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The search for "accuracy"... fed up

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Shelby Lewis

Guest
Just a little thinking out loud here as an ex-MFD shooter who's still struggling to find gear that satisfies. I understand this is a "personal problem" :D

I've really been struggling for a few years finding a home for my photography, gear-wise. Sony... to Canon... to Leaf (my fav, looking back)... to Nikon d800. As some of you have seen, I've been overall pretty unhappy with the d800.

But that's not what has become apparent in the last month, at least to me.
(And this post isn't about the D800)

What has become clear to me... in my case... is that the level of "polish" I've come to expect from my gear has really gone a long way towards frustrating my artistic self. I actually look back at my earlier work when we all shot a maximum 12mp and I felt as though that gear just worked due to the resolution not being able to expose the faults of the imaging systems (focus-wise, et al...). I've gotten great results out of gear since then, but I feel as though a majority of my efforts are spent keeping the gear reigned in :D in order to produce satisfactory images.

Where am I going with this? I'm not sure. I can say that the siren call to pick up a 35mm- and 4x5 film set-ups alongside my d800 just so I can shoot a film stock and actually get a consistent "look" is starting ring in my ears. MFD is calling hard again as well...

But in the end, I'd be interested in thoughts you all, as folks I know who have shot most of the systems out there, have had as to just getting fed up with the digital rat race... that's where I am right now. Fed up. :mad:
 

Paratom

Well-known member
Shelby, about 24 years ago I started to shoot a Leica M6 and -at this time - 2 pretty old used and abused lenses - 35 and 90mm. This system worked for me for long time and I still own (but dont really use) the M6.
In the digital age I have used and replaced many cameras - the only system I have allways come back to was the M system.
Another system that just works very well for me is the S2.
I am not saying this to promote Leica products. But I have thought about this a lot and my personal conclusions are:
+ a simple user interface helps me a lot to feel free and to still feel to have the camera under control (regarding the important functions); too many options and buttons confuse me and even if I do know how to dig through menues it turns me off
+ same about lenses - primes make life easier for me because I know know what to expect
+ I dont like post processing - and for some reason the Leica images come out of the camera close to what I personally do like
+ many reviews oversee things like skin color, micro detail and color depth and focus too much just on detail at 100%
+ Every half year I think film is the way to go but after 2 films I get lazy and the film camera gets a 6 month brake
+ even though I have what I need and I know less gear would be better I still jump on new toys - just to sell them 6-12 months later.

PS: I liked your Mamya 67 shots so much that I allways felt you are "in harmony" with the system and didnt understand why you would sell it. Even though I know it is not the camera but the photographer I believe some cameras work better for somebody and some cameras maybe not so good (for me those overloaded with functions)

Cheers,Tom
 

Shashin

Well-known member
Forest and trees my friend. How many instruments do you go through in a year? Are you always upgrading to the next trumpet?

You are thinking perfection is in the gear. You are thinking there is some sort of absolute technical perfection. Photography is subjective. That is not simply limited to making pleasing images--a technical reference--but also the qualities such as sharpness, DoF, color, contrast, and a host of other stuff that make a picture. Forget the 1%, you are a 100 percenter.

Now, tell me. Are you as critical with work from other photographers. Not just talking about your friends, but also those great names that inspire you? Do you say, wow, really nice call on those circles of confusion or are you just taken with the image?

But enough tongue-in-cheek. You need a break. We all get this way, especially if the minutia of the craft overwhelms you. I have seen your work, you really have a solid foundation in the craft. I think you need to let your hair down and enjoy taking pictures for no more reason than taking pictures. Or even put the camera down and buy an etch-a-sketch.

I am not sure that answers the question you did not ask, but I am sure it goes a long way to answering something...
 

darr

Well-known member
It's all about content. If it was Leaf that sparked your smile, go back to it and stay with it. Eventually the content will come. :)

Peace be with you my friend!
Darr
 
I highly recommend that you try the Hassy H4x with a phase or Leaf back or a Hassy H4D. The truefocus works really well. Especially when shooting portraits at f/2.2. Not sure what subjects you shoot. But it is definitely more accurate for portraits than the Nikon D800 or anything else that I've ever shot.
 

MaxKißler

New member
Hi Shelby,

I certainly know what you are talking about. In the last two and a half years I went through several camera systems which I don't want to mention explicitely (I'm in fact the Don Juan of camera platforms and I'm really not proud about it). It seems like nothing can satisfy my demands right now.

After some back and forth I ended up with a 5D Mk II and despite the fact that it had many great features (live view, high iso, fine focus adjustment, quick af and fast prime lenses just to name a few) and it always performed really nicely, I hated working with it. Don't know why... If used properly IQ was excellent. Under controlled environment you could print up to 120mm x 80mm at 300 dpi! But when mounted on a view camera it became unusable. As soon as I started tilting IQ went down the drain. I probably wanted it to be something it wasn't. Maybe you should reconsider what you expect from the camera you use.

Right now I'm looking at getting back into mfd which satisfied me the most ever since first capturing an image. I plan on getting an Aptus 22 from a fellow lula member who is kind enough to visit me here in Berlin. I'm not so excited about the resolution of course but the fact that I can use it on my RZ67 and view camera outfit thus letting me use fast flash sync speeds on the one and tilts and shifts on the other system.

Probably not the smartest idea to blow all that money. My school starts on 6th of August so I won't be shooting anything but bw film for the next year...


So if you still have your RZ67 I highly recommend shooting some bw film with it. It might be exactly what you're looking for. Easy to develop and very forgiving in terms of focus accuracy.
 

jlm

Workshop Member
what bugs me is when i look at an image and in retrospect, seeing it enlarged, etc, wish I had done it a little bit different. eventually this will feed back into the gestalt producing a slowly, ever-incrementing improvement?

could be focus, framing and composition, light/dark, timing, you name it. not necessarily a gear limitation
 

kdphotography

Well-known member
Shelby,

I don't know if it's some sort of Freudian-slip or something, but you do realize that you've posted in Dante's Forum.... Then again, you never were given formal permission to leave in the first place! :ROTFL:

Go back to what you enjoy photographing with---and it seems to me that you were most happy with your RZ. Frankly, I think this is a great excuse to upgrade your MFDB at the same time... :D

Use what gives you the most enjoyment in photography and the images will start flowing from there.

I use a DSLR sometimes because I have to. No real joy.
I use a MFDB because I want to. As quirky as many find the Phase DF, I still enjoy it more than any DSLR and use it for work whenever possible. And the Cambo tech camera is just a return to simplicity and pure enjoyment in photography. All joy.

ken
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
It's not the gear your in a funk. Takes a lot to get out if it. Been dealing with this for 36 years. Why I buy different gear a lot. It's not the gear at all it's just staying away from dropping into a funk state of mind. People think I buy gear for the next best thing WRONG. It's really to keep me challenged and fresh. I can count at least 5 times in my photo life that it was totally uninspiring in total mass that it took months to get out. Now I buy gear to help me climb out of it. Honestly I'm after challenges as I pretty much can do anything with any cam that's not bragging just fact. I'm after something new and fresh as I get bored shitless very easy with photography these days. I'm pretty sick of the whole thing again as I write this today. Change my life is the answer I'm playing more golf than I ever have almost 3 times a week lately. It's fresh and I'll never conquer it. Again big word challenge. I love photography but I also need to avoid burnout, why I buy new gear for the most part.
 

etrump

Well-known member
Take whatever camera you want to use and go alone to the same spot every day for a couple of weeks. Once you get past shooting all the so so pics you've seen or already have in your head you start taking some pretty good stuff. Spend four or five hours looking at the same tree without taking a shot and she'll start talking to you.

Which camera doesn't matter, you are technically good enough to use any camera. In fact, don't take anything but a prime standard say 50mm on nikon or 80mm on MFD. Better yet, take your iPhone... maybe not but you get the idea. The pursuit is the reward not the result.

I think we get weighed down by so much technology our artistic side is blindfolded by our intellect.

$.02
 
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Shelby Lewis

Guest
Great responses... really insightful stuff. These insights resonate with my current place pretty deeply. I've had a few funks, musically, this year as well... seems to be one of those times in my life. Guy, you've nailed it pretty well.

Ken... I posted here for a reason, my friend, lol. Dante's crowd understands these situations! :D

Shashin, that's an interesting take and I'll be honest, I am really critical of others' work but my attitude is always attempting to find the positive in every work, and then critique from there. I've never been fond of my own work, TBH. I'm the same with my trumpet playing.

The thing with the whole camera issue is this... I just want to open up a file and smile at the overall quality of it, regardless of subject. It's been a long time since that's happened without it seemingly taken an army's worth of effort. The RZ, which I may make it back to, was hard for me to focus... which was a bummer. Beautiful rendering from the aptus and rz glass, but too many oof shots. My eyes are gettin' old, ya know.

I'm seriously thinking of moving to a 22mp back (less critical focus) and retooling my rz kit... but that aside, I'm still a bit fed up with the tolerances and all.

Ed... maybe an iphone is what it'll be for a while.
 
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Shelby Lewis

Guest
Posted something similar a while back on Facebook saying, basically, that I look back at my earlier work and find an artistic freedom not present in the work I'm doing currently ...and one of my mentors and Jazz professors posted this:

"It seems to me that we listen and look with filters, filters that don't tell us the truth. Then, years later, after the filters have expired we get the real thing, coupled with the memory of what it was like to make it."
 

Shashin

Well-known member
It funny, when you start out, you don't know much and the whole thing is fun. Every roll seems to present a new discovery. But things are inconsistent. As you gain control, you don't plays as much, sticking to what you think is what is giving you the best result. Then you really start digging into the technique and that really starts taking over. The "rules" start piling up. You get into a funk.

The odd thing is you are more consistent, but the magic seems to disappear. With the elimination of the mistakes comes the elimination of the surprises. Yeah, you can nail every shot, but everything is so predictable. The skill has become the problem. The safety of the technique is the enemy.

You need to break into something fresh. But novelty for novelty's sake is has no interest--fisheye lenses, for example, are boring, sure it is a neat effect, but one that is rather empty. What you need is to step out of the known. Place yourself in situations that are new where the outcome is not guaranteed. Go where you can fail. The problem is how to find that. After years of practice, you have conquered most of what you need to know.

Magic is never predictable. And magic is really the center of art. It is that something that goes beyond good technique, perfect lighting, and a nice composition. But how can the magician find magic? That is the paradox of performing tricks without knowing you are preforming them. It is adding elements that are beyond your control. It is improvisational Jazz with an unknown partner.

The "how" is tougher. I have been trying to throw myself into new techniques, new approaches. I have been taking subjects that are not familiar, but not taking conventional approaches. I am not saying to start shooting everything with a toy camera or running everything through an "art" filter. Photography has much more subtly and depth. And I think those who understand that have a harder time to push the boundaries as gimmicks don't work. We need something more than a neat effect.

And when I find an answer to this problem, i will write a self-help book for photographers and make a fortune.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Very well said. The gimmicks just don't cut the mustard, it really is taking yourself completely out of your element and reinventing yourself. It's a wash , clean and refold yourself. LOL
 

Paratom

Well-known member
Shelby,
if critical focus is an issue-why dont you move to a MF-system which offers a good AF? I have compared couple of times how accurate I could focus my S2 with the eyes vs AF and most of the times the AF wins (in case of the S2).
Or maybe the h4d with the true focus.
Cheers, Tom
 

MaxKißler

New member
Shelby, why did you sell your Aptus II 6 in the first place? Was this all about focussing or did you expect an improvement in the quality of the files?

If your funk is about achieving critical focus on the RZ you could use something like this: Beattie Intenscreen Focusing Screen - Matte w/ Diagonal 83324
Looks like the largest diagonal split image screen I've ever seen, if dimensions on the icon were accurate...

I use a split image focussing screen on the RZ aswell and it helps a lot. If off-center focussing is an issue you could also try something like this:
View attachment 61601
 

mediumcool

Active member
My advice?

Simplify. Try for a beginner’s mind.

Try using one camera system for a while (even one lens!), deliberately restricting yourself in what you use, and to achieve your desired results.

Develop one or more long-term projects that matter to you (for whatever reason) and plug away at them. They may develop [no pun intended] into a exhibition or book project in time; they may not. Are there causes or organisations that you admire, and could photograph for?

All this may be difficult to juggle when considering paid and unpaid work. Do you currently need to do commercial work to put food on the table?

In my case, I have had a commercial photography business for nigh on thirty years, but moved into typesetting and then print design around 20 years ago (without ever quite giving up photography), then into web work after I was hired to teach multimedia at TAFE (Australian technical college).

Now in the process of [semi]-retiring, I have found a new zeal for photography, since going digital in a serious way about five years ago—I have spent too many hours in dank darkrooms developing film and making prints for others to want to do it any more, but you may find that liberating.

Or a hybrid workflow shooting MF film, and scanning?

It’s all good, and in some ways we are in a Golden Age.
 
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Shelby Lewis

Guest
Thanks Max. I tried a lot of those focusing solutions and got decent with them, including a loupe (6x) for off-center focusing.

I'll be honest and say I'm not sure why I sold it, artistically. I'll use Guy's words... Funk. I am, however, back in doctoral studies (at 40, with kids) and there was a lot of work I could shoot to pay the bills that the aptus/rz couldn't handle including weddings... the D800 has really helped put some $$$ on the table. There was a real hope that I'd be happy with the camera artistically... the word "synergy" comes to mind... but I'll be the first to go to bat for the d800 as a photographic tool. It's been a real winner. I just don't see any magic in my d800 files.

S2? I just can't afford it... maybe when I'm out of school, but right now I'm an MF bottom feeder, lol (which is cool with me).
 
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