work that's both cheap and good enough for most applications, while a professional drum scan from 645 or 6x7 will still blow the doors off of any digital camera under $2000. To this day, I wonder how many people have actually tried a real drum scan: true 16-bit color with red, green, and blue sampled at each pixel.

Paired with an LX3 or G9, I might really enjoy backpacking with the new Fuji/Voigtlander. A week or two in the mountains without having to worry about batteries failing, with some film with a long tonal range...

[Tim Bradshaw]

I've been agonizing over what I should buy for my next "spend too much money on toys" extravaganza. Now I know!

[Dogman]

"Banksy is not especially sophisticated in his politics—like most artists...."

Aren't the words "sophisticated" and "politics" contradictions in terms?