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THE IMAGING RESOURCE DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY NEWSLETTER
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Volume 15, Number 5 - 8 March 2013

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Copyright 2013, The Imaging Resource. All rights reserved.
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Welcome to the 353rd edition of The Imaging Resource Newsletter. In this issue, we shed light on American writer Jack London's relatively unknown and under-appreciated photography, a body of work that includes nearly 12,000 images. We've also got an excerpt of our brand new review of the Samsung EX2F premium compact camera, as well as some quick hits, some great reader mail and new material published on the site we think you'll be interested in. We've also finally gotten the line length limited (turned out to be trivial, let us know if it seems either too short or still too long), and have dropped most use of italics, in response to reader complaints that they're hard to read. (Apologies, too, for the somewhat delayed mailing of this issue: Dave has had a pretty crazy two weeks, so his finishing-off of this issue ended up slipping over into what was supposed to be a weekend off in the mountains. Still, better to be working on the computer in the mountains than in the flat s! :-)

TOPICS
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Feature: Jack London - From 'Call of the Wild' to the call of photography
Camera Review: Samsung EX2F (Shooter's Report Excerpt)
Quick Hits
We've Got Mail
New on the Site
Next Issue
Signoff

SPONSORS
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This issue is sponsored in part by the following companies. Please show your appreciation by visiting the links below. And now a word from our sponsors:

* Sigma *

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Learn more about Sigma offerings at http://www.imaging-resource.com/cgi-bin/nl/pl.cgi?sg13

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Are you in the digital photo business? This newsletter is read by approximately 55,000 combined direct and pass-along subscribers, all with a passion for digital photography. For information on how you can reach them, contact us at editor@imaging-resource.com.

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FEATURE: Jack London - From 'The Call of the Wild' to the call of photography
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(Note: To see all of Jack London's photos, read the story on our site at: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/03/08/jack-london-from-the-call-of-the-wild-to-the-call-of-photography)

By Steve Meltzer

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."�
--�Jack London

Jack London (1876-1916) is one of the America's best known and most prolific writers. He is famous for novels such as "The Call of the Wild" and "The Sea Wolf," but is hardly known for his work as a photographer. Yet in his lifetime he took nearly 12,000 photographs all over the world, covering news events as well as his personal adventures. That he was a photographer and one of the first photojournalists is something that doesn't get mentioned by most of his biographers.

In 2010, Jeanne Campbell Reesman and Sara Hodson published "Jack London, Photographer," a book that attempted to correct this oversight. With its publication of nearly 200 superbly printed duotone images, it demonstrated London almost had as much skill with a camera as he did with words. The images in the book were made from London's original negatives, housed in the California State Parks collection and from original photographs in his albums at the Huntington Library. The book was followed in 2012 by an exhibit of prints at the San Diego Maritime Museum.

Possibly the illegitimate son of a famous San Francisco astrologer -- who denied he had ever fathered a child -- London grew up shuffling between households in the city's working-class neighborhoods. He worked for a while as a sailor and then as a union organizer, writing political manifestos and leading labor strikes.

He made little from these first writings, but soon enough became rich with his stories of man and nature after he joined the Klondike Gold Rush. Ironically, his most famous work "The Call of the Wild" made him very little money, because he had sold the rights to the novel to his publisher for a few thousand dollars. To London's chagrin, the first printing of 10,000 copies sold out in 24 hours.

London's early work as a photojournalist

The early 20th century was an exciting time to be a writer and photographer. After the Daily Graphic in New York City began to publish halftone photographs in the 1880s, a mass media revolution started. The world went picture crazy and soon every magazine and most newspapers were crammed full of photographs. This love of images made Mark Twain a celebrity and gave birth to photojournalism. Press barons such as William Randolph Hearst understood the power created by these new "picture stories" and Hearst used his image-packed newspapers to literally start the Spanish-American war in Cuba.

London made some of his earliest photographs in 1902, while visiting England. Walking around the city he was appalled by the conditions facing the homeless of the city's East End. He took photographs and wrote a book about it, "The People of the Abyss." Many of these early photos were never published. Two years later, London photographed the Russo-Japanese War for the Hearst Syndicate, shooting images that showed the plight of thousands of refugees fleeing through snow covered battlefields.

London the writer understood that photographs could enhance the material he was writing. He got a chance to demonstrate this when Collier's magazine asked him to cover the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. In 1905, London and his second wife Charmian had bought a 1,000-acre ranch in Glen Ellen, Calif., near the Sonoma Mountains. The couple was able to get to the city a few hours after the quake, while it was still burning. It was the firestorm that followed the quake that actually destroyed most of the city. However, as awful as it was, Charmian London could still describe the moment as such: "Mate and I spent night in burning streets... terrific experience. Napped on a doorstep till�dawn."

Photographing "his fellow human beings"

Although he had became famous through his tales of the Far North, Alaska and the Klondike Gold Rush, once he was established, London and Charmain set out in the opposite direction -- South. In 1907 he told newspaper readers that he planned to sail off across the Pacific on a 42 foot sailboat called the Snark. In typical Jack London style he noted that he planned to teach himself navigation along the way as they sailed to Hawaii.

As a photographer London's images are unique for their time -- modern and very graphic -- the type of images we associate today with photojournalism. It was a far cry from the often sentimentalized and stereotypic images that were popular in the day. Indigenous South Pacific islanders and Asians were most often portrayed as exotic and childish, or sometimes as ignorant and evil cannibals.

Sara Hodson, co-author of the book and curator of the San Diego exhibition says of London's photography: "(He) embraced photography as "a way of creating art and documenting his adventures, He was a quick study who, among other things, learned to shoot with his Kodak 3A camera level -- which helped him "engage his subjects directly and closely. We can see he was empathetic with people of other cultures in his photography. He never photographed islanders as 'types' as an anthropologist might. He was bonding with fellow human beings."

Armed with his trusty Kodak 3A

London's Kodak 3A was state of the art for its day. The camera used 122 roll film, and had a bellows/rail focusing system. Framing was done with a right-angle prism mounted on the left-hand lens post. This allowed the camera to be shot, as Hodson says, from waist level. Typically using this type of camera, once the shot is framed and focused, the photographer can look up and make eye contact with his subject, thus establishing a more intimate image. The Kodak 3A camera was a great picture taker. Its combination of a very sharp lens and large 3 � inch negative produced extraordinary images. In fact, Kodak 3A cameras have remained popular and hobbyists still modify it to take 120 roll film to produce gorgeous 2 1/4 x 3 1/4" negatives.

Throughout his 30s, London continued his newspaper work, traveling the world and writing stories. For example, he covered the 1914 U.S. invasion of Veracruz during the Mexican Revolution. Then after a long visit to Hawaii, London returned to his California ranch in July of 1916. He was suffering from terrible abdominal pain from what was diagnosed as kidney failure. London began taking morphine for the pain and on November 22, at age 40, he died from what was apparently an accidental overdose.

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REVIEW: Samsung EX2F (Shooter's Report Excerpt)
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By Mike Pasini

(You can check out our Samsung EX2F express review, complete with gallery photos, lab test results and our final conclusion, here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/samsung-ex2f/samsung-ex2fA.HTM)

The EX2F is about as compact a camera as I'm comfortable with. It's bigger than a deck of cards, certainly, but it fits the hand comfortably and can be dropped into a pocket, leaving the camera bag at home. And yet it has room for some of the niceties that make taking photos enjoyable. Like that articulated display, the hot shoe, and that fast lens.

I hiked up Twin Peaks with the camera and took the zoom series shots. I was more than a little skeptical about the 3.3x optical zoom range and wasn't impressed by the first two shots. But the third surprised me. The EX2F handled digital zoom exceptionally well compared to other models I've used. I quickly convinced myself not to worry about stepping over the line into digital zoom.

Getting the right settings. Although my first shots were landscapes, I was anxious to take some street shots with it. And I would have slipped it into black and white mode if I'd been able to figure out how to do that by looking at the camera. I did find the Saturation control and cranked it down all the way but that didn't eliminate color. It's just a tweak -- not a full control.

To shoot monochrome you have to enable the Classic Filter. Surprise. Sometimes you really miss Fujifilm's straightforward emulsion emulations. And this was one time. I wish Samsung had hired away Fujifilm's guy.

But I did get some street shooting in, and of the best kind, a crowd assembling for the first game of the 2012 World Series. The last thing you want to do when street shooting is fiddle with camera settings. That's one reason a wide-angle lens is preferred. It focuses from a few inches away to infinity so focus isn't critical. And with ISO cranked up, you don't have to worry about camera movement either.

But I did have one worry. Aspect ratio. The EX2F offers several: 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, and 1:1. Unfortunately Samsung doesn't identify them that way. Instead, the Photo Size options are spelled out solely in pixels. That's a reason to wish they'd hired away the Panasonic guy who put an aspect ratio switch on the lens.

It's a lot of fun -- creative fun -- to switch among aspect ratios during a shoot. But it was a chore on the EX2F. A chore I undertook anyway because it's worth it, after all.

RAW capture is good, but... I got back to the bunker with about half an hour to post a few shots. The JPEGs weren't usable, so I processed everything in Lightroom, which applied the JPEG crops to the RAW files. I posted a short news story with a small selection of the images.

Nobody in their right mind would do event photography on a deadline with a camera whose JPEGs they can't trust. It just isn't feasible to add to the workflow. I was lucky to be able to work fast enough to get the TV on with the sound down and the Giants' broadcasters on the radio just a couple of heartbeats before the first pitch of Game One.

I also took the EX2F and an Olympus E-PL1 to the DE Young Museum to shoot a selection of artwork in the Paley exhibit. The E-PL1 had no trouble with the kit lens delivering distortion-free images. Not so with the EX2F, though.

Some setup issues. There were some setup issues to contend with. Turning off the rather loud camera sounds was first. I hadn't noticed them when I was shooting 900 feet above sea level or in the crowd at the stadium, but in the quiet rooms of the exhibit they drew attention to themselves.

The autofocus assist lamp was another. It cast a disturbing orange target on the artworks, which I was sure would attract a guard. Why didn't anyone else's camera do that, I wondered. They must have. But the EX2F's lamp is not unobtrusive. I did get focus errors without the assist, though. The ambient light was just too low for the EX2F.

Auto tendencies. I shot with the EX2F for a bit longer than two weeks. During that time, I took 128 shots of which only six were at f/1.4. The most popular aperture was f/4.2 at 26 and f/4.1 at 11. Nothing else broke into double figures but f/3.6 scored 9, f/3.9 had 8 and f/3.5 had 7. At the small end of the settings, f/8.5 had 5. So what you can take from this is that the lens is so wide, you won't be at f/1.4 much, spending more of your time around f/3.0.

The EX2F's Auto ISO favors ISO 80 (83 shots) with ISO 400 coming in second (31) and the rest scattered in the single digits. So there's not a lot of ISO shifting going on.

Shutter speeds were evenly distributed through the range, suggesting the EX2F relies on shutter speed to fine tune exposure.

Image quality. I captured some stunning shots with the EX2F. But very early on I realized I couldn't rely on its JPEG rendering. So I almost never shot JPEG only.

This is the only camera that has ever pushed me into that corner. But it didn't take longer than the first outing up Twin Peaks under a dramatic post-storm sky. I had set the camera to RAW+JPEG, noticed happily that the delay in writing the RAW wasn't going to hamper my style (but there is a delay, so it might hamper yours), and left it that way.

Looking at my shots on the AMOLED display, I liked what I was getting. But when I returned to the bunker and brought them up on the monitor, I was a little horrified. Well, OK, maybe "surprised" is a better word. The shadows were plugged up, the highlights blown. On the JPEGs.

But the RAW images rendered very nicely in Adobe Camera Raw. It was almost as if there were two cameras in the EX2F. So if there's an image I shot for this review in the Gallery interests you, download the RAW version to see what the EX2F is really capable of. You might be shocked (not just surprised) at what YSAM_0026.SRW looks like compared to YSAM_0026.JPG.

Not all JPEGs are as bad as my first ones. Those scenes had high contrast. With more moderate contrast in the scene, the JPEG won't exhibit blown highlights and plugged up shadows. But it's too bad the EX2F doesn't include something like Canon's iContrast, Nikon's D-Lighting or even Samsung's own Smart Range found in the NX series to enhance JPEG rendering.

Image analysis is performed on JPEGs, so I won't have as much to say on that subject as usual. The Resolution Target shows no chromatic aberration in the corners while resolving about 2,000 to 2,100 lines of resolution. Really very nice. The ISO 80 Still Life was quite sharp throughout and holds highlights well. The wide-open Wide-Angle Target shows soft corners as well as noticeable barrel distortion while the Telephoto Target shows surprisingly soft corners and significant pincushion distortion.

Conclusion. Samsung is unusual in that it designs both smartphones and cameras. That means it knows what a smartphone can do and what a camera can do and, equally important, what each of them can't do very well. Samsung has no doubt made its mark in the smartphone arena, and it is still making in-roads with cameras. That said, the latest generation of cameras from the company have been very good -- especially its NX line of compact system/mirrorless cameras (CSCs). The Samsung EX2F is a solid effort in creating a premium compact camera that boasts some advanced imaging and creative features for more serious photographers.

Unfortunately, you'd expect with Samsung's DNA that it would be able to really outpace the competition with its SMART (Read: WiFi, sharing, etc.) features into its cameras. So far, we've been unimpressed with connectivity, and that's no different with the EX2F. (We're still waiting to post our findings on the Samsung Galaxy Camera, which looks on the surface like it should have WiFi and sharing figured out!)

But otherwise, as a premium compact camera, the Samsung EX2F performs pretty well, with some not-insignificant quibbles. While the f/1.4 Schneider-Kreuznach lens is one of the fastest digicam lenses on the market, it's not without its shortcomings, and the images it captures are limited by the EX2F's processor. The camera's advanced controls and RAW capture capabilities are what enthusiasts look for in a compact camera, but inconsistent JPEGs could force more time (and resources) processing RAW images than many photographers would like to with their carry-around camera. That said, we feel the Samsung EX2F stacks up with many of the best compact cameras in its class, and as long as you don't mind shooting RAW, we recommend it as a Dave's Pick

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QUICK HITS: Nikon Coolpix hands-on previews, Celebrity photography's first superstar and critic, and more
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Hands-on Previews: New Nikon Coolpix A (and its DX-sized sensor!) takes aim at the Sony RX1, while the Coolpix P330 steps up its game

By Mike Tomkins

Nikon today unveiled three brand-new digital camera models for its Coolpix lineup, but for understandable reasons, one of that trio is going to grab the lion's share of the attention. Alongside the Nikon Coolpix A -- the company's first-ever DX-format, fixed-lens camera -- even a brand-new enthusiast compact like the Nikon P330 will really have to speak up, if it wants to be heard. We've been hands-on with both cameras, though, and we're here to confirm that on any other day of the year, the P330 would generate plenty of excitement by itself.

That said, we're enthralled by the Coolpix A. From humble beginnings as a class of one with 2008's Sigma DP1, the large-sensor, fixed-lens category has really started to heat up. It's still a niche, sure, but it's an exciting niche full of lustworthy cameras such as the rangefinder-style Fujifilm X100S, red dot-bearing Leica X2, and the stole-our-hearts-and-Camera-of-the-Year-award Sony RX1. Now we have the Nikon Coolpix A in that heady mix.

Read our Nikon Coolpix A hands-on preview here http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/nikon-a/nikon-aA.HTM

Read our Nikon Coolpix P330 hands-on preview here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/nikon-p330/nikon-p330A.HTM

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Mark Twain: Celebrity photography�s first superstar was also one of its most outspoken critics

By Steve Meltzer

He was one of the most photographed individuals of the 19th century. With his trademark droopy mustache and big cigar, he was the first media darling, but also one of its earliest critics. The camera loved him, although he rarely returned the admiration. He was Mark Twain and he was as much a creation of celebrity as Lady Gaga and Beyonc�.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on a cold November night in Missouri in 1835. It was a night that Halley's Comet was illuminating the Midwestern skies, and his mother took it as a good sign that her small and frail child would survive. Just a few years after Clemens' birth, photography was born, too, and their paths were to become inextricably intertwined.

The first image we have of Clemens is a daguerreotype taken in 1850 when he was a 15-year-old cabin boy. Sixty years later, at the time of his death, he had been photographed thousands of times and by almost every important photographer of the 19th century, from Matthew Brady to Alvin Langdon Coburn -- who made an early color image of the great man. To keep this in perspective, most of Clemens' contemporaries, including famous writers such Charles Dickens, were only photographed a handful of times.

Read the full story about Mark Twain and see the images here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/03/05/mark-twain-celebrity-photographys-first-superstar-and-critic

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Famed motorsports photographer Darren Heath talks cameras, Formula One, and what�s in a great shot

By Mike Tomkins

In the fast-paced world of Formula One motor racing, some names command instant respect. Senna, Fangio, Clark, Stewart, Schumacher, Mansell... their names and achievements roll off the tongue of any die-hard fan. Among photographers, though, the racers aren't the only celebrities in Formula One. Names like Bernard Cahier, Rainer Schlegelmilch, Darren Heath and Keith Sutton are, for photography fans, every bit as recognizable for their achievements -- and for good reason.

These men and their cameras provide a vital link between the fans and their sport. Every two weeks or so for most of the year they travel around the world, seeking to record history in the making. It is through their eyes that we've seen so many of Formula One's defining moments, splashed across newspapers and magazines the world over. And somehow, week in and week out, they manage to pack those photos with action, color and excitement, even though they're continually faced with the same roster of subjects: teams, cars, drivers, testosterone, tarmac and tire smoke. The imagery can be downright beautiful, even if you're not passionate about motorsports.

Read the full story about Darren Heath and see the images here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/03/05/famed-motorsports-photographer-darren-heath-talks-cameras-and-formula-one

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WE'VE GOT MAIL: Questions from readers, answers from IR
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Please send us your camera and photography questions and comments (mailto:editor@imaging-resource.com). Not only will we respond to each and every one of your letters, but we'll also publish the best ones here as a resource for all our readers.

Note from Dave: Apologies to everyone who wrote in after the last issue for the very slow replies this time around. (I'm only just now replying to all of them, just before sending off this issue.) I really don't have an adequate excuse, but it has been an unusually busy period, with 3 business trips in just a couple of weeks, on top of the usual frenzy at IRHQ. I'll try to do better going forward!

"Government" cover-up?

Having worked for the Government for over 30 years I'm always appalled with the sloppy thinking that the Government is One Entity and not just the myriads of offices and agencies, sort of connected, that it really is. The AEC made a big mistake, but that happens in large organizations where the implications of a decision hardly ever pass the 3rd or 4th boss up the line.
Once the Kodak people knew, and all their knowledgeable hierarchy, they were all to blame also for non disclosure, as were probably a thousand or more involved in the tests themselves. And the Entire Film Industry was notified? And are we to believe, that these were the only two groups in the entire world who discovered the fallout? This was hardly a secret. Collectively, WE were simply unaware of the consequences at the time.
If we were all more Results Oriented, and less concerned with Blame, there would be more unpenalized disclosure, and less coverup. Your tests are an example where from time to time you comment on notifying manufacturers of problems.
Regards, BA
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Hi Budd -

Thanks for that note, you make a very good point that "the Government" isn't a monolithic entity, and that actions of one branch or sub-branch probably don't reflect the values or mores of all the individuals or even other departments. Agreed, too, that those in the film industry were as culpable in the cover-up as were those in "the Government." As to being aware of the effects of the fallout, particularly the I-131, it seems pretty clear that the effects were understood and documented, and it would be hard to imagine that the AEC wasn't aware of it: Studies as early as 1953 raised warning flags, and by 1957 the British government took the step of dumping all milk produced in a 200-mile radius around the site of a nuclear accident. (http://www.ieer.org/latest/iodnart.html) In fairness, though, I don't think it was well-established at the time that I-131 led to dramatically increased canc er rates: As far as I can tell, studies at the time simply showed that I-131 was very readily taken up and concentrated by the thyroid gland. There seemed to be a recognition that concentrating radiation in the body was probably not a good thing, but there was a lot of group-think going on, minimizing the possible bad effects.

I do think that parties within the Government (note: "parties within") as well as some in the film industry were culpable, in that there was evidence enough that something bad was going on, and the AEC acted to try to suppress knowledge of it. Likewise, nobody in the film industry stepped out to warn the public either. While the Government certainly isn't a monolithic entity, I do think that it was much more common in those days to consider injury to a few to be an acceptable cost of presumed benefits to the many.

- Dave E.

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Recovering lost photos from an iPhone?

Backstory:
My wife (who died a year ago after 11 years of devastating Alzheimer's Disease had a wonderful Caregiver.)
Sunday was the one year anniversary of her death. My son, who lives in LA, drove down with his wife and we visited the grave together.

Later in the day, Crystl, the former Caregiver visited the grave site, and took beautiful photograph on her iPhone 4S/ It was of the bouquet she had made of gorgeous flowers from her own garden. She had dug a hole at the gravesite and put the roots deep, so that the wind wouldn't blow it away.

She showed me the photo yesterday. I wanted to copy it to my computer, so that I could send it to both my sons (my other son lives in Jerusalem).

When I saw her today, she was very sad. She told me that she inadvertently lost that photograph and another of herself and her husband.

My question: Are they permanently lost, or can they be recovered?

Of course I showed her how to download ALL of her photographs. and how to delete them from the computer if she didn't like them.

Crystal is a very nice lady and deserves all the help we can give her.

Many thanks for listenin'--and maybe you can direct us.

Sincerely,
Norman S.
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Hi Norman -

My condolences on the loss of your wife, Alzheimer's is a really tragic disease.

As to the issue of recovering the lost photos, there may be a couple of ways to go about it. If Crystl had been backing up her iPhone to either her computer or iCloud, she might be able to restore them from the backup. Here's a tutorial from Apple on how to restore from either iCloud or iTunes (that is, from the computer she backed up to): http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1766

If she's been routinely syncing her phone to either iCloud or her computer, there should be several backup images available to restore from, so she'd hopefully be able to find one that was made after she shot the photos, but before she inadvertently deleted them. The article linked above shows the screens that'll take you to the point of being able to do the backup, but don't show what you'd see if you have several backups available. See the image below for an example of this - It turns out I have quite a number of backups on my laptop, for my current iPhone, my previous one, a couple of different iPhone names from prior restores when I was having a problem with syncing, and several for my iPad. (BTW, these take up a good bit of space, so it's wise to go in and archive them to an external disk if you want to keep them around JIC, and then delete all but perhaps the two most recent from your computer. Here's a link to another Apple Support article describing where these can be found on your computer: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4946)

If she's been maintaining backups of her iPhone, this should let her get the images back.

If she hasn't been keeping backups, it gets a bit more complicated, and the chance of recovery goes down quite a bit (particularly if she's taken more photos since losing the missing ones), but there may still hope. Like most computer devices, the iPhone doesn't physically erase the data from deleted photos, but rather just marks the storage they occupy as unused. As long as subsequent photos or other data haven't overwritten those bits of storage, the image data may still be there. A third-party program can scan your iPhone's memory to look for "deleted" photos, and possibly rescue some of them. Recovering photos from the phone itself like this seems to recently have become more difficult, though. One report I read said that Apple has made this very difficult since the advent of the iPhone 4s: http://thebeginnerslens.com/articles/recover-deleted-iphone-photos.html< /a>

On the other hand, I also read a report of someone using TenorShare's iTunes Data Recovery software to recover deleted photos from an iPhone 4s, so maybe there's hope. You can find TenorShare's software here: http://www.any-data-recovery.com/topics/mobile-devices/recover-deleted-photos-from-iphone.html#part2 They offer a money-back guarantee, although I did find at least one online post from a disgruntled customer who said they refused to honor it.

I hope this helps. If she has iTunes backups, there's a very high probability she can recover the lost photos. If there isn't an iTunes backup of the appropriate vintage, the odds drop significantly, but there may still be hope.

- Dave E.

--------------------------

Optimum settings for best histograms?

Hi Dave, amazing testing you're doing.
I'm wanting to ask a question:

How would I establish what the best settings are (on the Sony A77) that produce the most accurate histogram--given the histogram is a function of creative settings >> jpg rendering.
e.g.
1. clear, neutral or standard profile
2. Contrast settings
3. NR setting
4. other settings?

Your testing don't specifically seem to cover histogram accuracy--yet given the histogram is used so frequently nowadays, to set exposure, it seems particularly important info to find out (both the accuracy + the settings by which histogram accuracy can be optimized).

best regards,
Simon
London, UK!
--------------

Hi Simon -

A histogram is just a record of the brightness values in an image, so how it looks is going to be a strong function of the subject and lighting, rather than a particular configuration of camera settings. Or, rather, the best use of a histogram is to help you find the best combination of settings to use for each specific image.

The main use I personally make of histograms is to tell whether I'm in danger of losing significant highlight or shadow detail, because it's hard to tell much about either just from looking at the image on a camera's LCD screen. With a contrasty subject, I'm looking to see whether there's a large spike of values right up against the highlight side of the graph, or a similar spike right at the shadow edge. A large spike right at the edge of the tonal range like that says that there are a lot of pixels that are pure white or pure black (or covering a very narrow range of dark or light tones), so it's likely you're losing detail there.

This doesn't mean, though, that you should never see such a spike. If an image has a lot of specular highlights (reflections of the light source itself), you'll want those to blow out, else you'd end up with a very flat and underexposed-looking image. Ditto with an image where you don't care that much about detail in the really deep shadows.

If you generally see big lumps at both ends of the histogram, that's an indication to cut the contrast - but again, only if you care a lot about detail in the shadows or highlights. If you try to pull in the exposure extremes on a naturally contrasty subject, you'll again wind up with a very flat-looking image.

On other fronts, a histogram won't tell you much about noise reduction or color rendering; you'll need to make those decisions based on your experience with the camera. The best advice I have for anyone with a new camera (or an old one that you're not that deeply familiar with, for that matter) is to experiment relentlessly. With digital, it costs you nothing to change the settings and snap another shot, and doing so is how you get a handle on just how the different settings affect your images.

Sometimes, though, the trick is remembering just what settings were used for which photos. There are two solutions to that. 1) Carry a little pocket notebook, to jot down notes about what settings you used, and what you were trying to achieve in each shot or group of shots, or 2) back on the computer, the manufacturer's bundled software will usually show you what the settings were for each image. Some combination of both might be helpful, as the total list of settings and adjustments shown in the software can be pretty long, making it more difficult to see what you were doing after the fact.

One final observation, though: My notes above about being careful to not end up with flat-looking photos were directed at people who are just interested in the best-looking JPEGs straight from the camera. If your modus operandi is to shoot and then process all your images on the computer before considering them final, you will want to have flatter-looking images at capture, so you'll preserve the highlight and shadow data to work with on the computer later. - And if you're shooting RAW, it turns out most settings other than exposure make little or no difference, as they all apply to the image data after the point at which it would be stored in a RAW file. (Note, though, that Sony is prone to making some adjustments to their "raw" files, so noise reduction in particular may have an effect there. Some manufacturers also "bake in" lens distortion correction to their RAW files.

I'm afraid this wasn't the sort of closed-ended recommendation you were looking for, but the essential points are that: 1) The histogram is a tool to show you how to adjust settings for a specific shot, so there's no single setup that'll produce the "best" histogram in all conditions, and 2) there are a lot of image characteristics (like noise levels and color rendering) that the histogram is silent on. Bottom line, profligate experimentation is the best way to learn how to best apply your camera's settings and features.

Best,
- Dave E.

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The Comparometer proves its value once again

Just to say that I have found the Comparometer a very useful tool - and in my case a quite reassuring one! Early last last year I was able to get hold of a new NEX C3 cheap and later wondered whether I had made a mistake - not least given all the criticism of Sony's lenses. Time and time again comparing it on the Comparometer with images from newer APS-C and MFT, I have found it holds its own remarkably well. So after reading your review of the RX1, I did the comparison again, and once again, I am amazed how well this second-generation NEX does. �I don't know if it would be possible to include lens data as well as ISO data in your comparisons, as this is clearly an issue. E.g. comparing kit lens or primes makes a lot of difference.
Otherwise, many thanks for all IR input which is great.
John N
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Hi John -

Thanks for sharing that about the Comparometer, it's very gratifying, because it's exactly the use I hoped people would make of our site when I created it almost 15 years ago now. (Hard to believe it's been that long.)

Ultimately, it doesn't matter what we say about a camera's images, it's what YOU (the readers) think of them. After all, you're the ones who'll be using and living with the cameras, so you're the ones who'll nave to be satisfied with them.

Sony's NEX cameras do in fact have really excellent image quality, and as you're finding, you don't necessarily need 24 megapixels to be satisfied with the photos your camera produces. To be sure, the RX1 does beat the likes of the NEX-C3 when it comes to ultimate resolution, optical quality of its lens, and high-ISO performance, but people are often surprised by how well former state of the art devices hold up against newer competition.

Bottom line, if you're happy with how your camera is performing, there's no need to upgrade - I'm happy to hear we've helped delay the cost of an upgrade for you. When it does come time to make the move, do remember us: Purchases through our affiliate links with Adorama or Amazon are a very real help with the cost of cranking out the tests year after year :-)

On the matter of lenses used for testing, we do need a way to tie that information to the images in the Comparometer. Unless we're specifically wanting to show the performance of the kit lens (typically via shots of our VFA and RES targets, at wide and tele settings), all our lab shots are made with very sharp primes, to make sure we're showing the ultimate performance of the camera, vs the foibles of a particular lens. For Sony (including NEX), Canon, Nikon, and Pentax camera bodies, we use a Sigma 70mm f/2.8 macro lens, which is available or all four platforms, and is pretty much the sharpest lens we've ever tested on SLRgear. For Nikon bodies without an internal focus motor (eg, the D3200 and other entry-level models), we use a Nikon 60mm f/2.8 macro, which is also very sharp. For Micro Four Thirds bodies, we use an Olympus 50mm f/2 Four Thirds macro lens with a mount adapter that, again, is among the sharpest we've tested for that platform. So all the lab tests except those specifically aimed at showing kit lens behavior are shot with very sharp primes, but we do need to figure out a way to couple lens info with images shown in the reviews and the Comparometer display itself.

Thanks again for your note: Doing the level of testing and reporting we do takes a huge amount of work from a number of people, so it really helps to hear that our readers appreciate the effort!

Best,
- Dave E.

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No love for italics

Please get rid of the italic font. Very difficult to read.

- Roger B
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We appreciate the feedback - Done!

- Dave E.

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NEW ON THE SITE
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At http://www.imaging-resource.com/new-on-ir you can keep track of what's new on our main site. Among the highlights since the last issue:

- News: Raspberry Pi moves forward with $25 camera; 10 units to be given away in competition (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/03/07/raspberry-pi-moves-forward-with-25-camera-10-units-to-be-given-away-in-comp)

- News: Artists create massive camera obscura in New York City park (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/03/06/artists-create-massive-camera-obscura-in-new-york-city-park)

- Products: RhinoCam promises to turn your Sony NEX into a medium format digital camera for $500 (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/03/06/rhinocam-promises-to-turn-your-sony-nex-into-a-medium-format-digital-camera)

- Video: Best steadicam shots of all time featured in captivating video (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/03/05/best-steadicam-shots-of-all-time-featured-in-captivating-video)

- Video: A young Annie Leibovitz discusses her most famous celebrity portraits in revealing video (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/03/04/a-young-annie-leibovitz-discusses-her-most-famous-celebrity-portraits-in-re)

- Lens Review: Canon EF-M 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/03/04/lens-review-canon-ef-m-18-55mm-f-3.5-5.6-is-stm)

- News: Prepare to drool at these rare cameras going up for auction at WestLicht (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/03/01/prepare-to-drool-at-these-rare-cameras-going-up-for-auction-at-westlicht)

- Photos: Haunting, black-and-white self-portraits by young Hungarian artist mesmerize Flickr fans (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/02/26/haunting-black-and-white-self-portraits-by-young-hungarian-artist-mesmerize)

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NEXT ISSUE
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Our next issue will be mailed to you in two weeks, on Friday, March 22.

SIGNOFF
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That's it for now, but between issues visit our site for the latest news, reviews, or to have your questions answered in our free discussion forum. Here are the links to our most popular pages:

Newsletter Archive: http://www.imaging-resource.com/cgi-bin/dada-nltr/mail.cgi/archive/irnews
Daily News: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news
SLR Gear: http://www.slrgear.com
New on Site: http://www.imaging-resource.com/new-on-ir
Review Index: http://www.imaging-resource.com/camera-reviews
IR Photo Contest: http://www.dailydigitalphoto.com

Happy snapping!
Dave Etchells & Roger Slavens
mailto:editor@imaging-resource.com