The Swiss Pagoda

The object in the heading image is not a refugee from a Transformers movie. Nor is it  the main mast from a Japanese battleship. It is a European tripod head that is constructed in the grand tradition of trying too hard to go too far.

Those of you who remember the advertisements for large format cameras made in Europe will recognise the principle. Make a piece of mechanics hinge upon itself in 14 different ways and then bend them all on for the publicity shot. Never mind that you only ever move the thing in very small increments in the studio or out in the field - it is a game of advertising excess to compete with other machine shops.

Notwithstanding the above, this is a superb tripod head. It tilts, pans, swivels, and then twirls around for panoramic pictures. It clamps onto Arca mounts...not surprising because it is made by Arca Swiss. It is terrifyingly adjustable for friction and position. First-time users will be lost in a minute and even old hands will spend time over-correcting themselves.

It is possibly the most precise head generally available and would suit everything from a mirrorless to a monorail. Indeed, with a fully-configured monorail large format camera the photographer would not even need to use film or make any exposures - their entire studio time could be devoted to adjusting the movements until their subject died, rusted, or blew away.

More practical landscape workers could eliminate the wretched ball head and substitute this for far more control - it would make sunsets mellower and rocky shores more rocky...

When You Know What You Want...

You can get it.

This was borne home to me two days ago when the chief of a dance troupe brought her ladies to the studio for publicity shots. She could tell me where the images would go, what size they needed to be, and the projected colouration of the graphic designs. She told the dancers how to dress, and what poses she wanted. She watched them and aided their posing - between her and I we got the best out of them - even the novices. They were very theatrical.

The post-prod was a dream. The chief now has a selection of poses, groups, displays, dances, and costumes. The ladies are going to look magnificent. It all ran through Aperture with only 3.75% having to go over to Photoshop for serious correction.

As a result, the work time was dramatically reduced and the cost to the customer substantially less than it has been for other troupes.

Now, if you can do this in your own photography...I mean figure out before you sally forth exactly what you want to achieve...you can be equally successful. Okay, you don't have to approach it like a Prussian Guards regiment and never deviate in spite of the cannon balls, but do know what you want as you go for it.

This also has an echo here in the shop. Wander, please. Look, speculate, ponder. Ask an intelligent question if need be - the staff's little faces will light up. No need to tell us what the latest rumour site has reported because we read that stuff too*. In any case, do think  - for yourself - about what YOU want to do. Then you are more likely to be able to do it.

* I read it in theatrical accents - makes it funnier...

Of Course You Can't...But Here Is Your Chance Anyway.

Never let it be said. At least not by you. And if someone else says it, go deaf.

There are any number of things that you can't do, but if you can maintain a healthy level of ignorance you can generally accomplish whatever it is that you start. Once you admit doubt and accept advice you are sunk.

It is the Wiley Coyote principle - you can run as far over the cliff as you like but once you look down that is where you go.

A case in point is one of the staff members who wanted a bowl of home-made chicken soup. Not having ever made it before he gathered the haziest description of the process, and a chicken and ran full-tilt at the problem. He appears to have succeeded, if the big bowl of chicken noodle soup and kneidlach that he put in the fridge is any indication. We shall be testing his skill at lunch time. If the shop is closed tomorrow, you may draw your own conclusions. I am willing to try it, but I ain't lookin' down...

Similarly, the owners of digital cameras can exercise the same courage and resolution by skim-reading their camera manuals, closing one eye and reading Ken Rockwell, and pressing all the buttons in the menu. I am doing that right now with one of  the Fujifilm cameras that I have - unfortunately the computer system I have is too old to support the RAW file for this camera, though it does support the files for the other two Fujifilm cameras in the stable. I am in jpeg only, though you must remember that Fujifilm jpegs are wonderful files.

My computer system is also of a type that does not show all the gazillions of colour variations that the professional EIZO monitors do, so I am going to restrict the colour space of the camera to the gamut that the screen can use - and that my screen readers can see - and see if it makes a difference to the actual end result. Some will decry it, and advise against it...but then they said that about shelling Verdun and that worked out pretty well in the end.

Circle The Wagons - Here Come The Native ISO's

The question about natives is...are they friendly natives?

The answer to this question sometimes depends on which side of he conversation you are on. ie. Don't ask General Sheridan and expect a comfortable answer...

In the case of the native ISO of digital cameras, this seems to be fixed around the 160-200 mark. I suspect that it is a characteristic of the actual component and is a function of the composition of the silicon layer and whatever the current state of division thereof. I have discovered that these sensors are manufactured by a very few companies - and in many cases well-known camera companies are using sensors that are manufactured by business rivals.

And they are all perfectly okay with this as each manufacturer takes the sensor and then does different things with the signal - one optimises it for one thing and one for another.

I was apprised of this by reading a book this weekend - " Mastering the Fujifilm X-E1 and X-Pro1 " by Rico Pfirstinger. It is a Rockynook book obtainable at Boffins Bookstore in William Street.

In the chapter that deals with ISO settings it makes the point that the native ISO of the two cameras it deals with is 200, and the camera always takes its picture at this 200 - even if you set it to ISO 1600 or higher. What it is doing to present you with a picture at that higher ISO is underexposing the image and then dealing with that underexposure through software. And apparently doing it very well.

This strikes me as true of all of them, and explains the improved characteristics of each new model of camera from any one manufacturer - they are not adding a new sensor in many cases - just re-writing the mathematics of the signal processing. Then I realised I was not reading carefully enough...

Fujifilm has a different sensor from others - it really does have a different pattern of receptor sites from most of the others, and can benefit users greatly in the way of resolution and clarity. The X-trans sensor may very well be quite different indeed. But I take it that it still looks at the world at 200 ISO and then just shuffles the electrons to get up to a clean 6400.

Who'da thunk it?

A Weekend Of Discovery

You can learn a lot when you are stupid. Of course you can learn a lot when you are smart, and it generally doesn't take as much skin off, but the knowledge gained from ignorance seems to sink in better. Thus my weekend...

Round one. Read the label. Whether you are mixing a cake or setting a camera or purchasing bookcases from IKEA...read the label. Saves you hauling three giant cardboard boxes back up the freeway in a Suzuki Swift to exchange them for one of the right size.

Round two. Hook up a mirrorless camera to the studio lighting system and try to use it in the same way that the DSLR system operates. In my case I have an adapter that lets me use the same lenses as my Nikon. Oh boy, I bet it is going to be better...! Oh boy, am I wrong.

The lenses and the sensors being equal...the images are the same size and proportion. And the depth of field is the same - thats a function of focus distance, focal length, and aperture.
No gain there.

When I am using a camera in studio mode - manual setting for both aperture and shutter speed - DSLR's  let me see through the viewfinder at full aperture and then check depth of field by pressing a preview button. Mirrorless cameras don't - they compel me to open and close the aperture by the click-stop ring and I am liable to push the whole assembly out of position as I do it. Do-able, but much more inconvenient.

Moral of the story? Use the regular heavy old DSLR for studio work in manual mode. Save the new you-beaut mirrorless for convenient field shooting.

Round three. The new you-beaut mirrorless camera can be mounted in a wooden box and triggered with a standard cable release. It is absolutely soundless when in the box, but will do perfect automatic focussing and exposure. It will also do a pretty good recording in sepia straight out of the camera. Steampunk Time!

A Conflict Of Disinterests - Camera Choice For The Perplexed

Working at a camera shop is wonderful. You can play with cameras all day.

Working at a camera shop is horrible. You have to play with cameras all day.

Neither of the sentiments above apply if you are a customer. Then being at a camera shop is exciting...but totally confusing. The modern world is presenting you with so many choices and alternatives that you are hard pressed to make a decision. You might want to press the button, but unfortunately Kodak is no longer there to do all the rest.

The keen enthusiast dives into the internet and reads every forum and rumour site there is.  If they are of an (ahem)..."older generation"...they look out CHOICE magazine from the local library and photocopy pages of advice. I can say this because I am of the same generation and go to the library regularly to look at the lingerie magazines. Readers of CHOICE would do well to remember that every public library has a fiction as well as non-fiction section...

Okay, armed with a looseleaf of papers and a mind full of internet camera equipment flame wars, the prospective customer comes in the shop. If they know what they want, see it on the shelf, open their wallet and whack out their credit card, the whole thing is easy. If they present 5 different opinions about 5 different cameras gleaned from other sources, it all starts to look like the battle of Verdun on a wet night.

One of the smartest things that the prospective camera buyer can do is draw up a list for themselves...in their own handwriting...of what they are NOT interested in. If they don't do portraits in the studio they don't need a portrait lens. ie. they don't need an 85mm f:1.4. If they don't want to go out taking landscape shots of the beach they don't need a 10-20 f:3.5 lens. If they are not interested sports shots they don't need a pro-DSLR with 10 fps capability. And so on...This can eliminate a lot of worry.

After the person thinks out what they don't want, they can think what they do want. Family shots, wedding coverage, fungus in the forest at f:4...whatever. Just as long as they are honest with themselves about their core interests.

Finally, they can see if there are any really odd things that would be fun, but not be absolutely necessary. Automatic toast recognition. HDR food baby sunset mode. With star trails. No matter what the customer can think of, they cannot think wider than the Japanese designers, because the Japanese designers drink at lunchtime. The trick with this category of features is not to make them the central point of choice.

Or CHOICE, if it comes to that...

Go App Yourself With Røde

Yesterday we had a training session with the chaps from Røde Microphones. The subject they covered was...microphones.

It was very detailed and informative. I had no idea that this Sydney firm was making the microphones here in Australia and had achieve3d such world-wide success with the broadcast and recording industry.

The real ear-opener yesterday was to watch  a particular Røde app on an iPad. They have a couple of these comparison programs that you can get free from the App store that basically allow you to hear the same speaker in different situations but through a whole range of recording microphones. I think they bedecked an actor with lavaliers, headsets, and handheld mikes and had her read out a script.

She was outside in front of a theatre and there was wind and passing traffic as she did her speaking. They recorded the result through the camera's basic in-built mike and at the same time on all the other ones. You can stream the things together and hear the difference between the various mikes quite clearly.

The most startling one was the basic camera compared to an inexpensive reporter's mike with a similar pattern of pickup. While the camera did pick up clear sound it was somewhat restricted and all the traffic noise came in with the voice. The reporter's mike canceled all the traffic and the actor's voice was far cleaner - the difference between a professional sound and a real mess.

If you pop over to the Røde site, and then off to the App store you can get yours for free and see what I mean.  It shows that just a little accessory can make all the difference.

Baka Gain

I am home again, and not permanently damaged. There was a point on the flight via Japan Airlines when I wondered if I would be able to unfold myself and walk again but the crisis passed. The trip taught me a great deal:

1. I shall be tolerant of those who do not speak my language. They were of me, and we managed well.

2. Bad language, entitlement, impatience, and greed have no place on either side of the sales counter.

3. Karaoke is the name of a volcano that exploded in the 1880's...

4. There are only 6 Suzuki Swift motor cars in Japan. All the rest are in Australia.

5. Camera store prices in Japan are no cheaper than they are here.

6. You can screen print Hello Kitty on anything.

7. No fish-flavoured drink is ever good. Cocktail or smoothie, it is just wrong...

8. When in doubt, smile. When in trouble, run.

9. Piety does not equal holiness does not equal morality.

10. Beer vending machines in the street do not make for drunken public orgies. The potential for bad behaviour is in the purchaser, not the vendor.

11. Japanese dogs do not bark. They are too polite for that. They raise their eyebrows at you...

12. It is not necessary to duck under hotel door lintels in Japan, but ship's deckheads and hatch coamings are another matter.

13. Follow the tour guide with the flag, lantern, or fish. Follow your own tour guide.

Very Nearly Hands On With the New Fuji X-T1 camera

Okay, we HAVE got our hands on the Fuji X-T1. As I type the staff are fighting tooth and nail to get a play with the new camera. I got two quick shots before it was whisked away, but at least I got to see some good bits.

One, the hand grip is perfect for the balance of the camera.

Two, the viewfinder is brilliant. Big.

Three, the classic front and back control wheels are exactly where your fingers need to find them for the operation of aperture or shutter speed.

Four, it looks as though the TTL control contacts in the hot shoe have been changed from those on previous Fuji cameras. There are four silver contacts plus a gold one as well as the central contact. This argues a new set of flashes coming. Hip. Hip. Hooray. Should this be the case, this camera will be the central pivot of a new professional system. I wait with bated breath.

Five, the inclusion of the tilting screen is welcome. Forget peering down through the gloom in the studio when you can pull the screen out and use it as a waist-level viewfinder.

Six, the focus assist button that boosts the center of the screen to allow you to focus is as precise as you could ask for. Beats the old microprism screen all hollow.

In short, an extremely desirable object. Watch out for our launch night when we get this baby in action!

Are You Infra - Ready? Our Repair Department Can Help

Thomas has asked me to remind readers of this blog and Facebook that Camera Electronic is able to convert an number of DSLR cameras to infra-red operation.

It will be a deliberate decision on the part of the camera owner since after it is done, infra red is all you can record on that sensor. But what a step into the universe! Infra red is an entirely different set of wavelengths from the ones that you normally use to see. Unless you are a Hollywood science fiction monster, you will never see the world in infra red...unless you photograph it.

Oh, wait. I'm wrong. Some of the WWII sniperscope outfits and tank sighting devices were infrared. Crude but somewhat effective. Certainly superceded by modern starlight scopes but they did exist. But back to Camera Electronic.

Ernest has a number of filters that cut visible light at various points and this means that once he has modified the internal sensor in your camera, it will be able to see and record what you cannot. The conversion costs a bit - ask the repair department for a quote - but the good news is that the best cameras for it are older types - ones that attract very little price in the secondhand market. You might have a gem in your camera closet that is no good for regular work but would be perfect for the IR.

Get set for black skies and white trees. And animals with amazing eyes...

The Window Of Opportunity Is Open - Take A Shot At It Now!

Well, if you are quick you get two of the best deals I have seen in this shop in a long time.

This is a chance for someone who wants two-lens kits for enthusiastic photography. I mean the sort of shooting that takes in family, landscape, travel, sports, and riots.

The cameras are the Fuji X-M1 and the Fuji X-A1. The lenses are Fujinon aspherical zooms. with each two-lens kit you get:

1.  The XC 16-50 mm f:3.5-5.6 OIS lens
2.  The XC 50-230 mm f:4.5-6.7 OIS lens

The OIS means internal image stabilisation in the lenses. Steadier shots at longer focal lengths.

The X-M1 has an X-trans sensor and the X-A1 has a Bayer-array sensor. They both have tiltable rear LCD and integral flash as well as all the Fuji specialist programs. The build quality is superb and the ergonomics are perfect for most hands.

Best of all is the price:

For the month of February the X-M1 kit is $ 998 and the X-A1 kit is $ 686. All up, all going, all good.

Be warned - there are only so many of the lens kits available. Hop in for your chop and get the best bargain in the place. Now.

iSee You And iHear You

iHave recently purchased an iPad for use in travelling and am undergoing instructions from my daughter in its operation. iAm not quite the dinosaur she thinks me, and have been able to switch it on and off quite unaided. You just whack it on the edge of the table and it goes off.

For those of you who are also on the road and are using the iPhone we have a number of Røde accessories that might assist you.

1. iGrip - this is a metal bracket that grips the iPhone securely and lets you hand hold it or attach it to a standard tripod. This means you can record sound without picking up shuffling fingers.

2. iGrip and lenses  - here is the iGrip with additional supplementary lenses to fit the iPhone. more options for camera reportage.

3. SC2 patch cable to let your iPhone take the audio from your DSLR camera.

None of these will help me attach my new iPad to my Linhof Kardan E monorail camera but I am going to ask Ernest to make a special fitting. He's good with engineering solutions.

iCan look forward to his response.

Ask Us How You Can Get A Stick For Your Own Back

And not just any old stick - a good big heavy one that will punish you severely. No use being delicate about it - when you want to be unhappy, we can sell you the right gear.

In case you have raised your eyebrows at this, consider the specifications that are quoted for big modern professional cameras - I mean how many shots per second they go on continuous firing. 5, 6,...9 frames per second. The sort of thing that pro's used to dream of with big motor drives and 250-shot backs. You used to see these accessories on the advertisements along with the bellows units and the 1200mm lenses. No-one i ever met bought them but everyone knew that professionals used them...

Well now the whole wide world can blast away at 5 fps whenever they need to just barely fail to capture the moment. Whole libraries can be filled with successive images of people almost hitting the ball and nearly getting to the peak moment of the ballet step. This is the big stick I mentioned - the back is when you commit all these to your hard drive and then cannot bring yourself to realise that the rotten thing did not work and to throw the images out.

No-one ever admits to hoarding the failures - but we all do it. That is what keeps Western Digital, LaCie, and Drobo in business. We fill the image hopper and turn the valve off on the bottom.

Resolved for 2014: To go through the library and finally admit that the ones that did not work did not work. They are not going to get better sitting there using up 1's and 0's that could be better spent. Clean out the continuous-fire flops.

And make room for more...

NIKON - A New Landscape

 The shop is in a turmoil. This is not new - we import turmoils and sell them at good prices. We can service turmoils. We trade in secondhand turmoils and give three month's warranty on them.

Major changes to the cabinetry - and Nikon is the first off the blocks with a new display. Please look at the images - these cabinets are super sophisticated and wonderful to play with. You can open them without a crowbar. Or drawing pentangles on the floor...one day they are going to get stuck and we won't be able to get them open - I'm just hoping none that none of the staff are in there at the time. It will be like watching a dove in a Bell jar...

No - there are good things in there - look at the new binocular selection from Nikon - and look at the new Nikon 1 system camera on display. And there will be more to come as time passes.

UD On The Df

Move over, Ken.

Uncle Dick has had two days to play with the new Nikon Df camera - we got them on Wednesday of this week and held a big launch for them after 6:00 on the night. Today he gives his verdict.

As a quick aside - I scored a bottle of beer and a piece of sushi on Wednesday and  thoroughly enjoyed the picture presentation by David Dare Parker. Other people were faster with the food. A LOT of people crowded into the shop and a goodly number of cameras and lenses were sold. The buyers are all out there right now skiving off work so that they can go out with their new cameras...and who could blame them.

To quell your fears, the device is a good one. It is an interesting take by Nikon on what people MIGHT want in a digital camera. I would be fascinated to see who they surveyed and how they asked the questions to arrive at their design plan. The aesthetics of it argue that they are targeting a particular market - the operational characteristics may am at something else.

Here - what I mean is that it has been constructed to look like a film camera of the 1970's and 80's - not a dead simulation, but a design that has a great deal of mimicry about it. Not a new thing to do - think of Fuji's X100 and X100s camera and their echo of the 35mm rangefinder camera. This is Nikon trying the same thing with the big DSLR.

Students of the camera will remember that Nikon replicated some of their 35mm rangefinder cameras just at the turn of the millenium for nostalgic collectors. They were available in Japan, and B&H, and ECS for some time but have now settled into eBay and Uncle Boris' various shops. Pursue them if you will - they work about as good as ever they did.

This new camera is of another stamp. Nikon don't want the collectors to buy it - they want to sell this one to users. They have pitched the appearance to those of us nostalgic for the older gear, but the guts of it and the functionality are right up with the best new practise. One point to mention: if you want to do video you cannot do it with this device. It is pure still photography.

Okay - Nikon takes the body style of the film SLR and puts the sensor and computer processor of their best full-frame camera in it. The legendary D4 sensor - thing that has improbably high ISO and impossibly low noise combined. They put the controls for the thing up on metal dials like the old days. They lighten the body by making the panels of magnesium. They opt for a smaller battery than the big cameras - so that it can go in a slimmer hand grip. No pop-up flash. Traditional PC connector and mechanical cable release.

But remember that this is a digital camera and modern users are used to adjusting the shutter and aperture with thumb wheels - so they put that on there as well. You don't need to use them - you can do your adjusting on dials. You can also add all your old Nikon-mount lenses from the film era - they have incorporated the special little dedicated tab on the lens mount that talks to the lenses. You might be scrapping to put 1962 lenses on it but all the later ones go very well.

The battery compartment bears an EL-EN14a battery and an SD card slot and WHOA NELLIE there is a heavy rubber seal and metal locking key to get into it. It speaks well for the weather sealing of the rest of the body. Retro-look notwithstanding this is going to be a camera that can can withstand hard service.

Hard service: Can't tell whether people who get shot at for profit will be taking this out amongst the rockets and machetes. David Dare Parker said he would - he has been using the big D3 and 4 series for just that for a number of years. Now he'll get a chance to get that level of performance at a very much lighter weight. He will be wise to take a couple of spare batteries on a bandolier, however - the EN-El14a is a 1230 mAh pack.

Soft service: This is all any amateur photographer will ever need - as long has it as a good selection of Nikon lenses. I do not wish to suggest that the amateur should stop buying cameras - this is a business and we want to eat...but if you get this one you have a vast vista of capability in front of you and you will be working long and hard to exhaust the possibilities.

Pose service: This is new and if you are fast you will have it before your brother in law. Hurry in and bring your card.

Uncle Dick

NIKON Df

Nikon Df digital camera.

Yes, we have them.

Here - 230 Stirling Street, Perth.

Now - 9:15 AM Thursday, 28 November.

Ready for sale.

08 9238 4405

Wow! Look At This! The New Camera!

Wow! First pictures of the new Nikon DF camera - right here on my blog! And I took the picture! I can hardly contain myself.

Oops. Didn't. Back in a minute.

Now, where were we? Oh, yes, the new Nikon DF camera that everybody in the town will be crowding in to see tonight - we're hosting a tease-a thon between 6:00 and 8:30, whereupon we will start selling the camera and taking orders. People finally get to see whether the rumours were true. They get to see and touch and spend.

I'm counting down to 6:00 and so should you.

Uncle Dick

Moom Pitchers - A Particularly Handy Small Hand

Our Video Lady, Melissa, has popped this on the blog desk with the note that it is a very good idea for videographers who are using DSLR cameras and want to mount a separate monitor screen or microphone. A still photographer might fancy mounting a flash unit at an odd angle to fire down on a macro subject. You could slip a doughnut over it in case you get hungry during the shoot.

The arm is 7" overall but you can also get them out to 11". The knob clamping the movement is smooth and positive - no creeping of the arm in operation. If you just need a particularly sturdy column up from the hot shoe, the articulated portion unscrews.

Best of all is the reasonable price:  $49.95.

Magic arm. Melissa-approved.

Tiny Cinema - Giant Results

By now a lot of people are familiar with tiny cinema.

No, I don't mean those boutique multi-cimemas that they cram into basements - where you get 6 seats and a slushy machine and pay $24 for a ticket to a movie for French people sitting around a table eating*...I mean machinery to let you make your own motion pictures via video. Without having to have a Technicolour camera and a crew of fifteen to operate. Little cameras.

Some people use handicams. Some people use compact cameras. Some people use DSLRs. All good, but not many of them can produce images and operating streams that are good enough to go on a really big screen - professional work.

Black magic make a big camera that can do just this. It's big, sleek, takes Canon lenses and lots of audio feed. They also make a very small camera that can do this - the Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera.

Get a largish pocket if you want to keep the micro 4/3 lens on it, but if you don't mind demounting the optics you can indeed slip it into a shirt pocket. The illustration has a beautiful Panasonic Lumix 12-35 lens but remember that you could put an Olympus or Sigma lens on as well. And it needn't be a zoom - a pancake 18 or 20mm is available.

Whaddaya get in the camera? 1080P. Lossless CinemaDNG RAW files, and SDXC recorder,Apple ProRes 422 (HQ). High resolution monitor.Super 16 sensor with 13 stops of dynamic range.

And a particularly simple menu interface in the screen for the cinema adjustments.

There are 1/4" threaded sockets top and bottom on the metal chassis - tripod and mic mounting is easy.

Quite frankly, it looks like it blows your average handy cam corder out of the theater.

We've got 'un for rent and we're gettin' 'em for sale. Come see what then next generation of  tiny cinema will look like.

* And smoking. Eating, smoking, and sneering at the bourgoisie. I'm glad they did not make " Mary Poppins " in France, as it would have been ghastly.

Authentic Photography

A few years ago I decided to be an Authentic Photographer. So I went out and bought things to make myself look like I was living in the 1950's. It was an easy choice - I still had a number of inherited articles of clothing from the time in my wardrobe and they were not worn-out yet so all I needed to add was the camera and film and darkroom equipment and film and chemistry of the period.

I chose a Crown Graphic camera and a Graphic View with lenses and shutters from the same company - I think the glass was by Wollensack. I chose Ilford HP5 and Kodak Portra 160 sheet film. I used Rodinal developer and Fuji's version of C-41 chemicals. the paper was Ilford Multigrade IV. I ate pastrami sandwiches and drank cups of tea.

I include the last reference because I haven't have a big breakfast and I'm hungry. It is equally authentic and equally false. The photography of the 1950's had nothing to do with me - any more than it had to do with C-41 chemistry from Fuji or Multigrade IV. I never encountered pastrami in the 1950's - we called it corned beef - and I didn't drink tea. The whole attempt at being authentic was actually playing at being someone else.

So I sat and thought what would be " authentic ". I could go out and capture the universe on a Kodak Starflash camera if I care to - you can find them at junk sales and on eBay. I could wind the clock forward to 1966 and get myself an Asahi Pentax SV and some Plus X and  Kodachrome II. Or not, as the Kodak case may be...

Would my pictures look better? Would I be able to go to the hot rod show and bring back certain results? Would I spend 5 x the amount of money and time getting 1/5 of the results? I think I know the answer to that question...

This train of thought was occasioned by seeing a van on the road this morning with the sign " Authentic Bathroom Renovations ". It caused me to ask myself what an inauthentic bathroom renovation would look like...probably a lot like me with a Crown Graphic camera.