VSL and ZV-E10II

Comments were up to date at 7:57 this morning

Today is the last day to visit VSL, Kirk Tuck's Visual Science Lab. At least that's what Kirk says. He's threatened to walk away before, but he loves to work and he's good at it, and evidently has a bottomless pit of energy (I'd kill to have a third as much—okay, a fifth—but—favorite Popeye quote incoming—I yam what I yam). So he's started a new blog. It's called GroundZeroArt. So check that out from now on as your daily dose of Kirk. But if you'd like to revisit an old favorite from the VSL blog, looks like today had better be the day.

At least he's still writing. There's less and less to read about photography on the Internet these days. Everything's shifted to YouTube and video, which is continuing to affect cameras—the biggest news from the past few days is a Sony refresh of a "vogging camera" for "creators" that originally came out in  2021. It has, guess what, a new processor! Be still, my beating heart. I feel the way I used to when DPReview used to post news about firmware updates.

That's camera news these days—a refresh of a not-very-old camera that didn't interest us much in the first place. Okay, to be honest I yawned so hard I hurt my jaw muscles. But I have a great love for the somewhat similar A6700, so don't peg me as a Sony hater, or an antiquarian.

And if you're a creator and have been waiting impatiently for the ZV-E10 II and are furious with me for appearing to badmouth it...well, but you're not reading TOP, are you? You're not reading anything. It's been five years since you read a serious long-form magazine article, much less one of those book thingys, meaning a stack of physical paper bound together along one edge. You're editing video content and watching videos on your two screens using both software and jargon I never use and probably wouldn't understand.

I have a medical appointment in five minutes, so, gone fishin'. Go take a last browse around VSL. Or check out GroundZeroArt. I shall return!

Mike

Original contents copyright 2024 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. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Kye Wood: "Isn't that your star sign, Antiquarian?"

Mike replies: My astrological sign is Lackadaisian. Our symbol is a small circle at the end of a horizonal line, indicating a nap.

Constellation of three-toed tree sloth. It's true you can't see anything, but that's because he's hiding, so he can sleep.

Rob Griffin: "Mike, I don't know much about my astrological sign but I do know that I was raised a Frisbeetarian. We don't believe our soul goes to heaven or hell when we die. We just think it goes up on the roof and no one can get it down."

Mike replies: Ah, I've known some of you Frisbeetarians. You are all such pleasant sorts. May you continue to soar on an improbable updraft and keep going and going!

Comments

[Terry Burnes]

I love photography and am a bit of a curmudgeon myself. But at 77 I'm also trying to avoid letting the world pass me by. So at a recent motorcycle rally and entirely on impulse I bought an Insta360 X3 360 degree camera. And it is helping me understand what all the fuss is about and why traditional photography is getting left behind a bit.

The ability to capture everything around you, to the front, to the rear, sideways, up and down, and then edit later, selecting from within that what you want to show, in either still or video at pretty high resolution and with most standard camera and editing controls available, is remarkable. And easy. Actually, the (free) editing software that one uses for this is perhaps its most impressive feature. Very powerful. But easy.

Is this a way to produce art? I suppose it could be. But as a way to convey what you're doing it is revolutionary. And its capabilities are easily within reach of most people. In some ways a camera like this is the box Brownie of our day. I can see why younger people gravitate toward video. If you want to share your day skiing, what's it going to be, a portrait of you and your buddies standing at the top of a run? Or a short video of you all actually skiing down the hill from an endless variety of perspectives, the viewer likely made to feel he or she was with you? All captured and edited without much more trouble than taking a photo on your phone and editing it a bit.

Go to 21:15 in this video to quickly see what I'm talking about:

https://youtu.be/3nu0tsj1oNk?si=u3ohkQ1sZixsy2AW

Watch the whole video if you want more complete understanding. And then ask yourself, if you were 25 years old and had $400 to spend on a camera, would you buy some point and shoot or an Insta360 (or perhaps some other action camera)?

I understand that TOP is about traditional photography and I love that. But I think all the old folks here, like me, could benefit from some more information about what is going at the bleeding edge and how we might explore it a bit to better understand what is happening out there and not just in our little corner of the world. As we age, yes, we tend stay what we are, but I also think TOP readers are, and probably always have been, curious.

So rather than a new Fuji, maybe buy an action camera and see what you can do with it.

[Kodachromeguy]

Mr. Tuck offered some very useful reviews and user hints on so many cameras. Examples that I have reread include his thoughts on the Hasselblad V (film) system and the Sigma fp. I will be sorry if the articles are no longer accessible.

[James]

Not a little of VSL is how to get boundless energy even later in life.