Category Archives: Photographs

Canon 5D – can you say speed?

Canon 5D, Photographs

The fastest camera I have ever used

For over thirty years my camera of choice for street snaps was a Leica M2 or M3, typically with a 35mm or 50mm lens. This was the street snapper’s outfit par excellence.

Leica, of course is clueless about how to make a digital camera – they either badge engineer Panasonic’s and increase the price or make an overpriced, dated version of the fabulous M2 in the crippled-sensor M8.

In my experience, after using the 5D for some 15 months now, the 5D with the 24-105mm L zoom is faster in every respect. True, it’s a good deal bulkier than an M2 and not a bit noisier, but the automatic exposure and mind-numbingly fast and superbly accurate autofocus blows away the excellent Leica rangefinder in every way. We are talking operating speed here. Not high speed motor drives which are of little use in these situations. No I mean the speed of execution from seeing the picture to its recording.

Case in point. In continuing pursuit of pure color, and the hell with form and traditional composition, here’s the sort of thing which is second nature to this powerful lens/camera team (not to mention the operator):


Tattoo You. 5D, 24-105mm at 93mm, ISO 125, 1/350, f/4.5

It is hard to describe just how fast I had to be to snap this; the whole raising the camera/zooming/composing/snap cycle is just a blur in my memory. Exposure? Automatic. Focus? Automatic. Zoom? Manual – forget motorized zooms. Result? You be the judge.

And, while we’re at it, here’s another pair:


Twin Carb. 5D, 24-105mm at 105mm, ISO 250, 1/1500, f/5.6

Death

Photographs, Photography

With poetry by an unknown author

Who is in charge of the clattering train?
The axles creak and the couplings strain,
And the pace is hot, and the points are near,
And Sleep has deadened the driver’s ear;
And the signals flash through the night in vain,
For Death is in charge of the clattering train.


5D, 24-105mm at 80mm, ISO 125, 1/1500, f/4.5, processed in Aperture

More desaturation

Photographs, Technique

Old subjects dictate old methods

From today’s hot rod show in Paso Robles, CA:


5D, 24-105mm at 24mm, ISO 125, 1/750, f/4.5, processed in Aperture

The technique described here was used.

By the way, if you hit Option-Shift-H in Aperture, the screen will be colored red in areas of burned out highlights – a great tool for those digital sensors sensitive to highlight overload:


Red colored areas indicate burned-out highlights

I have left the exhaust pipe burned out as it heightens the impact of the image.

Botox Bride

Photographs

What passes for beauty today


Lumix LX1, ISO 80

The roots showing, the hair a mess, the lips artificial, the make-up excessive …. today’s woman.

Seen on the street the other day in a Hispanic neighborhood in San Francisco.

Now if she had an iPod I might be interested – at least that way I wouldn’t have to listen to the inane chatter about sitcoms which is doubtless her default topic of conversation.