Archive for Photo Gear
A Space for Hurdy-Gurdies
May 1, 20166 CommentsPhoto GearvBookWith the instinctually purposeful determination of a cicada, I go about satisfying my once-every-13-year mission: fisheye photography.
Pick (a) Pocket: The Minolta TC-1
April 1, 201610 CommentsPhoto GearvBookThe Minolta TC-1 is 27% smaller than my iPhone 6S, more ergonomic, and loads the world’s finest collection of retro filters — film. If only it could get a dial tone.
jaPANorama
February 1, 201616 CommentsMusingsPhoto GearvBookWho in their right mind would drag an old Widelux F7 panoramic film camera to Tokyo some 15+ years past the dawn of the 21st Century? Precisely.
Camera Season: The Leica SL
January 1, 201613 CommentsPhoto GearThe Leica SL is a big camera... with a big list of pro features... and a really really big native lens. To review it properly would require an equally big article. Which is exactly why this isn't a proper review. Instead, this article looks only at one particular aspect of the Leica SL — its ability to work with adapted M-mount rangefinder lenses.
On Myth and Minitars
September 17, 201520 CommentsPhoto GearRecently, the mad scientists at Lomography surgically removed the Minitar lens from their cult-classic LC-A camera, tarted it up by grafting on a Leica M-mount bayonet, and sent it into the night to tempt us weak and sinful lens addicts. I'm only human. I succumbed. And here, for the benefit of other weaklings, is my report from the stone-cold morning after.
Sentences and Sensibility: Leica’s M (246) Pt. 2
May 14, 201548 CommentsPhoto GearThis is ULTRAsomething's second installment in the "Sensibility Series." It features thousands of words, grouped into hundreds of sentences — a handful of which are actually about the topic it purports to discuss: the Leica M Monochrom (Type 246). I should also mention that it's populated with over a dozen actual photos — and not a one of them falls into the category of "pretty marketing shot" or "test shot." Undeterred? Then read on.
Sensors and Sensibility : The Leica M (246) Monochrom
April 30, 201543 CommentsPhoto GearWhat if Jane Austin had the opportunity to test and compare Leica's new Type 246 M Monochrom camera against both the existing Monochrom and the M Type 240? Would her first published work have been a tale of romantic fiction? Or would it have been something closer to this?
Yin Every Yang (Part 2)
April 19, 20155 CommentsMusingsPhoto GearTraveling to Iceland in the dead of winter? No problem. Traveling to Iceland carrying a backpack and a zoom lens? Now that's culture shock.
Up Goes The Ante: Fuji’s X100T
February 18, 201518 CommentsPhoto GearFuji and innovation go hand-in-hand. My Hasselblad Xpan? A creation of Fuji's. My pocketable, point-and-shoot Medium Format camera? Also Fuji. My next digital camera? Well, Fuji's new X100T has certainly warranted a meticulous examination — nearly 5,000 words worth of meticulousness! So is that lump in my pocket a new Fuji X100T? Or is it the big wad of cash I saved by deciding not to purchase one? Read the article to find out.
Applied Relativity: The Leica M-A
January 8, 201550 CommentsPhoto GearSomewhere in this meandering tale of chance encounters and philosophical philosophizing, there’s a review of the new Leica M-A camera — a camera that just might be the closest any manufacturer has yet come to that elusive quality known as “perfection.”
The Are-Bure-Boke-Matic
September 1, 20148 CommentsPhoto GearGrainy. Blurry. Out-of-focus. To the average photographer, these are characteristics to avoid at all cost. Fortunately, I never claimed to be "the average photographer." So for all you not-so-average photographers seeking to infuse some low-fidelity grunge into your high-fidelity world, I present the Olympus Pen EE-2 camera for your consideration.