CTaylorTX

Ahhh….and one hundred years later, Petzval was reincarnated as Sheldon Cooper. Fits perfectly……

…OR….stop including chargers, NOT lower the price, and blame it on the global supply infrastructure, thereby bolstering up profit margins. We all read the articles about global sales totals of cameras are dropping. In order to stay in business, stop supplying free stuff that most customers will never use.

Short answer about the Digiscoping question - no. Digiscoping usually starts at focal lengths of ~700mm, zooming to as much as 3000mm. Of course, quality of the optics and operator skill have a lot to do with the final image quality.

Ok, so the array of curvatures shown for the Milvus 85mm f/1.4 has inspired me to re-label Tangential curves as Melpomene and Sagittal as Thalia. I can see t-shirts coming....

Go to the LensRentals blog and search the reports - there are LOTS of brand-and-model specific Lens Variance graphs to view. However, realize (as Roger wrote in Part 1) that those results are probably less meaningful than potential owners expect them to be.

It was January 15, 1972. Fairhaven Camera in East Haven, CT. I was 16, and had saved for a year and was ready to buy my first 35mm SLR. The man behind the counter had already loaded the batteries into a Pentax Spotmatic SP1000. My mom looked at me and said “I have another $50, is there something you would like better than this?” I pointed at a Nikkormat Ftn with 50mm f/1.4 Auto-Nikkor - “yes, that!”
A year and a half later, I also owned a Nikon Ftn Photomic, two more Nikkor lenses, and was the Track Photographer at Connecticut Dragway at age 17. While I still love the Pentaxes, the Nikkormat opened the doors to shooting Nikon for the next two decades.
Oh, yes, how do I know the exact date? On the ride back home, the car’s a.m. radio informed me that “American Pie” was now #1 on “America’s Top 40”. Thanks for the memory, Kasey Kasem.

Years ago, I met William at Anacortes Telescope in WA, and I was impressed with him, personally, as well as his products. I like the idea of this lens. It took me a minute to realize that the cat logo has the diffraction spikes as whiskers - a nice touch. Now William needs to hook-up the Redcat lens with Roger Cicala for a test drive through OLAF.

Big lenses under poor lighting / indoor lighting.

After three decades of 35mm cameras, my first digital was a Pentax EI200, and in wanting to learn more about the digital imaging world, I discovered DP Review. Even now I still try to check it once a day, and usually multiple times during Intro Seasons (i.e. PMA, CES, and PhotoKina). When I do classes on photography, www.dpreview.com is the first thing I mention to the participants. It is the perfect place to start their learning process.

Thanks for the origins story, and I am looking forward to the Barney Britton interview. These are nice Christmas Presents!

Very interesting comments about the popularity of the APS film cameras in Europe vs. their total failure in North America. I have watched the industry struggle mightily to get popular acceptance in the US for: auto-exposure in the 70s, auto-focus in the 80s, digital imaging in the early 2000s, and lately Mirrorless / EVF cameras. Part of this resistance was due to the shortcomings of the early technology (the early AF cameras and lenses were glacially slow), but it seems like the US market is stubbornly “traditional”. These struggles came as other parts of the world embraced those changes. It appears that North America is the final stronghold against the assault of the mirrorless cameras. It will be fun seeing what Canon and Nikon finally offer in mirrorless systems, and how quickly the US market embraces mirrorless. Caveat - my first mirrorless was an E-P2 Olympus, then a Panasonic GH4, and now a Sony a7iii. I’m all-in!

You will be surprised how quickly you will forget this statement. I just spent 8 days taking bird and nature photos in Costa Rica, and used the GH4 exclusively. My Pentax K3 was there, but did not have a single frame fired. That is a first for me. Used with a BIG telephoto lens, the GH4’s Electronic Shutter mode let me take 1000mm photos at 1/8 second with remarkable results. I am awaiting delivery of my a7III.....

If Apple offers RAW access and control directly on the native shooting controls, two things - 1) a vast majority of owners will never use it, and (more importantly) 2) they will make less money from the sales of third-party camera and processing apps. It's all about the $$$

I am NOT a frequent user of UWA lenses, although I do own a Panasonic 7-14 for infrequent use on my GH4. That said, the Sigma Art 14mm images at f/1.8 are a pleasant surprise to me - the addition of bokeh to UWA-shot images is unexpectes and in some cases quite pleasing. Will I be buying the 14mm Art? At that price, no, even though I have no quibble with the pricing itself.

Well done, Sigma!

Ah, ok, when viewed on a phone screen, I did not see that. Thanks!

The graph title is "Camera Production by Type" Is this supposed to be world wide production or sales?

I'm calling "BS" on this one. Look more closely at the 2012 graph bar. The entire DSLR + Mirrorless category totals ONLY 20,000 units. World wide? Say, what?

Heck, LensRentals.com ALONE probably carries over 200 new bodies in a given year, which would be 1%. I am not buying it unless I see more complete data.

Cargo pants - the front leg pocket is perfect for my 6 Plus. I will get my 7 Plus in March.

Bravo, Damien, for writing an essay that is a well thought out evaluation of Canon's lack of presence in the CSC camera market, and not just a puff-piece that parrots the company marketing line! I do not see your article as an attack on Canon as much as an evaluation of what Canon MIGHT have done in the early days of the CSC market, and where they would have been had they jumped on board. An interesting thought - how different would the CSC / Mirrorless Market be today if either Canon or Nikon had come out with a DSLR with no reflex-mirror system but sporting a big, bright EVF instead?

The professional wrestler "Killer" Kowalski was a remarkable portraitist. Some of his studio shots of fellow wrestlers are legendary within the sport.

A very interesting topic. Yes, the link to an old favorite camera is strong. In that light, I just want to comment that the plaster Nikkormats depicted are actually FTn models, as that model featured the addition of the sculptured plastic tip of the film advance lever. The earlier FT had only the flat metal lever. My first camera was, of course, a Nikkormat FTn.....

Why were you using their entry-level camera for "business" in the first place? It was probably never designed to be used that way, and thus the overheating problem.