Downsizing A Camera Kit

Carnaval, San Francisco, 2024. Fuji X-70 Camera with Q20ii Flash held high overhead, 1/1000 second, F 5.6, ISO 400

I have been carrying a camera on my morning walks since the start of the Pandemic, which is to say early 2020. I have several routes that I normally take, and consequently visit the same "photo venues" multiple times during the week. In short, I've pretty much run out of interesting plants, homes, and garden gnomes to photograph, and as a consequence, feel a little let down when I carry a (relatively heavy) mirrorless camera and have no images to reward my efforts.

Lately I've been examining my small camera options, and found two contenders in my collection. Both had APS sized sensors and an equivalent lens focal length of 28mm.

• The CoolPix A: The camera was  introduced in 2013 and had a MSRP $1,100.00. I believe this camera was introduced in the hopes Nikon could  get on the "premium compact" camera bandwagon created by the introduction of Fuji's X100. The Nikon's price was very close to that of the Fuji, but was way behind on features and never gained a significant following, even after dropping the MSRP to $699.00 in 2014, and even included an accessory optical viewfinder. Unfortunately, I had already purchased a used one from Fireside Camera. Oh well. To add insult to injury, my camera had a distinct dust spot on the sensor, which I paid Nikon to replace. They claim they did, but the d#&n spot was still there, so I just decided I'd live with it. It only shows up whenever the background is mostly blue sky, and since I know where it is, I can easily find it and clone over it in post production.

• Fujifilm X70: The camera was introduced in 2016 and had a MSRP $800.00. I wonder if the Nikon's 2014 price drop had anything to do with the X70's pending introduction. At any rate, the Fuji had everything my CoolPix A had, plus a folding LCD panel and the Fuji Film Simulation Modes. It too was purchased used from Fireside Camera. I liked it because it took the same batteries as my X100S. Unlike the Nikon, it has an external aperture ring and shutter speed dial.

Photo Source: Click Nikon CoolPix A or Fuji X-70

One Over The Other: Both cameras have some strong and weak points. The  Nikon has a telescoping lens, which means it is very compact when turned off. It also has protective blades that close to protect the lens, making it a little better for pocket or pouch carry.  Unfortunately,  the telescoping lens makes it difficult to attach filters or lens accessories. There is a special lens hood/filter adapter which allows the use of 49mm filters, but it adds considerable bulk to the camera. The Nikon also lacks a shutter speed dial and aperture ring, which means you must rely on counter-intuitive, external control wheels. Its interface reminds me of the one used by Canon on their point-and-shoot cameras, which is not a compliment. 

The Fuji, on the other hand, has an external shutter speed dial and a lens mounted aperture ring. The Fuji's lens does not telescope, which adds slightly to the thickness of the camera, but it can be easily modified to take standard 49mm filters, which I'll discuss in a minute. It can also accept a bulky wide angle lens adapter that converts the lens to a 21mm full-frame equivalent. And the accessory optical viewfinder is much less expensive than the Nikon's.

I bought mine here.

Part Of The Family: First the good news: Fuji has adopted a standard 49mm thread for attaching lens accessories. The bad news is that the lens mounting sports male threads. (You access them by removing the bezel ring on the lens mount.) This is compatible with Fuji specific accessories such as OEM and knockoff lens hoods, many of which can accept filters with the industry standard 49mm male threads. To reduce bulk, I would need an adapter with 49mm female threads at both ends. By simply Googling "49mm female female adapter", I found one on eBay. I was reminded by one vendor that these can be called "gender changers", as it does indeed change the male threads on Fuji to a female thread ready to accept standard photographic filters, in addition to inexpensive plastic center-pinch lens caps. This will ease my anxiety about losing those expensive OEM metal caps that rely on friction to prevent loss. 

There is one more advantage this simple conversion can provide. A while back I purchased a  Nisi Filter Kit specifically for the Fuji X100 series of cameras. I plan on trying it on my X-70 on the next sunny morning to be sure it works without vignetting, since the lens is wider than that on the X100 cameras. I wrote about this a while back, so you get some technical information by clicking here.

My next post will be a re-introduction to the Q20ii Flash, and working with a wide angle lens camera with a built-in leaf shutter.

The Photo I Wanted To Make

The Photo I Wanted To Make: The event was the 2024 5K Run/Walk that promoted Mental Health Awareness Month. It was held at Ryder Park in San Mateo, a venue where I've photographed past events. The distinctive foot bridge made an interesting backdrop, so I did my best to include it in my composition. This photo is the photo I had in mind, although there are some technical issues that need to be addressed.

The construction of the bridge is interesting. A large arch spans the length of the bridge. It is anchored in concrete at each end. Cables connect the arch to the bridge itself, providing the necessary support. For these shots, I sat at the base of one of the concrete supports while pointing my camera towards the other. In this way, the runners would be coming toward me. It isn't necessarily bad, but it would render poorly on newsprint.

This sketch photo (right) clearly shows how essential the flash was for this particular series of photos. Without it, there is absolutely no detail in the shadows, and my subjects are reduced to silhouettes.

After I started taking some sketch photos, I realized that since the bridge was a two-way street, all of the oncoming foot traffic would be on the left. I altered my composition somewhat, since the right half of the frame would essentially be empty. I also adjusted my flash to favor the left side of the frame, and tilted the head up slightly to keep from overexposing the bridge where they stood. In this photo the runner had to be very close before I could make he exposure, due in part to the limited output of the flash and the 10mm setting on my APS 10-24mm zoom lens.

This photo is probably the one with the best exposure, a lucky accident of being in exactly the right place at the right time. Keep in mind that all of these shots were made with the flash on-camera, so they are somewhat flat in appearance.

This runner was wearing a heart costume, and I thought this would be the money shot. When I took a closer look, the subject was just too small in the frame, and I had caught him at an oblique angle which hid his facial features. I did have other runner photos, so I got up from my shooting position and prepared to leave. 

Subject To Frame Ratio: I was never really happy with any of the original concept photos. The problem was what I call the Subject-To-Frame Ratio. I prefer to have the main subject occupy more than 25% of the full frame area. This is important to remember because I have no control over the published size of the image, and if it is reproduced in a typical column width (approximately 3" wide), the faces of my subjects would be too small to recognize. 

The Photo I Got: As I prepared to leave the footbridge I saw these two ladies from Star Vista, one of the event sponsors, with a homemade "frame" for people who wanted their photos taken in this makeshift photo booth. I got their attention long enough to make this photo, thinking that I already had a suitable photo. This photo also illustrates my preferred subject-to-frame ratio. The frame, containing my two subjects, occupies about one-third of the full frame. 

It occurred to me that I could improve on the shot, so I went back to look for them. I found them photographing a pair of runners and their dog, so I introduced myself, explained what I wanted. I had them turn to face the sun, and after making two exposures, I had what I needed.

©Joe McNally. Photo source here.

Something For Next Time: While speedlights (small, battery-powered electronic flashes) are convenient, they are not as powerful as one would like. There are several work-arounds: You can position two of them together and trigger them simultaneously, or you can move the speedlight/s closer to the subject. During a video presentation, photographer Joe McNally said he often places his main subject near the edge of the frame, as he did in this image. If one could magically see past the left edge of the frame, they would see a large soft box high and to the left of the model.  The trick is to include some visual content in the right half of the frame, which Mr. McNally has clearly done.

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda: Next time I'll secure a speedlight the rail using a combination of gaffer tape and a ball bungee or two. In this rather clumsy mockup, you can see that positioning the speedlight on the rail decreases the light-to-subject distance. And while the beam spread might not be wide enough to provide full-height illumination, it could be just enough to illuminate the most important parts of the subject. Then too, the rail-mounted speedlight could become the key light, and the camera mounted speedlight could become the fill. Of course I didn't pack either a ball bungee or a roll of gaffer tape, but that situation will be remedied immediately.

Choo Choo!

 
Overthinking The Assignment: I spent a fair amount of time wondering how to present the event. It was the 160th Anniversary of this rail route which connected San Francisco to San Jose. It was also the debut of the new electric commuter train. It was also an informational event to promote modern mass transit.

The Basic Photo: Any time there is a train involved, I try to get at least one photo of some passengers boarding. In this case, I looked for a door that had the Caltrain logon clearly visible. I also prefer to make the photo from the left side of the boarding passengers because the majority will probably be right handed, and  will tend to rotate their bodies towards the camera when reaching for a hand rail.

This doesn't look like a flash-assisted shot, but it is. I narrowed the beam to concentrate the light at the center with the hopes of lighting up the inside of the train. I like that the photo doesn't shout "Flash!", but it helped me keep the exposure differences between the shadows and the highlight are minimal.

The High Tech Loo: The state-of-the-art bathroom was a source of pride among the docents. Caltrain created focus groups to gather rider input, and created a mock bathroom to test its usability by disabled passengers. It also included a folding changing table should the need would arise. Incidentally, the door is actually curved, giving the image a fisheye look. 

This shot was made with a camera mounted  Godox V1 flash and a Godox Dome Diffuser. The head was angled to 45 degrees from horizontal  to raise the light a bit farther from the lens axis. The easy attach/detach design of the diffuser combined with the 330 degree head rotation make it an easy flash to adjust on the fly. And adjust you will, because each situation will bring new challenges that will force you to tweak you flash to get the image you want.

After a while, I decided to shoot from inside the  restroom. This perspective makes it much easier for the viewer to figure out exactly what they were looking at. The young boy added a sense of curiosity to the image, which was exactly what I wanted. I thought for a moment that this would be the shot I would submit, but realized that shot has no context clues that would lead the reader to the concept of "train", and the idea was subsequently scrapped. 

For this shot, I pointed the flash head towards the ceiling behind me and kept the diffusion dome in place. This saturated the tiny room with light, and the resulting photo would have reproduced well when printed on newsprint.

Anniversary Aspect: I saw nothing to indicate that this was the 160th anniversary of the route run between San Francisco and San Jose. There was a table, manned by Caltrain employees, where you could get pamphlets describing the innovations baked into the new electric trains, along with miniature toy trains for the kids (right).

Here again, flash was used to provide some detail in the shaded areas under the enclosure. Some dodging and burning was required to "normalized" the overall exposure while maintaining the notion that the Caltrain employee was actually standing in the shadow of the little tent.

Photo Boom! This considerate young man apologized to me when he accidentally entered the frame, adding he didn't intend to photobomb me. I smiled and told him not to worry because I was just checking my exposure, and then added, "Why don't you photobomb me for real?" This was his immediate response. It still makes me chuckle.

Lucky Shot: I decided to make another attempt at a boarding photograph from the front-lit side. While waiting for something to happen in the foreground, I heard a mother tell her young son that a train was approaching the station from camera right. I turned to see that it was indeed approaching, and that a shot with both new and old trains might be possible. In the second photo, you can see that the train has entered the frame and is slowing to a stop, but continued to roll forward. I managed to get my last shot just as the "noses" of the two trains appeared to be side by side. In a few seconds, the second train was completely hidden by the first.

This Is A First: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I was surprised that the photo did not appear in the Monday edition of the paper. After all, news photos like this have a very short shelf life. It ran on Tuesday, and to my surprise, it  was published with a two-page article. So I have to wonder if the story was always in the wings, or written to accompany the photo. My ego can come to one conclusion. Guess what it is. 

Hats Off!

 

This photo was originally posted in color, but after some simple post processing, I was intrigued by this monochrome rendering. I was on the track at the Kezar Stadium, and with the sun reflecting off  a puddle left behind by a recent storm, I wanted a silhouette of a runner positioned in front of the reflection in the background. I had almost a dozen variations on the shot, but chose this one with the runner in the background, with a second runner "walking it off" in the near foreground.

Subject's View

There were some problems photographing into the sun. With the camera in the "Hail Mary" position (camera held high overhead), I could achieve the composition I desired, but now had the problem of the sun shining directly into my eyes.  I struggled to frame the image while squinting against the sunlight. I solved the problem by taking off my hat, lengthening its adjustment strap, and hanging it on the lens barrel. The hat kept the sun out of my eyes which allowed me to concentrate on the composition. In this historical recreation of that Eureka Moment, you can see that only one hand would be needed to hold the camera, leaving the other free to manipulate a speedlight, or in this case, snap a low-angle photo.

This certainly isn't a genius moment, but it did allow me to address the problem using only the hat off my head. It took me a few minutes to realize my hat would make an effective sun shade. In the future, when a similar situation arises, I'll already have a solution.

Kaufmann's Camera Store Closes

 

The Best Of Times: My friend Shawn and I would be getting together for a long lunch and some serious camera talk. We've been covering each other's backs since 1979 when he became the third teacher at the mixed level classroom at a elementary school near San Mateo. When not talking about student performance issues, we discussed photography, cameras. and darkroom techniques. Through the years, we had many adventures that almost always included a trip to a camera store or favorite lunch counter. Our accidental encounter at a Palo Alto alter to photography (a.k.a. Keeble and Shuchat) lead me to adopt Domke F-2 as the Official Tom Jung Camera Bag.

The Worst Of Times: News leaked out that Kaufmann's Cameras would be closing forever. I remember that the flagship store was in Stonestown, a shopping center near the San Francisco / Daly City border in the early 1970s. While Al was the senior driving force in San Francisco, his two sons, Warren and Ronald, would be my contacts when the store was on 25th Avenue in San Mateo, and again when they were forced to move to its final location in San Bruno. The store was a must visit because you never knew what might appear on the shelves. For example, my favored camera bag of the time, the  Vanguard Veo 37, eventually wore out and was no longer in production when I sought a replacement.  I made do with other bags until, low and behold, I found a new-old-stock Veo 37 on one of Kaufmann's shelves. My credit card almost melted from the speed with which I extracted my credit card, and my new bag will eventually house my  Sony A7 and some additional lenses when I finally decide to take the camera more seriously.  Into every life a little joy must fall, that the day I received more than just a sprinkle.

A Dirge To Customer Service: I remember one specific incident where I was in desperate need of both a Nikon D90 body and a Nikon SB900 speedlight. I knew that the staff was very particular about checking the merchandise before it left the store, so before I left San Francisco, I called the store with a simple request:

"Hi, this is Tom Jung. You might not know my name, but you'll recognize me as soon as I walk in the store. I'm in a hurry, and I need a Nikon SB900 and a Nikon D90 body. I am driving down from San Francisco, and wonder if you can do the checkup before I arrive. I'll hand you a credit card as soon as I walk in."

After receiving a response equivalent to "Roger That", I drove to the store to find my purchases checked and bagged, and as I requested, the purchase was immediately processed.  I was in and out in a few minutes, and arrived at the location well-prepared and fully equipped. 

I will miss the store and the welcoming feeling I always got. And there was always a bowl of Hershey's Miniatures by the cash register, and the 1960s era music from the boom box CD player.