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Ripe Camera, Kirk Tuck

drofnad

Member
How good is aged whine?
I was vacillating over posting this, so much & so late,
but the recent DPReview post by Kirk Tuck piqued my
desire to whine a bit. To the DPR "Pro" forum, he asked
--ONLY NOW!!!-- the question one might expect to have
preceded his article of discussion here --to wit:

Just curiosity! How many professionals on this forum have switched to m4:3..

29 min ago [23 June 2014]

Or some other mirror less camera such as the Sony A7's or Fuji X cameras?
I recently bought a fairly complete Panasonic GH series centered around GH4
cameras for video and have been using them more and more for still assignments.
Curious who else is making the same change...
Kirk's article decries the megapixel race, claiming that some
plateau has been reached, and yet ... (to his 8mpx is enuff)
the hoopla greeting the 5DmkII, D800, & now A7r suggest
that the race is, for some folks at least, continuing.

(OTOH, admittedly, Canon's compact G10's bold 14.7 mpx of 2009
became upon upgrades to that highly touted compact camera
10, 10, 12, 12, resp. in G11-12-15, & 16 (2013-08 : +5yrs to G10);
and noting that the G1X debuted @14.3 mpx, but its mkII version has
dropped to 13.1, and Canon's once top-of-line 1Ds & 1D merged in a
sort of mpix compromise : resp., 21 & 16 => 18. And the 5DmkII's 21
stayed the same (~= 22) --but to great hue & cry and threats to jump
off of bridges or to switch to Nikon's D800 (whichever is less severe!).
)

Perhaps I came to this thread from the wrong path
--I'd just happened upon the one where a fellow asks
whether he should sell his seldom-used Leica S2 (Med.Format)--,
[ cf.www.getdpi.com/forum/medium-format-systems-digital-backs/50291-selling-s2-%3D-stupidity.html ]
and have since read through the many opinions on
Jonoslack's "Decisions, Decision", which stand in stark
contrast to KT's sentiments, and so it's especially
curious that none other than Jonoslack has wanted to
highlight KT's article !? --except, perhaps now, at this
later date of my venting keystrokes, to J's ultimate (re-)decision!
(I've not checked to see if there is a re-re-decision or not.)

I find the cited article rather shallow, and as though it's made
for popular consumption, selling the ever-popular contrarian PoV;
the infamous Ken Rockwell might as well have penned it
--he was, after all, saying similar things about only needing
the 6mpix of a D40, back when a D40 was for sale, new,
facing the then promulgated boasting about 8-10-12mpx DSLRs.
(In some other DPR thread about needs for magazine pics,
the magic mpx number seems to be 18, which neatly includes
Canon but not some Nikon & m4/3 cameras.)

As one who brought to GetDPI mention of LuLa's "BCooter"
and his then praise of m4/3 and i.p. the GH3 (in light of Jorgen's
enthusiasm for the same), I find it quite lame that Kirk both
refers to "well known" photogs such as him without any other
names, and obviously does NOT so well know him :
"Russell Rutherford (famous fashion and sports photographer)"
sounds like a name perhaps, but is a marriage of surnames,
from James Russell (who is claimed well known) and partner
Ann Rutherford.

Kirk's later assertion, "I rushed to buy a Canon 5Dmk2 and when
Sony came out with a higher megapixel camera, the a99, I rushed
to buy that one too" suffers from the fact that Sony had a higher
mpx (slightly : 24 vs. 21) gun --viz., the a900-- even prior to (by weeks)
the 5DmkII (but not 1DsIII). So, with claims like these simple ones,
how much further should one walk w/KT?

Back to that Canon G10, vs. M240 KT offers this peculiar
comparison:
"A Canon G10 will deliver a better file when shot at ISO 80
than a Leica M240 with a $5,000 lens*pushed to 3200."
--or if the Leica's lens cap is left on : this comparison tells us what ?!
(If one **needs** to shoot @iso3200 + --lemme guess--
Noctilux @f/1 for the shot, what's the G10 gonna deliver?)

His arguments amount to a peculiar stack of non sequiturs.
"People started leaving D800s at home in deference to Sony, Fuji,
and Olympus mirrorless cameras. And the people who did this found
out a very interesting fact : since about 2008 all of the better cameras
(non-budget, non-point&shoot) made files that were ... good enough.
Really."

Really? How did it take using modern smaller cameras to show
that older (larger) ones were good enough? --shouldn't that have
been seen (or not) in the direct comparisons of those older ones
with the high-mpx upgrades (5Dc vs. mkII, D3 vs. D3X, D90 vs.
D7000)? The D800/e (and newly a7r) are relatively new, coming
after 12-16-21mpx guns. Why would it take until 2014 (5+ years!)
to figure out that 2008 cameras were good enough?

And he can't seem to remember what he's written in
preceding prg.s --to wit, above is about 2008 (5 yrs & counting),
yet ...
"What I am essentially trying to say here is that all of
the cameras I've come across in the last two years, ... ,
can deliver results that are nearly always better than the
technique and capabilities*of the person holding them."
So, is it 2008, or last 2 years (2012/13)?

Now, if we all believe in the thrust of this article --i.e.,
that most modern (read : "current & past couple years,
at LEAST") cameras are mostly more than anyone needs,
where was that sentiment when the S2-or-Not? OP asked
about selling a WAY upgrade, pricey MF camera that he wasn't
using so much (but did like its occasional output) ?!!!

I'm continually confused by the conflicting voices saying
such things as Kirk utters --megapixel wars are over, it's
all a wash re IQ, and so on-- and then the great cry for even
the next upgrade to D4 (or a complementary D4X) to well
exceed the already computer-straining 36mpx of the D800
(i.e. "54mpx")?! There is current chatter about this. Huh?

(And meanwhile to this small cameras drama, the sound of
millions & millions of clicking cellphones colors the background.)

Sometimes it seems much like this "It's always April 1st", presentation:
Fuji X-T1 Versus Olympus OM-D E-M1 | New Camera News
|
| Best camera for the inebriated or overly caffeinated ::
| Olympus offers 5-axis, 4-cocktails image stabilization.
| Fuji requires sobriety and no caffeine.
| Winner: Olympus
|
| Best camera to wear with a cardigan or blazer with elbow patches ::
| Fuji offers a genuine leather case and strap.
| Olympus only has leather straps; brown strap is (gasp!) synthetic leather.
| Winner: Fuji
|
| Best camera to take a Sunday drive with in a restored Triumph TR-6 ::
| OM-D E-M1 will make Triumph look old.
| X-T1 will make Triumph look new.
| Winner: Depends on what you want.
(So we should always smile.)

:angel:
 
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