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Category Archives: Equipment
Luminous Landscape and Baryta Papers
From Luminous Landscape:
For fine-art photographers paper is where the battle lines are drawn. Over the past year or so paper manufacturers have tried to bring us inkjet printing papers that combine the tactile and visual beauty of fibre-based substrates with the high dMax and saturated colours of resin coated papers using photo black ink. Close, but not quite there yet in my view.
In the chemical print era Baryta-based papers were considered by many as the pinnacle. Now, three of the major paper makers have introduced Baryta papers for inkjet printing; Hahnemuhle Fine Art Baryta 325 , Harman Gloss FB AI, and Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk. Are these the Holy Grail of printing?
My three-way comparison report, Battle of The Barytas is now online. [The Luminous Landscape – What’s New]
The article makes an interesting read on several counts. It sounds like all three reviewed papers are quite good – though one costs far less than the others. It also explains why a move away from printing on matte papers may be in the cards.
A General Response to the “What Lens(es) Should I Get?” Question
A common type of photography forum question asks “What lens(es) should I get?” or “What is/are the ‘best’ lens(es)?” It is really impossible to offer the type of answer that the poster is looking for without asking for a lot more detail. Here is a slightly edited version of a reply that I recently offered in response to such a question:
There is not a single “right” answer to most questions like this. Choice of lenses is a very personal thing and factors that affect one’s choice of “best” include: budget, future plans, type(s) of photography, zoom/prime preference, preference for many/few lenses, whether the end product will be electronic sharing or prints, how large the images will be, etc.
Without knowing a lot more about your photography and your preferences, most responses will be along the lines of “here is what I like for my photography” or “no idea, really, but here are some general guidelines that might work.”
With that in mind, here are a few general guidelines:
- For landscape one probably wants wide angle – at least 17mm on a crop body – and doesn’t need large apertures as much since typical work is often done stopped down. Fewer and/or smaller/lighter lenses may be good if one works a lot on foot.
- For sports/action photography one generally may want longer lenses, and larger apertures could be important for low light (e.g. indoors or at night) or permitting slightly faster shutter speeds. Image stabilization could be less important here, and for really long focal lengths primes may be a good choice compared to zooms, but it is hard to generalize.
- For street photography, many prefer to use a small body with a prime or two, though others like to work with a single zoom. Many like wider but not ultra-wide lengths and some like somewhat wider apertures. On the other hand, there is a contingent that likes to use longer lenses and shoot from a distance rather then getting “up close and personal” with the subject.
- For portraits, many like wide aperture primes in the 50mm to 100mm focal length range (on crop bodies), though some also like zooms that cover this range.
Trying to make one or a few lenses cover all or a good part of this range of uses will require some compromises and/or very deep pockets.
For general use, a lot depends on stuff like budget. The 17-55mm f/2.8 IS is a high quality choice for Canon crop bodies; the 18-55mm kit lens is a good starting point if you don’t really know what you want; the IS version of the latter lens is reportedly fairly sharp and is a great value.
Canon Rebel XT for Under $400 – A Watershed DSLR Price?
I just saw a listing for the Canon Rebel XT (350D) on a price tracking service I sometimes follow:
Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Camera Body for $382 shipped. Dell Home has the Canon EOS 350D Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Camera Body in Silver or Black for $382 with free shipping… [dealmac – 20 most recent deals.]
A very decent DSLR body for less than $400 – that is quite something! And the Rebel XT is no slouch as a photographic tool – don’t be put off by its small size and so forth. (Note: You’ll still need to get a lens since one is not included at this price.)
I used the XT for two years, especially for backpacking photography. Here is an example:
Mount Winchell. Sierra Nevada, California. August 13, 2005. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
I gave mine away to my son, but I’m almost tempted to purchase another as a smaller, lighter body when I see a price like this.