Winter grip needed!

At the start of every winter in Montreal (Canada) the same story is repeating itself and, here and there some (mild season's) bicycles have been surprised by the first snow fall. If lucky, their owner are able to recover them but there are always some others that are becoming orphans that ultimately be freed the next spring, usually in a very bad shape, by the municipal services. The most strange about this is that the unlucky ones  are staying "safely padlocked" all the winter season!

Santa Claus doesn't exist!!

This year 2020 has been a very peculiar one in every senses. Not only for the pandemic world crisis, which was a strong event by itself, but also because of this many long-forecasted changes that have been occurred in short space of time. In the photo equipment planet, the consolidation of the mirrorless market was already obvious, and the D-SLR and the compact counterparts have finally been reduced significantly although these last two are still maintaining a niche presence.

I kept a particular affection for the MFT (Micro Four Third) system. Another factor that has guided my choices is the decrease of my revenue resources as many others have experimented this year. Many of my past photo equipment had to be sold but I have no regret since we always have too much material that at the end will confuse us and affect our creativity search.

Secondly and more important is the emergence of new photo opportunities in term of people, places, events, etc. So, how about the next year 2021? It seems that will be a very gradual social process that can highly differ between the nations and the administrations. What will be of the outmost interest is how the world has been altered by the sanitary crisis. The availability of things, of activities, of people gatherings, all these giving past possibilities will be surely revealing a new aspect. Let's hope that photography will record all these changes of the human paradigm.

Photo (real) reporting could be a difficult task in this world of increase of institutional and corporate controls. Furthermore, photographing people is becoming more and more restrictive on the base of respecting personal privacy policies or rules. Facing that trend, spontaneous photography like street, casual even travel is presenting a new challenge for everybody.

Next year 2021 can also be a big transition period to something that is very touchy to predict but, the passion of photography is still convoyed by all the ones who love and care about this powerful artistic medium. Excellent, Happy, Healthy 2021 new Year for all!

🎉

Flash-Post: Double-Double-(Window)-Exposure-Level

Lisbon, Portugal

Flash-Post: Screen-Cat

 

Up-Down Perspective!

Travel-Scape: Palacio Nationale da Pena, Sintra, Portugal

It is difficult to remember today how it was so simple, so available and so easy to travel before the sanitary Covid-19 crisis. Last year (September 2019), we had the chance to visit Lisbon in Portugal and although the historic city was fascinating by itself and deserve to be explore for days and weeks, we decided to take a break excursion to the Palacio Nationale da Pena at Sintra located not far north from the capital. The place and surrounding were gorgeous to photograph (and the weather was accordingly splendid). Looking back to these pictures as a gift to close this tumultuous 2020 year.

Nothing Personal!

"People love to read personal life stories"

I hope it is true although I think everything we wrote is in some ways a very personal interpretation of our small world. Intimate is may be the other way to say it. So, writing about something that is closer to us can be easier to associate us because it is a more accessible life experience.

In retrospect of the recent years, I have found that time have a tendency to accelerate by itself or it may be that our time references are beginning to contain too much remembering that we can memorize. To this general observation, you can also add that the times are always changing with new situations which we have to adjust ourselves, let’s say, along with their positive-negative (and neutral) sides. People around us are aging, new people appears for the good of our future, material things surrounding us are muting to various and different aspects, human technologies are transforming to new interfaces, etc.

I don't think that simply orienting our mind to the reassuring past should be the remedy to insecurity about the apparent uncertain future. Furthermore, this retro-thinking prevents us to better welcome changes that are obviously are not possible to avoid.

In this past year (almost!), the sanitary Covid-19 crisis has been the highlight of our day-today life by imposing us new ways of doing very basic things such as going to your store, eating at resto, receiving friends, be able to enjoy a movie or a show, and many more activities that have been stopped or modified or simply push away into our to do-calendar.

In my family, we were forced to increase our attention for a special care of our aging relatives which was and still is a very complicated matter that has not been fully addressed until this day. Other relatives and friends were difficult to reach at first but by using Web technologies most of the channels have been partly or completely restored.

What we (my wife and I) have discovered in this year 2020 is the importance of concentering ourselves to the essential of life. Simplicity has become our motto for many things. For example, we have sold our propriety to go renting a small apartment in next June 2021. It will give us a better freedom of decision and allow us an easier mobility. Aside that we have renewed our interest to spend more summertime on the countryside as we had begun to do it seven years ago.

In the photographic field, the year 2020 has signify to me the stop of the frenetic material itineration in term of photo equipment which was a very good thing for my shrinking wallet! Many performing digital devices have now enough mature to consider their use on a much longer time period. The photo equipment market is facing an obvious plateau (at least if not a decrease) and the manufacturers (and vendors) have rightly adjusted their production in that perspective. But I must add regarding this good resolution that it will not totally end my envy to try new products time to time (which I have always done since the beginning of my interest in photography).

Lately we have seen the disappearance of some major photo equipment (in situ) events such as the emblematic Photokina in Cologne, Germany. Even before the Covid-19 crisis, most of these events were jeopardized in their future potentiality. More locally I have experimented the same tendency. In some ways I was sad to lose those opportunity to encounter in person and share interest between the members of the photo community. Big and small gatherings should be reinvented instead of being simply virtually transformed. As I may already state, the screen projection should not be the final stage of photography in traditional and fundamental term. For future and longer preservation, photograph should be printed.

To conclude on a personal note, I can restate that my interest in photography has not been too much altered by the last few years changes but the vision of it may have reached a different definition. But the purpose stays the same: "A trace of light that survive a little further than the actual moment of flash!" 

📷

Two hundred means nothing or everything!

Reaching any numeral level can exercise for some a kind of fascination. For others it proves some kind of persistence. And for other others it represents simply nothing. So, having published two hundred posts over the years on this blog is not in any ways comparable to the more serious personal web sites with thousands of posting and interactions between followers.

In fact, I am only a bit surprised that I have done all those posts *** while many had been less persistent and simply abandoned their channel to go somewhere else. I have found many Internet personal tragedy when I discovered nice now orphan blogs or Web site that had no longer recent activity. You are confronted with broken lines of interesting not only of information but furthermore of beautiful personal and emotive human engagement. However, I can easily understand the lassitude of the creators facing the difficulty of getting positive and interesting feedbacks from their blog visitors.

In my case, I never have really pro-active followers but a good number of visitors which is OK under the Web perspective that people just pick the moment and after that go to another web pick (We do all this!).

It happened a few times that I was discourage to a point that I had almost suicided this blog. It happened again this year during the month of August 2020 (No posts!). And finally, some changes in the way I am interacting with blog have revive the motivation to create new posts with a new approach (like the Flash-Post series). How long it will stand? We don't know because we are facing radical changes regarding photographic interest and ways to produce them under the new human reality of sanitized interact between ourselves.

If you like or you want simply to react to theses blog posts, don't prevent yourself to use the commentary section under the related post. That is always very appreciated!

*** Two hundred (posts) is a nice number but I must add that more than 200 of them have in fact been presented on this blog but some (especially in the early ones) have been regrouped or more drastically removed from their ephemeral prosperity!

Flash-Post: Variation of a stone monk

 

Photo gear variations without fear!

It has been a kind of obsession of the last decades over the photographic planet: the photographic gear mania! Partly because as a human we are curios how the things have been done, by who and with which technique and with which tool. And photography cannot really exist without using a tool that we can define from the antique "sténopé" to the latest modern sophisticated digital camera incarnation.

So, we cannot escape the relentless discussion about photographic gear. Furthermore, gear is also a good cultural representation of our society, the photographic tool had become a symbol by itself like clothing, jewelry, etc. Even if we are strictly staying on the photographic technical level, there is a lot to argue about gear selected to do photography.

I love to try different camera systems and different camera models. It is not only a kind of technical curiosity but also it motivates me to "do" photography! Because the results is not the only mean to get involved in photography, it is also the activity by itself, the act of photographing. In that regard, it is not really surprising that I have over the years try a good amount of different photo equipment. That has been and still is part of my lifespan.

My great personal conclusion after all this diverse gear itineration is the fact that I prefer compact camera systems over bigger photo devices. I have the same taste about automobiles. I find them (compact photo equipment) easy to bring with you, discrete especially in doing public photography such in town or travelling, funny to manipulate with less physical fatigue, highly ingenious for their particular analog or digital interfaces and esthetically more appealing in my sense.

It is true to say that photo equipment gear is becoming more sophisticated over the years but every gear time period have its own charm and I haven't hesitate sometimes to get a gear retro version to rediscover its particularities and to be able to enjoy its own way of doing pictures. Some can argue that I am losing time and opportunities (not speaking money!) by being forced to learn every time how to use a new camera model but frankly each of those ones have a different inspiring way of interpreting a pictorial situation. And the photographic technical basic has stayed almost the same despite many proclaimed hardware and software innovations.

My wife uses to tell me; "Oh! You will try a new camera!" with a bit of irony after all those years and she is absolutely right because I cannot prevent myself to do so. At the end I am an indefensible curious as many of (human) us!

Flash-Post: The death of a leaf

It has been a beautiful summer
But now the fall season is almost complete
And soon we will be entering in the sleeping state of the long winter

Flash-Post: Planet-O-Tab-O-Uni-Verso

Photography has to be provokative

Because if not

How can it prints in our mind

And that we might think of it for ever

Flash-Post; Suspended

 

We must leave the time suspended

Suspended for a brief life time

And time is running out there it's suspended

And suspended on the rest of our life!

About Photo Kompozition

In doing photography and, most important, in sharing your picture result, you are essentially "looking" that the observer pay attention to your visual creations. For sure a good subject and a fine technical execution are paramount for getting initial impaction your audience. But we want more. We want to attract them by creating a durable impression that it will last longer than only the time they have seen your image. One way to obtain that result is to "force" the people to explore and discover the story behind the subject, to travel inside the picture not as a whole by itself but as a more complex context. And one way to reach that impact is certainly by selecting a specific photographic composition which represent the organization of all the elements of your final picture.

Simply looking with your naked eyes is a good training for analyzing the potential to realize an interesting photograph. Some subject categories may appear an easy task for the photographer as for portrait for example but even in this situation, the contextual visual rendering can be paramount of the sustainability of the image registered.

The different levels of a picture observation

On how many visual levels you can decode a photographic picture? Possibly a large array of them! Because people can look the iconographic message on so different aspects and not only on the technical side. When you are analyzing a picture, you are using a lot of implicit references of your past visual experiences that it is almost impossible to list all them comprehensively. That prove how complex and profound the picture significant are present into every photographs. And that proves also how photo composition cannot be simplify to basic formulas.

Importance of the light

Light is a very ephemeral thing. Photography has the magical possibility to register the flashes of different moments in our life and surrounding. It is a very small victory over evanescence. Not only that but light is the foundation of every visual subject arrangement. Its intensity, its quality, its position is very determinant of the interest you will provoke with your final picture sharing. And is not a fully objective factor because of its strong selectivity of the importance of the subject and its specific context.

To better apprehend the importance of the light in photography, it is a good manner to work in black and white digital film simulation especially if you compare a "color" picture transformed into a monochrome one. Many things will become obvious like the contrast between highlight and low light zones and the grey tonal distribution. The position of the light source is another key factor as for its directional distribution (strong, front, punctual or diffused). Its intensity will play a major role to get or not a detailed subject. Quantity and quality of light are the foundation of photography.

The graphic arrangement

It is usually assimilated to the understanding of the photo composition notion by analyzing the distribution of the subject and its material context over the surface of the picture. Many rules have been synthetized over the years (and decades) to explain and guide photographers to better "compose" their picture. Most of these rules propose a kind of pleasant picture equilibrium and a study of the eye travel into the image presented.

In my modest opinion, there is no obligatory rules to follow but only proposition of ways to do photography. The famous "rule of thirds" that has been proclaimed for more than a century as a must (or almost) has been transgressed by many outstanding pictures taken by exceptional photographs. What it is more important to know is in fact the graphic value of a final picture and to be able to observe, analyze and experiment different pattern of position, dimension and distribution of each elements present on a picture.

The deep of a 2D picture or the illusion of the 3D

This is may be the biggest irony regarding the practice of photography. We are trying to translate a tridimensional subject a two dimensions representation that, at the end, will suggest the feeling to see it in 3D. And this is possible because your mind has been fulfilled with so many visual references in our life that enable us to interpret a picture into its context and apprehend its live original aspect. So, the key word is "references" because without these is no way to guess the real dimensions of the subject. Moreover, photography proposes still images with no moving eye scan as for animated cinematography (video) that can confirm for example the in-deep position of an object compare to another one.

This is where the photographer has to submerge him/herself into others mind and be able to find the basic picture elements that will give to the observe the clue of the dimensions and position of the subject. Without those, it is often seen as a disturbing none-conclusive picture, a kind of unfinished story that can be annoying for many people looking at your image.

Questioning the observer to enhance her/his curiosity. (The picture is not only an explanation; it is also a mental trigger to reflexion)

Photography can be perceived either as an answer and as a question in the same. Emotion, study, depiction, approval or disapproval, etc. are all part of the thinking process triggered by looking at a picture which is a chosen subject-moment in time and space by the photographer.

Don't simply replicate (Standardization have a tendency to kill the impact of a picture because of its comforting virtue and it is better to leave that to the commercial photographic purpose for example)

That is the greatest threat of the photography as an original and evolutive visual art. Repeating subjects, patterns, techniques are the fastest way to get instant recognition but at the price of trivialization and a vanishing state at the end. We are seeing an overwhelming number of pictures every day, but it is only a very, very few of them that we will retain in our mind because of their particular impact and treatment. Although there is a certain cultural background influence that we have to take count with, there is also a universal iconic language that photography transcends. But yes, if you want to win photo contests or to get a maximum likable popular retroaction, imitation is a simple way to get it!

Expand your research over time (A good subject is a never-ending story)

It is true to say that there are many different visual interests we can develop in our brief passage on this earth. We cannot prevent ourselves to explore the diversity of life in its always changing representations and humanity is one of those that we have the very justified tendency to privilege (which is not only perfectly normal but surely very captivating for humans like us!). I have written elsewhere that a single subject deserved to be treated again and again because you have never really finished to find and refine other ways to represent it. One single subject can be a lifetime project.

Stay open to new trends, artistic or not

Old and new trends are the bread (inspiration) of the artist. Keeping an open mind about our human, material and spiritual surrounding is the key to human evolution and progress. More than only a simple repetition (static) of the past, it is a variation of a dynamic world. Being aware about what is happening around us is part of a lifetime learning process that never be fully completed even after our own death because it can be further expand by followers that will be inspired by our work.

And Try, try and try again! (This quest is never finished)

Photo composition is, in a sense, the foundation of the visual artwork. Yes, there is technical ways to arrange and manage a photographic subject in its context, but it is also the original expression of the artist interpretation of a specific situation. It surpasses the graphic preoccupation of the picture to transcend it with the importance of the iconographic meaning of the artwork.

Flash-Post: Pipe View

Gas my roof top view!

Flash-Post: Water Resistant!

The two third of this planet is covered by water and up to 60% of the human body is composed of it! Although we have the obsession to stay dry most of the time, getting wet has been reserved to the minority of wetly maniacs of this world. So, it brings that very philosophical concept: are we water resistant? Nature around us seems to prove that we can be, at least, dissolved in it!

Flash-Post: Tri-Circo-Confu-Sion

 The Tree of Circle of Confusion that is blurring my mind!

Popping Colors!

For many who love to do color photographs, the multiple options to produce them with "boosted" coloration are very attractive. Doing that kind of color rendering is not really a new thing. Even during the film-analog era the possibility to increase the color brilliance by selecting specific film types or using special filters was vastly known.

Every digital camera model will offer you some kind of enhanced color mode. It can be presented as a complete and invariable rendition package or as a base that can be altered following your own taste in this matter. Specific mode can variously name by the manufacturer often referring to their own historical color bias.

On the other hand, you may object, all color picture file can be also corrected not only for the colors but also for other exposure parameters like contrast, brightness, etc. In that case every picture "post-edited" will ask you to second guess your preferences outside the picture taking context which it can be a good or a bad thing depending what you are looking for. Post-processing is a whole world by itself and will demand you to invest in an all new learning curve.

If you are interested about more recurring photo projects, you may be interested to get predicable and repetitive results that allow you to concentrate on your subject by itself, its composition and its moment of posing. At this stage, a comprehensive picture mode can be a great help assuming it represent faithfully your desired vision. For sure further experimentations may be needed to select a preferred picture mode.

The same pattern of choices has been developed more recently for the monochrome (black and white) rendering. In that specific case, contrast, brightness and gray tonal distribution are mainly the selected bias intended by the photographer.

At the end, popping color modes are only another visual interpretive tool easily available to the today’s photographers. Don't prevent yourself to use them creatively!

Flash-Post: RIP Minette (2004-2020)

After 16 years of a very close companionship, our female cat Minette has just left us (September 21th, 2020). She has been a beautiful and patient animal model all over those years. Her spirit will live forever in our mind.

Flash-Post: Fotomorphic view

Is there somebody, is there someone over the picture, this representation of a static vision of the humanity of things? Are we only pale spark of life that photography will prolong a more futile period of time? Give me my flash of eternity by clicking my visual instant of glory.

I don't know for you, for them, for all over the world which instant, which moment can be so unimportant to register and to aftermath vanish of our empty but disturbing memory. Where we want to go if not for our blinded soul? Where we want to stay if not in our starling spirit?

But it's only a view on the under...

Flash-Post: Electrical Twist

 Feel it, ignite it, twist it!

What's up Daniel M?

Yes, no more post since more than a month. Is it because my creativity, my interest, my motivation drying up? May be or is it the result of our human self-inflicting wound of the last pandemic year? I don’t recall being none motivated to write about photography to that point over the years but what I was afraid a few month ago (see here) finally happen without real advance notice.

Yes, I had some post projects that were still waiting to be further elaborate, structured and finalized but to be frank, I doubt that will ever happens considering my present lethargy to restart the machine. In a sense it is a kind of liberation that will permit to regenerate myself and to be able to reorient my interests on something else, different or similar, I don't know at this very moment of time and space.

Photography are memories of people, of things, of contexts, of moods and trends. It will never end because there is so many subjects to discover, to explore and often redo all differently. Photography is the visual art of the human instant expression. It is a small spark of ephemeral eternity!

Today I am going back to my candid eye in photographing without any justification except my now instinct to like or love to do so with any kind of subjects and situations. And the choice is mine.

And I want to thank warmly every person who have taken the time to consult, read and may be comment overtime these modest posts which, I wish, have given to certain some inspiration to be passionate about photography.

Stay creative!

Flash-Post: Dark Black Tones predominance

One Picture, One photographer, One experience Series

We always speak of the black and white by meaning you can observe the light distribution through the black-gray-white’s nuances on the photograph. I remember during the analog-film era how some eminent photographic specialists were claiming it was important to get a complete representation of these nuances. True or not that "rule" has been disregarded many times and examples are notorious. Can we stay only into the "darker side" of the subject and limit as much as possible the lighter references?

Atmosphere, emotions, perceptions are part of the feedback we resent when we are seeing a picture. And photography is still a visual art of interpretation of our reality. Even from dark there is always the expectation of the light at the end of the tunnel of life, just think about our own birth.

Traditional photography is here to stay!

This is may be the real one good news for all the specialized photo equipment manufacturers. But it won't prevent drastic changed in term of how the product will be definite in the future. Some may ask why all these camera makers cannot be wise to apply some basic standards to the industry such as a unique image sensor format or simply an universal camera lens mount like we have seen in the past with the domination of the 35mm analog film or even the popularity of the 42mm screw-in lens mount? Partly because standards cannot last forever du of the different technological advancements or simply because of the changes of the consumer market needs.

If the industrial assents for pro-universal standards are never certain, the traditional photo equipment market stays strong with thousands of products that are still bought by photo enthusiasms around the world. It never really stops although we have seen sales contractions time to time that moderate an over-extensive manufacturer offer. As an ex-economist, I can testify that the demand is very reluctant to change its consumer habits. For example, the smartphone rising never try to substitute the traditional photo equipment market which is a niche one but instead has replaced the compact "instamatic" camera photographic mass market and that specific mass market is reckoned to be very fluctuated (remember the Brownies, the 126 and 110 film formats, the disks and APS film attempts).

The mass-market temptations have been over the commercial market history one of the greatest and always renewable lure challenge of all the private manufacturers. It means for certain the pinnacle of the success. But homogenize mass markets does not exist and there are, in fact, the summation of a momentary trend that many different smaller markets which agree to follow on a temporarily base. It works for a time but eventually collapse by themself. It is the nature of the mass market. So, manufacturers that have a more long-term view of their own future have to be aware of it and prepare themselves to re-adapt or re-shape their organization and structures to face the inevitable changes of the mass market behavior.

What all this mean for the traditional photo enthusiasms of this world is that we are not alone and these thousands of us have to be properly served by a specific commercial industry that will fulfill our needs. Names of the manufacturer and product configurations can be different over time, but this photo equipment-oriented market is here to stay as for others different but specialized products. Production numbers can be lower but there are still very significant in term of profit and desirability.

No, I am not afraid of the future, traditional photography won’t disappear and many of us know already that fact. For others, we leave the catastrophic stories.

I never do video with my Panasonic Lumix G85 but I love to photograph with it!

We already know that many videographers love to work with the Panasonic Lumix G85 (G80/G81) because it is a very competent camera to do animated image recording. Its successor, the Lumix G95, have tried to increase to that deserved reputation by upgrading the image sensor from 16MP to 20MP and by adding some practical features like the possibility of plugging a sound monitoring headphone. Although the Lumix G85 is rightly praised among the vloggers of this Web world, I have never considered it on this particular point of view because the Lumix G85 stays for me mainly a photographic camera.

How can we definite the Panasonic G85 as a photographic tool? First you can appreciate its good ergonomic (at least for right-handed people!) and the fact that the camera body is weather resistant increase the confidence to use under many more environmental harsh conditions. Most basic functionalities are easy access with the aid of different dials, push buttons or of the touch screen. Even the menu and quick menu interfaces are mostly comprehensive and can be settled without consulting a long operating manual.

The viewfinder and the rotative back LCD screen are image detailed and data informative. I just wish that the data can rotate automatically from horizontal to vertical framing like with the Fuji models. The (post) viewing push button is position on the back-right side to facilitate a one hand operability. The picture output is good and the Lumix G85 exposure metering system is very predictive. The autofocus works well and is capable to cope with most of the subject situations.

The Panasonic Lumix G85 may look bigger that it is in reality, but it is in fact a moderate size compact camera especially if you compare it to 24X36mm so called Full Frame image sensor camera models. And it is more obvious when equivalent lenses are mounted onto their different sized respective camera models (FF vs MFT). For sure a rangefinder style model such as the Panasonic GX9 is smaller and will give you a maximum of discretion especially if you couple it with a "pancake" lens such as the Lumix G Vario 12-32mm or the Lumix G 20mm F1.7 but the handling between these two type of camera design (off center and centered viewfinders) will also differ noticeably, the G85 giving you a more secure operating feeling.

My modest experience over the years since the first G85 copy that I have owned reveals the good quality of construction of the camera body and the constant ability to produce nice pictures. I cannot emphasize enough the excellent results obtained by selecting one or another of the two monochrome modes available. With its 16MP image sensor the picture is precise and detailed providing you are using a good optic and pay attention to the exposure and focus setting. This camera G85 model always surprise me and deliver fine image renditions.

The big today (2020) question: is it pertinent to go ahead and buy a Panasonic Lumix G85? There are many aspects to consider but the comfort ergonomic, the good quality of its weather resistant construction, a very interest image output and the extended diversity of the lens offer give an edge to the Lumix G85 considering its affordable price level, especially coupled with the Lumix G Vario 12-60mm F3.5-5.6 Power OIS. I won’t push anybody to choose any particular camera model or system because, at the end, it is a very personal choice but if the Lumix G85 seems attractive to you, there is no reason to prevent yourself to buy one!

MFT: the rebel (image sensor) format!

(Save the sanity!)

With the uncertainty of Olympus and Panasonic involvement into the future development the Micro Four Third (MFT) image sensor format, what is my own reaction? In short, I simply decided to reconvert myself and buy another new MFT (camera) friend. Why? Because I am tired of all these unproductive debates about which image sensor format can be the most performing way of doing creative photography. And I am tired of small-minded attitudes that defend fiercely their own photo equipment manufacturer choices.

I am concerned about the photographer's spirit that spend their energy to defend commercial enterprises instead of photographic artistic trends. Let be honest despite this materialist world, photography is still an art of expression. So my rebel attitude is to defend the marginal way of promoting compact traditional photo equipment over the big apples and oranges offered by the major manufacturers that you know already the names... and web sites!

A Lumix G85 with its simple lens duet, 12-60mm and 45-200mm

I love MFT format because it is the real thing in term of compactness. I hate bazooka camera bodies and lenses which are not practical to bring with you, that are intruding and intimidating and, at the end, are heavy to carry, to operate and to handle in imaging post-treatment (with their inflated files). Small is (still) beautiful, don’t be misled by the marketers and their conscious or unconscious allies. To produce a large camera is easy but not very intelligent as for cars incidentally. To create a compact competent product is much cleverer.

So, in regard of the recent news regarding the future of MFT, I am not really happy. My line of defense is to encourage the ingeniously instead of the bigness and I do not care about the consequences on a long term since I don't think the other major manufacturers care really about their fanatic customers. For the moment, Olympus and Panasonic are still in business and their camera and lens offering is still very pertinent and actual. What will be tomorrow, we don’t know for sure and many surprises can appear in the next few years.

I have never come back to the digital 24 X 36mm (ex-35mm film) format since the Nikon D700 which was already a monstrous photographic device coupled with big bazooka lenses. My point of view has been confirmed since this past decision. Not only that so call Full-Frame products are big sized products but they so much expensive that it is impossible to qualify them as affordable in any way, which is not the case for many good MFT products even if Olympus and Panasonic can also offer pricy items too.

I know that some reviewers have condemn the MFT format already and some have stayed silent about their past endorsement but at least some others seem to try to maintain the interest for this unique true compact camera system. I can only hope that reason will prevail over political choices.