NickTrop
Veteran
Sooo... why start a thread on a camera purchase in the "Philosophy of Photography" forum? Because my decision to purchase was based exclusively on the philosophy of photography. Specifically, applying the Socratic method to the question of "what is the decisive moment" and asking of it - what is "a moment"? Is it 1/30th of a second? Is it 1/125th? 1/60th? All of the above? Or is it even one frame? Can it be many frames?
An old Russian silent film I watched streamed on Netflix called The Man with the Movie Camera, which I found completely intriguing, caused me to question what exactly "the photographic moment" coined by HCB is. Here's a synopsis from Wikipedia about this film:
The Man with the Movie Camera...is an experimental 1929 silent documentary film, with no story and no actors[2], by Russian director Dziga Vertov, edited by his wife Elizaveta Svilova who helped with the process of deleting and adding new frames into the film.
Vertov's feature film, produced by the Ukrainian film studio VUFKU, presents urban life in Odessa and other Soviet cities. From dawn to dusk Soviet citizens are shown at work and at play, and interacting with the machinery of modern life...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_with_a_Movie_Camera
In essence, Dziga Vertov was a street photographer. His film is a collection of "decisive moments" of soviet life in the 20's but captured with motion, not stills. Why is street photography still photography? Easy. Because still cameras are portable and the 35mm ones discrete. What was Leica's innovation? Making cameras more discrete both in terms of size and fast lenses that can use natural light so you can document. Also, you can set up for your next shot very quickly and have a lot of exposures loaded into your camera so you're always ready.
This lead me to the conclusion that street photography is synonymous with still photography largely due to imposed technological constraints. In Man with a Movie Camera, Vertov is seen lugging around a huge film camera and tripod, his wife was in the film shown editing strips and strips of footage - old school, on reels. Intrinsic to "decisive moments" and street photography involving humans is that the subject is unaware that he/she is being documented the time "decisive moment" occurs. That wasn't gonna happen with a giant movie camera on a tripod being lugged around (though through great effort Vertov pulled it off in his film...)
Not to be discounted are the cost considerations of shooting and editing movie film. Thus, by default, "decisive moments" was relegated to still photography and HCB carried a relatively tiny Leica. - not by choice, but by default, and those "decisive moments" were forced by the constraints of capturing motion to be stills not due to conscious aesthetic choices but the impracticality and expense of shooting motion discretely.
80 years after Vertov's Man with the Movie Camera, discreet digital hybrid cameras has changed all this. "Decisive Moments" can be captured by small descreet cameras capable of nearly unlimited frames both motion and stills as an aesthetic choice - not by technological constraints, and importantly, using one single discreet tool of the same approximate size/weight of the 35mm camera HCB used. Expense of capturing motion has been largely taken out of the equation. Motion can be editied easily on a PC or Mac. What was once impractical is now immanently practical.
It's time to redefine "the decisive moment".
___________________________________________________
So, what tool did I purchase for this?
Nikon D5000 body with f1.8 35mm prime (of course), "waiting in the mail..."
1. Hybrid capable of quality motion capture (required) - better yet, it's 24P, same as the D90
2. Fairly small, handles well...
3. Swivel LCD for waist-level and odd angle shooting
4. Silent Mode (Ken Rockwell says it's queter than mechanical Leicas in this mode...) http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d5000.htm
5. "Relatively" great (class leading) dynamic range (and a D Range mode to improve on it...)
6. Last but not least - at least spec-wise, it tops the Leica M8 (as an example) and many other cameras with APS-C sized sensors in many key areas (or course, you can't use that great Leica glass with it - but I don't own any anymore 🙂. Check it out, here: http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/en...rk-reviews/DxOMark-review-for-the-Nikon-D5000
7. Value. Got an amazing deal on a Nikon refurbed model (early versions of this camera were recalled and fixed by Nikon, so there's a lot of very decent deals on this particular model out there at insane prices... I have never had issues with refurbed electronics. In my experience you take a greater chance with new...) It goes for as low as $700 non-refurbed with kit zoom lens anyway as an entry level DSLR...
Although I was waiting on the Samsung NX10 for this purpose, after reading some performance reviews - especially below average d-range and color accuracy issues, I checked into the D5000. Held it in the store, decided it was "small enough" and liked the way it handled. When I read Nikon was now making relatively inexpensive fast high quality primes in focal lengths I shoot in (90% standard 50mm, in this case a 35mm f1.8), it was a no brainer given the cost of the camera and its performance specs.
Bottom line... Will the new hybrid cameras redefine "the decisive moment"?
Thanks for reading,
Nick
An old Russian silent film I watched streamed on Netflix called The Man with the Movie Camera, which I found completely intriguing, caused me to question what exactly "the photographic moment" coined by HCB is. Here's a synopsis from Wikipedia about this film:
The Man with the Movie Camera...is an experimental 1929 silent documentary film, with no story and no actors[2], by Russian director Dziga Vertov, edited by his wife Elizaveta Svilova who helped with the process of deleting and adding new frames into the film.
Vertov's feature film, produced by the Ukrainian film studio VUFKU, presents urban life in Odessa and other Soviet cities. From dawn to dusk Soviet citizens are shown at work and at play, and interacting with the machinery of modern life...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_with_a_Movie_Camera
In essence, Dziga Vertov was a street photographer. His film is a collection of "decisive moments" of soviet life in the 20's but captured with motion, not stills. Why is street photography still photography? Easy. Because still cameras are portable and the 35mm ones discrete. What was Leica's innovation? Making cameras more discrete both in terms of size and fast lenses that can use natural light so you can document. Also, you can set up for your next shot very quickly and have a lot of exposures loaded into your camera so you're always ready.
This lead me to the conclusion that street photography is synonymous with still photography largely due to imposed technological constraints. In Man with a Movie Camera, Vertov is seen lugging around a huge film camera and tripod, his wife was in the film shown editing strips and strips of footage - old school, on reels. Intrinsic to "decisive moments" and street photography involving humans is that the subject is unaware that he/she is being documented the time "decisive moment" occurs. That wasn't gonna happen with a giant movie camera on a tripod being lugged around (though through great effort Vertov pulled it off in his film...)
Not to be discounted are the cost considerations of shooting and editing movie film. Thus, by default, "decisive moments" was relegated to still photography and HCB carried a relatively tiny Leica. - not by choice, but by default, and those "decisive moments" were forced by the constraints of capturing motion to be stills not due to conscious aesthetic choices but the impracticality and expense of shooting motion discretely.
80 years after Vertov's Man with the Movie Camera, discreet digital hybrid cameras has changed all this. "Decisive Moments" can be captured by small descreet cameras capable of nearly unlimited frames both motion and stills as an aesthetic choice - not by technological constraints, and importantly, using one single discreet tool of the same approximate size/weight of the 35mm camera HCB used. Expense of capturing motion has been largely taken out of the equation. Motion can be editied easily on a PC or Mac. What was once impractical is now immanently practical.
It's time to redefine "the decisive moment".
___________________________________________________
So, what tool did I purchase for this?
Nikon D5000 body with f1.8 35mm prime (of course), "waiting in the mail..."
1. Hybrid capable of quality motion capture (required) - better yet, it's 24P, same as the D90
2. Fairly small, handles well...
3. Swivel LCD for waist-level and odd angle shooting
4. Silent Mode (Ken Rockwell says it's queter than mechanical Leicas in this mode...) http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d5000.htm
5. "Relatively" great (class leading) dynamic range (and a D Range mode to improve on it...)
6. Last but not least - at least spec-wise, it tops the Leica M8 (as an example) and many other cameras with APS-C sized sensors in many key areas (or course, you can't use that great Leica glass with it - but I don't own any anymore 🙂. Check it out, here: http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/en...rk-reviews/DxOMark-review-for-the-Nikon-D5000
7. Value. Got an amazing deal on a Nikon refurbed model (early versions of this camera were recalled and fixed by Nikon, so there's a lot of very decent deals on this particular model out there at insane prices... I have never had issues with refurbed electronics. In my experience you take a greater chance with new...) It goes for as low as $700 non-refurbed with kit zoom lens anyway as an entry level DSLR...
Although I was waiting on the Samsung NX10 for this purpose, after reading some performance reviews - especially below average d-range and color accuracy issues, I checked into the D5000. Held it in the store, decided it was "small enough" and liked the way it handled. When I read Nikon was now making relatively inexpensive fast high quality primes in focal lengths I shoot in (90% standard 50mm, in this case a 35mm f1.8), it was a no brainer given the cost of the camera and its performance specs.
Bottom line... Will the new hybrid cameras redefine "the decisive moment"?
Thanks for reading,
Nick
