Saturday, July 11, 2009

PHOTO OF THE DAY July 12 , 2009


Its the LX3 once more. A recent night shot at 400 ISO.

Heard on the web...

We still hear about good old film. Is film better than digital is it more stable, safer to store etc. Many reply with ridiculous self serving full of themselves artistic reasons while others, and there are many, reply with nerdy technological reasons. The real post that sort of irked me was one where the interlocutor replied that if kept, under a "cool and dry place," film would be a better archival medium as we did not have to keep replicating digital files as new storage medias came out.
MY REPLY WAS THIS:
What you say about cool dry places is in itself chimerical but even if you could find someone who would be able to do so, after you are gone, film begins to age and change from the moment it's manufactured. Black and white film, begins a slow process of "fogging" while stored and the negatives, even stored in a cool dry place, do deteriorate slowly. With color, the problems increase as each layer ages differently. Prints of course are a different matter. I used to print for archives who required so called archival processing so I'm aware of what it entails but all the best efforts lasted just for a time.
Digital? Yes with re copying to new media, we can duplicate the images perfectly as we are only storing a long chain of numbers that can be replicated perfectly. That's the beauty of it. You say 100 years for the cool dry place. I say forever for digital.
We have true archival files now, but as with anything we like, we must put some work into them.
But what I really detested about film was reciprocity failure.
And for all the "artistic, soulful reasons" for film, I believe it's all bebatable.
--What do you think? Am I off my rocker?

PHOTO OF THE DAY July 11 , 2009


It's NYC this time. A night view from Queens of Manhattan. Taken with the superb Panasonic LX 3. A follow up on my impressions of this gem will soon follow.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Olympus EP-1 Test at steves-gigicams


We like to keep things simple here. We love photography and not equipment that tends to get in the way or tries to make one a "show off." Olympus new micro 4/3 camera, a sort of re emergence of the legendary Pen F of yore, is such a camera whose outer simplicity and good looks hide a true picture taking machine.
Steves Digicams one of our links below, has published a great and detailed review of this fascinating camera. Please click on the link below. Let us know what you think.

PHOTO OF THE DAY July10 , 2009


Back to Tuscany. San Gemignano, know for it towers. Only a few of its more that 60 now remain on this hill top town. Taken in April of 2007 with a Nikon D200 and the 18-85 kit lens. Great travel lens.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

PHOTO OF THE DAY July9, 2009


It's back to the incomparable Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It's early spring, Apri2 2, 2009, and the place is coming alive as spring tries to win it's long battle with winter. The camera is the Nikon D700 and the lens is the Nikkor 14nn f2.8.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Monday, July 6, 2009

Video in DSLR's The topic that will not go away

I'm re-posting this article as the buzz about it's inclusion in the new Nikon DSLR's is inevitable. Yet there are those who tenaciously and quite stubbornly will not accept it's inclusion. They feel somewhat threatened by such an innovation that blurs that demarcation, that until recently, was inviolable. Change is hard as we all know. Therefore i will reprint the original post in order to explain my view on this important topic.
The buzz word today is VIDEO.
Its creating quite a stir on many photo websites and blogs. There is great passion for and against video in a still camera.
Personally, I have no use for video. Many of my cameras have had video but never used it. However, the profession is changing especially in photo journalism and internet reportage. We now have so called "webisodes" and other areas of interest to the younger photographers who really have no attachment to cameras as such. We, and I speak for myself and many like me who began decades ago, have an attachment to cameras as cameras and video cameras as video cameras. there is a wall that keeps the two media separate and it gives us comfort. This is the way we have been functioning all these years and we can not even accept that one day video will be accepted as the norm in a camcorder. Just today, when I saw the new Olympus digital Pen, I became all excited. This reaction to a basically limited camera is really my way at going back to simpler times when a camera looked like a camera. I have Leicas that I no longer use and always lusted over an M8. Sadly the latter is not a very successful design, kind of a works in progress, and it's somewhat overpriced for what it does. You get where I'm coming from.
To the newer photographers without all the nostalgic baggage the inclusion of video is absolutely normal and welcome.
It's the way it is. Camera makers try all they can to get an edge on the competition. At this point in time, Canon has the edge at least on video.
This is reminiscent of the coming of DIGITAL. Many photographers who found this new technology strange, many were computer phobic, were totally against it and prognosticated it's irrelevance and demise. To many wishful thinkers, it would go away; it was only a passing fancy. Well, as they say, the rest is history. The change was not easy but it had to be made in order to stay relevant and in business.
So,if and when I get the 5DII, I will never use video but my daughter, Jennifer Galatioto,a superb professional photographer,is bugging me to get a 5DII just because of the video.
C'est la vie. All the best and happy shooting.
Please comment.
Rocco Galatioto

PHOTO OF THE DAY July 6, 2009


It's again to the "oh what 4 megapixels can do" theme. Shot at dusk in April of 2004, with a Canon 1D and the 15-35 f2.8 L.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

PHOTO OF THE DAY July 5, 2009


Back to Sicily and back to the theme that fancy, high powered cameras are not always needed. August 2006. Taken with a Canon A 620 P&S. Not bat at all.

Fall splendor