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The GRD2 — An Appreciation

scott kirkpatrick

Well-known member
So, Scott, what's there not to like about Moriyama? ...

—Mitch/Bangkok
There's a lot to like about Daidoh Moriyama, William Klein, Shomei Tomatsu, Noboyuki Araki and others. They bring a culture and era that I find fascinating but I am notentirely part of, so I try for a different style or styles. You seem to be channelling Moriyama or Klein sometimes -- and I mean that as a compliment.

regards,

scott
 

scott kirkpatrick

Well-known member
Hi Scott, it doesn't seem to make sense to try to give traction to the 4/3 sensor unless you were promoting the company that used that sensor. The APS-C sensors can easily be 4/3 by cropping, discarding data, yet 4/3 can never be APS-C. If someone is sneaky and underhanded, does it matter how well they can string sentences together? I don't want to read it.
I don't find Mike J sneaky or underhanded, and I don't think he has figured out how to make any extra money promoting companies. He's not anyone's fanboy, just a little long-winded when he is thinking something through out loud in his columns. His reason (and mine) for being sympathetic to 4/3 is that lenses explicitly designed for the reduced image circle and with some guidelines making them more telecentric can be fabulously sharp and fairly contrasty/flare-free. Except for the longer focal lengths, the lenses aren't much smaller, with one recent exception, but that is another long discussion.

scott
 
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wbrandsma

Guest
I know you Mitch from the dpreview forum and it was you who mentioned this excellent forum. It is a great and inspiring place to be. You are an excellent contributor to this forum and your work is truly inspiring. Your GRD(2) photos makes me push my GX100 to the limits.
The series shown above is amazing!
 
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Player

Guest
I don't find Mike J sneaky or underhanded, and I don't think he has figured out how to make any extra money promoting companies. He's not anyone's fanboy, just a little long-winded when he is thinking something through out loud in his columns. His reason (and mine) for being sympathetic to 4/3 is that lenses explicitly designed for the reduced image circle and with some guidelines making them more telecentric can be fabulously sharp and fairly contrasty/flare-free. Except for the longer focal lengths, the lenses aren't much smaller, with one recent exception, but that is another long discussion.

scott
Fair enough Scott. I know he's had a longtime admiration for Olympus, especially the lenses. I didn't mean to imply that he was profiting by "promoting" Olympus, just that he was indirectly doing his part to assist the company because of his own fascination. The lens argument seems like a smokescreen.

I'm still peeved that he dismissed me from participating since I was never rude, nor did I ever attack anyone personally. I just gave my own opinions as much weight as his opinions, and I didn't genuflect at his altar. He seems to cull-out the responders who don't acknowledge his opinions as being more important. His has remarked about his voice as being an "important one," implying at the same time that not all voices are important. Credentials are very significant to him, his own, as well anyone hoping to contribute in a more meaningful way than the back page. Cronyism? Elitism? I don't know what you call it. How about Nazism? ;)
 
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Mitch Alland

Guest
Trisberg, I really like the the tones in your two pictures above — the GRD2 is really nice at ISO 400, which is the speed I see you shot at from the EXIF data. Goes to show the variety of treatment that GRD2 files are capable of.

—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
 
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Mitch Alland

Guest
...One tool I think you might want to try (free 15-day trial) is...Viveza, as a PS plugin, will allow you to have very similar control to what you get with Lightzone in the instances when you find Aperture necessary to recover highlights...
Thanks for the tip, Amin. It looks very interesting. I'll have to try it: I wish that Aperture 2 would wprk with Photoshop plugins...

—Mitch/Bangkok
 
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Mitch Alland

Guest
There's a lot to like about Daidoh Moriyama, William Klein, Shomei Tomatsu, Noboyuki Araki and others. They bring a culture and era that I find fascinating but I am notentirely part of, so I try for a different style or styles. You seem to be channelling Moriyama or Klein sometimes -- and I mean that as a compliment...
Thanks for the kind words, Scott. Interesting that you mention William Klein, who was the initial influence on Moriyama, because I like the "denseness" of Klein's compositions. One of the things I like about small sensor cameras is the huge DOF, which allows one to look all the way into the frame and show the complexity of a scene while creating "order" by finding strong elements in the "form" of what one sees. Most of the time I'm more interested in this type of approach than by simplifying a scene through letting the background blur, which, while effective at times, in my view is often overdone to the point of cliche. In terms of bokeh, I now tend to like just a touch of blur rather than the washed out smoothness created by a Noctilux or Summilux-75 ant full aperture, for example.

—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
 

jonoslack

Active member
Hi Scott, it doesn't seem to make sense to try to give traction to the 4/3 sensor unless you were promoting the company that used that sensor. The APS-C sensors can easily be 4/3 by cropping, discarding data, yet 4/3 can never be APS-C. If someone is sneaky and underhanded, does it matter how well they can string sentences together? I don't want to read it.
HI There
I've never heard of this guy, but I've been using 4/3 since it appeared - and Nikon and others, and I keep coming back to the lenses - the big lens mount and the small sensor really does make for splendid lenses.
The mid range Olympus 4/3 lenses can be used without reservation - you can shoot them wide open, stopped down, zoomed in, zoomed out, and you can expect the same excellent sharp results from corner to corner, which is NOT something I experienced from the top range Nikon lenses.
Whether or not the 4/3 sensor is a good idea, and whether or not the camera bodies are really up to scratch (or as small as they should be). Those mid range lenses are gold dust - and for me, it's the lenses which count . . . . .
 

trisberg

New member
Trisberg, I really like the the tones in your two pictures above — the GRD2 is really nice at ISO 400, which is the speed I see you shot at from the EXIF data. Goes to show the variety of treatment that GRD2 files are capable of.

—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
Thanks Mitch, I do use 400 quite a bit so far and I like the tones and quality as well. I do try to control the grain a bit and I'm still learning how to process these files. Here is another one from today at ISO 400.



I thought I would use my add on viewfinder a lot, but I'm either shooting using the LCD or aiming without even looking at the LCD, just estimating what will be in the picture.

Thomas
 

Maggie O

Active member
Godwin's Law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies) is an adage formulated by Mike Godwin in 1990. The law states:

"As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."
Now updated to include the entire internet!
 
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Mitch Alland

Guest
The high contrast look — and reality

Coming back to the style of the pictures above, on another forum where I also posted them I was taken to task by several people for the high contrast look and advised that the pictures "could definitely benefit from some lightening of the shadows".

My response was that I'm not after a long mid-tone range but like a higher contrast look, not only to reflect the bright light and deep, black shadows of the tropics but also for aesthetic reasons — I like to create strong graphic forms by compressing the shadows — although if you look at the square portrait above you'll see that, in addition to the "bite" of some high contrast, there is also a long midtone range because that is what I thought was apprpiate for a picture of this young woman.

Basically, I feel that a B&W photograph is nowhere near "reality" in the values of tones and one can and should manipulate them for expressive purposes, and that this can lead to a stronger expression of reality.

Any thoughts these issues and on whether the pictures are excessively high in contrast and would benefit from lengthening the shadows?

—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
 
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