The problem with fisheyes; memory card prices are going up; and the WaPo layoffs
Plus: Shooting photos with the Insta360 Ace Pro 2, the looming drone ban, and field notes.
I took all of the photos in today’s newsletter with the Insta360 Ace Pro 2 waterproof action camera. After a lot of shooting over the years with the major action cams, this one stands out for taking photos. It’s tiny and rugged, so you can take it anywhere. And it’s great for way more than just action sports. I have a detailed post on what it’s like to shoot with on my website.
Latest Updates
Miniature effects lens test. I’ve been having some fun shooting some miniature effect shots with the TTArtisan Tilt 50mm f/1.4. While I don’t have a lot of practical use for miniature effect, it is fun to play with.
Fisheye lenses. I do enjoy shooting with fisheyes — you can get some really out-of-the-box perspectives. Nikon hasn’t released a Z-mount fisheye yet, and their F-mount fisheyes are all discontinued. So I’ve been testing out several alternatives on the Nikon Z8, including fisheyes from Laowa, TTArtisan, AstrHori, Sigma, and Nikon’s own discontinued F-mount fisheyes. So far, there’s no perfect solution if you want autofocus, but I found one manual-focus option that is surprisingly sharp for the price. You can see the shots here.
Cherry blossoms incoming! It might be cold, but we’re past the solstice and heading toward spring. Washington DC’s cherry blossoms are a highlight of my year, and I’ve been working on some fun new features ready for this year’s bloom to help visitors photograph them. I’ll be rolling them out in the coming weeks.
Photography Gear
Memory card price increases. AI infrastructure is incredibly power hungry, which is why we’re seeing energy prices climb rapidly. And there’s an effect that’s highly relevant to photographers: memory card prices are rising dramatically. Long-time RAM maker Crucial is closing their consumer business to focus on supplying AI business, and ProGrade digital has announced price increases of up to 123%. I suspect this might be a trend for a while, so maybe it’s worth stocking up on memory cards sooner rather than later.
Older Canon cameras and lenses hitting end of service. If you’re shooting with an older Canon camera or lenses (such as EF), Canon will stop servicing a bunch of them over the coming years. [More]
Nikon is suing third-party lens maker Viltrox for patent infringement of their Z-mount autofocus technology. [More]
Ricoh has finally released the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome. This is a camera that should be right in my wheelhouse — I love the GR series and regularly shoot black-and-white. But the dealbreaker for me is the price: $2199.
Field Notes
Viltrox wide-angle adapter for the Fujifilm X100VI. This is an add-on lens that sits on the X100VI’s fixed lens. It takes the field of view from 35mm (equivalent) to 28mm (equivalent). Which might not sound like much, but it’s enough to make it a very different shooting proposition for me and more to my liking. It does add bulk. Fujifilm has its own version, but the one by Viltrox is much cheaper, and I’ve found it to be optically excellent. Just ditch the lens cap! My detailed review is coming soon.
Lee Super Stopper ND Filter. I’ve used the Lee Big Stopper before (10 stops); it’s the gold standard of 100mm ND filters. But I hadn’t used the Super Stopper until recently. It’s 15 stops of light-blocking goodness for when you really want to slow things down. I’m shooting a series of very long-exposure daytime shots with it—I’ll post some of them soon.
Wide Angle
Drone ban. The FCC is moving forward with its ban on foreign-made drones. Yes, that includes DJI and other popular drones used by so many photographers. It’s also targeting critical spare parts, so you might want to stock up on those now while you can.
Creative Live is back. There are some extraordinarily good online classes on photography (and many other creative endeavors, for that matter). SkillShare and Creative Live have long been among my favorite places to find them. Creative Live went offline some time ago for a reimagining and rebuild, but they’re now back.
An interesting behind-the-scenes essay by NY Times Director of Photography Meaghan Looram on how to handle the photo posted by President Trump of a blindfolded Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Their challenge: Was it real or fake?
School photos. The Atlantic has an interesting article on “What’s the Point of School Photos Anymore”. Do people still buy them in the saturated age of phone cameras? Paywalled, unfortunately, but an interesting read if you’re a subscriber.
Who took the shot? I wrote last year about a new documentary on what might be the photo of the Vietnam War, a photograph commonly known as Napalm Girl. The documentary, which is called The Stringer, is now on Netflix. I’m honestly still a bit confused on what to make of it all, but newly added to the mix is an interesting perspective by another photojournalist who was there that day, David Burnett.
Photographers at Work
Massive layoffs at my hometown paper the Washington Post this week, including the entire team of staff photographers and most of the photo editors. Outstanding photographers all. They’ve done valuable work of visual journalism, not just locally but also frequently on assignment further afield. I’m dearly hoping they and their colleagues land on their feet.
It wasn’t all lace and corsets. Alice Austen’s Larky Life - “The Victorian photographer has gained a cult following for her intimate and surprising images of women.” [The New Yorker]
Alligators can be beautiful. Photographer David Walter Banks spent many nights camped out on raised platforms in Florida’s Okefenokee Swamp for these wonderfully colorful photos of alligators and their habitat. They’re from his new book.
It’s the photographer, not the camera. The new movie Magellan by Lav Diaz looks visually stunning. All the more so when I learned it was shot entirely on a Panasonic GH7 M43 camera. It’s so visually stunning that I at first didn’t even notice that it wasn’t in the usual wide aspect ratio used for films but in the GH7’s native 4:3.
What I’m Reading
Because it’s not all photography all the time . . . When I can’t be out traveling in the world, reading about the world might be the next best thing.
When It All Burns, by Jordan Thomas. This is a fascinating first-hand account of working as a California fire Hot Shot, the elite firefighters who take on the worst and most dangerous of California’s ever-growing wildfires. The author is also an anthropologist, so he’s able to put it all in the broader context of how fire has been managed in the region for thousands of years (hint: there’s a bunch of reasons it’s now so bad and getting worse). One of the most interesting books I’ve read for a while and about a subject I knew nothing about.
The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World. William Dalrymple has a knack for weaving incredibly complex history into fabric that’s not just robust but also quite beautiful. In this book, he tackles the overlooked centrality of India not just to how the region developed but also the world. Fascinating stuff. Also worth checking out his Empire podcast with Anita Anand.