It has long been my motto, or mantra<\/i> now that I’m a Californian, that you either ‘Change or Die’. It is instructive to consider this in the light of the equipment change my landscape photography has undergone during the past year:<\/p>\n
Before:<\/u><\/p>\n
Rollei 6003 + 45 degree prism
\n40mm, 80mm and 150mm Rollei lenses
\nRolls of 120 Kodak Portra VC160 film
\nA Crown Graphic 4″ x 5″ camera with 90mm, 135mm and 210mm lenses
\nSeveral film holders for the above
\nA dark cloth and loupe to focus the bloody thing
\nA cable release
\nMy old Linhof tripod
\nMy even older Weston Master V exposure meter
\nA bad back from carrying all that stuff<\/p>\n
After:<\/u><\/p>\n
Canon EOS 5D
\nCanon 15mm fisheye lens
\nKing Pano panoramic head
\nA two axis bubble level
\nA spare 1 gB CF card
\nAn overpriced Canon ‘cable’ release
\nMy old Linhof tripod
\nA headache from trying to remember to do everything right (strictly a hardware problem, I assure you)
\nAnd, shortly, an iPod-sized digital sound recorder<\/p>\n
The software change has been no less dramatic.<\/p>\n
Before:<\/u><\/p>\n
Silverfast Ai for scanning the negatives
\nPhotoshop CS2<\/p>\n
After:<\/u><\/p>\n
Aperture
\nPhotoshop CS2
\nPhotmatix Pro (for HDR rendition)
\nPhotomatix Photoshop plug-in
\nPanagea Photoshop plug-in
\nPT Mac (to stitch panoramas)
\nImageAlign Photoshop plug-in (to defish zenith and nadir images)
\nCubic Converter (to adjust QT defaults)
\nCubic Connector (to add sound)
\nQuickTime (free from Apple for Macs or PCs)
\nAnd probably some other things I cannot recall<\/p>\n
I don’t think my mantra<\/i> would be disappointed.<\/p>\n
Back-end hardware remains unchanged – the superb Apple iMac G5<\/p>\n
And, yes, you can<\/i> do QTVR panoramas with film gear, but that’s about as sane as driving a Hummer with $4 gas on the horizon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It has long been my motto, or mantra now that I’m a Californian, that you either ‘Change or Die’. It is instructive to consider this in the light of the equipment change my landscape photography has undergone during the past year: Before: Rollei 6003 + 45 degree prism 40mm, 80mm and 150mm Rollei lenses Rolls … Continue reading Change or die<\/span>