It’s A Tool, Not A Jewel

For those of you who are not professionals and take pictures for the love of it, technology is your most formidable opponent. Digital cameras have far too many features for you to become comfortable with, especially if you don’t (and I know you don’t) shoot a couple of hundred pictures a day. Film cameras, on the other hand, have relatively few features which makes it very easy to take pictures instead of wasting time on button pressing and menu diving.

I met Marc Riboud, the now-legendary French photojournalist, years ago when both of us were shooting in the small Arctic village of Kotzebue, Alaska. We were on assignment for different magazines and we each had state-of-the-art film cameras. But both of us had turned them into virtual point-and-shoots so we could eschew the technology and concentrate on capturing the images we needed. We were shooting Tri-X, a black and white film that would be push-processed to an ASA (ISO) of 1200. And yes, some pictures would be grainy but the resulting smaller apertures and/or higher shutter speeds meant they’d be in focus and not blurred.

We pre-set distances on the focusing ring so that everything that needed to be sharp would be– without us having to waste time constantly turning the ring to focus (remember, no auto-focus then). We’d take a light meter reading (no auto-exposure, either) and then manually bracket exposures under difficult lighting conditions. We essentially cut the amount of fiddling around with camera controls to a minimum so we could concentrate on our picture making and the resulting images proved that our methodology was correct.

The point of this reminiscence, of course, is to encourage you to look at that shiny new digicam the same way you’d look at a hammer. It’s just a tool, the picture’s the thing. As the saying goes: “You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.” Professionals have a great deal of respect for their cameras but if it requires a few dings to get the shot, well, you can always buy another camera but if you lose a great picture, it’s gone forever. When the front element of his lens frosted up, Riboud would furiously wipe it off with a leather-gloved finger so he could get his picture. The glass looked like a spider web had been acid-etched into it. That was a bit much for me but Riboud said: “Makes no difference, I got the picture. The scratches won’t show.”

When I returned from that assignment, I bought a couple of new Nikons that came with cases. The first thing I did was throw the cases into a dark corner of a closet. Then I went to work on the shiny chrome finish (black cameras hadn’t come along yet) and carefully cut electrician’s tape to fit over every piece of chrome, so I could shoot inconspicuously. My parents went nuts. What was I doing to such beautiful and expensive new cameras? They likened it to covering them with graffiti. To me, it was just getting them ready for action. As it turned out, ten years later when I decided to sell them I pulled the tape off and they looked gorgeous– not a scratch on the chrome. I then recovered them with new leather and sold them for a bundle.

Some years ago I gathered six pros who were using film, gave them all simple digital cameras, and told them to go out on a shooting spree. The results were outstanding and made an excellent magazine spread. Recently, National Geographic Traveler did an all-digital issue in which they sent a bunch of their pros out to shoot with consumer digital cameras to prove that cameras don’t make great pictures, photographers do.

Here’s something to try. Leave your expensive camera at home and sally forth with a cheap point-and-shoot. Be a photographer-gone-wild for a day. Go to places where you’d be reluctant to take your pride-and-joy with you and shoot up a storm. Then look at the results. You may be amazed at how good you’ve suddenly become without that heavy Albatross hanging around your neck, slowing you down as you fumble with dials and buttons.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with having a costly camera if you take control of it and not the other way around. To begin with, set your camera to Program and shoot away. Over 95% of your pictures will come out just fine in this semi-automated mode. Then, hike up the ISO, noise be damned. You’ll be able to shoot at higher shutter speeds to stop more action and get images with greater depth of field. And guess what? You’ll never notice the noise unless you blow your pictures up to some insane size which you can’t do anyway with the printer you own. 

Next, take your camera out in bad weather to capture some unusual images; most photographers never take their pricey babies out in the rain, snow or dust so you’ll be able to come back with pictures they’d never get. Finally, remove that clear piece of glass you’re using to protect the lens– it’ll only degrade your image quality by creating flare.

Remember, the more beat-up your camera looks, the more you’ve been using it as the right tool to get the right stuff. Carry that sucker around with pride. It shows you’re serious about photography.
– Arthur Bleich

We’re Off To See The Wizard...

Maha’s new MH-C9000 WizardOne Battery Charger & Analyzer is a whiz of a Wiz, if ever a Wiz there was. Just when you thought a battery charger is a battery charger is a battery charger, here comes Maha to dispel all your old-fashioned notions.

This baby is pimped up to the max. Of course, it’ll charge your batteries, that’s a given. But it will also condition them, analyze them, cycle them, form them, and discharge them, all while giving you detailed battery capacity and voltage read-outs of each one of four AAs or AAAs on its large LCD screen. All four slots can be operated independently in five different modes (better dust off that degree from Geek U).

Seriously, though, if you’ve ever wanted to get inside your battery’s brain to see what makes it tick, this is the charger for you. I’ll bet you never knew that like a bucking bronco, a new battery has to be broken in. There are even ten (count ‘em) selectable charging and discharging currents you can set while four independent temperature sensors monitor and protect the batteries.

This is also one seriously accurate charger. It uses a quartz oscillator time base and is able to report capacity within one percent of accuracy. I wouldn’t be surprised if NASA didn’t employ some of these Maha Wizards to check out their batteries before taking off for Mars. It’s the kind of precision instrument made for that mission. Just $69 with worldwide travel power supply; 12V car adapter available as an option. Note: This product will be available at the end of December and may not yet be listed at Maha’s site. www.mahaenergy.com