I can top that story. I once backed my car over a Speed Graphic 4X5....and it lived. It was a little bent and wouldn't open, but when I bent it back with a screwdriver, it opened and still worked fine. I was on my way to a sunrise shoot and had three camera bags. tripods, etc. I got it all in the trunk(I thought) and started backing out. I felt the back of the car rise up. I let off the gas and it rolled forward off the bag. I still get a sick feeling when I think about it!
I use a Pentax K3. I have a few nice prime portrait lenses from them (f1.4), a very old f1.4 I bought in Japan, a nice telephoto and my favourite is my Sigma 10-20 - can’t remember f# but it’s pretty low 2.8 maybe? I bought it with my bonus one year. A lot of my product photos were done with this stuff and then cleaned up in LightRoom
Problem now is I’m lazy, so it’s mostly the iPhone
Problem now is I’m lazy, so it’s mostly the iPhone
Know the feeling. My bag with the Rittreck Optika IIa fell out of the car when unloading after a trip. The viewfinder completely dented, the little screws holding the nameplate sheared off and the nameplate broke. Had to order new screws in Japan as they are JIS form. Still no idea how I can get that nameplate with the serial number back in order. Since then I don't let cameras travel in the back, they sit on the floor.
I can believe the Speed Graphic survived. If I look at the build quality they had all those years back... I think my Wista 45 wouldn't even mind being driven over. It's a solid alu casting.
I destroyed a Pentax MX 35mm camera once. I was in the Canadian arctic on a survey project and it was at a coastal location. I think it was on the Hudson Bay in what was then the Northwest Territories.
It was July and there was still broken ice in the harbour, and I thought it would be nice to go out onto the ice and take a picture looking back at the little settlement that we were staying in. So, I picked my way out onto the ice and stood a small piece of ice. I took a couple of shots and then suddenly, I was in the water.
My first thought was, I'm going to die. I had winter clothing on, including heavy boots. Then I realized that I was sitting on my butt with water up to my chest. Very cold water, though.
Luckily, I was not far from my accommodations, so I managed to get dry quickly and not freeze to death. Unfortunately, my Pentax MX did not survive. It had been totally immersed in salt water and went to camera heaven. I did get the film developed and the salt water effects were evident in the prints.
It was July and there was still broken ice in the harbour, and I thought it would be nice to go out onto the ice and take a picture looking back at the little settlement that we were staying in. So, I picked my way out onto the ice and stood a small piece of ice. I took a couple of shots and then suddenly, I was in the water.
My first thought was, I'm going to die. I had winter clothing on, including heavy boots. Then I realized that I was sitting on my butt with water up to my chest. Very cold water, though.
Luckily, I was not far from my accommodations, so I managed to get dry quickly and not freeze to death. Unfortunately, my Pentax MX did not survive. It had been totally immersed in salt water and went to camera heaven. I did get the film developed and the salt water effects were evident in the prints.
There's something about that for sure. There aren't many good point-n-shoot cameras anymore. The phones have taken over. But companies keep innovating. For example Fuji's X-T5 pushes the boundaries on resolution with an 160 MP equivalent mode. The image sensor is 40-some MP and they use the in-camera image stabilization to shift the sensor by a fraction of a pixel during the exposure to achieve 4x the native resolution. Naturally, this requires a tripod, but for archival purposes that could be a game changer.
Tom
Speaking about pixelshift:
This article led me to the night multi-exposure technique.
It's a way to use the slightly shaking handheld camera as "pixelshift".
This article led me to the night multi-exposure technique.
It's a way to use the slightly shaking handheld camera as "pixelshift".
Some of My Photography Career:
I've been a "Lens for Hire" for over 35 years and man do I have some stories. It's been an epic career full of helicopter missions, sunrises, models & a few celebrities. I started in Middle School with yearbook. In high school I shot sports for the newspapers and cars for some racing magazines. I got my fist magazine cover in 1986 at age 16.. By 19, I was interning in a big studio in Alexandria Va. At 26 I was teaching photography for Shephard University in Nearby West Virginia. I never made it to the top tier of photographers but I had some times when I was close. Mostly due to my technical creativity.
I worked in a camera store and studied art and photography at NOVA. I started mixing my own developers and came up with a low fog developer for infrared film. I published that in Rangefinder Magazine along with some new processes for solarizing prints. I thought I was the next coming of Ansel Adams and Jerry Uelsmann, I soon started working with color film, filters and cross processing for unique looks. My goal was always to make something new and unusual. I need to get back to that! My commercial work is very clean and clear.
I was a very early adopter of digital. I purchased a $19,000 Kodak digital camera that had 2.34 megapixels. Later, in 2000, I thought 360 virtual reality photography was going to be big for me, but it fizzled. I was still shooting 6X6 & 4X5 film., then "Digitizing" it on a Linotype scanner and stitching the digital images into sphere and cylinder shapes. Virtual Reality never took off the way I thought it would. I gave a lecture at Apple computer and I was so terrible that it killed VR...lol
I moved from darkroom to Photoshop V2.5. There were no layers and an 8X10 at 300PPI would bring the computer to it's knees. I went to every Photoshop world for the next 7 years and helped Adobe design a "Save for Web" feature for Photoshop 5.0. My next big thing was HDR and tone mapped images. I developed a technique that made very interesting looking images using wide area contrast(Now Called Clarity) and texture. They had a "grungy" look to them. A photo magazine mis-qouted me in an article, "Mr Stewart likes dirty pictures" and my friends remember that. I later made a lot of money being one of the first guys shooting HDR architecture. I've done a lot of HDR and I now shoot handheld HDR frequently.
My biggest claims to fame are Tech Editing the ASMP Digital Photography Guide and the DAM Book. Good reads for anyone doing digital photography.
I've been a "Lens for Hire" for over 35 years and man do I have some stories. It's been an epic career full of helicopter missions, sunrises, models & a few celebrities. I started in Middle School with yearbook. In high school I shot sports for the newspapers and cars for some racing magazines. I got my fist magazine cover in 1986 at age 16.. By 19, I was interning in a big studio in Alexandria Va. At 26 I was teaching photography for Shephard University in Nearby West Virginia. I never made it to the top tier of photographers but I had some times when I was close. Mostly due to my technical creativity.
I worked in a camera store and studied art and photography at NOVA. I started mixing my own developers and came up with a low fog developer for infrared film. I published that in Rangefinder Magazine along with some new processes for solarizing prints. I thought I was the next coming of Ansel Adams and Jerry Uelsmann, I soon started working with color film, filters and cross processing for unique looks. My goal was always to make something new and unusual. I need to get back to that! My commercial work is very clean and clear.
I was a very early adopter of digital. I purchased a $19,000 Kodak digital camera that had 2.34 megapixels. Later, in 2000, I thought 360 virtual reality photography was going to be big for me, but it fizzled. I was still shooting 6X6 & 4X5 film., then "Digitizing" it on a Linotype scanner and stitching the digital images into sphere and cylinder shapes. Virtual Reality never took off the way I thought it would. I gave a lecture at Apple computer and I was so terrible that it killed VR...lol
I moved from darkroom to Photoshop V2.5. There were no layers and an 8X10 at 300PPI would bring the computer to it's knees. I went to every Photoshop world for the next 7 years and helped Adobe design a "Save for Web" feature for Photoshop 5.0. My next big thing was HDR and tone mapped images. I developed a technique that made very interesting looking images using wide area contrast(Now Called Clarity) and texture. They had a "grungy" look to them. A photo magazine mis-qouted me in an article, "Mr Stewart likes dirty pictures" and my friends remember that. I later made a lot of money being one of the first guys shooting HDR architecture. I've done a lot of HDR and I now shoot handheld HDR frequently.
My biggest claims to fame are Tech Editing the ASMP Digital Photography Guide and the DAM Book. Good reads for anyone doing digital photography.
Cool we have a true photo pro here to ask questions. Amazing list of things you took part in for digital photo technology standards etc. very cool.
I remember hearing something like this from a famous photographer years ago:”The best camera is the one you have on hand that can get the shot”. Which means, often, the best camera is our phone. Back then, it was before everyone had a nice camera on their smartphone. Typically, it was a pocketable point and shoot that people carried (one reason I always had a Nikon Ti35 with me).
Here’s a cool photo we don’t often see, this is what the inside of a state of the art ambulance looks like. My question is what’s with the blue lighting? Must be a medical or safety reason for it.
I remember hearing something like this from a famous photographer years ago:”The best camera is the one you have on hand that can get the shot”. Which means, often, the best camera is our phone. Back then, it was before everyone had a nice camera on their smartphone. Typically, it was a pocketable point and shoot that people carried (one reason I always had a Nikon Ti35 with me).
Here’s a cool photo we don’t often see, this is what the inside of a state of the art ambulance looks like. My question is what’s with the blue lighting? Must be a medical or safety reason for it.
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Monios-L Grow Lights $68 for a 6 Pack. I'm starting my seeds for the summer garden. I purchased these LED lights and I was blown away by how good they are for photography. I didn't expect them to have a 97.5 CRI (Color Rendering index). That's really high for cheap led lights. They are 4700K and plenty bright at 24W each. I find that most LEDs come close to 6X brighter per watt than a standard filament bulb, so each is equivalent to a 150W bulb. All together(6) you have the equivalent of 900 watts of light of light for $68.
There is a warmer version as well. I think they measured around 3800K and had the same stunning 97.5 CRI.
They don't have light stand mounts! That's kind of a bummer but they can be rigged. I also have not tried a dimmer on them yet.
These could be put inside of Glow brand softboxes with one of these Godox Mounts.. That will make some really nice lights for VERY little money.
There is a warmer version as well. I think they measured around 3800K and had the same stunning 97.5 CRI.
They don't have light stand mounts! That's kind of a bummer but they can be rigged. I also have not tried a dimmer on them yet.
These could be put inside of Glow brand softboxes with one of these Godox Mounts.. That will make some really nice lights for VERY little money.
I got this 3 pack of 240 LED panels with adjustable color temp plus stands. CRI of 96+ and I use them everyday to light up the lab to do my work. They are handy work lights when you need to add diffuse lighting anywhere. Unfortunately, not sold anymore.
I never got the batteries that are optional - makes them portable and can go on location without power.
There’s probably something equivalent but these were a great deal at $180 for the whole set with stands.
I never got the batteries that are optional - makes them portable and can go on location without power.
There’s probably something equivalent but these were a great deal at $180 for the whole set with stands.
I've used the Broncolor Hazy and the USAF chart. My friend has a Hazy light with a burned out tube. Fixing it will cost thousands. I'm encouraging him to fill it with High CRI LED lights. The best thing about the hazy was the stand. It allowed you to easily get the light over-top of tabletop setups without a boom. I have a poor mans hazy light. It's an old studio camera stand with a softbox mounted on it.
I have used the USAF chart, but not as it's designed. I have 5 of them and I put them on the wall in the 4 corners and center to test lens sharpness. I then shoot at different distances and apertures to find the lenses best aperture. This is called a newspaper test, but I'm using the USAF instead of newspaper. The best aperture is usually in the middle of the apertures, but not always. You can really see the sharpness fall off from diffraction at smaller than f11. This is a good reason to have a tilt lens for tabletop work. You can tilt to move the plane of focus instead of using small apertures. A lot of novice photographers think shooting at 22 or 32 will make the image sharper. It does give you more Depth of Field, but EVERYTHING is less sharp....F8 and be there without diffraction.
Diffraction: "Because, as our apertures get smaller, the lens experiences the phenomenon of diffraction. When light passes an object, it bends. And, when light is forced to pass through a tiny hole in your aperture diaphragm, that unwanted bending becomes more prevalent and results in a less-than-sharp image."
I have used the USAF chart, but not as it's designed. I have 5 of them and I put them on the wall in the 4 corners and center to test lens sharpness. I then shoot at different distances and apertures to find the lenses best aperture. This is called a newspaper test, but I'm using the USAF instead of newspaper. The best aperture is usually in the middle of the apertures, but not always. You can really see the sharpness fall off from diffraction at smaller than f11. This is a good reason to have a tilt lens for tabletop work. You can tilt to move the plane of focus instead of using small apertures. A lot of novice photographers think shooting at 22 or 32 will make the image sharper. It does give you more Depth of Field, but EVERYTHING is less sharp....F8 and be there without diffraction.
Diffraction: "Because, as our apertures get smaller, the lens experiences the phenomenon of diffraction. When light passes an object, it bends. And, when light is forced to pass through a tiny hole in your aperture diaphragm, that unwanted bending becomes more prevalent and results in a less-than-sharp image."