Monthly Archives: September 2018

Dewey-Humboldt

Photographs

Small and fine.

The town of Dewey-Humboldt is home to under 4,000 in Yavapai County, AZ, slap bang in the middle of the state and easily missed on the drive from Scottsdale to Prescott.

From Wikipedia:

When a new post office opened in 1898, the community was renamed Dewey, probably to honor Admiral Dewey’s great victory that year at the Battle of Manila — this was the height of the Spanish–American War. Another post office was established at Val Verde (Humboldt) in 1899.

It’s worth a stop as picture opportunities abound, and you can only admire the early settlers of the west for their toughness and resolve. First settled in 1863, it would be many years before Willis Carrier invented air conditioning in 1902 making the desert livable.


Dewey-Humboldt Main Street.

Nothing is certain in life except death and taxes.

Another view of Main Street.

The town has seen better days.

How the West was colonized before the steam train.


All images on the Nikon F100 on Kodak Ektar 100 film. Nikon absolutely knocked it out of the park with the F100, which can be found mint for well under $200. The ergonomics are identical to any number of Nikon DSLRs which followed – I especially like the D700 – so there is no learning curve.

Ektar 100 film has exceptionally high contrast and while I underexposed these -0.3 EVs, -0.7 EVs would probably have been better, as it’s very easy to lose the highlights with over-exposure and the dynamic range of film is simply awful compared to that of a half decent digital sensor.

The lens used was the Nikkor 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 AFD zoom, an excellent all-rounder. After sale of the filters this came with, my net cost was under $50. It comes with free barrel distortion thrown in, easily fixed in Lightroom when it matters.

The 2018 iPhones

iPhone

Victimhood.


The ‘cheap’ iPhone Xr starting at $750 + tax.

Despite a new battery my iPhone6 is becoming very sluggish. Apple makes sure this happens with its older devices by loading them up with ever slower code in its unending pursuit of planned obsolescence. My original iPad Air is suffering the same symptoms.

So announcement of a new series of iPhones sort of catches my attention. While I want a new iPhone like a hole in the head, the operating realities of my current one leave me no choice but to upgrade. And as 50 of my 64GB remain unused, it’s not like it’s a memory issue.

The sad truth is that the technological edge of two manufacturers – Apple and Samsung – has landed consumers with an inescapable oligopoly. Your choice is the Sammy with the insecure, rat infested Android OS or Apple’s ‘my way or the highway’ iOS. And as I would rather keep my credit card out of Ivan’s hands when he next goes on a free shopping spree, I am pretty much tied into iOS.

Now I am not obsessed with the need for an edge-to-edge screen and am most certainly averse to shelling out a minimum of $800 for a new iPhone, you know the one without a headphone socket and that ridiculous face recognition technology replacing the excellent thumbprint sensor on my iPhone6, which has yet to let me down. But, sadly, $750 + tax is the lowest point of entry to the new iPhone universe, with costlier models (one is appropriately named the ‘Xs’ which will be immediately read incorrectly by the 99.999% of the populace without an education in Latin) adding unnecessary OLED displays in lieu of LCD ones and adding more costly storage when none is needed in the age of the cloud. That’s monopoly pricing power for you, albeit you must respect Apple’s pun in the name.

But a friend points out that, given my modest needs, an iPhone7 will do just fine and he pointed me to the web site ‘Swappa’ (doubtless run by chaps in Sicily) as an alternative to the slime pit that is eBay (full disclosure: my last two iPhones were sold on the slime pit to Russkies!):


Clicka da image to goa to de Swappa.

Here you can sella your olda iPhona and buya a later, if discontinued, replacement for a whola lotta lessa dan de latest iPhone from da gender challenged boy in Cupertino.

So I’m thinking I mighta giva da Swappa a chanca befora shelling out $800 on the latest and greatest. My friend upgraded from an iPhone 6 to a 7 and noted a large speed increase, so that upgrade path seems rather appealing. After sale of his iPhone6 his net outlay was very low indeed. Sadly, however, the iPhone7 deletes the headphone socket, meaning yet another adapter is required.

CPU speed? Check this Geekbench chart. The iPhone7 offers the best bang for the buck over the iPhone6 on CPU speed with a speed gain of 147%. Thereafter, later models are pretty much hitting the law of diminishing returns.

The ‘new iPhones’ are nothing but a bait and switch from a disingenuous Apple. There are zero compelling new features for the outrageous 25% price increase. How long will it take consumers to realize that they are being conned? AAPL’s unit sales of iPhones were up just 1% last year with all of the large revenue gains resulting from the high price increases on the iPhone X. How much longer can Apple get away with this ‘no product upgrade’ strategy for a 25% increase in price?

Update:

I bought a mint, boxed 128GB iPhone7 from an established Swappa seller for $429, shipped. I get 81% of the speed of the iPhone X for 54% of the cost and will happily resell my iPhone6 on the Swappa site once all is said and done. It will be a cold day in hell before I lay out $1000 or more on a cell phone. (The iPhone7 is still being sold new by Apple. The price I paid is $180 less than they are asking and, if needed, I can have the battery replaced for just $29 through 12/31/18 – Apple’s ‘guilt price’ after they were caught cheating on battery lives. Replacement sky-rockets come 2019, with Apple hoping no one notices).

The iPhone7 is indeed much faster than the iPhone6. No more grinding waits while it processes ever more bloated code. And the haptic feedback is well implemented and a ‘nice to have’ feature as is ForceTouch which Apple just discontinued on its latest iPhones, ever in search of greater margins. (You push down on an icon for more options – for example accessing bookmarks in Safari). The iPhone7 is a recommended upgrade for owners of the iPhone6 and earlier models.


No comment.

I got 4 years’ hard use from the iPhone6. Not bad.

Ezra Stoller

Photographers

Julius Shulman’s spiritual successor.

A fine piece in The Guardian reminds us not only of the excitement and originality which pervaded American architecture in the 1960s, it also exposes the work of Ezra Stoller whom I regard as the spiritual descendant of the great Julius Shulman.

You can see more of Stoller’s work by clicking the image below:


Click the image.

Stoller was a graduate of NYU, naturally.

A bigger Panny?

Micro Four-Thirds

Let’s hope.

The Panasonic GX7 has been my ‘go to’ snapper for the past five years. It’s hard to imagine a small body and outstanding lens line-up being improved for street snapping. Mine started life with the 14-45mm kit zoom from the ground breaking Panasonic G1, an outstanding lens if a tad roughly executed. That gave way to the Olympus 17mm MFT optic which was eventually replaced by the slightly bulkier Panasonic 12-35mm pro zoom which brought a fixed f/2.8 maximum aperture and greatly improved mechanical quality over the original kit zoom. Mounted on the GX7 it makes for the perfect combination, adequate for 95% of what I snap.

In recent weeks the market has seen the announcement of two very credible Nikon full frame offerings and a distinctly underwhelming Canon body (tired old sensor, no full frame 4K recording and – wait for it – no IBIS) which we need not dwell upon here. The Nikon Z6 and Z7 promise to integrate well with old Nikon lenses, except for the first AF/AF D series where AF is lost. But for this heavy user of old ‘metal era’ MF Nikkors, some of the finest lenses ever made, it’s a very tempting proposition, adding IBIS and preserving EXIF data recording with chipped lenses.

But there’s another exciting rumor making the rounds and that is the possibility that Panasonic may introduce a full frame mirrorless body.

Little is known of this rumored body but the potential is thrilling. Whatever lens mount Panny elects – maybe Leica M given their technical association with Leica these many years – you can bet that the flange-to-sensor distance will be very slim as there’s no space needed for a flapping mirror. This makes adapting of other makers’ lenses a simple matter. And Panny, being smart, would likely market an adapter for its superb MFT lenses working in MFT format mode, extending their utility value. After all, the magic of MFT is not in the small bodies but in the small lenses that they sport. No FF lens will ever overcome the rule of physics – they will always be larger to cover the full frame. If Panny does not market it you can leave it to the aftermarket to quickly come up with a Nikon F lens adapter. And Panny has class leading video in its Gx series MFT bodies so the opportunity to take on the full frame pro market is very appealing.

Let’s hope this rumor comes true as no one knows more about making mirrorless SLRs than Panasonic. Either way, the modern snapper has never had a better choice of hardware.

Brattleboro, VT

Photographs

Rural and quiet.

Brattleboro is a small town of 12,000 in a state with just 600,000 residents and one which is almost exclusively white, having been settled by the English, Scots and Irish in the 18th century, doubtless all hewing to the awful winter weather.

It’s my favorite place to stay when visiting my son at school as it’s just across the border from Massachusetts and accommodation is plentiful, along with some fine restaurants.

The north European look of many of the buildings here may lack the pristine quality of the Scandinavians’ efforts and the roads are every bit as deserted and the scenery a treat to the eye.

Panny GX7, 12-35mm pro zoom.