The Best Travel Camera Ever...

Another fine 600mm win from the RX10 IV

Also in this Issue:

• HDR Shooting - Should you or Shouldn't You?
• Next Time in Cameracraft Magazine
• Newest books released and in development

The Best Travel Camera Ever

I'm a member of Sony's Pro Support service.  For the past five years, every time I called them to ask a technical question or provide some feedback on a particular feature, I always ended the call with, "Oh, and one more thing... you need to make an RX10 V to bring it up to date!"  

600mm lenses come in 
handier than you think.

The response each time was always the same: "Yeah, we hear that a lot".  

I have a lot of cameras, but if you go through my lightroom catalog you'll see that the RX10 IV was my most-used camera for the past 9 years.  Little wonder, as whenever I travel I always take the version IV with me, sometimes leaving the heavier gear in the hotel room just because I wanted to enjoy my trip more instead of being burdened by my bulkier equipment and camera bag.  

The RX10 IV was probably one of Sony's most under-loved cameras, having a versatile 24-600mm lens and the same 1"-type sensor used in their famous RX100 point-and-shoots.  It had a flash sync of 1/2000th of a second (great for overpowering the sun with flash on bright days) and could be operated with just one hand.  It was designed to appeal equally to videographers and photographers, given the motorized zoom lens and option for click-free f/stop ring.  Every time a reader asked me "What camera should I take on an upcoming trip?", I would always tell them to leave their big cameras at home, and get an RX10 IV.  Without exception they would always write back with emails like this:

Hey Gary!

You probably won't remember me but I bought a couple of your books in the past and we emailed a few times about the Sony RX10 IV and how great a travel camera it is. I still have the RX 10 IV and often refer to your book to refresh my memory or look to see if it has a solution to whatever question I have (and it always does). I have several other cameras (Canon R6 II and R7 and the Fujifilm X100VI) and whenever we go somewhere and I have to decide on which camera to take, I always remember our conversation where you said to leave the Canon and heavy lenses at home and just take the Sony RX10 IV and that it's all I need and I won't regret it. And you're right! :-)

I loved the camera so much that I created a dedicated blog post hearalding its praises and sharing how I overcame my serious trepidation about shooting licensable images using a small-sensor camera.  I also created this Google Photos album showing my favorite images taken with this camera over the years. 

From 2017: One of these images was taken with the 42 megapixel Sony A99 II with 135mm f/1.8 Zeiss prime.  The other was the RX10 II with equivalent settings.  When enlarged and displayed people couldn't tell which camera took which picture.  (The giveaway is that one picture had the chest hairs in focus also.  That was the RX10.)  There's much more to the story, and you can read all the detail on my blog post at https://friedmanarchives.blogspot.com/2017/03/full-frame-vs-small-sensor-dont-laugh.html 

I'm Swearing Off of Generative AI

This is an impossible portrait to take.  A man has adopted most of the neighborhood
cats and feeds them twice a day.  They are all very standoffish mostly because they're feral, and
and would never gather and pose like this.  So I took individual
shots of each cat and created this portrait.

For the past three years I've been experimenting with generative AI - partly to understand its capabilities, partly to stay ahead of the curve (because I don't want to be left behind), and partly because, well, it's amazing.  It offers new capabilities never before available to artists.  (Very much like how I played with analog synthesizers back in the '70's, or how I played with Steve Jobs' NeXT machine when it first came out.) 

I was a "Big Brother" to two fatherless boys for 25 years. 
Here's a photo of me and "little brother #2".
I was unhappy with the lighting of the 2nd picture -
it needed some fill and a hair light.

Now I've made the decision to swear off of it.  Partly because of the environmental cost (although that will diminish over the next few years), and partly because continuing to share my AI work will surely dilute my future credibility when I present a real image of something that actually happened. 

But I do want to share with you how I've been experimenting with it, recent developments, and where this technology will both hurt and help humanity in the near future.  Interspersed amongst these discussions will be some examples of how I've been using it.  (As always, click on any image to view larger and sharper.)

Much better!

Let's start with the documented negative effects it's had so far:

* The energy cost - This has been making headlines.  Electricity costs have gone up in areas close to data centers, which is due mostly to  poor oversight and lack of systems-level community planning.

* The environmental cost - The need for massive amounts of water can be misleading.  Yes, it needs cooling but you can design closed-cycle cooling systems (like your car's radiator) that recirculates water instead of endlessly drinking it.  Future data centers will probably be designed that way, but there's no evidence that current ones will be retrofitted.

* The cost of jobs - Recently there have been lots of publicly-announced job cuts "due to AI".  I believe those happened because they wanted to please their investors by demonstrating that they won't get left behind by the coming revolution, and that the company is still primed for growth.  But I predict that after 8 months or so many of those people will quietly be re-hired once they realize that AI won't fulfill its promises when it comes to workforce replacement.  (Oh, wait... that's already happened.)  It will take awhile before the right balance is found; in the meantime we all grapple with the question of where do humans provide the most value?

Lost in Fidel's Cuba

 In this issue:

• A7R VI ebook - pre-order yours now at a discount!
• Uganda Update
• Lost in Fidel's Cuba

Sony A7R VI Ebook

I've received a large number of emails asking if I'll be working on a new book covering the new 67 megapixel Sony A7R VI, including the new features and the new menu system (and another reason they needed to introduce a new battery).  The answer is YES.  Mine is already on order and I'll start as soon as it arrives.  If all goes well it will be finished by early August if not sooner.  

You can pre-order your copy at a 10% discount here.

Uganda Update

Last week I contacted Dr. Schiff, the subject of my ongoing project documenting his work in Uganda.  I asked him if the samples he and his team took out in the field had arrived at Yale for analysis yet.  The answer is yes, and he adds "The samples we collected are proving rather incredible. Evidence of the pathogenic Paenibacillus bacteria in soil, cow milk, and … many fish."

So now the question isn't "How is the bacterium getting into these infants?", it's more like "Why isn't EVERYONE getting infected??"  And time is of the essence, since cases have already begun to show up in the U.S. and nobody knows how or the best way to treat it.

I'll have more to say about this story in a future blog post.  Stay tuned.

Lost in Fidel's Cuba

Cuba has been in the news a lot recently; now seems a good time to tell the story of my visit there two decades ago.

All my life I had heard that Cuba was a photographer’s playground.  But the only pictures I ever saw from Cuba were from Havana, its largest city.  What was the rest of Castro’s Cuba like?  

I found out in 2006, when I had an opportunity to travel to the Northeastern corner of the island with others who had been there before and knew many of the locals.  We flew directly into the city of Holguin, and spent two weeks in a tiny rental car, traveling on dirt roads going from village to village, making friends and taking pictures and delivering much-needed medical supplies.   An ideal trip!! (As always, click on any image to view larger and sharper.)

With me were my 6 MP Konica Minolta 7D (Minolta's first DSLR), 11-18mm, 24-105mm, and 100-300mm APO lenses, and another trusty camera – my Konica Minolta A2 – as a backup.  

Your Photographic Legacy

 

Last month I gave a new Zoom lecture for a geneology club entitled "Preserving Your Ancestors' Pictures".  It went into a lot of interesting subjects that most of the attendees were unaware of (many of which were touched upon in this blog post from 2018, and I also discussed data preservation techniques I wrote about in this blog post from 2014 about digital bit rot).  

The last part of that talk showed off some of the new capabilities of generative AI programs (the same programs that will ultimately erode trust in what you see and poison all of the internet, making anything on the internet wholely untrustworthy.)  But until that happens, you can use programs like Google's Nano Banana Pro or Remini.ai to clean up old images.  Below are some impressive examples I gave from the talk (click on any image to view larger and sharper):

Making an Award-winning Movie on $0 Budget

Also in this issue:

• Sony Problem Solving Guide - Free!
• I was a Judge

Sony Problem Solving Guide - Free!

Five years ago, Sony Artisan of Imagery Mark Galer and I teamed up to create a free troubleshooting guide for Sony Alpha cameras.  

A lot has changed since then, which is why we have teamed up once again to update the guide and, as before, are giving it away for free.  Tell your friends!

You can visit Mark's website at www.markgaler.com for a large variety of free resources, as well as subscribing to Mark's Patreon page.  

Making an Award-winning Movie on $0 Budget

Let's say you were a filmmaker during Covid.  You and your future co-star were quarrantining in a cabin in the woods.  And you had a Sony A7 III, one microphone, one LED light, but no budget and no crew.  But you still wanted to make that psychological thriller / horror film that's been on your mind for years.

Well, that movie has been made, and it's already won some awards!  Before I get to the interview with the filmmaker and the stars (and all of the tribulations involved in making a film in such conditions), have a look at the trailer for the movie.  (This has a lot more about the movie as well - the video here will give you a good taste of it.)

The Friedman Archives Helps Solve a Mystery

Also in this issue:

• A7 V book is out in all formats!
• 
  The most complex camera ever made
• The Airplane Workstation

The A7 V book is out in all formats!

A few weeks ago the book on the A7 V - all 885 pages of technical goodness - was released in all formats: printed in color or B&W, and the 3-file bundle (.pdf, .epub, and .azw3 compatible with all e-readers).  If you haven't already you can purchase all formats here.  Get yours now!

The Friedman Archives Helps Solve a Mystery

If you grew up in the U.S. in the 1960's, you'd be familiar with the huge fiberglass "Muffler Man" statues across the country, advertising everything from tires to mufflers, or other items promoting various roadside businesses.

The statues are no longer made, but there are diehard fans who like to catalog and track down the giant statues that remain. 

So where do the archives come in?  A few months ago I received a query from one such diehard fan, asking about a picture I took back in 1981 which featured one of the "Uniroyal Gals"; female versions of these giant advertising statues.  (The image he found is at the top of this post.)

"Where was this picture taken?  What business was it advertising?", he asked.  Geez, that was 45 years ago!  How can I possibly remember that?

The Happiest Slum in Africa

Also in this issue:

• A Philosophical Pontification
• Supplement for A7R V Firmware update
• Next Time in Cameracraft / In the Pipeline

The Photo Safari participants 2025

The photo safari in Kenya happened back in November, and just like last year, everyone had a great time!  You can see the some shots from both the participants and me in this google photos album.  I won't say much more about it; suffice to say it was identical to last year's successful event.

While in Nairobi, Carol and I decided to do something unusual - before the safari we hired a guide who took us on a tour of a slum.  To tell you more about it, let me introduce you to Lee Friedman, one of the Safari participants (yes, we're related, but we didn't know that when we first met!), who went with us and shares his thoughts and photos of the area:

The Villages of the Maasai Mara

Also in this issue:

• Help send a Maasai child to school

The game reserves we visited in Kenya belong to the Maasai community, who leases the land to eco-tourism companies like Gamewatchers Safaris that allow them to earn more from the land than if they had used it for some other purpose, like farming.  The Maasai still live like they have for centuries - the men still watch over the cattle (and their multiple wives); while the women do ALL the work, including hut building using cow dung.

As part of our Safari experience, we were treated to a visit to a working "Boma" (village), where people showed us how they live.  Upon my first visit, I was a little skeptical - the place is so neat; and their colors are so bright (despite having to wash them in the dirty river nearby).  Is this just a show they put on for us white folks?

Is FILM the Answer?

We can't believe what we see anymore.  The photograph's legendary credibility, which has been steadily eroding for the last century, has finally hit bottom with the introduction of generative AI.  Images and videos can no longer be submitted as courtroom evidence.  Seeing isn't believing.  The value of an image has plummetted.

In thinking about the future of imaging, I started considering some of the forgotten benefits of film.  You have an original negative which bolsters the image's credibility.  B&W images, unlike today's color ones, can last 100 years or more if printed using museum-quality archival techniques on acid-free paper (a fact that has been pretty much forgotten by the masses.)  And I grew up shooting film and working in a darkroom, so I'm more qualified than most to bring back this time-honored, old-world craft.

So I've been toying with this idea of starting a new brand of portraiture business, one that goes BACK to the days of film and hand-made darkroom work and marketing it to the millionaires who spend their summer vacations on Cape Cod every year.  (We live just minutes from Cape Cod, so it's a good fit.)  

Saving Lives in Uganda - Part 2

[Note: This is Part 2 of the blog post from 2024 when I had first visited Dr. Schiff and his team. GF]

===

The young mother was not doing well. 

Living in a remote village in the Jinja region of Uganda, she had given birth to a baby just a few weeks before, but she was feeling weakness on her right side of her body and had fevers.  She was under the care of a traditional healer (sometimes referred to as “Shamans” or “Witch Doctors”) who had instilled cuts on her body as part of the treatment, making her condition worse.  Dr. Schiff and his team examined her and thought she most likely had a stroke as well as an infection. He immediately arranged for an ambulance to come to the remote village and get her.  Empty space in the ambulance was filled with 4 other babies from the village who were also in need of medical attention – 3 had fevers, one had a discharge around the umbilical cord which wasn’t cut close to the body, one had pustules on the skin, and one had very yellow eyes, meaning it had jaundice early in life, a condition that can lead to brain damage if it isn’t treated. 

Once they arrived at the hospital, the young mother was scheduled for a CAT scan, plus treatment for an infection and high blood pressure.  But then the traditional healer called the hospital, demanding that the young mother return home.  When we last heard, the young mother was getting ready to leave the hospital early to comply with the healer’s demands.

Portrait of the King of Busoga

I just returned from Uganda, where I was working on Part 2 of my story on Dr. Schiff's work for Saving lives in Uganda.  The final day of this trip was an added bonus, as I got a chance to meet a king and create his portrait.  I can die now. :-)

For more context about how this happened, let's go back in time a little bit.  Last year, while hosting our first photo safari in Kenya, I was showing participants how to shoot dramatic portraits using wireless flash.  Here's an example (as always, click on any image to view larger and sharper):

And the behind-the-scenes shot showing how it was done using only one flash: