07 August 2011
Dilemma
08/08/11 21:59
Many readers have asked for an electronic version of the Leica Compendium, Basically there are two options: PDF and Epub.
PDF allows you to create nice design and incorporate as many pictures as you wish. But security is a serious problem. Downloading a PDF with protection is simply to crack and is for most situations a bad option. Epub is more secure, but the epub format does not allow for nice design and many pictures. So the basic choice is this: epub with simple text and some images, and PDF with sophisticates layout, but easy to copy and distribute.
What do you advice me to do?
PDF allows you to create nice design and incorporate as many pictures as you wish. But security is a serious problem. Downloading a PDF with protection is simply to crack and is for most situations a bad option. Epub is more secure, but the epub format does not allow for nice design and many pictures. So the basic choice is this: epub with simple text and some images, and PDF with sophisticates layout, but easy to copy and distribute.
What do you advice me to do?
Lazy photographers
07/08/11 19:37
First a simple announcement: the new print of the Leica compendium has been arrived at the distributors in Europe and I will start shipping the books from tomorrow (August 8). Past experience shows that it will take three weeks to arrive in USA, Canada, Australia and Far East.
Amidst a worldwide debt crisis that will certainly impoverish most countries in the West (you have to admit it: we all lived on exponential economic growth and assumed that every year we will get more money to buy off the debts we made in any previous year and had some money left for investment and savings; now we see that we have to reduce our spending to pay the debt of the past and have to accept that in future we have less money to spare: all money is flowing to China and India which allowed us for a while to buy cheap goods) it seems a bit out of proportion to use a camera that will cost you more then a thousand dollars.
I am taking pictures with a newly acquired Leica M9-P and a Fujifilm X100, for some the affordable camera for street photography that could eclipse the Leica CRF. A full test will be published soon. I have to admit that the X100 is a serious camera for serious photographers. I know that there are too many options, selectable through a complex navigation path in the menu and the many options might be conflicting in its effects, but basically the camera has characteristics that might interest and inspire Leica engineers, designed and planners. A search on the internet brings as usual the familiar Republican-Democrat confrontation or as Goethe has immortalized: Himmelhoch jauchzend, zum Tode betrübt. The remarkable point however in all discussions is the total faith and reliance on the technicalities of the camera. (and in fact of all modern cameras). A crucial discussion is the speed of the autofocus and the time lag after pressing the shutter button. Many commentators are disappointed that the camera does not work without a time lag which presumably is a cause of missing the famous decisive moment that all street photographers are trying to emulate. Other complaints are also familiar of almost every modern camera: exposure is not spot on, focus is not accurate, highlights are blown, shadows are too dark, dynamic range is too low and so on.
We should realize however that picture taking is a brain act, not an engineering feat. Persons who complain about the shutter lag, should think about he act of anticipating the moment, complaints of limited dynamic range should be confronted with the capabilities of the photographer to select the optimum exposure or the paper’s ability to record a scene of high contrast and so on. I am amazed that most commentators blame the camera and the engineering behind it and fail to include their own capabilities and aspirations into the equation.
Let us face it: the lazy photographer assumes that the technique will solve all problems and that a careless, non-reflective and non-anticipatory attitude is all that the new photographer has to use as input and that any shortcomings of the picture are the consequence of failures of the engineer and technician to compensate for inadequacies of the photographer.
The great classical photographers worked with totally different assumptions. They accepted the technique as a given and incorporated the limitations to create great photographs. The modern photographer seems to demand fault-free technical equipment to compensate for their own inadequacies.
But as I noted in the beginning: you cannot increase debt without accepting that you must pay back and you cannot assume that the technique will compensate for everything you do not want to learn.
The Leica M9 camera is a great tool, but the final results depend on the cooperation between artist and engineer. Blame yourself if the result is not according to your wishes. The X100 shifts the balance more in the direction of the engineer, but the artist is still responsible for the result. So stop complaining about presumed deficiencies of the camera and take your fate in your own hand. The classical Greeks and Shakespeare too have told you that the mortals take their own decisions and the Gods just look at the course of action.
Amidst a worldwide debt crisis that will certainly impoverish most countries in the West (you have to admit it: we all lived on exponential economic growth and assumed that every year we will get more money to buy off the debts we made in any previous year and had some money left for investment and savings; now we see that we have to reduce our spending to pay the debt of the past and have to accept that in future we have less money to spare: all money is flowing to China and India which allowed us for a while to buy cheap goods) it seems a bit out of proportion to use a camera that will cost you more then a thousand dollars.
I am taking pictures with a newly acquired Leica M9-P and a Fujifilm X100, for some the affordable camera for street photography that could eclipse the Leica CRF. A full test will be published soon. I have to admit that the X100 is a serious camera for serious photographers. I know that there are too many options, selectable through a complex navigation path in the menu and the many options might be conflicting in its effects, but basically the camera has characteristics that might interest and inspire Leica engineers, designed and planners. A search on the internet brings as usual the familiar Republican-Democrat confrontation or as Goethe has immortalized: Himmelhoch jauchzend, zum Tode betrübt. The remarkable point however in all discussions is the total faith and reliance on the technicalities of the camera. (and in fact of all modern cameras). A crucial discussion is the speed of the autofocus and the time lag after pressing the shutter button. Many commentators are disappointed that the camera does not work without a time lag which presumably is a cause of missing the famous decisive moment that all street photographers are trying to emulate. Other complaints are also familiar of almost every modern camera: exposure is not spot on, focus is not accurate, highlights are blown, shadows are too dark, dynamic range is too low and so on.
We should realize however that picture taking is a brain act, not an engineering feat. Persons who complain about the shutter lag, should think about he act of anticipating the moment, complaints of limited dynamic range should be confronted with the capabilities of the photographer to select the optimum exposure or the paper’s ability to record a scene of high contrast and so on. I am amazed that most commentators blame the camera and the engineering behind it and fail to include their own capabilities and aspirations into the equation.
Let us face it: the lazy photographer assumes that the technique will solve all problems and that a careless, non-reflective and non-anticipatory attitude is all that the new photographer has to use as input and that any shortcomings of the picture are the consequence of failures of the engineer and technician to compensate for inadequacies of the photographer.
The great classical photographers worked with totally different assumptions. They accepted the technique as a given and incorporated the limitations to create great photographs. The modern photographer seems to demand fault-free technical equipment to compensate for their own inadequacies.
But as I noted in the beginning: you cannot increase debt without accepting that you must pay back and you cannot assume that the technique will compensate for everything you do not want to learn.
The Leica M9 camera is a great tool, but the final results depend on the cooperation between artist and engineer. Blame yourself if the result is not according to your wishes. The X100 shifts the balance more in the direction of the engineer, but the artist is still responsible for the result. So stop complaining about presumed deficiencies of the camera and take your fate in your own hand. The classical Greeks and Shakespeare too have told you that the mortals take their own decisions and the Gods just look at the course of action.