The Year in Photos 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/year-in-pictures.html 
 

this is what I woke up to this morning...

 

 

Edited January 3, 20215 yr by mwl168

Photographer’s Photos of Being Stuck in Quarantine with Ex-Wife and Mother
https://petapixel.com/2021/01/09/a-photographers-hilarious-photos-of-being-stuck-in-quarantine-with-ex-wife-and-mother/ 

Grahame?

Indigenous People of Siberia Photographed for 'The World in Faces' (mymodernmet.com)

3D Printed Wet Plates

 

Wiki Loves Earth Contest photos

https://medium.com/freely-sharing-the-sum-of-all-knowledge/the-majesty-of-nature-and-an-abundance-of-birds-on-full-display-in-wiki-loves-earth-2020-ee956cf74f2d

We have a few Fuji users (hey Shelly!), and of course members are always evaluating jumping systems, but "colors!" is often the Fuji rallying cry, and I thought this link may be useful for some. And yes, sims and recipes can be applied to raws. It's not only a jpg conversation. 

https://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2020/08/18/fujifilm-film-simulations-definitive-guide

 

1 hour ago, blessingx said:

We have a few Fuji users (hey Shelly!)

and me

1 hour ago, blessingx said:

 but "colors!"

was a Contax T1/Agfa Ultra 50 user before. Oddly, I never really shot Fuji film. But still interesting.

I've still got a few rolls of Fuji APS film. I found them a little less colorful (possibly more accurate, less saturated) than the Kodak rolls, but APS is not the greatest examplar of film quality.

... been wanting to get a Fuji digital for a while, something like the X-T30.

Props for the APS mention! 

I'm shooting GFX50r and X-Pro2 now. Definitely prefer some other cameras for shooting experience, autofocus, even perceptual resolution for the same MP, but Fuji for best [many] skin tones starting points in mixed light, etc. As I snap, that's pretty much everything. Note: there are plenty of YT videos arguing the different system preferred colors. Back in the late 80s, I worked in a camera shop in the Midwest for a few years, and remember the conversations about Kodak film colors going for accuracy where Fuji went for colors as people remembered them. Sometimes people argued about US v. Japanese "seeing" (similar to headphone flavors). While the larger conversation would include AGFA and others, that different goal between the two was always interesting. I make fun of Sony colors all the time, but I'll admit under controlled lighting conditions they look great, and it's been more than once I cringed at yellow-greens in a shot just to compare to the face seconds later and seem them there too .;) And of course you can tweak any shot. Anyway, it sounds like there's one guy in charge colors at Fujifilm, Minami-San, who's carried on since film designs. Someone make sure he's taking his vitamins. 

There was a lot of discussion about Fuji's X-Trans sensors vs. the Bayer filter in the early days of the technology. I think people mentioned the different greens, for example, in Fuji images (and the human eye doesn't have "balanced" preferences for colors anyway), so there is as much art as science in developing the technology, in my opinion.

https://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2020/04/20/fujifilm-x-trans-is-it-really-all-that-different

Thanks for the link and yep. And they gave up on X-Trans on their GFX line, for debatable reasons. The MP climb has probably solved this one. I feel like that conversation gets much more interesting when comparing Bayer and Foveon (Merrill or Quattro) sensors, though there with the limited ISO range (and lessened dynamic range increase over the years), it's almost never apples to apples. Plus who knows if there will be another Foveon camera again? Can't imagine it makes financial sense at this point with the market crashing.

Looks like Sigma Corporation acquired the Foveon technology and they've been using it in their digital cameras – the Sigma SD Quattro H seems to have been the most recent product (2017) and it was well-reviewed by dpreview:

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sigma-sd-quattro-h

Their newer, compact Sigma fp camera (2020) uses a Bayer sensor.

I lost track of them after the Merrill camera... it sounds like someone is going to keep working on it if they can get enough resources to continue development.

Edited January 19, 20215 yr by HiWire

Yeah. I have the sd Quattro H (occasionally post shots over at https://www.instagram.com/blessingx/ ) . Love the images. Dislike the ISO limitations to get the best images. Kinda consider it my [digital] film camera. The full frame Foveon version of the fp was promised last year, delayed until this year, then almost immediately delayed indefinitely... but “still coming.” They’ve announced some sensor bug that required them to start over. Sounded serious. They’ve said it will be a more Merrill design with 20MP triple layered (3x20), requiring a larger body than the fp and due to readout times, no video. Who knows if it will ever make it to market? It’s the opposite of a general purpose camera. 

It's a niche product for sure, but even the Fuji cameras are niche products at this point, when people are using their phones, drones, or GoPro to create a lot of the content I'm enjoying.

The review mentioned a learning curve and using the Quattro as a second camera, which sounds like a bit more investment than a casual photographer would tolerate.

I was "gifted" a Nikon D70 (with NIKKOR 18-70mm 1:3.5-4.5G ED) that I haven't tried out yet, and I'd feel bad if I didn't make an attempt at learning its ins and outs.

There is also a local place that still processes (the last time I checked) APS film and I've got to finish off those rolls of film as soon as possible. It's a good problem to have.

P.S. I was searching for the Lytro camera but found this oddball product first:

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/4/10/17218758/light-l16-review-camera-photos

which may be reaching the end of the line:

https://www.dpreview.com/news/3781485434/l16-camera-manufacturer-light-abandons-consumer-imaging-turns-to-automotive

 

I still think the Lytro is an awesome idea, just not for the selfie market...

Edited January 19, 20215 yr by HiWire

Some of the Lytro team ended up on the Light project. Quality was never part of the Lytro initial push (mentioned in Light discussions that it would there) and thus Lytros gen 2 failed and display infrastructure collapsed. I've still got one collecting dust. It was mostly used taking trick shots of other HCers drinking. I also had the L16, but returned during the 30 day window. Software was buggy ("hey, it's only beta!" Did it ever get out of beta?), quality and output fluctuated, and Apple and Google was right behind with less hardware and seemed even then to likely soar right past. Computational photography being what it is. Still occasionally nice images. 

I'm not sure which unknown player will be next coming in from left field next, but I'll probably buy it too. And they will probably fall back to Earth quickly and in dramatic fashion. Foveon though is a little different. With the reemergence of film interest and the limitations there, it's a shame Foveon isn't given a glance through that lens. But again you can solve a lot throwing megapixels at the problem and maybe, at least as important, dynamic range is increasing elsewhere.  It's probably a computer game now, Sony/Apple/Google, with a little room for Leica/PhaseOne/Hasselblad.   

Jeff, Sony came out with a new camera for your podcast:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1619483-REG/sony_alpha_mirrorless_digital_camera.html?sc_src=email_2476&sc_lid=355549&sc_uid=pcBxVCbSGr&sc_llid=557541&sc_customer=A8DF96A8D886A83B07ABE6FC9C1EA2897E0CADC5A4EE30BD3F3C007F6EFDF313&utm_medium=Email 2476&utm_campaign=Announcement+Emails&utm_source=210126_ANN_ANN_Sony 20210126&utm_content=&utm_term=IMAGE+Sony-01-26-2021-hf_04-02.jpg&encEmail=A8DF96A8D886A83B07ABE6FC9C1EA2897E0CADC5A4EE30BD3F3C007F6EFDF313

 

 

Is there an over/under on how many Jeff will purchase by EOD? 

2

The other big release this week...

https://m.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilm-gfx-100s-initial-review

https://jonasraskphotography.com/2021/01/27/fujifilm-gfx100s-gf80mm-f1-7-first-look-more-than-full-frame/ 

On 1/26/2021 at 4:14 PM, tkam said:

2

And matching viewfinders?

https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/26/22248440/sony-xperia-pro-5g-price-release-date-news-features

.

The Sony onslaught continues...

https://www.sonyalpharumors.com/leaked-sony-fx3-product-image/

 

Is that a joystick on top? Maybe they have moved some controls away from the rear so the LCD can be a good deal larger and higher resolution so you can actually see if you are focused correctly? I support that.

I don't understand how my first camera (NEX-5N) could have a larger image for video, then they've reverted back to the stills aspect ratio (as well as "temporarily" removing full touch operation...), when in stills mode you could simply use that area to make some nice touch buttons on one side (while the black bars on the top and bottom during video recording are basically useless, wasted real estate).
For now, they are trying to segment models by keeping larger LCD screens to video cameras and somewhat weirder entry-level models like the Fuji X-T200.

Edited February 11, 20215 yr by padam