TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING - part III

In a recent BBC radio interview with the veteran and reknowned British photographer Don McCullin, the interviewer seemed somewhat taken aback at the 72 year old snapper's admission he only used traditional silver halide materials and a darkroom to produce his work. McCullin was talking about his recent National Portrait Gallery commission to photograph Britain's eminent religious Faith leaders.

He didn't want to spend his life with 'my head in a silver screen.', he retorted to the interviewer's surprise that he, unlike the masses, had not yet turned to digital capture.

He's right of course.

If you work with imaging in any way which involves image capture or the conversion of analogue to digital, at some stage during the working day, you will have your head stuck in the silver screen. Even if I was to subtract the time spent hacking out words on this laptop, the amount of each day left spent on cleaning, captioning and keywording images does not bear thinking about.

I often think about this aspect, while laboriously tracking the clone tool across another dirty Kodachrome, trying to figure out how much energy I have left to complete the target of another 10 images by the end of the day. And thinking about it often brings back memories of an altogether more pleasant era when a large desk in a light and airy office overlooking the water was my lap top. Between hilarious office banter with colleagues, coffee and Danish pastries, a pile of prints in need of spotting would gradually find their way into the steel cabinets littering the office. Filing prints or trannies was another sublime activity; it was so easy to be sidetracked by the 'wonder what's in that file' syndrome.

These days, the silver screen rules the roost and the only way to get back to some semblance of what it used to be like - normality for some - would be to sign the 'opt out' clause. That means dumping every piece of computer related hardware that has taken over my life in the past 25 years. I can see how it could be done, but it would mean a colossal life changing upheaval, becoming the photographic artist I have always viewed with some scepticism from a distance.

The doing of it is not difficult. Yes, there would be problems surviving financially, at least until I had mastered the art of print distribution of motifs customers might demand at the right price in sufficient quantities. Paintbrush and canvas artists know the story and I have met enough of the photographic variety to know their struggles are not so very different. This notwithstanding however, it is a road I would one day like to pursue. Just the thought of the more measured pace of life it ought to endow would be enough to get me started.

To this end, I stored all the old darkoom hardware; four enlargers, dishes, stainless tanks, rotary print glazer and a heap of masking frames, timers and other stuff. But. A recent report carried in The Timesonline business section (see AjaxDigest post of 8th Feb 07) highlighting Kodak's probable intent to sell off its film manufacturing arm should have been enough to put a stop to any dreams and aspirations I might have for all that junk.

As scary as it may look, Kodak's potential retreat from the film business can only be good news for traditional aficionados, provided of course, the arm is sold as a going concern. But Kodak may not obtain the price for the business they hope for and the danger of that is they could simply split the assets, selling formulae and manufacturing plant at a knock down price while hanging out for top value for the factory properties.

In the best outcome, there is a good chance all our favourite emulsions will continue to be available, albeit at possibly much higher prices. Yet, I suppose one also has to consider Kodak may not find a buyer in a world of diminshing analogue returns - in the developed West. China, India? The growth potential for film sales in those areas far exceeds what remains for a market in Europe and the US, according to analysts.

Whatever the outcome, for the time being at least and for those who want it, film is readily available from a variety of sources. How long current price levels will remain is another matter, but while they last, I'll be stocking up on a few favourites. My only problem with this is that it also looks as if a second cold storage device is rapidly moving up the list of most needed items.

While I will probably get to use a fair quantity of it, I admit to being more than a little concerned however, for the future of Kodachrome. Nothing in the E-6 line I have been revisting lately produces the same emotions felt when opening a yellow box of freshly K-14 processed film. But as my many other sentiments concerning this product have already been well aired, I'll let it rest there.

Moving swiftly on, I have been giving a lot more thought to the whole spectrum of colour photography and where it may end up. It is an issue I can no longer ignore despite my desire to continue to be able to shoot on the silver halide emulsion of choice. While I remain, almost, the only client for my own b+w output, every one else in the image reproduction business wants colour.

After two years of dabbling with it, the Epson RD1 digital rangefinder colour palette is where I will go when Kodachrome is laid to rest. While that issue is pending, I am attempting to perfect an exposure technique using this camera which brings me closer to the original Mannes and Godowsky look. As you might expect, the choice of glass used in conjunction with the RD1 sensor has some bearing on the final image appearance and it's been an interesting few months reviewing the results obtained with a wide range of mount compatible objectives. In the not too distant future, I hope we will be able to post some comparitive results.

In the meantime, searching through the specs and reviewing a number of pocketable compact digital cameras as possible replacements for ageing film cameras, brought me one step closer to placing an order. The original list of models has now been whittled down to a mere handful and at least three of these are all from the same manufacturer...Ricoh.

I was first introduced to the Ricoh colour palette and the quality of its signal processing firmware a couple of years back. On a press junket to the old battlefields of northern France, a colleague recorded the event on the GX8. The build quality of this model is impressive. The camera is small but with an ergonomic control layout. I confess I was so taken with the GX8 I would have almost certainly put my money on the table there and then had circumstances permitted. Later, I looked a little deeper into the brand and discovered the Ricoh GR Digital, a fixed 28mm focal length lens (equivalent in 135mm format.) which is offered with an optional conversion optic to expand the focal length to an equivalent of 21mm. The camera is the same diminutive size as the original Ricoh 35mm film camera and made with the same lightweight but tough magnesium alloy outer shell.

All of these specs easily match my ticked preference boxes, but then along came 16:9 HDTV format.

You can find reference in an earlier post (COMING TO A WIDE SCREEN NEAR YOU SOON)to my sentiments for this semi panoramic image shape. It is one of those formats I have always had some difficulty getting to grips with but after several weeks of shooting intermittently with the Panasonic DMC-LX2 (aka Leica D-Lux 3), I am slowly beginning to look more closely at the potential for motifs captured in another dimension. It certainly lends itself to the more graphic interpretation when required, but the attraction of the LX2 is not only its 16:9 capability using a10mp elongated sensor; the camera has two other switchable settings for the traditional 3:2 and 4:3 formats, which, while cropped on the sensor, still maintain useful commercial file sizes. My difficulty with this camera is that while it is of comparable size to the Ricoh GR Digital, its colour palette is very different. Panasonic has always displayed a very distinctive and quite contrasty image with magenta leanings, a palette which is totally at variance with the Epson RD1's more naturally restrained colours and to which, the Ricoh appears to offer a close match.

This became more apparent recently while using a version of the Ricoh GX8 encased in a beefy neoprene touchy-feely shell and dubbed the Ricoh 500G Wide. The specs of the two models are practically identical, but the 500G is aimed squarely at the hard-hat brigade of building surveyors, fire fighters and anyone else who might need a camera in a mucky and possibly hazardous location. This camera is also supposedly, waterproof up to 1 meter, but I have yet to test this aspect; there are issues with interior sealing causing some anxiety but it is never-the-less a bit lax, considering my speciality. This notwithstanding, I like the way it feels in the hand. It has more of the heft and lump of the first Leica Digilux brick (Panasonic DMC-LC5), but unlike the shiny Leica, the Ricoh 500G will probably bounce when dropped on concrete. The membrane covered buttons are easy to operate and have a very positive feel. You would however, need a large pocket in which to stow it.

This aspects alone would be enough were I just looking for something other than a bijou. The lens, sensor and signal processing firmware combination however, produce finely detailed images from an 8mp sensor, and, if you don't count the apparent effect of a grain type filmic look as noise, the Ricoh 500G images look remarkably similar to the Epson's output. In the digital image world, I need tools that provide some consistency of appearance. I like the Panasonic LX2, but I think it will be one of the Ricoh's that finally makes a home, as well as another hole, in my pocket.



Visitors, users and viewers of the foregoing content may copy and re-use it in other internet content sites on condition the source of all material so used is acknowledged with the attachment of the following.
Copyright; Jonathan Eastland
www.ajaxnetphoto.blogspot.com 2007.
www.ajaxnetphoto.com 2007.
This original content may be used in any print media made available for commercial resale.
The products and companies named in this website content are trademarks , registered trademarks or servicemarks of their respective owners or licensed users.