Farming photography

[Cowabunga]

What a beautiful fresh and crisp picture of a happy young couple, looking so vibrant and alive. You have captured them perfectly and avoided any background distraction; superbly in my eye and I didn't even notice any shallow depth of focus that you wrote of.

I did buy the A3 inkjet printer for photographic work and also use an A4 inkjet printer; nothing special, believe me you! I liked your shot of the digger feeding the big fire but did wonder if all that wood may have been better off in a wood burning stove.

Having said the above, you may just have provided a spark to light a photographic fire under me; thanks.

The fire. Leylandii, so not suitable for domestic use as far as I'm aware.

 

[Scribus]

Didn't even see them but then again I do have glaucoma and cataracts and passed on new specs until they sort out the cataracts. Did often have problems with dust in my monochrome enlarger but always tried to sort it out in the enlarger rather than spotting out prints afterwards.

Aye, keeping the negs clean was always a nightmare! I've all the darkroom equipment set up here and keep meaning to use it again as I still don't think that digital can do B&W as it should be done. Disciplined pixels can never replicate the effect of random crystals.

From around 15 years ago on Ilford 3200 -

 

[Christoph1945]

Scribus,

I liked Ilford materials but tended to choose May & Baker developer for
my 35 ml work but could never get the hang of glazing glossy prints and tended to opt for Ilford silk finish papers but then again I never produced anything near the class of your work; I was just dabbling, I suppose.

I used to have an account on Flickr but lapsed and tried getting in there today but was thwarted by the Yahoo system. Plenty of first class photography on Flickr though.

 

[Scribus]

Scribus,

I liked Ilford materials but tended to choose May & Baker developer for
my 35 ml work but could never get the hang of glazing glossy prints and tended to opt for Ilford silk finish papers but then again I never produced anything near your class of your work; I was just dabbling, I suppose.

I used to have an account on Flickr but lapsed and tried getting in there today but was thwarted by the Yahoo system. Plenty of first class photography on Flickr though.

I never used May and Baker but opted for Agfa developer while it was still available. My favourite film of all time is Ilford Pan F. Slow but mighty, especially in MF.

We all started by dabbling, I'm more or less self taught but even got to work for Kodak themselves. The greatest lesson I had in digital was working for a school photography company, simple enough on the surface but hugely involved when doing it right. There is an awful lot of talent out there and so supply outstrips demand. There was always this antagonism between amateurs and pros, as you probably know, mainly because many pros were aware that some folk could produce work to a very high standard but preferred to keep it as a hobby and earn a living in more financially rewarding professions, which was just about anything else!

Talking of digital, I couldn't resist this when I saw it --

 

[Christoph1945]

Very thought provoking!

 

[SilliamWhale]

I've been doing a bit of Camera research recently and this has stood out

https://www.johnlewis.com/fujifilm-...lKZZNBwkfwAxe7E9_zoaAoghEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Although I'm in two minds about just finding an older mirrorless camera (sony nex5 or the pana G6 like Cowabunga's) and getting a Sigma lense independently just to get my skills up

 

[Great In Grass]

I've been doing a bit of Camera research recently and this has stood out

https://www.johnlewis.com/fujifilm-...lKZZNBwkfwAxe7E9_zoaAoghEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Although I'm in two minds about just finding an older mirrorless camera (sony nex5 or the pana G6 like Cowabunga's) and getting a Sigma lense independently just to get my skills up

Nice "starter" kit for you to explore your photography I run a Fujifilm system alongside the Nikon gear and it's a joy to use. Fujifilm lenses are excellent and for the most part, outperform third party lenses.

All Fujifilm cameras offer great Straight Out Of the Camera images which need very little editing if any at all.

Should you shot in the RAW format at a later date Capture One offer a Fujifilm specific editing programme for free https://www.captureone.com/en/products/fujifilm a cut-down version of their full programme but will have most things you will require early. It will also edit your jpeg images.

 

[Great In Grass]

Some images on Flickr from the X-A5 these will give you a good idea of the image quality you will get from the camera https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=fujifilm x-a5

 

[Cowabunga]

Fuji X-A5 is an excellent value starter system camera as long as you are happy without a viewfinder. Some people are and some not. It has most of the Fuji benefits, such as the superb jpeg colour profiles but it doesn't have in-body image stabilisation like most others these days. Make sure the lenses are stabilised, especially for use in low light or for long exposures. Both the ones in the kit are.

Fujifilm XA5 review | Cameralabs

www.cameralabs.com

I have a little Fuji X20 and if I had started my system camera life with Fuji rather than M4/3, I would probably have a couple more Fuji by now. I don't think you will find a better deal than this Fuji right now if you don't mind holding the camera out in front of you like a phone. It looks like being an excellent vlogging camera, with its flip-up screen, if you are into that. Forget about 4K video though, but 1080P video is excellent on it anyway, so no worries there unless you are really into video editing of huge 4k files, which I suspect most of us are not.

 

[Christoph1945]

January sales may see some good offers on digital photographic equipment and it's only a month away; sit tight, if you can.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Fuji X-A5 is an excellent value starter system camera as long as you are happy without a viewfinder. Some people are and some not. It has most of the Fuji benefits, such as the superb jpeg colour profiles but it doesn't have in-body image stabilisation like most others these days. Make sure the lenses are stabilised, especially for use in low light or for long exposures. Both the ones in the kit are.

Fujifilm XA5 review | Cameralabs

www.cameralabs.com

I have a little Fuji X20 and if I had started my system camera life with Fuji rather than M4/3, I would probably have a couple more Fuji by now. I don't think you will find a better deal than this Fuji right now if you don't mind holding the camera out in front of you like a phone. It looks like being an excellent vlogging camera, with its flip-up screen, if you are into that. Forget about 4K video though, but 1080P video is excellent on it anyway, so no worries there unless you are really into video editing of huge 4k files, which I suspect most of us are not.

The one with a viewfinder is available with £90 cashback at the moment meaning v similar price. XT 100

 

[Cowabunga]

January sales may see some good offers on digital photographic equipment and it's only a month away; sit tight, if you can.

In my experience this is the best time of year for camera equipment, but it can vary. The Fuji is unlikely to be sold cheaper than the current deal with the second lens only costing £50 more than without, plus the Winter cashback deal [which is already deducted from the John Lewis price]. In general terms, cameras are also more heavily discounted the further they get from launch. As with everything, once bought, then forget about what the price is from that day on and just enjoy using it.
Look out for 'double cashback' deals on some more mid-range selected cameras in the next three weeks or so.

In my humble opinion, the best priced camera at the moment is certainly not the cheapest or smallest. It is the Sony A7 with 28-70 lens for £800. This is a full frame 35mm camera in current production, albeit in the Sony way of things, being three generations old, presumably to give a range of cameras at different price points for every consumer need and pocket. The MkIII costs £1200 on top of this price with the same lens, but it offers significant advantages to more enthusiastic amateurs, such as enhanced autofocus that beats all other cameras and a much much longer lasting battery. It's not for everyone but just like the featured Fuji, strikes me as being fantastic value at the moment. At any moment.

 

[Cowabunga]

The one with a viewfinder is available with £90 cashback at the moment meaning v similar price. XT 100

With cashback it comes to £357 but the second lens 50-230 MkII will cost about £300 on top. It is included on the XA5 deal as far as I can see. Although I think that the XA5 kit includes the Mk1 which currently sells for 'only' £200.
So like for like and even after cashback, the XT100 costs more than £200 on top of the JL XA5 deal. Just maybe the viewfinder is more important than the longer zoom lens for some people, which is fair enough.

 

[Still Farming]

Mobile Phone.
Millions of pixels and ready to use in seconds.

 

[Great In Grass]

Fujifilm run offers frequently, current offers https://fujifilm-x.com/en-gb/promot...laim-up-to-365-on-selected-fujifilm-x-series/

 

[Great In Grass]

It's also worth bearing in mind the 55-230mm lens is not one of their best I have the 55-200mm f3.5-4.8 R LM OIS XF which is better but as is the case more money.

A lens I would recommend to start with is the 18-55mm f2.8-4 R LM OIS XF often bundled in a kit (that how I got mine) and can be found second hand around the £250.00 mark.

A Fujifilm E-3 new or S/H would be the bee's knees but again you will be looking at a higher purchase price.

 

[Cowabunga]

Just noticed the XT100 with the two kit lenses at £499 after cashback at Wilkinsons Cameras and, no doubt, other Fuji dealers. So that is the actual like for like price compared to £349 for the XA5.

 

[Cowabunga]

Mobile Phone.
Millions of pixels and ready to use in seconds.

If you think pixels are very important.
There's a lot to be said for high end camera phones but the difference between an entry level smartphone and a high end one with a good camera can be £800+. We are talking about APS-C sensor cameras here which gather massively more light and with interchangeable lenses that optically zoom up to 15 times. Also the possibility of adding prime lenses such as a f1.4 or f1.8 85mm full frame equivalent [50mm actual] portrait lens and so on.
All this for between £350 to £500 which is significantly less than the difference between a good phone cam, which is still a tiny phone cam, and a £200 one.
Even if you look at the Sony A7, at £800, it is significantly less than the difference between a 'cheap' Motorola G7 Power [£140] and an iPhone11 Pro Max at £1100.

So let's just compare like with like rather than apples and oranges.

 

[Still Farming]

If you think pixels are very important.
There's a lot to be said for high end camera phones but the difference between an entry level smartphone and a high end one with a good camera can be £800+. We are talking about APS-C sensor cameras here which gather massively more light and with interchangeable lenses that optically zoom up to 15 times. Also the possibility of adding prime lenses such as a f1.4 or f1.8 85mm full frame equivalent [50mm actual] portrait lens and so on.
All this for between £350 to £500 which is significantly less than the difference between a good phone cam, which is still a tiny phone cam, and a £200 one.
Even if you look at the Sony A7, at £800, it is significantly less than the difference between a 'cheap' Motorola G7 Power [£140] and an iPhone11 Pro Max at £1100.

So let's just compare like with like rather than apples and oranges.

Time you go back to house and set all that up the moment/subject /setting be long gone.

 

[Cowabunga]

Time you go back to house and set all that up the moment/subject /setting be long gone.

If you say so.
I don't agree. Any camera can point and shoot just like a phone camera, except you only have to switch the camera on and it's ready to shoot without even looking at it, before you even finish lifting it.

You seem to assume that a camera is left in the house. Mine is often carried in the tractor or car, otherwise it is on a wrist or sling strap. It is not always with me of course, which is where the phone comes in and very handy it is too. I'll not run the phone camera down, because it is what it is and it isn't the same thing at all and I do find it very handy. In fact I'm just off out to the dairy to take a picture of the daily milk output records for December November, using my phone, which will automatically transfer it by wi-fi to this desktop. More of a faff to do that with a 'proper' camera.
Having said that, if there are a lot of documents or photos to copy and I'm away from the office, I prefer to use my Fuji X20 for copying. I do not generally carry that with me though, unless I know that I'll need it [or for pleasure]