The Online Photographer

Change Your Head

This is a photography post.

But writing about the S8 subwoofer yesterday (that article took me all day to create—I'm getting slower as I slide down the backslope from the middle of middle age) reminded me of something crucial: It's still the music that matters.

Yes, it's nice to have a beautiful-sounding stereo. One that allows the music to ravish your ears on occasion, when the stars align and it all goes right. 

Similarly, with cameras, and software tweaks, and sharp lenses, it's still the pictures that matter. Yes, it's nice to have a camera that allows you to get the shot more easily, and it's nice to be able to make a technically impressive print or file. But it's still what you say with it that means the most.

I think this is probably a consequence of where I have to "live," so to speak, within the photography world, but when I scout the 'Net looking at pictures I'm often struck with the nagging feeling that people are missing the forest for the trees. I'm reminded of a group of audiophile friends who gathered at each others' houses to listen to each others' stereos. They preferred classical music, but they never listened to a whole piece of music. Too boring. They needed to constantly move on to the next "test of the system" so they could hear what the host's new bit of gear did to different kinds of sound. So they'd skip from one recording to another all evening long, never once listening to one whole piece of music from beginning to end. Another case: a famous tube aficionado who confessed that he would put one favorite "record of the moment" on his turntable and leave it there for months, listening to it over and over hundreds of times as he rolled tubes (that's the term for trying different brands, makes, and vintages of tubes in different positions in a tube amp or preamp. Did you know tube aficionados pay thousands of dollars for antique tubes? Tubes don't age, they just wear out. So if you don't use them, you can keep them. If you can find old ones that haven't been used, they're often still good. So they're sought after and collected like vintage wines).

We get into a particular mindset when evaluating technical properties. It encourages us to "see" pictures very differently...looking for all the subtle telltales of technical shortcomings—often very elusive—as though they mattered more than anything else to the success or failure of the picture.

This might be valuable, but you've got to learn to detach from it, too. You've got to be able to "switch over" in your head, and put the gearhead concerns aside, and become open, again, to what the photographer is trying to get at, what the picture is trying to do.

The trouble with technical concerns is that they can overwhelm one's thinking. Is this lens sharp enough? Are the colors bright enough? Is there even the slightest trace of noise or another known flaw?

If you can't ever set those concerns aside, then they're all you'll ever see. You'll miss the very pictures you're sitting in front of and staring at.

Antidotes
When people get excessively concerned with some technical property, an antidote is at hand...what they can do is just force themselves to embrace the opposite for a while. If you find you're obsessed with noise, figure out how you can get the noisiest shadows possible and shoot that way for a month. If you're obsessed with detecting whether the most expensive Leica lens is better or worse than the latest Zeiss Otus, buy an old $20 lens off eBay and shoot with that for a month. If you're constantly agitated about whether your colors are bright enough and saturated enough or do they just need a little more, you can back way off—force yourself to desaturate every photo by 15% for a few months. If you find yourself unable to back off from excessive post-processing, force yourself to look at only out-of-camera JEPGs for a while. If you're constantly buying new cameras in a consuming search for the absolute best, find a cheap, old camera that's nowhere close to state-of-the-art and shoot with that until the first of next year. You can cure yourself of photographic neuroses by embracing the opposite.

Even if none of those things applies to you, still, you've got to be able to switch those gears, mentally speaking—and say, yeah, this guy shoots with a lousy lens, but what's he trying to say? Yeah, I hate these colors, but what about the pictures—do they work?

Because it's the music that matters. The equipment is just the means.

Mike

P.S. three hours later: Note that I'm not saying you shouldn't use nice gear or strive to refine your skills and technique. We "should" do anything we want to do, and use whatever brings us pleasure to use. All I'm suggesting is keeping it in perspective, is all—perhaps especially when looking at work by others.

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Featured Comments from:

Adam Lanigan: "EXACTLY! I have, at times, spent a bit too much time hanging out on various gear forums. Typically, I'll be considering some new piece of gear or looking for technical tips and then just kind of...hang out for a while over a few weeks or months and slowly fall down that hole into oblivion.

"The absurdity of some of the discussions honestly makes me laugh sometimes. The various factions—and they really do become like tribal gangs—on whatever subject, be it the mybrands vs. the yourbrands; the sharpists versus the dreamy weenies; and the fawning fanboys versus the never-good-enoughs. It's quite amazing. The pointlessness of it all in the face of emotion, passion, meaning, and speech via photographs is, as above, hilarious to me. Each new camera or lens is a new reason to dive into the 2% difference between two products that are already 100% 'better' than what we collectively had 5, 10, 20 years ago.

"One recent 'discussion,' in particular, stands out, though just semi-related to your point. One poster put up a quote from a brand's engineer that the camera presents colours 'the way people remember them'—a seemingly innocuous addition to the thread. This brought out a multiple page flame war debating the science and 'absurdity' that an engineer would say such garbage, thus embarrassing the brand. This all sparked by the fact that the engineer had the gall, the nerve, to speak metaphorically about photography. I laughed, closed the browser, and have not returned (yet)."

Richard replies to Adam: "One quick note: the concept of 'memory color' is an important part of research into how we see the world around us and also in imaging science. Here's a def: 'A memory color is the typical color of an object that an observer acquires through their experience with that object.' An example that we can all call to mind is the yellow of a banana. It gets very complicated after that, but it's worth a Google if you shoot color."

emptyspaces: "HOL-GA! HOL-GA! HOL-GA!"

Pierre Charbonneau: "I agree with you Mike. For work, I shoot exclusively digital, of course. I appreciate using the best technique to satisfy my clients, meaning flash light, good and predictable optics, and pro-grade cameras for reliability. Since a little while, I am experimenting for personal photography with the analog/hybrid technique, shooting color film, having it processed and scanned at the local photo store nearby. I find this relaxing. The results are grainy, unsaturated, and the files are on the small side. And of course, not as malleable as a raw file. But often, I happen to like many of the photos. Maybe it is because I wait having shot few rolls and have forgotten about them? Or the absence of instant gratification? Maybe it is simply because these pictures taken for myself are the one that do matter."

Ed Hawco: "I've probably mentioned this before, but this reminds me of the time I was viewing the Fred Hertzog show at the National Gallery in Ottawa (Canada), and there was this 60ish guy walking around with his young protegé loudly complaining that the photographs were all 'crap' because the captions didn't mention the lens that was used, and the shutter speed and f-stop. I try to convince myself that this guy was a one-off, but there is plentiful evidence to the contrary."

robert e: "Love it. So, to put it in gearhead terms: the most important piece of equipment we own is in our heads, and it, too, needs regular attention, maintenance, calibration and upgrades?"

Mike replies: If you have to put it that way.  :-)

Sunday Open Mike: Stereo! Stereo! (Audioengine S8 Subwoofer)

I always have to use that word twice. File it under the category of "dad jokes."

I'm sitting here listening to the latest C60Crew upload, KK's "Egyptian Reggae," and it reminded me that I haven't yet reviewed my most recent stereo acquisition, the Audioengine S8 subwoofer. I've had it for a few months.

I have not one but two complete stereos in storage in the basement and the barn. One is a "vintage" system based on fabulous old Japanese direct-drive turntable, a warm-as-wool Shure cartridge, and an antique Accuphase integrated. (Accuphase, if you don't know it, is the apotheosis of the mass-market Japanese "silver face" boxes of the 1970s, the high-water era of home stereo. Apropriately, the new Accuphase components are all gold-face. New Accuphase components will run between $5,000 and $15,000 per box—which is reasonable considering the build quality. "Apotheosis" means "elevated to divine status," and you don't elevate to the divine on the cheap. At least where Accuphase is concerned you're paying for something real, rather than status-smoke and the fine mist of reviewers' spittle. Mine, as I say, is very old, and thus was not expensive.) The other one features custom-built speakers and a Mcintosh preamp with a built-in equalizer. Whee. Who says I don't have fun with stereo stereo?

But, like a former view camera photographer who now shoots 1", my desktop system is now the main music system in the house. Oddly perhaps, for a hobbyist as quirky and unregenerate as me 'umble self, it's also possibly the best and most satisfying system I've had.

By the way, to see the track list for the Egyptian Reggae mix, click on the hamburger stack at the lower right. Tracks aren't listed until they play.

As I've discussed before, my system consists of Channel D's PureMusic v.3 server software replacing the driver in iTunes (I don't always activate PureMusic), a Halide HD DAC, and Audioengine A5+ speakers on either side of the computer. About the Halide, Tony at SoundBsessive says, "Many digital sources, especially in the [Halide's] price bracket, tend to make their main selling point details retrieval, especially by emphasising treble rendition, often ending up with a slightly lifeless, analytical and body-less frequency response. The DAC HD takes on a different approach, it’s a very warm, analogue sounding DAC. The treble with the DAC HD has a natural roll off, eliminating any sense of 'digititis.'" I like warm. Child of the '70s—you know, Marantz receivers, British speakers, Spendor, Celestion, B&W, Mission, Wharfedale, Tannoy. Names to conjure with.

About the speakers—best bargain ever. Ever. Audioengine has since gone slightly upmarket, with a somewhat larger, more deluxe top-of-the-line speaker, the beautiful HD6—almost twice the price but still stupid cheap in the audiophile Universe, especially considering the built-in Class A/B amplifier and Bluetooth. Just plug them in anywhere and send them music via Bluetooth from any device you care to. They are getting glowing reviews almost everywhere. And they are truly handsome (check the link).

To the subwoofer. I've seldom loved any subwoofer. Most of them are like putting a thick pad under a rug, or bad tires on a good car. During my extremely brief career as a part-time audio salesman, long ago, in the early '90s, we sold, like the proverbial hotcakes, a subwoofer called the Muse Model 18, which for a long time was the only one of its species I'd ever heard that I actually liked. It had removable cards to tailor the frequency response to specific brands and models of mains speakers. In his review of the Model 18, Robert Harley wrote:

Most subwoofer systems I've heard have been plagued by a familiar litany of sonic horrors: poor integration between subwoofer and main speakers, boom, bloat, tubbiness, slowness, excessive LF output, and an overall presentation that constantly reminds the listener he is hearing a big cone moving. To me, subwoofers often sound detached from the music, providing an accompanying thump that bears little relationship to the sound from the main speakers. Rather than revealing the music's harmonic underpinnings, subwoofers often obscure them in a thick morass of featureless boom. In addition, adding a subwoofer often destroys the qualities of the main speakers that made you buy them in the first place—just to name a few of my observations.

Other than that, I like subwoofers.

(He liked the Muse Model 18, which is why they flew out of the door of our shop. In those days, sales were driven by reviews.)

I also actually like the little Audioengine S8. Why? Maybe because the A5+ speakers do need some foundation? Maybe because my standards are lower for a desktop computer system? Maybe because it's actually good? Maybe some combination of those. It's a wee little unserious thing that doesn't cost much at all. Defining terms: "wee"—it's an 11 and a half inch cube. "Doesn't cost much"—$349, which is very low for a decent component of this type, where "decent" means somewhere on the spectrum from listenable to enjoyable. The Muse Model 18 was a 25" cube and I believe we were selling it for $2,500 in the early '90s. I'm not saying they're equivalent, but the Muse was considered competitive in price back then. Not so much in size.

Here's the Audioengine S8 subwoofer under my desk. I thought it sounded better with the port aimed toward the wall, which as an added bonus placed the controls facing outward. That turned out to be not an advantage because I never change the settings. Occasionally I come upon a track that could do with more or less bass, but I'm too old to get on my hands and knees and wade through all the dog hair just to tweak the woofer for one track.

The S8 was easy to set up. It comes with all the cords 'n' cables you'll need, and clear setup instructions. To answer the obvious question about it: yes, the volume control on the left speaker also controls the volume of the subwoofer.

Maybe it's my little room, maybe it's the position under the desk, maybe it's that I was always partial to the semi-headphone-effect of small mini-monitors and nearfield listening, but the sound is just terrific. The little setup sounds wonderful, lush and lovely and spacious and dimensional.

It might not be hi-fi, or high end, but...it's music.

If you have Audioengine speakers, I'd say you just have to get an S8, it's that simple.

Here's the track list for KK's "Egyptian Reggae" mix at Mixcloud:

1. The Modern Lovers: "Egyptian Reggae" 
2. Quicksilver Messenger Service: "Which Do You Love"
3. R.E.M.: "Laughing"
4. The Bats: "Never Said Goodbye"
5. The Velvet Underground: "There She Goes Again"
6. Julia P. Hersheimer: "Where Are You Going To"
7. Quarks: "Loch im Tag"
8. The Beatles: "A Day In The Life"
9. Juana Molina: "Eras"
10. Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians: "A Globe Of Frogs"
11. Shivkumar Sharma: "Raga Janasammohini: Teen Taal"
12. DJ Prime Cuts
13. Scotty: "Draw Your Brakes"

I can hardly take the DJ Prime Cuts track—Superdeejay KK likes to do that, just get in your face about how bourgeois your taste is, usually with just one track—but the whole rest of the mix is great. Check it out. Are you hearin' the bass?

Mike

"Open Mike" is Sunday's off-topic offering from Yr. Hmbl. Ed.

ADDENDUM: Turns out KK knew he would lose me ("and others") with the DJ Prime Cuts thing and that's why he put it near the end.  :-)  Trouble with that is, I love "Draw Your Brakes"! —MJ

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

GRJ: "I love the KK mixes on MixCloud and always wonder where he's going from one track to the next as each mix unfolds. Just listened to 'Egyptian Reggae' while developing some film. The internet is grand if you know where to look."

Dave Kerr: "Back in the early '80s I moved up from low-fi to better fi, starting with an Audible Illusions tube preamp plugged into an Electron Kinetics Eagle 2 amp (does anyone know John Iverson's whereabouts?); VPI turntable, Sequel II speakers, Magnum Dynalab tuner, yada, yada. Y'know what? Despite the digital revolution, this rig still sounds good to these old ears. Oh yeah, I still use film...and shoot pool."

Mike replies: Good question! If anyone does know John Iverson's whereabouts, there's a cold case squad that wants to hear from them.

John Gordon Iverson, the designer of your amp, disappeared under mysterious circumstances from Lake Havasu City, Nevada, twenty-five years ago, and has never been heard from since. There was an article in The Absolute Sound called "The Strange Life and Bizarre Disappearance of John Iverson" that you might be able to find online. There are all sorts of conspiracy theories, most having to do with his strained relations with the FBI and his unwillingness to share his inventions with the government. Bottom line is that no one knows what happened to him, only that he disappeared, his body was never found, and his disappearance has never been explained.

BH: "Just want to say that I purchased the A5+ speakers a year or two ago based on your recommendation and I've been very happy with them. I simply send the music from my phone to an Airport Express that I line directly into the speakers. Incredibly simple, and sounds great to my non-audiophile ears."

Mike Potter (partial comment): "Audiophiles makes camera lust seem tame.  :-) "

Mike replies: Got that right. The only upside is the unintentional humor, as in the review of a $30,000 amp that mused about the possible sonic advantages of all the empty space inside the amp's excessively large case.

Alan Carmody: "A very inexpensive alternative for computer speakers is M-Audio's AV40 speakers, which sound way better than they have any right to at their price. I've tried quite a few of these computer monitors in the price range below the Audioengines, and the M-Audios stand out quite easily. For some, the studio monitor sound is a bit clinical, but others love the detail revealed. About $180 for the pair, and a handy volume control knob right on the monitor."

Phil Gyford: "I bought some AudioEngine A2+'s recently, after remembering your recommendation of the A5+'s a while back, so thanks for that. The A5's take up more space than I'm prepared to give speakers on my desk, but the A2's are manageable. They sound great, and I'll remain happy with them so long as I never hear any A5's!"

Mike replies: Nothing wrong with that. The A2 was what ignited the Audioengine success story. They're tiny but very good, wildly better than the speakers in a computer. If you have more space under your desk than on top of it, I suspect the A2's would benefit from the S8 woofer even more than the A5's do.

Steve Smith: "I work as a live sound engineer. I would just like to say (in a Crocodile Dundee style) 'That's not a subwoofer....'"

Mike replies: True dat. It's a woofer. Many of the lenses called "macro" aren't macro, either, they're just close-focusing lenses. I'm stuck with the accepted terminology because it's what's accepted....

Andrew: "I wanted some music at the office on the cheap, so I bought AudioEngine A2+ speakers and the D1 DAC, with Blue Jeans cable connecting the two. It's a fantastic set-up that I wouldn't have thought to put together without your endorsement. Thanks a million."

Steve Duffy: "The Bats! Mike you are a champion, I grew up on concerts by these guys and more from the local scene (well before the Internet mind you). Look out for material by the Clean from the same era or the Puddle more recently if you are looking for more. "

Mike replies: KK turned his fans on to the Bats, and the Clean as well. I think I have "Daddy's Highway" in my collection.

Current Print Sale Ends Soon!

The Red Chair

Last chance coming soon! Remember this print sale ends tomorrow. Only three days instead of the usual five.

Here again is how to order. [UPDATE: Link removed; sale ended 1 p.m. Sat. Feb. 27. Thanks to everyone who ordered!]

I'm extremely pleased with the response, and thanks so much to everyone. It has sold 28 prints so far, which is wonderful. What a great boost to this month's income and my morale. I just put this up quickly, purely in response to the many positive comments it received, and I'm very pleased and complimented that so many people like it enough to buy it. Thank you, thank you, and thank you. I hope you love it when you see it. Don't forget you can return it for a full refund if you decide you don't like the print once you see it.

The sale ends at 10 a.m. tomorrow on the West Coast, 1 p.m. on the East Coast. That's 7 p.m. in Rome, 2 a.m. Saturday in Perth, and 8 a.m. in Hawaii.

Five more sales and this will go into the top ten in earnings of any picture I've ever taken. Truly, there is a silver lining in every ice storm.

Well, actually there are millions...here's another post-ice-storm picture. (Probably too small for you to see the ice coating the tree branches...now there's a reason for high resolution.) That was a memorable day.

I'm very grateful. Thanks.

Here's the link to all the information about the print and the sale. Don't forget "The Red Chair" would make a great gift...I'm just sayin'.... :-)

Sincerely,

—Mike the Ed.

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Please Tell Me If This Is Crazy

It's my birthday today. My brother is wrong—I am not older than dirt. Technically, at least, dirt is older than me. I am older than the Hills, though—my friends Scott and Catherine, who are somewhere around a decade younger than I am. Bah-dum-pah.

Being older is good in some ways—the average 60-year-old knows four times as much as the average 20-year-old, for instance—but not good in other ways. Cell regeneration is not working as well as it once did, and there are signs that said cellular decrepitude is affecting the gray matter as well. Notably "proper noun aphasia." But then, I never could remember names. A book on aging I read once said that, mentally, as you age, most of the things you were always good at you'll get better at, and most of the things you were always bad at will get worse. That seems to be playing out with me—except I could not be a worse cook, so that's just staying the same. (The problem there is not the will to chop and dice. The problem is a lack of imagination. I am a grateful audience for good food, but get somewhat lost when put in charge.)

Anyway, I've just turned 59. But I hardly look a day over 58. (Things like that are why Xander hates my jokes.)

Curiously, three weeks ago I was 54, and about four months ago I was 42. That's what it seems like, anyway. Young humans, hearken: do not your years waste; there are fewer of them than it at first seems, and they roar past like a freshet after rain.

My current pet project
So I need you to tell me if this is a crazy idea.

I have a big spread of yard here. There's lots of room. Over in Himrod, near Seneca Lake, there's a company called Woodtex. They built the prefab barn on my property, a two-and-a-half car, two story garage. It's well built. Turns out that Woodtex, which is owned by Mennonite brothers Ben and Kent Lapp, will build any structure you ask for. So I had them write me an estimate for a one-car, one-story garage-style building. It would by 16x20' more or less, and have one door and—this is important—no windows. The ceiling inside would be 9' high to accommodate lighting.

The structure would cost just about $9k. An insulated slab would run another three. Interior finishing I have not priced yet. I haven't priced electrical work either. It would not be plumbed. I'm going to guess the whole thing will cost less than 20 grand, all in.

Inside (here comes the fun part), there'd be a permanent exhibit of photographs. With such limited space, I wouldn't be able to "afford" the stark, modernist museum-style display of prints with large mats surrounded by open space. Rather, I'd cheerfully embrace the 19th-century salon style of jam-packing the walls with all the frames I could jigsaw-piece together.

Samuel Morse, Gallery of the Louvre, 1833

It wouldn't be an art exhibit exactly. Rather, it would be an exhibit of pictures and artifacts of special interest to photography enthusiasts in some way, shape, or form. Examples of different printmaking methods, for instance; portraits of photographers; an antique printing frame with a whole-plate negative in it. There would be some objects. Wouldn't there have to be an electronic exhibit? That could show thousands of JPEGs, including some gathered from readers. And there'd be a story behind everything. I have lots of interesting things—a platinum print by Spiros Polemis showing Walden Pond from the original location of Henry David Thoreau's cabin; an old, beat-up dye transfer prints of Leopold Godowsky and Leopold Mannes, a.k.a. "God and Man," the inventors of Kodachrome (next to that would have to go some Kodachrome slides with backlighting that comes on with a button push, of course, and a yellow box with a roll of Kodachrome in it); David Vestal's portraits of W. Eugene Smith and Minor White....

I don't have enough cool stuff to fill up the whole room. But I bet once I have the room, I could track down enough cool stuff to fill two rooms.

On my own
I'd do a Kickstarter if this was just going to be a gallery, but here's why I can't: in the middle of this room I'd put a big table. Specifically, one like this! Removable leaves go on and off to convert it from a regular table to a pool table. Perfect for spreading prints out on, as a table; also perfect for after-hours recreation for the proprietor.  :-)

It would be somewhat dubious to ask people to contribute to a gallery they might not ever visit. But I'm certainly not going to ask anyone else to contribute to my gallery if it's also my pool room. Even though they're both the same room. But really, the one purpose is perfect for the other, isn't it? If I built a little building for a pool table, the walls would just go to waste; and if I built a little building as a gallery, the middle of the room would go to waste. So, yin and yang. Two birds, one stone. Perfect.

The "gallery" wouldn't be open to the public. There might or might not be anything in it for sale. (Print bins? Could do.) I envisage it being the focal point for visitors (I got a lot of visitors last fall, more in three months than I'd ever gotten in any three years in Wisconsin), and I have in mind using it for talks and mini-tours for groups from local arts organizations and colleges and so forth. Most of my objects have stories behind them.

I think the main part of the fun would be deciding what to display and trying to acquire it.

Anyway, this is where the proceeds of the current 'Red Chair' print sale will go. The profits will seed the savings account toward the future gallery/pool room.

Print sale aside, I'm probably two years away from starting to save up for this. Xander is in his last year of college, and in two years the car will be paid off, and I have several other expenses which will come to an end by then. At that point I can start saving in earnest. I've also started a list for ideas for things to show. (I have an original print of the picture from this poster, for example.)

Oh, and one other refinement: I think I'll have Woodtex build an opening for a garage door and then fill it in with insulated wall. That way, a future owner of the property can tear out the infill part, install a garage door, and use the building as a garage. That way the structure stands a chance to actually add some value to the property.

So...?
At my age, I know myself pretty well—and I know I tend to get carried away by my enthusiasms. So tell me what you think of this plan. How does it sound? Does it make sense? Am I being completely impractical? Is it worth it anyway?

(If you're going to rain on my parade, though, be gentle. It's my birthday....)

Mike

ADDENDUM by Kenneth Tanaka: If anyone near, or visiting, Chicago would like to see how a "salon"-style photographic installation might appear, I urge you to visit Columbia College's Museum of Contemporary Photography before April 20, 2016. The Museum is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a remarkable exhibition spanning its in-house collection. The main gallery (which is just a bit larger than Mike's proposal) is installed with prints from eye-level to 12 feet high, very much like that Morse painting. A numbered key sheet is provided to visitors for reference.

It was great fun to try to identify the photographers without the key! The MoCP is on South Michigan Avenue, just a short, lovely walk from the Art Institute of Chicago.

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

MarkB: "Yep, crazy. Bat-guano insane. No sensible person would think of that, much less attempt to do it. Go for it! 'Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood...Make big plans, aim high in hope and work.' —Daniel Burnham." 

ScotInDortmund: "Michael, the technical term for 'jam-packed' walls is 'Petersburg Hanging.' Just saying...."

Mike replies: I did not know that. Thanks. Named after the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Google reveals.

Jeff: "Sounds a bit like a mini- Barnes Foundation, now in Philadelphia (Barnes just rolled over in his grave), just as he laid it out in Merion, PA. It consists of paintings and objects, juxtaposed in very specific order and location, up and down walls, and used as part of his teachings and education for participants. Of course he had the bucks to do it in style."

Mike replies: And his timing was right—he was collecting Impressionism when it was cheap to buy. But yes, I'm a Barnes sympathizer.

Darlene: "Happy Birthday Mike! Where is the powder room? I am giggling because it seems like a man-cave to me. :-) Not that there is anything wrong with that."

Steve G, Mendocino: "Coupla comments—first, I was finally, after wanting to for many years, able to see the Barnes Foundation collection, now in Philadelphia. There, at least, the 19th century style of art jam-packed on the walls works. Helped, of course, by the quality of the collection.... In fact, I found myself much less visually fatigued there than I often am at more modern museums, which struck me as somewhat paradoxical. Next, allow some budget for ventilation. Not necessarily full heat and A/C, but if there will be people and artwork in the same room you've got to change the air. Come to think of it, that was one of the problems with the original Barnes location in Merion. Anyhow, good plan—keep working on it. And Happy Birthday."

Kenneth Tanaka: "Happy Birthday, Mike. How does it sound? Emotional and impulsive. Does it make sense? No. Are you being completely impractical? Yes, on every level I believe so. Is it worth it anyway? No. Paraphrasing your proposal: You want to raise money to build an unconditioned storage building on your rural New York property to house, conserve, and display an eclectic (and mainly non-existent) collection of photographic history items for an undefined audience."

Mike replies: Ken, were you ever on the panel on a show called "Shark Tank"? For the record, one small misunderstanding—I was specifically talking about not raising money, but using my own.

Geoff Wittig (partial comment): "Time's a wastin' at our age. For instance, I have discovered that it takes about five years of diligent discretionary-time effort to become a reasonably competent plein-air oil painter. I'm greatly enjoying it, but...damn it, I wish I had started years earlier. I may not have enough time left to become really good, and my eyesight isn't getting any better. So I say, go for it. Dreams are for living."

Joseph Reid: "Crazy? No, but you are a dreamer. If you do this, you'll regret no plumbing. You'll have a pool table and fabulous pictures to linger over. Would you really want to be forced to put on your coat and walk all the way back to the house just to go to the bathroom in the middle of an upstate New York whiteout? And you know the times you will most want to go to that space will be those upstate blizzards. Not to mention the needs of guests. So two words of advice: powder room."

Michael Wayne Plant: "I really love the idea of a salon, somewhere for curious and photographic artefacts. We have many modern museums but few collections of curiosities of the dedicated especially in photography. As a multifunctional space it sounds great shame it will take you till you are 65 to realise it. The room/gallery/pool hall would become a focal point and regular hangout for many photography enthusiasts who would find it a stimulating place to call their home away from home and you may find yourself holding court far more often than you realise. It would be a fun place that you would have many very happy and highly interesting conversations within."

Svein-Frode: "'The days run away like wild horses over the hills' —Henry Charles Bukowski. Happy Birthay Mike!"

scott kirkpatrick: "Your virtual, hypothetical garage pool mancave cum gallery was accompanied by enough fascinating links that I almost couldn't find my way back to report in with a comment. By all means get the Orland chart up on the wall, with its great quotes like 'when man creates a sharper lens, Nature will produce a fuzzier object,' and 'Expose for the secrets, develop for the surprises.' And in the course of reading Jim Hughes' reminiscences on David Vestal, I came across The Whole Photography Chart, a copy of which also belongs up there. Not only will you have no problem covering three walls, I think you will need a storage space as your new house will likely be crowding you out by the time you get this to happen."

Rod Thompson: "Love it. Shame it will be such a long drive from Tasmania!"

Mike replies: Isn't everything a long drive from Tasmania? That's our problem here, too—everything is far away from everything else. The lesser of my two grocery stores is a 15 mile drive; the better one is a 46 mile drive.

Rob Young: "Happy Birthday. In 2017 I am planning to visit friends in New Jersey, then drive through New York to visit friends in Toronto. Can you have it finished by then?"

Mike replies: No, but stop by anyway!

Joel Becker: "Exhibit I want to see: The same image: Web JPEG on an older CRT. Higher-res web JPEG on an LCD, and then a real print, perhaps even in two sizes. To really drive home the difference."

Mike replies: Oh, believe you me, this sort of thing is definitely part of the plot. I have long wanted to set up perceptual experiments. Many are possible that would be interesting and educational both ways: for me as the "researcher" as well as for the viewers whose preferences are being collated. To name one such experiment I tried to do in the '90s: I made six prints, two of which were pictures made with different Leica lenses. The other four were made with good lenses of other brands. The idea was simply to see if people could actually recognize Leica lenses in prints. The big difficulty was in trying to get the prints to people for evaluation. With the curio gallery, I'd just have to be patient while the test subjects sequentially came to me.

Glenn Brown: "OK, it's crazy. I have a small heritage house and have crammed the walls with photography from 40 years of collecting. I see them every day and sometimes move them around. If they were in a separate building I would not see them in our Canadian winter (similar to New York's). Our bedroom has the best images, all vintage platinum, and there is a great comfort to see them going to sleep and in waking."

Bill Pelzmann: "I like your concept. However, hosting the throngs of visitors could become a burden on your time—especially those that come to play pool! For all that wasted space in the center, you could add more surface area by installing free standing display panels instead of the pool table.  :-)  Happy Birthday! We are also celebrating our son's 32nd today. I swear his 21st was only a few years ago!!!"

The Click Affair

Remember Melissa Click? She was the University of Missouri professor seen bullying a student photographer at a protest in a video taken by another student. (It's possible the photographer and videographer were "baiting" the protesters hoping for just such an incriminating confrontation, but the fact remains that they had the right to make photographs in that situation.)

Here's what I said about her in that post:

...a more serious issue is the woman seen at the end of the video...she is Melissa Click, an Assistant Professor of Mass Media in the Communication Department at the University of Missouri. She's clearly seen assaulting the videographer (her blow jolts the camera) and then inciting violence against his person, asking for "muscle" to help her "get this reporter out of here." (Keep in mind the "reporter" is a student.)

Is this appropriate behavior for a University faculty member? Even when acting out some fantasy of being a neo-1960s lawn-chair revolutionary, or whatever she thinks she's doing? Doesn't seem that way to a lot of people. The video of her unfortunate behavior went viral, and has created considerable backlash against her.

This morning she was fired from the University of Missouri for her actions on that occasion, and for her actions at an earlier protest. In a "Statement from University of Missouri leadership," Pam Henrickson, chair of the University of Missouri Board of Curators, said, in part:

After reviewing the report and Dr. Click’s response, and, after extensive discussion, the board voted last night in executive session to terminate the employment of Dr. Click. She has the right to appeal her termination. The board went to significant lengths to ensure fairness and due process for Dr. Click.

The board believes that Dr. Click’s conduct was not compatible with university policies and did not meet expectations for a university faculty member. The circumstances surrounding Dr. Click’s behavior, both at a protest in October when she tried to interfere with police officers who were carrying out their duties, and at a rally in November, when she interfered with members of the media and students who were exercising their rights in a public space and called for intimidation against one of our students, we believe demands serious action.

The board respects Dr. Click’s right to express her views and does not base this decision on her support for students engaged in protest or their views.  However, Dr. Click was not entitled to interfere with the rights of others, to confront members of law enforcement or to encourage potential physical intimidation against a student.

Mike
(Thanks to Mike Plews)

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Doug Thacker: "It's kind of delicious that this case centers around student photojournalism rights, and the perpetration of abuse against a student photojournalist, and that the perpetrating, professing doctor's name is Click. That's the sort of detail a writer like Vladimir Nabokov would add, and that a reader like me might both enjoy and think slightly contrived. But I digress before I've begun. (Always better to digress afterwards.)

"After reading several articles about the event, I watched the student photojournalist's video of it, both the short version and the unedited one. Each time I did I could feel the hair rising on the back of my neck and my blood pressure moving likewise.

"I can't quite convey what my immediate impulse was, probably because the language to do so would not be appropriate to your blog. And having not been there it's difficult to say for sure that I have a complete grasp of the situation. (I hate to be herded into an internet pile-on, only to find out later I was missing vital information.)

"But, honestly, it's hard to see how this so-called professor has a leg to stand on. Doing exactly the opposite of what any thinking person, never mind a university professor, should be doing. Where is the commitment to liberty, to free speech, to freedom of the press and the fourth estate? What was she teaching, Totalitarianism 101? Talk about setting a bad example. When next she appears it will be as media liaison for the NSA.

"The great thing about this, though, and perhaps the most surprising, is that the university fired her. From what I can tell she certainly had it coming. Sayonara, Dr. Click."

Mike replies: Yes, many people might not realize how difficult it is for a teacher or professor to be fired. The nail in Dr. Click's coffin might have been that in defending herself, she claimed she had never been involved in "altercations" before in her 12 years at the University—and then another video surfaced of her, at a different protest, getting in a cop's face and shrieking "get your f---ing hands off me." So that both indicated a pattern, and also undercut her credibility in her own defense of herself.

As for the "Internet pile on," the awkwardness for me is that I'm not reporting on, or analyzing, the entire larger situation. I'm just concerned with a small "kernal" inside the larger situation, which is that the student photojournalist was claiming he had a right to take pictures on the public Quad of a public protest, which he did, and he was being bullied, and was standing up for his rights. It's never hard to stand up for your rights when everyone accepts them. But it recent years (since Diana's death and especially since 9/11) photographers have been increasingly persecuted, and I think we need to continue to assert our rights, or we will lose them.

Book Sale News

So the last book sale from our friend Keith F. Davis and the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City has gone absolutely swimmingly.

(And that book, An American Century of Photography for only $32.50, is still available, by the way—here's the link, then enter 19333 in the "Promotion Code" box at checkout to get 50% off. For all international orders, please see this post. TOP readers have bought 900+ copies so far and there should still be 250 or so left).

News!
And I've just spoken to Keith and gotten some of the details of the next sale.

That one will take place probably in early April (possibly late March), and will feature four books in one package, again for a very (very) low price. As with the American Century book, they're looking to both reduce stock in their warehouse but, equally, to put the books in the hands of people who will truly appreciate them. All four books had successful runs at full price, so the Museum's pricing is designed so that they simply don't lose money getting the books to you.

Of course there are somewhat varying amounts of each title available. Therefore, two of the books earmarked for the next sale are softbound, one is hardcover, but the fourth will transition from hardcover to softcover as the sale proceeds—earlier buyers will receive the hardcover, until the supply runs out, and then the Museum Store will start filling orders with the softcover edition of the same book. The earliest buyers will receive an extra book, too—a different title—as a free premium. The reason is that there are not as many copies of that book available, so it can't be part of the package with the rest.

As with this sale, there are enough copies that you won't miss out if you miss the day of the announcement.

Staff and helpers packing and labeling copies of An American Century
of Photography to ship to TOP readers

I'm happy to say that everyone involved in the previous sale has been delighted at the fabulous response. This has truly been a win-all-around proposition, and, if you bought a copy of An American Century of Photography, as you'll soon see, you've won too.

And there might well be a third sale after the next one, too, although more negotiations have to be completed before we'll know for sure.

Naturally, I'll keep you well apprised about all of this as we go along.

Mike
(Thanks again to Keith for the opportunity to be a part of this)

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'The Red Chair' Print Offer (Three Days Only)

I have to say I think I've landed in a little pocket of paradise. I'm constantly amazed at the beauty of my surroundings here. I wouldn't have guessed there could be so much to see in one little 1.78-acre patch of Earth. I often find myself reaching for a camera (even the one in the phone) just as a way of responding to something I see—a way to take note of it. The other night, for example, I went to take the dogs out at twilight and there, after a heavily overcast day, was the full moon coming over the steep hill in back, through the trees. It practically took my breath away.

I feel like a tourist in my own backyard sometimes.  :-)

This ice storm, and the snowfall afterward, propelled me out of the house with the Fuji. Before the storm, I'd been feeling kind of guilty about not putting the red chairs away in the barn at the end of the fall. But when I saw this picture, I was glad I hadn't. And it didn't even look like this for one whole day. By early the next morning, although some of the snow still clung to the trees, the magic of the scene was gone.

It's a lovely spot. In warm weather, that red chair is where I sit and watch the waterfall and read to the sound of falling water, for half an hour or forty-five minutes as the sun goes down.

The print
"The Red Chair," taken last week with a Fujifilm X-T1 and 23mm ƒ/1.4 lens, is 9x121/2 inches on 11x15-inch Canson Baryta Photographique paper, expertly printed on the new Epson P800 printer by Ctein in California. It's a quiet little picture and a quiet little print. To me it speaks of the beauty we can find in familiar places if the conditions are right, and of the consolation we find in beauty.

$120 unsigned, $170 signed. Please click here to order and/or to see a high-quality JPEG of the picture. [UPDATE: Link removed; sale ended 1 p.m. Sat. Feb. 27. Thanks to everyone who ordered!] $25 per print for packing and shipping to anywhere in the world. Payment by PayPal only, please, since this is a minor sale. As usual, all prints will be shipped within 60 days (you might get yours much faster than that) and have a 100% money back guarantee. Anyone who for whatever reason does not like the print is free to return it within 30 days and their money will be refunded. Any print damaged in shipping will be replaced at our expense.

My plan is that my share of the proceeds will go toward creating a lovely little photography display gallery here, so people who visit will have some cool stuff to see and discuss with me. I'll tell you more about that soon. This sale will kickstart that project, which I've been very enthusiastic about. It's something I really want to do. (Every picture in it will have a story behind it, probably.)

Three days only. Sale ends this Saturday at 1:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time (that's 6 p.m. in London, 10 a.m. in Los Angeles, and 5:00 Sunday morning in Sydney).

I really hope you like the print! As for me, I don't think I'll ever be able to look over at the red chair, even when the light is gloomy and those trees are dark, and fail to smile at the memory of this scene.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Jon: "This print hits all the right buttons for me. Technically, it uses the camera I purchased last summer, and the printer I'm thinking of purchasing. Locationally, I spent my college years in Ithaca, New York, and another 16 years in Vermont / New Hampshire (and here in Portland, Oregon, I miss snow!). And, most important, aesthetically this is just lovely. I am drawn to monochrome images that aren't monochrome, and outdoors images with a touch of humanity. And the splash of color is wonderful. With all of this, I was still not willing to pull the trigger, as I have several other Print Sale prints that are not yet on my walls. But I showed it to my awesome wife...and she is getting it for my birthday. Life is good."

Mike replies: Whew! That comment had me worried there. But it ended well.  :-)

Tom: "You said: 'I think I've landed in a little pocket of paradise. I'm constantly amazed at the beauty of my surroundings here. I wouldn't have guessed there could be so much to see in one little 1.78-acre patch of Earth.' Welcome to western/central New York. I live just south of not-coincidentally-named Eden, New York (there are even some apple orchards there). Your ice storm view will be almost an annual event, to be seasonally replaced by equally enchanting scenes. I've become convinced that almost everywhere on earth has its own special beauty, but if you were intrigued by your ice storm, you will really enjoy your new home."

Bold New Sigma Mirrorless

"Photography is all we do, and it’s all we’ve ever done."

—Sigma press release for the sd Quattros

Sigma has dropped the curtain on a dazzling surprise. The audience gasps! Applause swells and fills the room!

First of all, if you think Pentax is the wallflower at the DSLR party, consider Sigma. It owns the rights to an inherently superior sensor architecture, but, because it's proprietary, it's been stuck with developing it alone. My belief is that if the Foveon technology had been "open source" and available to all companies to develop competitively, it would be perfected far beyond where Sigma has been able to take it alone, and it would be in 98% of all cameras by now. If not 100%.

As it is, it's pretty amazing. The technically most impressive digital images I've ever seen were taken with Sigma cameras. The Foveon sensor has a beauty and an innate integrity that is unique. With intensive development from huge multinational electronics giants working competitively, the Bayer array sensor has come a very long way. It's still inherently a rather primitive kludge, analogous to tricolor cameras from the early days of color photography, which made original "color separations" on three sheets of B&W film in-camera...never mind that the color sensitivity of B&W film itself wasn't truly panchromatic! Analogously, Foveon is Kodachrome.

But consider the poor SD1, Sigma's first and nearly only DSLR [UPDATE: This isn't quite right. See Jim Kofron's Featured Comment below for more accurate information. —Ed.]. It was introduced in 2010 for a price of nearly $10,000...which probably sensibly reflected the development cost. It had a Sigma lensmount. With pixel count not an accurate metric of image quality, it came to be widely believed that the company's "pixel count equivalent" was a bit of a fudge, if not a con. Sigma couldn't win for losing. And its very rarity meant that most people couldn't see the pictures.

So along came the very strange digicams—cameras that took the form of fixed-lens point-and-shoots, but required the care of shooting with medium format to achieve the image quality of which they were capable. Add awkward proprietary software, and you had truly quirky outlier cameras that were not only out of the mainstream but very far from it. And at that, you had to buy separate cameras to get different lenses, as with 1960s Rolleiflexes. Weird. Quirky. But that sensor—wonderful.

Enter the sd Quattros
So what's happened now? Sigma has put its best Foveon X3 Quattro Direct sensor into an interchangeable-lens mirrorless body somewhat similar to the Leica SL. The sd [sic] Quattro and sd Quattro H differ only in the size of their sensors: APS-C (1.5X crop factor) for the former and APS-H for the latter. Remember APS-H from the Canon EOS-1D and the Leica M8? Sigma's is 26.6×17.9mm (1.0 inch×0.7 inch), with a 1.2X crop factor, and, as for pixels...well, it's complicated. In three layers, the top layer is 6,200×4,152, the middle and bottom layers are 3,348×2,232. Sigma estimates the quality to be about equivalent to a 45-MP Bayer array, but that's disingenuous because it's not equivalent. It's better.

As far as the details are concerned, I'm not going to get into that here. The cameras are in development—there's no ship date and no hint as to pricing yet. Here are the spec sheets if you want to delve into them.

Suffice to say that if you love Sigma Foveon quality—they have a small but devoted (dare I say cultish?) fan base—that game just changed.

This one's going to be fun to watch.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Chris Fuller: "I had a Sigma DP2 Merrill and the images were astounding, if you knew how to use it correctly. I loved their look. However, ultimately the slow software and the camera's very limited use for certain types of photography did not match my goals, so I sold it. Still think of that camera, though, with great fondness."

Jim Kofron: "Hi Mike, The SD1 was the first and only DSLR to use the 'Merrill' version of the Foveon sensor. The very first DSLR was the SD9 (first Foveon sensor, sans microlenses), followed by the SD10, SD14, and SD15. I've owned the last three (and have a DP3 Merrill). It's been a while since I've had a new Sigma (I skipped the SD1), and I'm looking forward to these new cameras (I'll probably spring for the H). I assume that this will also mean that I'll be springing for some new glass too...

"The game has changed. Hopefully the EVF and focusing have improved the operational characteristics. The QS menu system on the Merrills and Quattros are actually quite nice—the camera will get out of your way when you want to shoot. Having said that, I've had a hard time really embracing my DP3 (which creates marvelous images) because I really like to look through a viewfinder. And yes, I know that you can add one to the top, but...."

Geoff Wittig: "I will confess to never handling one. However, my understanding is that Sigma's Foveon sensor cameras have been hamstrung by a combination of sluggish electronics and kludgey raw processing software, rendering them marginally usable in the real world, despite the immense potential of their sensor architecture. Hopefully Sigma are devoting sufficient resources to the supporting electronics and software so the undoubted virtues of the sensor are available in a usable form.

"We're so spoiled by the remarkable speed and responsiveness of modern cameras that sluggish, balky devices are immediately kicked to the curb. I recently pulled out my old EOS-1Ds (circa 2002) and took a few shots. At its introduction it was considered much more usable and responsive than Kodak's competing 14-MP DCS Pro SLR, but today it feels like it's set in cement. You take a shot and count ('One-one thousand, two-one thousand'...) for several seconds before the preview image comes up on the LCD. It's excruciating!"

Massimiliano Marchetti: "I am an happy user of the three Merrills and one has to see the prints to really realize the quality and unique signature of the Foveon sensor. This is a surprising and very welcomed announcement from Sigma; waiting to see how they will improve upon the existing models and fix some of the issues of the Quattro series sensors. One thing for sure they need to improve is the Sigma Photo Pro software that is still incomplete and slow even if it usable with some pain and patience."

Kenneth Tanaka (partial comment): "My own history with Sigma's Foveon cameras has arced over the years. My first encounter was with the original DP camera (which I reviewed here in 2009?) was a horror. I had never encountered a gadget that provoked me so close to mayhem. But some of the image files were wonderful. Fast forwarding a few years I bought the DPx Merrill cameras. Better design, or at least more tolerable. Last year I decided to spend dedicated time seeing what these guys could really do for me. After only a couple of weeks using the DP Merrills exclusively (I felt like Alfred Eisenstadt) I ended up with two outstanding sets of images, two of which have become among my all-time favorites. One is superb a street collage and the other is a rather surreal park/construction scene. Of course you cannot possibly discern the distinctive qualities of these images on a web site; you must see them printed large. But you can get a sense of their extraordinary detail from this tiny section of that park scene. You can nearly tell what these guys had for lunch! (By the way, I shot both of those as in-camera JPEGs.)

"Is this new Sigma in my future? Probably not, as I'm trimming kit and becoming more selective in my needs. But those of you who are curious about the legendary Foveon sensor it may soon be an excellent time to buy a used DPx Merrill to see for yourself.

"Your Sigma DPx Merrill Fun Fact! The Sigma DPx Merrill battery (a Sigma BP-41) is the same as Ricoh's DB-65 battery, used in their GR and GR II cameras!"

Al C.: "The DP Merrills are, in both absolute and relative (to peers) terms, the most amazing product of any kind I have ever owned. You nailed it: it has that Kodachrome glow, that ineffable transparency of light captured live. But then it may even be better in B&W, with that purity, bite and texture of 'narrative' which only the best of B&W can convey. Sure, I have to wait 15 seconds to chimp a shot. So? Sure, SPP takes five seconds to process a raw image. But my jaw hits the table every time the finished image locks in on screen.

"For the audiophiles among you, the analogy which comes to mind is that Bayer is solid state and Foveon is tube.

"In 2002 I was speaking with a pre-eminent, old-timer Sand Hill Road venture capitalist. I asked him which of his portfolio companies he believes will be a breakthrough homerun, knowing he's had quite a few of those. Without thinking, he said Dick Merrill's Foveon. He said it will revolutionize digital image capture. He was wrong. And he was right. If only...."

New Canikon!

Canon and Nikon have long been like Toyota and Honda, the same but different, different but similar.

Lo and behold, though, they've diverged! To appearances, anyway.

Canon EOS 80D: familiar looks, familiar goodness

Canon
What we have here might be only lack of synchrony in the announcement schedule, but still. Canon has introduced the EOS 80D, the latest in a long and distinguished line of its pro-am* APS-C DSLRs. We're sort of to that point where we're improving the electronic-device capabilities of cameras—everybody's got to have the latest connectivity features and video, for example. Cameras are little computers, and woe betide the maker who misses a trick. But of course anyone shopping for their next DSLR wants whatever they buy to be up to date in all ways, so these regular refreshes are a service. The 80D features a new 45-point AF system and a 24-MP sensor. You can count on this being a highly developed product, as it's the Camry/Accord of the Canon lineup, and Canon is one of the top makers of DSLRs, and this line of products has been through many generations of continual refinement.

Canon also introduced the PZ-E1, "the world’s first detachable zoom adapter that provides silent and smooth zoom and can [be] adjusted incrementally to 10 different levels of zoom speed" for video zoom. 

Tiny, premium Nikon DL18-50 looks the business

Nikon
Nikon, meanwhile, has sailed up alongside Sony's popular and highly profitable RX100 series and fired a full broadside. It introduced the "DL cluster," a range of three 1" compacts. There's the Nikon DL18-50 ($847), Nikon DL24-85 ($647), and Nikon DL24-500 ($997). They differ mainly in their fixed lenses, hence the names. (The focal lengths in the names are 35mm-equivalent, notice.) The DL24-500 has a much great zoom range but is a much slower lens in terms of maximum aperture, and has a different form factor from the other two despite sharing similar internals. You can pick which angle-of-view range you want based on the kind of photography you do.

I like the names, by the way. They seem strange at first but they make sense and I'll bet we get used to them quickly.

Shootouts with the highly popular Sony RX100 IV should be forthcoming on the high seas. Should be interesting, although these are perilously close to cameras for people who don't read comparison reviews.

Despite being one of the great names in the business, Nikon has a noticeably spotty history with consumer cameras. Most of its offerings all the way back to the point-and-shoot revolution of the 1980s have been afterthoughts or OEMs or also-rans. (Even when they're very good like the would-be GR-killer Coolpix A that we liked.) Not since the 35Ti—a "premium point-and-shoot" from the film era—has Nikon really scored a true direct hit—and that was inspired by the competition too (the Contax T2). Unless I'm forgetting an exception. People like some of its tries—a fair number of people have come around to liking the Nikon 1 series, for example—but it seldom manages to lead (or dominate) at the lower end.

But anything Canon or Nikon does is interesting, if only because Canon or Nikon did it. And the market will likely be moving in the direction of 1" sensors as sensible smartphone camera competitors. I suspect the tide is on Nikon's side in this one.

Mike

*I detest the term "prosumer." Ugh.

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Featured Comments from:

Jim Tardio: "The Nikon DL18-50 looks to be a street and travel photographers dream...that's really the perfect range for that type of shooting."

Michael Perini: "I don't think they have diverged very much , just a little out of sync—Canon did their 1" offerings a month or two ago. G7x, G5x, G9x. Nikon did the D500 but not the next D7200 (I think). Nikon has had the 1 series, and these new ones are basically the 1 series with fixed zooms. I thought the DL18-50 was a neat idea until I realized that they have gone with a big accessory EVF—I thought we'd seen the last of those—especially when you consider how elegantly Sony integrated theirs."

Study Photography in Alaska

Friend o' TOP Charles Mason writes:

The University of Alaska Fairbanks' Department of Art is soliciting applications for its MFA program in photography. Past or current students have worked in collodion, photogravure, and platinum printing, crossing over in both film and digital.

UAF has excellent darkroom and digital lab facilities. It is a three-year project-based MFA degree, and a secondary topic is required. Tuition waivers and T/A stipends are available to many grad students.

The program is headed by Charles Mason, who’s been in Alaska since 1984 and has been teaching photography and photojournalism at UAF since 1990. Fine Art and Documentary photographers are welcome to apply. For more information about the application process please visit this link. Applications will begin to be looked at after March 15.

I never got an MFA (sadly—the lack of it prevented me from doing what I really wanted to do, teach), but I have fond memories of the three years I spent earning my BFA. I might point out that part of the value of school programs like this is that they allow you to work more concertedly on photographic projects than you probably ever will otherwise, before or after. That extended concentration is something to be prized—even though you're paying them instead of the other way around, it can be the next best thing to a Guggenheim. Hmm, maybe I should do this myself....

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

John Krumm: "I bet it would be awesome. When I lived in Alaska I was spoiled with excellent low-angle light almost year-round, and public, unfenced land everywhere. I earned my BA in English from the University of Alaska, Anchorage. It's a small University system but the state attracts some serious teaching talent."

John Hagen: "I studied as an undergraduate Photojournalism student at UAF with Charles Mason as my mentor. Great school in probably the second-best place on the planet to make photographs. If one cannot take off a whole three years to earn their MFA, I strongly recommend attending weekend workshops in photography. Oh, and the best place to make photographs is wherever you are right now."

Print Offer Delayed

As mentioned on Saturday, the overnight delivery of the proofs failed this past weekend, so the quick three-day Print Offer of "The Red Chair" that some people were asking for will be delayed by a day or two. I'll add any future interim news to this post as Updates, until the announcement, which will be a new post. Thanks for your interest! And your patience.

(I've had friends and relatives contacting me saying they want one...first time that's happened.)

[UPDATE: Sale will start on Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET, for three days, till Saturday 1 p.m. ET.]

We've done this at least twice before...offered a quick print sale of a picture that was published on TOP in some other context. One was Gordon Lewis's "Precipitation," a picture he took when testing a Pentax K-7 for a review of his published here. That picture sold modestly, if well enough, but it's become quite famous since then, going on to be published in several venues, including the book Why Photographs Work: 52 Great Images, Who Made Them, What Makes Them Special and Why by George Barr. And of all our print sales, ever, I think it's the one the people ask for the most, and most often express regret about missing. I have my print of "Precipitation" hanging in the downstairs half bath (my mother always called those "powder rooms," presumably because that's where ladies once went to powder their noses? I don't know about these things). On a recent visit, a poet/editor/artist friend of mine confessed he kept returning to the downstairs bathroom, not to powder his nose, but to gaze at Gordon's print, which mesmerized him. I have hopes of someday convincing Gordon to offer another run of that one. It's an enigmatic picture, unconventional but strangely perfect, and it has held up very well—the print is still just as good to look at today as it was when I first saw it.

Another was a limited offer of 50 prints of the dramatic "Summer Storm, Chicago," by Ken Tanaka, which I believe Ken actually first posted here as part of a comment. That offering sold out in six hours and two minutes, so I whined and wheedled and pleaded, and Ken, probably to shut me up, kindly agreed to make another 50 prints, plus ten larger ones. Those all sold out quickly, too.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Gato: "I remembered 'Precipitation' once I looked it up—had not remembered the title. Though I remember the photo I seem to have missed the print sale. If there is ever another run you can count me in."

Open Mike: I Get to Meet Mick Jagger (Steve Sasson)

Yr. Hmbl. Ed. and Steve Sasson, inventor of the digital camera.
Photo by Robyn Rime.

Okay, not Mick Jagger exactly. Many years ago, when I was in my LEAP (Learn Everything About Photography) period, I took a course in optics at the University of Maryland so I could learn more about how lenses worked (well worth it, by the way—great course, great fun). The physics professor mentioned once that he didn't care about the celebrities most other people cared about—all his celebrities, he said, were physicists. His face brightened up as he described a physics conference he had recently attended. He ran through a partial list of all the physicists in attendance and why they were famous, and said he was so excited to be in the same room with all of them that he could barely sit still in his seat. "It was like other people would feel sitting in a room full of rock stars," he said.

So when I met Steve Sasson yesterday, I told him that, for me, meeting him was like meeting Mick Jagger! He gave me a somewhat bemused look at that.

Steve struck me as one of those "young old people," a down-to-earth guy with a lively mind who, in the space of a very short conversation, had a lot to say about things like innovation in the context of institutions and creative disruptions in technology. He told me he now works as an independent consultant, and, like any good rock star, goes out on tour (okay, I'm stretching my metaphor—he gives lectures around the country).

An honor to meet him. A real celebrity, in our universe. Seemed like a very nice guy, too.

Mike

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Henning Wulff: "I got to meet Steve Sasson in Rochester in 2007 when he gave a presentation to the LHSA (Leica Historical Society of America) about the development of the first digital camera. A great speaker and true innovator. Too bad the Kodak behemoth didn't listen to him more, but then, he was quite junior at the time. All in all, a memorable experience. And yes, my first six years in university were in physics which came in good stead in all later endeavors."

Mike Kukulski: "I briefly met Mr. Sasson in Sept 2014, at the George Eastman House in Rochester where I was attending an ambrotype workshop. I had recently written a history of photography article for my local camera club newsletter about the development of digital photography, and based on my research for that I recognized him sitting in the cafeteria at lunch. I politely interrupted his discussion with his colleagues to thank him for his contribution to the field of photography. He was very gracious and I was pleased to have gotten the chance to meet him. FYI, my digital photo history article can be seen here."

Mike replies: Nicely done on the article—a good brief overview of digital imaging history. I enjoyed that.

Three-Day Print Sale? Maybe? 'Ice Storm'

By popular demand, Ctein and I are working to put together a quick print sale of this picture I took the other day that people liked.

The sale, if it happens, will be up for three days only, Mon.–Wed. next week. [See update below —MJ.]

Price will be $170 with $50 off for the unsigned version.

This is dependent on getting a good print! So this is not a promise. He's working on the files now and will overnight proofs to me tomorrow. Just wanted to give some advance notice in case we go ahead with it.

Oh, and a promise: International buyers welcome, no penalty.  :-)

Mike

[UPDATE Sat. 2/20, 8:45 p.m.: Unfortunately the proofs didn't make it here on Saturday, so the print sale will be delayed by a few days. We will keep you posted. —MJ]

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International Ordering for 'An American Century of Photography' (Update)

Okay, here's how to order An American Century of Photography from countries other than the U.S.

The Museum Store is not set up to accept non-U.S. orders online. So if you'd like to order a book, please email the store at [email protected] and provide your name, country, and address including postal code. They'll calculate shipping charges, and if you're still interested, you can work out with them how to pay.

Just to prevent confusion: this post pertains to FOREIGN ORDERS ONLY. If you're in the United States, you can purchase a copy of the book for half price by visiting the sale page and entering 19333 in the box labeled "Promotional Code" on the left hand side of the checkout page.

Mind you, the shipping charges are likely to be high. It's a Museum Store in the middle of the continental United States. Ninety-nine percent of its sales take place inside the Museum itself. They don't commonly get orders from foreign countries, they don't do a lot of shipping, and they don't have volume arrangements with shippers. The cost will be just as high as if you were to take a 9–10 lbs. (4–4.5 kilo) package to your local shipper and have it sent to Missouri, plus handling.

I have my doubts as to whether this will be practical and cost-effective. But we'd like to do whatever we can to accommodate all our readers, no matter where they live. I hope this does that.

About 800 copies of the book have been ordered so far, and there should be about 400 left. As I mentioned before, the Store staff is working overtime, but it's going to take them a while to get all the books shipped—it's a big task. Your patience is appreciated!

Mike

P.S. To answer an earlier question, yes, if you live in Kansas City, Missouri, you can go to the Museum Store at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in person and ask for a discount by mentioning The Online Photographer and using the coupon code 19333.

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Samuli: "One option is to use packet forwarding services that are available in the US. I have used www.shipito.com few times in order to get stuff to Finland from US Amazon or some other webshop that doesn't ship outside US. The forwarding costs are reasonable and often cheaper than using what is available otherwise."

O Happy Pentax Day

A smile and a wave to all you Pentax fans out there.

In case you don't know, in the camera world, Pentaxians are a breed apart. They're moderate, mild, friendly, dripping with decency, thoughtful, considerate, intelligent and tolerant.

You know—like Canadians.

They're also quietly long-suffering, and long since resigned to being second fiddle.

You burst on the scene already a legend*

Yesterday, though, they had a moment—a shining, triumphal moment, like the British in the 2012 Games**. Pentax, now owned by Ricoh (itself reticent but overachieving), introduced its first full-frame camera, simply called the Pentax K-1. (Love that. Simple. Sweet. Short. Sensible.) The letter "K" has been identified with Pentax since it called its first bayonet mount the K-mount, when it changed over from M42 screwmount. That happened during the reign of Charlemagne over the Franks, approximately. "1" means, well, 1. The tip, the top. First in line.

We knew the "full-frame Pentax" was coming. It had been leaked a time or two. What we didn't know was that it was going to be a D810 killer! The same number of pixels. A bit smaller, but actually a little heavier.

It also has: full 5-axis in-body image stabilization (take that, Canikon). A battery big enough to last and last. A unique articulated viewing screen that doesn't just flip up but can also be angled, but without getting out of line with the optical axis. Wi-fi. No anti-aliasing filter. It has Pentax's pixel-shift for still lifes, for full color information at every pixel location. Dual card slots. And little assist LEDs that helpfully light the way for when you have to futz with the camera in the dark.

It's weatherproof, dustproof, and works in the cold. And has 14-bit raw. And here's the best part: at $1,799, it's a big bargain.

Compare to the trifling, no-IBIS-having, ratty fixed-viewing-screen D810 at a cool GRAND more.

The body style reminds me of a Land Rover. Tough, macho and ready for anything, with a beefy grip to hang on to. Clearly it take cues from the K-5 and its descendants, as well as providing echoes of Pentaxes past. Pentax knows how to design camera bodies, arguably above all other makers. Its best are a cut above.

As an aside, this made me smile:

Someone on the design team had a little fun with that. Pentax has been using this little design cue in one form or another since the fabled Spotmatics, and maybe earlier.

And—at last!—that lovely, luscious set of Limited lenses are restored to their intended, totally quirky focal lengths. The three are the 31mm Limited, the 43mm Limited, and the 77mm Limited. (My friend Oren refers to these nonstandard specs as "Pentax numerology.") Older K-mount lenses can also be mounted to the K-1.

...Of course, Pentax now has the most hodgepodge lens lineup of any maker anywhere in the world, since it's been making lenses for multiple formats since Andrew Jackson was President and concentrating on APS-C lenses since the Administration of Woodrow Wilson. (Note: these are exaggerations. That thing about Charlemagne, too.) Sure to delight shoppers is the totally awkward fact that some of the APS-C lenses will a) fit on the K-1 and b) cover full frame at certain apertures or focal lengths but not others. This will give rise to delightfully arcane arguments among people who like to construct equipment kits on paper with no thought whatsoever to practicality in the real world. (All APS-C lenses work in crop mode, however, and crop mode can be set for any lens.) At least you can see what the lenses do—there's a real glass pentaprism with near-100% coverage that promises good magnification and eye relief.

 

And the vertical grip is removable.

There are two new dedicated lenses, a 15–30mm ƒ/2.8 and a 28–105mm ƒ/3.5–5.6. Pentax says there will be more. (Note TOP's ongoing advice, however: make sure the lenses you need are available before you buy any camera. Promises don't take pictures.)

While it's unlikely to be the biggest, baddest, fastest or most professional FF out there, the K-1 seems squarely targeted to be one thing: the perfect enthusiast full-frame body for dedicated diehard Pentaxians. Seems to me like it's just exactly tailored to what they'd most want, like, and appreciate.

Let their fun begin.

Mike

P.S. Oh, and how very considerate of Pentax to build the perfect body for the Sigma Art 35mm ƒ/1.4 I wrote about just the other day. (Thanks to John Krumm for pointing this out.)

*Joan Baez singing about Bob Dylan

**As hosts in 2012, Great Britain had its best Olympics since 1908.

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Trecento: "Congratulations, Pentaxians! I'm very happy for you! (It really feels like a good friend has just had a much-longed-for child, after many years of disappointments that had made even bringing up the topic painful. Good show.)"

Glenn Brown: "Thank you very much. —Glenn Brown, Canadian  :-)  "

Ned Bunnell: "The first three lenses I'd love to try with the K-1 would be the 'three amigos,' a.k.a. the FA* Limited 31mm, 77mm and 43mm (the order in which I'd shoot with them)."

[Ed. Note: As I've mentioned before, friend Ned is the former President of Pentax USA.]

Hugh Smith: "Remember when Honeywell distributed Pentax? Then Asahi? Now Ricoh. Curioser and Curioser, Alice. Mi dos pesos."

Mike replies: Those are three different things. Asahi Optical Corporation was the name of the Japanese company before it changed its name to Pentax Corporation in 2002 (Pentax had previously been a brand name). Honeywell was just the U.S. distributor from the 1950s to the '70s. Ricoh is a larger company historically known for making copiers that bought the cameramaking assets of Pentax from its previous owner, Hoya. Hoya is a Japanese glassmaking company that bought Pentax in 2006. Hoya was mainly interested in the medical divisions, which it still retains. Ricoh was interested in the interchangeable-lens camera assets, and that's what it bought from Hoya—similar to the way Sony bought the cameramaking assets of Minolta, except that Sony considered its own name to be stronger in the market whereas Ricoh continues to use the Pentax name. Ricoh acquired all shares of the former Pentax Imaging Corp. and created a new division called Pentax Ricoh Imaging Company Ltd. in 2011.

Then on August 1st, 2013, Pentax Ricoh Imaging Ltd. changed its name to Ricoh Imaging Ltd., specifying its product naming strategy in a press release: "The company has...unveiled its future product brand strategy: both PENTAX and RICOH products will remain in the market under the new name to reinforce the company’s commitment to the business with Pentax becoming the brand for all DSLR, interchangeable lens cameras and binoculars, and Ricoh becoming its brand for compact cameras and new technological innovations."

Curiously, the Pentax name was originally a trademark of East German VEB Zeiss (VEB stands for Volkseigener Betrieb or "people-owned enterprise"), but was stripped from it after the war. Asahi, which was founded in 1919 but made its first camera in 1952, adopted the Pentax name in 1957.

Confused enough yet? The short version is that Pentax has been a brand name of Ricoh since 2011.

Kevin Purcell replies to Mike (partial comment): "To clarify, this was not quite the same as Sony and Konica/Minolta deal.

"Konica/Minolta and Sony agreed to work on DSLR cameras in 2005. Sony bought the intellectual property of Minolta's SLRs and lenses from Konica/Minolta when the latter exited the DSLR camera (and photo film, photo paper paper and minilab) market in 2006.

"Konica/Minolta is alive and well. One division still designs and builds lenses (and other optics) for third parties that put their own brands on them. This includes camera lenses which you see patented on a regular basis.

"Ricoh bought all of the Pentax Imaging company from Hoya which includes not only the ILC cameras but the compact cameras and sports optics (like binoculars and spotting scopes).

"Pentax is now really just a brand of Ricoh Imaging Co much as that might irk some Pentaxians."

Chas: "Hi I went back through my collection of old Pentax spec sheets and found that the little design quirk on the top of the pentaprism goes back to the AF [Asahiflex —Ed.] model introduced in 1957. Sadly my collection of old Pentax cameras doesn't include one or I would include a photo...."

Mike replies: Here it is. Right? [UPDATE: Nope, wrong. Linked is a Pentax K. Thanks to Tom for the correction. —Ed.]

David W. Scott: "Sold. Well done Pentax. I'm a Canadian Pentaxian that has been waiting a long time for this. I've dabbled in Nikon and Fuji, but my primary system is Pentax, both K-mount and screwmount. All but one of my lenses are full frame, because I knew we would get here eventually. I recently sold my K-5 to maximize the salvage value, hoping that the K-1 would deliver. It does, and at a world-beating price. The K-1 will be coming home to join the LX, K2, my Dad's Spotmatic F, and the quirky K-01."

vinck: "It makes me sad, actually. I really liked my K-5 and DA Limited lenses, and have a kind of fondness for Pentax. But try as I might, I can't see this making any sort of business sense. It really seems like a waste of good money.

"Let's see: launching a full frame camera, which is a niche even to DSLRs to begin with, long after everybody else. Those that needed full frame have gone looking elsewhere, bought the lenses in their new home, and are unlikely to return. Those that stayed with the brand didn't really need full frame, and probably still don't. And if they have bought DA lenses, those are not really useful on the K-1.

"Then there is the lack of lenses. For the time being, you have to contend with a handful of zooms, and no modern prime. Most old lenses won't be any good really on a 36-MP sensor. There's a reason Canon and Nikon have updated an awful lot of their lenses.

"So now they have to develop a full line of FF lenses in addition to the body. All this must have cost an awful lot of money and divert an awful lot of R&D resources, and will continue to do so. Pentax is a small player to start with, and the company now has to manage four lines of interchangeable lens cameras, where Nikon has three and Canon two. And it's not like the 645 or Q lines are fully fleshed out either.

"And all this money for...a DLSR? Seriously? The consensus seems to be that the future of DSLRs is pretty grim. They'll stay, but should be relegated to confidential volumes. This could have been the start of a new FF mirrorless system with a line of new lenses to be deployed. And adapters for old lenses to please those that have them. Instead, we have here something that should effectively prevent Pentax from developing any kind of mirrorless line because, well, resources are never unlimited.

"'For dedicated diehard Pentaxians.' Yes, indeed. But are there enough of them to recoup the development costs? I have my doubts.

"I wish this company well, I really do. But I fear this might not serve them well in the long-term...."

Michael Barker (partial comment): "I enjoyed reading that post! It's a camera that really, really needs to exist (well, compared to cameras in general). I'm pleased that it came out so over-the-top snazzy. When I visited the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum it was all 5D Mark III's and D600's and D800's...maybe next time there'll be some Pentaxian winners? And, astrotracing sounds like a lot of fun...."

Knocked Out!

Just thought I'd show you the ice storm that had me off the Internet for ten hours.

Butters cautiously investigates a stick that mysteriously fell from the sky

Pretty, but for me, being off the Internet is like...fasting.

More soon!

Mike

ADDENDUM: This is what the red chair looks down on:

I thought this was cool. The waterfall had frozen solid, presumably with the usual small amount of flow still moving beneath all the ice. Then, with all the rain two days ago, a new torrent came down the hill flowing on top of the ice. Pretty!

Sorry about the vertical format—I only made this to send to my niece, son, and cousin...vertical videos look fine on their iPhones....

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Romano: "Gorgeous photo, the red chair (I am really a bit puzzled by the small speck of red in the right bottom corner...). And about Lent, my mother used to say that you must 'fast' on something you really miss—for her it was smoking.  ;-)  "

Mike replies: Does this older photo solve the mystery of the small speck of red?

As for your advice on Lent, I'll give up Porsches.  :-)

Book Sale Update

This has been fun. The book sale has gone awesomely/brilliantly so far. We'd taken orders for 649 books as of 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday.

As you can probably understand, this presents the Museum Store at the Nelson-Atkins with an unusual challenge! Like any museum store, 99% of the business they do is on-site...that is, in the actual Museum itself. They're not set up for large amounts of online orders or for lots of shipping. So they're asking for your patience—they're going to be working overtime to get all the orders fulfilled and the books out the door, but it might take a little longer than you expect for your book to get to you. Both the Museum Store staff and I are standing by to help with any problems, so you will get your book, don't worry. Certainly if you haven't gotten yours by the Ides of March (Spellcheck changed that to "Ideas of March"—no, Spellcheck), you should contact us.

To give you an idea how unusual this is for them, they have to hire a rental truck to get the books from the storage facility to the shipping area!

There are still lots of copies left. But...well, no one knows exactly how many. It seems the boxes are not all in one place, so they're not easy to count. Plenty, though.

Non-US orders
Now then, as far as international shipping is concerned: if online sales are a tiny fraction of the store's ordinary business, international sales are a tiny fraction of that. Normally how they do it is just handle each order individually and calculate actual shipping depending on your address. But that's going to be tough if there are, say, 200 or 300 orders. They're going to bend over backwards to try to accommodate international orders, but they need a couple of days to work out the details. So I'll have an update for you about that at about this time Thursday afternoon. Don't worry, there will still be books available, they'll make sure of that.

I have to warn you, it might cost a lot. It's a heavy book and shipping is expensive. It's just a reality of the big round world—electrons go zipping around the globe with nary a care, but getting a weighty stack of paper to do the same thing takes more doing.

If you haven't ordered yet and would like to, here's the link, and the "Promotional Code" to enter at checkout to get 50% off is 19333.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Speed: "649 books at eight pounds each is more than 5,000 pounds of books. That's like shipping 325 bowling balls." 

Fuji Event

B&H Photo is having a massive Fuji sale event—all or at least most of Fuji's digital cameras and lenses are available at significant discounts. The X100T is $200 off; save $300 on either X-T1; the popular new weatherproof 16mm ƒ/1.4 is $200 off and so is the brilliant 50–140mm ƒ/2.8 constant-aperture zoom (didn't one reviewer say that one lens was worth building a whole system around? I can't find it now). There are numerous kit combinations on sale too.

B&H has listed everything on this page. Check it out.

Oh, right—one thing not on sale is the new X-Pro2. But did you read David Hobby's account of how Fuji got input from professional photographers in revising that camera? Very interesting. Worth a read as a general camera article even if you're not into Fuji.

Mike

P.S. I'll have an update on the book sale later this morning this afternoon.

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Earl Dunbar: "Uhm, the other thing that isn't on sale is the 35/2. Not that the current price is bad, but as you say, I'm just sayin'."

Stephen Scharf: "I was hoping you'd see the interview with David Hobby about how closely Fujifilm worked to gather 'Voice of the Customer' (VOC) with it's consortium of professional X-photographers. From my own perspective as a VOC professional, Fuji does a really good job of this. One of the most useful parts of the article that David remarked on was how Fuji considered, and actually made, many different prototype cameras to test and evaluate many different features and most importantly, the tradeoffs those features represented before settling on a final design. What most folks don't realize, particularly the trolls on the camera forums, is that many times, different functions conflict with one another, and it can be quite challenging to determine where and how the tradeoffs should be made (the classic one in photography is the old resolution vs. noise at high ISO tradeoff). This is hard work. When one considers all the features, and all the functions, and the sophistication of the subsystems that provide those functions and features we enjoy, the vast majority of customers simply do not understand how technically challenging engineering those subsystems and putting them into production on a mass scale really is. Mostly, they just gripe about not having a tilt screen, or IBIS, or tilt screen with touch control, blah, blah, blah. For example, the viewfinder on the X-Pro has three different optical subsystems built into one, one that fits in the top cover of the body. Think for a moment on the engineering sophistication it took to pull that off. Virtually no one else in the camera industry has anything comparable in functionality or features.

"Overall, Fuji does a helluva job, and Hobby's article does a great job of articulating that."

Exclusive Book Offer

Today I'm happy to be able to offer a fine deal on a great photography book, just for you. Keith F. Davis's An American Century of Photography: From Dry Plate to Digital is the best single-volume history of 20th-century American photography, in my opinion. It covers the century-plus from the mid-1880s (when American photography really came into its own) to the late 1990s.

It first came out in 1995 to widespread praise, and quickly sold out. Rather than just run off another batch, the 1999 Second Edition was revised extensively and increased in size more than 50%, with many illustrations added, and a larger press run was made. For a book of this type the production values are top notch in every way: a solid binding, very good paper, and excellent reproduction quality.

The original publication price was $95, more than fair for such a hefty slab of book with production values of such high standards. I've seen a lot less book sell for $100 and more over the years. As it's gotten further from its publication date, the book was discounted to $65, which is the lowest it has ever sold for until right this minute.

But after 17 years, well established as a success, the book is now ending its run. The Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, is clearing out the remaining inventory, and has offered exclusively to TOP (that's where you are now, The Online Photographer) the opportunity to sell hardcover copies of An American Century of Photography for one month for half price, only $32.50. A small amount of the proceeds go to support TOP. The books are new and pristine and will be shipped from the Museum.

To cut to the chase, here's how to order: Go to the Nelson-Atkins Museum Bookstore page for the book, add it to your cart, and, on the left where it says "Promotional Code," enter 19333 to get 50% off.

The shipping cost of $15.95 then seems high proportionate to the cost of the book, but as you'll see, it's a great big book—588 pages on premium paper stock, almost two inches thick, and 7.8 pounds. Not cheap to ship.

That's why, unfortunately, we can only ship to the USA for now. We're going to work on international shipping and I'll update you if there's movement on that front.

There are enough books available that everyone who wants one should be able to get one. There might even be enough copies to last for the 30 days of the sale. However, the number of copies available is limited—and when they're gone, that's it.

About the book
The classic scholarly photography book was traditionally organized as a written essay of generous length, often with smaller illustrations interspersed, followed by a section of "plates," or full-sized illustrations. This was because, in earlier eras of printing, the printing of illustrations often required a different process and sometimes different paper. But it proved to be a robust and sensible organizing principle for photo books. An American Century is essentially four such books in one: "A Reluctant Modernism, 1885–1915," "Abstraction and Realism, 1915–1940," "From Public to Private Concerns, 1940–1965," and "The Image Transformed, 1965–Present." Each written section is followed by a generous selection of pictures, presented in oversize format, one to a page (no running over the gutter), each with an appropriate border of white space.

One result is that you can fully enjoy the book just as a picture book, even without reading a word. The Nelson-Atkins is the home of the Hallmark Photographic Collection, formerly one of the earliest and largest corporate photography collections in the world. Keith Davis is not only one of the finest authors in the U.S. writing about photography today—he's a gifted curator with a great eye. (You might remember that we featured his book The Photographs of Ray K. Metzker in 2012 (now out of print and selling for $195 and up), and more recently his Multitude, Solitude: The Photographs of Dave Heath was our Book of the Year for 2015.) He told me that in selecting the illustrations for this book, he tried to leaven familiar masterworks with a generous assortment of lesser-known pictures that might be new to readers of the book. The effect is just right—you "land" every few pages on a familiar "friend," so to speak, but there's a rich lode of astutely chosen less familiar works as well, to add discovery and surprise to the mix.

You'll probably digest it as pictures-only at first, and it's pretty enjoyable that way.

'Tis a great whacking slab of a tome, big and heavy, 9.8 x 12.2 inches

But I hope you won't overlook the text. It took Keith six years of research and writing—and that's with the kind of help that a major museum curator can call upon. I'm finding the book physically somewhat demanding to read—the combination of the large, heavy size of the book and the small type is tough to handle—I have an antique book stand that's helping. But the text is fascinating, a fine panoramic overview with lots of thoughtful (and thought-provoking) touches. I'll give you a sample a few days from now.

A book stand is helping

Enough for now. I hope you'll like this—it's a work on its subject that is unlikely to be surpassed until the history of the past 21 years has settled a lot more. A core title for a the educational and reference shelves of your library, and a book that's rich enough and deep enough to repay whatever level of attention you care to give it. I think you will like.

Again, to order, go to the book page, add it to your cart, and enter 19333 in the "Promotional Code" box to get half off. This sale will go till March 15th or until the last of the books are gone.

A big thanks to Keith and all the fine people who are involved in this at the Nelson-Atkins Museum.

Mike

UPDATE Mon. 1:30: The Museum Store is getting a large number of orders. They'd like me to announce that shipping won't begin until Thursday of this week (the books have to be retrieved), and "Orders will be processed in the order received." —M. the Ed.]

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Roberto Alonso Lago: "Very nice Mike. You've been teasing us about this until I'm chomping at the bit, only to casually mention today that only US orders can be fulfilled. Argh! If you suffer any back pains today, it's me and my voodoo doll. :-) "

Mike replies: LOL! Ouch.

They're going to work on it, really. It might not be till later in the week, but I will alert you as soon as possible.

Steve G: "My order was in by 8:20 am Pacific time. As a side note, that book stand looks nifty. Are they available or is that a one-off or a garage sale find, etc?"

Mike replies: That one's an antique—family heirloom—but here's something very similar, a little smaller but close in size, for not very much money. If that doesn't suit, search for "cookbook holder" or "Bible stand" to find alternatives. Quite useful actually.

Michel: "PHEW! Despite all your assurances to the contrary I was afraid the book would be gone in no time. I fully intended to come by TOP at or near 11 a.m. but I forgot. When I remembered I just scrolled until I saw the link, clicked and purchased. Now I can go back and read the post and find out what this book is about  ;-)  Thank you Mike."

hugh crawford: "I have not heard of the book but Charles Sheeler's photograph of the Ford plant on the cover is pretty canny. If you needed to pick a single photograph to illustrate the intersections (yeah, I know) of art and commerce, of painting and photography, of the precise inflection point of the transformation to an industrial culture, and a foreshadowing of Bernd and Hilla Becher and the whole Dusseldorf School, Charles Sheeler's River Rouge photo would be a pretty good choice. Or it could illustrate the obliteration of nature and its replacement by suburbs and the rise of the charcoal briquette. It's one of my favorite photographs."

Mark Sampson: "I just showed this post to my wife (the photo conservator/historian in our house) and she said 'let's get it!' So we have."

Mike replies: Sounds like a nice household.

Malcolm Leader: "I can't thank you enough. I saw this book in the '90s but was really too poor at the time to justify buying and I've regretted it ever since. I admit, I basically forgot about it until now. Can't wait to look through this at length. Thank you again."

Frank Greenagel: "I purchased the first edition when it came out in 1995 and your description is entirely accurate—excellent paper, printing and binding. I especially appreciated the many fresh images there, and hope/expect the new edition will have more."

Memory Sale

Today's Amazon Deal of the Day is up to 70% off on PNY memory.

For example, a 64GB PNY U3 PRO Elite SD Card for just $24.49, 51% off.

Just passing this along.

PNY is an American company with a sparkling brand new manufacturing facility in New Jersey on a 40+ acre business campus. They are also leaders in rooftop solar.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
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