Check out this super-sweet how-to on printing projected images on geranium leaves from Grand Illusions.
Month: January 2006
Unconfirmed rumor: Hasselblad discontinue XPan II panoramic rangefinder
According to this post on photo.net, Hasselblad have discontinued the XPan II and have limited stock on hand. I will call Hasselblad on Monday, 16 January 2006 and attempt to confirm with them directly.
While I think it’s a damn shame, I’m not surprised, either. While I haven’t used the XPan II, I have and love the original. It’s built like a brick shithouse, the controls are perfectly laid out for me (except the panoramic/normal 24×36 selecter, which is a pain, but it should be considering what it does), has modern film loading, winds the entire roll out when it loads and rewinds exposed film into the cartridge (why the hell doesn’t every camera do this? If the back opens, I’d much rather lose blank film rather than frames I’ve already shot!), and has the best in-camera meter I’ve ever used.
But! The lenses, the lenses! Only three, slow, expensive lenses (the 30mm weighs in at a hefty US $3000). (30mm f/5.6 (slower with the required center filter), 45mm f/4, and 90mm f/4.) By Leica (yes, I’m going there) standards, the 45 and 90 are reasonably priced at $594 and $730, respectively (pricing from B&H). It seems that Hasselblad missed an opportunity to take a bite out of Leica’s ass with this system. I’m its perfect target market: I shoot film, dig manual focus rangefinders, want aperture priority AE, and belive that if I’m going to spend that kind of money, I should get post stone-age film loading and a shutter with accuracy of greater than 1/3 stop and would have happily bought faster lenses were they available. I think there are more of us out there.
And while I’m perfectly willing to push film to 128000, f/4 is still slow. Even putting aside the obscene price of the 30mm, the required center filter brings it down to almost f/11. I don’t think Hasselblad considered the possibility that anyone would want to use the camera indoors, which is a shame. Until I got into the Contax G2 system (which I love but wouldn’t have done had I had faster lenses to choose from!), it was my take-everywhere, joined-at-the-hip, disappeared-in-my-hands camera, and I loved it. Except the low light thing. (Well then why the hell did I get into the system in the first place? I inherited it.)
Anyway, I’m sad to see it go. It’s a great camera. Almost everyone I know who’s actually spent some time with one loves it. Bye bye, XPan!
Nikon discontinue manufacture of most film equipment
According to this press release from Nikon UK, Nikon are discontinuing production of most film equipment, including their range of large format lenses.
The flagship pro SLR F6 and the manual SLR FM10 stay, as well as the following manual lenses:
Nikkor 20mm f/2.8
Nikkor 24mm f/2.8
Nikkor 28mm f/2.8
Nikkor 35mm f/1.4
Nikkor 50mm f/1.2
Nikkor 50mm f/1.4
Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/2.8
Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8
PC Micro-Nikkor 85mm f/2.8D
Everything else is gone in favor of digital.
I wonder if Zeiss knew about this as they appear to be launching a range of Nikon F-mount lenses (see previous post). I suppose the implications could go either way for Zeiss… there are an awful lot of Nikon bodies out there.
Adobe Lightroom: Adobe’s answer to Aperture, free public beta for MacOS X
Today Adobe announced Lightroom, their answer to Apple’s Aperture, a soup-to-nuts RAW workflow program (keywording & metadata, cataloging, RAW conversion, and presentation). Looks like it’ll work with TIFFs and JPGs as well, which will make it dead useful for film photographers who scan their work and need a better way to manage it.
From the Lightroom Page:
"Lightroom Beta lets you view, zoom in, and compare photographs quickly and easily. Precise, photography-specific adjustments allow you to fine tune your images while maintaining the highest level of image quality from capture through output. And best of all, it runs on most commonly used computers, even notebook computers used on location. Initially available as a beta for Macintosh, Lightroom will later support both the Windows and Macintosh platforms."
You can download a free public beta (build 1) for MacOS X 10.4 (Tiger) from Adobe Labs.
Michael Reichmann has written a First Look and Primer on Luminous Landscape. You can also read the PDF press release from Adobe UK and the FAQ (via PhotographyBLOG, who have copied the FAQ out of the not-directly-linkable version on Adobe’s site).
I’m about to give it a go. I’ve been demoing every media manager I can get my hands on and haven’t found anything I like so far. I really hope that Adobe have nailed this one.
Another quasi-update on the new Zeiss lenses
Zeiss’ Camera/Cine Lenses page says that they’re releasing new lenses for SLRs (see previous posts 1 and 2). After a few hints over the last few weeks, it now says, "The solution will be revealed on 01/18/06. Until then, you will find out a little more each week from our images.".
So far, they’ve said "ZF", so they’re likely in Nikon F mount, and there’s now a picture of a lens labeled "Planar 1.4/50".