What's New

Recent publications: my photographs in the Hasselblad 2010 calendar & Photographer magazine article

Latest reviews: Nikon D700 camera & Hasselblad CFV–39 digital back

1 February 2010

My comparison of the 28mm lenses from Nikon, Zeiss and Leica is now online. I often read or hear that Zeiss design and produce some of the best lenses and that Leica optics are unsurpassed. This, however, is often stated in general terms and finding out where exactly, and by how much, Leica and Zeiss lenses are better than optics from other brands was absolutely fascinating.

28 January 2010

As you most likely already know, Apple have announced the iPad. My reaction? Sitting at my almost two year old but still fairly state–of–the–art eight–core Mac Pro, with a MacBook Air lying somewhere around the apartment, I realise that all I really need is a piece of paper, a pencil and something worthwhile to say.

Rumours are that Nikon will bring about a storm with new announcements in early February. Whatever it will be, however, all I really need is being smart and lucky enough to be in the right place, at the right time with any decent camera system, digital or film.

21 January 2010

Yesterday in Shanghai there was the first—hopefully not the last—concert of Boris Grebenshchikov, one of the founding fathers of Russian rock music. It was absolutely brilliant and I feel sorry for those who missed it.

Boris Grebenshchikov in Shanghai

As usual, I was shooting with my Nikon D700 and, on a technical note, have to say that the camera's matrix metering performed very poorly in this kind of lighting—it grossly overexposed and I ended up dialing in -1 compensation. Looking at the RAW files now, I should have shot at -1.7 to better preserve highlights. No matter how smart cameras get they still have no way of knowing what you are after.

19 January 2010

My friend Andrew Lee, who is an avid Nikon shooter, uses Leica R series lenses converted to Nikon F mount alongside his extensive collection of Nikkors. He happens to own the Leica Elmarit–R 2.8/28 lens and has lent it to me to add to the other two 28mm lenses that I currently have at my disposal. So I now have three lenses to juxtapose—AF Nikkor 28mm f/2.8D, Carl Zeiss Distagon 2/28 ZF and Leica Elmarit–R 2.8/28—and am in the process of comparing them in terms of all the aspects that I usually consider when testing lenses.

Why am I doing this? Simply out of curiosity and for my own educational purposes. First, there is a massive price difference between the lenses (the Nikkor costs USD260, the Zeiss is priced at USD1030 and the Leica goes for around two grand—if you can find it, that is), and I am interested to see what the monetary differences translate into in relation to their optical performance. Second, I want to see what the design priorities of the three venerable lens makers were when they conceived the lenses.

I will let you know all the details in due course but, to spill the beans, my initial impression has been that, optically, the Leica is a better performer than the other two contenders; at the same time, I am not sure yet that I would spend the extra to get the Zeiss instead of the Nikkor. Stay tuned!

12 January 2010

I have lost count how many times I have traveled to The Yellow Mountain (Anhui Province, China). I do remember, though, that I first photographed there with the Nikon F100, which should give you an idea how long ago that was, then with the Nikon F6 (another time indicator), and later with the Hasselblad V system. The place is notoriously difficult to photograph and after all the trips I only have ten worthy images in The Yellow Mountain Gallery. Plain sunlight is no good, rain does not cut it, and fog is not enough—it has to be a voodoo combination of all these elements to bring out the magic and hear Bitches Brew playing.

I had a few days of holidays around New Year's Day and thought it would be great to get away from the rat race of Shanghai and spend some time in a quiet place thinking about, sorting through and pinning down various stuff in my mind; an opportunity to do some photography at the same time would be very much welcome, too. I had been keeping an eye on the weather in The Yellow Mountain from early December and, as it had been snowing a lot there this winter, I immediately thought of visiting the place again. Knowing how capricious the mountain is, however, I had no photographic expectations—just give me a chance to slow down and think calmly and I am a happy camper; if I also happen to bring back one or two worthy images, it would be icing on the cake. So off to The Yellow Mountain I went.

As I suspected, the weather was appalling for photography—it was changing between flat sunlight, wet snow, drizzling rain and dull fog in a mockery fashion, and the magic seemed to have left the mountain. To make things worse, I made the mistake of bringing too much gear with me, which slowed me down both physically and aesthetically. Generally, I am an advocate of the minimalist approach and do not take anything unless I am positive it is going to be crucial. This time around, however, I wanted to try out a new camera backpack and it turned out to be too big for my own good, as the extra space made me give in to the temptation of bringing a few extra items that I did not really need. The Yellow Mountain is anything but flat—if you are not hiking downhill you are certainly climbing—and carrying too much equipment is the last thing you want to do. So there I was, lugging too much stuff in uninspiring light, almost ready to accept that the photographic part of the trip was going to be a failure.

Good things, however, often happen when you least expect them. Towards the end of the last day I must have been lost in thought, or simply tired of hiking, and did not immediately notice that the weather had shifted—favourably, for once. It did not exactly change, but something in the atmosphere was no longer the same—the light had a different quality to it, the sky had clearly changed its mood, and I heard Pharaoh's Dance starting playing at the back of my mind. All of a sudden my camera bag became light as a feather and I rushed to where I envisioned would be a great spot for photography at that time of the day. As expected, there came the moment when you tell yourself to slow down and not waste film shooting the same scene over and over again yet consistently fail to listen to your own experienced advice. That moment was indeed exhilarating (as was savouring Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin on New Year's Eve on the top of the mountain ) and abundantly made up for the previous days of visual boredom—have a look at the current home page photograph.

As you might recall, I mentioned in the end of last year that I currently have access to Carl Zeiss ZF lenses. The Distagon T* 2/28 is now mounted on my Nikon D700 and I have started putting it through its paces. My point of comparison will be the AF Nikkor 28mm f/2.8D, which I tested recently and was not very happy with its performance on a full–frame DSLR. A 28mm lens would be my first choice if I wanted to use only one general purpose wide–angle lens, so let us see if the Zeiss lens is a solid enough performer for those who favour this focal length. More on this in the near future.

5 January 2010

One sunny day in December I was savouring a late afternoon no–foam caffelatte in one of the cafés that I frequent. The place was nearly empty, and apart from me there was only one visitor—a young, attractive woman sitting five or six tables away. Intermittently switching between reading a book, doing something on her computer and writing notes in a notepad, she was anything by idle. The title of the book was not legible from where I was sitting but one word on the cover was in an immodestly large font and asked to be noticed—"style". Hmm... style? Curious, I peered at the cover and read the full title—"The Elements of Style". Even more intrigued, I googled the book on my iPhone, read what it was about and... ordered it on the same day.

The little red book is now with me more often than any other book or magazine, and I wish I had learned of its existence much earlier. That said, what, when and how we get to know in life is often an unexpected surprise when it occurs yet makes perfect sense when you look back at it. Everything comes in due time, I suppose.

The last part of my Nikon D700 camera review, Miscellaneous notes and conclusion, is finally online. It only took me slightly over a year to finish the review .

I have been very critical of how Epson have been managing the printer driver and firmware issue and here is yet another example of the company's inconsistent approach: a reader recently pointed out that the latest driver version for the Epson 4880 printer is 6.55 (released on 11 June 2009) and the printer's latest firmware is B0288B (released on 10 February 2009); the driver and the firmware can be downloaded from the Epson Europe Web site. The Web site of Epson USA, however, still has driver v6.12 (posted on 18 September 2008) and firmware B01483 (posted on 4 September 2008) as their latest offerings. Again, there is no information on the differences between the older and the newer versions of the drivers and the firmware or explanation as to what the newer versions have addressed and/or added. Will this ever change?

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