Auteur/autrice : admin

Very happy to see Cie L’Oublié(e) and Raphaëlle Boitel come back to Auch for the festival this year.

Raphaëlle is a choreographer, and her latest opus is in fact two shorter works, played one after the other.

La Bête Noir – talks about a woman’s inner struggles – lots of writhing around, but the light and her movements create a very interesting spectacle.

In the second act she climbs a ladder – or what seems to be a ladder – but the ‘rungs’ are in fact large steps that move from right to left creating a really interesting patterns of movement both for the steps, but also for Raphaëlle to perform on.

Petite Reine was the second piece, performed by Fleurianne Cornet (and her bicycle) – and ( I quote) « tackles the issue of being held captive by love » – oh ok…

High on imagery, the lighting was excellent (but there’s never really enough for a photographer…) and created a great atmosphere.

While I very much enjoyed the two, the first one won in my opinion.

The latest circus festival started last night, the 18th of October and will run for the next 10 days.

I’ve got about 16 or 17 pro spectacles to see/photograph, and at the same time, I’ll be covering the Federation of French Circus Schools annual get together which will involve upwards of 50 ten minute shows performed by circus schools from around France.

Here are a couple of shots from last night – the company was « Les Filles du Renard Pâle » and the presented us with « Révolte ou Tentatives de l’Echec »

Aside from an almost total lack of decent light (laughs) this was interesting – it’s always fun to see it actually rain on set…

Tonight I only have one performance to see – and that’s probably going to be pretty dark too…more on this later. I can’t help feeling sure that my fan ‘Someone’ from NIKON RUMORS could do a whole lot better than I, but this is my blog so you’ll have to put up with my rubbish…

NIKON announced a few months ago, a series of firmware updates for the Zf, Z6_ll, Z7_ll, Z8 and Z9.

These were trumpeted as ‘major’ updates for autofocus etc. so naturally, the NIKON users are impatient to see what these can do.

Zoom forward to early October and NIKON anounce that there seem top be problems updating the firmware on the Z7_ll and so they were holding back everything until this problem was identified and fixed. People asked why the update couldn’t simply be launched for the other cameras, without a response.

Mention was made of another update concerning Adobes Content Authentification system, regarding the Z6_lll – in the comments section on NIKON RUMORS I ‘dared’ to ask why we hadn’t any news of the expected updates and was immediately criticised by a total jerk hiding behind the screen name ‘Someone‘ (‘No-one’ would have been more appropriate...)

Bottom feeders like this I generally ignore – their unique existance is to piss people off – they don’t make images or contribute in any detectable fashion, just pollute the fora with inane comments designed to get clicks… Sadly there are many (I’ve often wondered if it’s just one mental case with many screen names…) and it’s frustrating when you see the efforts of the forum managers, particularly of Peter over on NIKON RUMORS, that these morons exist and create friction which doesn’t actually need to exist.

His comment made me smile as it was pretty obvious he hadn’t read any previous blog posts (probably can’t actually read…) as he encouraged me to just accept that my camera is what it is, and not moan about it…

OK asshole, have it your own way

The sad bit is getting back, trying to get all the sand from between the toes, and struggling back to work…

No sand this year, but two weeks almost exclusively transported by train! (Well ok, we also needed three days of rental car to have a little flexability to be able to wander the highlands)

So, RYANAIR who, true to ‘cheap’ form asked one of the stewards to land the plane and we all thought the under-carriage was going to break through the fuselage… to Edinburgh from Toulouse. Simple flight – waiting for the bags took as long as the flight itself, but by mid afternoon we were in Falkirk – our destination for the first 8 days of our stay.

Interesting place with a population of roughly 35,000 – nice people, good grub and beer – what more can a man want??

One of the sights to see is the Kelpies – these are huge horse-head sculptures which, according to Wikipedia were built « to reflect the mythological transforming beasts possessing the strength and endurance of ten horses. The Kelpies represent the lineage of the heavy horse of Scottish industry and economy, pulling the wagons, ploughs, barges, and coalships that shaped the geographical layout of the Falkirk area.« 

Falkirk is also known for the Falkirk Wheel – this is West of the city on the Union canal and is designed to allow the canal boats to overcome the 30m difference between two parts of the canal, without the need of many locks.

We were lucky enough to see this in action – quite a feat of engineering – simple but very effective.

The ‘pod’ containing the canal boat is nearing the top of the arc in this image.

We used this week to visit Edinburgh and Glasgow, as Falkirk is almost exactly halfway between the two cities.

Victoria Street, Edinburgh

The river Clyde, Glasgow

While we were in Edinburgh, we took the train over my fathers favourite construction – the Forth Bridge – we got off at North Queensferry and walked around breathing in the history of this part of Scotlands railway heritage.

Many more sights to see, but we were off to the West, and Fort William – we had an appointment with a very special train…

This is the Jacobite (one of two) which travels from Fort William to Mallaig twice a day – it was used as a prop for one of the Harry Potter films and now the company that runs it charge way over the top for a 4 hour (return) journey. Sadly we were obliged to listen to the life story of a VERY loud American woman with an enromous rear – the two Americans sitting with us were embarrased and made it very clear that all Americans were not like this one. Two hours of « Yaw Yaw Yaw »

This is the famous Glenfinnan viaduct overwhich a Ford Anglia can be seen flying in the HP film! We visited the viaduct a couple of days before taking the train – people were all over the hills waiting for the passage of the train from Mallaig to Fort William.

Fort William is on Loch Linnhe – and our guesthouse overlooked the loch.

From Fort William we went to London (by train) via Glasgow – the clever people at Scotrail ‘forgot’ to tell us that the timetables had been altered since we booked our tickets in March – so we arrived at Glasgow to see our train leaving! This left us with a four hour wait so we had another quick browse around the city…

…before getting on the Euston express and setting off for London.

We haven’t actually visited London since 2010 so it’s expected that things will have changed….I was quite impressed when I discovered that they still use Routemaster busses on two of the regular city routes – the 9 and the 15 – these are not just for tourists !!

In addition to visiting places with stunning new architecture, we had also planed to visit older existing spots – like Tower Bridge – imagine our surprise when 5 minutes after we arrived, it opened for us (And it only does this around 35 times a year, so we were VERY lucky to see it happen)

After Tower Bridge we set off for the financial district, The City – lots to see there…

(The Lloyds building reflected in the building opposite)

Leadenhall Market, no longer a fruit and veg market, was very beaufiful too…competing against much more modern structures!

We also visited Kings Cross station – not to board a train, but to look at the ceiling!

Then after a short walk along the Regents Canal, Camden Town and Lock – what a place !

A great holiday, which just makes us want to go back again – primarily to Western Scotland, but I’d give other places a go too! (If I had the chance)

A complete album is available here – enjoy.

(Warning – Canon info follows…)

Canon have just announced two new camera bodies, both full-frame, the R1 and the R5ll

For once I have to agree with Jared Polin in his analysis of the R1 – this is announced as a ‘Flagship’ camera body – a bit like the NIKON Z9 but it’s anything but.

I have no particular axe to grind with Canon – I don’t own a Canon, and having grown up with NIKON it seemed perfectly reasonable to continue using them (particularly as they DID NOT change their lens mount when AF (auto focus) and then digital became the rage…unlike Canon…

Anyway, the camera body costs MORE than the Z9, has a less dense sensor (25mp instead of 45mp) and aside from (according to Polin) a stunning new auto focus, has not got anything else that makes it that interesting…

Polins attitude is to call it an R3ll – sadly, I’m not really up to date on any Canon models, so I have no idea what he’s talking about – suffice it to say both models are more expensive, and less interesting in terms of innovation, than their NIKON equivalents.

It also seems that Canon lenses are considerably more expensive than their NIKON equivalents – are they better? I simply can’t say – but frankly, NIKON lenses are A: pretty good, and B: expensive enough for me !

An example – the Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM costs 3199€ on the Canon site with the equivalent the NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S costing 2399€ on the NIKON site.

I can’t help reading between the lines with regard to Canons (lack of ) development on the consumer/pro camera bodies – they seem to be spending more time and money developing their video base – this could be very useful to the videastes amongst us, however less useful for the interchangeable lens camera body crowd…

This article is about why photographers have so many lenses, bodies etc.

I mean, women can have 37 handbags and no-one bats an eye, but a photographer with three cameras? How does he hold them all at the same time?

A case in point – I use four camera bags – each has a different camera body inside, fitted with an ‘appropriate’ lens for whatever it is I’ve decided the camera generally will be used for.

I simply can’t get my head around ‘DX’ or half-frame (24 x 16mm) film / sensor format – sure the quality is there, but I have to make such a lot of calculations regarding angles, depth of field etc. I prefer to stick with one format – ‘FX’ or 24 x 36mm where I know instinctively what I will obtain with regard to focal length and / or depth of field.

1st bag – NIKON Z6-ll – 24mp sensor, extremely sensitive in low light, small and very portable, generally using the f/4 group of lenses – 14-30, 24-70 and more recently, the 24-200. Very well adapted to travelling as I can fit all that, and more, into one carry-on bag.

2nd Bag – NIKON Zf – 24mp sensor, very compact ‘retro’ style – perfect for street photography. This bag is really quite small but I still manage the 28mm SE and the 40mm SE and a few batteries etc.

3rd bag – NIKON Z8 – 45,7mp sensor – general do-anything camera fitted with one of the f/2.8 triplet (14-24, 24-70, 70-200) Physically a little larger than the Z6-ll but as with all my camera bodies, all the buttons are in the right (same) places so changing cameras doesn’t phase me. Often used for ‘work’ as the low light capacity (despite what the people on the Nikon Rumors site say) is excellent, and when treated in Lightroom there’s nothing else needed. I’ve also been known to bolt-on the 100-400 which makes a very well balanced piece of kit. As with the Z9, this camera body does not have a mechanical shutter which makes it very discrete – I’ve had artists ask why I haven’t used my camera at all during a performance !!

4th bag – NIKON Z9 – 45,7mp sensor like the Z8 – this I use principally for circus/concert work as the battery lasts forever, and with a 512Gb memory card (actually 2 !) I can shoot practically all day without stopping. Same comments regarding the low-light/noise etc. as the Z8 – with a little tweaking (I have created a pre-set in LR) the files are perfectly useable up to huge enlargement sizes. The ‘standard’ lens for my circus work is the 24-120 f/4 S which is lightyears ahead of it’s old AF-S brother, thankfully.

I have large hands and the Z9 fits perfectly – for me it’s all a question of ergonomics – if you can’t hold the camera comfortably, or your fingers don’t fall easily on the buttons you regularly need, than it’s time for a rethink.

I’ve held Canon cameras a few times, and to me the position of the controls is not as intuitive as with the recent NIKONS – this is not to say that I couldn’t eventually get used to a change, but given that I’ve been using modern DSLR and more recently mirrorless cameras since the early part of the century, I see no reason to change now – and to what advantage?

Yesterday the new Canon R1 was announced – this is supposed to be the Canon equivalent of the Z9 – it isn’t – far from it. Yes, some Canon lenses are very good indeed – much as their pricing seems to be pretty exotic too.

No, I think I’ll stay where I am – better the devil you know… after all !

Acting on A: a hunch, and B: info from the mairie, I decided to plonk myself on ‘my’ hill in an attempt to photograph the RAFALE jet or jets overflying the Cathedrale in Auch.

This has become an almost regular occurence as the jets, based at Mont de Marsan, make their way up to Paris for the 14th July celebrations and Auch is on their way so they make a low pass over the city.

It was warm last Sunday, and I was prepared…

Camera on monpod, hat on head – what could go wrong?

For the technically minded, this was the camera setup

The flypast was scheduled for 11h30 – in the past the timing has been anything but vague – true military precision. However, by 11h45 I was beginning to get a little concerned. My camera was sending me messages about a ‘hot card’ (relating to the temperature of the memory card) which wasn’t too surprising considering I had no shade and the camera body is black…

I had set the ‘rafale’ mode at 15 frames per second so as not to worry about missing the airplane – these things move so damn fast – and interestingly the ‘hot card’ (I later discovered) was more a warning that the fps setting wouldn’t be maintained as the card didn’t have a sufficiently high write speed…

In any event, the jets did not manifest themselves, and all I managed was a light plane (a Robin DR-400) towing a glider (a Schleicher ASH-25)

Interesting but not what I was there for.

When I arrived home we prepared lunch, and at 12h45 a single RAFALE roared over Auch on it’s way north… glad I didn’t wait!

Thom Hogan has recently published a very thought provoking article on his site entitled « Do You Know What’s Automated and How? »

Sadly I have to say that this is the first time I’ve found myself in total disagreement with what he has written.

The bulk of the article is interesting and brings to light what photographers often think, but rarely comment on, all the ‘automated’ bits added to seemingly simple setup parameters. These are done by the camera companies (for whatever reason) and the frustrating thing is that most people either have no idea that they exist, or knowing they exist, don’t know how to get around the problems that they pose. I think it’s important to point this out, and kudos to Thom for doing so, and so clearly.

However, the thing that I don’t agree with is this comment:

« ….but I think I’ve made my point: you need to know what all the automation is doing and whether its going to impact other things you need the camera to do. So:

1. Figure out all the settings you use that do automatic things in the background.
2. Figure out whether you need that automation or not.
3. Figure out what side-impacts the automation may have on your results. »

I’m sorry Thom, while the first phrase is completely correct (to me) it’s also pretty much impossible to achieve without knowing EXACTLY what automatism has been applied/used to each menu item.

Item 1 – How am I supposed to « Figure out all the settings you use that do automatic things in the background. »

If we were to have a list of default values for EVERY menu setting, this would go some way to allowing us to choose…but I can’t see any manufacturer taking the time to produce a manual for it.

Most photographers swear by at least one VITAL accessory that they simply can’t live without. I find it interesting that the choice seems to be incredibly varied – here’s a couple of mine.

SMALLRIG Grip 4262 for the NIKON Zf

This is something unusual in that it overcomes a bad design, and makes a totally useless camera into something very good indeed.

There is no way that anyone without rubber gloves can actually HOLD the NIKON Zf without this grip (The worst thing is that NIKON made exactly the same mistake with the Zfc before it…) The camera is so slippery that it’s quite useless, despite all the technology inside. God knows what happens when you put anything longer than a 75mm lens on this camera – or perhaps NIKON bank on this as people will have to keep buying replacement camera bodies…

In addition, this grip includes the ARCA mounting (that is missing from EVERY camera made) and thus allows it to be quickly and easily stuck on a tripod, or have accessories bolted on to it. It doesn’t take a lot to make us happy….

PGYTECH CreateMate Card Storage/Reader

This is a piece of kit I’ve only recently discovered – and I think it’s pretty useful.

The really neat thing about this card storage is that it’s also a card reader – there are three versions – SD only, CFExpress A/SD and CFExpress B/SD – they hold two CFExpress cards and 2 SD in the combo versions, with slots for 4 microSD as well. This is brilliant as it saves having to carry around storage AND card readers – the storage is dust / splash proof and comes with a carabiner style clip to fix it into your bag. Not the cheapest (The CF versions are 99€, while the SD only version is 49€) but extremely useful IMHO.

ThinkTank Photo Retrospective Range

ThinkTankPhoto make camera bags – most of them look just that – like camera bags. I’m odd and look for something which doesn’t necessarily look like I’m carrying thousands of euros of camera gear – and their Retrospective range is pretty good for that.

This is a pretty good example of what they all look like – various sizes (and shapes) available.

Loads of room inside, and they are supplied with Velcro pads to create divisions etc. inside the bag – loads of pockets too, with the most recent versions even having an adjustable bottle pocket.

The shoulder strap has a shoulder pad with anti-slip strips – this sometimes manages to wear unevenly and when I got in touch with ThinkTank they sent me a replacement shoulder pad by return, and totally free.

The Retrospective Backpack is a recent addition – this has access to the camera/storage part of the bag from the strap side of the backpack – so no-one will be feeling around inside your bag while you’re on crowded transport somewhere…still loads of pockets, and a compartment large enough for a 15″ laptop. Well thought out (and made!)

Originally these packs were available in blue, green and black – the green ‘Pinestone’ seems to be all that’s available now. Worth noting, all the sacks come with a rain-cover – pain in the arse to put on, but worth the effort to protect your gear.

This is a story about a camera manufacturer going back in time…for the most part, it’s a success but there are things that don’t quite hit-the-mark.

NIKON decided to ride the ‘retro’ bandwagon back in 2013 with the full-frame Df, then again in 2021 with the release of the ‘DX’ format Zfc. This was a modern half-frame digital camera using the Z series mount, loosely based on the NIKON FM from 1977.

Available in ‘panda’ chrome and black, black, or in Japan a series of garish colors, the camera has a 20Mp sensor and uses the EL-25 battery.

The camera was/is relatively popular, more for its size than any technology that it brings to the market place. The sensor, however, doesn’t benefit from the 5 axis stabilisation that the most of the other Z series bodies have, which makes it relatively uninteresting to me.

Leap forward two years to 2023 and its bigger brother, the Zf, was announced and launched in October. Sadly this doesn’t seem (yet?) to be available in ‘panda’ form – but to me at least it’s pretty nice in black…but then every NIKON camera I have ever owned has been black…

There’s not a lot to choose from, in these two images, but the Zf is 10mm higher and wider, but only 6mm deeper than it’s half-frame brother.

Sadly, the same fundamental flaw, IMHO has been carried over from one to the other – there’s no GRIP – this is caused by the battery compartment in the Z series camera bodies, but in the Zf the battery is mounted laterally within the depth of the body – oh yes, there’s a slight ‘bump’ to the front right (very slightly deeper on the Zf), but it takes the addition of a SMALLRIG ‘grip’ to actually resolve this error and stop the camera from slipping out of the hand.

The SMALLRIG grip also adds an ARCA style plate underneath the camera for accessories and attaching to a tripod. (Something which needs to be BUILT IN to the bottom plate of ALL cameras IMO) A similar model exists for the Zfc.

The top plate has the same dials on both cameras, but the more recent body has full image stabilization, which makes one wonder why NIKON seem to be leaving the ‘DX’ market a little by the side of the road.

Another strange thing is that while the VR and stabilization system in general has been redesigned, NIKON in their wisdom have decided NOT to lock down the sensor mounting when the camera is turned off – this means that ‘clunks’ can be heard when the camera is being moved around while turned off… only long term use will show if this is a potentiel problem or not. Early days…

A limited series of two ‘SE’ lenses have been produced to match the retro style of the camera – a 28mm f/2.8 and a 40mm f/2.8

Both exist as ‘normal’ Z series lenses as well (slightly cheaper)

The Zf loses a lot of non-menu functionality in that there is only one Fn button (on the front), and no positions on any of the knobs to change user settings (U1 – U3 on the Z6 etc.)This is plainly a photographers camera – not a working pro, but a street, portrait, landscape photographer who uses a similar setup pretty much all the time – having to delve into the menus for any modifications is a total pain – the fact that there are large knobs on the top plate make this an obvious candidate for an experienced photographer who ‘knows’ his camera and doesn’t spend his time changing settings when he’s in any given shooting situation.

The auto-ISO system is up to standard for NIKON and the Zf also has 3D tracking added to the possible AF modes.

Another very nice enhancement is the pivot for the rear screen – this now allows the screen to be turned round on itself which provides a black textured plastic ‘back’ to the camera. The new pivot also allows the screen to be pivoted round and allows it to be seen from the front – a NIKON first !!

I like the idea of hiding the screen – I rarely look at the screen in shooting situations anyway, as pretty much all I need is directly available to me in the viewfinder – why take my eye away when I can check everything anyway.

The shutter release has a threaded hole on top – initially I imagined this was for a cable release (go retro!) but it seems it’s actually just meant for a ‘soft’ shutter button… I think they should have gone the whole way here.

The third knob on the top plate is for exposure correction – something vital for me when I’m out making images, so I’m glad it’s in a prominent place and not hidden as a menu item.

Both cameras are capable of video at 4K or full HD/120p – this all sounds wonderful but I have absolutely no idea what it all means – I have enough trouble with capturing static images, so don’t start talking about video…

There’s a fully mechanical (electronically controlled) shutter with a ‘silent’ mode (which basically just means an electronic front curtain shutter, so the camera can work in ‘stealth’ mode but hasn’t got the same shutter as the Z8 for example.)

Sadly there is no sensor shield, which I’m used to on the Z8/9 and I’m convinced prevent a lot of dust and rubbish getting into the throat of the camera while changing lenses.I can’t help thinking that these evolutions will eventually filter down, but for the time being they’re being kept for the pro range of camera bodies.

Like the Z6lll & Z8 this camera also has the possibility to ‘pixel shift’ which means (for static subjects) images of up to 96Mp can be recorded – details of pixel shift are best found here on the NIKON site or here in my blog .

The Zf does however have the EXCEED 7 processing engine, like the new Z6lll and the Z8/Z9 which means it gets the data off the sensor and onto the card/s pretty damn fast – allowing very respectable ‘rafale’ of 14fps. The storage cards are 1 x SDXC and 1 x Micro SDXC – so get a fast microSD if you use the slot otherwise the transfer times will be slower (even if you’re not using the card – everything is determined by the speed of the slowest card.)

Finally the battery is the EL-E15c which is comforting – particularly when you’ve got a host of other bodies using the same battery ! This can be charged in the camera (useful as a charger is no longer supplied with new cameras here in Europe) More details on how long this lasts/how many shots per charge later…