Mirrorless vs DSLRs, or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb

Since time immemorial I've been attracted to cameras, and specifically SLRs.  My first camera was a compact 35mm with an uncoupled viewfinder and zone focus system, and a VERY sharp lens.  In the right hands it could do wonders. In my ham-fisted ones it rarely shone.. and so I eventually managed to convince a rich uncle to gift me an.. SLR.  This one was great, I could see what I was doing, but the ham-fisted hands persisted and if anything I struggled even more to get decent pictures.  These were the days of expired film and hand-developing with old chemicals.. The results were a bit iffy, but once in a blue moon something special came out.  Fast forward many years and after the inevitable switch to digital I was still firmly in the SRL camp. And what does SLR mean, you ask?!
Single Lens Reflex.  Reflex because the image is reflected from the image plane up through a viewfinder, so you see what the film will see. Single lens because unlike dual lens systems like the TLR's (TWIN.. get it?) SLR's only use one lens, so you're seeing exactly what will end up as the final image, in terms of framing. And now add a D for Digital and you get a DSLR, which is what I'm currently shooting.  But lately the buzz-word has been Mirrorless.  What is mirrorless you say?!  Well, effectively it's taking out the Reflex out of Single Lens..  The imaging sensor "sees" the image before you take it and a copy of that is projected onto an electronic viewfinder. So you're still effectively looking through the single lens, just in a different way.  For a long time SLR's and DSLR's could claim a better viewfinder, especially the higher end cameras which offered 100% viewfinder coverage (WYSIWYG for the computer programmers out there) and long eye-relief (meaning you could see the whole viewfinder comfortably, withought having to push your eyeball into the camera!
Time though marches on, and what initially seemed like a lacklustre solution.. looking at a mini TV-screen approximating the scene in front of you, soon matured and became a surreal experience.. being able to see IN THE DARK as if in daylight, easily focusing on your subject, while DSLR's started to struggle.  Not only that but mirrorless cameras could do away with the whole mirror-box assembly making the cameras slimmer, and as a side benefit the shorter flange to sensor distance meant that all of a sudden you could mount all your competitor's lenses on your own camera.. A massive advantage indeed, which meant that all  those vintage manual focus lenses languishing in op-shops and thrift stores and under layers of dust in old camera stores suddenly came into vogue.. an adapter away from photographic heaven.  And indeed the ability to use different lenses from different manufacturers all on one body is a most liberating feeling.  No longer "locked into" a camera system, you are free to choose the best lens, no matter the manufacturer.  Think of Canon's legendary 50mm f0.95, which only worked on ONE rangefinder model, the Canon 7.   Or Nikon's 200mm f2 VR lens.. a monster of a lens with bokeh in spades.. Smoething more esoteric?  An Apo Lanthar macro lens from Voightlander, a modern gem of a lens that outresolves just about anything out there.  A tilt and shift from Canon?  Or a Hasselblad lens?  You can use (almost) all of them on this humble Mirrorless..

So what did I do?  I went out and bought one.  Stay tuned to find out more...

Ode to a perfect bag - The Tamrac Adventure 5

Perfection does not come easily to the human race.  God and nature are far better at it than we are.  And yet we see perfection, or the strive to be perfect, in many things around us.  The Colosseum in Rome (known in antiquity as the Flavian Amphitheatre) was built on a marsh, and the Romans for all their engineering prowess.. managed to botch the point where the two semicircles met. Result, first major earthquake and we lost half of the outer ring. Still.. all football stadiums around the world are inspired by it.  Today though I want to talk about a camera bag.  A perfect camera bag.  One though that, like the colosseum, has some inherent flaws.  And the most inherent one of all is that today it died.  I’ve rarely used a bag to destruction.  Normally they get passed off to other people, forgotten in railway carriages, stolen at airports or simply left in a cupboard to die.  Not so this humble, but perfect, bag.  It started out life as a Tamrac Adventure 5.  A “bumbag” in Australian parlance, one that you can strap around your waist.  The genius of it’s design though lay not in the plethora of pockets and zips and raincovers and other useless (in my view) accoutrements, but simply in it’s… simplicity.  It did one job very, very well..  It carried a big camera with a big lens around your waist, whilst looking none the worse for it.  A large top-opening meant that a 70-200 lens with pro body could fit sideways.. no mean feat as it still had to be comfortable and manageable.  And indeed it was.  With it’s minimal padding it molded itself to my waist, or when I carried it shoulder bag style.  By its very simplicity and comfort and discrete appearance it was with me all the time, through European travels on foot, to sitting next to me on my car seat when out for a days drive an photo session.  The fact that it wasn’t too big meant I had to choose which lenses and bodies to bring… normally one large lens or 2 smaller ones, which then helped in focusing my attention on the subject and not endlessly changing lenses..  We often focus on what camera and lens get us our favourite photos, but the humble bag we use to carry it rarely gets a thought.  And yet it is of the utmost importance! 
Of course no one bag is perfect for everyone, as each of us have a different style of photography, different types of cameras and lenses, and different objectives.  For my style, fast walking contemplative photography, seeking the unusual in the usual, a light fast kit works best, and an easy to carry and easy to access system works best.
So, my venerable camera bag has died.  Now what?! Well, find it’s replacement.  Unfortunately Tamrac in their wisdom stopped making the original 5 and upgraded it to something mastodontic and full of zippers and whatnot.  Their horizontal format which allowed for a 70-200 to be fitted to a pro-body gave way to a vertical lay-out.. great for carrying lots of lenses, just not the one lens that I preferred.. And anyway, who said lots of lenses are good?! We want to concentrate our vision.  Pardon me.. I want to concentrate my vision. 
Well, endless searching brought me to ThinkTank.. I believe disgruntled Lowepro employees set out to make their own designs, and they are surprisingly photographer-centric, although truth be told far too many zippers, raincovers and pockets.  However if you can’t beat them, join them I say.  I’ve purchased my next till end of your life bum-bag.  No, it won’t fit my 70-200 sideways.  But you know what.. I’ve graduated from using that large bulky zoom.. I’m now using smaller primes. A trio of lenses. So I spend more time changing lenses than taking pictures.  but I still get the images that I want. I can carry them around my waist.  And the Speed Demon is true to its name.. It’s fast. And it’s comfortable.
Welcome new friend.

When new the Tamrac was the same colour as the ThinkTank above it

The quiet before the storm

I fear I've been very quiet of late, but that has not been for lack of activity, simply a lack of will to put finger to key-stroke.. However I hope to remedy that situation shortly with a flurry (flurry?! Really.. let's not exaggerate here!) of posts in the coming.. days? weeks? 
Well, the intention is to get some new stuff out.  Specifically some idiotic lens tests on sunstars on a sellection of new and old lenses.  Suntars are an untested metric in most lens reviews (bar Ken Rockwell, who always tests for it).  However they can look really cool and uplift a good photograph into great territory.  It won't do much for a mediocre picture though. But still, with modern lens designs gravitating towards perfectly round aperture blades, suntars are going the way of the dodo.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves..
Other things to look at.. a comparison of Nikon film and digital bodies and the evolution of their design.  Will the upcoming mirrorless cameas be a complete departure or will they retain design elements of old?
Ok.. I've said too much!  See you soon.