Our own convictions against the reality checks!

 

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) debate cannot only be about the accuracy or the pseudo-realism of fake or "creative" alternative views of our surrounding life (including people). It concerns also our profound believing of what can be, would be, prefer to be, reality is for us. In other words, we cannot change the perception of somebody else if this very person won't accept any critical point of view that contradict their already conceive interpretations of facts. 

For photographers, it is interrogating their own convictions about integrity and honesty in regard of their imaging subjects and their specific and artistic interpretation. In this very competitive world of explosive demographic, the social, economical and political pressure has never been so high and it is an easy understanding that people want to get a psychological and simpler refuge face to the always growing individual and collective challenges that each next days are bringing. And the photographic world cannot escape this new "reality". 

Manipulating picture has been part of the history of photography since its very beginning. Using it as a propaganda tool also. Photography is not an "objective" technique or art. But saying this doesn't allow us to simply withdraw any responsibility concerning our subject interpretations. When we speak about integrity, we often refer to honesty in front of the others but we often forget that this process must begin about ourselves. If the main purpose of register and share pictures is showing something before demonstrate a preconceive argue, there is always a chance that those iconic representations deliver a message larger than the first impact intended by their authors. Integrity is proposing an open door instead of a close minded perspective.

One part of doing photography that is very interesting is its exploring value of the subject. We want to expose this subject with different aspects and contexts that will confer to the picture its originality. It is also part of an intention of seing openly, differently, unlimitedly our surrounding world. It questions us and contributes to the evolution of your thinking. And it creates alternatives to a stationary state of mind that often cannot cope with dissident but true realities of life. Photographers can and may contribute themselves to this human salvation search and progress. 

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Creativity implies the use of many interesting techniques and those techniques are by definition tools without any predetermined opinions about the subjects we apply them. It is to us to consider if the interpretation of the subject will correspond to our own integrity.

Photos Daniel M: Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III / M.Zuiko ED 12-40mm F2.8 Pro; OM-D E-M10 Mark III /  M.Zuiko 14-42mm R 

Compact, affordable, performing!

 Three words that can definite what camera system I have been looking for ever tirelessly for the last four or five past decades. First during the analog-film era and thereafter with the promising introduction of the digital photography. Have we reached this goal today? In one way, yes because there are good performing compact digital camera systems available to the enthusiasms or even the professionals that are looking for it.

The true is that even though this achievement has been reached in the past decade, we are still looking for improvement if not another big technological breakthrough even if necessity cannot entirely justify it. The popularity of “doing photography” has exploded in particular with the event of the multi-task cellular phone and their constant performance improvements. The debate to know if all those pictures will be shared or edited and archived is another think to consider but we can leave that for another for-coming discussion.

What we are looking, at least for some of us, from the technological evolution point of view, is the ability to design smaller competent real cameras (yes, with a true viewfinder and a practical ergonomic interface) that are small enough to be bring with us without any size dimensions and weight annoyance. Over my modest experience as a everyday photographer, I have concluded that for the traditional film-analog era, the 35mm format was one of the finest compact (manual focus only) camera design (that assessment have deteriorated later when the autofocus and motorized models have appeared). For digital photography, I have fully embraced the Micro Four Third image sensor format for the obvious reasons of the camera-lens combination size and weight. We can say almost the same for the APS-C sensor format although this particular combination is in fact a bit more bulky.

There is always the famous image quality debate raging between the smaller sizes image sensor formats especially concerning the so-call Full-Frame (religious) adepts but you can choose to completely ignore them knowing that the most vindicative of them seem to have a problem to concentrate themselves for producing and sharing their own pictures😉.

At the end, a new dream camera is no longer part of my everyday though since the actual photo manufacturer offers should satisfy most of the photographer’s needs for a compact, affordable and competent photo (primarily designed for) device.

Photo-illustration Daniel M

Forward to the past: the Olympus Pen-F keeps coming back again!

 It is one of a kind never preceded, never replaced (by Olympus) after all those years of love and discussions about its possible future. But, in one way, the Olympus Pen-F digital camera was already at its evolutive pinnacle right from its introduction. Sure you may argue there is always place for improvements and it has been a pity that Olympus has stopped its effort after this very unique camera model.

This spring I was totally unable to resist to own a third copy of the Olympus Pen-F. Finding one a good shape at a reasonable selling price on the use market was an outmost challenge (Thanks to Louis, a fellow Canadian, that made this dream to happen again).

The Olympus Pen-F (2016) was release only seven years ago and have appeared to be a very niche Micro Four Third (MFT) digital camera model right from its start. Controversies about its video interface (No microphone & headphone ports) have introduced certain doubts about its overall capability but photographically speaking, the Pen-F have certainly equaled and have surpassed the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II model available at the time. The absence of the weather resistant (WR) characteristic has been also a deterrent factor for some others. At the end, all these reserves regarding the Pen-F have been proven to be less important today if you consider that the Olympus Pen-F in use condition is selling an higher price than it was brand new!

The fact is that the Olympus Pen-F is a very discrete camera model (even more in its black livery). For street photographers, for travelers, for everyday photo takers, the Olympus Pen-F is a small marvel to interact with and can give excellent picture results. Moreover it perfectly suit the use of small lenses with good maximum aperture of F1.8-2. Its handling is similar of what we can expect of a rangefinder style digital camera. Additional grip can be obtained with the optional ECG-4 grip but at the cost of a more bulky photographic device. The electronic viewfinder (EVF) is detailed although its magnifying ratio stay modest compare with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II or Mark III models for example. The back screen is fully articulated and can fold in for maximum anti-scratch protection.

All the control dials and function buttons are easily accessible. The mode dial have four different custom setting available which is exceptional. The dedicated exposure correction dial is also an exception compare to many other Olympus models. The special effects front dial allows you to set directly the Pen-F at its monochrome and color modes. The shutter release button is smooth and its pressure reactivity is predictable and you can use it with a traditional photo cable release cord. The On/Off switch mimic the older rewind reel used into past analog-film cameras. No flash has been incorporated to the Pen-F body but an add-on and head-orientable mini-flash (FL-LM3) was furnished by Olympus with the other usual accessories. You can consult these further personal reviews of the Pen-f here.

The Olympus Pen-F interface is very complete although it will ask you a certain learning effort on your part (as for all Olympus camera model interfaces). I suspect that more and more the camera manufacturers will introduce new camera models with extendedly integrated artificial intelligence (AI) that will take charge of all the parametric aspects of their camera. That could be tricky considering that the personal bias of the photographer might be ignored and be overpassed in favor of implanted algorithms. Creativity and originality may be the last frontier to preserve for the art and cultural human evolution. Only the future will tell if this artistic threat can be overpassed.

One of the best lens combination with the Olympus Pen-F can be obtained when you are selecting one of their Premium series optic: M.Zuiko 12mm F2, 17mm F1.8, 25mm F1.8 and 45mm F1.8 (the ED 75mm F1.8 is also a brilliant choice but with a larger size factor). All those Premium lenses will perform neatly with the 20 megapixels Pen-F image sensor. Pictures will be crisped and fine definite and color rendition will be similar along the entire focal range. Because of the bulk of the M.Zuiko Pro lenses, you can felt much less handheld comfortable to attach them on the Pen-F except if you intend to use your left hand as the main support of the lens-camera combo.

Few words about the esthetic presentation of the Olympus Pen-F: it is classic, it is gorgeous, it is glamour. It is still a reasonable pleasure that a photographer can afford to pay for (in the used market) at this very moment in time that digital camera "rangefinder like" new models tend to disappear from the actual camera manufacturer catalogue. For the record, specialized photographic devices have been always a niche market (but it is true to say that all the past Brownies and Instamatic of this world have been replaced by the today multi-fonctional phones).

The Olympus Pen-F is a very creative tool as least for its supportive users like me. It suit a specific style of photographers that want to be less intrusive with their subjects, let say, more casual in their approach. If you are an observer type of person that like to further analyze your preferred subjects with a repeated visiting, the Pen-F will be an almost perfect companion.

Photos Daniel M : Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II (Pen-F Illustration); Olympus Pen-F