Appreciating Life

6FPS V1#4

Welcome to the new issue of 6FPS. This issue is a bit later than I'd originally planned, for reasons which will become clear shortly. I'm headed back down to SoCal Friday for a few days with my sister, then back home to deal with some stuff that is inconvenient to reschedule, then back south again for a bit to spend more time with her while I can.

I'm perhaps going to carve out a bit of time to bird down there, but we'll see how it goes. And get some work done, since I'm slipping some schedules I would rather not right now.

But it's important to do what you ought to do, and sort out the rest as you can. That's my mantra right now.

This issue is short on writing, but I've picked up a lot of interesting links I'm sorting through so that area will be longer than usual.

And if any of you are in the general vicinity of Cal State ("go Titans") Fullerton, or as I used to call it on the debate team, the Fullerton University of Knowledge (or did, until my debate coach noticed) maybe we can find time and space for a coffee on one of these trips and say hi. drop me a note and we'll see how it goes.

And so, without further delay then, on with the show! And thank you for being part of this.

This issue brought to you almost live, from a secret lair deep within a secret volcano in the bowels of Silicon Valley...

What's New?

Here are a few other things I thought you might find of interest:

  • The New Piece of Gear that's reinventing my Photography: hint -- it's a box.

  • Time off on the Oregon Coast: All of these images are from my iPhone 7, not the Fuji. It was a nice reminder just how good and useful the phone camera is these days, even before upgrading to the new iPhone Xs, which I'm starting to experiment with.

  • F--K Cancer and September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month: The elephant in the room, with my sister in hospice with Lung Cancer. Stephen was able to raise over $60,000 this year, and I'm happy to be a small part of that.

  • Flickr: I have finally gotten most of what I wanted on Flickr uploaded and organized, and it's now where you can see my extended set of images. Smugmug continues to be where I show off my core portfolio images and offer print sales.

The onslaught of cameras at Photokina (Things Photographic)

As I write this, Photokina 2018 has closed and between the show itself and the run-up to it, it seems like every camera manufacturer in the universe threw out new cameras, new platforms and major upgrades into the market.

By my count, there were as many as a dozen cameras, or camera platforms, or upgrades announced or released in the few weeks leading up to Photokina or at the show. There's been a lot of punditing and yelling and arguing about all of this, but one thing I haven't seen anyone comment on: as far as I can tell, none of the major offerings was a DLSR. It was all Mirrorless, digital medium format, or specialty point and shoot.

That may be the most significant news of the show: anyone who thinks DLSRs are going to hold off the onslaught of the Mirrorless camera trend needs to re-evaluate that position.

To reinforce that even more, both Canon and Nikon released: Mirrorless cameras and new lens platforms to support them -- along with lens adapters for existing lens mounts. Both companies had previously experimented with mirrorless, and the best that can be said for either was that they could be safely ignored by all of us, because both companies came out with cameras that seemed mostly designed to not cannibalize their DLSR sales. Which of course they didn't, which meant the people who did switch went to Sony or Fuji.

These new platforms recognize that mistake and begin to correct it, but both companies are a behind on technology and need to innovate quickly to catch up. These are good starts, though, decent first generation products with a rational forward path, so if you're someone considering a shift to mirrorless but wanting to protect your lens investment, you now have options that won't make you embarassed to be seen in public with it.

Another big deal: Leica, Panasonic and Sigma announce the full-frame L-mount. This is, if you ask me, the first step in the eventual end of Micro 4/3 in favor of more modern technologies, but to their credit the companies seem serious in supporting the older platform for now as well. I think this could be a really big deal down the road.

The final big trend? Medium format, with multiple big, crazy cameras announced with Fuji showing off both a 50 Megapixel and a 100 Megapixel unit, Leica, Panasonic and Hasselblad units, and, of course, the new L-mount.

The industry has hit the point of the seismic shift: DLSRs aren't dead, but all of the energy and innovation seems to be happening elsewhere, with Mirrorless platforms maturing nicely, and medium format emerging for those that need that next level of (really expensive) quality.

One thing I wonder: after this year, Photokina shifts from being an every other year event to annual. I'm curious whether this is a good or bad thing for the show; will it grow into being even more influential? Or will it fade and become less dominant by losing that "special" status it seemed to have? Time will tell.

One Thing: Meet my new X-T3

There's a new toy in the family; my new X-T3 has arrived.

Originally I hadn't planned on buying it, but on vacation Laurie asked about it and let it be known she was interested in upgrading her setup, replacing her X-T1 and selling off the last of her Canon gear. When we got back, she got my X-T2 body, and we bought her a Fuji 100-400 and a 1.4x to mimic mine, which aloing with the 18-135 gives her a good range for the work she does. I have the same lenses, along with the 18-55 which I use mostly for video, and I decided to add the 50-140 F2.8 R to the collection, which is the Fuji equivalent of a 70-200F2.8 L in Canon land. I would have been happy with an F/4 equivalent to keep weight down, but the Fuji 55-200 is a lot more like the Canon 70-300, meaning it's a nice, inexpensive, serviceable but not outstanding lens. I decided if I was going to go for it, I'd go for the red bad lenses, which are equivalent to Canon's L glass line.

First reactions? It's almost impossible to tell the difference in the exteriors. I haven't (as I write this) had a chance to go out and shoot anything useful, but I have done some shots here in the office, and I like the handling.

Here, for your amusement, is the entire family.

That includes the X-T3 and my X-T20 that I use for video and as a 2nd body, the 100-400 +1.4x (560mm total reach), the 18-55, the 18-136 and 50-140, my 60mm Macro, and a Rokinon 8mm fisheye, which is purely a lens to experiment and play with.

Here's a first image shot using the X-T3 and the 18-55 here in the office.

And amusing note on this. This was shot at ISO 1000, F3.5 at 15mm, handheld using factory settings. I showed this image to someone and they made noises about a lot of grain for ISO 1000 I spent time studying the image at 100%, and finally came to the conclusion he was complaining about the grain in the image on the monitor, which is a noisy image, and I think that says something about the detail this camera's picking up.

Two early things about this new body:

The first thing my X-T3 did: tell me I should upgrade my batteries to the newer NP-W126s from the older NP-W126 because they will run down faster. it did this both to my older fuji batteries and my wasabi batteries.

What makes me curious about this... the old fuji battery was 1260 miliamps. The new S battery is... 1260 miliamps. And the wasabi is 1400 miliamps. I am going to do some digging into why the change and see what I come up with, but this seems a bit weird. some early checking indicates this may be because the batteries run hotter in the X-T3 and the new S batteries are better at heat disbursement, so they hold up better. 

The next thing the camera did was suggest I pair it to my phone and the fuji App on it. I did, and it called out a firmware update and proceeded to download it to the camera and update it. This is a much easier way to do this than on older bodies, and I think it's awesome. I need to see if it recognizes and reports downrev firmware on lenses, too.

The X-T3 had a bluetooth interface for simple communication with the phone, and then auto-switches to WIFI when it needs to transfer a hunk of data -- like an image. the image you see above was taken on the X-T3, transferred to the iPhone via the app, which stuck it into the camera roll, which shifted it to my iMac, where I exported it and used the copy here. All without ever taking the card out of the camera. 

For times when you want a single image quickly for some reason -- like Instagram, there's now a good, easy way to transfer it for use without a lot of hassle or extra hardware. A nice improvement of the Fuji app since last time I tried it. Looking forward to exploring it further. 

Why the 50-140? 


Why did I buy the 50-140? I've been evaluating a bunch of things in my photography, including the kinds of images that I really like and what's in my portfolio, and I was struck at how often the photographers I really like -- like William Neill and Michael Frye -- use the 70-200 to good effect, and how I never do. 

While the 100-400 covers that telephoto range, it's a big bear; not nearly as bad as the Canon equivalents, but still a hunk of glass to carry, and if I wanted to spend more time exploring these kinds of images without giving myself a hernia, getting the 50-140 made sense, and as long as I was spending money.... I decided to go for it. 

Too bad it's not an F/4 (and even smaller and lighter), but I simply couldn't see myself doing serious landscape work with a 600mm lens on a regular basis. 

We'll see how that goes this fall. I think it closes a gap in my images I hadn't really thought much about until recently. 

For Your Consideration

Reviews

To start 2018 I gave myself a challenge to finish two books a month and get back to reading more. About half of my reading is actually listening, since I hit middle age and progressive lenses in my glasses, I've discovered the joy of audio books, and that's helped me keep up the rhythm.

My reading splits into two main categories: Science Fiction and Fantasy, and history/biography, especially military history non-fiction. I also end up reading a sprinkling of business type books. As of August 1, I've finished 26 titles, and here are a few recent reads I can suggest you might find interesting:

  • (this will return next issue. sorry)

About 6FPS and Chuq

6FPS (Six Frames Per Second) is a newsletter of interesting things and commentary from Chuq Von Rospach (6fsp@chuqui.com).

Coming out about every two weeks, I will place in your inbox a few things I hope will inform and delight you. There is too much mediocre, forgettable stuff attacking your eyeballs every day you're online; this is my little way to help you cut through the noise to some interesting things you might otherwise not find.

Know someone who might want to subscribe? Send them here. You'll also find the archives there if you want to look at previous issues.

See you in a couple of weeks


And with that, I'll see you in a couple of weeks with the next issue. I'd love feedback on this, what you like, what you want more of, what you want less of. And if you have something interesting you think I might want to talk about, please pass it along.

Until then, take care, and have fun.

Chuq

Copyright © 2018 Chuq Von Rospach, All rights reserved.