Focus on Imaging 2013

Another year another visit to Focus on Imaging in Birmingham.

What set this year apart from previous years was my complete lack of interest in any new camera, gear or gadgets. It was nice to see the Fuji X100s, the split image manual focus is great and would be perfect with a red peaking overlay and Fuji has really improved the operation, and the X20, the information overlay in the OVF is great and puts other OVFs to shame.
Aside from this there was not much to really see at Focus and it starts to feel like Fuji is the only manufacturer who actually cares about this show or maybe it’s also because Canon and Nikon have absolutely nothing remotely interesting for me with their boring dSLRs and very poor mirrorless and compact cameras.
Still, at least Canon and Nikon bothered to show up, Sony, Panasonic and as usual Ricoh did not even do this. Olympus had a small booth dedicated to the OMD which seem to do very well for them and rightly so, it’s a great camera and the best m4/3 camera.

This time round it was less of a gear show for me but instead I did have time to take pictures of the models and people around. A 53mm lens is not perfect for this task as you have to get very close but it was still good fun to do and the GXR performed very well and showed why I don’t care about any new cameras.

So unlike the previous years no camera talk here and instead pictures so in a way the focus this year was on the actual imaging for me ;). Hope you enjoy this series.

SWPP Model 2010

GXR, f2.5, 1/189, ISO 200, RAW, 50mm

After the picture of a model at last year’s SWPP Convention and Tradeshow, I decided to post another model picture.

One technical thing is that the GXR EVF is the best EVF currently on the market as it never gets grainy no mater how little light you have available. The m4/3 EVFs all get grainy in low light and when pointing to anything black as I have tried out on the EP-2 today.

I have also tried the Panasonic GF-1 and am still very tempted, it is in a different universe when it comes to the AF compared to the GXR. It has it’s own problems but as a camera it’s fantastic and Ricoh really need to look closer at this for their next GXR module. If Panasonic can release a GF-1 with the LC1 build and controls I will be the first in line to get one.
I also believe the m4/3 sensors are superior to APS sensors for any live view camera and hope Ricoh will release a m4/3 camera or at least lenses for m4/3 that don’t rely on in-camera tricks.

B&W Study

LC1, f2.4, 1/15, ISO 400, JPG b&w, 90mm

After my 500th post yesterday, I decided to post a different picture than my usual today. You can see the picture I initially wanted to post on Flickr.
I got the chance to take a few pictures of models during a photography workshop this evening. While I am generally not a big fan of studio pictures of models because they look a bit lifeless, I do like to take some shots in a studio environment when possible to see how they turn up. I never use the available flashes or the camera flash and think using the available light gives much better pictures.
I used the LC1 because it is very good for portraits due to the bigger sensor and fast lens and I have not used it for a while and wanted to use it again.

Having used the LC1, I know how I want the controls on the new Olympus m4/3 camera to be. I am looking forward to see what Olympus comes up with but more to see what Ricoh’s response will be.

SWPP Model

LC1, f2.4, 1/15, ISO 200, JPG, 90mm

Today, I went to the SWPP Convention and Trade show. It was interesting and I managed to find a few places I will try for prints and also to develop the films from the GR1. There were also a few events and classes of how to take good studio pictures. While I am not hugely interested in this I was hanging around to see one of the free classes to find out what a 60MP PhaseOne camera can do.
It might be impressive on a technical level but the wireless flashes used and the photographer managed to make this model look pretty ugly in the resulting picture. I think having the soft light only without a flash is much nicer and shadows are good and give depth to a picture. Using flash is always too harsh and cold no matter how you set this up to diffuse it.