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POP Tests D40x

Popular Photography & Imaging has posted <a href="http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/3896/camera-test-nikon-d40x.html">a test of the new Nikon D40x</a>, the 10-MP sensor upgrade of the D40, written by Dan Richards. Here's a taste: "Noise suppression was generally better than the D80's and much better than the Rebel's. As ISOs increased, the D40x's resolution exceeded that of the Rebel. Its noise levels of 0.9, 1.05, and 1.05 at ISOs of 100, 200, and 400, respectively, would qualify for a Ridiculously Low rating if we had one. (They all rank Extremely Low.) Noise reduction is applied steadily but unobtrusively at higher ISOs. At ISO 1600, noise was only Very Low, while resolution dipped by less than 5 percent, still Excellent. This is great performance—especially for $799." There's also a fairly extensive but perfectly useless samples gallery—useless because it's impossible to tell anything about image quality from such tiny JPEGs. Although they do discuss image quality in the article. As an aside, I have to admit that this camera annoys me. Here Nikon has a back-compatible lensmount, and it goes and makes the smallest, lightest DSLR...and then makes it so you can't put small, light primes on it. Bugger it! Probably its target market won't mind, though, so if you're in the demographic, maybe you'll want to take a look. I'd spring for a D80, myself. Posted by: MIKE JOHNSTON

POP Tests D40x

Popular Photography & Imaging has posted a test of the new Nikon D40x , the 10-MP sensor upgrade of the D40, written by Dan Richards. H...

12:18 PM

TOP Dominates Biggie Toy

TOP Dominates Biggie Toy

This is pretty funny. The power of T.O.P.: A couple of days ago I linked to our C60 item about the Notorious B.I.G. action figure. So now, g...

2:14 PM

Riches in Store

OT (music again): Just FYI, iTunes is offering a nice opportunity in the form of "Jazz 101 on Sale," five pages of great classic albums for sale at $6 and $7 each. If you're like me you'll have most of these already, although I did pick up Joe Lovano's Rush Hour and a couple of other things. However, if you're not yet a jazz fan but have been meaning to give it a try, a lot of iTunes' selections would make anybody's top 100. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNs6V4ztLnAcMzctDQ2itdKwBWZC7wJHXHT9W1tWxnyS5pvN5fa4Ud_DbKay9Ng06cSaAkiEEZani3tS6CUYZqrEDF-5u5ulT-C9qjPmLJy2iHuMsn9XZ21iyDlnyQArvLp_ZJQMC77-Q/s1600-h/geneammons.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5044001938536628594" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNs6V4ztLnAcMzctDQ2itdKwBWZC7wJHXHT9W1tWxnyS5pvN5fa4Ud_DbKay9Ng06cSaAkiEEZani3tS6CUYZqrEDF-5u5ulT-C9qjPmLJy2iHuMsn9XZ21iyDlnyQArvLp_ZJQMC77-Q/s200/geneammons.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" /></a>Not all great jazz is easy to get into for non-jazz-listeners, and a lot of "introductory" lists and articles make the mistake of recommending the wrong things to beginners. Among the more easily digestible things here, The Complete Atomic Basie is a must-have, as is Art Blakey's most famous record, A Night in Tunisia. Giant Steps and My Favorite Things are John Coltrane (below left) at his most accessible. Gene Ammons' Boss Tenor (that's Gene in the picture, above right) and Kenny Dorham's Quiet Kenny are both masterpieces, and not difficult. Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool is a great bargain for $6. Django and Brilliant Corners are stone must-haves for any jazz collection. Sonny Rollins' mighty twin peaks, Saxophone Colossus and Tenor Madness, both on the list, are among the best-sounding jazz albums ever recorded—I actually have two different pressings of Saxophone Colossus on vinyl and two CD versions, and all of them sound fantastic. Horace Silver's Song for My Father is one of my own all-time favorites, as is Mulligan Meets Monk. Monk's Music is there; that one would go with any jazz fan to the apocryphal desert island (wonder where we'd get electricty? Oh well, you know what I mean). <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY_1qObmwFyHYMDhRMzkqhTj1prjJAJLdG7gpI8ITldwfbpns26bqUwuxzyhDdvzytGz31gWUogjl0Tm31OliJUam-77ooTcstxd3eHXy23Fk_1eAcDTXpvgJ4oLfOwGXpkMRYqSZJVnM/s1600-h/Coltrane-small.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5044002063090680194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY_1qObmwFyHYMDhRMzkqhTj1prjJAJLdG7gpI8ITldwfbpns26bqUwuxzyhDdvzytGz31gWUogjl0Tm31OliJUam-77ooTcstxd3eHXy23Fk_1eAcDTXpvgJ4oLfOwGXpkMRYqSZJVnM/s200/Coltrane-small.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" /></a>There are a few (relative) dogs. For instance, I'd stay away from The Great Summit: The Master Takes unless you know what you're getting into. It's accorded great reverence because it's the only time that Ken Burns's heroes of choice, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, recorded together, but it's actually only a fair Armstrong record and might as well not have Ellington on it at all, considering how little of his brilliance or personality comes through. (This is another of those jazz albums that people "buy to try" and come away from feeling vaguely disappointed. There are a lot of those in jazz. A Love Supreme is many peoples' first Coltrane record, which is unfortunate because it then becomes their last. Not that it's not a great record, but it should be peoples' eighth or tenth Coltrane CD, and their 200th jazz recording rather than their second*.) For the more adventuresome, try Andrew Hill's great first album; Stan Kenton's classically-tinged City of Glass; Thelonious Alone in San Francisco (shouldn't be your first Monk album, though); or Eric Dolphy's wonderful Out There. I have a lot of these titles on vinyl, CD, or both, and in various "audiophile" iterations, and some of these records are now as familiar as the Beatles and the Stones to me (and a quiet shout here to my younger brother Scott, who first got me into jazz, years ago). But this sale gives me a strange feeling...of envy, toward those who have yet to discover all these fantastic treasures. Anyone who has the lion's share of this music still in their future has riches in store. Posted by: MIKE JOHNSTON *And what's their first? Kind of Blue, of course, the overwhelming all-time #1 choice of People Who Only Have One Jazz Record. Fortunately that one's a great—and safe—recommendation for jazz fans and non-jazz-fans alike. Featured Comment by Bob Burnett: This sale is worth it for the Monk and Miles alone! Here are a few more thoughts for people looking for a place to jump in: Change of the Century: Ornette Coleman: A-list Coleman. This represents that glorious late '50s-early '60s moment when his quartet was the talk of the jazz world. Sunday at the Village Vanguard/Waltz with Debbie: See <a href="http://c60crew.blogspot.com/2007/03/bill-evans-complete-village-vanguard.html">my review on C60</a> of the full day of music—at $6.99 these are a perfect way to find out about that legendary and fabled summer day in NYC. Memphis Underground: Herbie Mann: A surprise album that features Sonny Sharrock on guitar in the early days of his re-shaping the range of what guitar playing can be. Sharrock is often called the Jimi Hendrix of jazz. Art Pepper: Smooth, drifting, savory stuff here. Plus it wins the award for jazz artist in the worst throes of heroin withdrawal album cover photo session. And you guys think it's tough doing a northern light photo session with a CEO! Pepper wrote wonderfully about this cover photo session in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FStraight-Life-Story-Art-Pepper%2Fdp%2F0306805588%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1174407011%26sr%3D1-1&amp;tag=theonlinephot-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325">his autobiography, Straight Life</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=theonlinephot-20&l=ur2&o=1" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />. UPDATE: We've just posted <a href="http://c60crew.blogspot.com/2007/03/thelonious-monk-septet-monks-music.html">a review of Monk's Music</a> (written by Bob) at the C60 site. —Mike

Riches in Store

OT (music again): Just FYI, iTunes is offering a nice opportunity in the form of "Jazz 101 on Sale," five pages of great classic ...

5:46 AM

Viewfinders, Round 12

I was able to compare the viewfinders of the Pentax K10D and Nikon D80 today, and discovered that they are exactly the same size. Posted by: MIKE JOHNSTON ADDENDUM: I didn't shoot with these cameras or do any sort of detailed comparison, and am not prepared to write a full review of either of them, separately or together. Although I agree it would be an interesting article. One thing I can say is that the D80 feels markedly more comfortable in my hand and held to my eye, although I could certainly live with the Pentax. This is not a judgment of either camera, really; it's simply personal preference, and you might feel the same or the opposite. It does underscore the need to "heft and hold" a camera yourself before making up your mind about it. When the Nikon D70 and Canon XT were current, I knew people who strongly preferred the ergonomics and hand-feel of one, and other people who felt the same way about the other. It's still an important consideration for most people even though it's completely subjective. ADDENDUM 2: Oh, and for what it's worth, the salesman was concerned when I asked to see the K10D and the D80 together, apparently fearing that the D80 would suffer in comparison. He suggested that the D200 was a more appropriate comparison for the K10D, and pulled one out and set it on the counter for me without being asked.

Viewfinders, Round 12

I was able to compare the viewfinders of the Pentax K10D and Nikon D80 today, and discovered that they are exactly the same size. Posted by:...

8:05 PM

Try It: The Northlight Portrait

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgENuyZ4zMUfF-r73xUzPU27tEZe3j3P7qlDXcqo98T5DZ8rLhuiX8I8Mh0mwK_ZrHPC0RO4-3ELbMg30M41XDoOJP-DtswhVo4fPGhsfQTNliDM9IgakihR60Oa4P0iYvxkqbYT89RyHU/s1600-h/northlight+diagram.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5043325649326637826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgENuyZ4zMUfF-r73xUzPU27tEZe3j3P7qlDXcqo98T5DZ8rLhuiX8I8Mh0mwK_ZrHPC0RO4-3ELbMg30M41XDoOJP-DtswhVo4fPGhsfQTNliDM9IgakihR60Oa4P0iYvxkqbYT89RyHU/s400/northlight+diagram.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>Here's a simple assignment that's a good example of one thing digital often does better than film: the classic north-facing window-light portrait. North light—long favored by painters—can be particularly beautiful in many types of weather, but it's often not very bright on the indoor side of a typical window. A film of ISO 200 or less often made for a somewhat uncomfortable balance between slow shutter speeds, motion blur, and apertures that were a bit too wide. But with a DSLR, ISO 800 or 1600 (particularly if you also have IS of some sort) can be very liberating, allowing you more latitude for experimenting to find the right aperture while still keeping the camera off a tripod and not risking subject motion blur. A few hints: try it with and without the window in the frame. If you're going tight on the head or head-and-shoulders, use a lens with a 35mm equivalent of 100mm or more—as much as 200mm if you're going in tight on just the face. Experiment with the reflector, which can be anything from a large sheet of cardboard or Fome-core (often available in the school- and stationary- supply aisle of your local drugstore) or a white bedsheet held up by a helpful assistant—anything large and white (or just light-colored, if you're converting to B&W) will do. You can experiment with reflector angle, size, or distance from the subject; the closer the reflector is, obviously, the more it will fill. Less light in the background often looks nice (bright objects in the background may be distracting), although there's often no need to be fanatical about making the background completely black. The subject can be looking at the camera or not, or out the window. This is the very light that many studio portrait lighting setups are attempting to emulate. Having a few nice window-light portraits under your belt can "calibrate your eye" to what you're looking for in the studio as well. <div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzDa86UUQN-2SdJJwjdkE0KyvedFf56srN2c1frwIrkQ8mZ354FpZskbTGpgUMTDluyDDoPJfmB98Sijvl6_TGBhVWMV3Qk9rlnSqxOgyoKmbgl_ppJN0dDNzoM6pGPPUw1AAtCOpyrIM/s1600-h/vermeer007.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5043419988283294482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzDa86UUQN-2SdJJwjdkE0KyvedFf56srN2c1frwIrkQ8mZ354FpZskbTGpgUMTDluyDDoPJfmB98Sijvl6_TGBhVWMV3Qk9rlnSqxOgyoKmbgl_ppJN0dDNzoM6pGPPUw1AAtCOpyrIM/s320/vermeer007.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>Jan Vermeer, Mistress and Maid, c. 1666–7. Many of Vermeer's scenes have the look of north light. </div> Try it. If you like what you've done, leave a link to your picture in the comments—I'd like to see, and I'm sure others would, too. Posted by: MIKE JOHNSTON

Try It: The Northlight Portrait

Here's a simple assignment that's a good example of one thing digital often does better than film: the classic north-facing window-l...

10:48 AM

On Beauty and Old Ways

The non-sarcastic version of the post below is: "progress isn't everything." Granted, progress is good. For the most part, modern improvements come about because they're needed. (Or wanted, as we sometimes discover after we have them.) Not everyone can afford wholesome, natural food ingredients, for instance, much less a wooden sailboat. And no one wants or advocates a return to the horse as the primary means of human transportation. Indeed, I've sung the praises of digital and all it can do. It enables photographers, and helps enable certain kinds of work. I'm not against it. Still, in almost all of the "old ways" I mentioned, there is some sort of merit. Each has certain aspects that are distinct and unique, and therefore rewarding, or pleasurable. Mainly, what the old ways have to offer is beauty. I mentioned the word only once in the post below, with respect to handmade furniture, but it goes for many of the other things I mentioned as well. If you haven't seen a few dozen examples of either platinum prints or dye transfers—well, you need to, that's all. (I do think inkjet prints can be lovely, too. Just not in the same way.) It's in this way that I already appreciate film. It will become a connoisseur's medium, a distinctive craft that can rise to the level of art in the right hands, much as handmade pottery or letterpress books or copperplate etchings are now. It makes no sense to depend on fine things for our happiness, but the appreciatipon of fine things can be nurturing and enriching. In times to come, few people might appreciate silver prints, and fewer will own one, and fewer still will make them. But they will continue to have a certain beauty to offer, the sort of beauty that can enrich us. The sort of beauty on which it makes no sense to turn our backs. That's my take, for what it's worth. Posted by: MIKE JOHNSTON, in non-sarcastic mode Featured Comment by Paul: Mike, it's time to introduce you to Allison's Law: 'You can be certain that a technology is truly dead when people start to pay good money just to experience it.' Steam locomotives (more running now than in 1960) are the uber-example, but there are plenty more. Particularly with something like film, which will never lose its marginal usefulness anymore that oil paints will, the afterlife of dead technologies may ultimately be more satisfying than their 'useful life.' Featured Comment by Chris: I explained it to a friend this way: imagine that Gibson and Fender came out with digital stringless guitars. Sensors on the neck recorded every finger push, bend and slide, pressure perfect. Synths and effects on board. The notes were always in tune with each other. Sound quality was always constant and there were no strings to break. In ten years, every band in the world was playing and recording with these. You have to hunt for strings for your old guitars, they’re getting scarce. That collection of awesome vintage Stratocasters and Les Pauls you have, you might get half of what you paid for it on eBay. No one has the patience for anything you have to stop and tune anymore. That, I said, is how it feels sometimes…. Featured Comment by Jeremy: You have to give it time. It takes many decades, sometimes centuries, for a technology to reach a level that satisfies viscerally. Using Maslow's pyramid to imagine how technologies develop is useful. Manufacturers have to keep addding value to their products. Once they've covered the left-brain attributes they'll move to tackle the right brain ones. Take for instance the early days of computerised typography and typesetting ('70s–'80s). They mimicked the typewriter! Awful. Scientists everywhere were publishing their articles, very many even their textbooks in them. It took the disgusted Stanford professor Donald Knuth, who was old enough to remember the days when textbooks were objects to behold in and of themselves, 10 years of solitary work to "port" the glorious craft of typography and manual typesetting over to the computer. Thus was born TeX. Now here's the sad news: Technologies today are replaced by new ones so quickly they may not have the time to go much beyond the convenient.

On Beauty and Old Ways

The non-sarcastic version of the post below is: "progress isn't everything." Granted, progress is good. For the most part, mod...

8:45 AM

Film Is Dead

<div style="text-align: right;">SA* </div> The Online Photographer is relieved to report that film continues to go downhill. Soon it will be widely unavailable, and everyone will be shooting digital, as they should. Film is inconvenient and, what's worse, old-fashioned. We all should get with the fashions! Printed books are going downhill, too. Many texts can now be found online, and there will be less and less need for bulky paper versions. Some libraries are "guillotining" rare old books—chopping off the spine, scanning the pages, and then throwing the pages away. No longer needed. Sounds modern. Good for them. No one likes tube audio amplifiers any more, either. Transistors are much more efficient, and they measure better! Less distortion, more power. Everyone likes that. Of course, CDs replaced vinyl years ago, and now CDs themselves are in steep decline. (Did you know? It's true.) Why? Well, do you know how many MP3's you can store on an iPod? Back to photography, few people want to trouble themselves with platinum/palladium prints, dye transfer, or other alternative processes. If people were still doing such work then the rest of us might have to look at it. No, that's all gone the way of the Dodo, not to mention the way of copperplate etching, stone lithography, woodcut, and other obsolete, antiquated methods of image reproduction. Good riddance. Wooden boats are dead too. Nobody likes wooden boats, and no wonder, when you can have boats made of shiny, gleaming Fiberglas. Resin molds are where it's at. Wooden boats take so much longer to make and require (ugh!) maintenance. And on that topic, who could want a boat that's powered by wind? How primitive. (Why do they think God made diesels, anyway?) Of course, view cameras are a thing of the past. That's natural. You can perform the equivalent of view camera movements in Photoshop, with less hassle. And why else would someone use a view camera? Am I right? Natural fibers are no longer valued for clothing. We can now do just as well with petroleum-derived synthetics, can we not? You have to iron cotton. Silk. Linen. Wool. Bah. People used to have to make pottery and ceramics by hand. You gotta be putting us on. Furniture can now be made by CNC machines, using dimensionally stable composites, veneers, and plastic varnishes. Much of it can be cleverly designed to be flat-packed, too, making it easy to ship. There is no longer much call for skilled craftspeople making furniture out of solid wood by hand, the only real advantage of which is beauty. Food technology has also greatly improved in recent years. We can now make an astonishing variety of foods almost completely out of corn. For instance: orange drink mix, which can be 100% corn-derived—even the citric acid in orange drink is made from corn. Cool, huh? With chemical flavorings, it's no longer necessary to worry about the quality of raw ingredients in cooking. Believe it or not, cars used to have manual transmissions. That is, you had to shift gears using a hand lever, coordinating the motion with a foot-pedal clutch. Whew. (Some such cars only had two seats, if you can believe that. And no cup-holders.) Someone please explain the appeal. Now we drive proper modern vehicles that are as tall as a full-grown man, are built on nice strong truck frames, use lots and lots of fuel (which is important, as fuel is plentiful) and can transport a whole Little League team at once. As a result, driving is more fun than ever. And while we're on the topic, let's thank our lucky stars that no one has to ride horses any more. Transportation should not require exercise, and it should certainly not have a personality. Horses are going downhill, too, just like film. Maybe they'll soon go the way of the dodo. Let's hope humankind continues to improve convenience and eliminate the need for craft. Most of all, it's important to limit choice. We wouldn't want to support alternatives, especially alternatives that are old-fashioned and require care and effort. If we don't practice them ourselves, it's important that no one else practice them either. And anyway, some film doesn't even record color. The prosecution rests. Posted by: MIKE JOHNSTON <div style="text-align: right;">*Satire Alert </div>

Film Is Dead

SA * The Online Photographer is relieved to report that film continues to go downhill. Soon it will be widely unavailable, and everyone wil...

6:32 AM