Mois : novembre 2019

More information on this intriguing question….in a future article…

Called in to CiRCa today to visit a new company in residence – the difference this time is that they actually have animals – well, 6 horses and 2 dogs. This could be different I thought…

Well it was – the avant-premier is this coming weekend – personally I think they need more time, but what do I know. Here’s a small album I prepared for Instagram (hence the square images)

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Check out the main site if you want to see more.

Recently « GAS » (« Gear Acquisition Syndrome ») has been mentioned a lot, and I admit, it got me thinking about what I could use for my ‘work’ in the future.

The principle reason is that I think I can detect a movement away from the classic reflex to mirrorless, on the part of the manufacturers, which can only involve an increase in development funding etc. for what will no doubt become the principal money earner in a few years time. This is positive and negative – the manufacturers will no doubt feel obliged to produce more variants of what they already sell, which will surely be ‘niche’ offerings rather than generally usable camera bodies. An example of this is the 58mm ‘Noct’ Nikkor S – what a complete waste of time at 9000€, yeah – right!

Regarding Nikon, the Z6/7 and now the Z50 are a very good start – far more convincing than Canons efforts – and I’m very happy with the Z6. I’m waiting for the next iteration, which will probably involve a 60Mp sensor. In itself, this kind of increase in pixel density doesn’t interest me, but the knock-on effect might bring the Z7 down in price, and closer to my eager hands.

A higher density sensor is useless to me for the circus/concert work I do, but that still leaves a lot of other aspects to cover, notably landscapes.

In terms of ergonomics, while I love dearly the D3s (despite the weight and size) I feel I’d be happy to trade in the D850 (and final get rid of the D500 which simply isn’t used) and replace this with a Z7.

On the downside, I’m still pissed off that the two button card reformat hasn’t found its way onto these bodies, as trolling through menus is a pain in the arse, and to be avoided. And as previously mentioned, the un-locked joystick STILL causes me huge problems, but there are ways around the latter – a small piece of black tape should fix that.

Despite my contact with Nikon, I seriously doubt that they will ever react to the ‘real’ needs of photographers – they have got it almost right, in my opinion, and that’s all they need to do, in theirs.

In terms of lenses, if I pursue this transformation, I can see on the ‘S’ roadmap a number of interesting lenses coming up – the 70-200 f/2.8 was supposed to arrive this year, and the 24-120 f/4 is due for 2020, both of which interest me greatly. However I can’t imagine the up coming 14-24 f/2.8 being within my range, financially.

A ‘portable’ kit involving the lenses I own, two mirrorless bodies and the two lenses mentioned above could be packed, and more importantly, carried to locations – far lighter than the kit I lug around today.

Next Wednesday, I have a « shooting » at the Dôme, and I’ll be dragging all sorts of stuff ‘just in case’, and as I don’t have a wheeled camera bag, I hope I can park close by!
Another advantage with the ‘S’ series lenses is the relative speed increase – the f/1.8 is a nice bright lens wide open – not that this changes a lot with an electronic viewfinder of course. The FTZ adaptor is the way to still be able to use all my ‘classic’ glass, of which I seem to have a number, and that placates me somewhat.

The original AF-D will have to go one day, but I’m loathe to get rid of the ‘curiosity’ lenses like the 16mm fisheye, only available in AF-D – this lens one uses once a year, but it’s nice to know I have it! I have it’s DX partner, the 10.5mm too – totally useless for everyday shooting, but fun nonetheless.

Unusually, I decided to photograph a recent concert at the Cri’Art. Unusually, because as a general rule, the lighting is crap (all coming from behind) and the lighting technician is so doped out of his head, he spends most of the performance just playing with the lighting control faders with no real effort to create a cohesive ‘plan’.

I decided, against this very negative backdrop, to test my « one lens » project at a concert. The equipment was simple, a Nikon D3s and the 85mm f/1.8 AF-S – this is a very ‘luminous’ lens – not the ‘fastest’ 85mm – there is an f/1.4 but at 1300€ I think I’ll pass thank you. Combined with AutoISO I thought I had a good chance of capturing something.

As this is not my normal « go to » concert lens*, I was using the experience to learn how it handled, in particular, the depth of the depth of field ‘wide open’ at f/1.8. Most concert artists move around a lot, and with V**** terrible lighting, I had to be able to stop the action, but also have sufficient DOF to render a usable image.

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I’m happy enough with the results, but despite the optimistic title, I doubt I will be going back to cover any more concerts – the lighting is rubbish.

• My ‘normal’ lens for concert work is the 24-120 f/4 – not a fast lens in any respect, but I know it so well, and can anticipate the depth of field at any particular focal length, it makes it very easy to use. With autoISO set at 8000 I generally manage to capture what I want.

One of the noticeable things about mirrorless photography is the sudden increase in the number of battery changes one has to perform. Everything works from a fairly small battery – shutter and recording mechanism, but also the two screens (viewfinder + rear screen) so the battery drain, even without using the rear screen, is relatively important.

In comparison with the D3s, on which I shot two concerts with only 1 bar down on the battery meter – two concerts is roughly 2 hours, and on the Z6 I would have had to change batteries after the first concert.

Nikon have now (finally) released their solution to this problem…the MB-N10 battery pack

This is unusual in that it really is a battery pack – it only stores batteries – one in each end. There are no shutter buttons, AF buttons – nothing. The increase in battery time is in fact indefinite, as discharged batteries can be hot-swapped out and replaced with charged ones without interrupting the camera – for example if you are filming a long time-lapse, or a video.

Sadly, this does not act as a vertical grip, which I think is a shame as it’s actually quite useful to have a second shutter and AF button for use when the camera is used vertically.

Nikon will no doubt come up with excuses for this, and other, oversights, but for me this pack at least will allow me to photograph circus events and concerts without having to turn the camera off half way through (and losing all my temporary setting adjustments) just to change batteries.

There are some very amusing comments over on the Nikon Rumors site, following the announcement that the pack is now available – before reading ANY comments on that site, one has to keep in mind that the ratio of photographers (who actually USE equipment) to ignorant forum squatters (who wouldn’t know a camera if it fell on them) is roughly 1:200 – so PLEASE take virtually ANY comment with a serious pinch of salt.

Going somewhat against the trend of mainstream photography (where everything happens on a screen), I’ve decided to print an image, frame it, and whack it up on a wall.

This image is being printed 40×60 on a beautiful mat, full rag paper, and will eventually be mounted in a gorgeous Nielsen Alpha Oak frame.

Can’t wait to see this hanging…

Update – it looks amazing (he said modestly)

…I think I might go to see a concert this evening. This is something I generally avoid because, for photographers, the lighting in our concert venue is, how can I put this gently? Oh yes, « shit » describes it pretty well.

This colourful lot are called « The Hyènes » (The Hyenas) and come from the Landes which is not far from us here in the Gers. They are known nationally, and I thought it might be fun to spend some time with them, before and during the concert, and try and get some useable images.

I can’t gaurantee anything until they actually arrive here this afternoon – I always confirm with the artists before doing anything – it’s polite, and I consider it a minimum – and anyway, it costs nothing!

They’ve played here before, so they obviously know the routine – fingers crossed – who knows, perhaps I’ll even stay tonight…

It’s been a little quiet here recently – principally due to the fact that after retirning from our annual « retreat » in September, there wasn’t a lot of time before the 10 days Circus-fest which happens here over the autumn school holidays.

This years festival was interesting as I was able to see the final finished spectacles from a series of residencies that I had photographed here in Auch over the past year.

First up was Baro d’Evel with « Falaise » – I am still not allowed to publish most of what I shot (due to the company wanting to surprise it’s paying public) but I’m allowed to show you this…

The production was excellent, as one would expect from this company based just outside Toulouse – however, I wasn’t the only one who thought there were two or three elements which tended to go on a bit too long.

Here are a few Instagram (Square) shots from some of the 17 other spectacles I viewed this year:

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All in all a good festival, photographically – though I would be the first to admit I have NO IDEA what the companies were trying to get across to the (paying) public…

So what’s new?