Digital Darkroom Fun

I’ve been shooting like a madman ever since I purchased the Sony Alpha 100 DSLR. Digital is great in that respect, no worries about purchasing film, developing negatives, getting prints made, etc., just shoot and upload from the camera to the computer. I’ve messed around with some of the DEC (Color Mode) settings on the Alpha and have had great results using ‘Standard’ and ‘Vivid’ color modes. Others include Portrait, Landscape, Sunset, Night, BW, and AdobeRGB. Except for AdobeRGB, all other Color Modes incorporate the sRGB color space, which is utilized for the web and most print labs. AdobeRGB is primarily used for four-color press printing.

I decided to play with the BW (Black and White) Color mode on the Alpha since I have always enjoyed developing my own black and white film and producing prints in my darkroom. Agfa APX 100 is my B&W film of choice. Common ways to generate a black and white print using digital, are to simply expose in JPEG mode using an sRGB color space, and desaturate after the fact using Adobe Photoshop or some other imaging editing tool; use RAW/sRGB and save to a desaturated JPEG, or use the BW color space to generate a black and white image at time of exposure. Since the third option can be limiting, (you’ll never get the color version if doing this using non-RAW quality settings) I decided to choose the BW color mode but shoot in RAW. Using this method allows the capture of a color RAW image, but when saving to JPEG using camera settings the result is the intended B&W image. This method also allows for a preview of the monochrome image on the LCD of the camera.

Using a black background, a single AlienBee B800 monolight with attached brolley box, and a white reflector I grabbed my best guinea pigs (the kids!) and went to work. After completing several shots and uploading them from the camera to the computer, I converted the RAW images using the Image Data Converter SR tool, that comes with the A100, to JPEGs using the original in-camera settings. I’m generally pleased with results. Nice tonal quality. I’ll be interested to see how the prints turn out. Click here to view a small gallery of images taken using the Sony Alpha 100 DSLR in BW Color Mode and Standard Dynamic Range at ISO 100. The Sony 18-70mm f3.5-5.6 AF kit lens was used for these images at 70mm.

Sony To Produce CompactFlash Media

Sony Europe has announced the intention of Sony to enter the CompactFlash market. Due sometime this spring the initial line-up will include CompactFlash Type I cards with 66x and 133x transfer speeds and capacities between 1GB and 4GB. Sony recently announced that an 8GB version of their popular Memory Stick PRO Duo will be available in February.

Film vs. Digital Continues...

This is a great editorial regarding the cost of digital vs. film from ‘About Photography.’ I made the plunge into digital when I purchased the Sony Alpha 100 DSLR back in September of 2006. So far I’ve taken over 3000 images. Of course not all of those are keepers. But then again neither were all of my film negatives. If I factor in that an average roll of decent 36 frame 35mm color negative film would run anywhere from $2-4 dollars each (for the cheap stuff) if purchased using popular online retailers, and development only (no prints) of those rolls would be around $2 each at my local lab; I would have spent around $400-500 dollars on film and development so far. If calculating for the higher end film like Kodak Portra, I would be looking at a minimum of 650 dollars for the same amount of film and development. These costs obviously would vary and buying film in bulk would reduce those costs as well. But just in film and development alone my price per shutter click has been well worth going to digital. I already had the computer, scanner, printer, etc., before switching to digital as I believe you can’t have an online presence or even accommodate clients without those items regardless of using film or digital. With the price of DSLR’s dropping every week it seems, even the Alpha is cheaper now then when I bought one back in September, digital is much more viable for any photographer. The Pentax K10D is arguably one of the best buys right now for a 10MP DSLR especially if you aren’t already invested in a specific line of lenses. I’m a Minolta Maxxum shooter so the Alpha was the logical choice. The workflow using digital is so quick and easy, it is well worth any initial investment in the camera, memory cards, software and any other additional accessories. I still love film and believe it is a viable format, but digital has improved my workflow dramatically.

New Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo Card

Sony has announced it will release an 8GB Memory Stick PRO Duo card (compatible with the Alpha 100 DSLR when using the available adapter) that will ship on February 19th. That’s approximately 1500 images in 10MP JPEG Fine Mode. Current list price is $299.99. Also used in the Sony PSP and upcoming Handycam video cameras. Offical Sony Europe press release also applies to the USA market.

Let There Be Light

With the purchase of the Sony Alpha 100, I knew going in that it doesn’t have a PC sync terminal for studio flash connectivity like my Maxxum 7 film camera. An adapter would be necessary to accomplish this. Trigger voltage is an issue with newer electronic cameras, but since I use AlienBees (B800 model specifically) which produce a sync / trigger voltage of less than 6V, these are safe to use with just a passive adapter. The Wein Safe-Sync adapter (around 50 bucks) just reduces all external flash trigger voltage from up to 400V down to 6V, so if you use strobes that already produce only 6V or less, you don’t need to spend that kind of coin for an adapter.That being said, the official Minolta FS-1100 adapter is passive and doesn’t feature a PC sync connection; so I came across this generic passive hot shoe adapter on the ‘Bay and decided “Why Not?.” Actually I went online and did some research on this adapter before saying “Why Not?”. GadgetInfinity out of Hong Kong is the company I purchased this product from, although I have seen others supply it. I’ll give them a plug for having a reasonable price, quick shipping and good communication.This adapter works fine with my Sony Alpha as long as the flash mode is set to ‘Fill-Flash’. It fires my AlienBees perfectly, and not that I will ever need to, but it does allow me to use the older Maxxum 2800AF flash with its standard shoe connection. Be careful what standard hot shoe flash you use. If it’s fairly old, it may have very high trigger voltage which could damage the camera using a passive adapter like this. Always discover the trigger voltage of any on-camera flash or studio strobe you intend to use with any newer electronic camera. Life sucks when a $20 EBay flash damages a new $1000 digital camera.

Sony Releases Picture Motion Browser Update

Sony Alpha 100 DSLR owners, like myself, be aware that Sony has released an update for their Picture Motion Browser software that comes bundled with the Alpha on 01.10.07. This download also includes an update for Cyber-shot Viewer software , if you happen to own that camera too.

Everything But The Kitchen Sink...

We may not have the flying suitcase car as on The Jetsons (a big disappointment for me) but the 21st century has allowed anyone to become a photographer. Even the smallest cellular phone these days has at least a 1MP digital camera for quick snapshots or video. Even an event like the hanging of Saddam Hussein was captured by a cell phone camera. Enter the iPhone from Apple. The company has included a 2MP digital camera on this new cellular innovation, along with the ability to synch practically any digital content including e-mail, movies, music, photos, and even web bookmarks, the iPhone will be available in 4GB and 8GB versions. Even though most current pocket cameras are now up to 8-10MP, at 2MP I suspect these images would generally be regulated to e-mail or uploading to someone’s MySpace webpage. However 2MP can also produce decent 4x6 prints. I can’t wait to see the image quality generated by this device. Taking grab shots while listening to the latest Red Hot Chili Peppers tune on the same device is an exciting prospect. Then, once the shot has been taken to immediately e-mail it to friends or uploading it to your blog…pretty friggin’ cool. Despite the high price, potential lawsuit problems due to trademark violations, the glaring fact that the FCC hasn’t yet approved it, and that Cingular is the only cellular carrier available for the iPhone (at least for now), Apple should see some great success once these issues are resolved. It also won’t be long before the competition (Microsoft, Samsung, Verizon, etc.) has their own version of this type of device to compete with Apple. So the consumer will benefit as 2007 progresses as I believe even more multi-use devices will be introduced that will include at least a 2MP digital camera. But I still want my own flying, suitcase car...

Battered and Beaten Portra

Back in September Kodak introduced new optimized versions of its popular Portra color negative films. At that time they also ran a promotion giving four rolls of free film to anyone who signed up. So naturally I did. Fast forward to the last week of December 2006 and I find a battered and beaten mailing tube on my front porch. It had been so beaten, abused and wrapped with what seems to be half a roll of packing tape, I wasn’t quite sure what it was at first. After looking at the tag, that had been attached, explaining that it had been resealed by the post office due to damage during shipping, I was able to make out the full color packaging touting the new Portra emulsion improvements such as skin tone and finer grain.

I had read online that many folks were having issues with this promotion, by either not receiving the film or open and damaged packages arriving. One photo.com poster received the same mailing tube from Kodak but no film inside. Kodak obviously felt that simply capping both ends of the tube with a simple black plastic stopper, the film would be safe from damage or sticky postal fingers. In all fairness to Kodak, the poster did contact them and they sent him out another batch of free film. I feel lucky to have received four rolls of film, although I was supposed to get two NC (Natural Color) and two VC (Vivid Color) 35mm rolls but was sent 1 roll of 160NC, 1 roll of 160VC but two rolls of 400VC. Free is free and I’ll just have to live with the fact that if I want to try the 400NC, I’ll have to buy it myself. So although it took almost four months to receive an incorrect order, I’ll take the high road and thank Kodak for these free samples. That’s the type of humanitarian I am.

Kodak boasts it’s new Micro-Structure Optimized T-Grain Emulsions (whew!) now provide higher color saturation, lower contrast, better skin tones and finer grain. I’m looking forward to loading my Minolta Maxxum 7 with both NC and VC ISO 160 rolls and plan to discover how well the 400VC performs in classic Russian-made workhorses like the FED 4 or Zenit-C, a challenge for any film. It worked out well, now I can start the new year with Kodak’s new films.