Photography: The Times Are Changing

Kirk Tuck has written on his blog - The Visual Science Lab:
“The dependence on the big tools is fading. No one in the emerging new (photographers) group seemed to care about the stuff that we craved when we first were dragged, kicking, screaming and denying, into digital. They don't care about big cameras or enormous lenses. They aren't captivated by more resolution. They look for cameras that are fast and fluid and casual. They want good high ISO performance and small overall profiles.

They are looking for good industrial design to be coequal with good technical specs. Think iPhone as opposed to the original Motorola "brick." For them, the camera is an extension of hand and eye, not a puzzle or equation to be mastered. They want their cameras to be as operationally transparent as an iPhone or an iPad.”

The Fuji X10 - on the left - and the Nikon D2x - on the right - are my today and yesterday tools. The Nikon is still used for fast action sports when long lenses are required. Otherwise it and the Nikon system of lenses remain at home. The X10 with its zoom lens covers - quickly and easily - my choice of subjects. With the ability to produce 16x20 prints that meet my standards, the Fuji is the first "go to" camera.

These three cameras - Fuji X10, Fuji X100, Minolta CLE - are my everyday tools. Together, they weigh less than the Nikon with a lens and they provide a varitey of possibilites. The digital X10 covers a wide angle (28mm) to a short telephoto (110 mm). The digital X100 has a fixed lens (35mm) that is a favorite focal length. Ideal for environmental portraits of people and places. Both cameras produce color images that are rich with full range of values. The Minolta is a film camera that uses the Leica M- mount lenses. Having several M-mount lenses - 12mm -135mm- many choices are available. While color film could be used, it is only used with black and white film. Rather than converting a color digital image to black and white the CLE film image is direct and can be wet printed or changed to a digital image. While these cameras are small, light in weight they are not "downsizing" my photography. Rather as Kirk Tuck has written, " they are fast and fluid and casual" which has changed - for the better - my way of working.