David Muench moves from LF to G10 and FZ50

[feppe]

Found this on another forum, and here's the original source. He used to work with 4x5 film, and he has recently

... been working with the Panasonic Lumix FZ50, a compact camera with a built-in 12x optical zoom. I also work with another, newer Lumix with an 18x zoom ratio and a Canon PowerShot G10.

[BernardLanguillier]

Found this on another forum, and here's the original source. He used to work with 4x5 film, and he has recently

I hope he gets treated better than me by Canon if he ever has issues with some particles mysteriously appearing within the optical block of his G10. Their answer was... 150 US$ to change the whole thing.

Cheers,
Bernard

[Rob C]

Has he developed a bad back?

Rob C

[Joe Behar]

Has he developed a bad back?

Rob C

Maybe he's just embraced the idea that "the camera does not matter" ?

Running and hiding now that I've re-opoened that can of whoop ass

[Kirk Gittings]

Has he developed a bad back?

Rob C

Well he was born in '36. He once told me a couple of years ago, that he had spent 250 days a year photographing since his twenties producing around 5000 "keepers" a years for the family stock photography business. That was mainly 4x5. You can do the math. It would take its toll for sure.

[Rob C]

Well he was born in '36. He once told me a couple of years ago, that he had spent 250 days a year photographing since his twenties producing around 5000 "keepers" a years for the family stock photography business. That was mainly 4x5. You can do the math. It would take its toll for sure.

At last - somebody a tiny bit older than myself!

Anyway, whilst I have - I hope - your attention: can you give me any idea if the old 28mm Nikkor shift lens works with digital? (I did have the old 35mm version and it was very crisp, with film, but it is long gone with much other stuff I had prior to my Pentax 67 madness and I have no idea if it cuts it with digi either.) I don't want the new 24mm tilt/shifter because for my immediate concept, 28mm is about right, and a helluva lot cheaper! I know you are a Canon guy right now, but you may have picked up some vibes on the matter.

Thanks

Rob C

[Kirk Gittings]

That was a great lens in its day. My experience with older PC lenses on todays digital comes primarily from converted Olympus lenses. I had that 28 Nikkor lens when I was shooting film-it was a fine lens-a workhorse. Olympus made some fine PC lenses too, but compared to a good modern lens they suffer from more CA when used on a digital camera. I suspect the Nikon would too? So it depends somewhat on your subject matter and how the CA plays out.

[Rob C]

That was a great lens in its day. My experience with older PC lenses on todays digital comes primarily from converted Olympus lenses. I had that 28 Nikkor lens when I was shooting film-it was a fine lens-a workhorse. Olympus made some fine PC lenses too, but compared to a good modern lens they suffer from more CA when used on a digital camera. I suspect the Nikon would too? So it depends somewhat on your subject matter and how the CA plays out.

Thanks for your reply, Kirk.

The subject matter, in this case, is atmospherics of river banks, canals and that kind of thing: reflections on water, trees and either much foliage or skeletal branches, depending on when I get to do this. I have another hospital visit in late October, so have to hang fire, which means I shall almost certainly miss all the autumnal colour changes that I so much wanted... Fate. In fact, it strikes me that it could well be something better done on film, anyway. I still own a virtually new Nikon F3 and that combined with the 28mm Shift, may well be the way to go.

Rob C

[larryg]

I can think of several successful large format landscape photographers who migrated to a smaller format in their later years. 
1.  they already have created a successful library of images
2.  they need to lighten their load


Ansel Adams comes to mind  a LF photographer who ended up using a MF system for most of his later work.

Also we have to keep in mind the improvement of the quality of the smaller format cameras (digital) that can reproduce images not far from the image quality of 4x5 film.

I remember reading an article about Muench using digital for test shooting before using the LF camera to capture the real image.  It seems he has shifted more into using the smaler format on a more regular basis.

[Rob C]

I can think of several successful large format landscape photographers who migrated to a smaller format in their later years. 
1.  they already have created a successful library of images
2.  they need to lighten their load
Ansel Adams comes to mind  a LF photographer who ended up using a MF system for most of his later work.Also we have to keep in mind the improvement of the quality of the smaller format cameras (digital) that can reproduce images not far from the image quality of 4x5 film.
I remember reading an article about Muench using digital for test shooting before using the LF camera to capture the real image.  It seems he has shifted more into using the smaler format on a more regular basis.

Yes, and I believe that his best work was long past him by that time. A 'blad wasn't the most lightweight of alternatives he could have chosen, though!


Rob C