Taker Or Maker Redux

I did a post a while back called “Taker or Maker?” asking whether you, the reader fall into one or the other camp, but the context was confined to street photography. This time I am going to apply it to more general photography or more specifically, general journalistic photography.

I am a photo taker. I see something and if appropriate and I am able, I grab the shot. Simple as that. How I get the shot is an ever evolving process, but still it’s that simple.

That has always been me and always will be. Thirty plus years of photography has allowed a style to emerge naturally and that style is to watch, see and capture. I see no value in manufactured reality. It does nothing for me and it never occurred to me to evolve any differently.

For a long time I thought this was a matter of practice. The skill set that was not developed, but could be. Over the years though I have noticed a strong resistance in me to reverse the process from the natural see > capture to a very forced and uncomfortable make > capture.

This may be normal of course. Most people have a fear of public speaking or performance and to some extent manufacturing an image smacks of that, but in my case I have developed several comfortable skills when communicating with others, from sales to training to running field trips. I seem to have no fear when it comes to communicating to control peoples actions, but I still feel uncomfortable posing people.

Why?

I guess creatively, I respond to genuine actions with purpose, to the subject unaware candid and the beauty of life’s authenticity. The early images that inspired were National Geographic or Outdoor Photographer covers, books of travels and candid portraits of people in exotic places (i.e. Street photography before it was called that). During that period of my life and the history of photography, still life, weddings, newspaper and commercial work all had formulas that served their needs, but none appealed to me.

I am attuned to natural observance and feel very self conscious when breaking that reality.

This was grabbed, then I went to get names. better to ask for forgiveness than permission, because asking for permission kills the moment.

While there, this happened. Nothing set up, just reacted to. Prior to these I got a set of the usual sit-and-pose images and they were fine. Workman like. Interestingly, the editor chose these two as hero images, along with one of the artist (performing, not posing), then used the other shots as small fillers, so there is clearly something in this for everyone.

The watcher or taker is only after a natural moment. Nothing can be forced, made up or faked. If I have to set up a shot, I will take the role of choreographer and let the characters play out their roles, hopefully allowing me to work my way.

Good makers, like wedding or commercial shooters are a different breed and in some limited circumstances I can do what they do, especially in a studio, but generally, meaning 99% of the time, I work best watching and taking.

I have been trying to grow another foot at the paper, become a good photo maker, one who sets up polished formulaic shots, but it is just not me. This is part of the reason I have asked to go back to part time with an emphasis on weekend work. Weekends are where the sport is. I need some space to practice what I am good at, to do some work I actually enjoy and more than just occassionally.

This is the made photo, predictable, forced and practiced (but by shooting the process over the person it was effectively “taken” by me). I also noticed the maddening habit all the drivers got into of holding up the one finger, something even the host web page used sparingly. Making images can be a two way thing, which only adds to their fake nature. If the interaction is necessary, then the process ia at least smooth, but if it replaces a lack of imagination…………. .

This is the taken image, with adding context, action, interaction, authenticity and story elements. It required preparedness and speed, but this just adds to the fun and feeling of achievement.

As stated in a recent post, if forced to shoot naturally, I need to put people in a comfortable place, then take their image naturally, organically even if a little fake.

A bit like late night and morning people, I don’t think you can force one to be the other. Although the two other photographers at work are well practiced at making photos, one of them I feel is not any more comfortable than me, just well practiced and resigned to it. His great love is the landscape (found not made).

I can do the set shot thing and have to, but I will never be good at it*, nor will I like it and I will always push back with what I feel is a better representation of the world.

Protesting With Impact

My first job today was a protest.

The group in question protest a lot, usually with high commitment and most often climate based. This time, they were protesting our lazy preparedness against flooding on the eve of the aniversary of Lismore’s floods last year (which are still being cleaned up).

One of the things I find tough about my job is the general cynicism that most causes are greeted with, but I am impressed by the protesters courage and in this case creativity.

The numbers on the walls are significant floods in Launceston’s past (although one a few years ago is not on there and let’s not talk about floods to many others in the country).

A little Alice in Wonderland, a little Pink Floyd and some Stalinist monument.

One Job

Could I do one photographic job as a career now?

One sport, one genre, one style or one operational process?

I had not tried panning in a while, but gave it a go at the Penny Farthing bikes. It worked ok, so it seemed logical to do it with the cars.

To be honest, once you have a few basic styles knocked, a sport like this just becomes a matter of planning, patience and a little luck, because you can’t be everywhere at once. I only spent a few hours at the track this weekend, unlike the pro racing shooters who spent three full days behind the lens. In that time I got the required pan, corner and pit lane shots of every car and had to ask myself “what else is there?” apart from catching an accident or other drama.

We worked out that to guarantee at least a chance of catching all the action at even our small Symmons Plains race track, you would need a minimum of four shooters working together.

I got really lucky with this one, ironically a product of a working photographer who had several other jobs to do that day. It was taken during an early practice lap, so the driver was only warming up and I was the only one at this corner. During racing I stuck with this corner, because I did not have time to go too far and the pits were close, but then I had lots of company.

I cannot honestly think of a single sport I would like to cover at the exclusion of all others, let alone a career shooting just sports only. I simply do not have a great enough passion for any one sport and enjoy too many other types of photography.

At a paper at least we get daily variety and plenty of opportunities within that, even if they are often limited. My plan to drop off a couple of editorial days in favour of weekends will hopefully balance my load better.

The truth is, after the first few encounters with a new sport or photographic style, I tend to either get obsessed (which leads to over working it), or bored. I love shooting some sports, but can still get too much very easily. Some sports, often ones I actually like to watch or play can be bland to shoot and all come with compromises*.

The paper and school have reinforced my preference for candid, take as you see shooting with plenty of scope for variety.

My ideal. A person comfortable in their space, respectfully captured without intrusion allowing us an insight into their world.

Maybe, if I had the means to achieve it, a working portraitists career could work, but with lots of other forms of photography as hobbies. I am aware that over time, even that would start to become tedious.

Travel and street, similar and mutually supporting interests I had before I found employment, seem to be the ones I will go back to easily. It does not hurt that Japan is the lure for both.

In a nutshell, I guess my “one job” needs to be the “all job” that free lancing, hobbyist or news photography provides, I just need to find a balance within that spread.

*Motor sport, red ball Cricket etc, where the action happens fleetingly and sometimes rarely.

The Constructed Candid

I hate set-up shots. To clarify that a little, I hate obviously set-up shots. Sometimes I feel like a day at the paper is nothing but these and it is driving me away.

There is a way though, to escape this oh so obvious provincial newpaper looking image*.

My C.I.A mantra is a start only, but looking closer, I realised you can interpret that a lot of ways, so here is a more flexible version.

Control the elements, by putting into place (Composing) what you want and excluding what you do not.

Once placed, this couple, a pair of safe crackers by trade were quite relaxed when I simply said “talk amongst yourselves”.

The Interest value should evolve from the Interactions that come naturally from that space.

No posing, I just asked them to hold their place and look to the camera.

Action or Angle is the bit where you capture those interactions, quickly, quietly and intuitively (preferably invisibly), adding a level of enjoyment and accomplishment in the process.

The shot before the one above. No posing, just recognition and take.

This is looser than the original mantra probably sounds, but is the key to breaking that painfully ordinary look. There are ways to make bad look good, but to me the best is to simply avoid the bad.

*There are actually two, but the other requires lighting and more time than you usually have.

More Noise

Days two and three of the racing and I have it sorted in my head.

Taken with the 75-300 the day before, this lens is impressive regardless of price.

The 40-150 f2.8, got a run today, because all I needed were podium and the odd action shot, so I went one weather sealed lens with plenty of cropping and light gathering power with the 1.4 tc as an option, just in case promised late afternoon storms happened. The 40-150 f4 would have done, but the f2.8 does not get much use.

Gee that lens is nice. The Bokeh can occasionally get a little busy, but equally, when it plays nice it is sublimely sharp, then “smokey” soft.

The kit zoom again in dull light.

Lots of big weather around, but it came to nothing.

Lots of time to practice my panning. At about 1/180th to 1/250th, I got pretty good, but slower was an issue. The main consideration was a bit of track long enough to get a good slow pan. Where I was was a sequence of corners with a dip.

Like most things, fun in small quantities.

Big Noise

Motor sport this weekend.

Open wheelers, Masters Touring cars, “Tin Tops” and more.

A rare mistake.

Limited time and opportunity still allowed me to get a couple of decent “hero” shots each day, but importantly, I got all the cars once or twice.

Pit lane was of more interest, faces and action aplenty.

That budget friendly 40-150 f4 constantly impresses.

Lenses used were the 40-150 f4 and 300 f4 on practice day, but I swapped to the 40-150 and 75-300 kit lens on the following day because it was enough, it allowed me to set one camera to panning mode (1/180th) and the other to action freezing and the nose of the kit lens poked through a safety fence on the most likely bend to have some action, something the big nosed lenses did not allow.

A decently tight crop from a kit zoom shot.

Tomorrow is a full race day, so plenty of action to be had.

Surprised Them All

I did some golf today.

Last time the big 300 and my 40-150 f4 went, but I felt after running around a hot golf course, that the 75-300 “sneaky little cheat lens” would have done. A no tracking, good light environment is it’s happy place.

So, I took a punt (and a literal load off my back), going with one camera and one kit lens.

Quality?

From this,

to this.

and again,

to this.

Plenty to print, more than needed for web use. I could shoot wide for banner and cropping options, still providing enough quality to get in close. Effectively three or four different imge options per shot.

My favourite of the day (shame I only got half the ball). Capture 1 managed to salvage this from slight softness, when the focus hit the foreground bush and only depth of field saved it.

Really need to get my volunteer stuff sorted. Horse racing fashions, golf and politics are not doing it (and this morning I had a combination of two, yesterday the other).

Got The Key

The Portkeys PT5 II came today. I missed out a few weeks ago when the fire was burning, put in a notification request and forgot about it. When notified I ignored the email for a day or two, then decided to go for it.

It is gorgeous!

Shorter than my iPhone, but about twice as deep without a battery. The sun screen brackets can be removed, making it look even more like a phone.

The advantage it has over my 7” Feelworld is a clear jump in contrast and touch screen with a much smaller footprint.

Compared to the camera screen (G9 or S5), it is about the same quality, but twice the size and more conveniently located with a sun screen option.

The rig above is perfectly balanced. This stays true for the S5 with either Lumix lens and the G9 with most lenses.

I have no intention of relying on auto focus for video, especially now I have focus ring control on the Pana lenses, so the big things to fix are viewing screen and manual focus.

Focus I am happy with, with every lens I run bar one (the old Olympus F series) focussing the same way with consistent throw (120 degrees seems ideal), so a follow focus is not on the horizon.

Viewing was improved by the 7”, but it is big. This will be kept for the static camera rig. The 5” is for the moving camera and also better for outside use.

Cool stuff.

The Big One

So, the World Game came to town (Wanderers vs Phoenix).

In Australia, Football (or Soccer as we still tend to call it) runs behind AFL, Rugby League and is likely on par with Rugby Union for fan base, but it still has a solid following.

Not sure of the lights, I still decided to give the 300 a go, but backed it up with the 40-150 f2.8.

I shot a youth game earlier in the day and the combination of 300 (600) and 40-150 (80-300) was ideal for both ends of the ground from any corner. Lighting was the question.

I did have some trouble at the UTAS stadium, not with overhead lights, but with the running “billboard” lights around the ground, with mild banding and sometimes a jittery-laggy view finder. The other two togs there were using Z9’s and also complained of banding.

After some success at the dim indoor pool with the 300, I thought it would be fine and once again that proved to be the case.

It does not hurt that the ground laid out for Soccer is half the size of an Australian rules ground.

The shorter lens, when I remembered to switch in time, also covered the close end.

This is already a decent crop,

from this.

This is down to about 10%, at ISO 1600 and f2.8, then run through ON1 just for kicks. Pre-ON1 this image had more “theatre”, the programme not only cleaning up noise, but occasionally removing small glints in eye, fine sparkling highlights and the odd drop of sweat.

Love the drama off the ball.

As usual this was mounted on the EM1 mk2, which seems to perform as well as the EM1x with this lens although I did notice the few files I dropped over to ON1 for de-noising, were from this camera, even with a stop more speed.

Another win I feel for the kit. The only thing I need is a little fold up stepping stool to sit on, like the other togs used (knees not what they were and recently watered ground was not nice).

A Penny For Your Thoughts

Job two from yesterday was to cover the National Penny Farthing Championships in Evandale.

Have not pulled the panning trick out of the bag in a while.

Taken very seriously by Penny Farthing enthusiasts, this is a long running event, world renown by all accounts with international competitors. Throw in a few thousand supporters in a picturesque village and you are set to go.

I know of no other sport that draws so many characters and then promotes that character.

This was the 40th anniversary, making it a genuinely consolidated event.

The eventual mens winner.

A pair of pennies or where the left-overs go?

Unfortunately, I had card/camera issues* so missed the women and over 50’s racing, only able to get presentations for the women and the over 50’s presentations were delayed until after we left by a two ambulance accident, proving that the combination of height and speed are not to be taken lightly.

*Breaking with normal processes, I went with a one camera, one small bag dynamic as my day involved many “shapes”, in the process forgetting to pack my basics, so of all days, Murphy’s Law spoke and I had issues.

Red Hot

Hot day yesterday. I managed to work all day in the sun sans hat, sunscreen and shade. A matter of circumstance (fluid day) and mild stupidity on my part.

My last job of the day was a bit frustrating at first.

Situated late in the working day (we would normally stagger shifts, but the day changed shape after the fact), at a venue notorious for parking shortages with big events, the Red Hot Summer Tour started late afternoon, finishing late into the evening, but my day was scheduled to end at 5:30, so a light fit all around.

I was conscious I had three jobs already shot, but no processing done. You can imaging my dizzy delight when I had parked miles away, made a bad call turning left towards the sound, managing to walk around to the back of the venue, then had to go all the way around it again to get to the front door (who put a ruddy great lake in the middle of the golf course?).

Turning a five minute walk not a twenty minute ramble, my mood was rescued by a very decent security guard at the gate who smiled and waved me through.

Big event it seems, Mark Seymour entertaining the ever growing crowd.

I took a shoot first, ask questions later approach to socials.

By this time, my already baked face was sizzling, so I beat a hasty and as it turns out I adequately timed retreat, to be all done by 6. Events like this really need a little more time and planning, but it snuck up on us on a busy day, being included at the expense of some other gigs.

Since COVID restrictions were dropped it seems the local populace are flocking to events in greater numbers. We had four major events in Launceston this week end and all were packed.

For the one job I was not looking forward to on the day (too time tight, hot, noisy and busy to easily do socials), it worked out well with a little application, luck and positive thinking.

Remembering What The Point Was.

I got the Panasonic S5 recently and it is exactly what I needed*. With a couple of dedicated lenses and a few legacy options I now have a second video rig. That’s what I have to remember. I have a second rig, not a replacement.

Going into another format was always a concern.

By fixing the problems I had with something outside my usual work space**, I had to settle in my mind where that left me and for a while, I lost sight of that.

More than just similar looking.

The twin G9’s are now relegated to my non newspaper kit (studio, video etc), but are still the foundations of my video kit. They are for in some ways limited for video compared to the S5, but very capable none the less.

Lacking any form of LOG, waveforms, continuous recording and shutter angle has made the S5 seem far better for video, but the reality is, the G9’s are better at hand held, slightly more reliable using AF, create sharp and clean footage in a variety of well tried colour modes and have a brilliant range of dedicated lenses.

For a lot of my work, the G9’s will still probably be better than the S5. That is because the things the S5 offers are at the extreme end of what I might need, but are all the more reassuring for that. I don’t even intend to upgrade the G9’s to VLOG-L as HLG, Cine-D, Standard and Natural are plenty.

If I go into major productions that need multiple camera angles, I would likely pick up another S5, G9 mk2, do the upgrade, buy a Ninja-V or maybe get a GH5 mk2, but that is in the future and for now I am over equipped. The S5 really was the simplest, cheapest and most versatile video empowerment I could have made.

M43 has served me well. I feel more than ever that even though their is an obvious increase in some areas with full frame, the real life application of this always comes with a catch. 150mm f1.8 that fits in your hand and at an affordable price? That is the M43 advantage.

So, the point is, I am a dedicted M43 shooter who has a useful full frame alternate, like the weekend sports car or handy utility vehicle. My work and weekday vehicle is ever reliable, my backup is empowering when required.

*LOG and Continuos shooting.

**Run and gun client friendly footage up to a decent standard.

Speaking About Software

So, software.

My work flow at the moment is pretty simple and it does the job (mostly).

M43 or FF camera in RAW > Capture 1 > ON1 NoNoise if needed.

M43 or FF camera in Various > DaVinci Resolve.

For video I am well short of needing anything more yet and cannot claim to have better than a working handle on basic grading, timeline creation and sound balancing. My main focus has been on providing decent content, not the finished product, so I will have to lift here, maybe processing then dropping into imovie just for polishing.

For stills I can fix exposure issues, noise and colour, use basic tools to fix/replace/remove bits, but I shoot to avoid too much of that and always have. The area I would like to investigate is background control.

Painting a grey background and adding colour is actually plenty and I know the “tricks” of light that can avoid the need, but textures are another thing all together. I have spent the equivalent of a decent lens on back drops etc, but even then, some choices are irrevesible without software.

Drawing a line in the sand is rarely useful. Resolve, focus and confidence of purpose can easily become stubbornness, but equally, undiscerning adoption of every idea floated never results in anything useful and focussed.

I got excited with the launch of ON1 23, thinking it would do everything as well as their NoNoise plug in, but it seems it still needs some polishing with it’s automatic functions, but the reality is, all automatics are not that attractive to me, so maybe, maybe not.

Some thinking ahead.

The Future

The following post may be a sign of someone slowly slipping into madness as I officially quit the school today, so please read with that in mind :).

The more I persevere with this business the more I become aware of a few realities.

Software is streets ahead of cameras. It is the future and the at the same time, the looming nemesis of real photography as a craft.

Cameras are mechanically improving only incrementally (mirrorless was a decent leap, but so very glacially applied*). The real camera improvements are firmware related and these look sluggish, almost apologetic compared to extenal software.

If camera improvements are the backroads of photographic advancement and firmware are the sealing of said dusty roads, then software is the brand new highway to problem solving, for better or worse. Rather than accept the perfect frame blocking object, we remove it. Don’t like the sky, swap it, need more Bokeh, enable it.

Even doing things “manually” with sliders is starting to become a thing to question. Every day seems to cough up a new “AI fix”. We are not quite there yet, but soon Grass Hopper, soon**.

It is not unreasonable these days to buy a camera that falls short of expectations, only to have those expectations realised shortly after via firmware or even the need eliminated by software.

All the concerns we photographers have with sharpness, noise, colour accuracy, distortions etc, are all doomed to historical obscurity with the looming wall of super smart software. Sensor size is not actually a big deal, computational power is though. I see a time when the camera is only offerring a hint, a guide for post processing to perfect in an infinite variety of ways. Just a matter of the emphasis shifting. A computer alone cannot make a knife physically sharper, but a soft photo of a knife, that is another thing.

Photographers still need to buy gear and learn how to use it. they need to be there and make the effort, to edit the end product and store it wisely, but the role is becoming quite defined. Perseverance is probably the most important characteristic of the future photographer as one path leads to another, staying true is key. You may simply be an oddity if you stick to one trade. As time moves on, most photographic skills will become less difficult or evaporate to one extent or another.

One thing that is apparent is that specialists are becoming less and less a defined specialist. Want to be a cinematographer? Fine, but to get there you will likely have to also be your own sound engineer, editor, writer, director and publicist, so get good at eveything up to a point. This also helps you in your future, because it never hurts to understand someone else’s point of view. The same with stills. Post processing is the future, but not at the expense of being able to take an image properly or define an image worth taking.

Following up from that, cameras will become less relevant and more specialised as the base line becomes better and/or more accepted. Ironically, the camera is returning to much the same dynamic it had in the fim era, that of being a highly specialised, made to purpose tool***. Nobody in normal life needs a complicated, 40+ MP full frame with a collection of monster f1.x prime lenses. To be honest, neither do many pro’s, but at least they want to carry them around.

Most people get by with a phone and in the real world that is how it should be. Carrying a specialised bit of gear for any application means you are either a paid specialist or serious hobbyist, but either way you have made a conscious effort to carry that gear on top of your dailty needs. This is not most of us, or not even any of us all the time****.

Humans will do what humans do and ignore world hunger to focus on perfecting things like the fastest car, smartest fridge, the perfect lens or most powerful camera etc. Great news for those of us who think it makes a difference and lets hope somehow it can, but the long term future of photography is to become more and more specialisd until it becomes absorbed into the easy to use and homogenous “life enabling” tech bubble. We do all this of course, while lamenting our lost past and worshipping the “old ways”, but that’s humans for you.

Live it up while you can. Your Mk15 what ever with f1.0 door stopper lens is sitting in full sunshine at the moment, but the sunset is coming and startlingly quickly, when much of this will not matter to anyone but the owner/user.

Gloomy?

like these shiny pipes, much of what we are obsessed by now will loose it’s relevance, but that does not mean history is blanked out. What happens now is important, it’s just changing. Of note, this is a shot taken on a 12 year old camera, with a kit lens.

The only element that will not change is the human being.

The trick is to be best you can be at what you do.

Learn the tech, buy and use the gear, keep your eyes and mind open and follow the true path the best that you can. There will be dictractions, plenty of them (called fads or trends, evil things really), but remember that what you are photographing is not changing, only what you are doing it with.

People are people, emotions are transcendant, recording history is a one time gig and connections always matter. The worst thing you can do is not bother or be careless with your recorded memories.

Do good work, share, connect with people, love animals and above all, be kind.

Oh, and people still paint with brushes and stuff. Go figure.

*Arguably the right time would have been when digital became main stream, but why not wait another 15-20 years.

**In my adult life we have moved from mobile phones in cars being science fiction (and “smart” meant they could redial), to super computers in our pockets and self driving cars. The speed of this is picking up, so assuming we still have a planet to enjoy in the future, the next steps will gobble up humble photography like the internet replaced the fax machine.

***The four great expansive moments in photography all came down to either philanthropy (Kodak gifting a generation a camera) or enabling tech (colour print, auto exposure, auto focus, digital). between these groth “bilps”, regular photographers plugged along.

****I have only met one person who actually carried a camera with them everywhere (a well used M4 Leica) and that stopped when they realised that basically everyone does now!

Showmanship Shines

This last month, most of my favourite images have come from performances, big and small.

Even shy ones.

Magnolia Contradiction

A fresh and strong Stamen wrapped in weather affected petals.

This is the M43 version and I took full frame (see tech and processes). EM10 mk2 with 12-60 kit.

The full frame mono, which I prefer I think for the extra texture provided by the 24mp sensor. S5 with the 20-60 kit.

Helping Others May Be The Answer.

After leaving the school, I have felt a little lost. The Paper has provided me with a solid base to work from, but it was obvious to me from early on, it would not satisfy my need to connect.

By connect I do not mean meet new people, because it certainly provides that. What I mean is, connect and follow through. I meet so many people who could just do with a little hand up. I like people, love animals and have developed a strong connection with the place I live.

The paper provides a valuable service, but it does not have the time, the need or resources to keep contact with the subjects of it’s many one-off stories and can only go so deep.

Dreamer? Maybe, but if you are lucky and able to help, then you should.

When I can, I pass on any images I can to worthy causes, but this has two issues. It does bend the rules a little at the already hard pressed paper and secondly, it only serves to remind me there is more to do.

I have decided that my soul and my mind both need something more than just one avenue of connection and that avenue should be giving without need for recompense. With this in mind I have started to look to not for profit and volunteer groups who could do with a little record keeping, event documenting, a gift to their charges of some images, maybe a feel good retrospective project or even a social or advertising presence they would not otherwise be able to to do or afford.

I could go deeper and give more than just my limited skill set, but it seems to me I should offer what I can do as widely as possible to do as much good as I can. We live in a very visual world, but often this constant need for quality content goes unserved.

A moment of brotherhood with the New Horizons football club who represented the state recently (and did really well).

An example is a music group who have formed several bands around members as young as 12 and as old as 85. This combination of free mentoring and the enabling of older members is a perfect match, but unfortunately, they have no funds, just lost their practice venue and may fold. If I can I will record their remaining concerts, maybe grow their presence or just be another voice that lets them know they are/were appreciated.

Part historian, part enabler, part support element, I hope that what I can bring to the show is of some value to someone somewhere.

A Fair Go.

The 20-60 Lumix S put me into a bit of a funk and in turn the first two weeks with the S5 were quite flat. It seemed nothing I tried worked with the new camera (format). My first adapter did not take, the zoom was fully not trusted, the 50mm S prime took a while to come, my first cage was a lie etc. Boohoo me :(.

I had read a lot of good things about it, then felt I had either a poor copy or opinions were over blown. A large part of my dissapointment I felt may have been a case of lens reality amnesia, coming from M43 where most lenses behave predictably into 3:2 full frame land again where corner sharpness and other bugbears tend to reside.

I went looking for problems where I knew I would find them (extreme corners at the wide end, wide open). I compounded this by not being very scientific in my testing, so focussing, movement and a myriad of other factors may be at play.

Let’s try again with an open mind.

At the long end, it is very stable.

I bought the 50 as the ideal “one lens” and because being the first and most popular prime it is half the price of the others, but in reality, the zoom is best at the longer end, so maybe the 35mm would have been smarter, but I did buy it as the do-all Bokeh lens foil to the zoom.

As a tight lens, it has good sharpness in the centre and across the frame wide open (f5.6 which is f2.8 in M43 terms), has nice Bokeh. Distortions seem to be well controlled also. I probably intend to use the S5 in super 35 mode (crop frame), so 60 becomes a very tight 90mm equivalent and the corners become less important.

So, the soft edges in 20mm?

Bit bigger. Decent enough for stills, fine for video even at f3.5 at the wide end.

Fears maybe slightly over stated?

For video in particular, I think this more than acceptable, especially if I crop in to S35 (20mm becomes a cropped 30mm macro) and treat the lens as an f5.6 lens through the range.

Wide angle close focus is an interesting idea, something the 9mm offers, but the zoom also gets you there.

A decent Macro as it goes. ISO 1000 as well.

A pleasant image with much to admire. This has the look of a fast prime in M43, so a happy place for me.

Very decently sharp where I aimed.

I feel this lens can easily be used along side the 50mm. I had intentions of adding the 35mm prime, but to be honest, I will store that idea and save the $1000au. There may come a time, but I would actually prefer a 28mm which would then become a 40mm in s35.

One of the important considerations when I bought the S5 and went into another format, was lens options and the possibility of using the camera for stills if video became a dead duck for me. For studio portraits for example the 50mm is a plus, but it also looks like the zoom will work just fine. If the video thing falls flat, I will press my S5 and COB lights into service as a constant light studio kit.

Looking at the lens overall, build is tight and sure, handling the same and the shared (67mm) filter thread and similar overall size to the 50mm is ideal. The camera just feels the same with either lens.

Diversions

I got a job today down the western side of the Tamar river (Tasmania, not England).

The first job was a vineyard, the next two a hunt for a mysterious block of land and the last an interview with a cancer patient. Mixed bag.

From the day, a couple of unexpected images popped up.

Shore line detail Beaconsfield Tas.

Same

and more.

Flower detail Moores Hill vineyard.

Excuse My Ignorance

For most of my still photography life (late 1970’s to now), I have thought in what is problematically called now “full frame”* values.

35mm film, the bedrock of photography in the last quarter of the 20th century was the primary mathematical base line for most photographic assumptions. It was a given that a 50mm lens was the perfect mid-point of a vast array of lenses. The centre of the universe. The reality is, mathematically a 42mm is actually that lens (the diagonal of the 35mm film plane and a more natural look), but the hard to define, sometimes even harder to use 50mm was the easy fix.

The Olympus 25mm should convert to a full frame 50mm, but is actually closer to a 45mm. The ground zero for many stills shooters, especially from the film era as it sits right in the middle between wide and compressed perspectives.

All of this was of course, a myth.

APS-C popped up on my clearly limited radar in the 80’s as the “Advanced Photo System”, an attempt to simplify film shooting**. I thought it was an interesting, but doomed idea like 110 and 120 cassette film for the new generation. Like any smaller format at the time, it was facing the reality that for many, 35mm was considered “small” already.

APS-C soon re-emerged as the digital sensor size of choice and I assumed the format name had only one influence, drawn from recent history with the hint of being clever and new.

I also assumed the main technical consideration here came from the early difficulties and cost of making digital sensors combined with a realisation that maybe the full 35mm size was now not needed, an idea reinforced by the made to purpose four thirds sensor, but otherwise the stubborn adherence to a 35mm or “full frame” sensor seemed inevitable.

I was also dimly aware of “half frame” cameras common enough in the late middle of the century, even owning an antique 25mm Olympus half frame lens.

That’s it, fringe formats circling the “one true” format of 35mm.

*

Now, what if I was bought up a film maker, not a stills photographer?

If film making was my trade, the term “super 35” would have been my standard and all my perceptions would have shifted. Same film stock, different reality. APS-C and half frame would have felt like a return to common sense, a vindication of the original film stocks use.

The fact is 35mm still film was born from an adaption of 35mm movie film, but they made us load it sideways to make it longer/bigger!

This was a combination of using a roll film stock easily sourced in bulk and an attempt to make it a viable size for still photography. What was plenty for movie making used one way was a little on the small side for stills shooters decades ago. Indeed, that argument even plagued 35mm film up until it’s digital demise. Medium format (120 film in various ratios) was the true pro choice for many, large format for some. The little can of 35mm film was the amateur, adventure, sport or news paper photographers choice.

Olympus half frame and APS-C now made a lot more sense, being basically super 35 used normally. Super 35 is not a set in stone size, just a very close grouping using the same film stock, so APS-C is a decent enough term to use. The width tends to be fixed, but the height varies.

The main reason I have written this is because the lens language used by cinematographers, who rarely use full frame terms and just as rarely qualify that, were frustrating me, but then I realised, they came first in their space.

The slightly arrogant and misleading term “full frame” has often frustrated me as a digital convert. Apart from my adoption of the equally misleadingly named “Micro” Four Thirds format, I always felt APS-C was not a fully realised format. Fuji has proven there is much to be gained from it, but Canon, Sony and Nikon still treat it like the poor step child.

It seems that the film industry has a similar bias regarding full frame, it just goes the opposite way.

The interesting thing for me is, I assumed from a stills shooters perspective, they mean full frame when reading a lot of “what lenses do top end cinematographers use” articles and it seemed to make sense. Roger Deakin using a 28 or 40mm, many others preferring a 50mm all sat fine in my stills biased head, then it dawned on me they were actually talking about 40, 60 and 75mm lenses respectively.

The lens I feel is the true standard stills lens, the 40mm (FF), which sits between the standard 50 and semi wide 35, is actually considered by many cinematographers to also be a work horse, but used as a wide format 60mm (FF eq) or half way between a standard 50 and portrait 75mm lens.

So, most cinematographers shoot longer lenses as standard than most stills shooters or to be more accurate, cinematographers tend to haunt the same lens landscape portrait stills photographers do!

The sometimes misleading element here is the new wave of full frame shooters are using wider focal lengths naturally for vloging and “edgy” content creation, but the makers of major films generally are not. “Birdman” for example was shot on what I thought was a shockingly wide 18mm, but of course it is actually a less dramatic 27mm, still wider than average for movie making, but in the realm of normal. The same cinematographer however did use lenses as wide as a 12mm on a huge Alexa 65 sensor, for The Revenant which is really wide.

The take away for me is, I will look at my video needs differently now. My natural lean was towards a 24mm to cover wide in full frame and 35 in APS-C, but I am now thinking my 50/75 is likely enough, with the 20-60/30-90 zoom for wider shots. This does not exclude a full range of M43 lenses ranging from 16-600mm (FF equiv). There are many cinematographers who use only one or a small range of lenses and many major projects were filmed on one single lens. Commonly these are in the longer-standard end.

*Full frame meaning all the rest are less than full?

**Film that stayed in easy to old cassettes and stayed there for easy hanfding and storage. Unfortunately it adopted another format rather than stick with the 90%-er that is 35mm after all that time spent making it standard.