On Deciding . . . Better 3.0

Walk, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

While waiting for a few rolls of TriX to be developed and scanned, I borrowed my son’s compact for comparison. Its the Canon SD780 IS, an incredibly small camera with a decently wide zoom range (33-100mm 35mm equiv) close to my usual range with the Nikon D300.

Image quality is really quite good for such a small camera. It makes me wonder about whether I should consider one of the newer compacts as a carrying camera since my output is so low and I generally don’t have a camera with me unless I’ve gone out specifically to capture images.

Having Risen, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

Photography has not been front and center over the past 6 months. It was a cold, snowy and wet fall and winter. When traveling, I’ve been seeing cities, not photographing them.

In casting around for a new project, I think that using the Leica with Velvia in urban and suburban settings would provide some interesting perceptual lessons, bringing its psychedelic color rendering to scenes where color is really more subdued.

Its an easy but expensive workflow depending on whether I pay the local lab to scan or not. But its so clearly non-digital to my eyes; its photographic in an old school sense.

Clearing, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

The cameras have been sitting idly for months it seems. During the summer I was without my laptop so that images remained unprocessed. With unprocessed images, what’s the point of capturing more?

I literally forgot how easy and pleasurable it is to bring along the Sigma DP1 as a travel camera and collect a visual diary during a trip. The images are frequently gorgeous and its slowness matters little if the approach is casual.

Its all down to intuition for casual shooting. It’s a matter of trusting that if something looks interesting, it’s worth framing a shot, owning the frame and capturing an image. In post processing, it’s simple enough to use Aperture for review with editing using Tonal Contrast and some regional intensity highlighting with a combination of a filter plus control points.

Square Pegs Round Holes, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

I’m just back from a business trip to the UK and Netherlands. In London, I shot two rolls of Tri-X with the Leica. In Amsterdam, I used the Sigma DP1. The Tri-X is off being developed and scanned. I’ve downloaded the Sigma images.

I had intended at first just to bring the Leica, but the Sigma is so small and light that it begged to go too. I’ve done some of my best city travel photography with the Sigma, so a head to head with the Leica was of interest.

Either one is a nice substitute for the too big to bring Nikon D300 and zoom. My style of shooting with either the Leica or Sigma is about the same. It is much easier to capture a moment with the Leica given it’s rangefinder-based manual focus. The Sigma is too unpredictable in time to focus for capturing an image with split second accuracy.

Of course the SIgma has all of the considerable advantages of digital including lack of processing time and cost as well as instant review. On balance, as I was shooting I felt like digital won out. However, I await the Leica images.

Spello by Night, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

This looks like a really nice image, but it’s actually technically pretty poor. When I looked at it on my 21 inch monitor during sorting, I passed over it because the detail in the more distant walls are blurred by camera shake. It’s at 1/20 sec which I can usually handhold, but only if I brace the camera well, control my movement and breathing and squeeze the release. Sometimes I actually close my eyes at the moment of capture because it helps me focus on not moving.

But I was dodging occasional cars as I timed the capture. You can see the next car approaching around the bend. The headlight works well, but capture was not optimal.

I realize that when you get home and review, the images have imperfections that can’t be fixed until next time. So it’s the best we have.

Into the Clouds, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

As I process images from Umbria I realize that I’ve found a simple, effective equipment combination in the Nikon D300 and Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8. The images are sharp and have sufficient dynamic range for processing. The combination of aperture and usable ISO gives me the ability to shoot well past sunset. I have simple off-camera IR control of flash.

It’s a DX setup, but I have no need for a full frame sensor since I have wide and sharp DX lenses.

What would cause me to upgrade? The D300 is well built but heavy. I’d love a body the size and weight of the D80 but with the image quality of the D300. In fact, smaller and lighter would be better as long as it was balanced with the Tamron. The Tamron is optically perfect for me, but it’s not of the same build quality as the Nikon equivalent. But I’ll take the Tamron based on its size and weight.

The Gentle Landscape, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

I continue to work through the large number of images I captured in Italy last month. After a break, I’m rating and scanning again. It’s interesting how much I like the quick takes on images that I did while there because I had fresh ideas of what I wanted to say about what I had just seen. Now it’s more of a dialogue with the image and construction of experience.

This was processed in Aperture with some NIK plugins.

Piazza Inferiore, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

Here’s one of the few images I captured using my widest lens in Italy. It’s impressive and a lesson to me about creating large scale abstracted images.

The Nikon 12-24mm f/4 is very sharp, here stopped down to f/9 under cloud cover. Even at the edges, the image at full resolution is impressively detailed.