Alex Majoli and Olympus digicam "rangefinders"

R

ray_g

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http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-6468-7844

This may be old news to some. I just read it and find it quite interesting. I've been using my trusty C5050 for some interesting street photography for the past year or so, mainly at 35mm. At that focal length I preset focus to the hyperfocal distance at F/8 (1 meter), and everything from 0.5 meter to infinity is in focus. The shutter lag (with AF eliminated) is much shorter. And it's quite fun to use with an FSU 35mm viewfinder on the hotshoe.

A. Wrotniak's excellent article gives the details, on "How to use your C5050 as a Leica." http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/c5050/c5050-leica.html

I just got CV's excellent 50mm finder. I'll need to try that next. :)
 
At the end of that article it kind of sounds like he is longing for a digital M, heh.

As for digital point and shoot cameras, they are fun. I started taking pictures only a year ago when I got a minolta dimage x, which I still carry around everywhere. The only thing I dont like about the cameras is the battery life, its never as long as you need it to be.
 
ray_g said:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-6468-7844

This may be old news to some. I just read it and find it quite interesting. I've been using my trusty C5050 for some interesting street photography for the past year or so, mainly at 35mm. At that focal length I preset focus to the hyperfocal distance at F/8 (1 meter), and everything from 0.5 meter to infinity is in focus. The shutter lag (with AF eliminated) is much shorter. And it's quite fun to use with an FSU 35mm viewfinder on the hotshoe.

A. Wrotniak's excellent article gives the details, on "How to use your C5050 as a Leica." http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/c5050/c5050-leica.html

I just got CV's excellent 50mm finder. I'll need to try that next. :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the very interesting links Ray. I ordered a digi P&S yesterday and I'm going to try some of the techniques in the 2nd link. :)

 
not using the lcd extends battery life quite a bit. another reason brightline viewfinders rock on a digicam. =)
 
Hmmm, a 4040 is one of our older digicams we have at work...I noticed the other day the 1.8 maximum aperture and took it home immediately to shoot existing-light shots of my daughter. Great, if I just get the lag time down. The second articles had some good tips on how to do that! Thanks for posting, Ray.

The reviewer in the second link makes a good point: things like lens speed is not really stressed at all in digital marketing (I mean for point and shoints, not SLRS, etc), and maximum zoom trumps everything. I take notice of maximum wide and speed, but then again, that's why I like film cameras, and range-finder types.

doug
 
The 5050 was the second digital I ever bought. Great shooter, as mentioned previously, with the AF disabled, it has very little shutter lag. When I bought the Leica, I decided the 5050 was expendable, and I was just getting ready to sell it when I read an article in AP, I think it was, about some professional who shoots for National Geographic, stuff like that. Uses two cameras, one is a 5050. Made me think twice, and I held on to it. Now it's my "go everywhere" camera. Light, compact, great lens, and the rotatable LCD is perfect for street shooting.
I don't know why I even considered selling it, I've only sold one camera in my life and I still regret that one.
 
It's nice to see given all the hoopla over DSLRs that there are photographers who take the "prosumer" models seriously and use them as serious tools. Perhaps we will start seeing some improvements trickle down to these models... manufacturers, are you listening?
 
I think the Canon G2/3/5/6 has been popular for this kind of informed usage too, and its lens is f/2 at the "35mm" end...
 
Just had a chance to read your first link and am glad to see that he is satisfied with low compression JPEG files. I was amazed how the C5050 JPEG files printed up at home to 8X10 inch. I do like this camera but have a few beefs about it. Oly is on the right track and with a little refinement it would be even better.

Bob
 
Bob: I've read good things about the 8080, and now the 7070. Do either of these models address the concerns you've had with the 5050?

BTW, I am looking at a full-frame print form an XA/TriX/HC-110 B&W image, about 7x10. I know without a doubt it could go 11x14, probably a bit larger. My issue with digital is that neither the sensors (which use 3 sites for each pixel, IIRC,) nor the common inkjet machines, do B&W nearly as well as tradtional film/wet darkroom. But then, I haven't seen any digital B&W prints that claim to be in the same league as a high end silver (much less pt/pd) print.

Trius
 
My question is, what were is camera and lens choices before he started using complete digital on assignment? I'm always curious as to the gear that people choose to use as their own.
 
Trius

I tried the C5050 to see if I liked digital pics and I did. I liked the build of the C5050 but it has a crappy optical finder and I don't like the method of inputting what I want the camera to do (button,button, push,push). I have no experience with the models you mentioned. The digital camera that comes closest to what I want is likely the RD1 but I won't pay the price. A digital Nikon FM for around $1000 would interest me also. I use an HP 7960 that is not too shabby for B&W printing but then I am not a B&W expert.

Bob
 
Majoli is one of my heroes. Maybe it's because I'm so tall that I can identify with his approach. I mean, 6 ft and an EOS don't go unnoticed in the field...
He used to use Leicas and Olympus OM-1, by the way.
 
Okay, so I tried out the 4040 we had lying around. I'm pleased with the available light results wide open at 1.8.

It's my little girl, Zora, (age 2) after her bath. Wondering what the heck Daddy is doing or safegaurding the seven-fold path to enlightenment.
 
Grumblepunk said:
My question is, what were is camera and lens choices before he started using complete digital on assignment?
Click to expand...

According to the article he shot with Leicas "almost exclusively with 28mm and 35mm fixed wides" and used Tri-X processed in D-76.

It's nice to see this kind of thing. It only proves that it's not the gear but the photographer that makes the pictures. The camera is just a tool.
 
more to the point, no pun intended, is that there are advantages in the basic concept of a p&s camera.
 
dreilly said:
Okay, so I tried out the 4040 we had lying around. I'm pleased with the available light results wide open at 1.8.

It's my little girl, Zora, (age 2) after her bath. Wondering what the heck Daddy is doing or safegaurding the seven-fold path to enlightenment.
Click to expand...

That's a very nice photo. No doubt about it, the fast zuiko lens is very capable. One of my favorite photos was taken on the street a few years ago with the Olympus preset at around 50mm.
 
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