I’ve now owned my Pentax K-x for just over 6 months. It’s seen just about the lightest use of any of the digitals I’ve owned with a mere 2001 frames on the counter as of today. Only the D40 saw less use (at 250 frames/month) and it was a secondary body for most of that period. That said, the light use of the K-x is more due to my preference for shooting film more than any issues with the camera. Overall I remain quite fond of the K-x.

In 6 months of shooting I’ve really only found two real weaknesses with the K-x. The viewfinder is mediocre and the metering tends to underexpose. Otherwise I’m quite happy with it. The high ISO performance is spectacular, delivering results I’d be happy to get from a FF camera, at low ISO’s the IQ remains excellent and delivers superb dynamic range. In fact DXO Labs rates the K-x ahead of every DSLR except the Nikon D3x in base ISO DR. Ergonomically the K-x is quite good, what minor problems it has are due mostly to the small size. The control layout is entirely usable, as is the software UI.

While there are camera’s I’d be interested in, I’m going to keep the K-x for the foreseeable future.

Sony made their major pre-Photokina announcement earlier this week with 4 new bodies for a total of 8 bodies, a camcorder and 6 lenses for the summer of 2010.

By all reports the NEX-3 and NEX-5 are selling very well so far. While lens options are a little restricted with only an 18-55 and a 16/2.8 pancake and the software UI is a little wonky, the overall package is excellent and they deliver a level of IQ, particularly high ISO IQ, that’s class-leading. Sony’s doing pretty well here, especially considering the competition (Panasonic, Olympus and Samsung) has all pretty much dropped their DSLR development to concentrate on LVIL cameras.

The A290/A390 twins have apparently hit the market with nary a ripple. A minor but useful upgrade over their predecessor triplets, they solved the ergonomic issues of the A230/330/380 but retain a class-trailing sensor and image processing chain and come in at inflated prices. Nikon’s new D3100 and Pentax’s older K-x both run rings around these, as does the Canon T1i. They’ll sell but they’re not building any momentum for the Alpha line.

This week gave us another pair of twins. First off is the A560/A580 pair, which are built directly on the older A550 and replace the current A450/500/550 triplets. The A560 is little more than an A550 with HD video and a new AF unit while the A580 gets a new 16MP sensor as well. They retain the mostly useless Quick AF Live View, class-trailing viewfinder and the limited flip-up LCD setup of their predecessors. Other than being what the A550 should have been last year (IE, having HD video) these are pretty warmed over updates and in True Sony Fashion the A560 won’t be available until 2011, at which time there will no doubt be another round of better, cheaper cameras from the competition.

The real news however is the A33 and A55 SLT’s. SLT being Single Lens Translucent cameras. Functionally these are LVIL cameras but with a new twist. They use a semi-reflective Pellix mirror in the mirror box to feed a proper phase-detect AF system and get fast AF out of the deal. This also means that they get full-speed AF even while making an exposure (or a movie) as the AF system doesn’t depend on the Live View feed or a mirror that’s flipped up. Of course, this does mean they are A mount cameras, not E-mount as they need the mirror clearance of the SLR mount. Additionally they get a large and high-resolution 100%, 1.1x 1.44M EVF which is about the same size as the 5D’s OVF or the Panasonic G2′s EVF. Sony overdid the specs by a bit, with 10fps AE-locked burst on the A55 and 7fps on the A33, faster than the AF system or EVF can handle, but otherwise quite nice setups. Overall they’re built on what looks like the A290 frame with some additions and they also get a flip/twist high-rez LCD. It’s bottom-hinged instead of my preferred side hinge, but even then it’s still a huge upgrade over the older system still used on the A390, A560 and A580. The A55 also becomes the first interchangeable-lens camera with an integrated GPS unit for all those Geotagging fans out there. Not a feature I’d ever use but some people love it.

Personally, I’m quite interested in the A33/A55. The combination of a big, easy to focus EVF and an ISO12,800 limit in a compact package brings together my favourite aspects of the Panasonic G1 and the Pentax K-x into one body, and also a body in a mount which I’m currently invested in.

We also got the official US announcement of the new 24, 35 and 85mm lenses that were announced a month ago globally. Pricing looks excellent with the ZA 24/2 SSM at $1250USD, the DT 35/1.8 at $200 and the 85/2.8 at $250. I expect all three lenses to be brisk sellers and frankly could see owning all three at some point in the distant future.

Nikon FM10, Voigtlander Nokton 58mm f1.4 SLII, Ilford HP5+

A year ago I tried Mike Johnston’s idea of using a single lens, camera, and film for a year as I discussed here. I failed. In fact I made it about a month with the FM2n and CV Nokton, although I did shoot for about 6 months with the combo of that camera and lens without splitting the two. Simply put, what I found is that I shoot a mix of subjects. Street and Candid work which is well suited to the one camera and one lens restriction, and a mix of city and landscapes which are not so well suited to that restriction. I can do probably 2/3rds of my shooting within the restrictions but I’d have to take a year-long break with the rest and that’s not currently in the cards.

That said, I think that it was this exercise in part which pushed me back to being primarily a film shooter and away from my interest in Digital. It would also lead to my collection of gear getting increasingly large, a state which I’ve moved away from in the last 3 months and will continue to do. My next step in simplification is to temporarily shelve at least one of my 35mm SLR kits. I’m starting with the Pentax gear for that, we’ll see how well that works for now.

I’m a big Flickr user, having been a member since early 2005. Currently I have two accounts, my primary account, Mawz and a second non-pro account at Filmic which shares its name with this blog.

Right now I use the two accounts quite differently. The Filmic account is entirely 35mm B&W film shot around Toronto, mostly street photography. I’m currently uploading to it once every 3 days with images from the backlog of 35mm B&W stuff shot with the Nikon and OM gear I sold off in June. Images from Filmic get sent to the Toronto Group only.

My main account gets pretty much everything else and I try and upload a single shot every morning to it. It also supplies most of the shots for this blog. Right now I try and alternate between MF and 35mm shots, with the occasional digital shot added.

I’ve actually got a fairly large backlog of work to upload right now, with around 35 35mm shots and 40 MF shots in the upload queue (and a half-dozen digital shots too). Filmic has less in the queue, only 10 shots, but that’s 30 days worth of posting at 1 every 3 days.

Once I get to the end of the old Nikon and OM work for Filmic, I’m going to start uploading all my 35mm B&W street work there exclusively. The Mawz account on the other hand may go 100% MF as my interest in shooting 35mm colour or any digital continues to decrease. before that happens I’ve still got about another 25 rolls worth of stuff to post and/or shoot.

It’s pretty clear that my interests in shooting have shifted quite abruptly this year. I’ve almost entirely quit shooting digital outside of event work and other Facebook-bound stuff and my 35mm shooting is down quite noticeably as well, I’ve shot 75% as many rolls of MF film as I have 35mm this year and the MF stuff is getting used a lot more over the last 3 months. While in the past I’ve alternated between digital and film, I’ve never seen my digital use drop off like this while I still owned a DSLR, especially not when I wasn’t battling with limitations on said DSLR. I quite like the K-x and it’s worked well for me and produces excellent output, I’d just rather shoot with other gear.

The other major change is that I’m increasingly disinterested in shooting 35mm colour. Ironically this coincides with an actual increase in 35mm colour work, I normally shoot around 10 rolls of 35mm slide a year, but I’ve shot that many in the last couple months. I suspect that this comes down to finally seeing the bottom of the stash and wanting to get there. My 35mm colour stash currently contains 10 rolls of Provia 100F, 2 rolls of Ektar 100, 1-2 rolls of Ektar 25, 6 rolls of Superia 400, a roll of Kodachrome 25 and a roll of Agfa Portrait 160. There’s another couple of rolls of Provia that are loaded and partially shot as well, 1 in the Maxxum 7 and 1 in the Pentax K2. But once I’m done with that I think it’s going to be nothing but bulk-loaded B&W. Even then I’m not really sure where I’m going with the small format stuff, I’ve got 3 separate systems in my Pentax, Minolta and RF kit and don’t really need more than one basic system. If I had to cull down to one, the RF stuff would win but I’d need to add 2-3 lenses as I only have a 35 and a 50 right now and that doesn’t cover all my needs. An 85/90 and a wide and ultra-wide would be needed, likely a 25 and a 15.

As to the MF kit, it’s settling out nicely. I shoot B&W with the 6×7 and colour with the 645, dabbling in the other occasionally. The 6×7 is great but too expensive for now to shoot colour with due to only getting 9 shots per roll as the processing always seems to ruin the last shot due to light exposure on the last 2cm of film (there’s less than 1cm from the last frame to the end of the strip when loaded properly).

Both kits need some expansion, I’d like a 55 for the 6×7 and maybe a 165 or 200 along with a waistlevel finder. The 645 needs a 35, to fix or replace my 55 due to filter ring damage and a 110/120. I’d also like a M645 body with a waistlevel for street work. Additionally a spotmeter would make life easier. None of this is urgent and all will wait until next year at least. I also need to find a better way to haul my 645 kit, I actually injured my shoulder hauling the full kit in my backpack a couple weeks ago and have been avoiding the 645 for a bit because of that.

I’ve had a couple milestones hit this week. First off, yesterday I matched my total rollcount for last year, 119 rolls, as of today I’ve shot 123 rolls of film after a 35 exposure photowalk with the Pentax 6×7. In fact I’m a bare seven rolls away from doubling my MF rollcount of 29 rolls for last year, the current MF rollcount is at 51 rolls and climbing. 35mm is running a bit behind at 72 rolls so far this year, I shot 90 rolls of 35mm last year. There’s little doubt I’ll shoot at least another 18 rolls of 35mm this fall.

Additionally I finished off my first bulk roll today, a 100′ roll of Tri-X, started loading from the roll of Delta 100 that was the original reason I got the bulk loader. Looks like I’ll need two bulk loaders though, one for slow film and a second for fast film.

Additionally, I’ve got two more milestones fast approaching. I’m a mere five rolls away from having shot 100 rolls of Tri-X in 35mm and three rolls away from having shot 100 rolls of film with my 645 Super. I expect to hit both of those milestones by the end of the month. Gonna have to buy some more binders though, I only get about 100 rolls to the binder.

With about 60,000 images now in my archives I’ve had to start looking at Asset Management solutions as that’s simply too much to reliably manage via more traditional methods. I have a preference for DAM software that didn’t lock me into a single RAW conversion option due to my strong preference for matching conversion software to the camera rather than vice versa. I’m not big on keywording in general as I consider it to be mostly more hassle than it’s worth, but a large volume of images can kinda force one to use it out of sheer desperation.

This fairly quickly led me to Microsoft Expression Media 2. It’s descended from iView Media Pro and is one of the longer-running DAM packages out there. It supports opening files in pretty much any RAW converter and conveniently was available free to me as PhaseOne bought the software from Microsoft in May and was giving CaptureOne users a free license during June.

Expression Media pretty much fit my needs ideally. It offers extensive keywording, relatively easy searching and doesn’t aspire to lock me into a particular RAW converter.

Unfortunately it didn’t take long to figure out why Microsoft wanted to sell the package rather than continue developing it. It’s got some awful arbitrary limits, like a 1.6GB max library size which meant that I needed to split up my digital files by year. It’s also buggy as shit. I spent nearly as much time fighting it as using it and never did get certain things to work right, like exporting IPTC ratings or image rotations and at one point lost all the metadata for around 17,000 images due solely to change in drive letter for my archives drive. Needless to say, this did not endear Expression Media to me.

The next option really is Lightroom. It’s relatively cheap for me due to student pricing (which makes it a better choice than say ACDSee Pro). The downside is I’m pretty much locked into Adobe’s ACR engine. The upside is that as of LR 3 the ACR engine’s back to pretty much matching CaptureOne for output quality, especially with regards to noise reduction. Base conversions do appear noisier in ACR though, there’s quite visible colour noise at ISO 6400 from K-x images which simply isn’t in the CaptureOne conversion of the same file. But on the upside LR handles basic editing of film scans quite well, which I would otherwise have to do in PS.

The kicker is that I’ve been trying to find a good Flickr uploader at the same time. My current favourite is the one built into the Flock browser as it allows me to resize at upload, which is a must-have feature as I don’t like uploading full-rez files, and allows me to send images to a given set on upload. Unfortunately this means I have to use a specific browser to upload and Flock is not my default browser and is also moving to the Chrome engine over the Firefox engine with version 3 and I prefer to stick to Firefox-based browsers. LR 3 introduces the Publish service, which combined with Jeffrey’s Flickr Uploader plugin not only allows me to do everything the flock uploader does, but allows me to setup default set/group packages and also sync’s comments and favourites back to Lightroom and gives a local copy of your photostream, or at least the portion thereof which was uploaded from Lightroom. The only downside is this is on a per-catalog basis and you have to configure everything again for a new catalog.

Oh, and there’s one for Facebook too. That pretty much sold me on giving LR another shot (I’d used the beta before LR 1 was released but declined to purchase the software, switching to CaptureOne instead) since I upload a lot of school event shots to Facebook during the year and the default FaceBook uploader tools are painful at best and require me to jump through hoops in generating compatible JPEG’s for upload. So I picked up a student copy of LR2 as the student packages of LR3 won’t ship until late September and Adobe’s sending me a free upgrade to LR3. In the meantime I’m using the demo of LR3 rather than LR2.

One thing I’ve got to say I’ve been pleasantly surprised by is how well LR works with scans. The dust removal tool works great on scans and the sort of basic editing I do most of the time in PS is very easy to do in LR. It’s a little odd, but I think LR is better suited to a hybrid scanned film workflow than to pure digital given that I still think that ACR is not the best RAW converter (I prefer Capture NX or CaptureOne for their output).

Now that I’m getting near the end of my stash of various B&W films it’s time to settle on 2-3 standard films. Ideally I’m going to end up with two slow films, one modern and one classic film and a fast film for MF work and one fast and one slow film for 35mm. The two slow films for MF work are easy choices, the modern will be Fuji Neopan Acros and the classic will be Ilford PanF+.

The difficult choice is the fast film for MF work. Right now I’ve got three choices, Kodak Tri-X 400, Ilford HP5+ and Kodak TMax 400. A month ago that would have just been between the two traditional films, but I grabbed a 5-pack of the new TMax 400 and I’m extremely impressed with it so far, unlike it’s predecessor. TMY2 is a much nicer film than TMY was. In fact I’m leaning towards it as my choice right now as it’s the same price as HP5+ and cheaper than Tri-X. Luckily this is one area where I don’t mind switching it up as the most economic option shifts.

In 35mm, my setup is pretty much set with bulk-loaded Tri-X and per-roll Silvertone 100 (APX 100) although I will be shooting a bulk roll of Delta 100 (around 20 rolls worth of film, cost me $15) in the not too distant future. Tri-X has a huge cost advantage right now ($53/100′ at Henry’s) so it’s a no-brainer for the fast film. APX100 remains probably my favourite slow B&W film and I can still get it in 35mm locally for now and pricing is excellent, so I’ll shoot it until stocks disappear, then shoot the Delta and after that I’ll probably bulk-load PanF+. I do need to try the new Kentmere 100 though, I’ve shot the 400 and mostly liked it, but it’s only $3 cheaper than Tri-X in bulk, so I’ll stick with Tri-X. I do need a second bulk loader it seems, so I’d have one for fast film and one for slow film. I don’t shoot as much slow, tripod-based B&W in 35mm so unlike MF I don’t really need two slow films for the different looks.