The whole point of this I have written about prior, but most likely many readers just do not know….The collector version, which was expensive by nature as an art object or an artisan object if you will is gone…I like art and art objects… At the same time I hate to be in any way elitist with my work…so as a payback to the Rio community we are giving away free half of our 5,ooo press run to anyone who is Brazilian or pretends to be and who comes to an event…
We printed in Italy on the same paper brand as the book and selling the other half for 24 bucks in every place outside of Brazil to pay for the first half or at least almost….This is a super quality object at a super low price. Yes, less expensive yet not cheaper.
For sure the large magazine version is a whole different experience, but mostly we wanted to make it super affordable for those who could not afford the collector book…After all these years of working in various communities around the world, I always wanted to do something like this. Feels good, feels right.
title
(based on a true story) MAGAZINE
author
David Alan Harvey
publication date
April, 2013
published by
BurnBooks
edition
2,500 copies for sale
2,500 for free to the people in Rio de Janeiro
paper
Fedrigoni Splendorgel Extra White:
160 gr & 85 gr
dimensions and contents
380mm x 280mm (15 ” x 11 “)
66 full bleed photographs 550mm x 380mm ( 22″ x 15 “)
1 roadmap for original re-assembling
offset printing by
EBS, Verona, Italy
price
$ 24.00 (excl. shipping)
credits
layout and design: Bryan Harvey
concept and producer: Eva-Maria Kunz
coordinator: Diego Orlando
production: Andrea Barbato, Michael Courvoisier, Candy Pilar Godoy
THE MAGAZINE of (based on a true story) can now be ordered here:
For volume purchases or info please contact Kim: kim@burnmagazine.org
for the “making of” visit: www.theriobook.com
A very nice gesture, David. Well done.
Even though I have a book, I want one of these…any plans to sell them at LOOK3?
I have ordered it :)
Makes a good present, too I figure…
Sweet…
“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”
John Wesley
VIVAAAAAA BURN !!!
Cool shot of a really cool thing to do!
Of course I want one ;-)
I dropped into NYT Lens this morning, saw the feature and write up on the magazine and David’s current trip to Rio. Then, even though it is not Saturday, I came over to see what is happening. I think I will drop this Saturday only business. I have ordered the magazine.
Plus, I revisited the book which is now spread out across my bed.
Some of you may remember that I was going through a miserable round of multiple surgeries, emergency room visits and hospitalizations when the book came out – only the first hospital visit and surgery was planned and all the followups became necessary to deal with a brand new and awful health problem that I did not have until my surgeon created it in me. More surgery still looms ahead to try and repair the damage inflicted upon me.
But in my rage and frustration I digress from my story. Maybe I have told it already. I don’t know. When you are all drugged up and suffering, you might tell a story and then later not remember you told it. If I did, sorry, but here it is again:
I got the book when I was in the hospital. A hospital bed is an awkward place to try to view a book such as (Based on a True Story) but I did my best.
Then in comes a nurse and I am a little embarrassed because someone who doesn’t know might get a glimpse of some of the pictures spread out across the bed and think something a bit twisted is going on here. This nurse turned out to be an artist and art aficionado and she was fascinated. She asked me if she could borrow it and spend time with it on her breaks. I let her.
She kept it for a couple of days and she loved it.
The past year and a bit more has been a strange time for me. Within it have been times when I grew frustrated and even angry with David, because the fact is David sometimes tells people he is going to do things and then never does them – I think because even for a dynamo like David there is only so much one person can do and he always want to do much more than the limitations of any human body will allow. I don’t think he will like this statement, because David does not recognize the word “limitations” as one that applies to him in anyway. That’s why he has gone so far beyond the limitations that put at least some restraint on most of the rest of us.
What a roll he has been on! What a stupendous burst of creative energy! And through it all, he has still done more to help a whole host of ambitious, often unseen, photographers, young and otherwise, then any other photographer I am aware of. I have no idea how you do it, David. It has been an amazing thing to witness.
Magnificent!
FROSTY…wow…you became an academian (BOBBY,AKAKY,SIDNEY…and …our other BURNIANS)
yes, yes,yes…because of MR.HARVEY and the CREW…we have the BURN family
“I have no idea how you do it, David. It has been an amazing thing to witness”
FROSTFROG aka BILL
I LOVE YOU ALLLLL…
What a beautiful epilogue for such a lovely story like Rio. Oh and what a lovely photo of David and the kids…
Has any other photographer or artist ever done anything like this before?
That’s a very beautiful act of devolution. Beyond what’s right and good, particularly since it fits so nicely with the whole idea and concept of (based on a true story).
BTW, that’s a X100, isn’t it?
Frostfrog, yes, David leaves me in awe. I’m tired just reading about his life. None of this retiring gracefully and fading into the background. David’s ablaze.
Yes, a wonderful act of devolution Eduardo.
Eduardo – X100S
I keep waiting for the tongue-in-cheek captions for this photo to start…maybe it’s just me…something about the way David is looking at the camera does it, I’m so used to seeing (and try to emulate) him always focusing on the action…
item – $24
shipping – $23
that is not OK! :(
yes denislav i agree….what’s the deal with the huge shipping/handling charge?
denislav, cathy.. all..
I wish we could lower the shipping cost, but the magazine is heavy because it is printed on high quality paper (the same as the book itself), it is huge (15×11 inches, and therefor oversized and not handled as envelope in some parts of the world), packed in a rigid cardboard envelope so it arrives safely, plus we ship registered.
We are, unfortunately, not amazon.com and must deal with normal shipping costs.
For those attending Look3 it is possible to get a copy there.
Best,
Eva
DENISLOV…CATHY…ALL
we are just as dismayed by shipping costs as are you…we have no control over this…our shipping costs just to get a whole batch to the U.S. from our printer in Italy is staggering…and in Europe they just kill all of us with shipping costs…so yes, the shipping companies are making money!! no giveaways from them!!
by the time we get this puppy into a solid cardboard envelope it must weigh at least as much as the book because it is the same number of pages and super sized…i have not actually weighed the two but i am guessing it must be true…
as Eva says this is not a newspaper , but the full length book in effect and super large format and on the same paper as the book and for sure will become a collector item as well..of this you can be sure…so wise collectors will make the money on their investment way more than us….this has been true of all of our books….
just imagine…we are giving away for free half of our print run…and the selling cost (minus the shipping) is not even enough to really cover the cost of printing figuring in the giveaway..this is not Harvard Business School economics…
from our point of view even selling the magazine at this price is a giveaway in effect…we brought the cost to you down to a point of where i honestly doubt if we can break even on this….
our whole point of printing this magazine in the first place was to make this super popular award winning book to a place that was indeed affordable for those who just could not afford the book…the book itself which was expensive had to be expensive…hand assembled (as is this magazine), the materials in it, and the amount of work into it made even the collector book a super good value…signed copies now being traded out there for 500 bucks plus…this “magazine” will be the same…
if i were standing in front of either one of you right now, you know damned well i would most likely give you one if you bought me a beer or just smiled….some degree of practicality, of which i have little, makes us do what we are doing since most of you just cannot come to my front door to get one….
the last week has had me spending all of my time giving away free copies here in Rio…by far by far by far the coolest thing i have ever done…..the right thing for sure…the kind of right thing that could only happen because we made a bit of a profit on the collector book which has now been plowed into the giveaway…
i guess if life is a break even deal all around then that is fine for me…DAH economics
cheers amigos, david
FROSTFROG
i am 100% sure that i do not do all that i say i will do….do you? does anyone?
yet i am a bit confused about what i have not done for you what i said i would do…and whatever it is, surely a reminder helps…the MAIN JOB of my team is to remind me of stuff….so if you copied any email to me to the whole Burn team and still i did not, or they did not, do whatever it is then yes we are in error….so simply tell us again what this is , whatever it is, and for sure it will get done…
i mean i did not publish an essay of yours…if i did not publish an essay then it is simply because i did not think it was ready or perhaps just not appropriate or for whatever reason…it sure as hell was not because i did not look at it…perhaps you , and perhaps others, are expecting a written thesis on your work whether i do or don’t publish…this won’t happen….again, if you were in the same room with me, which you have been, then you know damned well i will take all the time you need to explain…i just cannot do this by email…
if it is something else i did not do just tell me ..again!!! you are a fine fine human being and a great guy with a big heart…we all know that…i surely would have no reason to shun you in any way…especially you…
so in an email to the whole Burn team..candy , eva, diego, and me let us know what we need to do…we will do our best….
many thanks Bill for being here…your spirit flows….i , and all of us, surely want you to be happy…
abrazos, david
ANDREW B
ha ha…well the X100S is not totally instinctive for me …yet….takes months, at least for me, to get used to any camera..for it to become a “part of me”…only a couple of cameras have been that for me…the old Nikon FE2 was part of my body as was the Leica M6…..everything else comes and goes so quickly that i often have to think about the camera a bit too much..perhaps one of the reasons i shoot so much with my iPhone is because it is easy to think about…complicated menus drive me crazy…i try to set up a digi camera in the first few days so that i never have to go back into the menu ever again…yet this rarely happens these days…so yes, looking at the camera should never happen….actually on the X100S the only things i ever stop to check are the lens opening ( really easy on this one) and the exposure comp dial, also easy…but you gotta look from time to time…i don’t look at the screen usually while shooting…and here i was not shooting as much as i was just doing the giveaway and trying to get some sort of picture of it…not a normal shooting scenario…
you coming Look3? i suppose so…our normal meeting ground… :)
cheers, david
DAH
Totally relate – I think that’s why it caught my eye. I know that look well (for me, it’s the “damn – what did I change this time on this thing?” look) when something isn’t instinctive yet. And of course your attention is on the giveaway – what a great idea, and it’s wonderful to see the reaction of the kids…
The video of you in Dubai shooting the horses as they gallop past you is most certainly more typical you at work ;)
Defintely will be at LOOK3. Hopefully one morning we can have a coffee – I’m sure I owe you.
best,
Andrew
well, bummer –she murmurs dejectedly–i guess that shoots in the paw any plans i had to submit the essay on my kitty that i´ve been shooting since she was two days old (she´s now an incontinent, toothless 18). I mean, if DAH won´t even bother to write me a doctoral dissertation after all these years of work, then why bother? Humph..think i´ll send it over to Nat Geo. Maybe THEY´LL be more appreciative and beg me to do an essay on the declining population of real felines over there in Africa. I mean, after all, who shoots a kitty better tan i?
(Frostfrog..no offense to you, just making light of David´s comment. And was horrified to hear of your medical plight. Incomprehensible that one measly surgery should have led to the complications that it clearly did. My profound sympathy to you)
DAH..wonderful gesture to the Brazilians and all those pretending to be. Too bad i hopped a jumbo jet out of the favela the day before the giveaway. But oh well, maybe next time!
ciaociao!
eva DAH,
Thanks for taking the time to explain the shipping situation. Yes, most businesses (shippers included) are geared towards making money :)
Will Photo Eye be carrying the magazine? I’m in Santa Fe, just down the street so sometimes that helps me avoid shipping charges…if not I will order it thru you.
Thank you, David. No, it is not because you did not publish that essay. My career is filled with rejections and I take those in stride. In fact, I’m glad you didn’t, because, in the first place, you got me going on something I need to do, something covering a life span and then when my first attempt didn’t work for you, your rejection launched me onto a new track which I think tells the same story in a much more powerful way, without the overwrought Mormon angst. It was other statements you had made to me that I refer to. One way or another, I have brought them all up in followups, but none of those followups ever generated a reaction until now. I will send you an email and better explain myself.
You are right in that most all of us say we are going to do things and then don’t do them, and the fact of the matter is you do more for others than any other photographer I know of even could, and you have done a great deal for me. Maybe it is petty of me to take note of the exceptions, however important they seemed to me at the time. It is funny, the insignificant things that can grate at a man.
new camera hands free
will this going to introduce a “new shooting style”… in photography?
http://www.google.com/glass/start/what-it-does/
Frost Frog, something’s been nagging at me since i left my tongue-in-cheek comment to DAH, and that is that if you submitted an essay you are ten times the photographer that i am. I have submitted exactly zero. So if you put yourself and your work out there then to me you have already won a lot. For one, respect in my book. So kudos to you and best wishes for a speedy recovery from all that ails you.
Best
Kathleen
http://youtu.be/23DkVn4CCEA
Funny Panos, funny. Was that the NRA?
Thank u Mike… yes , inspired by our gun loving sentiment over here…
Exclusive!!! Re-Make (secret reel copy) of Adele’s video below:
Kathleen Fonseca:
First, don’t sell yourself short. Your work is wonderful, it goes way beyond the norm. You even have a Holi cat! How I wish I had photographed a Holi cat!
I, for one, want to see your cat essay. I have a few myself. It is still my hope that in the end, my own cats will rise to the task and save me.
I really had no intention to submit an essay to burn at all, but then burn asked me to do so. It was suggested that I do it from the work I am best known for, but I didn’t want to do that. Instead, I did a personal story. For purposes of burn, I believe its biggest failing was that I tried to cram too much into it and so created a bit of a mess. But trust me, if I can survive in functional physical and intellectual health for another five to six years, I will build a book from the ruins of that rejection. It will be a book to take note of.
Now, I want to see your cat essay. I bet Civi wants to see it, too. In fact, anybody who really knows anything would want to see your essay, given that it is about a cat, done by an excellent photographer.
yeah,finally we have some BURNIAN LADIES around…CATHY and KATIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE and EVA…
FROSTY,you bet …I want to see the HOLI CAT essay…
and remember All it’s very safe in here…hiihii
I LOVE YOU ALL…HAPPY EASTER !!!
Civilian..hola, amiga(o)…long time no see or talk to..and without any of Gracie’s poetry either..now THAT is NOT living! Work became the be all and end all of my existance..but things have lightened up. At long last i have help! So i am burrrrrrning!
Frostfrog, oh dear, now i feel even worse than i did yesterday. I was just being silly in that post to DAH. I have cats but no kitty pics much less a kitty essay. So eeps..sorry about that! And what i meant about you being ten times the photographer is that you put an essay together and put it out there to be judged and that alone escalates you from wannabee to be. And though i am rushed right now i hope to visit your site and get a better taste for what you do later in the day.
About the Holi Cat. Now this reference i did/do not understand. I googled the term and didn´t get much clarification but check out this link. This photograph is titled Holi Cat and it was shot in India. Mine of course is Costa Rica but it´s the same type of cat and same shade of pink. This cannot be a coinicidence. What the holy hell is a holi cat, pray tell?
India Holi Cat:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hashish/3637181074/
Costa Rica Holi Cat:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15056544@N03/5637313610/in/set-72157606374106836
Have a great day, all!
K
Kathleen –
Well, now I get to feel a little silly.
Holi is a spring celebration in India where participants scurry about and paint everything in bright colors, including themselves. When I saw the picture of the painted cat, it sure looked like it was a Holi cat. I thought for awhile there that you had skipped off to India.
Now I am very sad I will never get to see your cat essay.
I know it is great. Except it doesn’t exist.
Damnit…
I really want to see it.
Frostfrog…
I’m pleased to see you’ve surrendered to commenting more frequently on Burn.
Nice to see you back Katie! :-)
I know, its only rock and roll, but I like it.
http://john-adam-gladdy.photoshelter.com/gallery-slideshow/G0000c..DeWweNhw/?start=
Backstage at recent pilot recordings for a possible TV show. Mick Jones Bunker studios London.
fuji 400 color neg & Ilford Hp5+
..Not all keepers by a long shot, but very pleased with many of them….and just a real fun way to spend an evening.
http://john-adam-gladdy.photoshelter.com/gallery/ROTTEN-HILL-TV/G0000c..DeWweNhw
Ok so, late at night and messing something up…try again later.. :)
http://youtu.be/pWnbLLwFrfs
FrostFrog..
i am sorry about the whole kittie thing. To make it up to you, i am passing on a link to a Flickr contact/friend of mine named Clara who is a kittie shooter par excellence. (Hint, watch the slideshow):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lb13/sets/72157623317072734/with/8255879569/
ROSS!!!
SoOOoooOOOO nice to see you! i hope you are well and happy and killing it down there with your work!
John Gladdy
boohoo..tried both links..hope you can fix the problem!
http://youtu.be/fRWEzcY7MtA
Kathleen, so awesome to hear your sweet voice!
David
It took me a year to be comfortable with the x100, the longest it’s take me for any camera. Still, it’s usually my take-along every day camera, still not i-phone friendly.
Gordon..
haha, not always sweet and you know it ;) But occasionally so at least. So glad to see you are still burning. I hope you and your family are well, most especially, your son. Well, and yeah, you too!
okay so Burn dont like embed codes by the look of it, so its a link and you guys do it manually I guess.
http://john-adam-gladdy.photoshelter.com/gallery/ROTTEN-HILL-TV/G0000c..DeWweNhw/
fingers crossed!
John:
“You are missing the required field G_ID.”
double boo doduble hoo
oh sod it. :)
stupid photoshelter site.
Anyways its the featured gallery if you click through my name here..that must still work right??
All shot in the last six weeks. Much fun.
it’s only rock and roll and we like it…!!!
JOHNY …we are here…take your time,I have crossed my toes…hihii
KATIEEEEEE…I will wait for your essay too…we are here!!!
I LOVE YOU ALLLLLLLLLLLL…Happy Easter from Grecolandia…
BURN is the place to be!!!
P.S…PANOS,where is my “boom”?I am waiting…hiihii
Civilian..
A VERY HAPPY EASTER TO YOU!!! What are you doing here? GO CELEBRATE!!
JOHN…is it the Rotten Hill gallery? I found it somewhere in the middle of the gallery page. I was looking at it but didn’t know if that’s what you wanted to show us..
k
Yeah ‘ROTTEN HILL TV’ (NOT!! rotten hill). For some reason my Burn name links to an older site layout with a different front page layout.
John
YES! Saw it..i had clicked on the Rotten Hill Gang the first time..This time found it by clicking into your site on your name. GREAT stuff!! OMG…some of those photos were very powerful..great faces, lots of smoke, very nocturnal feeling..that last photo refused to let me click out of the page. Kudos..i loved it all!!!!! (well except that intense colored one with all the lights..but every single other photo was wonderful, no exaggeration)
John..
is it this:
http://bit.ly/ZIAdO3
??
Eva..how’d you do that?
Paul, I am an addict, after all. Plus I have two enormous deadlines to meet between now and June 30, so it is the perfect time to cast aside that silly resolution and squander more time here.
Kathleen, thanks for the link. I am headed there right now. I already know I am going to enjoy it. When it comes to cats, that’s just how I am. Even as I type these words, a black cat walks across my desk, steps in and out of my hard drive array and comes up to place a paw on my keyboard.
Now he is behind my monitor, licking his paw.
Kathleen.. using my magic wand! ;)
(just copy and paste the whole link John posted and drop it in a link shortener like for example https://bitly.com and there you go!)
EVA..
like Tiny Url..got it..how odd that would work but the actual link would not. Ah well, it’s late here and my head is scrambled eggs.
FROSTFROG
You light up the world, you know that? I hope you like Clara’s work cuz sending some kitties your way was the least i could do after yanking your tail. Give yours a pat for me..i’m headed to bed.
‘Night y-all!
John; I can’t help myself and keep going back to shoot punk gigs. I love the melding of photography and music. I took my partner to her first ever punk gig a while ago; she had a blast!!! A real eye-opener for her; she loved the positive vibe. Also; the first time she’s seen me boogying away up by the speakers and taking photos at the same time! ;-)
Katie; are we restarting the night shift? ;-)
Kathleen, just as I speculated, I did enjoy her work. She loves cats, she loves photography. Good combination. Thanks again.
ROSS: haha, the night shift…sure looks that way, eh? ha! (a GF?? You have a GF????..wooohooo!)
FROSTFROG..neat..so glad you liked Clara’s work!
CIVILIAN..save me some of that yummy food for tomorrow’s leftovers! i’m a comin’!
ok, now really good night..
Some great bnw images there John ……..
cathy, sorry for the late answer, which is not really an answer: I don’t know! Yet.
Speaking of the “night shift”…
Come with me for 5 minutes to visit the STUDIO..
the SAN ANGEL STUDIO with that little bridge that was separating/uniting FRIDA KAHLO & DIEGO RIVERA
EVA you’re not late…i’m just checking back in tonight. i’ve been calling Photo Eye and asking if they would order from you and perhaps that would lower my shipping cost (i hope.) today Melanie said she would see about ordering some copies….so hopefully by now you’ve heard from her.
I’m just waiting to order it asap…from you or them! :) Let’s see how it goes in the next few days.
in the meantime I see a conversation between ANDREW and DAH about the x100s which i have become interested in. ANDREW and I have also been discussing the camera. I didn’t realize DAH has one…any comments about it? if you’ve got it it must be good!
JOHN GLADDY
this is your scene…some nice work here imo….seems to me like THIS work fits with YOU….we should look at all of your behind the scenes music work , bar stuff….
DAVID. Thank you.
Any time you have the time Amigo just say the word.
JOHN GLADDY
on my way to London at the end of June…winter over by that time?? Magnum biz meet …party before….you invited…let’s have a good look…bring all that backstage and music and bar work…..
cheers, david
CATHY SCHOLL
i do like the Fuji X100S…if you look on Road Trips and go back to Dubai , you will see i shot exclusively with that camera…files amazing….and that camera is in my bag now.
still nothing beats the fast auto focus of my now old GF1 and GX1…just don’t know why every company doesn’t get that part as right as the Panasonic people seem to do…one of the reasons i liked the GF1 is for that super fast autofocus….even in the dark….but the Fuji files are superior…
i just did a commercial shoot/workshop for Samsung in Jamaica, and their little NX300 is pretty damned good too….i get the pancake prime lenses on these little cameras…just so so unobtrusive….and i don’t mean for just the subjects, i mean for me too…for loose freestyle shooting all of these new generation “point and shoots” are i think just amazing….
the super tech geeks showed me on a computer the files of the X100S compared to the 5D…pretty damned close!! and we made some big prints in Jamaica with the Samsung….also amazing….
nobody (hardly anybody) needs a camera anymore that costs more than 1k…seriously….go light ..using your feet instead of another lens works!! easy on your body and easy on your mind….
cheers, david
ROSS
go to Jamaica mon…NO PLACE is better than Jamaica for the music “vibe”…the only problem with shooting music is that listening and shooting can throw you off…the music gets in so so deep that you really have to “overcome” it to get pictures that match the vibe you FEEL….still a problem that is fun to solve!!!
cheers, david
Its England dude. Winters NEVER over.
see you in June.
JOHN GLADDY
ok…will bring my mittens…as usual
DAH
thanks for the comment/advice. For some time I’ve been wanting to get smaller,lighter,away from the DSLR and have been waiting for the day when that would be possible. Looks like the time has come! I’ve been selling stuff on ebay to raise money for some new equipment…thought that would mean a 5DIII but probably not! I haven’t been paying too much attention to all the new cameras, since I didn’t have the funds but now that I’m starting to do my research I’m very happy with all the positive reviews and comments. The x100S is definitely at the top of my shopping list. I will go back and read the Dubai posts.
Also looking forward to getting the magazine, either from you or Photo Eye…working on that.
DAH
One quick techie kind of question: with the X100S, do you use the autofocus or the manual focus?
Kind of regretting that I let my GF1/20mm go – I see what you mean wbout how much faster it focuses….
looking forward to seeing all the crew in June….safe travels and good light to all until then!
A.
above song dedicated to Tony THE SKATER
thats for my favorite friend CANDY
another song for my buddy CANDY !!!!!!!!!!!!!
this song is DEDICATED TO MY BEST FRIEND “JESUS”
David, I just read Ken Rockwell’s review on the X100S. It is a glowing review in all respect but he makes one statement that puzzles me and I wonder if you have any idea what he means:
“all the lenses you need already built in with no need for twiddling.”
Ross…
I don’t know if you’ve seen this Daido Moriyama video, but just in case…
Paul; Funny you should mention that, my partner and I watched it (again) about 6-hours ago! :-)
Ross…
Did you notice he works with the Silverefex plugin?
“nobody (hardly anybody) needs a camera anymore that costs more than 1k…seriously”
Probably true, although most of us are constantly up-grading gear. In film days, we used the same cameras for years, sometimes for our whole career. I knew young photographers who were using Hasselblads older than they were. Most of my gear is a few years old and a model or two back. However I did just order a Canon 60d body yesterday to replace my ageing Rebel as my personal dslr. It has just been dis-continued too, and is a great deal right now if you’re not too late to snap one up. Lotsa change left over from 1k.
BILL, the X100S is a fixed lens [23mm f/2] camera. It has an APS-C sensor, so I’m guessing that that’s about a 35mm full frame equivalent.
For what it’s worth, try as I might, I just can’t get on board the nobody needs an expensive camera bandwagon.
And I try, I really do. The last camera I bought was the Fuji x-100 and I researched it to death. Ultimately, it came down to file quality in that price range and the Panasonics just didn’t compare. All the cameras were okay in good light, but as it dimmed, the x-100 files kept looking better and better. Focus speed was a concern as the initial x-100 reviews slammed it for horrible focus speed, but a series of firmware updates made it serviceable, for my purposes at least.
I’ve been happy with the x-100 as a $1200 walking around camera, and I’ve used it on a few paying gigs, but for the most part I get far superior files with my Canon 5d mkII and use that for most of my serious work (though flash capabilities play a large part as well). And it’s not like the 5d is that great–it’s just a prosumer camera; I’m sure I could do much better with a nice medium format job.
But as I said, I try. I mentioned elsewhere that I got an IPhone 5 and was hoping to use it to mostly replace the x-100 as my walking around camera. So far though, it’s must not working. The file quality simply sucks compared to the x-100, which isn’t great compared to the 5d, which pales next to more expensive, hi-res cameras. Oh, it looks great on the little screen after I take it. And I’m trying different options, like saving it as a .dng and running it through my raw processor, but so far, it’s just not working. I think I’m starting to see why everyone does instagram. Applying some clichéd filter to a crappy iphone photo at least makes it semi-interesting.
As for David Alan Harvey, well, he’s a much better photographer and has demonstrated he can get a lot more out of a similar camera on a consistent basis than I can (as yet). Light ultimately trumps technology. But still, I wonder, and fear that he’s wasting a lot by not getting the best possible file. Especially for someone so adept at producing iconic work with a manual camera and asa 25 film. Does the fast focus of the Panasonic really buy you more than the superior file quality of the x-100s?
Each to his or her own, I know, and ultimately it’s the results that tell. But that’s where I’m at right now. File quality uber alles. Just about, anyway.
Oftentimes I think the problem is that the files are too good in low light (with modern cameras). The resulting low-light images look more like day images. Photographers seem to strive to turn night into day which often loses the atmosphere of the dark anyway; the cameras are just too damn good! :-)
MW…
Don’t David’s photos depend many times on split seond timing. He’s got enough on his mind looking for the perfect facial gesture, body movement without having to be distracted or worried about crappy slow focus.
Yes, Akaky – that is why Rockwell’s statement puzzles me. It makes no sense. The only way it would make sense is if the file was so fine and of such high resolution that it could be cropped, the crop enlarged without any loss in viewing and printing quality, cropped again, enlarged again, and so on.
But of course it can’t.
Huh, just spent my discretionary funds on a very fine set of chisels, and a big pile of three inch thick black walnut slabs. Maybe I’ll get the camera next time. After the bandsaw, of course. Hey David, you need a nice end table? We’re going to do the cross country blue highway road trip this summer. No shipping charge.
“just spent my discretionary funds on a very fine set of chisels, and a big pile of three inch thick black walnut slabs”
Sounds an eminently sensible plan to me! The camera can definitely wait. :-)
Who said anything about crappy slow focus, unless you’re talking about my reference to the problem being fixed? Anyway, I’m not telling anyone what to do. Different strokes, you know. Just chatting.
low-light into daylight. True Ross. However, So many images, like this, https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200879184329117&set=a.1832756345894.105201.1449976869&type=1&theater , are only possible with digital. Broad daylight, deep shadow, f8 ISO 3200, Fuji x100. You could NEVER get this image with film.
Crappy slow focus?, hey, I’ve got the original x100. With the latest firmware, this is not an issue. It’ll beat the snot out of a Leica M any day.
dpr perhaps
“It’ll beat the snot out of a Leica M any day.”
Now, that’s a visual..
Unless, Bill, what Rockwell’s saying is that all you really need is a 35mm lens, which is not really true; I’m thinking of getting a zoom for myself one of these days, for example; but if Rockwell likes the 35mm lens, then more power to him, I guess.
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Ha. The cameras that are part of our body, an extension of the mind.
I didn’t know David had a thing for the FE2. Me too (I’m on my 4th one) and of course the M6… and as DAH knows, now an X-E1 as well. It’s true about the file quality and that sensor is so freaking good at ISO 1600 that I’m willing to put up with a somewhat higher fraction of mis-focused pictures.
Oh damn, just played with an x100s, and ordered one minutes later. Just works. Okay, stop me from gushing gear talk and leaf shutter love. But … Backorder is very, very cruel. So are credit cards. Can’t wait to cover that thing in gaffer though.
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