Month: September 2006

Photographer Mr. E Cipher launches kickass Web site

Nicolai Grossman 2 Comments

Screenshot of Mr. E Cipher's new Web site

Photographer Mr. E Cipher has just launched a Web site, and I’m happy to report that it kicks as much ass as his work does. Seriously. It looks great, is easy and straightforward to use, communicates the necessary info, and doesn’t bog you down with a bunch of irrelevant crap or 8-second cross-fades between images while still getting his unique style across—it lets you get down to the business of looking at and buying good photography. Hallelujah!

The screenshot says “Prints for sale (cheap!)”, and it isn’t lying: you can’t beat an 8×8 of badass photography for $25 with a stick.

Check him out at mr-e-cipher.com.

Sekonic Digital Master L-758 light meter

Nicolai Grossman 1 Comment

JP Distribution Press Release:

JP Distribution is pleased to announce the new Digital Master L-758 Light Meter from Sekonic. The Digital Master L-758 is the world’s first multi-functional light meter that can be calibrated to match the sensitivity of a digital cameras sensor at all ISO settings, flash/ambient or file format characteristics. Sekonic have ensured that the L-758 offers photographers the greatest digital exposure control, accuracy and repeatability.

Main Features:

  • Three different camera exposure profiles that can be stored and quickly recalled when switched from one camera to another
  • USB cable allows all camera exposure profile data to be uploaded from a PC or MAC computer to the L-758
  • Exposure Latitude Warning – this will flash on the analogue scale if a measured highlight or shadow has exceeded the dynamic range or clipping point of your camera
  • Memory mode which can store up to nine readings in both Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority Modes.
  • One-degree Spot with Digital Display
  • Preset filter compensation values.

For any additional information on Sekonic, please contact JP Distribution:

Telephone: 01782 753304
Fax: 01782 753377

This looks like a good tool for film as well as digital shooters—exposure latitude warnings would be useful no matter what—but it also causes me to ask why the hell this is necessary to begin with. It’s great that this tool fills a void, but why the hell can’t camera manufacturers make ISO 100 actually ISO 100 to begin with? The S in ISO stands for Standards, and I think that calling something a standard and not adhering to it is false advertising. Camera makers, sort yourselves out!

Via PhotographyBLOG

mooncruise* September 2006 issue 2.04 is up

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Cover of mooncruise issue 2.04, September 2006

The September 2006 issue (Vol 2, Issue 4) of mooncruise*, an online magazine featuring photography and music by international artists, is now up and ready for viewing.

In this issue

PHOTOGRAPHY by: Anthony Kurtz, Brian Sorg, Fred Heuning, Gavin Thomas, Geert Oeser, Gianna Schade, Grant Willing, Holger Stoehrmann, Jacob Carter, Johnny Mcmillan, Jon Ongkiehong, Kevin Convery, Martin Reeves, Rob Larson, Trevor Brady, Vivian Wong, and Wheat Wurtzburger.

MUSIC by: Namaste

mooncruise.com (requires Flash 8)

Roid Week 2006: post a Polaroid a day for five days

Nicolai Grossman 2 Comments

Flickr members Cate and Lori Baker (Lori just finished co-editing the now-available benefit photography book, Signs of Life: Surviving Katrina [blogged previously]) have declared 11–15 September, 2006, to be Roid Week!

The idea is simple: shoot a Polaroid a day for five days and post them to the Roid Week group on Flickr. Roids! Cate! Lori! Sweet!

(You do have to be a member of Flickr to upload, but free accounts are available.)

If you’re new to Polaroid, you can get the lowdown from this primer at Omnimatter.

How to build and calibrate a photo-plane light meter

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Science photographer Ted Kinsman wrote this piece on building and calibrating a photodiode-based light meter:

Being in the professional science photography business, I often get asked to photograph the strangest stuff using some very weird lens combinations. Lately, I was asked to take some motion pictures of "microscopic animals". So I set up the microscope and attached it to a 35-mm motion picture camera – but how do you measure the exposure?

A typical answer would be to use a standard film plane meter, but such a device would not fit my situation, and I would still have to perform a calibration on the device.

The answer to my problem was to simply build the type of meter I needed and then calibrate the device…

Continue reading at Microscopy-UK

Via Paul Beard of A Crank’s Progress blog

Lens marks and image quality: shocking truth revealed!

Nicolai Grossman 5 Comments

How many times have you seen "small cleaning mark on lens, does not affect image quality" in ads for used cameras? Is it true? What about severe defects, like, say, "a loose spiral spring, some odd hardened liquid bubbles, dust, and a unidentified German insect in the lens"? Jurgen Kreckel, who repairs and rebuilds vintage medium format folding cameras, took such a lens—a 50/1.4 Planar—to Dresden and found out.

The results are nothing short of shocking.