More Stuff I'm Reading.

Just some interesting items from around the photo blogoshpere.

• Timbuk2 Snoop Insert Transforms a Normal Messenger Bag Into A Camera Bag - at Popular Photography.
• The Man Who Inspired Jobs - A nice piece at the New York Times about Edwin Land. I've posted about his connection to Steve Jobs before. Via The Online Photographer.
• No new Pentax cameras in 2011 says Photo Rumors. But the more interesting part to me was this bit at the end of the post. "The Pentax camera division will not merge with the Ricoh camera division in the coming year."
• Keep your Photoshop presets safe with Dropbox - A very handy Photoshop tip from fine folks at Drawn.
• And finally, Thom Hogan says that Olympus is about to drop the price of the E-PL1 kit to $399 and throw in a $100 rebate.

Pentax Ricoh Imaging Company

Well, it's official; my old favorite camera company, and current favorite camera company, are now one. They issued a press release today stating that the deal is done. I wonder if they'll continue with two distinct camera lines under the Pentax and Ricoh names? Or maybe they'll just go with Pentax Ricoh, like Konica Minolta did.

Via Ricoh-28mm.

Pentax 67II Brochure

When I got into photography, back in the '90s, you could call or email a manufacturer and get a beautiful, four color brochure of the product you were interested in sent directly to your mailbox. They usually contained a complete illustrated list of all lenses and accessories in the system. This one even included spot meters, loupes and a copy stand. It was a great service for people that don't live in major metropolitan areas, and don't have easy access to a camera store.

A few of the manufacturers still make these available. There's a page in Nikon's FAQ about it. But I couldn't find anything at the Pentax or Ricoh websites. I didn't check anywhere else, that's what I'm interested in right now.

Anyway, I unearthed a small cache of these in my attic, and I'll be posting them as I have time to scan them. I'll even post a few unusual product manuals I found as well.

I really wanted to get into medium format in the 90s, and the Pentax 67 is one of those cameras that I've always had an interest in. I've never actually laid hands on one in person, but I've always liked their 35mm manual focus SLRs, and I think their lenses are second to none.

P67II_brochure.pdf - Sixteen pages, full color (14MB)

Beginner dSLR and Mirrorless Recommendations

001_6373, originally uploaded by infrar3d.

This is the second email, where I try to make some recommendations for more advanced cameras. The criteria here were mostly the same, just with one additional point.

• Ease of use
• Good image quality
• Macro capability
• Less than $600
• Shallow depth of field

Obviously, a few of these recommendations break the $600 mark, but it can be done. I think probably a Nikon D40x and a 35mm f/1.8G would be the best and most economical choice. And macro capability is just that - capability. You'd have to add another lens, or get diopters.

Here's the text of the second email.

You asked me the other day how to get a "3d effect" in your photos. That comes from having a shallow depth of field, as in the photo above.

Any camera can get that look when you're shooting macro, like the photo I linked earlier. But if you want to get that look at normal shooting distances you need a camera with a larger sensor and a fast lens. That means either a dSLR, or a "mirrorless" camera. Both types of cameras have interchangeable lenses, so you can get something fast. The speed of a lens refers to the aperture, and the smaller the number the faster it is. You'll want something f/2.8 or faster.

There are a lot of choices. Most of the manufacturers make something decent. Let's do the mirrorless cameras first. They're smaller than DSLRs, but won't quite fit in your pocket.

Panasonic GF1 or GF2 with a 20mm f/1.7 lens.
Olympus E-PL1 or E-P2 with a 17mm f/2.8 lens.

And here are a couple of dSLRs.

Pentax K-x or K-r with a 35mm f/2.4 lens.
Nikon D40, D40x, D3000, D3100 or D5000 with a 35mm f/1.8 lens.

There are a lot more dSLRs to choose from, but these are the brands I'm familiar with.

The Case for a New Camera

002_1814, originally uploaded by infrar3d.

I've been thinking a lot lately about upgrading my D1x, which is getting pretty long in the tooth. I'm not in a huge rush, so I'm taking my time and enjoying the thought process. My gut reaction is a D700. I get to use one occasionally at work and really like it, but there are other considerations, like video and lens choices.

So I've been trying to make a list of pros and cons to help with the decision, and I've pretty much narrowed it down to three options. Here's what I have so far. I'll start with my current gear.

Sometimes I Miss the Nineties

000_0009, originally uploaded by infrar3d.

I was going through some things in storage recently, and found a few boxes of photography-related stuff I thought I'd lost in Katrina. Some cool old cameras, a bunch of old prints and negatives, and even some film.

I posted several of the prints in my Flickr stream. These were from a couple of shoots I did in 1998 I think, for modeling portfolios a couple of friends of mine were putting together.

Some of these were taken on location, and some in my very short-lived studio. All were taken with a Pentax ME Super, and an SMC-M 50mm f/1.4. All shot on Ilford XP2, which I used often in those days, when I didn't have time for hand processing Tri-X.

I noticed one of the photos from that set got blogged at Film is God.

Pentax 645D Review at LL

I just finished reading Nick Devlin's early review of the Pentax 645D over at Luminous Landscape. It's worth a read, if you're interested in a $10,000 medium format digital SLR.

Nick points out that the 645D inherits some of the modern DSLR handling characteristics from the Pentax K-7/K-5. I think I've read similar statements over on the Pentax forums. But I noticed, from the pictures accompanying the review, that the top panel is also a bit reminiscent of the legendary Pentax MZ-S, with it's slanted control panel.