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On July 17 I published an extensive review of five fast 35 mm lenses on the Leica M9.
On June 30 I published an extended essay called "Soup To Nuts" which looks at workflow, editing, gorillas and more.
On June 16 I published a "First Impressions" review of the Leica 35/1.4 ASPH (New Version)
On May 27 I published a review of the Black Label Image Smith II camera bag.
On May 25 I published an extensive review of six medium-fast 35 mm rangefinder lenses on the Leica M9.
On April 21 I published an extensive review of the Ricoh GXR with A12 module.
On March 24 I published an extensive review of the Canon 17/4.0 L TS-E Tilt/Shift lens.
On March 11 I published a new essay called "Seeing The Subject".
On March 8 I published an extensive review of the Canon 24/3.5 L TS-E II Tilt/Shift lens.
On February 26 I published a full review of the Canon 85/1.2 L II.
On January 22 I published a full review of the Leica S2.
Published
December 15: In late November of this year, I had
the opportunity to do some controlled side by side
testing of the Leica X1, Panasonic GF1 and Sigma DP2. I've
now been able to process and prepare those test
pictures for new article sections that look at how the three cameras
compare at ISO 100 - 3200. Variations on
that testing and text can now be found in detailed updates to my
reviews of all three cameras.
On November
27 I added a small set of pictures
to my review of the X1 that were all made using auto-focus. All were
made at
ISO 1600 and most were made with the camera's lens wide open.
On November 25 I published an essay on Zone Focusing.
On November 20 I published the first part of my "Rolling Review" of the Panasonic GF1.
On
November
17 I added
a new section to my review of the Leica X1 that looks, generally, at
auto-focus
speed
in cameras that use medium sized sensors.
On November 14 I revised the "Shutter Lag" section of my X1 review based on new tests done with firmware 1.00.
On November 13 I added some
illustrations made at ISO 1600 and 3200 to my "rolling review" of the
Leica X1.
Michael Reichman at Luminous-Landscape also
has published his review of the X1 and I recommend reading
it as well.
On October 30 I published my review of the Ricoh GR III.
On October 29 I further expanded my review of the Canon 5D Mk II with a test of its weather sealing.
Coming Up:
-
Fast 35 mm lenses on the Leica M9 (including the new version of the
Leica 35/1.4 Summilux)
Every writer naturally brings his or her own experience and perspective to the articles he or she writes. My writing is heavily influenced by my experience working as a professional commercial and documentary photographer for the past twenty-five years. I'm primarily interested in cameras and lenses as tools for drawing, as I believe that photography really is a branch of drawing. I'm guided by the photographer Andre Kertesz's observation, "I see the thing, I feel the thing, I make the thing". So when I review a camera or a lens, I look primarily at how it presents the world to the photographer (via the finder), how it works as a tool in the hands, and how it draws the kind of picture we call a photograph.
"Quite simply, I think your sections on 'drawing' and and on 'sunny day lenses' are the best writing about photographic lenses that I have read - whether in magazines, journals, books or the various sources online. Few professional writers about photography ever attempt such a full consideration of the range of lens performance characteristics and the different ways in which they are photographically significant. Some discussions in photographic communities online circle around the subject, but don't achieve the focus, rigour and articulacy that you have managed here. Your article is what all writing about photographic lenses ought to be like, yet it's astonishing that next to none of it is. Interesting though Irwin Puts Leica lens book is, it would have been so much more interesting, and so much more appropriate to its subject matter, if it had been written as you have written here...I found the article incredibly useful and interesting. A great help in clarifying and firming up what I have experienced and half-understood about how different lenses work." - Simon Pulman-Jones, England "We all owe you a vote of thanks for such a massive and thorough piece of work. What a concept-- a "lens test" that is really about the pictorial effect of how lenses draw their images. Lines per millimeter and MTF graphs have their place, but your article really gets to the heart of the matter in the way that photographers can relate to instantly." - Peter Klein, USA
- Jim Watts, USA
"I read your substantial paper with great interest. I am an amateur enthusiast in photography and optics. Your concept first surprised me, because I have had an impression that few photographers in North America and possibly in Europe like to discuss lens characters as expression tools. Among Japanese photographers, amateurs and professionals alike, there is a long tradition of interest or even addiction in appreciating various image characters of optics. For instance, Shoji Ohtake, one of the most influential photographers in Japan writes a regular column titled Lens Physiognomy for a major camera journal. He says that for each of his representation he selects the right lens from his huge collection. I was impressed by your pragmatic and well-organised approach in reviewing the lenses. Your observation is keen and relevant to essential aspects of photographic imagery. Your rhetoric is straight, logical, and free from jargon. These are rarely met in review papers on similar tests, which tend to be too technical or too subjective. I should also tell you that I myself have evaluated lenses mostly in B&W for the same reason as in your reviews. Few people have understood me. All in all, it is a marvelous paper. My applause." - Mikiro Mori, Japan "...a very informative, even enlightening, work. It not only provides visual evidence of comparative lenses' performance, it also gets right to the most important factor of lens evaluation - how the image looks to the photographer. Long ago I stopped reading test charts of lenses since none of my clients ever published any. It is always the look of the finished image that counts." - Richard Weisgrau, USA "I hope your tests become a benchmark for other reviewers to pay more attention to the real needs of photographers..." - Phil Fogle, USA
- Bill Marshall, USA
ReidReviews.com accepts no advertising. A subscription is currently $32.95 per year. To get an idea of whether or not my writing will be useful to you, I'd recommend reading some of my existing reviews on Luminous-Landscape which are linked in the pictures below or my review of the Canon 5D which was published on Imaging Resource. Together, they can provide you with a good sense of how I approach reviewing photographic tools.
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