[Eric Brody Participant Posts: 66]

Filter recommendation?

on: June 26, 2022 at 12:27 pm

Historically, I never used “protective” filters except when in potentially wet or dirty conditions. I’ve read Roger Cicala on the subject. Now I use them; they just make me feel better about my lenses which have gotten more and more expensive over time.

I use filters from Breakthrough Photography in San Francisco, “protective,” neutral density, and polarizer, for some time. Early on, I did some test comparisons to see if I could see the difference and even shooting in high flare situations, I could not. Breakthrough filters are well made, easy to remove and put on and while expensive, certainly reasonable when compared to the cost of a lens or a lens repair. When I travel, I purchase trip insurance (especially these days) and consider it just a part of the cost of travel, like eating overpriced food in airports. I do not work for Breakthrough nor have they ever given me something for nothing.

There are other excellent brands, I’m sure. I’ve used B+W in the past and they are fine. I’ve not done comparisons so would not want to get into a dispute about which are the best. Like Roger, I have avoided the “cheap” brands.

I am also a lens shade “nut.” Lens shades also provide physical protection for my lenses and I almost never shoot without one. I have even gone up to strangers and politely suggested that they reverse their backward lens shades to both protect the lens and to decrease flare. Some people are eager to hear it, some not so much.

Good luck to you on your quest.

[Eric Brody Participant Posts: 66]

Re: Problem with Master Drive

Reply #1 on: May 23, 2022 at 12:47 pm

Certainly frustrating but illustrates for all of us that ALL hard drives will fail eventually. Some fail sooner, some later but eventually all will do so. I’m glad you had a backup. With a proper backup system, the rule of three, one local, one elsewhere, and one in the cloud, a drive failure is an inconvenience instead of a disaster. Unfortunately, one must plan on these unpredictable events by having a spare drive ready to go should a drive decide to head south.

Good luck.

[Eric Brody Participant Posts: 66]

Re: External Hard Drives

Reply #2 on: May 23, 2022 at 12:41 pm

External drives are a great reasonably priced choice for both external storage and backup. Andrew gave you good advice about drive reliability from Backblaze, a great backup system, along with local and offsite storage of backups. I’m not a shill for OWC  but they have an impressive array of ways to store and access data. I use two of their Thunderbay enclosures for my backups with a RAID 5 setup and it has worked well for quite some time, neither cheap nor simple but worthwhile. Along with Carbon Copy Cloner, I have backups of my important files daily. OWC also makes a drive “toaster” that holds two standard internal drives. If you don’t want to go all out with the Thunderbay, these are pretty useful.

Good luck in your quest.

[Eric Brody Participant Posts: 66]

Re: Phase One Frame Averaging

Reply #3 on: August 30, 2021 at 4:13 pm

Sounds wonderful but one can do frame averaging with any camera; it just takes a few steps in Photoshop. I recently got interested in this because I was considering one of the super wide zooms which do not allow simple use of filters. I ultimately changed my mind about the superwide, for now, and am sticking with my 16-35 which does take filters. Phase One makes beautiful gear but the thought of needing a $50k camera to do it is not reasonable for most of us. More power to those who can afford it. I’m only a doctor, not a dentist :-).

[Eric Brody Participant Posts: 66]

Re: Best Standard Zoom for Landscape Sony A7r IV

Reply #4 on: July 16, 2021 at 1:45 pm

Unless you’re into super wide, the 16-35 is a great choice for at least two reasons, one is its excellent image quality, the other is that it takes standard, albeit large, filters. Essentially all the competitors, Sony 12-24 f/2.8 and f/4, as well as the Sigma 14-24 all have bulbous front elements precluding the use of standard filters.

I have the Sony 24-70 f/2.8GM and it’s a great lens, heavy but quite useful. It was the first lens I bought with my A7RIII (now RIV) and it has gotten a lot of use. Were I buying today, I’d look carefully at the Sigma 24-70 f/2.8. It has excellent image quality, the single most important thing, but also is quite a bit cheaper. I’ve no real knowledge of the Tampon 28-70 to compare but I used the 24 end quite a bit.

Now I shoot mostly with primes, 24 and 35GM’s, CV 50 f/2 APO, 85 f/1.8FE and 135 f/2.8 Batis. If I think I’ll need wider than 24, not often, I’ll bring the excellent 16-35.

You’ve got a world of choice now in E mount. Have fun and make photos. Don’t obsess as I do about micro differences between lenses.

Eric

[Eric Brody Participant Posts: 66]

Re: Using Moab Entrada paper ??

Reply #5 on: April 19, 2021 at 11:43 am

I’ve been using Entrada Natural as my main matte paper for many years on both Epson 3800 and 3880 printers. I use the Moab profile and print with both the Epson driver for color and the QTR driver for black and white. It is true that the blacks do not measure quite as deep as glossy papers but one sees that really only with side by side prints. I occasionally use glossy papers, Canson Baryta and Platine are my favorites but there’s something special about a lovely print on matte paper… and there’s a lot less reflection when viewed off center.

[Eric Brody Participant Posts: 66]

Re: Alabama Hills – Eastern Sierra, Sunrise – Moonset

Reply #6 on: February 21, 2021 at 1:51 pm

I have photographed in this area as well and miss going down there. I agree with those that prefer the monochrome image. This is obviously a bias but to me photographs of the “grand landscape” almost always work better in monochrome. I am likely biased from viewing so many Ansel images but often, at least in my work, blue skies are extremely difficult to do well. You’ve done a great job but the monochrome image looks like “art” and the color one, while lovely, doesn’t cut it for me. Thanks for sharing these. When I did 4×5, eons ago, I gave up color because my work always looked like a postcard.

[Eric Brody Participant Posts: 66]

Re: Sony A7r4 or Fuji GFX 100S for Landscape?

Reply #7 on: January 31, 2021 at 2:33 pm

I certainly do not have Kevin’s wealth and breadth of experience but do have the Sony A7RIV and have been photographing for over 50 years with everything from a Minox to 4×5. I flirted with the Fuji GFX and made many spreadsheets comparing costs and weight over the last few years. I rented a GFX50S and loved it and the files. What most reinforces my decision to stick with the Sony even in the face of the “bargain” GFX100S is the absence of IQ difference even in large prints (referencing Kevin’s comments above, not personal experience). Is not that what’s all about, print quality?

If I were infinitely wealthy and if I had a sherpa to carry my gear into the field, the GFX might be desirable. A friend had the original GFX100 and while he loved the files, it was just too big and heavy and not compatible with hiking or travel. The Sony with its incredible eye focus and impressive collection of lenses from super wide to super long (and I’m not even thinking of the 400 & 600mm monsters) allows me to do everything from hiking in the landscape with primes, to travel with zooms, to wonderful portraits with eye focus (did I mention eye focus?). The two things I would really like on the Sony are lossless compressed files and automated stacking. Fortunately storage is relatively cheap, I have a fast computer, and I do fine with focus stacking manually.

I hope those fortunate to have the GFX100S enjoy making images but I’m sticking with my Sony A7RIV.

[Eric Brody Participant Posts: 66]

Re: SC-P7500 weirdness

Reply #8 on: December 27, 2020 at 1:19 pm

I’ve been reading about this printer since it came out. There are very few reviews, most are not helpful at all. I’ve fantasized about a 24″ printer for a couple of years but end up talking myself out of it each time. Posts such as this one don’t do much for my confidence. Perhaps it’s a situation similar to “high end” appliances; the company makes so few that the inevitable problems don’t get worked out in production but end up making the owners into beta testers for the manufacturer. Thanks to Jeremy for your reporting of these issues and of course to Mark for his expert advice. I tend to prefer two print sizes, small, eg 5×7 and “as large as I can make it,” which for me, currently is a 17×22 piece of paper. First world problem…

[Eric Brody Participant Posts: 66]

Re: The Epson SC-P900 Printer Review

Reply #9 on: December 14, 2020 at 1:31 pm

Hearty thanks to Mark Segal for his exhaustive review of the P900. I’m waiting to hear from  Roy Harrington as to when his wonderful QTR RIP will work on the P900 before even considering  a purchase.

While ink costs are certainly a first world problem for most of us, it is still a bit galling that my lovely 3880, still working well after seven years, has the most expensive ink in the Epson world. If one uses the worst case scenario, 4.6ml of ink for a matte to black change (https://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/dp/Epson3800/faq.html#swap_pk_mk), it costs US$4.32 to change the ink on a 3880 but only US$2.12 on a P5000. Of course there is zero ink cost on the P900. With the P900 costing approximately US$1,200, it would take 277 changes on a 3880 to pay for the P900 and a whopping 566 changes on a P5000 to spend the P900 purchase price. While I’m certain that if I had a P900, I’d do switching more often (new toy syndrome), it would take a while for me to do 277! Were I fortunate to have a P5000, well…

Bottom line, even with the exorbitant costs, I’m sticking with my 3880 until it no longer functions. I’ll switch inks whenever I want and just not worry about it. When the time comes, I’ll look carefully at the P900, of course, but also at the P5000 and at the 7570 since I’ve always lusted after a 24″ printer, as has Mr Weir.

[Eric Brody]

Re: Creating Artistic Landscape Photographs
Tripods Part 2

Reply #10 on: November 7, 2020 at 3:05 pm

It was someone way smarter than me who said, “The sharpest lens is a tripod.” I agree with Mike; technically there is no question that tripods work, eg they make sharper images, and that the use of a tripod encourages more contemplative landscape photography. There is no question that new cameras with IBIS and lenses with stabilization are effective, but that ignores the second point, contemplation. Your friendly curmudgeon speaking. 🙂

 

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Eric Brody.

[Eric Brody Participant Posts: 66]

Re: TK7 Panel for Adobe Photoshop

Reply #11 on: October 31, 2020 at 10:02 pm

There are a number of good “panels.” I own two, Greg Benz’s Lumenzia, incredibly sophisticated, but I use only a fraction of what it can do. I also have Jimmy McIntyre’s Raya Pro.

Like many things in photography, you get out what you put in. I suspect any of them will allow impressive manipulations. As Kevin said, Enjoy!

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