Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2014/03/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The technology chain for digital photography is very fragile, Nathan. If you've gone to a lot of time and effort to travel someplace, you are carrying backups of everything. Modern digital cameras are a lot more fragile than the mechanical M cameras. Your computer (so you know if you've got a big dust blob on your sensor), drives to back up your computer. And a tertiary backup because, you know, if data doesn't exist in 3 places, it doesn't really exist at all. A power supply for your computer and a backup for that for when it fails. A charger for your camera batteries and a backup for that. Backup batteries. Your mobile phone. And a charger for that. A power strip to plug all this into. And all this stuff is incredibly appealing to would-be thieves, so you're always having to look after it, locking it up in your room, etc. It's just a lot more stuff to manage. I'm a technologist, but I am also concerned about the impact of technology on society and culture. I walked the Camino de Santiago from St. Jean Pied de Port to Compostella last Fall - 800 kilometers. So many pilgrims with their faces buried in their iPhones, frantic to find some WiFi. Sitting together at tables, but isolated, each one in his/her own little virtual world. Every night in the Abergues, people would be scrambling for the few outlets to charge phones, cameras, iPads, etc. I can't help but think that 30 years ago, they would have been enjoying the moment a bit more. --Jim On Mar 6, 2014, at 1:21 PM, Nathan Wajsman <photo at frozenlight.eu> wrote: > Technology moves on. When I was young, when going out, I needed to have > coins in my pocket and find a pay phone if I wanted to call home. For the > past 20 years, I have carried a mobile phone in my pocket as a matter of > course. Initially to talk, now also to browse the web, navigate my way > through foreign cities etc. Why would that be a bad thing? It's wonderful! > > Same with cameras. In my film days, I had to carry three bodies: one > loaded with slow slide film, one loaded with slow B&W film and a third > loaded with fast B&W film, in my case ISO 1600, since anything faster was > useless. Now with the Fuji X I have with me where I am right now > (Maastricht), I can shoot at ISO 6400 and get far superior quality to what > I used to get with film at 1600. Again, why would that be a bad thing? It > is not an "obsession", it is merely a way to expand one's photographic > possibilities. > > Cheers, > Nathan > > Nathan Wajsman > (sent from somewhere) > > > Den 06/03/2014 kl. 21.57 skrev "Jim Laurel (gmail)" <jplaurel at > gmail.com>: > >> I never will understand all this obsession with ultra-high ISO. Along >> with bokeh, it has become a fetish in the photographic community. >> >> For so many years, we traveled with the Leica M6 and a few fast lenses >> and 100 ISO slide film, which we would sometimes push 1 stop. Only rarely >> did I feel the need for ISO 1600. The Leica M8 was already better than >> 35mm film at comparable ISO sensitivities. The M9 is better still and yet >> in today's world it is considered woefully obsolete. I can understand >> that for Chris' wedding work, 12,500 allows him to capture images that >> were just not possible in the days of film, but few consumers have such a >> requirement. >> >> One thing is for sure. While a few photographers are using the new >> capabilities of digital cameras to push creative boundaries, most simply >> inundate us with well-exposed and sharply focused images with crazy bokeh >> at outrageous ISOs that have little real content. >> >> --Jim >> >> >> On Mar 6, 2014, at 11:54 AM, chris williams <zoeica at mac.com> wrote: >> >>> No way on the M-AF mount. The M battery is already small, I would not >>> want another battery drain. >>> >>> I just recently shot the M 240 at a wedding. Unless there's a new >>> version capable of 12,500 iso I don't really see a need for a new camera >>> announcement.? >>> > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information