the end of everything (here at least)

This blog was fun, it did ok, and really doesnt deserve its fate, but the day has come.  This is my last post here.  But never fear (assuming you care).  I actually plan on writing more, more words, more topics, more ideas, more crazy, just - well - more.

Im combining worlds and crowds and crossing the streams and mixing the colours etc and bringing everything to one blog.  So if you are interested, if you want, you can see more of my ramblings over at "goin' down swingin"

Its been awhile

To quote the band Staind:

"Its been awhile
since I could
hold my head up high,

Ands its been awhile
since I first saw you."

So whats happened?  Why the long absence?

Well while bits of this year have been fantastic, other bits have not quite panned out as planned.  Broadly, I was thinking that 2012 would have been an excellent opportunity to get a range of bits of my life sorted, the reality has been different.

I was expecting to get fitter, leaner, stronger and demonstrate this by completing one 70.3 triathlon and competing (a very different thing) in another 70.3.  This has been amazingly successful.  I was also planning to be a much more disciplined in my blogging and photography – in short I planned to do more of both – in this I have been stunningly unsuccessful.

In short I completely underestimated the impact on my life of adopting a triathlon based lifecycle.  In short there have been three problems.  The first is bleedingly obvious, simply fitting in 15+ hours of training a week does not leave a lot of time for other activities   Overlay personal circumstances that require a lot of travel and the time pressures become even more acute.  Still physical, but a little less obvious, is the fatigue the training leaves me with little energy to devote to other activities even when I do have the time.  Quite often I will be finished my long ride or run by mid morning on Saturday or Sunday but I’m simply to tired to do anything in the afternoon other than collapse on the couch or just potter around the house or apartment.

Honestly I did foresee these problems and was ready for them, what blindsided me (to the extent I wasn’t even aware it was happening until quite recently) is the emotional myopia that becoming a ‘triathlete’ gave me.  Frankly I stopped really caring about much that wasn’t directly related to training or racing.  Its one thing to really want to go out and take photos but not have the time or energy, its quite another to simply not be that interested anymore.  The first case you notice and are motivated to fix, the second you don’t even realize is happening so do nothing to address.

Well I have noticed this now, mainly because no matter how interesting triathlon is, even it cant sustain 100% of my brain 100% of the time.  I’ve now noticed that other parts of my life have been neglected and more than that, I missing those parts of my life.

So here I am, back to blog, shouting into the vacuum, whether its gets heard or not doesn’t really matter.  And in particular I'm getting back into photography.  Now, I'm doing that by combining the old and the new, my interest in photography and my life as a triathlete.  So get ready for more but as a teaser, here's a couple of recent shots of the pro's from the recent Melbourne Ironman triathlon.

Clayton Fettell - giving it some

Jordan Rapp - The Whippett

my blogging life

Putting aside the strictly personnel there are three 'public' areas of my life. These are:

1. My new found interest in triathlon.

2 Photography.

3. Philosophy, politics and general spouting of opinions.

What do I mean by public? I suppose I mean I write about them and post my ideas, theories and opinions on the net for all to see. Recently, Ive been thinking that my internet life has been very poorly thought out and in consistent.

So right, that's the first thing. Why do I care if my net presence is a mess. After all it's just a hobby isn't it? Well yes, but then again I do make (a little) money from photography and I'd like to boost this a little so a clean up (and more disciplined posting routine ) would be good there. Also, I'm sure my triathlon readers couldn't care less about the other parts of my life that get a run in my 'mindshaft gap' blog so separating those would be good.

So, with that in mind I've decided to do a few things. The first is I'm starting a new blog, goin down swingin.

So that will be three blogs.

PmacImagery. This deals with primarily stills photography and related topics. What related topics I hear you ask. Well this goes in two directions from the photography jumping off point. On one hand, coming from the camera end, I'll be looking at general technology issues, you know, computers, software audio visual kit, that sort of thing. Going in the other direction from photography I'll be discussing ideas around art and the creative side of my existence.

Goin Down Swingin. This is my new blog dedicated to my interest in triathlon. I love watching the DVDs of ironman triathlons, especially Kona, but I'll admit I'm not really interested in the elites. Rather it's the age groupers that reel me in. Even more specifically it's the old blokes in their 60s to 80s that slug it out with nature out there on the iron man course that inspire me. They know that in the end nature will win, that one day the body won't make it, but they are determined to go out fighting all the way. The are going to go down swinging at an opponent that can't be beaten but must be fought. I intend to follow that example, hence the title of the blog.

Mind Shaft Gap. The concluding scenes of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, Dr Strangelove, are a crazy mix of mindless optimism, unending paranoia, good people trying in vain to save the world and the routine being the greatest source of evil. To me this sums up so so much I see both I in myself and the world At large. Thus I've named my general blog where I consider the biggest and littlest topics of the day after perhaps the most insane concept in an insane situation. If you need more on the exact meaning of the 'mine shaft gap' Google it.

But I'm not done there. There is more. In addition to starting a third blog, I'm changing that colour scheme of the blogs, unifying them and creating a single look for my 'brand' .

So what's the colour scheme? Well basically it's three(ish) colours:

Black (or dark grey)
Blue
White (or silver)

Why those colours? Well No great story really, first I find them aesthetically pleasing (a fancy way of saying they look cool). Secondly they work well as a web format. Thirdly, I can easily get gear (that I would wear) in these colours.

So that's it, a new blog, some more careful distinctions in how and where I write and a new colour scheme. This isn't the end of the development but hopefully it's a solid beginning.

My Photo Catagories

I remember reading a blog post once about the way we photographers collect, collate and display our photos.  The point was that we tend to be pretty boring, catagorising our shots by time, or place or camera or gig.  All useful, all really sensible, all really, really boring.

Now that does make sense for working pros that need to find their images quickly and easily.  For pros that have clients to service etc. But that's not me.  I'm like Rob, the lead from the movie High Fidelity organising his private record collection.  How did he do it? Alphabetically? No.  Chronologically? No.  Then how? Autographically.

So I've come up with a set of catagories for my work.  Its not really that obscure, not that insightful, not that rigorously applied and perhaps not that effective but its mine.

So here are my catagories: (in no particular order)

time of our lives.

searching for the filthy lucre

us, people that is

all things bright and beautiful

built or made

going places

planes, trains and automobiles

ephemera

promises of happiness

harsh realities

Next post I'll start running through each of these and what they mean.

I am a cotton headed ninny muggins

Film is an unforgiving mistress.  There is so much to consider that digital doesnt require.  On top of this there is no ability to review your shots so you simply have to trust in your settings and what you know should work.  But I was ready for all of this, I was prepared.  I paid attention to my settings, to the light, I was really careful to ensure I wasnt over exposing etc etc.

What I forgot to check was that I had loaded film in the first place.  An hour of magic conditions that I'd never seen before in a place that was usually packed all to myself.  I am an idiot!

My success in not spending in 2011

At the beginning of 2011 one of my desires was to stop being so gear focussed in my photography.  I am happy to report that I suceeded, however, I cant really claim a victory of willpower over marketing. The truth is my desire for restraint was assisted.by three things:

1. Sony was really late releasing the A77 and/or the NEX7 I wanted.
2. I got really into triathlon so let all my photography slip somewhere between a little and a lot.
3. Whenthe A77 and NEX7 did finally turn up the Thailand floods made them impossible to get.

Anyway, I'll take a little help from the universe sometimes.

Nikon D4 - Really? So thats it?

So, Nikon has a new camera, the long rumoured D4.  And to be perfectly honest when comparing this to the Sony NEX7 all I can really manage to think is really? Years of work, tens of thousands of manhours of some of the best engineers time and thats all you can manage.  Man, your company is in trouble.

just stay down

just stay down, originally uploaded by PMac Imagery.

Last weekend I, and a bunch of other photog mates, took off for Gresford in the north of the Hunter Valley in NSW for a local rodeo. Rodeos are, I've discovered, brilliant photo opportunities.

But despite all the spectacle, this is my favorite shot. I love this photo because this shot catches the pain, the hurt, the damage rodeo can cause. However, lets be clear about this, I dont see this as a reason to stop rodeo.

This shot shows that these guys and girls have real courage. They know they could (or even will) get hurt but they go on and mount those bulls and broncos. They get thrown, they get trapped and dragged, they get stomped on and charged and driven into walls. But just when the sane thing would be to stay down they dont, they get up.

I'm a city boy not a country lad. I dont know these guys and girls and if I did there's no guaranteeing I'd like them but I wont deny I respect them.

GPS - Why I want it.

Well the A77 and NEX7 have been announced to an unexpectedly positive response. One thing that has drawn a few (well deserved) arrows is the apparent decision to leave GPS out of the NEX7. OTOH others have questioned the need for GPS at all. Well this is why I want GPS in all my cameras.

I am fortunate in that I get to travel alot for work and even more fortunate that I regularly get a day or two to squeeze in a little photography.

However, the down side is I now have tens of thousand of photos that I can sort of label but not really well. Yes I know that temple was in Colombo, Sri Lanka, but exactly where? what temple was it? what was the status across the street? Exactly what bridge is that across the Danube?

But its not just the exotic stuff. Five, ten, fifteen, fifty years from now do you think you, your kids, your grand kids are going to remember where mum and dad or grandma and grandpa were in that photo of a summer holiday, or a christmas, etc. As someone who just collected all my dads photos after his death and am trying to piece together a photo history of his life I'd kill for some decent exif and gps co-ordinates telling me exactly where that photo of he and my mum was taken on on their honeymoon.

We tend to be very short sighted with our ideas of what information is important. Years from now no one is going to care a jot what shutter speed, f number or iso you used for a shot. But where the shot was taken and when, that will be gold. (not to mention tags for faces - trying to get family members to even remember who was in a parents wedding party 50 years later is a nightmare).

Every camera I buy from now on will have GPS and it will always be on. I might strip that data from photos I make public but I will never run the risk of losing it for my purposes.

Almost a year on. What happened.

In short I got busy doing other things. First, my paying job just kept getting more and more demanding, leaving me less time to photograph, less time to process and certainly less to to think and no time to type. Secondly, as I got more stressed my response was unhealthy. I veged out when not at work, I mindlessly surfed the net, I ate, and generally sulked. Finally, I woke up. I mastered my workload, concentrated on the essential and picked some goals.

The first of those was to finally get my body right. And while this is still a work in progress it is well underway. Ive lost 15 kilos (15 to go) am riding to work regularly, running most days and feeling fantastic.

Thats where I've been. But now its time to spread my wings further still and return to my other loves, such as taking, printing and talking about photographs.

So hopefully, I'll be able to keep my head together,keep this blog going and you never know, say something to help some one.

The cost of 'consumer' features.

A topic that surfaces reasonably often in fora across the net whenever new features emerge is "why do I have to pay for this when I dont want it?". In Sony land the latest cause of this cry seems to be the in-camera GPS included in the A55.

This one really caught my interest because in a strange twist, in camera GPS is actually one of the first of these 'new' features I'm really keen for. So I figured I'd like to run through some of the 'features' in my A700 I would happily do without. So here goes:

DOF preview. With instant review utterly unnecessary and compounds this by being inaccurate.

JPG engine. I only shoot raw.

DRO. Since it only works with JPG dont use it.

WB Button. Since I only shoot RAW I have never used anything but auto WB.

Exposure Comp Button. With two dials one is alway on exposure comp already or I'm shooting manual and its unnecessary.

Drive button. Some shoots are single shot, others use drive, others use the timer or remote. I have never, in five years of shooting with a DSLR moved quickly between drive modes shot to shot. Using a menu would make zero difference to my shooting.

PASM dial. Like the drive button, its not like I move from P to A to S to M modes between shots. Actually there would be months where I never move this dial despite taking 1000's of images. Complete waste.

SSS switch. I dont think I've ever used it in five years (combining A100 and A700 usage).

Video out. If I'm linking to a TV (which I do every now and then) I only use the HDMI - the video is pretty much wasted.

DC in. Really, whats that about?

I would probably say a lot of the flash functions too except I think I should probably use them more and that one day when I get of my arse and learn to employ them I'd regret ditching them.

Now my camera is nothing more than my camera and I suspect it would be an absolute flop in the marketplace. So despite the fact that I never use any of these redundant features I understand why they should be there and arent going to be asking for them to be dropped any time soon.

I cant (or wont) see you!

I cant (or wont) see you!, originally uploaded by PMac Imagery.

The question of photographing homeless people is a vexed one. Many see it as lazy, insensitive, exploitative and unimaginative. I agree, often all those things are true. And yet I think photos of (or including) the homeless can be more. I think you can take photo's of the homeless that don't exploit them and do ask questions that deserve to be answered.

This image goes to the heart of the issue for me. When does not giving to or photographing or helping the homeless stop being a principled stand to not take advantage of their victim hood and instead become a shameful attempt to deny their existence.

Personally, exploiting the homeless might be bad, but refusing to acknowledge their existence or their humanity is worse.

Breaking the buying strike.

Yesterday I stated my decision to stay with Sony and in that I also listed a couple of things I was going to discuss later; they were what my 'final' lens line-up plan was and how I had chosen to mark my decision to remain in the A mount when I broke my buying strike.

So, first things first, my 'final' lens line-up. Ok, even before that, whay do I insist on qualifying the word "final". Well thats pretty simple, because final only ever is final until a new lens is announced that makes me want to change my list. Also, occasioanlly opportunities will crop up to add something extra at little cost that I might choose to take. Now with that out of the way what is my 'final' list. Well I'll start with overall design of the list, basically its long slow high quality zooms with generally fast, high quality primes. So the list is:

Zooms:

Sony 16-80 3.5-4.5 CZ

Sony 70-400 4-5.6 G

Primes:

Sigma 20 1.8 EX

Sony 24 2.0 CZ

Sony 35 1.4 G

Sony 50 1.4

Sony 85 1.4 CZ

Sony 135 1.8 CZ

The Sigma 20 1.8 might look out of place in this list but really there is nothing in the a-mount better than this lens anyway.

There are a few things interesting in this list when comparing it to other brands. The first is that its a line-up that has no apologies to make. This line-up of lenses is as good as any you can get from Nikon, Canon, Pentax, or (dare I say it) Leica. At this point I should acknowledge that I know I can get a much cheaper line-up with not a huge drop in quality so why am I aiming at all these CZ's and G's? Basically because I want to give myself no excuses, no reason to think that the equipment is holding me back. In short,if I cant make great images with this line-up I should just give up any pretensions to being a photographer. And, lets be really honest, I can afford it - not all at once, it may take years to build the full line-up, but if I'm careful I can do this without taking from my family.

Secondly, what is also really interesting is that the costs are very, very similar no matter which brand I choose to go with. This line-up with Sony, Canon or Nikon all fall within a few hundred dollars of each other. So much for the myth of Sony being an expensive brand I suppose.

Now whilst this is my final wish list (until I change it) these wont be the only lenses I buy or own. I have a couple of other pieces of the glass I'm either going to just keep or buy in addition to this list. The most obvious addition will be E mount lenses. These form a completely different range and so aren't discussed any more here. The second is the Sony Easy Choice range, that is the 30 2.8 Macro, 85 2.8 SAM, and 35 1.8 DT SAM. I love that these lenses are so small, so portable and so so cheap. Given the very small investment I will almost certainly be picking up some of these.

So, how did I break my buying strike?

Today I picked up the 70-400 G, 30 2.8 DT SAM Macro and 85 2.8 DT SAM. I am so stoked.

Sony, I'm coming back!

I've been unsure of whether I was going to stay with Sony, no seriously I was. I had all my gear for sale and built my ideal "final" lens list, done the sums and figured out the price of building it with either a Sony, Nikon or Canon line-up. (a topic for my next blog).

So why stay with Sony?

Well, in January this year I was virtually on a buying strike for all camera gear. My frustrations with Sony are briefly described in this blog entry but to recap I was frustrated that a company with more technical tricks up its sleeve than any other of the big players out there seemed to be doing nothing. At the time the A500 and A550 were the best Sony could you with real innovation and I was concerned that Sony was gone, extracting itself from the market as gracefully as possible at the lowest possible cost. The constant recycling of the A2/3XX series models only heightened my fears.

But recently Sony has shown its hand and the reason for the apparent inaction is clearer now. Better, I actually like the direction Sony is taking. First the NEX, then the SLT cameras reveal that Sony has been reserving its development for entirely new lines of cameras which take the traditions of the old film cameras but truly harness what digital can do. These cameras arent the last word in photography, I'm not even certain they are best in their class but the direction they point to is really exciting. Suddenly, in camera GPS, fast AF in video, 7 to 10 FPS, in camera HDR and pannos, EVFs arent things that SLRs can have, instead, they are core parts of a mainstream product.

But it doesnt stop there. Noise performance and AF, two traditional weak areas of a Sony DSLR, are greatly improved. Again, the new Sony's arent the necessarily the class leaders but they are now far more competitive, Sony is very definitely in the game.

So, what it came to was where did I see the future of my photography? Canon and Nikon are no where with a mirrorless compact camera while the NEX is a really exciting product that is changing the way I do my business (in a good way). The Nikon D7000 and Canon 60D (and Pentax K5) are really impressive cameras but they are really just incremental improvements on what has gone before and still dont bring any excitement to the field while the A33 and A55 from Sony are game changers, a huge step forward in what a camera can be.

So I see the trajectory of Sony following a path I want to join. So with that I'm back in. So how did I break by DSLR buying strike? Well I think I've written enough for now. That can be tomorrow.

Has the advent of Digital devalued Photography

A common question that pops up routinely is "has the ease and accessibility of digital photography ultimately devalued photography more generally?". A typical example (actually not typical, its a very good discussion) of the debate is this one in the Self Taught Photographers group on FLICKR.

I wont try and make a definitive answer today because I havent got the time or the tools but I would like to add to the debate with a little clarification and a slightly different perspective (though one in keeping with my general feelings on photography).

To begin, I think too many people confuse, are at least arent careful enough to distinguish between "craft" and "art".

Craft, the ability to master all elements of the process of photography to produce an image is definitely degraded and even devalued by digital. While it is true that digital hasnt completely destroyed the craft of photography (meters arent perfect and photoshopping itself requires a degree of perseverance and experimentation) I doubt many would argue that today the level of dedication to master the operation of a modern camera or editing software matched that required by manual film cameras and wet darkrooms.

Art, the ability to know what image is worth making, is however largely unaffected by the appearance of digital. Digital technology has made it easier to make a great image, but it has done little (if anything) to help the person putting it together to know what a great image is.

Personally I dont regret that situation. Personally, the craft of photography has always left me cold. I hated film and still resent having to stop and use a tripod. The mucky muck of getting the image in my head into the camera and onto the computer is something I just want to get over. So I love digital with a passion and revel in how it lets me get to the art quickly.

However, just as there are people that value the hand crafted boat, vase, chair or tapestry and I understand that for others, the loss (at least partially) of the craft of photography is a painful thing.

A film resurgence - or perhaps something else.

BJP talks with Scott DiSabato, US marketing manager for Professional film at Kodak, after the release of the new Portra 400 film where he is spruiking the resurgence of film. His view is that many, formally digital shooters, are finding film, enjoying the challenge and results and a new dawn of photographers will discover the benefits of film, leading to its growth and reclamation of at least part of its former glory.

I think, perhaps, that there is also another phenomenon going on based on my involvement in a number of groups. People like me that never got into photography because, frankly, it was a pain. Learning was slow, and frustrating, and oh so expensive. Sure some punched through that phase but many of us shrugged, found something else and moved off to a new past time.

But then digital came and we could learn quickly and easily (and cheaply). Instead of toiling away, taking notes, toiling laboriously through film, processing it and printing it(or waiting for the lab) we were able to zip through the lessons. Grasping concepts that previously took days, or weeks, or months in minutes. Because it was there, immediately, you got to see the result while you still remembered what you did.

And then we understood exposure and composition and lighting, we had confidence. And film wasnt so scary, wasnt so difficult, it was just like 'normal' photography without using the review screen much. And this photography has 'street cred' its smart, and cool and somehow more real. We keep shooting digital but we see film as a viable choice and something we will really work to master. We start thinking of medium format. We buy old bronica's or pentax's or contax's.

But here's the bad news. One day, when wee are picking up the prints and paying the man 20-30 dollars for processing a single roll of MF film and there isnt a single shot on the roll that we really, truly, in our heart of hearts actually like we stop shooting film.

Well thats my story anyway.

I dont doubt that film use is stabilising, there will always be a core of people that love it, that romanticise it that make the rest of us keen to try it. But film hasnt changed and the reasons not many were really into film havent really gone away. So film wont die, it will linger on, inspiring some and teasing many more, but I cant see it ever being more than that.

A tease that very few actually grow to love.

Williamtown Airshow - a frustrating day

I recently attended an Airshow at RAAF Williamtown in NSW. The airshow was excellent with a lot of cool displays on the ground and some really wonderful air displays. The Super Hornet was so loud, so tight, really really exciting but really the star of the show was the F-111 (better known as the Pig).

The Super Hornet is louder, more maneuverable, and generally more spectacular, except the F-111 has a party trick no other aircraft out there can match - the dump and burn. The dump and burn is pretty simple, fuel is expelled out a fuel dump valve at the rear of the aircraft between the two engines, the pilot then hits the afterburners, lighting up the trailing fuel in a huge rooster tail of flame. I got a few images of it but these are probably my best two.

So why was this a frustrating day?

Well for many years I've read horror stories of Sigma quality problems, and in particular problems with the Sigma's handling the high torque lens drive motor fitted to the Sony A700, 850 and 900 (some discussion here on DPreview). I have avoided all these problems, secure in the belief that while the 'lower' Sigmas might has a problem, the top of the line EX series was immune. Well I was proved wrong.

On the first pass of the F111 the less was tracking well, locked focus and I was shooting nicely then suddenly as I re-composed and the lens locked up and I was greeted with a horrible grinding noise as the now stripped focus gears just spun against each other without engaging. Bugger, one pass in and I'm at at airshow with no lens longer than a 50mm prime.

Well thats not entirely true, I had no auto focusing lens longer than 50mm, I did still have a Sigma 100-300 f4 now manual focus lens. Well, I hadnt read the article on Luminous Landscape article on the importance of persisting in the face of frustration (Photography, Rain or Shine) but I decided to press on and see what I could get. Well you know, I didn't get a lot, trying the manually focus on aircraft is nightmarishly difficult so my hit rate was minute. But it was still a day out and I got a few. I think the ones I were the shots of the Roulettes, the RAAF aerobatic display team.

But thats a story for the next blog entry.

Sony SLTs and ghosting

The release of the new Sony SLT's has unleashed another torrent of web activity. This is divided into two very broad categories. The first is excited about the prospect of some really interesting new products bringing new abilities to the photographer. The other is upset that 'traditional' photographic values are being lost in the rush to introduce new gimmicks.

The epicentres (if you can have more than one epicentre) of this dispute are two technologies. The SLT and the EVF. I cant talk about the EVF now as I havent handled the camera and so cant comment except in very broad terms. However, there are thousands of samples of A33/55 images out there on the net now so I feel I can comment on the ghosting (non) issue.

My guess is this argument will just go round and round in circles for years. Someone in one of the hundred of threads on this issue raised the idea that question could be settled via independent quality testing from site like Alamy being the ultimate judge. I understand the logic of that argument, I’ve even used it myself, but its never got anywhere.

Despite submitting thousands of images and getting many fails, I have never, ever, had a single reject for excessive noise. Instead, I’ve been repeatedly rejected because a 12 Mp capture could not be uprezzed to meet the minimum size requirements. Yet, no matter how much this is repeated I am constantly told that Mp dont count and that all we need is lower noise.

Sony’s noise performance did (and I stress the past tense) lag the mainstream slightly but never as much as people claimed and never with the real impact people feared. Ghosting is an issue but on all the evidence I’ve seen its precisely the same scenario, no-where near the problem claimed and nothing like the impact feared.

But Sony is a hated brand (even, or perhaps especially, by its own users) so this alone will give the topic legs. Combined with an especially conservative current market I suspect people will continue doing 100, 200, even 300% inspections trying to find the most minute problems. That is what it is.

All I know is that the people actually working with the new cameras to get great images are almost certainly going to be doing better and enjoying their hobby/work far than those spending their energy just complaining about them.

Photokina and the Sony user response

A lot of us were hoping for just a little more from Sony at Photokina. Specifically I think we wanted a) some details on the A700 replacement and b) a lens - any lens - for the A mount. Instead we got some promises and poor mockups we've seen before. As a result there is a lot of angst on the Sony forums at the moment and I for one fully understand it. In fact, I've been so put off all the forums that I have, by and large dropped out of them (except for posting this at Dyxum today). This post isnt really intended to resolve much, rather just put out a perspective that might calm peoples ire and cool down the debate a little.

We see constant calls (and I have made them as well) for Sony to be more open with its users, give us a better road map, give us confidence that the system is going somewhere so that we can have faith in future investments in the system. Personally I feel caught between decisions in so many ways, a-mount vs e-mount, APS vs FF, existing screw lenses vs rumoured SSM variants, stay with Sony or shift to Nikon? I'm pretty ambivalent on the whole EVF vs OVF debate but I understand others are very invested in this and thats causing them considerable concern.

Given what can really only be described as the collapse of the 4/3s format (well described by PT here) I'm not one of those people that advise others to simply ignore this and go out and take photos. This is a real issue and one that shouldnt be ignored.

But on the other hand I also understand Sony's dilemma. It has learnt a hard lesson, that in a head to head, fair fight it cant beat Nikon and Canon. Sony isnt Pentax, prepared to hover around the fringes, being a respected niche brand, it has bigger ambitions. Those systems have too much built up expertise, too much system infrastructure, too much brand power and too many rusted on users. To try and go to war with those guys in the current DSLR market will mean years of trench warfare with an uncertain result and the possibility of only winning a pyrrhic victory as there is a strong chance that in 10 years time the current DSLR market might not be one worth being in. If I were running Sony I would also be looking for the game changer too, the thing that makes the fight between Sony and Canon/Nikon unfair in a way that suits me.

So in this context the E-mount, the move to SLT's, the possible ditching of the OVF all together starts to make enormous sense. And lets quickly look at some of the market indications we are seeing. After years of struggle, getting no-where in the Japanese market with a traditional SLR strategy, within a month the NEX achieved what Sony never managed with the 'old' A-mount formula. After years of at best mediocre, at worst outright damning reviews, Sony cameras are being hailed and people like MR over at Luminous Landscape who has described the A55 as one of the most important cameras ever. Finally, it appears the market has spoken with stories that the 'traditional' A560 DSLR is being delayed because demand for the new mirrorless/SLT formats is so great its consuming all available sensors.

I think the market is also showing us that no one out there is capable of doing it all at once. The 4/3s consortium clearly couldnt manage that format and develop the M4/3s. Samsung appear to have given up any pretension to traditional DSLR formats. Nikon has been rumoured to have a mirrorless concept coming for ages but seems to be getting no where and every day they delay more people buy an NEX an enter the Sony universe (my estimate less than 40% of NEX users at flickr came from Sony), while Canon might just be playing a very stealthy game but on the surface it looks to be a complete non-player in the mirrorless world right now instead just soldiering on with an warm over of the G series compacts. If the predictions from Samsung are right (and they have proven to be pretty savvy commercially) then Canon and Nikon could find themselves kings of very small and insignificant kingdoms in not to long.

Considering all this doesnt make me happy, it doesnt help me figure out where I will go or what I will do next. But, for me, thinking through my problem undeerstanding the realities of the world lessens my emotional investment and helps me think more clearly.

None of this is intended to make people stay with Sony. If you need to go to another mount for professional or creative reasons my recommendation is to go. Sony is juggling a lot of balls right now and I for one have no confidence that they will deliver exactly what anyone wants when they want it. But my other piece of advice (or perhaps plea) is that people accept the Godfather principle; this is strictly business, not personal. If Sony's business and yours go in different directions for a while, thats business, no need to go to the mattresses.

A new beginning.

Yesterday I had over 1500 images on flickr. Today there are 6. That wasnt a mistake, I deleted them on purpose. PMacImagery is getting ready for a more considered relaunch - nothing dramatic but just a more deliberate approach to my photography.