Monthly Archives: February 2012

In praise of Black Dog

Photography

Keeping the grey cells working.

Churchill called it his Black Dog, referring to his recurring depressions occurring, as often as not, during his long period out of power in the Thirties. A wanton Europe, choosing to disregard his warnings as the blatherings of a warmonger, was the catalyst.

And while the man most certainly is my hero, it’s nothing to do with politics, a subject which leaves me cold. Rather it’s because I greatly admire his liberal spirit which, despite a grounding in seemingly extraordinary privilege, was ever his guiding principle, suitably governed by a doting and caring spouse. Throw in a work ethic one can only dream of emulating and you have a man for all time.

I write of this because I, too, am a victim of Black Dog, but not for one moment do I ask for sympathy. In fact, I consider that rabid canine one of the great drivers in life. I owe a great deal to that foul hound. You see, the only way I know to avoid his ravenous appetite is to work. Work hard. Keep busy. Do whatever your limited talents permit, but always work. Hard. And I don’t mean any of that nonsense where you run around in circles in footer bags trying to kick a ball. I mean exercising that worthless mass between your ears, bestowed upon you by your parents.

I was reflecting on this when contemplating my new-found enthusiasm for full frame, this time realized by in the clutches of the Nikon D700. ‘Been there, done that’ with the fabulous Canon 5D, of course. Hate the weight, mass, ugliness, noise, gaucheness. But there’s no denying the effortless quality. So I didn’t exactly go crazy with the pocketbook/wallet, but have in short order accumulated the following:

  • Nikon D700 body, used
  • 16-24mm Alphabet-Soup Nikon lens, also makes tea and World Peace, new
  • 50mm f/2 Nikkor-H pre-AI MF (my ‘David Hemmings‘ lens), used
  • 85mm f/1.8D Nikkor Auto everything, used
  • 200mm f/4 Nikkor pre-AI MF, used, the cost of a few Big Macs
  • 300mm f/4.5 ED IF AIS MF, well used

And the need to justify the existence of that little lot is what drives me and keeps Black Dog at bay. Most victims pay for shrinks. I buy some new gear and bang away. And when it gets old I dump it, starting again.

It’s a heck of a lot more fun and cheaper than paying a guy who asks you what you really feel.

Daffs. No more Black Dog. D700, 300mm f/4.5 Nikkor wide open.

And to avoid infecting you with BD, I promise to publish no more flower pictures.

D700 in use

Nikon bodies

Competent.

Let me get the grumbling out of the way first. I dislike SUVs. And the D700, with my newly arrived 16-35mm f/4 zoom is an SUV among cameras. It’s large, noisy, crass, threatening, bulky, heavy and few need it. Like an SUV, its owner is likely a poseur. One extols off-road capabilities when he will never leave asphalt. The other boasts of professional gear quality when he would get better results with a point-and-shoot. For most, the D700 fulfills ‘wants’ not ‘needs’. And while the SUV is a pain in the neck when you cannot see past one in traffic, the D700 with a ‘pro’ zoom is quite literally a pain in the neck after you have schlepped it around for a few hours, as I did yesterday.

The newly arrived 16-35mm VR lens is expensive and bulky, though far lighter than you would expect for its volume. Once you remind yourself that it replaces the 16-18mm, 21mm, 24mm, 28mm and 35mm lenses in your kitbag, the 1.5 lb. weight becomes bearable, especially when you throw in the (arguably unnecessary) Vibration Reduction and prime lens quality at all focal lengths and apertures. Construction quality, fit and finish match the optics. Tight, well made, no toy. The lens does not change length when zoomed or focused, which is just as well as it sticks out 6.5″ with the hood attached. Strangely, this confers a certain stealthiness, as observers think you are using a telephoto, not an ultrawide zoom. I detailed my reasoning behind the 16-35mm + 85mm outfit decision earlier, and the 85mm, bought used, has already shown itself to be a sterling performer. For general purpose use, other than sports or wildlife, this is a powerful outfit which keeps bulk and weight down, in as much as that is possible with FF DSLRs.

As a street snapshotter where you want to get really close to people, the D700 is a joke compared to the stealth and agility of my Panasonic G3. The latter focuses faster (yes, faster), is far quieter and its diminutive size makes it extremely stealthy. Keep it dangling from your neck and it’s rarely noticed. Keep the D700 with the zoom around your neck and you will look like the archetypal American tourist so aptly portrayed by Michael Palin in that sketch where the camera protrudes inches from his chest while he debates obscure philosophers in a restaurant.

What you get with full frame, as I am reminded from my days with the Canon 5D, is a tool where technology largely obsoletes technical knowhow, yet still permits huge prints to be made. Anyone can take a good picture with an FF DSLR, pretty much regardless of whether you use Program mode or Manual. There are so many aids, from a monster sensor, great low light capability, infinite choice of ISOs and lenses, VR, auto everything, that even the most inept can take properly exposed snaps capable of high enlargement ratios for prints. And unless you make big prints, you are wasting your money. LCDs and TVs do not need the FF camera’s capabilities to display your pictures. The FF DSLR will not help you make good pictures any more than a Brownie will, but yours will be sharper and finer grained and better-everything in most other respects.

I do miss the EVF of the Panny in the D700. Fit an f/4 lens after an f/1.8 and the finder dims. Go into the dark and the finder image is hard to see. By contrast, when you use an EVF, the finder is always the same brightness regardless of the ambient light level. But I do like the ease with which a button and dial on the D700 can change ISO and the simplicity of locking exposure on your area of choice. All those exposure options – area, matrix, spot, and focus choices ad infinitum, are mostly set-and-forget once you find the ones you like. A waste of knobs and dials. The Panny, by contrast, cannot afford too many knobs and dials as there’s only so much space on the small body. Another much appreciated feature of the D700, at the cost of weight and bulk, is the high battery life. That on the G3 is really not good and I find I always carry a spare. The D700 can bang away all day, and there’s still a lot of juice left. And the truly masochistic can increase framing rates and capacity with an add-on hand grip which will even accommodate AA cells.

The claim of the D700’s sensor is outstanding low noise in low light and with high ISO settings. Comparing my snaps with those from the 5D I would say there is little in it. Maybe one stop better in the worst conditions – not enough to sway you to the Nikon brand. Nikon’s Auto White Balance is noticeably better than Canon’s, but this is such a simple fix in LR2/3 or Photoshop that it’s hard to see it as a decisive issue. The D700 delivers accurate auto exposure, though I often use AE Lock on selected areas of the image to get things just so. I mostly use 21-area matrix metering.

I purchased the D700 for a special project where large prints will be required, even though I was aware that the D800 would obsolete the D700 with a larger sensor. Prints many feet in dimension can be made from a 5D or D700 file. What is intriguing is whether the D700 will now crash in value the way the 5D did after the 5D/II was announced. My 5D, $3,000 when new, sold for $975 five years later and was still in great shape. Today you can buy that 5D, arguably the only classic DSLR yet made, for $800, mint. The argument in favor of the D700 maintaining value – largely made by its owners one imagines – is that the gargantuan file sizes of the D800 will help the D700 retain its appeal. You know, it’s faster, better in low light, quicker to load files for software manipulation and so on. Maybe this is true in the short term, but the person who buys a D800 is, I suspect, just as likely to have the latest Mac or PC with a Core-i7 CPU, fast RAM and lots of storage. It’s not that big a deal if the file is 12, 22 or 36mp. A year or two hence I expect the D700 to be selling for what the 5D commands today. Indeed, were I determined to own a top quality FF DSLR at lowest cost, the 5D would be my first choice every time. I chose Nikon this time just for a change. I have no brand loyalty – a senseless concept.

Why it pays to buy USA imports. Warranty is against manufacturing defects, not user inflicted damage.

In the snaps which follow, I have concentrated on static subjects and experimented with a variety of focal lengths on the 16-35 Nikkor and ISOs from 400 to 1600. Except for noticeable barrel distortion at 16mm, easily corrected with the profile Adobe provides with Lightroom 3, I found that focal length and aperture have no effect on image quality. There is no fuzziness or chromatic aberration to be seen. It’s a top notch optic with extremely low flare even directly into the sun. You pay a premium price for this lens – I bought the last one Amazon had in stock! – and you get premium performance. For something so costly, avoid grey market imports, even from B&H, with their one year warranty. Buy USA imports and get the 5 year Nikon USA factory warranty. The modest premium makes that worthwhile.

16mm, f/5.6, ISO 800.

35mm, f/4, ISO 800.

30mm, f/8, ISO 800.

35mm, f/8, ISO 800.

28mm, f/7.1, ISO 800.

32mm, f/5, ISO 400.

35mm, f/4, ISO 1600, 1/10th second, VR.

16mm, f/4, ISO 800.

35mm, f/7.1, ISO 800, sun in frame.

John Blakemore

Book reviews

Another great English photographer.

Click the image to go to Amazon US.

That fine English photographer Roy Hammans mentioned John Blakemore’s new book to me the other day and no more encouragement was needed to wave my credit card in Amazon’s direction.

Blakemore, born in 1936, has gone through several styles in his photographic life, starting with street work in London’s poorer areas (very moving), through theater, landscapes (excellent wind effect pictures) and still lives (see the cover, above), always finding something new and fresh in his approach.

The quality of the book’s production speaks to the photographer’s fastidiousness and perfectionism, the mostly monochrome prints rendered slightly warm to great effect. There is also some limited color content, original and beautifully reproduced.

This book is an example of what high quality photography books should be like. If you like the contemplative approach to these subjects, rendered with originality, this book is strongly recommended.

Andrea Thode

Photographers

A world class food photographer.

Andrea Thode is a German photographer who makes his home in Hamburg. I came across his work when he left a comment here a few weeks ago and was immediately struck by the stunning originality of his food photography. Never having seen anything quite like his fish pictures, I dropped Andrea a line asking if he would let me expose his work to readers.

Andrea has asked if I would like to fix the words in his biographical piece but I prefer to leave them unchanged as their meaning is clear.

* * * * *

Thank you Thomas for your interest and letting me contribute to your site.

I’m an almost 40 year old photographer, living in Hamburg/Germany. I took a professional education (technical training) in a big advertising studio in hamburg and finished after three years way back in 1991 as a certificated photographer. I learned to develop and print in black & white as well as color process (E-6/C-41). That was really heavy regarding all the chemicals I used to put together … At this time I did all kind of jobs, from small packshots to jewelry or small cars. I mainly worked with Nikon F3, Mamiya RZ or Plaubel 8×10″.

Something I didn’t learned was photojournalism or people photography at all. I was very shy, when it came to take images of strangers. Now my main inspirations always came from Sebastião Salgado. His books and exhibitions had a huge impact on me from early on. He was so close to people and under worst circumstances, that really shifted the way I saw photography or images as a whole.

Since that time I did all kind of different jobs to make an income, like car salesman or web and screendesign, and boy, how time flies! At some point, I returned to photography, as it was always on the back of my mind. That was almost seven years ago. That was also the time where I sold my Nikon F5 and bought a D2x, my first digital. It really shifted the way I saw things, due to the quick image response. I experimented very much, had some exhibitions and some jobs but gained not enough to make a living. So I kept on working mainly as a webdesign freelancer to finance my photography.

By 2008 I had the opportunity to work employed as a staff photographer at a newly launched print magazine called EFFILEE. Its mainly all about food, people and the world of good cuisine, jump started by a generous gourmet and millionaire named Vijay Sapre. So there I am. Taking Stills and images of food and drinks in my little studio and reportages of old winemakers in Burgundy or portraits of three star michelin chefs and famous restaurants all around germany. I often thought: “I get paid for this? – Sweet!”

That was until the end of january, from now on, I’ll be working as a freelancer again. The crisis hit the print publications the most and time and money is on the short side. But nonetheless, I learned very much by that time, encountered many great people and have now the opportunity to go my own way and take my pictures to the next level. My portfolio got bigger and bigger and I already have some enquiries and so much great overall response that I can stay positive for the future. Its going to be tough and rough and if its not for my personality, it will definitely shape my images.

I will focus more on interesting people and short travel reportages as I really love to know more about people and their jobs. I also love to be flexible and most often I work with small equipment and available light. I met some good journalists and authors and have already made some plans for interesting reportages. So please stay tuned and follow my website for updates, if you like.

* * * * *

Thank you, Andrea, for allowing me to share your stunning photography with my readers. Be sure to check Andrea’s website for a broader cross-section of his outstanding work.

Legacy Nikon lenses

Nikon lenses

Jewels for pennies.

When photographers of the caliber of David Douglas Duncan of LIFE first started traveling to Japan in the 1950s they quickly learned that Canon made superb Leica screw mount lenses. These were easily adapted to Leica M bayonet bodies and provided rangefinder coupling as often as not. They spread the word and Canon, in that regard, may have done more to boost the Japanese camera industry than any maker since. Later, of course, Pentax came out with their wonderful SLRs with instant return mirror and Nikon trumped all with the Nikon F SLR. Rangefinders were abandoned, though not before Canon with the 7/7S and Nikon with the S1/S3/SP created two of the great classics of the rangefinder era. These, especially the SP, command collector prices today. The Nikons introduced the titanium curtain focal plane shutter which had a lot to do with the legendary toughness of their successor, maybe the greatest SLR ever made, the Nikon F. The camera that documented Viet Nam.

Nikon SP.

Working as a kid at the Dixons sales counter in London, I had the opportunity to handle many of these as the used market was flooded with owners upgrading to the Nikon F. The feel and sound was similar to the F, meaning robust and solid. But when Nikon went to SLRs, like Canon they realized that the small lens throat of their rangefinder bodies would make design of lenses difficult, especially of the short focal lengths which had to adopt a retrofocus design if the SLR’s flapping mirror was to clear the rear element. So both makers went to larger diameter bayonet mounts, Nikon abandoning the Contax bayonet on the SP and Canon moving on from the Leica 39mm thread mount. Since then, Canon has adopted no fewer than three bayonet mounts for its SLRs. The early Canonflex style, the FD of the ’70s era and then the EF in use today. Nikon, by contrast, has stuck with the original F mount, albeit with adaptations for indexing the maximum aperture on later lenses – the AI and AIS models.

The differences in design philosophy are non-trivial. Forget early Canonflex lenses – too few choices are available and good luck adapting these to anything. Further, for the modern Canon user, FD lenses are mostly a lost cause. The trouble is twofold. First the flange to film/sensor plane distance for the EF mount is 2mm less than for the FD mount. That means that unless your FD-to-EF adapter includes a negative lens element in its design, you will be unable to obtain infinity focus using an adapted FD lens on an EF mount body. Second, as Canon went to an electronic aperture setting mechanism with the EF mount, you will lose automated aperture stop down with FD lenses on an EF body. You focus at maximum aperture then stop down what is now a manual lens to working aperture, the finder screen going dark in the process. Further, even if your adapter has a crappy negative lens to destroy the great definition of your FD lens while reclaiming infinity focus, there is no electronic focus confirmation. You go by what you see on the screen. This is a great shame as it means that, to all practical intents, the magnificent range of FD lenses is not usable on modern Canon bodies.

The contrast with Nikon’s approach could not be greater. With very few exceptions, every Nikkor lens can be used on a current Nikon body, with pre-AI models requiring a $25 machining adaptation to fit and work. The sole exception is mostly early fisheyes which required a mirror lock-up and external finder. No mirror lock-up exists on the modern DSLR Nikons (save for sensor cleaning) so these lenses are not usable. Nikon retains a mechanical control for aperture stop down to this day, so even early Nikon F lenses will retain aperture automation. Auto exposure measurement at full aperture is retained and bodies like the D700/D3 and others provide an electronic rangefinder confirmation of optimum focus, denoted by a green diode in the finder. Out of focus results in one of two arrows pointing in the direction the lens mount has to be rotated.

Why would anyone care? Well, because unless you must have autofocus, these manual focus Nikon lenses are some of the best ever made. In the early days there was only one range – no bargain basement models where design corners had been cut. The mounts were massive, the construction fabulous and the optics outstanding. One of the nicest things about working as a sales clerk at Dixons in the late ’60s was that I was allowed to borrow gear for the weekend (anything except the Leicas!) and I often found myself with a Nikkormat FTN, with the 24mm, 50mm, 105mm and 200mm Nikkors. All these optics were superb in every way. A 16″ x 20″ print was expected, not exceptional. The Nikkormat replaced the bulletproof shutter in the Nikon F with a somewhat fragile shutter (later improved) but came with compact TTL metering on most models and was a sweetheart to use.

Here’s what some of those great lenses sell for today – I have illustrated the scalloped metal focus ring versions which are my absolute favorites for look and feel:

Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 – $150 used.

Nikkor 50mm f/2 – a true competitor to Leica’s Summicron. $50 in mint condition.

Nikkor 105mm f/2.5. $75.

Nikkor 200mm f/4. $40.

So for $315 you get a complete outfit which will do you proud anywhere in the world, provided you don’t mind the absence of autofocus. In the case of these lenses, you can use Aperture priority or Manual exposure measurement. Add $25 per lens if it’s non-AI, to convert it for your DSLR. These lenses have no electronics, but if you want all the bells and whistles offered by matrix metering, want to add Shutter priority and automated EXIF data posting to the picture file, this is done by adding a CPU to the lens and typically runs $80 per lens. A detailed illustration of Nikon lens mounts appears here.

There are some wonderful bargains out there for Nikon users, even if they have bodies which were not even thought possible when these great optics were made.