The Online Photographer

Wednesday Open Mike: A Writer's Writer (OT)

["Open Mike" is the often off-topic Editorial page of TOP, in which Yr. Hmbl. Ed. sometimes wanders into double, double toil and trouble. It appears on Wednesdays.]

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Things have slowed down here as I'm a bit under the weather. I don't feel bad, but I'm very tired—listless—and once again I've got the voice I always wanted...about two registers lower than my normal voice. As often happens when I get a "bug."  :-)

An off-topic placeholder: If you remember the TV shows "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Tales of the Unexpected," and "The Twilight Zone," or ever watch them on YouTube, you might be interested to know that one of the strongest influences on that style of storytelling was a writer from the UK named John Collier, who wrote short stories among other things. Fourteen episodes of those three television shows came from Collier's short stories.

Collier, who never graduated from college but was an admirer of both Swift and Joyce, came to the US from England in 1935 and landed in Hollywood. But he was hardly a typical Hollywood writer. An early screenplay that flopped nearly wrecked Katherine Hepburn's career, and his style marks him as "a category of one," playful yet wicked, with plentiful overtones of myth and fantasy. He began a minor literary tradition when he wrote an anonymous negative review of his own whimsical first book His Monkey Wife, which was about a man married to a chimpanzee. "From the classical standpoint his consciousness is too crammed for harmony," goes his self-assessment, "too neurasthenic for proportion, and his humor is too hysterical, too greedy, and too crude." That might work as a review of some of those old TV shows.

His quintessential book of stories is Fancies and Goodnights from 1951, which won the very first International Fantasy Award as well as an Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America. The book was famous for years and is still in print. (The subtitle of the first edition [pictured], is "TALES UNLIKE OTHER TALES," and the book cover got that right!) If you'd like to read the first story in the book online, a tale of a treacherous genie in a bottle, as a sample, you can read it at Esquire magazine's website. Although a written story, you'll find it as short and to the point as the 22 minutes of a half-hour TV show.

There are also more complete compendiums, The Best of John Collier and The John Collier Reader. (I could swear I bought the latter, but it has mysteriously vanished.)

Collier was a favorite of many writers, including Roald Dahl as well as Ray Bradbury, who wrote the introduction to the linked edition. Other than his books, Collier seems to have left little trace: there are few interviews and not many photos. His biographer said of him: "Collier saw humans, flawed but with potential, everywhere contaminated by narrow creeds, institutions, coteries, vanities, and careers."

Anyway, try Fancies and Goodnights. Perfect reading if you're just a bit sick!  ;-)

Mike

Original contents copyright 2020 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:

jerry: "My mother bought me Fancies and Goodnights when was in junior high in 1969. I just reread it about two years ago. Uniquely lovely and wicked little tales. Truly unforgettable to the youngster I was then."

Matthew Liggett: "I haven't read Collier, but I will definitely give him a shot, thanks. Your post immediately reminded me of Ben Loory's Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day. Some are bleak and most are surreal. They're very short—what's sometimes called micro-fiction."

Mike replies: Those look wonderful. Thanks back at you!

My Book of the Year

Written by John Camp

Interesting that Mike should ask me about my favorite books of 2019. In addition to being a thriller writer [John writes thrillers under the pen name John Sandford —Ed.], I’m a thriller fan, and also read a bit of sci-fi and general adventure novels and also quite a bit of non-fiction. I think I probably read 60–70 books a year—something more than one a week—plus dip into quite a few more that I don’t finish. For me, the outstanding thing about 2019 was the number of extremely reliable, excellent writers who produced books that were sharply sub-standard. I don’t want to get into names, but boy, some famous writers really turned out poor books last year. Embarrassingly poor.

One exception was Stephen King—I’ve always had a soft spot for him, because while he sometimes writes too fast and drops in a lot of extraneous stuff, he is capable of writing really well. He did that in the set-piece introduction to his book this year, called The Institute. You could live in that intro.

And my favorite photobook? The most outstanding book I got—and I mean this sincerely, I’ve gone back to it dozens of times since Christmas—was a photo book produced on the Shutterfly site. Several years ago, we adopted a German Shepherd from a German Shepherd rescue kennel in Los Angeles. When picked up by the rescue people, the dog had nearly starved to death—he was young, but terribly emaciated, hardly able to hold his head up, from living on the streets. Years went by and Scout died last summer of cancer. We did everything we could to save him, including spending three weeks at Colorado State University and their animal clinic, renowned as an animal cancer research center, through which he was given a serious course of chemotherapy.

The cancer was non-operable, though, and he died in August. He was the dog of my life; I can still break down and cry when I think of him. Unbeknownst to me, a friend of ours from the Twin Cities collected a bunch of photos of him (and there were quite a few) and put together a Shutterfly book that showed his progress from a seriously starved rescue dog to a big, happy, confident shepherd who loved to romp, ride in the car, and meet new people. Always looking for something to do. We used to go for long walks, with Scout on a leash, making sure the rabbits in the neighborhood didn’t get too bold. I called them "bunny walks," and all I had to do, at a certain time not long before dusk every day, was mouth the words "bunny walk" and he’d be running around in circles, eager to go.

Anyway, that was my book of the year, made by our friend Cindy, and sitting on top of everything else in our library.

John

Original contents copyright 2020 by John Camp. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Kenneth Tanaka: "Thank you for sharing that story, John. Believe me, I’m with ya. Our beloved cat of 16 years, KC, died of renal disease in 2016. Our home features more photos of him than of our family. We also have a private gallery of some of his photos online that we can browse from anywhere at any time. (And we do!) No other medium has the power of testimony and recollection that photography has offered from its very first moment of inception. Isn’t that a truly magical and wonderful thing?! My condolences on your loss of Scout. My enthusiastic head-nod on your photobook-of-the-year nomination."

Jim Arthur: "Nice post, John. I did something similar for my younger brother after his dog, Sandy, died. In hindsight I should have offered to make a photo book but he asked me to print his favorite photos of Sandy and put them in an old-school collage photo frame. He loved it. Sandy was a once in a lifetime dog for me as well so I really enjoyed the project.

"A few years later I did another photo project for the same brother after he suffered a traumatic brain injury. I printed photos of friends and family and brought them to the hospital to help him place names with faces. Luckily, brother has recovered and I like to think that photography helped him along the way.

"The power of two-dimensional photography to trigger a memory, tell a story, remember an association, or elicit emotion is an amazing thing. After all that’s passed, it’s especially nice to see brother pause to look at his Sandy collage when I’m there for a visit."

Al C.: "I am guessing responses to this post may break the record. Here's mine.

"Shortly after I finished school and got my first job, my then girlfriend, later wife, saw a beautiful terrier mutt puppy get hit by a car. She took her to the vet (the dog was fine), then home. We looked for her owner; none came forward. To keep her, we moved to an apartment next to a small lake, which quickly became her domain. Here's a soul who greets every day as a special gift, every stranger as a new friend, every outing as a great adventure. She was also independent, and saw us not as owners or parents, but peers and pals. She had her own circle of friends and admirers. Kids in the neighborhood would drop by after school and take her off to play in their yard. She would take long swims in the lake with the resident ducks. She was always mischievous, never missed a chance to show off her charm, to stick her nose in things, to be in the middle of the action and attention. But she instinctively knew when it was proper, and when not. Well, mostly.

"One day, there was a fire in the laundry room on our floor. When the burly firemen came stomping in, she rushed to and past them to make sure not to miss the excitement.

"We constantly talked to her. She understood everything. In return, she taught me how I should live my life. I try, but fall short. After all, no one I know possesses her reserve of good cheer, good will, and good sense.

"I started my own company for the sole and express purpose of being able to take her to work with me every day. It used to break my heart every morning, knowing I was ruining—stealing—her day. Thus, everything I have now I owe to this 25 lbs. bundle of irrepressible spirit and joy.

"We lost her after 19 short years. I continue to re-tell and regale my friends with tales of her funny, endearing antics, tales which would overflow a children's book. A few years ago, I wrote them down, more a catalog than a book, for when I start to forget. Silly thought: I shall never forget. I keep the snapshots I took of her—with the Voightlander Vito my father gave me in high school—in the very front of our family albums. I look at them, as often as I could bear to. The colors have faded, but not the feelings of joy, pride, and eternal gratitude."

Dave Hodson: "'We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone.' Not sure who said it (Katie Thurmes? [Yes —Ed.]), but it's always stuck in my mind. Funny how a bunch of crappy little snaps of our pug of 16 years can still choke me up."

The Pillar by Stephen Gill (Mike's Book of the Year 2019)

A fashion lately: photobooks without a photo on the cover. It's a thing.

Birds as art
A problem with photography these days is that many approaches are becoming trite through no fault of their own, due simply to overdeployment. Too many people taking the same sorts of pictures, and, in that way, the pictures become unoriginal and lose their incantatory frisson. Not their fault, but ours, because we're saturated.

A spread from American Winter. Beautiful book, but been done.

One example: Swedish photographer Gerry Johansson's otherwise fine book American Winter. There's a long tradition of European views of the USA, dating to Frank's epochal The Americans, and before that de Tocqueville, and it's true you often see a place "with new eyes" while it remains foreign in its essence. Johansson "travelled through semi-deserted towns in Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, finding as much beauty as there was misery in landscapes cloaked in snow," according to the writeup, and the pictures are quite fine. They're also quite familiar to many American photographers who have perhaps seen enough of the same sort of thing.

So I'm always alert to new and different ideas*.

Topmost among these for 2019 for me is The Pillar by Stephen Gill. Gill pounded a post into a bleak Swedish landscape and mounted a camera with a motion sensor nearby. (And then, I'm assuming, exhaustively edited the results.) The resulting pictures of birds perching on the pillar and coming or going in all weathers has an almost mystical beauty. They make me feel the way photography used to make me feel.

The following words are by Karl Ove Knausgård, the memoirist who created a literary sensation with his obsessive multi-part My Struggle (in Norwegian, Min Kamp), six "damned, thick, square books"** completed in 2011. Min Kamp in English inspired James Wood's famous mot: "even when I was bored, I was interested," which IMO conveys seamlessly to The Pillar. Knausgård's description of these photographs:

A pillar knocked into the ground next to a stream in a flat, open landscape, trees and houses visible in the distance, beneath a vast sky. That is the backdrop to all of Stephen Gill's photographs in this book. We see the same landscape in spring and summer, in autumn and winter, we see it in sunshine and rain, in snow and wind. Yet there is not the slightest monotony about these pictures, for in almost every one there is a bird, and each of these birds opens up a unique moment in time. We see something that has never happened before and will never happen again. That it takes place in the midst of a landscape characterised by repetition, in which time is cyclical, sets up a keen existential dynamic: on the one hand, everything has happened before, there’s nothing new under the sun; on the other, every moment is unique and carries the hallmark of the miracle: what happens happens only once and never again.

But this wasn’t what I thought about the first time I looked at these photographs. In fact, I barely thought at all, for I was shaken, as a person so often is when confronted with an extraordinary work of art. I’d never seen birds in this way before, as if on their own terms, as independent creatures with independent lives. Ancient, forever improvising, endlessly embroiled with the forces of nature, and yet indulging too. And so infinitely alien to us.

The book is not available on Amazon. Or it is, but only in the form of overpriced new and used copies. (New for $240, used starting at $333? Eh?) The Book Depository doesn't have it either. But you can still buy it directly from Stephen Gill's own website as of this writing, for £48 and shipping. The book made a lot of year-end "best of" lists, and it won the Author Book Award at Rencontres d'Arles, so the price will do nothing but go up. Unless it's reprinted. Which it might be. We never know.

Then again, Gill moved to rural Österlen, in Skåne, Sweden, from heavily peopled London, so maybe the pictures have that new-but-not-new, familiar-with-a-sigh feeling to denizens of rural Sweden like the Swede Gerry Johansson's do to to this originally Midwestern American. I don't know. The Pillar earned a place on my shelves, anyway, and is this past year's special book for me.

Mike

P.S. A heads up: We are shifting to books for a few days. No more gear for a while, much of books.

*Well, if they work. Museums apparently think projects should be judged entirely on ideas, but I'm an iconoclast to that view. Ideas are intermediary, and subservient to to the work. Some ideas which sound good simply do not work, and in that case the work is still a failure. I'll give just one example here too: Vogue photographer Benjamin McMahon has been handing his Leica to his famous subjects so they can take pictures of themselves in mirrors. The resulting pictures are souvenirs, maybe, but nothing more. They're approximate and piecemeal, short of charm and interest. Bland snapshots that do not rise to being "self-portraits"; students do better. To quote the words of a song Huey Lewis wrote for Thin Lizzy that was later covered by Dave Edmunds (and which struck me as funny—due to, you know, truth): "sometimes bad is bad." Of course that's just one opinion. Decide for yourself. The point is, sometimes promising ideas don't work, and you've got to be open to that. The idea itself is not enough.

**Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, in 1781, upon being ceremonially presented with the latest volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: "What! Another damned, thick, square book! Always scribble, scribble, scribble, eh, Mr. Gibbon?" One of my favorite amusing quotes.

Original contents copyright 2019 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.

Help keep TOP truckin' via Patreon

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

Samuel Dilworth: "Poetic idea, fascinating photos, and a worthy winner of this famous accolade. I thought Michael Ashkin’s Were It Not For was another good one from 2019. Black-and-white landscapes of the Mojave Desert alongside evocative lines of text starting 'Were it not for ….' (Were it not for the distant haze, were it not for the evidence-based decision, were it not for the general indifference, were it not for the endless repetition, etc.) It’s interesting that so many photographers have reverted, so to speak, to black and white for photobooks. Consider Gábor Arion Kudász’s Human from last year (small print run sold out before I discovered it). 'I wasn’t able to find the correct language for this project in color, because it made the bricks too literal. A brick needs to have a little help to become a human, a figure, and vice versa.' Gill’s birds may have needed a little help to become the ethereal creatures in the book. (I know some of the photos are colour of a sort.)"

Thomas Walsh: "Seriously, a photo of a bird on a fence post (now that is original) and the 'art' world gushes. Give me a break. Clearly, the emperor has no clothes."

Andre Y: "Yay for more book posts instead of gear stuff! Also I just ordered the book, and noted that I found it through TOP."

BrianD: "Darn it, looks like a great book. It's going to be hard to refuse. It's not a question of £48, it's more about what to retire from the shelves on my study."

Greg Heins: "I was more impressed by Gerry Johansson's book than you were. Beyond the photographs themselves, I thought it a fine example of appropriate bookmaking in its physical characteristics. Also, it is a pure photo book: the only text, beyond the town and state below each photo, is on the very last page: 'Photographs made during the winters of 2017 and 2018.' That's it. No intro, no outro, no technical notes, not even the photographer's website. Nice."

Sunday Support Group: It Is Hereby Resolved...

Well, 2020 is off to a notably disastrous start, what with Australia aflame and now Trump's militaristic misadventures. What a way to launch a decade. Maybe I'll join those who insist that 2020 is the last year of the twenty-teens, rather than the first year of the '20s, so we can try this over again in 2021.

Anyway, I know I said a few years ago that my New Years Resolution was to stop making New Years Resolutions, but I have one this year: to stop taking "real" pictures with the phone.

Yes, it's handy, and yes, visual note-taking is certainly a valid form of recording and communicating. I won't stop doing either.

But I'm recalling Warren Buffett's advice here. Buffett said you should write down the 25 things you're most interested in and most want to do, then rank them in a hierarchy, then concentrate on the top five. But not only concentrate on the top five: actively and deliberately avoid all the rest, numbers six through 25. Those, he said, are your distractions: the things that you will waste your time and effort on and that will keep you from accomplishing anything.

I do know many artists, and others, who can't stay away from their distractions. They think they have to travel down any road that beckons. "Ferdinand 'Ferdie' McGurk is an artist who works in intaglio etching, stained glass, fabric, and performance art 'happenings' staged in empty buildings. He is also a published poet, plays the flugelhorn in a regional symphony, races kayaks, and competes in hog-calling contests where he is two-time State champion. In his spare time he is a gourmet cook specializing in recipes that use naturally-growing weeds such as dandelion and purslane, makes knives, umpires Little League, and builds electronics from circuit diagrams. He is currently working at learning to speak Navajo and has joined an activist organization working for the preservation of blight-stricken chestnut trees." Many such cases are tinged with sadness: legitimately gifted people can't gain traction on the world because they've diluted their own efforts voluntarily.

(The same can be said of many photographers, who make themselves into jacks- and jills-of-all-trades rather than concentrating on what they're best at. Even if you can't say what kind of photographer you are, you should be able to list many kinds of photographer you aren't. But that's a different post.)

I did consider an OC/OL/OY with the X-H1 (discontinued now) and 35mm ƒ/1.4 lens for this year, and I'd love to. But it's just not practical for me. I have to write about different cameras and lenses.

I want a better file of that
Anyway, I can't think when it was that my comments about phone cameras prompted readers to challenge me to get to grips with phoneography. Which I did—and I had to force myself at first. Now, for a couple of years I've gone too far the other way. I've been traipsing around with the idea in my head that I'll make a portfolio of phone photos someday, so it's okay when everything magically comes together and I get a picture I love with the phone. But that might be a mistake for me. It has justified taking pictures with the phone that I should have made with a better camera. Put more bluntly, it has justified laziness.

Keuka in the Rain, a picture I love...and really wish was a better file.
(This is the lake where I live.)

Because, of course, when you get out and about in "picturetaking mode" with a phone, then you will find a few great pictures with the phone. Because that's how photography works—the elusive good pictures come, you never know from where. Nothing at all wrong with portfolio-worthy phoneography, of course...unless what you find yourself doing later is wishing you had made those shots with another camera and had a better file to work with.

So that's my New Years Resolution: to start treating the camera in the phone as a distraction, and stop acting like it's okay when I come across a prize picture with the wrong camera in my hand.

Coming up
...Tomorrow morning: Photobook of the Year (and it's in short supply).

Mike

Original contents copyright 2019 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.

Please help support The Online Photographer through Patreon

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

Mark Kinsman: "I have made it a deliberate daily habit to always carry a camera with me when I leave the house. Whether it’s the X100F or one of the other Fuji or Micro 4/3 bodies depends on the intended activity. It has paid dividends many times over with some wonderful photographs."

PaulW: "Re 'It has justified taking pictures with the phone that I should have made with a better camera. Put more bluntly, it has justified laziness,' I could not agree more, but I'll go one further and say that for me, image stabilization has the same 'laziness' effect. I'm mostly a landscape photographer and I feel like the quality of my photography went quickly downhill when I bought my first image-stabilized camera a couple of years ago. I've now returned to using a tripod, no matter how inconvenient, and find that my photographs are much more considered and much better crafted."

Charles Rozier: "I agree in principle of course. But on the other hand, for some scenarios very common in my pictures, like back light or light sources in the frame, my iPhone 11 (way improved over its predecessors) shows astoundingly better dynamic range than my GX8 by instantaneously merging many exposures. I often end up preferring limited file size over severe clipping. I sure wish the traditional camera companies could offer even a fraction of the computational power of today’s best phones."

Clay Olmstead: "Clay Olmstead is a painter who takes photos when a painting isn't feasible, and reads The Online Photographer when he should be painting or taking photos."

John Krumm: "You know, I think I might just do a one camera, one year, one lens thing with the X-H1 and 35mm ƒ/1.4. Just got back from a trip to my wife's parents in Alaska, and mostly used that lens, and I think they qualify as some of her favorites ever. Plus, it's a good excuse to pay down other bills instead of buying more lenses. Here's the gallery with mostly Fujinon 35mm ƒ/1.4 shots...."

Mike replies: Nice work, John, very evocative. Your pictures have a strong sense of place and the people and made me almost feel what it was like to be there.

Ger Lawlor: "Happy New Year Mike—I wish you more luck with your resolution than I have had with the very same aspiration. As it's New Year, perhaps we have a little time for some Robbie Burns:

'But, Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!'"

Darin Boville: "Until the iPhone 11 Pro I would have agreed with you. The iPhone advantages over a real camera had primarily to do with convenience (laziness). But I upgraded my iPhone 6s to a iPhone 11 Pro last fall…oh my. My reaction to it was giggles. I used to know, more or less, that the phone cameras were doing—that is they were doing complicated stuff that I could do by hand but doing it by hand would be very time-consuming and difficult. With the iPhone 11 we’ve crossed into some new territory where I don’t even know what the camera is doing anymore.

"It’s a little like magic and will get more and more that way, I think, as machine learning and other technologies advance.

"Sometimes it makes errors but those errors can be revealing of the underlying magic. Here’s an example. I’m on the Kelso Dunes a few months ago, in the Mojave National Preserve, the moon is rising over the mountains. I shoot the iPhone in Night Mode for 30 seconds on a tripod. I expect the Moon to look one of two ways—either as an over-exposed white, fuzzy ball or as a bright Moon with a little detail of its surface discernible. What did I get? A golden yellow sun. There was no golden yellow in the scene. It appears that the camera misinterpreted that bright thing in the sky as the Sun. And if it is recognizing the Sun and treating it specially it is surely recognizing faces, tress, skies, and more and treating them each differently in terms of coloration, contrast, sharpening…the resulting files are fascinating."

Mike replies: That really is interesting. Thanks.

Year-End Lists

The best-selling used camera of the decade 2010–'19

Moose wrote, "I just don't get lists like this [speaking of our "Best Cameras of 2019"]. Is there some governing body that requires magazine writers and bloggers to do such lists?"

Forgive me, but his exasperation made me chuckle. I do feel ya on that, Moose.

The answer, though, is...because it's fun. Yeah, I know a few people don't like lists (I have one friend who is allergic to the concept), but most people find them appealing. I do.

They can be informative, too.

I'm working on a longer post (not about cameras) today and this weekend, but to hold you over, here are three year-end lists (about cameras) that I found informative. Thanks to the people who clued me in to them (and sorry for not naming you...I live under a waterfall of incoming information and it's getting exhausting trying to keep track of everything).

1. The SLR Still Rules Them All: Our Best-Selling Cameras of the Decade (2010–2019) from the blog of KEH, the used-equipment clearinghouse. Based in Smyrna, Georgia, USA, the 40-year-old KEH claims to have "the world's largest inventory of previously owned equipment," averaging 55,000 items in stock.
2. These were the most-clicked-on cameras in 2019 from DPReview. I assume it's still the largest digital camera review site, but I don't know that for sure. Founded in London, UK, and now based in Seattle, Washington, USA, DPReview has been owned by Amazon since 2007.
3. Finally, from our friends at LensRentals (disclosure: I have a reciprocal agreement with them—I get camera and lens loaners for free to test, in return for which, they do not [sic] ask for mentions on TOP): Most Popular Photography and Videography Rentals for 2019. They also break it down by brand.

So you see, Moose, those annoying lists can be informational too!

Any year-end list you like? Mention it in the Comments. Fun ones are fair game too, not just the informative kind.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2019 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.

Please help support The Online Photographer through Patreon

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

Greg Heins: "You can call me an idiot (won’t be the first time!), but I’m a sucker for year-end best-of lists. Music, books, exhibitions—there is always something there that I’m hearing of for the first time and I have had revelatory experiences from going back to pay new attention."

Iain: "A list of lists? Please stop!"

Mike replies: I was being perfectly serious. I found all three of these links genuinely interesting. I wouldn't have posted them otherwise.

Albano: "I'm still using a 5D Mark II as my main body after buying it from KEH six years ago in BGN [bargain] condition. Still going strong. Great camera."

James: "A list of lists is great! Iowa Public Radio used to do a meta-list for classical music, where they found a bunch of year end lists, and grouped albums by how many other lists mentioned them. It was a good place to find new music to listen to."

R.A. Krajnyak: "Congratulations, Mike! You made my Top 10 List of the Top 10 Camera Bloggers of 2019 Whose Readers Complain About the Top 10 Cameras of 2019 Lists List."

Bruce McL (partial comment): "I always figured that year-end retrospectives were easier to put together than something new."

Mike replies: Quite the opposite, for me anyway. Much more work than normal posts.

Q: "Reading through the previous post and following the links in this post has left me feeling kind of...listless. (Well, someone had to say it.) I'll add a third vote for Jonathan's suggestion of a list of most interesting / satisfying / edifying photo books of the last nine or ten years (depending on whether you think this is the tenth year of the 201x's or the start of a new decade). Maybe not ranked, just a list—to me, these lists are useful as a starting point for exploration, and I'd guess that ranking would vary by reader. Or, alternatively, a list of top 'Random Excellence' photographs or portfolios. Or maybe a list of photographs or portfolios that just missed being 'Random Excellence' posts. There's a wealth of inspiration from TOP!"

Nostalgic Nikons

A quick snap to show you the reason why I asked about Nikon repair shops. It's an FE, for those of you who don't know that on sight. It works fine; I just want to get it CLA'd. I found the body (I already had the lens) for very few bucks, and it's basically flawless, to my non-collector, not-too-picky definition of flawless. Figured it should really have the benefit of a refresh. Even though I doubt I'll do much if any shooting with it. It will probably go in the metaphorical glass case alongside my Nikkormat FT-3.

When I get an old camera for cheap, the way I think about it is that I have enough budget left over to get it serviced. That might not be sensible from a $ and ¢ standpoint, but I like to see these old devices survive. Why be sentimental? Nostalgia, I guess. I can't justify it. It's the way I feel, though.

Meanwhile, I've gotten confirmation that Nikon is cutting off the supply of parts to non-authorized repair people. I understand that from a business standpoint—they want to make sure their authorized service centers continue to have parts at least as long as anyone else does. But from a "meta" standpoint it's a very bad development...it will surely have a chilling effect on peoples' willingness to get older cameras fixed and serviced, and it might hasten some independent repair operations into insolvency—Nikon is effectively depriving them of a core service they previously could provide. Given that we will eventually lose repair options as the experienced technicians age out anyway, that's just not a good thing.

But time marches on, as they say, and the forces of change are what they are.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2019 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.

Please help support The Online Photographer through Patreon

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Featured Comments from:

Michael W:

"I'm starting a collection of old 35mm cameras as well, sticking mostly to cameras that were made in the '70s and '80s. Here's my beautiful OM-1n."

Eamon Hickey: "Since a bunch of people mentioned the parts issue, I think it's worth mentioning that Nikon USA's parts distribution policy is almost completely irrelevant to the question of who can repair Nikon cameras that are more than 5–10 years old, and it's especially irrelevant to film cameras and lenses from the year 2000 or before. Nikon ran out of most parts for nearly all of those products years or decades ago. No camera company continues to indefinitely produce spare parts for discontinued cameras and lenses. So the lack of spare parts for old film cameras is a universal issue. Given that situation, repair shops generally cannibalize broken cameras and lenses for the parts they need. That very loosely means that brands that had high sales numbers in the past may be easier to get parts for (because there's more broken stuff to cannibalize). Canon sold by far the most SLR cameras and lenses in history. There's also a lot of old Minolta, Pentax, and Nikon stuff in the world. In medium format, there seems to be plenty of old Hasselblad stuff (but also high demand, so the parts get used up) and a good pile of Mamiya gear."

Sylvain G.: "As much as I agree with you and fear the disappearing of technicians, the 'hipster' (hate such characterization but you get my point) march has done wonders to revive interest with younger people too, with some becoming rather excellent it seems. Pierro Pozella is 23years old and has learned from working in camera shops...he will fix supposedly unfixable electronic cameras such as the Minolta CLE it seems. Then there's the the Camera Rescue Project. Just a few names now but there is hope, friends."

Bruce Hedge: "Congrats—that's a great camera and lens combo.

"I repaired Olympus OM cameras for thirty years as an independent small shop here in Australia. The OM-1 was/is a very reliable mechanical camera with many fans. Only three faults accounted for 95% of all repairs. Firstly, the meter went dead. Most of the time it was repairable, because the line from the battery chamber to the top meter circuit became corroded and failed. Best to replace the whole line, but sometimes only the short bit from the battery chamber was needed to be replaced, and it didn't need a major disassembly. Also the plastic insulation screw used to break, shorting the contact against the body. Easily fixable with a sharpened plastic Q-Tip cut, threaded, and and glued in place. Secondly the timing of the wind-on assembly got out of whack, and needed re-seating. But, the main problem was when the meter became open circuit due to one reason or another. Some time late last century, no more new meters were available and the only way was to cannibalize one from another camera. They soon dried up, too. Camera still worked fine, just no meter.

"Not much else ever went wrong with OM-1's or even OM-2's, but I never saw inside an OM-3 (few sold, and very reliable), and the OM-4 had several circuit board updates until they got it almost right in the OM-4Ti.

"I ended up throwing away about 50 OM-1 bodies in various states of disrepair—all with the bits which broke missing. Oh, yes, the other repair which is now becoming much more prevalent is replacing the prism, which gets 'corroded' at the bottom of the viewfinder by deteriorating foam seals on the clips holding it in. Fortunately, the prism from a junk OM-10 fits perfectly, and is quite an easy job. Light seals also deteriorate, but can be easily replaced.

"Loved my time with OMs...favourite lens was the 100mm ƒ/2.8. Sold the lot in 2005 to start my digital journey with Canon. Silly me."

Mike replies: Thanks for that inside story, Bruce.

The great Jane Bown also favored that 100/2.8. I believe she used the 85mm ƒ/2 as well, but less often.

Best Cameras of 2019

Best Camera Introduced in 2019: The Leica Q2

Comment: 2019 was a year of market contraction and a light year for new camera introductions. Yes, Nikon and Canon announced the latest updates to their pro flagship cameras that are of interest to some pros. However, the beautiful Q2's only real competition for this honor came from Panasonic's high-tech (and high-priced) Johnny-come-last FFM's (full-frame mirrorless), the S1 and S1R; Fuji's completely over-the-top 100-megapixel medium-format GFX 100; Olympus's odd small-sensor mimicry of the EOS 1D X Mark III and the D6 (both coming soon), the OM-D E-M1X; and Sony's two top refreshes, the A9 II and the 61-MP A7R IV. I think the Leica wins this race. It's pretty, petite, and useful, with a superb fixed lens and enough pixels that cropping can legitimately become part of your workflow. It is "to the manor born" as a small(ish) carry-around camera like Oskar intended, spiritual descendant of the great workhorse Leica rangefinders. Leicas are for the so-called carriage trade now, i.e., aimed at the too-well-heeled, but that's okay. The Q was a good camera. As the Q2 it became great.

Best Camera Available in 2019: The Fuji X-T3

Comment: It doesn't have IBIS, and there are legitimate reasons for choosing competitors and alternatives of course, but, all things considered, the X-T3 is "the best of most worlds" right now. It's beautifully styled, it has a superb range of enthusiast-centric lenses, it's been thoughtfully refined over three generations (and the X-T1 was a very good camera to start with—I should know, I've had one since it came out). It's easy to use and learn, and it offers a superlative balance of almost all things: speed, size and weight, image quality, video capability, on and on. And it's satisfying to use, and imparts real pride of ownership. It's tough to make a better choice in an all-around serious enthusiast camera as we turn the corner into 2020.

Best for the Least in 2019: The Canon EOS Rebel T6 with normal zoom and telephoto zoom lenses.

Comment: Tough to claim this for the whole of 2019, because these deals change all the time, but right at this minute it's tough to buy more value in a camera brand new. For only $399 (!) you get not one but two basic zooms...and a card and a case. This 2016 T6 currently on closeout is the direct descendant of the groundbreaking Digital Rebel, the first-ever DSLR to cost less than $1,000, Summer 2003. As you might expect it's not a luxury camera, but its technology is mature at this point and the T6 is highly capable. And, you get to carry around and show off a camera emblazoned with the name of the world's leading camera company. No one will fault your taste.

Best Pocket Camera of 2019: The iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Comment: I dunno. I'm just talkin'. What do I know from Androids or Zombies or whatever they're called? I bought my first Apple computer in 1985, when the old IBM and the old Soviet Union were the evil empires, and if you're in the ecosystem you stay in the ecosystem. The iPhone 11 Pro Max has three cameras of different focal lengths (plus a selfie module), and it has improved the already formidable software tricks of recent iPhones: I have a friend who has one and the "Night mode" is great. And the big Super Retina OLED screen of the Max model is marvelous for looking at pictures on. Not at all bad for reading books on, either. Also works as, you know, a phone. There were great unknown photographers out there in 2019; their work is just locked away on their phones, and their friends' phones.

Editor's Choice: The Nikon Z6 with Nikkor Z 35mmƒ/1.8 S

Comment: An expensive pair, but not out of reach for many. Mavens buy high-spec models, but normal folks choose normal cameras. The Z6 brings tech specs and intangibles to the table that Sony didn't already have (examples: 55mm diameter lens mount, and Nikon's expertise with ergonomics and hand feel, respectively), and it has that special Nikon sauce in its image quality, yet it's still a reasonable, sensible, moderate camera by the standards of the moment. The Z6 feels small, has a beautiful viewfinder with copious eye relief and a large range of diopter correction, and 24 MP is plenty. Add the new 35mm Z lens with its outstanding bokeh characteristics and you have the kind of camera we like at TOP: a medium-weight cruiser as opposed to a battleship, a Boxster rather than a Hellcat.

Honorable Mention: Sigma SD Quattro H

Comment: It's still out there! Way below the waves. This is the camera everyone tends to forget. Hobbyists forget it, buyers dismiss it, photo writers every now and then awaken from their torpor and go "oh, yeah." Three years old now. I can't imagine this as anyone's only camera—but then, I can't imagine an iPhone as any photographer's only camera, either. The SD Quattro H might best be thought of as a digital view camera, meant for use on tripod, as you work at a leisurely, deliberate pace. Its Foveon sensor is unique, however, and an argument can be made that it yields the very best image quality possible in digital—we really do need to have a Foveon-camera print sale just to put examples in the hands of people who have never seen one up close and personal. Lovely. Distinctive. Different. It is really the camera for landscape and still life photographers.

Reader Favorite: ...You tell us! What impressed or tempted you most during the last year?

Mike

Original contents copyright 2019 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:

Jeff: "Not to forget the Leica SL2, with higher resolution, improved EVF, ergonomics and weather sealing (IP54), and Leica’s first IBIS, which operates with native and adapted lenses (L mount alliance, M, R, S, and more). And, while certainly not cheap, the Hasselblad X1DII came to market for roughly $3k less than the first iteration, despite better performance."

[Thanks. An earlier draft of this post started off talking about the SL2, but I changed approaches midstream, and then neglected to work the SL2 in. I hesitate to admit it but I wasn't even aware of the Hasselblad X1DII. —Ed.]

Alan Ostling: "The Olympus Tough TG-6. On my annual visit to the SF Bay Area for Christmas, I surprised my friends and relatives by tossing it to them from across the room. If, instead of catching this flying ball of fun, they dropped it, so much the better. It does 1:1 actual macro—5X if you count the crop factor. The 25–100mm ƒ/2 lens does all its zooming laterally inside the waterproof camera body, thanks to a prism which bends the light path 90°. It has built-in geo-tagging, and shoots RAW. Steal one now (the price has dropped $50 since I bought mine)."

James Moule: "Over the last 68 years I have used Leica systems, Canon systems, Nikon Systems, and Olympus systems. By system, I mean multiple bodies and a large collection of lenses. Today, I carry a Sony A9 II and the Sony 24–105mm ƒ/4 lens. I set it on auto ISO. I shoot handheld. All I have to do is press the shutter release and it will instantly focus on the right thing and deliver a super sharp image, perfectly exposed, with a high dynamic range. Twenty-four MP is all I need."

[Ed. note: I always like opposing viewpoints about the same post (and both said "never mind"):]

Michael Hill (partial comment): "I'm not sure it would be possible for me to disagree more than I do with your choices...but...never mind."

Al C.: (partial comment): "Agree with every one of your nominations, except the Fuji (never mind.)"

[Here are Michael's and Al's comments in full:]

Michael Hill: "I'm not sure it would be possible for me to disagree more than I do with your choices...but...never mind. To each their own, live and let live. All the best to you and yours in the new year/decade! I'm not any brand's fanboy but I would be hard pressed not pick the Sony A7R IV as the best camera by measure of versatility, quality, features and value. If I could afford it (I can't) I would buy one (along with a new computer with lots of RAM and hard drive space to process and store the images from my new camera).  :-)  "

Al C.: "Agree with every one of your nominations, except the Fuji (never mind.) Problem with the Q2 is that you really need a grip. On the other hand, a grip completely ruins the purpose, aesthetic, and experience of the thing. A Q is not a tool. Hit by a bit of GAS attack over the holidays, I almost clicked on a Z6 plus 35mm S combo. The Quattro is not technically a (Bill Merrill) Foveon, and lacks the inimitable pixel quality of a true X3 Foveon. Worse, irrecoverable highlights closes the case, in my opinion. Overall, not a bad decade—for photography, that is. Let's hope the '20s will be better."

Robert Roaldi: "The Olympus E-M1X just cannot get any love, the main complaint being that it's too large. It is the same size as my E-M1 with battery grip, which is a very good size to accompany the longer lenses normally used in sports photography. The other important sports-oriented bodies from Nikon and Canon came first so the E-M1X will not be an alternative to anyone already invested in those brands but it's not clear why a new sports shooter wouldn't choose a much smaller and lighter option."

Mike replies: They really should prefer a smaller-sensor option. It makes more sense. But their opinion matters, not mine.

Sharon: "What about the Fuji GFX 100? I have the 50 and it cured any GAS I might have had but still the 100 is a pretty cool camera."

Mike replies: I did mention it, saying it was "completely over the top," which might not be fair. I think I might have said the same about the 2007 Sony A900 when it was new and had the mostest megapickles. I guess it's just hard for me to get too excited about a $10,000 camera that will lose most of its value over the next 13 years (my ~$2,700 A900 is now worth about $700). That's mainly because it's beyond my own means and I don't need it for any reason, probably. Again, might not be fair.

Howard: "I had the Sigma 'bug' with the DP Merrill fixed lens cameras. I had all three at one time. I am technically advanced in working with raw converters, and read a lot and experimented a lot with the Sigma software and another third party converter available at the time. After a year or two of using them sometimes alongside an Oly OM-D E-M1, I sold all three of the DP Merrills...the issue was that the color was more often than not funky and it wasn't very predictable and not at all easy (or not possible) to fix. For black-and-white they were great. But this may be the one regret I've had with photography equipment purchases I've made over the last 20 years or so. Not that I spent or lost a lot of money on the cameras. I didn't. But my regret is that if I'd had whatever the Sony A7R model was at the time, I would have had much better photos overall and more consistency and less frustration with the very funky color. They were very portable and there was a 'fun' factor involved; they reminded me in some ways of using a view camera. But I would not go near another Merrill made by Sigma again."

Stephen Scharf (partial comment): "Many, many pro and commercial photographers have needs for a full professional-level medium-format camera system for their commercial work, but have not been able to make the entry cost of a $35,000-$50,000 Phase One (body alone) system profitable from a business perspective. And pros, well successful ones, at least, only buy a piece of equipment if it will return a profit on their business.

"The GFX100 completely changes all that, and this is why I think its one of the top three most significant camera releases of the last decade.

"Now, pros can buy into a literally state-of-the art MF digital camera body that has unmatched set of functions and features: Fast AF, IBIS, 4K full-sensor video, 100% coverage of the sensor with AF and..and this is big deal: full Capture One Pro support including film and lens profiles built in (good luck with that for your MF Hassys).... I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, the GFX100 came in and in one fell swoop, now owns the pro MF camera market-segment.

"There is a reason this camera has been on a consistent approximately two-month backorder since it was launched...because Fujifilm cannot make the camera fast enough to fill the pent-up demand from professional and commercial photographers."

Rodolfo Canet Castelló: "My wife insisted and I bought a Fujifilm GFX50R on 28th December. I don’t care what 2020 can bring now. What a camera! All the best in 2020 for you all!"

Mike replies: Whoa! It's going to be a good year for you.

Sharon: "Mike, have you had a chance to shoot with the Fuji GF 32–64mm? Oh my, what a lens! I think it is this lens I love more than the cameras. I'm sorry I missed your comment on the GFX 100. It is too expensive. The 50s is enough for me."

Mike replies: Here's the link to Sharon's camera and lens (25–51mm-e). And here's the link to Rodolfo's camera with Sharon's lens. Lovely....