Luminous Landscape Forum
Site & Board Matters => About This Site => Topic started by: Christopher Sanderson on August 13, 2018, 09:57:39 am
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Just Published - Michael Reichmann on the Mirrorless Revolution in 2014 (https://luminous-landscape.com/mirrorless-revolution-2014-we-said-it-back-then/).
Today we have published—finally—a video with Kevin Raber and Michael Reichmann discussing the Mirrorless Revolution in the Spring of 2014.
Yup, another video that was stuck on my hard drives for a little too long! But better late than never.
The back story is that the shoot was an afterthought to a session when we recorded all of the videos that launched the Luminous Endowment. Those videos were finished with dispatch (well they were finished...) but this video was overlooked. Fun stuff - even if four years late.
Chris
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Simply excellent. Brings tears to me eyes. Michael had such a frank and gentlemanly way of getting to the heart what matters.
And on a light note: I see Kevin competing with Jeff on shirts? Is that even possible? :-)
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Simply wonderful video watched with joy and sadness.
Dave S
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Great video. For those of us that have made the mirrorless journey, this historical perspective is particularly interesting. Michael and Kevin predicted the next four years quite accurately. The rate of change has been remarkable. It is a good time to be a photographer.
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Yup. What all those guys said. All of 'em.
I recently carried my two D800s back to the van and left them there while I toured a museum I'd driven nearly 2000 miles to see.
They were just too darn heavy. I shot the whole day with my phone.
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Chris/Kevin,
Thanks for publishing these recent videos with Michael. Still relevant info. Along with all the new videos with Kevin at the helm, please do keep digging for these golden gems.
Kevin, it would be great to see you continue the lula video journals in the same vein as the originals, with you shooting and showing prints from your travels, as nice additions to the current series from Indy.
Mark
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I'm not going to be first to click on this link till I have some confirmation it is not some sort of scam.
Dave
It is a scam - I've reported it. Has nothing whatsoever to do with photography.
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I love Michael! What a joy to see new material that brings him back to us for even a few minutes. And such prescience! It was his passion and vision that brought me to the same view years ago, and prompted me to jettison my Canon gear for Sony full frame. And I have not looked back.
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Help me out here Chris and Kevin--I know I have seen this video before on the Luminous Landscape site. Are you sure this was never published before?
Thanks,
Paul
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Chris, Kevin.... thanks for this, and the previous vid of Michael too. When I watch these videos it doesn't see like he's gone at all.
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Seeing Michael again on a video not seen before makes him seem right here again for a few minutes. But, alas, he's gone. So depressing.
On the issue of a mirrorless "revolution," a marketing revolution, yes. An image quality revolution, no. Moving from film to digital sensor was a revolution. Taking out the mirror a revolution? Not in my opinion. Switching to mirrorless will slightly - if you're going full frame DSLR to full frame mirrorless - reduce your weight, assuming you use like lenses in the mirrorless system. Will it improve your photography? Not likely. Not a revolution.
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Seeing Michael again on a video not seen before makes him seem right here again for a few minutes. But, alas, he's gone. So depressing.
On the issue of a mirrorless "revolution," a marketing revolution, yes. An image quality revolution, no. Moving from film to digital sensor was a revolution. Taking out the mirror a revolution? Not in my opinion. Switching to mirrorless will slightly - if you're going full frame DSLR to full frame mirrorless - reduce your weight, assuming you use like lenses in the mirrorless system. Will it improve your photography? Not likely. Not a revolution.
I agree with your stance; not likely to make me change anything.
It may affect those who, genuinely, do go hiking up cliffs, but for the rest of us, with cars or bikes, not much. Not to the value of new sytems IMO. Anyway, I long ago discovered the weight and spiritual release that having only one body and lens with you delivers: you stop pissing about with "choices" and just make pictures. Even better, that discipline actually reveals to you which lens brings you the best fortune, thus cutting down on the stuff you ever have to consider, in the case of accident, replacing.
Of course, if the buzz is collecting a heap of equipment - as video after Internet video reveals to be a real psychological hang-up - that's another thing. I'm just thinking pictures here.
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There is some, for some, real benefit and pleasure of taking photos silently - like a range finder, maybe even quieter if you turn off all the beeps and so on. And with electronic curtain, really silent. Just one aspect - it's different to a DSLR.
Image quality, from a technical perspective, no - of course not. But different sizes, weights, sounds, speeds, etc. - all these things and more could make significant changes in certain scenarios. If it were pure marketing, it wouldn't have lasted and blossomed.
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I see no reason to switch to mirrorless if what you have works for you, but there are some specialist areas where mirrorless makes life seriously easier.
The viewfinder operates in conditions where generally a dslr gives up (with a 10 stop nd filter on I can see well enough through my viewfinder to manually focus).
Why would I want to do this? Well I sometimes do event photography by candlelight in churches, and haven't time to let the autofocus sit down and have a cup of tea while it decides when to start working. Flash is a no no and a completely silent shutter a must. At 3200 iso the files are considerably under exposed, but quite good enough to print well above A4.
David
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Always enjoy seeing those videos with Michael and Kevin together and it was obvious that you all got along so well. I joined the forum about a year or two before Michael's passing and watched the full video library as I was just starting to get more serious about photography.
Keep up the good work Kevin and team!
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Anyway, I long ago discovered the weight and spiritual release that having only one body and lens with you delivers:
I'd like to see the state of your "spiritual release" if you were doing a time-sensitive photoshoot in a seriously remote location and your only camera broke down with no back-up in your bag.
Many photographers do such photoshoots and they always carry a spare body. When you reach a certain age or are dealing with tough environments two mirrorless bodies instead of two DSLRs can be a godsend.
And then of course there is the market which speaks for itself. Just look at what is selling and not selling these days. That discussion between Michael and Kevin was prescient.
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I'd like to see the state of your "spiritual release" if you were doing a time-sensitive photoshoot in a seriously remote location and your only camera broke down with no back-up in your bag.
Many photographers do such photoshoots and they always carry a spare body. When you reach a certain age or are dealing with tough environments two mirrorless bodies instead of two DSLRs can be a godsend.
And then of course there is the market which speaks for itself. Just look at what is selling and not selling these days. That discussion between Michael and Kevin was prescient.
I always precluded that when I was working by taking along everything I owned within whichever format had been decided for the job.
That was life in a pro situation; today I am but an amateur and such pressures do not exist. I wouldn't dream of subjecting myself to the same stresses for what's now essentially just a hobby. The payback's simply not there.
;-)
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I always precluded that when I was working by taking along everything I owned within whichever format had been decided for the job.
That was life in a pro situation; today I am but an amateur and such pressures do not exist. I wouldn't dream of subjecting myself to the same stresses for what's now essentially just a hobby. The payback's simply not there.
;-)
OK, that's fine for you and you are a sample of one. I'm another sample of one, really on in years; so my sense of it is that I appreciate traveling light but still having the benefit of first-rate equipment, and if I've invested many thousands of dollars in a photo excursion to some exotic place and my main camera broke down I'd be mightily "pissed" if the only option I had was my iPhone (but they have become pretty good come to think of it!). This is where mirrorless is really great. The ratio of "firepower to weight" points heavily in the mirrorless direction in general and this is why its market share has jumped so dramatically. I think this is the main point Kevin and Michael were getting at. Whether we call it a revolution or not is semantics, but there's no question it's been an important piece of technical evolution in the history of cameras and deserves recognition as such.
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What a prescient video! I have now jumped ship, am having more fun and taking more images. I love the reduced weight and size and the screen info. IQ is good enough for me and those who ask me to take images. For local magazines a 9" image is often all that is required, so 24MP is way more than enough with plenty of scope to crop. 24MP is also fine for A3+ (13"x19") prints and anyway I can also take overlapping images and stitch if I want lots of MP for a big landscape.
4 years later, where are Canon and Nikon? What are they going to do to recapture all those like me who have made to move?
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4 years ago I bought the Fuji X-T1 for a walkabout camera rather than use my Canon DSLRs. Within months of that purchase I stopped using my Canon DSLRs except for sports. When the X-T2 came out I jumped on that and added Fuji lenses until I now cover all of the Canon equivalents I had and I’m shooting sports with the Fuji. I’m confident that I’ll buy the X-T3 when that comes out this fall.
It’s unlikely I’ll adopt a 35mm mirrorless camera as my work doesn’t require it. I do take a lot of panos though which obviates an advantage of 35mm for me.
If I absolutely feel the need for higher pixel counts and larger pixels I’m more likely to follow Fuji into the world of MF.
I’m happy!
YMMV
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Thanks for the comments. Chris has been combing his archives. Who knows what other treasures are lurking there. We have selected a new Master for the next Master video and I hope we can start that later this year. I have a surgical procedure on my hip that will keep me for traveling for 2 months. Lot's planned for that downtime though. And, I am working on doing the video journal style again. Actually, on location this week and will be doing one with a print talk after. Stay tuned.
oh, all the Nikon - Canon mirrorless stuff will dominate headlines in the next two months. Let's see what happens next.
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Ron, your post reminded me of the ugly truth that all this gear degrades in marketable value so rapidly and so completely these days. Technical usefulness outlives commercial value by years and years.
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Simply wonderful video watched with joy and sadness.
Dave S
+1
Rand
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I must simply add my complete agreement to what Dave said about joy and sadness.
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Help me out here Chris and Kevin--I know I have seen this video before on the Luminous Landscape site. Are you sure this was never published before? ...
Never published before - I only just cut it last week. I had completed all the Luminous Endowment videos that were done on this shoot including the one on Michael's Retrospective book but not this add-on discussion. Kevin wore the same memorable shirt throughout the day. Perhaps this is what you remember?
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Really moving to watch Michael.
And on a light note: I see Kevin competing with Jeff on shirts? Is that even possible? :-)
Yes but the combination of this shirt and the napkin … beurk :P
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Ron, your post reminded me of the ugly truth that all this gear degrades in marketable value so rapidly and so completely these days. Technical usefulness outlives commercial value by years and years.
At the same time, though, mirrorless tech has brought a whole host of "obsolete" lenses back into play in the electronic arena. Want to use Canon FD, Contax/Nikon rangefinder, M42 mount, etc. lenses on the latest whizbang computer-with-a-sensor? You can. In some cases you can even autofocus 'em!
-Dave-
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I recall Michael and Kevin exchanging similar views on the present and future of mirrorless in another video published in the site. It doesn't surprise me that such deeply held and important opinions found their way into more than one recording session.