The Basics of Photography

Everyone who writes about photography typically loves to sing on about esoteric topics, and debate (ad nauseum) the merits of some esoteric bits of photo-trivia about which almost no one knows much or really cares. But comes a time when you answer the basic questions that everyone who picks up a camera wants to answer, especially those who stays with it for more than few moments. It's even more true with film photography. In that spirit I'll join that group and pass on some of my knowledge of a few of the very basics of photography to the next generation.

The first question I saw today about basics asked if the older Olympus lenses were any good:

Zuiko in general made a top quality lens. Some are better than others, while few of them are 'junk'. That 50/1.8 for instance is about as good as any other camera maker's 50/1.8: Nikon, Canon, Pentax, etc.

A very confused person said this:
"I don't think it really has any bearing on the subject, but I have neer seen anything I liked that came from a telefoto."

While there is nothing wrong with telephoto lenses in general, there are lots of problems with patently ludicrous generalizations.


Nomenclature is important, especially with technical terms, so that everyone is speaking a common language, and there can be effective communication:
Apature ==> Aperture. (Apature is the name of a brand of Cheap Chinese Crap)

More about aperture vs. shutter speed:
As you 'stop the lens down', you increase the aperture number and decrease the size of the light admitting hole in the lens. The shutter speed must be longer to give the equivalent exposure to the film / sensor. More occurs in the physical world during a longer period of time: moving things move further. This may cause some objects to be burred. Also, you may move the camera more, meaning that all that is depicted in the frame will have more blur.

You are balancing shutter speed and movement-blur against Depth of Focus (Field) and focal-blur, assuming equivalent exposures.

Equivalent exposures: F16 @ 1/125" is equiv. to F11 @ 1/250" is equiv. to F8 @ 1/500".

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A Great Rangefind for Travel and Hiking?

On a medium format photography board someone asked recently about a good choice for an M/F camera for long treks to use making primarily landscape images. I recently bought this very camera, a Mamiya 7ii, with this sort of light weight, high quality, M/F set of requirements in mind. The system has intrigued me recently because it's reputed to have one or more of the finest lenses in photography, producing some of the highest resolution images attainable, with vast sharpness, good contrast and color rendition, as well as potentially great bokeh.

Ok, doing landscapes you want quality, and flexibility isn't the same kind of issue you would have in a studio environment: macro, very large lens assortment, fast lenses, many accessories, etc. What you are looking for is top quality images, ease of handling, light weight, reasonable selection of lenses, and of course, portability.

I believe we have just defined the Mamiya 7 and 7II. Wide lenses range from 43mm, 50, 65 to 80mm. There are also a 150 and 210. Some of the lenses, the 50, 65 and 80 especially define world class. They include built-in shutters, typically 1-1/500", +B; synch at all speeds. It is a rangefinder. It is very easy to focus, even with wide lenses, even in very low light, even with wide lenses in low light. Most lenses except the 80mm have a matching, separate viewfinder for framing. The same rangefinder is used for focusing all six lenses, though. A typical kit includes a body (built in film handling which uses 120 or 220), and one or two lenses: 80+50? 43+65? 65+150?

The two main shortcomings of this system, aside from price are:

1) medium slow lenses optimized for quality images, not shallow depth of field or better low light performance
2) even the longer lenses are somewhat difficult to use close enough for tight portraits, which combined with the less than short DoF, does not make the system ideal for some portraiture styles.

I watched online ads for months, trying to find the camera and at least one lens for a reasonable (affordable) price. One day, a seller offered two, a 7 and a 7ii. The latter came with an 80mm / 4.0 lens (about a 39mm equivalent for 135), at a price I could relate to, and so I did. The camera arrived (UPS, ground), tossed into a large box with only a few 4x6 air bags to keep it company. It was not bound in bubble wrap, and had plenty of room to fly around in the box. Naturally, it had one of the corners knocked off (pic above). The damage actually looks worse than could have happened in transit, because this level of damage would require more damage to the box.... So the camera languishes at the recommended local repair shop. Seriously, it's been there almost two weeks, on a one week estimate, with claims of slow shipping of the bottom plate from Mamiya.
Aaaaaaagh.

Oh well: light, portable, sharp, etc.

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UPDATE: yay! Camera should be ready tomorrow, after calling the lab and passing on a little bit of low level angst and mildly angsty email to Mamiya USA about getting the part...well, it was cathartic, but not as much as finalizing the repairs and having this baby in my hands!