Month: June 2006

ISO 24,000 film is not to be

Nicolai Grossman 1 Comment

In May, I re-posted Oran Grad’s post from The Online Photographer about a high-speed, ISO 24,000 black and white reversal (slide) film that Kodak’s research department came up with and was quite excited about its implications for pinhole and zone plate photography. Unfortunately, it appears that there wasn’t enough interest and they will not be offering the film commercially.

I received this from them via email:

The purpose of Dr. Gilman’s presentation, "A High-Speed Direct Positive Photothermographic System", was to share information on an innovative technology and to showcase its potential. Eastman Kodak Company invents and evaluates many technologies annually for possible commercial applications. However, Kodak does not have any plans to make this technology available in a commercial product.

I guess it’s time to start pushing the hell out of ISO 3200 film. I’ve successfully pushed Kodak T-MAX 3200 (TMZ) to 12800 using T-MAX developer and will see if I can coax another stop out of it or Delta 3200 to achieve the equivalent speed and report back with the results. It’ll be a negative instead of a positive and will have boulder-sized grain, but I’m still really excited about the prospect of handheld, freeze-frame, normal shutter speed pinhole photography.

More thoughts on the Jill Greenberg controversy at Hawk’s Digital Connection

Nicolai Grossman 2 Comments

Ok, so it seems like the heat is turning up on this Jill Greenberg controversy stuff. You remember Jill. The woman who takes photos of the emotionally wrenched kids in the name of art against the Bush administration (I think)…

From Hawk’s previous post on the subject:

So what is Jill Greenberg doing? She is taking babies, toddlers under three years old, stripping them of their clothes and then provoking them to various states of emotional distress, anger, rage etc. — so that she can then take photos of them this way to "illustrate her personal beliefs." If you’d like to see how worked up she can get these kids you can click through here. Be warned that it is graphic. Although the children are not sexualized, I consider what she is doing child pornography of the worst kind.

Continue reading at Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection

After looking at the photos, I agree.

How can I have a problem with this and not with Witkin (NSFW)? Easy: informed consent. It differentiates sex from rape, boxing from assault, and DNR orders from murder… an important concept, to be sure. Witkin’s models know what they’re getting into and freely choose it. With kids of this age, there’s no way to make a legal or moral argument that they’ve been informed or have consented—that’s what makes it abuse.

I’m a big believer in fighting ideas rather than people, but in this case, I can’t pretend that I don’t think that Jill Greenberg—personally, not just her methods—is a reprehensible piece of shit. And where the fuck were these kids’ parents?? I sincerely hope that every one of the subjects finds a way to sue the ever-loving fuck out of everyone involved in this shameful affair.

New large format P&S cameras

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Oren Grad writes at The Online Photographer:

Check out the re-launched, much improved website of Fotoman Camera. This Hong Kong-based company is known for its well-made, (relatively) inexpensive, interchangeable lens, scale focusing, roll film panorama cameras in 6×12, 6×17 and 6×24 formats. A long-awaited second lineup of large format point-and-shoot cameras has now finally become available, including an ultralight 4×5, an 8×10 and—surprise!—a 4×10 panoramic P&S. Helical focus mounts, viewfinders, a comprehensive selection of regular and panoramic viewfinder masks and a dual-axis bubble level are now offered separately as well for users who would like to mix-and-match with their own equipment.

They actually are relatively reasonably priced. I’m not quite sure when $699 US because "reasonable" for a metal spacer with lens and film holder mounts, but it is compared to what else is out there (typically $1500 and up(!)). By Grapthar’s hammer… what a savings.

Check them out at Fotoman Camera

Horseman SW-D Pro super wide angle camera

Nicolai Grossman 4 Comments

Direct Source Marketing (DSM) Press Release:

CONCORD, CA, June 22, 2006 – A joint venture between Rolleiflex and Horseman today announced one of the widest angle cameras on the market, Horseman SW-D Pro, which accepts digital camera backs to give professional and high-end consumer photographers wide angle opportunities that weren’t available in the past for medium format digital photography. Some of the possibilities not generally accessible for medium format digital photography in the past include super wide angle lenses and bellows-like movements.

Super Wide Angle Lens

Super wide angle lenses were not commonly usable with digital camera backs in the past, because of physical limitations of the camera body. But now, with the Horseman’s new design, you can use a 24mm lens unit with any digital back equipped with a Hasselblad V® mount.

The 24mm lens unit in combination with a 38 x 48mm image sensor provides the same angle of view as a 17mm lens with the 35mm format. This super wide angle is especially useful in interior architecture and landscape photography, but there are many other applications.

The Horseman SW-D Pro lens units come quipped with German Schneider and Rodenstock digital lenses. The shortest focal length, the Schneider Apo-Digitar XL24, is one of four available lens units that include Rodenstock Apo-Sironar digital lenses of 35, 45 and 55mm focal lengths. Horseman SW series (originally for film cameras) lenses can also be used.

All of the available lenses are optimized for digital demands, which mean a smaller image circle with high optical resolution and contrast. This is important because for digital photography, lenses are designed to provide optimum MTF at relatively wide apertures since resolution of the digital image drops visibly at stopped-down apertures (f-stops).

Control of Movement

The Horseman SW-D Pro gives you the freedom of bellows-like movements and adjustments for work that benefits from rise, fall or image plane shift… Maximum rise and fall are 17mm in either direction or (with a 24mm lens unit), 10mm. Sideward shift of the image plane is possible by 15mm in either left or right direction. By combining shift with several exposures, images can be "stitched", resulting in maximum image sizes of up to 48 x 66mm or 36 x 78mm (depending on image sensor orientation). For professionals, being able to manipulate camera movement can make all the difference in sharpness and photo quality.

Franke & Heidecke, manufacturer of the Rollei medium format camera in Germany, and Komamura (Horseman), a leading manufacturer of medium and large format cameras in Japan, announced in February their joint venture to distribute their medium and large format professional cameras in the U.S. through Komamura and doing business as Direct Source Marketing. DSM was created as a result of the joint venture between Komamura Corporation, a long time distributor of Rollei and Horseman products in Japan, and Franke & Heidecke, the Germany-based manufacturer of Rollei products.

The Horseman SW-D Pro is currently available from leading high-end retailers. For more information, go to www.dsmww.com

Suggested retail for the camera is $2,799. Lens pricing is $3,899 for the 24mm lens with APO-DIGITAR 24/5.6; $2,499 for the 35mm lens with the APO-SIRONAR-DIGITAL 35/4.5; $2,599.for the 45mm lens with the APO-SIRONAR-DIGITAL 45/4.5; and $2,599 for the 55MM lens with the APO-SIRONAR-DIGITAL 55/4.5.

Via PhotographyBLOG

Canon PROGRAPH iPF5000 printer review at The Luminous Landscape

Nicolai Grossman 1 Comment

Michael Reichmann at The Luminous Landscape has just posted a review of Canon’s new iPF5000 inkjet printer. This is of partcicluar interest because Epson has been the only game in town for fine art photographic printing until this March, when Canon and HP both announced their own offerings at this years PMA trade show. Now that there’s some competition, let’s see how they stack up!

Reichmann writes:

In May, 2006 Canon began shipping the iPF5000 printer. This is a 12 ink, pigment-based, 17″ carriage photographic printer capable of printing in 16 bit mode. It is physically large, moderately priced (for what it does), and, as will be seen, surpasses just about every other fine-art inkjet printer yet available, in terms of both image quality and convenience of features.

This review is based on three weeks of almost daily use of the iPF5000. By way of background, over the past 10 years I have been using a range of Epson printers, including, most recently, the Pro 5500, 4000, and 4800 models. These, especially the current Epson Pro 4800 model, will be my points of comparison.

Continue reading at The Luminous Landscape

Weird pinhole camera roundup

Nicolai Grossman 18 Comments

Chris Keeney's Spamera pinhole camera

The great thing about making cameras is that they’re really dead simple: box + light detector (film or sensor) + hold for light = camera. When there’s no lens involved, there’s heaps of room for creativity. While many people opt for more traditional materials like wood, metal, foamcore, or modify an existing camera, some people go all out.

Here’s a [doubtless incomplete] roundup of some of the stranger things I’ve seen people make pinhole cameras out of, to date. Note that many of these links have construction instructions!

If you’re looking to build your own, f295 Lensless Photography Discussion Forum is a great resource full of freakishly helpful camera hackers.

Know of anything I missed? Tell us!