Chrome Age Cameras

i was just surveying some cameras that i picked up , german made of course, in the 1950's and came to realise that they are rather nice pieces of engineering exellence.
One of my favorites is the Praktiflex, complete with waist level finder. They are very sharp cameras! for all the new fandangled innovations , i don't mind using the old chrome clunkers. they are heavy, old ,but still in some situations outperform modern cameras. I must say that most of the 1950 cameras i have are a lot quieter than my Pentax *isd... thanks to the fact they are rangefinders with leaf shutters.
I think i can see a new habit forming....the slow aquisition of dinosaur cameras.....

Zone Focus vs Range Focus

Well this nifty little thing is not a prop from a recent Star Wars movie but a rangefinder attachment for Zone Focus cameras.. making life a little easier to get the 'correct' focus. The question arises what is correct focus? A lot of people today with their Auto focus this and auto exposure that miss out on this wonderful thing called zone focus.While it's another way of getting your focus right it does presume on a knowledge of how to us depth of field. In days gone by when Zone focus was King, people did it with out thinking; it was part and parcel of how one took pictures. I think as cameras have become more and more advanced , while a lot more people are taking a lot more Photos (as photography has become more and more accessible to more and more people..as we see what has happened to digital photos) and a lot of people are taking stunning images, a purist might argue that the more advanced the cameras become the less creative (en mass) the average photographer has become. True while it's easier to take pictures today and one does not have to think about it too much part of the magic of photography to me is the process of thinking about and setting up the shot. That does not mean that i don't use a digital camera to more or less point and shoot, far from it. Like anything , there are times when you you go say , MacDonalds and have a meal without having to think about things; at other times when you will go to a 5 Star Restaurant and indulge in a passionate Hand made Dinner. The same applies to Photography, except that a roll of film is usually cheaper than a 5 Star Dinner and probably has less calories than anything you'd get from McDonald's.
So Zone Focus needs a little care and thinking about , and in some respects it does give one more margin to play with. It certainly is a more creative approach, I think

Mobile Phone Camera Musings

I just saw Spud Gun's latest offering and i am impressed. 3.2mpixel mobile phone camera.
Where will all this technology lead us? But seriously folks; when i consider that my olympus that i use at work is only 3.2Mpix, and the School Photographer that took my Son's school photos only was using 3.2Mpix(and the results were more than acceptable) it comes down to the Philosophy that i read somewhere:
You don't need expensive camera's to get great pictures. What you do need is Vision, often a little ingenuity , some foresight , the ability to occasinally take a chance and a Camera. And always remember that a Camera is just a light proof box(except when it's a holga...) that captures light onto a form of Media(digital or film or whatever)
It's the Photographer behind the camera that decides wether or not a moment in time is captured and how.
Considering this one comes to realise that all moment are unique, and i guess by extension that makes all pictures(good, Bad or otherwise) unique.

Photo of the Week, 03/03/2007

It's been far too long since I posted a photo of the week, it's more like photo of the month, at the rate I'm going. Still, I have managed to find a little curiosity of a photo to post.

This particular photo is of a couple of tiny mushrooms I discovered today, while waiting to play Irish Bagpipes at a wedding. What I like about this particular shot, is the fact that it was taken with my latest camera acquisition, a Sony Ericsson K800i mobile phone. I'm sure that there are some people would would scoff at the idea of taking photos with a mobile phone, and in the past I would have been one of them.

However, I'm continually amazed by the improvements in technology when it comes to cameras integrated with mobile phones. The fact that my phone also happens to have a 3.2 megapixel camera in it is quite nifty. Now, it won't take brilliant photos all the time, in particular it struggles with low light conditions, but it is handy as a back up camera. Indeed, I would have been unable to take this weeks photo if I didn't have it, as I'd left my other cameras at home.

I've seen the Light (meter)...

Since purchasing my medium format camera last year, I've been coming to grips with using a light meter. Given my limited budget, I've had to make do with a small Sekonic L-8 meter which, while it does the job, has a few limitations.

The main problems with this particular meter are that it is purely an averaging meter, and does not have the ability to take spot readings. It also tends to be a bit inaccurate at low light levels, as a number of under exposed photos can attest to. As a result, I've been on the lookout for a new light meter.

I finally found what I was after this week, and today I took delivery of the light meter shown in the photo above. It's a Pentax digital spot meter, as used by the likes of Ansell Adams. I was a bit worried about how easy it would be to use, but as it turns out, I worried needlessly.

Despite that fact that the meter did not come with a manual or any instructions, I had figured out how to use it within a few seconds. I'm now looking forward to getting out and using it, and hopefully I'll have fewer issues with incorrect light meter readings in future.