OlegNovikov.com

What's New 2014

26 December 2014 » Roaming Western China: from Litang to Daocheng

I complained about camera connectivity—or lack thereof—a number of times in the past, but I have to mention it again as the problem becomes particularly acute when extensively using equipment in the field. The road from Litang to Daocheng offered some truly breathtaking vistas, and I could not help wanting to share the views with my family and friends; perhaps not exactly at the very moment of witnessing wonder of nature, but at least sooner than after returning home and post processing RAW files. (If you think I have been irrevocably sucked in by the monstrosity of social networking, it is not the case: I do not have—and do not want to have—both Twitter and Facebook and share images in a fairly limited and selective fashion.)

So I ended up photographing many a scene two or three times: with the Hasselblad on film, or with the Ricoh GR, and with the iPhone for sharing. The problem with this approach is twofold. First, this created too much fuss and "noise" while working in the field, which distracted me from aesthetics of making images and disrupted the photographic flow. Second, I now have to browse through two often overlapping sets of digital images, one from the Ricoh GR and one from the iPhone, to delete the unnecessary duplicates. What I would have preferred is taking all digital images with the digital camera and then transferring the ones I wanted to share to the iPhone once back at the hotel. This would have not only simplified the workflow, but also improved the quality of the shared images!

I know that many photographers despise having Wi–Fi in their cameras, but I now find it indispensable (with this being said, I would loathe having it in my Hasselblad!). My next digital camera will certainly have this feature—or it will not be my next camera. I am aware that there already are plenty of cameras with Wi–Fi capability, but I really need to be sure that it is neatly, seamlessly implemented and that connectivity works when there is no Wi–Fi network. From what I read in various reviews and fora, we have not quite arrived there yet. Hopefully, 2015 will be the year when I will stop moaning about this hurdle.

 
Image: From Litang to Daocheng #1
 

From Litang to Daocheng #1

Hasselblad Flexbody camera, CFi 5.6/250 lens, Fujifilm Velvia 50 slide film

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Image: From Litang to Daocheng #2
 

From Litang to Daocheng #2

Hasselblad Flexbody camera, CFi 4/150 lens, Fujifilm Velvia 50 slide film

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Image: From Litang to Daocheng #3
 

From Litang to Daocheng #3

Hasselblad Flexbody camera, CFi 4/50 lens, Fujifilm Velvia 50 slide film

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Image: From Litang to Daocheng #4
 

From Litang to Daocheng #4

Hasselblad Flexbody camera, CFi 2.8/80 lens, Fujifilm Velvia 50 slide film

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Image: From Litang to Daocheng #5
 

From Litang to Daocheng #5

Hasselblad Flexbody camera, CFi 2.8/80 lens, Fujifilm Velvia 50 slide film


6 December 2014 » Recent favourite quotation

Most worryingly, the societal obsession with recording everything and posting it to some sort of social media has meant that people don't really experience life anymore; they watch it on their LCDs. (...) And that's a shame, really, because life isn't about making a selife out of it—there's no future value to these images, because they're not observations so much as narcissistic pleas for help. The last thing the world needs is more low–quality visual diarrhoea.

Ming Thein


18 November 2014 » Roaming Western China: from Xinduqiao to Litang

As I continue working on the images from Western Sichuan, it strikes me yet again how important—and more often than not difficult—critical focus is. As you may know, there really is no such thing as "depth of field": there is only one, thinner–than–hair, plane of focus where everything is sharp, and the rest is out of focus. The out–of–focus areas can be "acceptably sharp" depending on how far you go in magnifying the image and how picky or sensitive you are, but they are never in focus, really. Although this can be partially controlled through choosing smaller apertures, this tool can be tricky and flawed: choose too large an aperture, and out–of–focus areas will not be "acceptably sharp"; pick too small an aperture, and the whole image will become a touch soft because of diffraction. It is rather seldom that everything falls into place and you have perfect, maximum sharpness across the entire image*.

Because of the above, "hyperfocal focusing" is really crude as the plane of focus falls onto a random object; likewise, "just focusing at infinity" is foolhardy as you leave foreground sharpness to chance. You have to make conscious, deliberate decisions on focusing in every single image.

Take, for example, the first image below. I chose to carefully focus on the foreground pines to take into account how human perception works: we intrinsically think that closer subjects should appear sharper than distant ones; were the pines to be out–of–focus, it would look unnatural. I then checked depth of field by closing the aperture and chose f/22: f/16 was not small enough for the entire image to be "acceptably sharp", and I did not want to use f/32 as it would rob the image of overall critical sharpness. I believe this was the best choice, but even so it was a compromise: in large prints I can see a difference in sharpness between the foreground pines and background hills; it is quite subtle and actually looks perfectly natural, but it is there.

And speaking of critical sharpness, I am growing increasingly dissatisfied with the Hasselblad CFi 5.6/250 lens: it is a "good" performer, but it lacks that extra bit of sharpness that would take it into the "great" territory; also, chromatic aberration is a thorn in my side: it is not massive and may be acceptable in terms of its degree, but the problem is that it shows up pretty much everywhere, even around not–so–contrasty edges. Perhaps it is time to look at the Superachromat version of the lens.

 
Image: From Xinduqiao to Litang #1
 

From Xinduqiao to Litang #1

Hasselblad Flexbody camera, CFi 4/150 lens (shifted), Fujifilm Velvia 50 slide film,
2–stop Graduated ND filter

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Image: From Xinduqiao to Litang #2
 

From Xinduqiao to Litang #2

Hasselblad Flexbody camera, CFi 4/150 lens (shifted), Fujifilm Velvia 50 slide film,
3–stop Graduated ND filter

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Image: Litang in the morning, 2014

Litang in the morning, 2014

Hasselblad Flexbody camera, CFi 2.8/80 lens, Fujifilm Velvia 50 slide film
Three exposures stitched into panorama

The panorama of Litang above is a bit of a strange image: I knew that this location did not lend itself easily to producing great images, and that, objectively speaking—if there is such a thing as objectivity in arts—the panorama would be unimpressive; and yet, I really wanted to make it right from the moment I first saw the vista while passing it on the bus two years ago, to the point that I specifically planned to return to this location this time around. And I feel very happy now that I have it: the image speaks to me on some deep, irrational, unexplainable level. And I suppose that is all that counts. I wish I could show you the print, though—the representation above is just a thumbnail that does not do the image justice.

*I am writing this with medium format film and large prints in mind; if you use small sensors or, say, photograph with an iPhone, then this of course is mostly a non–issue.


13 November 2014 » Software woes

I have long grown accustomed to the fact that whenever I upgrade OS on my computer, something gets broken. It has been happening for as long as I have been using computers. Some software may become unusable, some drivers may need updating, and in worst case scenario hardware may become a chunk of garbage sitting on your desk. This being year 2014 and Mac OS Yosemite being "every bit as powerful as it looks", I thought that we may finally leave this notion behind us. I was naive, it turns out.

I upgraded to Yosemite pretty much as soon as it became available: I know I should have waited until all bugs got fixed and all drivers got updated, but I was a bit too tired of the stale look of the previous Mac OS (what was the name of that animal again?). Upon upgrading to the latest–and–greatest OS I first launched all applications to see what was broken; to my relief, everything seemed to work. It was not until I started printing recent photographs from Sichuan that I discovered what has gone wrong: the OS, Photoshop CS5 and my printer no longer speak the same language.

  Epson software problem with Yosemite  

The printer is actually printing. WTF?

What happens is this. When I go to Print -> Print Settings -> Manage Custom Sizes, Photoshop invariably crashes*. If I do not attempt to change paper size and continue to print, everything works fine; while printing, however, the OS shows the above warning. Not quite unexpectedly, App Store says "No Updates Available", and Epson Web site OS X Yosemite Support page suggests that the latest printer driver v9.33 is compatible with Mac OS v10.10.x. Go figure.

The workaround I have found—accidentally, I should add—is changing paper size in the Page Setup menu of... Lightroom and going back to Photoshop, which apparently then takes paper size from the same place where Lightroom changes it. Weird, but it works.

I know I should not have upgraded so soon, but I had a plan B: if worse came to worst, I would have gone back to the previous version of OS. This inconvenience is not a major deal as far as I am concerned as I do not print that much and use only two paper sizes, 30cm by 30cm and 40cm by 40cm. If, however, you use Epson printers professionally on a daily basis then you really should wait until this issue is sorted out.

*This and, oh, when I click on "Epson status monitor" in the latest version of Epson Printer Utility 4, it inevitably crashes, too.


9 November 2014 » Roaming Western China: images and notes from Xinduqiao

On the first day of shooting in Xinduqiao a qualitative change in my photography occurred. I set the Hasselblad 503CW camera on tripod, took a couple of images with it, then took out the Flexbody camera putting the 503CW back into the backpack, and... it remained there for the rest of the trip. It is now official: the Flexbody has become my main camera, while the 503CW has been relegated to the status of a backup camera*.

*Only for landscape photography, naturally.

 
Image: Around Xinduqiao #1
 

Around Xinduqiao #1

Hasselblad 503CW camera, CFi 4/150 lens and Fujifilm Velvia 50 slide film

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Image: Around Xinduqiao #2
 

Around Xinduqiao #2

Hasselblad 503CW camera, CFi 5.6/250 lens and Fujifilm Velvia 50 slide film

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Image: Around Xinduqiao #3
 

Around Xinduqiao #3

Hasselblad Flexbody camera, CFE 2.8/80 lens and Fujifilm Velvia 50 slide film

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Image: Around Xinduqiao #4
 

Around Xinduqiao #4

Hasselblad Flexbody camera, CFi 5.6/250 lens and Fujifilm Velvia 50 slide film

...

 
Image: Around Xinduqiao #5
 

Around Xinduqiao #5

Hasselblad Flexbody camera, CFi 4/50 lens and Fujifilm Velvia 50 slide film

I think this change happened for two reasons. On the one hand, technically, I have become sufficiently proficient with the Flexbody so that its relatively complex, time consuming operation does not intimidate me the slightest bit anymore. On the other hand, aesthetically, I can no longer accept leaving image geometry to chance and want to actively use it in image construction. What is interesting, though, is that these things kept brewing at the back of my mind, even when I was not shooting, until I was ready: as mentioned above, this change happened on the very first day of the trip after I had not used the cameras for a couple of months.

Once you start using camera movements and they become indispensable in your work, the natural question then is, why not move to large format? Indeed, the Flexbody is quite limited in the department of controlling image geometry: you do not get too many camera movements and image circle of the V–series lenses, particularly wide angles, is not exactly large. And of course, any landscape photographer worth his salt must at least try large format in his lifetime (or so they say).

With this being said, there are obvious limitations and questions related to going down the large format path. How long will large format film last? How long will I last using large format? Is affordable and convenient scanning—read, using one of the latest Epson flatbed scanners—going to do it justice? What is the opportunity cost of buying into a large format system: a couple of good, long dedicated photographic expeditions, a decent second–hand medium format digital back, a new Chanel handbag for the wife?

I could go on with both pros and cons but, while I am still sitting on the fence clinging to it tightly, I am strangely, illogically and yet irresistibly gravitating towards giving large format a try. We shall see where this leads.


3 November 2014 » Roaming Western China

This year has been very hectic in terms of work and various commitments, leaving no time to do much photography in a serious fashion. At last, the week–long public holiday in early October in China offered an opportunity to go on a dedicated photographic expedition, which over the years has become my preferred mode for doing serious photography. The timing, however, presented me with a dilemma: I did not have time and energy to plan anything new and grand, and the period was still two weeks away from autumn colours peaking in the places I have travelled to in the past. Having pondered my options, I decided to simply go roaming Western Sichuan Province again and play it by ear as far as photography is concerned.

 
Sichuan trip map #1
 

Expedition scope: from Chengdu to Daocheng Yading

Two years ago I travelled to Daocheng Yading in Western Sichuan afterwards posting a gallery of images. At that time I took a public bus from Chengdu, which took two full days to reach the mountain valley. Although the bus ride was quite torturous, going through what culturally and geographically can be considered Eastern Tibet and is also known as a part of Greater Shangri–La, I was totally fascinated by the vistas that unfolded before me. Alas, I could only view them from behind the window of a speeding bus without an opportunity of making one single decent photo. With fond memories of passing through the high altitude outdoors, I decided to repeat the journey, this time roaming from one location to the next while exploring and photographing the place at my own pace.

 
Sichuan trip map #2
 

Major locations of the expedition

My local connections from previous travels allowed me to make all necessary arrangements fairly quickly and painlessly. So I flew to Chengdu, took a public bus to the first location of photographic interest, Xinduqiao, rented a car with a driver from there on, and rambled all the way down to Daocheng Yading. To have as much time for photography as possible, on the way back I took a flight directly from Daocheng airport to Chengdu and then onwards to Shanghai (at 4411 metres above sea level, Daocheng happens to be the highest–altitude airport in the world).

I considered buying a new secondary camera to use on the expedition—such trips always offer the best possible excuse to buy new gear—with Fujifilm XT–1 being the primary candidate. I then thought, however, that a new camera would hijack the trip and make it about itself. In my mind, the journey was about roaming and discovery and the last thing I wanted was being distracted by a new tool, so I decided to pass on the idea and use my good old Hasselblad V–series system with the Ricoh GR as a digital supplement.

The place was as spectacular as I remembered seeing it from the bus and, overall, the trip was a great success, although I have to say it was partly due to me keeping an open mind and having low expectations: while I did not witness one single spectacular sunrise, exciting photographic opportunities turned up where I least expected them. I shot 26 rolls of film (312 frames) during the week, which is minuscule in the realm of digital capture and yet enormous in the world of medium format film. While some of it could be explained by the necessity of exposure bracketing, most should be attributed to genuine photographic excitement.

I have now scanned my favourite slides and home page photograph has been updated with an image taken on the first morning in Xinduqiao. I will be posting images from the trip, together with commentary, in the nearest future—stay tuned!


28 August 2014 » Recent favourite image (with commentary)

 
Image: Aeroplane, the moon and yachts
 

Yachts, the moon and aeroplane

Ricoh GR camera

I took this image back in July while on a hectic business trip in Hong Kong. It is interesting how a photographer's mind works: you may be totally busy with something completely unrelated to photography, but in parallel and out of the corner of your eye you keep looking for scenes that may move you. When I saw the poetic combination of still yachts, the moon and the aeroplane slowly moving towards the edge of the frame—the scene was literally framed by my hotel window—I could not help but grab my camera. Quick settings: ISO100, Aperture priority mode and f/5.6, focus at infinity; then click—and off I went to what I was busy with before I noticed the momentary development.

I checked the scene again a little later: as can be expected, the aeroplane was gone, the moon disappeared behind the clouds, and the poetic moment evaporated. All that remained was dull, unmoving yachts in fading light of the end of the day. Photographic images truly are a string of circumstances that exist very seldom and are hard to come by; and yet we think they represent our lives.

It took me an unusually long time—and a number of test prints—to arrive at an image in post processing that is more or less in the ballpark of how I remember the scene in my mind's eye; it is very likely that I will be fine–tuning it again later. Looking at the original captures, both RAW and JPG, the above interpretation is very inaccurate in relation to the camera's rendering—and, quite likely, to how the scene looked in reality. But it has always been my beleif that photographic images should be true to how something is imprinted in one's mind, not to how imaginable technical perfection would duplicate it.


21 July 2014 » Recent favourite quotation

Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8–bit—all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It's the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached–out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.

—Brian Eno


21 June 2014 » Fujifilm Provia 100F (RDPIII) vs. Provia 400X (RXP)

In this day of insane ISO settings on digital cameras ISO400 may seem so trivial as essentially indistinguishable from the base ISO setting. If you still use film and rarely deviate from ISO50, though, then ISO400 can make quite a bit of difference in certain situations. I have long found that it is particularly useful when I want to shoot handheld with my Hasselblad 503CW camera and have decent depth of field, or when shooting landscapes in diminishing light using small apertures for sufficient depth of field and still having fast enough shutter speeds to freeze motion within the frame.

When I first thought of using an ISO400 slide film, Fujifilm Provia 400X was a natural choice given how fond I am of Fujifilm Velvia 50 and Provia 100F. If anything, I sort of expected Provia 400X to be quite similar to Provia 100F, only two stops faster. Having used Provia 400X for a number of years, however, I have always felt that its colour reproduction is quite different from any other Fujifilm transparency. Recently I went again to Mount Putuo—a small, nice island not far from Shanghai—and, as the light was not exciting enough for exhilarating landscape photography, I decided to use the opportunity to compare the two Provias.

Technical specifications of Provia 100F can be found here, and those of Provia 400X here. Among the aspects of real consequence to photographers I would mention the following:

  • Provia 100F has noticeably finer grain than Provia 400X: RMS granularity value, a widely used standard for measuring the degree of grain in photographic film, of the two films is 8 and 11 respectively (the lower the RMS number, the smaller the apparent grain). Looking at slides with a 10X loupe reveals visible difference in graininess in favour of Provia 100X. But this, of course, should be expected given that Provia 100F is a slower film.

  • Provia 100F has better reciprocity failure characteristics: while Provia 100F does not necessitate exposure increase for exposures of up to 4 minutes and requires a +1/3 exposure increase for exposures between 4 and 8 minutes (it is not recommended for longer exposures), Provia 400X requires exposure increase of 1/2 stops at 2 minutes and an increase of 1 stop between 4 and 8 minutes. With this being said, Provia 400X is two stops faster, so if you shoot at the same EV and exposure time is, say, 4 minutes for Provia 100F, it will be 2 minutes for Provia 400X, so the difference is not that big.

Testing procedure was quite simple: I loaded one film back with Provia 100F and another with Provia 400X, and then shot each scene with both films at the same aperture, changing shutter speed to take into account the difference in film speeds. The camera (Hasselblad 503CW and CFE 2.8/80 lens without any filters) was on a tripod, a cable release was used, and ambient light was stable. I scanned each pair of shots as one image, made basic adjustments in Photoshop (levels only), and only then cropped and resized them for presentation here. Thus, the test images below preserve relative colour reproduction of the two films. To my eye, they look nearly identical to the original transparencies (this will not be the case if your monitor is not calibrated).


  Fujifilm Provia 100F vs. 400X   Fujifilm Provia 100F vs. 400X  

Fujifilm Provia 100F (left) vs. Provia 400X (right): test image #1

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  Fujifilm Provia 100F vs. 400X   Fujifilm Provia 100F vs. 400X  

Fujifilm Provia 100F (left) vs. Provia 400X (right): test image #2

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  Fujifilm Provia 100F vs. 400X   Fujifilm Provia 100F vs. 400X  

Fujifilm Provia 100F (left) vs. Provia 400X (right): test image #3

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  Fujifilm Provia 100F vs. 400X   Fujifilm Provia 100F vs. 400X  

Fujifilm Provia 100F (left) vs. Provia 400X (right): test image #4

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  Fujifilm Provia 100F vs. 400X   Fujifilm Provia 100F vs. 400X  

Fujifilm Provia 100F (left) vs. Provia 400X (right): test image #5

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  Fujifilm Provia 100F vs. 400X   Fujifilm Provia 100F vs. 400X  

Fujifilm Provia 100F (left) vs. Provia 400X (right): test image #6

You can draw your own conclusions from the above images, but here is what I observe:

  • Provia 400X delivers notably darker images, which may work for or against your photographs depending on the subject. I find the darker rendition of Provia 400X quite attractive for late afternoon photography or expressing brooding ideas but, having looked at various types of images from both films, I overall prefer the clarity and brilliance offered by Provia 100F.

  • Dynamic range (latitude) of Provia 400X is noticeably narrower than that of Provia 100F, and shadows drop to black considerably faster. Provia 100F captures considerably more shadow detail.

  • As far as colour reproduction goes, Provia 400F has a distinct red cast in relation to Provia 100F (or Provia 100F has a perceptible cyan cast in relation to Provia 400X, if you will). While adjusting the Cyan/Red slider of Colour Balance by -15 points brings colour rendition of images shot with Provia 400X much closer to that of Provia 100F, subtle differences in colour reproduction remain and are difficult (perhaps impossible) to fully eliminate in Photoshop.

Although both films bear the name of "Provia", there are considerable differences in how they render the world. All things considered, I find the lighter, less red rendition of Provia 100F more appealing. Nonetheless, Provia 400X is a very competent option when ISO400 speed is needed.


7 June 2014 » Recent favourite image

 
Image: Walled Away
 

Walled Away

Hasselblad 503CW camera, CFi 2.8/80 lens, Fujifilm Provia 400X slide film


10 May 2014 » Recent favourite quotation

You don't even have Facebook, why are you photographing?

—A friend who has Facebook


5 May 2014 » Comments on Leica T camera

Just as I continued whining about camera connectivity, which of all companies would introduce a camera that solves the issue (at least on paper), but Leica. The recently announced Leica T seems to be connected just the way I want—and then some. Who would have thought that the arguably most conservative brand in photography would come up with a most progressive offering!

 
Leica T camera
 

Leica T camera—front view (image courtesy Leica)

Most previews of the camera concentrate on various aspects other than connectivity and mention Wi–Fi functionality only in passing. While Leica T is loaded to the brim with cool innovations, it was connectivity that intrigued me most. Having perused a number of previews, so far all signs are positive. My only concern is that, according to the review, "There doesn't seem to be a way to establish a direct connection between the camera and an iPad in the field." If true, this would be a serious issue.

Another major breakthrough is the new user interface. Essentially, there are nearly no buttons and the camera is controlled via a touch screen at the back. Although this is not the first camera to use a touch screen, Leica T seems to be the first to have gotten it right. On top of that, the UI is thoroughly thought through and rid of all the junk features we sort of have learned to live with. In my view, Leica T represents a paradigm change in how we interact with our cameras: we can finally put the convoluted press–a–button–and–turn–a–dial mode of operation behind us.

 
Leica T camera
 

Leica T camera—rear view (image courtesy Leica)

Speaking of which, I have to say the traditional DSLR user interface has never felt intuitive to me: I always turn dials in the wrong direction, I forget what each Fn button does shortly after I set it, and I feel invariably confused when the same button has two (or more!) designations. Soon, all of this will become a thing of the past that no one will want to return to. Do not believe me? Just ask all the Blackberry smartphone users who insisted that having a real keyboard with real buttons was a must and that the iPhone was useless for typing.

If I seem to be becoming a Leica fanboy, I can assure you that is not the case—I would take this or similar connectivity and user interface solution from any brand; if anything, I am somewhat disappointed that it did not first come from Hasselblad (as you most likely know the company is stranded on the Moon making lunar products). You may also wonder if I am going to buy a Leica T; to be honest, I do not know as a lot still remains to be seen about the camera. I have to say, though, that it does not even matter, because what is important is the precedent: now that we have a camera of this type, the competition will catch up rather sooner than later. In this sense, it is only a matter of time when I will use two cameras alongside each other: one utterly antique—Hasselblad 503CW loaded with film—and one utterly modern—Leica T or a similar camera. Despite their utmost dissimilarity, the two cameras will be similar in two crucial ways: both will be simple and intuitive to use, and both will be connected, one aesthetically (Hasselblad 503CW), one physically (Leica T).


26 April 2014 » Ricoh GR camera: a few more bits and pieces

I know I promised no more posts on the Ricoh GR camera, but I thought I would still share this with you:

  • I mentioned in the review of the camera that the ring cap (an accessory that is put in place around lens barrel when conversion lens or lens hood is not used) feels cheap, wobbly and does not fit the lens barrel firmly. Well, I have finally lost the ring as I continued taking the camera in and out of my jeans pocket. Beware!

 
Ricoh GR camera: dust on the sensor
 

Ricoh GR camera: dust on the sensor
(Bangkok at twilight)

  • After several months of use dust has appeared on the sensor, which means that the camera is not sufficiently sealed. Generally, I do not need weather sealing, but basic internal sealing to prevent dust from reaching the sensor is a must in a camera with a fixed lens. It is the first time this has happened to me with this type of cameras.

  • I just realised that in nine months my Ricoh GR has followed me to seven countries: Germany, Italy, Russia, China, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand. It is my most travelled camera by far! But of course, the GR has not done even a fraction of the in–depth explorations that my Hasselblad has undertaken.


19 April 2014 » Camera connectivity—a suggested solution

I have written about camera connectivity a number of times and I know that I may sound like a broken record, but I still find it incomprehensible that camera makers still have not figured this out: it is simplicity and immediacy of image sharing offered by smart phones that has been eating their lunch (I know there are other reasons as well, but I am thinking about the needs of yours truly). As I continued using the Ricoh GR on non–photographic trips while examining my photographic needs, it dawned on me that the camera connectivity solution that would make me—and, I reckon, many other photographers—a happy camper is actually quite simple.

Being a photographer with artistic aspirations, I have to have access to the original data recorded by the sensor and thus use RAW format only (you may choose to shoot JPG, but that is a topic for another day). Most serious photographers, however, are also "civilians"—I want to easily share images that are "less than art" with friends and family. And the point of casual, fun sharing is that it has to be here and now; otherwise, it does not work—either because the images lose their lustre outside the spur of the moment, or because we fail to share them later.

On the subject of "sharing images later", I am sure you know how it goes: we often mean to do it tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes, or it comes when the images are already not as relevant. You can blame our own laziness, but you cannot fight human nature. Can you say you are disciplined enough to sort through, rename, adjust, convert to JPG and then send out the images every single time you intend to share the pictures you have taken? I, for one, cannot. From this perspective, an imperfect JPG image shared through imperfect means (e.g., mobile social media) is better than a perfect RAW file that will remain on your hard drive not renamed, not edited, and not shared.

We already have solid platforms for both careful processing of RAW images (computers) and instant sharing across various networks (smart phones). Thus, all camera makers have to do is befriend these platforms by aligning and closely integrating with them, thus making them a logical and natural extension of the camera. This may sound complex, but all that needs to be done is... efficiently delivering images from the camera to these platforms in appropriate format. So here is the camera connectivity solution that would work for me:

  • The camera should be able to shoot in the RAW + JPG format; this is nothing new, of course, but what is crucial is that the photographer should be able to choose size and quality of JPG images. I would usually use small size, high quality JPG as it would be best suited for immediate sharing.

  • The camera should be able to transfer RAW or JPG files, or both, via Wi–Fi (RAW or JPG, or both) or Bluetooth (JPG) into designated folders on the devices of my choice once Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection is available; we should be able to choose various combinations of file and device types for transfer. More specifically, I want to pair my camera with my smart phone and computer once and then have RAW files automatically transferred into the "New RAW captures" folder on my Mac Pro, and JPG files automatically copied into the "Camera Roll" folder on my iPhone.

And that is all, really. I do not want to control my camera via my phone, I do not want to have a full–blown mobile OS on my camera, I do not want in–camera RAW processing, and I do not want any other clutter that camera makers like to include. Just get my images onto my smart phone and computer in appropriate format(s). Smartly, quietly, unobtrusively. Then the smart phone and the computer, which are much more powerful at what they were designed to do, will take it from there.

The key, of course, is that such connectivity has to be implemented in a simple and straightforward manner, similar to how images taken with the iPhone quietly ooze into the "Camera uploads" folder in my Dropbox account (and then further to my computer). I do not want to fiddle with camera menus—or even remember about camera connectivity—whenever I want to share an image taken with my camera via, say, WeChat. I want to forget about the time when my camera, smart phone and computer were not seamlessly interconnected.

With this being said, I do realise that simple and elegant solutions often have complex, powerful and expensive architecture behind them. Camera makers may not have the expertise or the resources to provide such solutions. Nonetheless, I will say this: if tomorrow Ricoh release Ricoh GR–C, which is connected as outlined above but otherwise is exactly the same camera as the current GR, I will pay the money and upgrade. And I will continue buying dedicated cameras if such connectivity becomes the norm. Whether it is worthwhile is up to camera makers to decide.


30 March 2014 » Ricoh GR camera: final bits and pieces

I realise that you may be getting a bit tired of the posts on the Ricoh GR camera, so this will be the last entry (hopefully!). I have now added the following contents to the review of the camera:

  • Additional image examples of distortion, RAW headroom and bokeh

  • Other snippets section

  • Final thoughts section

This more or less concludes the review. I know it took me a while to finish it, but I hope the article is worthwhile.


13 March 2014 » Ricoh GR camera: image quality

Image quality produced by a digital camera with a fixed lens is a combined result of performance of both the lens and the sensor. As I have shown below, the former does not disappoint the slightest bit; fortunately, the latter is no slouch either—indeed, it seems a perfect match for the superb optic it is mated to.

As megapixel count continues to increase and it has become more of a norm rather than an exception, the sensor of the Ricoh GR does not have an anti–aliasing filter. As a result, pixel–level sharpness and pixel integrity are outstanding; DNG files are very well detailed and require little sharpening to bring out very solid, pleasing crispness.

The flip side of not having an anti–aliasing filter is that moiré and false colour artifacts can rear their ugly head every once in a while, especially if you shoot man–made patterns often. On balance, however, I would rather occasionally deal with a bit of moiré while savouring exceptional crispness than have less moiré and fight pixel–level softness at all times.

Colour fidelity seems a bit strange to my eye. I cannot quite pin it down, but there seems to be inconsistency in colour between the actual scene, the image shown on the LCD screen of the camera, and what I see on my calibrated monitor in Adobe Lightroom—the three have slightly different flavour. It is quite subtle and, at the end of the day, perhaps not too problematic, but it is there.

 
Moscow winter / Ricoh GR camera
 

Moscow winter, 2013
Ricoh GR camera

Dynamic range is excellent: I am yet to encounter an image (properly exposed, of course) where I would not be able to recover highlights or pull out shadow detail—or both.

High ISO performance is in line with what you would expect from a recent APS–C sized sensor. Having done some tests and looked at a variety of files, I have set the upper limit of the Auto–ISO function at ISO3200. Yes, at this setting there is visible noise, dynamic range is decreased and colour fidelity takes a hit; nonetheless, with careful post production it is perfectly usable. ISO6400 can be used for certain types of images, but I prefer not to go that far.

All in all, although one can fret about colour reproduction and occasional moiré, overall image quality produced by the Ricoh GR is excellent. It clearly is in the DSLR territory, and if you consider that it actually comes from a compact camera, it is nothing short of astounding.


2 March 2014 » Recent favourite quotation

Although photography generates works that can be called art—it requires subjectivity, it can lie, it gives aesthetic pleasure—photography is not, to begin with, an art form at all. Like language, it is a medium in which works of art (among other things) are made. Out of language, one can make scientific discourse, bureaucratic memoranda, love letters, grocery lists, and Balzac's Paris. Out of photography, one can make passport pictures, weather photographs, pornographic pictures, X–rays, wedding pictures, and Atget's Paris. Photography is not an art like, say, painting and poetry.

—Susan Sontag, "On Photography"


28 February 2014 » Ricoh GR camera: the lens

It has totally slipped my mind that I have not finished my review of the Ricoh GR camera. Well, as they say, better late than never, so today I am posting the part on the camera's lens performance. Two more parts—image quality and final thoughts—will follow later in March.

The Ricoh GR features a 18.3mm (equivalent to 28mm in 35mm format), f/2.8 lens that has seven elements in five groups. It employes some serious voodoo in the shape of glass with high refractive index and low dispersion qualities, aspherical high–precision molded glass elements, multi–coating on all surfaces and a 9–bladed iris aperture. According to Ricoh, it is a newly developed design that achieves "best shooting performance in the world's smallest camera body". That is a very bold claim, but, having taken and closely looked at hundreds of images, my impression has been that this statement is not far from the truth. So let's look at particularities of the lens' performance.

Sharpness is simply exemplary. The centre of the frame is perfectly sharp starting right from f/2.8. The corners show a bit of softness wide open, but you would not find problems with it unless you are making comparisons with performance at an optimum aperture. Sharpness improves slightly at f/4 and peaks around f/5.6. Diffraction starts to take its tall at f/11, but this aperture is still perfectly usable if you need greater depth of field. At f/16 things get discernibly soft because of diffraction, and I would not use this aperture unless I really have to for the reasons of depth of field.

As can be seen below, vignetting is very mild (under one stop) and would not be noticeable in real–life images, even those including vast expanses of sky (note that the aberration is quite exaggerated when shown in test shots scaled down to such small size).


  Ricoh GR camera lens vignetting at f/2.8   Ricoh GR camera lens vignetting at f/4  
 

f/2.8

 

f/4

 
  Ricoh GR camera lens vignetting at f/5.6   Ricoh GR camera lens vignetting at f/8  
 

f/5.6

 

f/8

 

If you look very closely at 100% magnification, you may see some occasional hints of chromatic aberration. They are so negligible, however, that you really have to look for them; they would not impact quality of prints even if not removed in post processing, which is easy to do.

The lens produces distortion with a somewhat complex ("moustache") signature, but its degree is so insignificant that you really have to go out of your way to make it noticeable.

Bokeh is a very subjective performance criterion, but in my view it usually falls into one of the three categories: it can be undeniably beautiful, clearly ugly, or belong to the large grey area between the first two where things can be interpreted one way or the other depending on one's taste and biases. Bokeh produced by the lens of the Ricoh GR clearly falls into the first class—it is plain gorgeous.

You may argue that the combination of a short focal length and a relatively slow maximum aperture renders the bokeh consideration irrelevant, but in my experience there are numerous situations where it does matter (or maybe, silky bokeh of the Ricoh GR invites you to find more such situations). To prove that both are true—i.e., that in case of the Ricoh GR the bokeh factor is important despite the short focal length, and that it is beautiful—I am posting several fairly typical examples.

 
Ricoh GR camera lens bokeh example #1
 

Ricoh GR camera lens bokeh: example #1

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Ricoh GR camera lens bokeh example #2
 

Ricoh GR camera lens bokeh: example #2

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Ricoh GR camera lens bokeh example #3
 

Ricoh GR camera lens bokeh: example #3

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Ricoh GR camera lens bokeh example #4
 

Ricoh GR camera lens bokeh: example #4

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Ricoh GR camera lens bokeh example #5
 

Ricoh GR camera lens bokeh: example #5

In short, it is really difficult to find much fault with the lens of the Ricoh GR. Indeed, I would readily pay the price of the complete camera for the lens alone!


18 February 2014 » Recent favourite quotation

Despite all of the challenges, the experience frankly blew me away—enough that I'd do it again, providing I could find the film. I imagine it's the photographic equivalent of being on crack; an old–school high, very bad for you, antisocial, and highly addictive.

—Ming Thein on revisiting slide film


15 February 2014 » Skiing with a Hasselblad—part three

(As a background, please read Skiing with a Hasselblad part one and part two.)

So there I was on the now–familiar slopes of Dolomiti Alps near Arabba, with a Hasselblad V–series kit in my backpack and a tripod attached to it, hoping for the muscle memory to take the lead and skiing become second nature again. Muscle memory, however, did not kick in as soon as I thought it would, and the entire experience felt quite a bit different this time around. And so it unfolded that I skied with the Hasselblad for two days exposing a couple of rolls of film, but left the backpack at the hotel from day three and shot only with the Ricoh GR thereupon. Having given it some serious thought, I think this surprising development resulted from a combination of the following factors.

 
Dolomiti Alps
 

Dolomiti in winter #1
Hasselblad 503CW camera, CFi 5.6/250 lens, Fujifilm Provia 100F slide film


  • Skiing, generally, is incompatible with doing landscape photography properly. First, it is very difficult to evaluate potential compositions as you ski while paying full attention to the slope. Second, once you stop on a mountain slope moving around to adjust perspective is not easy (it is doable, but it is an effort). Third, unpacking the tripod and the camera (and then packing it up, of course) over and over again takes quite a lot of sweat and time. Unless you use skiing as a means of transportation for mountain landscape photography, all of this really spoils the skiing experience. And I was there primarily to enjoy sports.

  • The landscape was as beautiful as ever, but somehow I felt a bit less excited about it—and thus less eager to photograph it in a meticulous manner getting the best image quality possible. Perhaps it was the "familiarity syndrome"; or maybe, the place was not remote, uninhibited, challenging or thought provoking enough to give me a sustained feeling it was truly worth exploring photographically. There is a lot more to landscape photography than just producing beautiful pictures of nature.

  • Image quality produced by the Ricoh GR (lens plus sensor) is absolutely spectacular: indeed, it is the best I have seen so far from any digital camera with the exception of digital backs (but of course, I have not shot with the Nikon D800 or similar high resolution cameras). I thus knew that, were I to come across a compelling composition in spectacular light, I would be perfectly okay in terms of image quality.

 
Dolomiti Alps
 

Dolomiti in winter #2
Hasselblad 503CW camera, CFi 5.6/250 lens, Fujifilm Provia 100F slide film


What I missed while shooting with the Ricoh GR, though, were longer focal lengths. 28mm is a bit too wide for my liking as the only focal length, particularly in the mountains. With hindsight, what would have been ideal for skiing is a compact camera system with three prime lenses that could fit into a belt pack.

It is quite ironic, then, that after looking at all images from the trip I still prefer the ones from the good ol' Blad. Now, there is nothing wrong with the technical image quality of the images shot with the Ricoh GR—it is absolutely fantastic; it is just that, aesthetically, the images sort of smack of... snapshots, which, of course, exactly what they are. Shooting with the Hasselblad imposes a lot of restrictions and really makes you make an effort, which results in much better thought out compositions; with the Ricoh GR, on the other hand, I could shoot away without even bothering to take the skis off. As Orsen Welles has well put, "The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."

As expected, my Sony RX100 did not make it back to Shanghai; it now resides in Germany and depicts totally different subjects. As I parted with the camera, it occurred to me that during the past several years I have been spending roughly one year with each new digital camera—or so I seem to remember. Come to think of it, I actually like the idea of buying one—but only one!—camera every year*. One the one hand, one year is long enough to get to know a camera very well and see if you can bond with it; on the other hand, it is not too long to get stuck in one place and bored. It also gives you a chance to choose and vote for the camera of the year with your own money. Fortunately, camera makers continue to amuse us at a pace that allows this idea to work: 2014 has just began, but we already have some truly bewitching entrants—just look at the Fujifilm X–T1 or Sigma DP2 Quattro! We shall see what my camera of 2014 shall be.

*Strictly as a secondary camera, naturally, as the Hasselblad still remains the King of the hill at Chez Oleg.


12 January 2014 » Miscellaneous updates

As regular readers may recall, a while ago my friend Lovrenc sent me two rolls of ADOX CMS 20, which is an ASA20 super–fine–grain super–sharp black–and–white film. I used the two rolls for two different purposes. Because the film has very low sensitivity, I used the first roll with Neutral Density filters at small apertures to obtain very long exposures. At least in theory, this would have allowed me to photograph the busy streets of Shanghai as if they were perfectly devoid of people. At the same time, the second roll was exposed to see just how sharp and grainless the film is: I used one of the sharpest lenses that I have (Hasselblad CFE 2.8/80) at an optimal aperture without any filters.

It took me some time to finish exposing the two rolls because of busy work schedule, uncooperating weather and just good old procrastination—I am sure you know how these things go. Then I had to find a way to send the film back to Lovrenc for processing, and, once processed, we had to figure out how to send the negatives back to me (Lovrenc lives in Slovenia while I am based in Shanghai). At long last, I am happy to report on the results.

The first part of the experiment miserably failed. I shot the first roll at ASA16 setting with a 4–stop Neutral Density filter at f/22; further taking into account the reciprocity failure factor, I arrived at exposures in the range of six to eight minutes. It was the reciprocity failure factor that caused the failure: we estimated it as best we could, but our assessment apparently was way off as all negatives ended up grossly underexposed. Reciprocity failure signature of the ADOX CMS 20 requires further study.

The second part of the experiment was a lot easier and successful. After receiving the negatives I scanned some of them with the use of a Hasselblad Flextight X5 scanner at a native optical resolution of 3200ppi. This produced very large files with pixel dimensions of 6800 by 6800 pixels, which is equivalent to 46 megapixels. Below are a couple of examples: the first image shows grain while the second image shows sharpness at 100% magnification (both were sharpened in Photoshop with the use of the PixelGenius PhotoKit Sharpener plug–in).

 
ADOX CMS 20 film test image
 

ADOX CMS 20 film test shot #1


 
ADOX CMS 20 film test image
 

ADOX CMS 20 film test shot #1: grain at 100% magnification

As you can see above, grain is very, very fine indeed. I actually would not want it to be any finer than this: as film grain is random, it translates into very pleasing, natural texture in prints. It is precisely the lack of grain and texture that may make prints from files taken with digital cameras look too plastic.

 
ADOX CMS 20 film test image
 

ADOX CMS 20 film test shot #2


 
ADOX CMS 20 film test image
 

ADOX CMS 20 film test shot #2: resolution at 100% magnification

Resolution is absolutely spectacular as well: once again, keep in mind that you are looking at 100% magnification of a file that is 6800 by 6800 pixels in dimension.

There is no doubt that ADOX CMS 20 is an absolutely remarkable film in terms of grain and resolution. This being said, I have to note that using it, or taking advantage of its high resolution, can be impractical in many situations. The second test shot above was taken under ideal conditions, i.e. on a tripod, at an optimal aperture, without filters and with lens focused at infinity; however, real–life photography seldom happens under ideal conditions. Because of the low sensitivity you are bound to have long exposures; given this, you cannot use the film without a tripod, and nor can you have any movement within frame. If you need to have a more or less acceptable depth of field you will have to use smaller apertures, which will jeopardise image resolution because of diffraction. I use filters very often, too.

Nonetheless, I am once again pleasantly reminded that film still remains a perfectly viable and enourmously compelling medium in this digital age. Resolution? ADOX CMS 20 is your answer. Colour? Velvia 50 is your solution. Simplicity of workflow and concentration on aesthetics? Film is still the recipe. Although you have to give up a bit of convenience, film can also help you mustering a lot more commitment to your photographic work. Nothing to complain about, if you ask me.

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I have now posted the final selection of images that I took in Western Sichuan Province, China in October 2013 and would like to invite you to look at the ultimate gallery. Just for the record, I shot 28 rolls of 120 film (12 shots per roll) and at first kept 108 slides. As I worked on the images the number of retained slides went down to 98. I posted a whopping 27 images on this site at the end of last year, but the final gallery now has only 14 images. Being your own editor is an immensly tough task, but as has been well said, in writing—and I would add photography—you must kill your darlings.

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Another thing that regular readers may recall is that a couple of years ago I went skiing to Italy and used my Hasselblad V–series system and a smallish tripod on the slopes of Dolomite Alps. The idea sounded a bit cockamamie—and dangerous—at first, but it worked out exceedingly well. Later this month I am going to repeat the exercise: I am going skiing to the same place and will use the Hasselblad 503CW camera with three lenses (80mm, 150mm and 250mm) for photography again. I will bring my Ricoh GR and Sony RX100 as well; it is possible, however, that the latter will not come back: I have not used the camera ever since I bought the GR, so I will give it to one of my friends who may be willing to use it. More on the trip after I return.

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