Nikon Df Full Frame Digital DSLR

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Robert
Nikon Df from Nikon Rumors

Nikon Df from Nikon Rumors

Toronto, November 4, 2013. Member Paul Pasquarello of Buffalo sent me this interesting tidbit this morning on the imminent Nikon full frame small DSLR answer to the recent Sony A7 and A7r announcement. The images come courtesy of the Nikon Rumors site. If you Google “Nikon Df” you will see many other sites and details on this little retro looking camera.

The difference, of course, is the wealth of lenses already available for full frame Nikon cameras – an area where Sony is still catching up.

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Mapping out the photographic network in 19th century Canada: a work in progress

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Robert
Shannon Perry by Robert Lansdale

Shannon Perry by Robert Lansdale

NEXT TORONTO MEETING: Wed, Nov. 20, 2013.
A WORK IN PROGRESS: Shannon Perry. 

Ms Perry spoke with us on WWII Colour Photographs in November two years ago (2011 11 19). She is currently working as a photo archivist within the newly formed Archival Description department at Library and Archives, Canada. Shannon holds an M.A. in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University in Toronto and George Eastman House in Rochester N.Y..

The public is welcome. Go to our Programs page for times and directions. Continue reading →

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Khumbu glacier in gigaplex

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Robert
Khumbu Glacier by David Breashears

Khumbu Glacier by David Breashears

Toronto, October 28, 2013. Last December Ken Metcalfe out on the West Coast sent me an interesting article from the Washington Post. David Breashears photographed  the erosion of the Khumbu glacier (next to Mount Everest) from the inroads of climate change. I saw this first hand a decade ago at the Columbia Icefields in the Canadian Rockies – shocking.

Breashears uses the gigapixel process. The image seems like that created by the Gigapan mechanism  as first shown to us on November 19, 2008 in a talk by Felix Russo. The panorama Breashears shot is an astonishing 3.8 billion pixels! Thanks to the Washington Post you can click on the image and go into panorama mode and magnify any portion to see the amazing details. Have a look here for yourself! And think of what we are doing to the environment…

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Paris… in the fall

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Robert
Paris by Lansdale

Paris by Lansdale

Toronto, October 25, 2013. Editor Bob Lansdale is back from the Daguerreian convention in France, home of the beginnings of photography. Bob shot many images of the Gallic city and his fellow members of the Daguerreian Society. You can see them all on Shutterfly using this link to view the thumbnails. NOTE:Link updated October 30, 2013. Continue reading →

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Running on Mavericks

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Robert
Apple OSX 10.9

Apple OSX 10.9

Toronto October 25, 2013. That was simple. On Tuesday of this week Apple announced the release of Mavericks, its latest version of OS X – and it is free. The last couple of releases have been downloads that overwrite the existing system and this was the same. The features are much the same as the previous release but with a tip to the number of laptops sold (about 3x desktops) the major feature is lower battery life. There is also much better memory management. Continue reading →

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Hooked on History – The Magical Movie Machines

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Robert

Toronto, October 16th, 2013.
Hooked on History – The Magical Movie Machines

Would you buy a used car from this man?

Would you buy a used car from this man?

Last Wednesday was Movie Night at the PHSC meeting, complete with free popcorn. President Mark Singer brought his VHS recorder and showed a really interesting old video.  The VHS print was recorded on a simple blank cassette and wrapped with a plain black and white paper sleeve. While the resolution was lousy – typical VHS TV quality, the correct aspect ratio and adequate lighting made the viewing comfortable with modern day technology even though the colour was over saturated.

Continue reading →

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New Sony Full Frame Mirrorless Digital Cameras

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Robert

SonyA7Toronto, October 19, 2013. I wonder if we are seeing a new trend in cameras? My NEX-6 is a wonderful little camera to use with its APS-C  sensor. It was preceded by the NEX-7 model which has a higher resolution sensor at 24 MPX.

Now Sony has dropped the NEX tag (according to one blog I checked), the interchangeable lens cameras are all called Alpha and the point and shoots are Cyber-shot cameras, even the high end models. The  potential market share for their mrrorless Alpha cameras with FF sensors is very interesting. The mirrorless design is smaller and lighter than today’s DSLRs and now has the larger sensor as well. Photoreview.com.au in Australia has one of the early reviews of the A7 and A7r cameras – take a look.

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Newsletter 13-5

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Robert

Toronto, October 14 2013. Well David’s latest opus has hit the emails Monday. We held the newsletter to get two important items. First, Dr Deepali Dewan’s changes to the review of her well received talk last month. We really appreciate her response on such short notice. Secondly we were able to add a few details on our special video this Wednesday. There is a bit more detail here on the web.

From left: Cover, Dr Deepali Dewan, Louise, Petzval lenses,PHSC Press release, Tom Bochsler at the fair, Polaroid 300.

From left: Cover13-5, Dr Deepali Dewan at last month’s talk, Our Louise Freyburger  at last month’s estates auction, modern Petzval lenses for DSLRs, PHSC Press releases its very first title, Tom Bochsler will be at our fair this month, and finally from the ‘net includes the new/old Polaroid 300 instant film camera.

Dr Dewan’s talk was both very detailed and interesting. Mark Singer did the first draft of the report. David Bridge did the first edit while I added my two cents before we sent the article on to Dr Dewan for final correction and approval. You can down load and print or read this complete issue by clicking the above montage. Enjoy.

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Looking at the New Sony

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Robert

Bildschirmfoto2013-10-14um183137_zpse5a09ba2-smToronto, October 14, 2013. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. One of the blogs I frequently visit is “SonyAlphaRumours“. This site had been predicting a full frame digital from Sony in the NEX E-mount format for many months and expects to see the camera this month.

Images, courtesy of Digicame-info, show the two new Sony cameras and SonyAlphaRumours (SAR) has confirmed them to be authentic. The cameras are the A7 (24mpx sensor) and A7r (36mpx sensor) .

The icon above according to SAR is “an image comparison between the A7 and Leica M6 film camera. Made by Vaclav (Thanks!), it’s a photoshop workup”. In consumer cameras, I moved from Nikon to Sony because of the ergonomics, reliability and quality. And the Sony NEX-6 has a lens adaptor that lets me use my Leica lenses. They should fit on the A7 as well.

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Obsolescence and Darkness

Posted on October 12, 2013 by Robert

20131012-122349-Visual-Arts-2Toronto, October 12, 2013. I have been a fan of the Globe and Mail for over a half century now. I spotted this  photography related item this morning  in a Globe column called “Week in Preview” under a heading “Visual Art“.

Michel Campeau: Icons of Obsolescence and Robert Burley: The Disappearance of Darkness

“A double-barrelled blast about the past – two powerful (and complementary) colour photography exhibitions at the National Gallery in Ottawa on the end of the analog photography era and the disappearance of so much associated with it (i.e. film, negatives, processing plants).

“Campeau, a Montrealer, has been taking digital pictures of darkrooms since 2005, travelling ‘from Havana to Ho Chi Minh City to Tokyo.’ Toronto’s Burley has been just as peripatetic, recording the demise of large scale darkrooms and film-manufacturing plants in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Opens Oct. 18.”

– James Adams

For those with a short memory, Bob Burley spoke to us in February 2007. After his book was published, I posted a note based on the Rick McGinnis blog re: the death of Kodak Heights.

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