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THE IMAGING RESOURCE DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY NEWSLETTER
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Volume 15, Number 11 - 31 May 2013

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Copyright 2013, The Imaging Resource. All rights reserved.
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Welcome to the 359th edition of The Imaging Resource Newsletter. In this issue, we'll take a look at the controversial, evocative and revolutionary photography of William Klein, as well as delve into our review of the Sigma DP1 Merrill, a single-minded camera that delivers exceptional low-ISO images. We've got some quick-but-deep coverage about Yahoo's revamping of its Flickr online photo service -- and the firestorm started by CEO Melissa Mayer's "misstatement" about professional photographers. And, as always, IR chief Dave Etchells answers a ton of your mail and we provide links to several news stories recently published on our site that we hope you'll enjoy. Happy reading!

TOPICS
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Feature: The Lion in Winter - The Revolutionary Photography of William Klein
Review: Sigma DP1 Merrill 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. (Visiting our sponsor's links really helps support this newsletter, thank you for your attention!) And now a word from our sponsors:

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* Sigma *
At the new Sigma, photography is our one and only focus.
Our new line of lenses are a tour de force, ranging from the
35mm F1.5 DG HSM 'Art' to the 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM
'Contemporary' to the 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM 'Sport'.
Our cameras, featuring the Foveon X3 sensor, include the SD1 and the
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Learn more about Sigma offerings at http://www.imaging-resource.com/cgi-bin/nl/pl.cgi?sg13

* Samsung *
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Are you in the digital photo business? This newsletter is read by more than 47,000 direct subscribers (plus additional pass-along readers), all with a passion for digital photography. For information on how you can reach them, contact us at editor@imaging-resource.com.

FEATURE: A Lion in Winter -- The Revolutionary Photography of William Klein
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(Note: To see more of William Klein's images, as well as a Tate Gallery of London video about his life and his work, click through and view the story on our site at http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/30/a-lion-in-winter-the-revolutionary-photography-of-william-klein)

By Steve Meltzer

The French photography magazine PHOTO recently devoted its entire May issue to 85-year-old American photographer and iconoclast William Klein. Born in New York City in 1928, Klein has mostly lived in Paris since 1948, which has done little to endear him in America. His photography was labeled outright un-American in the 1950s, and his 1969 movie titled "Mr. Freedom" did little to change that impression. The film is an almost unwatchable spoof of American culture that film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum called “conceivably the most anti-American movie ever made.” As an artist and social critic, Klein was a firebrand, a revolutionary, a lion -- with the wild mane to go with it.

In-your-face photographer

Klein first got noticed through his street photography. Compared to the sweet images of Garry Winogrand, Klein’s world is an in-your-face kaleidoscopic place, where faces are often grotesque and disturbing. He crosses the boundaries of politeness and charm, and takes us by the scruff of the neck into the world of his subjects.

On the streets of New York in the mid-1950s, he discovered blur and learned to use it to draw the viewer into the heart of the image. Take his most famous image “The Gun.” It sums up his discovery of blur. The business end of the gun is completely blurry, but it pulls us right into the eyes of the kid holding the gun and his scrunched up face. It is the face you make just as you are about to pull the trigger.

The gun is aimed at the viewer. That in itself is remarkable. How many pictures can you think of that confront the viewer so directly? The image asks “What are you looking at?” It mirrors the world that Klein grew up in, and it is as he says, very much a self-portrait. The image affects me deeply because I grew up in New York City where the streets were tough and violence was never far away. I knew kids like this -- in fact, I was one of them. And like many of my friends, I graduated from a toy Lone Ranger cap gun to a zip gun and then to a .38.

Gun 1, New York, 1955 \A9 William Klein

A self-taught outsider

The son of Hungarian immigrants, Klein grew up in New York City and attended City College for a short while. In 1946, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, spending his tour of duty in postwar Germany. Demobilzed in 1948, Klein moved to Paris and enrolled at the\A0Sorbonne where he studied art with Fernand L\E9ger. \A0He was interested in abstract\A0painting and sculpture, and by 1952 had held several successful solo exhibitions. Then he found himself attracted to photography, which he saw as a field wide open with possibilities. Returning to New York in 1954, he decided to photograph the city and his old familiar haunts. As he tells it:

“I’m an outsider, I guess, I wasn’t part of any movement. I was working alone, following my instinct. I had no real respect for good technique because I didn’t know what it was. I was self-taught, so that stuff didn’t matter to me.”

His disrespect for good technique led to some groundbreaking imagery as he just stuck his camera in people’s faces and took pictures -- sometimes so close the faces were out of focus. Klein realized that foreground blur could pull the viewers eyes deep into the frame and since he didn’t know better, it was revolutionary.

Apparently none of the publishers had been to the Bronx because no one wanted his book.

Klein returned to Paris and tried again, and this time he found a publisher, Chris Marker of Seuil Editions. His book of photography titled "New York" was published in 1956 and won the Prix Nadar. A copy of it was also purchased by Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini.

When Fellini was on a visit to Paris, he met the young photographer and invited him to work on his next film, "Nights of Cabiria." Klein knew nothing about movie making, but was always ready to grab at an opportunity. He packed up his cameras and his wife Jeanne, and went off to Rome. Fellini was notorious for his production delays, and "Nights of Cabiria" went into a stall. With no work, Klein used his time to wander around Rome and do what he did best -- take street photographs. The resulting images were published in late 1957 as his next book titled “Rome.”

Simone, Piazza di Spagna, 1960 \A9 William Klein

Klein got into commercial work after Alexander Liberman, the legendary art director of\A0Vogue, saw an exhibition of his abstract photographs and offered him a job. Says Klein:

"Those guys spotted raw talent and encouraged it. They were all Russian Jews in exile: Liberman at\A0Vogue,\A0Alexey Brodovitch\A0at\A0Harper's Bazaar. They had a knowledge of avant garde art and design that the Americans didn't have."

In 1958, Klein's photographs first appeared in Vogue, and for the next 10 years he worked for the magazine. In the book "Photography of the 20th Century," Klein's fashion work is described as revolutionary for its "ambivalent and ironic approach to the world of fashion" and its "uncompromising rejection of the then prevailing rules of photography." Some of those "rules" today may seem bizarre and laughable as Klein's revolution included shooting with wide-angle and telephoto lenses, using natural lighting and -- OMG -- blur.

He also continued taking street photographs when he could, also finishing a book on "Moscow" and another on "Tokyo" before finally finding an American publisher for "New York." However, by 1964 he was bored and restless -- so he started making films.

Films and commercial pursuits

Working with Fellini, Klein had fallen in love with movie making and after leaving Vogue he began producing and directing films. His first feature was "Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?" in 1966, and in 1969 he made his most successful film, "Muhammad Ali, The Greatest." His third film was the “Little Richard Story” but the musician is hardly present in the film. (Critics jokingly called it “The Search for Little Richard.”) His 1981 documentary, "The French" about tennis star Roland Garros also was well received. But there were the disasters too, such as “Mr. Freedom.” It was a film mostly notable for the appearance of famed French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg in the role of Monsieur Drugstore.

Despite his early run ins with the publishing world and the "Mad Men" of the 1950s, Klein eventually went on to have a long career in advertising. He has produced more than 250 TV commercials and shot untold numbers of advertising stills.

In his old age, the lion time and again has been lionized. There have been several retrospectives made of his work, and the awards have poured in. He has received the\A0Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal, Sony’s Contribution to Photography Award (in 2012) and many more. Professional Photographer Magazine ranked Klein No. 25 on its "100 Most Influential Photographers of the Century" list.

Older and more tranquil, the lion continues to work.\A0At age 83, he went off to England in 2011 for the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Rather than spend time with the society folks, though, Klein\A0spent his time prowling through the crowded streets of London. As usual he would take photographs poking his camera into people’s faces. Although street photography has gotten more difficult as people respond more angrily to photographers, Klein was\A0perhaps\A0protected them by his age and his great grey mane of hair.\A0

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REVIEW: Sigma DP1 Merrill Shooter's Report (Excerpt)
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(You can check out our in-depth Sigma DP1 Merrilll review, complete with gallery photos, comparison crops, lab test results and our final conclusion, here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/sigma-dp1m/sigma-dp1mA.HTM)

By Eamon Hickey

If Sigma cameras with Foveon sensors have achieved a kind of quasi-mythical status -- and a strong group (note, I'm choosing not to use the word "cult" here) of followers to go along with it -- then don't count me as a convert. However, you might call me a sympathizer. I love the way many low-ISO Foveon images look, but I\92m not as forgiving as many of the Foveon faithful seem to be about the performance and usability limitations of previous Sigma cameras.

To see how much progress Sigma has made on the usability front, I took the DP1 Merrill for a walk around my neighborhood in New York City (Greenwich Village, broadly speaking), which always puts on a great show for a photographer, with everything from grand apartment buildings to flowers in the parks to an endless variety of street life and activity.

Design and handling. Though described as a compact camera, the Sigma DP1 Merrill was a bit bigger than I expected it to be, and certainly wouldn\92t fit into anyone\92s pants pocket. The design can only be described as minimalist, or dare I say, utilitarian. The body is a simple, squarish block with few bells and whistles -- just a smattering of basic controls and a hot shoe for an accessory flash since it doesn\92t have one built in. The 19mm lens juts out on the right side about an inch and a half (looking from the front) and bears no functional adornments save the focus ring, bayonet hood mount and 49mm filter threads. Overall, the Sigma DP1M's (1980s retro?) design left me a little cold, but it somehow fits its no-nonsense nature.

Picking it up, the camera has some heft to it and it felt well made, though not exactly pleasing to hold. It fit my large hands just fine, and the limited physical controls were easy to reach and navigate. There's no real grip on the Sigma DP1 Merrill except for a series of raised nubs where your right thumb goes when you snap a shot. The shutter felt mushy, but the rest of the controls were crisp and tight.

Controls and user interface. I set the Sigma DP1 Merrill for my preferred exposure mode, Aperture Priority, selecting my preferred aperture values using the top-deck control wheel and letting the camera set the rest of the exposure. Right off the bat, I was pleased that I could display a live histogram on the camera\92s LCD for determining exposure and also access exposure compensation directly at any time with the left and right buttons on the four-way controller. This is so simple but so powerful -- making fast, precise analysis and adjustment of exposure from shot to shot as easy as pie. The same straightforward exposure control simplicity is available in Shutter Priority or Program mode, as well. Program Shift is also supported, just by turning the control wheel in Program mode.

Next, I went looking for my secret feature obsession -- the ability to separate autofocus activation from the shutter release and assign it to a different button. Alas, the Sigma DP1 Merrill doesn\92t have this capability. That\92s disappointing, but the DP1 Merrill does allow direct toggling from autofocus to manual focus with a single touch of the top button on the four-way controller, which is great. And I had no trouble manually focusing using the ring on the lens, nor did I have any difficulty judging focus with the magnified view on the LCD.

Within my first half dozen shots, I was already impressed with Sigma\92s design sensibility for the DP1 Merrill\92s critical exposure and focusing functions. These were simple and straightforward, with no fancy adornments, but powerful enough for advanced photographers and very fast and efficient to use.

Functions that are secondary but still important such as ISO, drive mode, white balance and others are always a challenge for a camera designer. Do you bury stuff in menus, or festoon the camera body with a dozen or more buttons and levers? Sigma\92s solution on the DP1 Merrill is the Quick Set button, which works in combination with the four-way controller and the top-deck control dial. This system is not as fast as dedicated external buttons would be, but it\92s a lot better than menu diving. On a West Village street where I had been shooting shadowed shop windows at ISO 400, I suddenly spotted a driver unloading a bright red Coca-Cola delivery truck in dappled sunlight. I was able to switch to ISO 100 (to maximize image quality) very quickly and get the shot before the driver walked out of the scene. I wouldn\92t be happy with the Quick Set interface on a DSLR, but for a compact, fixed-lens camera like the Sigma DP1 Merrill, I can live with it.

All is not wine and roses, of course, because, well, it never is. Trying to shoot a strongly backlit scene in Washington Square Park, I ran into a modest drawback. The Sigma DP1 Merrill\92s live histogram -- my strongly preferred guide to exposure -- stops responding to exposure changes in some circumstances when you\92re intentionally trying for severe underexposure (to protect bright highlights or shoot a silhouette, for example). I had to rely on older school exposure skills, which seem to have atrophied, and I blew the shot.

As I shot more with the Sigma DP1 Merrill, I also came to realize that the live histogram didn't give a particularly good preview of the exposure. Instead I had to take the effort to check the actual image histogram to be sure and make the proper adjustments. That\92s not a huge problem in general -- I learned that I could compensate for it with reasonably consistent results -- but it can be annoying because of other performance limitations I\92ll talk about later in this report.

Over several days shooting with the Sigma DP1 Merrill, I used it indoors, under heavy overcast and in bright, clear daylight. I never had a real problem composing images with the new LCD, which is sharp and reasonably contrasty and clear. That said, I\92ve worked with some that were easier to see in bright light, and displayed colors and contrasty scenes with more visible detail.

Lens. To give the Sigma DP1 Merrill\92s 19mm lens a workout, I took the camera to Grand Central Station for a wide-angle vista of the station\92s main concourse. This is a horribly clich\E9 image -- only half a billion tourists have shot it -- but it\92s a really fun clich\E9 to shoot. We evaluate the DP1 Merrill\92s image quality in depth below (in the Image Quality Comparison section), but I\92ll just say here that my ISO 100 Grand Central images are loaded with beautiful, tiny details -- wreaths, intricate stonework, commuters mesmerized by their smartphones -- across nearly all of the frame. Bottom line: this is a high quality lens.

If I can only have one focal length, a 28mm-equivalent lens would be my first choice for a wide-angle camera. In my days of shooting with the Sigma DP1 Merrill, the lens worked well for some nice cityscapes, landscapes and interiors, and it was still decent for people shots after cropping, especially since the DP1 Merrill\92s images are so detailed. Of course, a single-focal-length camera limits what you can effectively shoot. Some photographers hate that and others, like me on many days, are happy to work within those boundaries.

How good is the Sigma DP1 Merrill's fixed 28mm-equivalent lens?
Find out by clicking here to see our optical test results.

I\92m sure some photographers would like the Sigma DP1 Merrill\92s lens to open a stop wider than its f/2.8 maximum aperture, but I never wished for that extra stop as I shot with it. (And it's a marked improvement on its predecessor's f/4.0 max aperture.) Instead, I was delighted with the relatively light weight and small size of the f/2.8 optic.

Note that maximum shutter speed varies with aperture. At f/2.8, the fastest shutter speed available is 1/1250 second. At f/4.0, it increases to 1/1600 and at f/5.6, the top shutter speed is 1/2000 second. The minimum aperture is f/16, and unfortunately there's no built-in neutral density filter.

Using the Sigma DP1 Merrill, I captured one of my favorite photos I've ever taken of NYC street life. This shot of the street vendor and his cart just seems like it could come to life at any minute and exudes that special, extra-dimensional Foveon-sensor quality.

Performance. After shooting in Grand Central Station, I headed to Bryant Park and then walked up Fifth Avenue with the idea of seeing how well the Sigma DP1 Merrill works for my favorite kind of photography -- street shooting.

On my earlier trip in the Village, and also at Bryant Park, I found the Sigma DP1 Merrill\92s autofocus (AF) system to be somewhat sluggish for stationary subjects. It was fast enough for most shots in bright light, but it often hunted a lot in low light or on low-contrast subjects. And a few times I lost moments -- the perfect posture or facial expression -- while waiting for the AF to respond, even in bright light.

I also tried it out on skaters in Bryant Park and on the moving crowds of tourists and shoppers along Fifth Avenue. No dice. If it moves, the DP1 Merrill\92s AF system is not much interested in focusing on it.

So, while walking on Fifth Avenue, I decided to set the DP1 Merrill for manual focus and pre-focused the lens at about 7 to 8 feet The camera shoots very quickly this way, with minimal shutter delay, and I got several pictures I liked, including an on-the-go grab image of a food cart vendor that\92ll make it into my collection of favorite New York City images.

Just how fast is the Sigma DP1 Merrill? Find out by clicking here to see our full battery
of rigorous, objective speed and operation tests conducted in the IR Lab.

Later on the same walk, I experimented with a third AF mode, called Direct Manual Focus, which allows you to use the camera in autofocus mode but -- as long as you hold the shutter release half-depressed -- you can switch to manual focus by simply turning the lens ring. It\92s handy, but the Sigma DP1 Merrill\92s shutter release button is overly mushy, meaning I often had trouble holding the half-depressed position while I focused, resulting in either an inadvertent picture if I pressed down, or reverting back to autofocus if I let up.

The Sigma DP1 Merrill\92s buffer can hold seven images, which was enough for me; I never overran the buffer and don\92t think I ever would with this camera. However, compared to other cameras in its class, the DP1M is slow in terms of shot-to-shot cycle times, and its buffer isn't particularly deep, according to IR lab tests.

And that brings me to one of two performance problems that bothered me. While the Sigma DP1 Merrill\92s buffer allows uninterrupted shooting for seven shots, it takes a dreadfully long time to clear. I found that it took several seconds before you can play back a just-shot image (depending on your card speed and image file format). That\92s a long wait to be able to check focus or composition. It was especially vexing to me while making some careful landscape shots in Washington Square Park and Central Park, when I wanted to check the image histogram and precisely adjust my subsequent exposures based on what the histogram told me. (And recall that I needed to check the actual image histogram for these precise adjustments because the live histogram is relatively inaccurate.) I never lost a shot because of this, but I confess to some sour feelings for the DP1 Merrill as I was standing out in the wind on a cold day in Central Park, waiting, waiting, waiting.

On the day that I was shooting along Fifth Avenue I discovered the DP1 Merrill\92s second performance problem, and this one\92s a biggie; Sigma just has no excuse for it. I began shooting in Grand Central Station with a freshly charged battery at 1:20 p.m. One hour and twenty-four minutes later, after 57 shots, the battery was dead. Now granted, I was doing a lot of LCD viewing, it was cold (around 40 \B0F/4 \B0C), and it\92s true that Sigma includes two batteries with the camera for just this reason. But this is still ridiculous, plain and simple. (As we noted in our overview, the battery is rated for just 97 shots.)

Photo Pro software processing. On my last day with the Sigma DP1 Merrill, I hopped a subway to the Upper East Side and walked over to Central Park to look for the closest thing New York City provides to landscape images. In the park, I shot several scenes with the last remnants of delicate fall color; some with lots of very fine detail, including foliage, and some others with strong contrast ratios and extended tonality ranges.

For practical purposes at this time, the unique RAW files produced by the Sigma DP1 Merrill\92s Foveon sensor require Sigma\92s free Photo Pro software to develop them into viewable images. Most DP1 Merrill owners will end up using this software, so I spent some time working in Photo Pro with these Central Park shots, as well as my earlier images, to see what it can do.

(Editor's Note: All of the images in this Shooter\92s Report gallery were converted/edited using Sigma Photo Pro and/or Adobe Photoshop Light Room/CS5.)

With very little fussing of the controls, I could produce quite beautiful, exquisitely crisp images from the DP1 Merrill\92s Foveon RAW files using Sigma Photo Pro. The program incorporates decent tools for controlling exposure, contrast, tonal range, sharpness, noise reduction and lens corrections. Only its white balance and color adjustment controls are substantially below standard.

Sadly, this experiment cost me what remained of my youth. Photo Pro is very slow and clunky, lacking most of the workflow efficiency tools you\92ll find in programs like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Phase One Capture One, Apple Aperture and several others. I loved the end results but could barely tolerate the process. If you\92re considering buying this camera, you owe it to yourself to get a hold of a few Foveon raw files, download Photo Pro, and test it out to see if you can live with it before making the purchase.

Image quality. There's something very special about the images captured by the Sigma DP1 Merrill and other Foveon-sensor cameras. We've called them extra "dimensional" or "rich" before, but mere words can't do enough to describe the unique characteristics of the photos produced at low ISOs by the three-layer Foveon sensor. The photo of the NYC street vendor that I mentioned earlier in my report is one of my most favorite shots I've ever taken while walking around the city, and the DP1M's sensor and processor give it that extra something I wouldn't likely be able to achieve with a non-Foveon camera, even in post processing.

Look at the side-by-side comparisons below that pit the DP1M against some other serious cameras at base ISO, and you'll begin to see how sharp and detailed the Sigma DP1 Merrill's photos are. But once you get above ISO 400, things fall apart quickly. At ISO 1600, the images begin to exhibit a scorched or baked look, with colors losing their intensity and detail diminishing, and they suffer greatly in comparison. In my opinion, you simply can't use this camera -- and other Foveon-based Sigma models -- for any quality photography in low light without a tripod.

The DP1 Merrill, like other recent Sigma cameras, can now produce JPEGs in camera (older models could not). I found that the in-camera JPEGs fell short of what I could easily, albeit very slowly, produce from RAW files in Photo Pro. If I owned this camera, I would use in-camera JPEGs only for initial sorting of my pictures, and I suspect most Sigma DP1 Merrill owners will feel the same.

Movies. It\92s a simple process to record video with the Sigma DP1 Merrill. But the camera has possibly the most rudimentary set of video features (only exposure compensation is available) and specs (VGA resolution with a 640x426 image area and mono sound) that I\92ve seen in half a dozen years. If I wasn\92t reviewing the DP1 Merrill, I would have used my smartphone instead -- it\92s a much better video camera than the Sigma DP1 Merrill.

Summary: I started this review sympathetic with the Foveon flock who worship the low-ISO images that Sigma cameras like the DP1 Merrill can produce. Unfortunately I have to say I'm still not a convert. While I was very impressed with some of the photos I took with the DP1 Merrill, it\92s just too limiting of a photographic tool to recommend to the average enthusiast photographer. It was fun to play with the camera for several days and see what it could do -- especially when I put it to its best purpose, street shooting -- but the Sigma DP1 Merrill lacks the flexibility and overall performance that other top compact cameras and DSLRs in this price range could provide. That said, I\92d happily shoot with the DP1 Merrill again, and I\92m sure there are plenty of savvy photographers who\92d be very happy owning it and exploiting its special properties when the perfect situations (still subjects, good lighting) arise.

Read our final conclusion on the camera in our Sigma DP1 Merrill review online: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/sigma-dp1m/sigma-dp1mA.HTM

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QUICK HITS: The most interesting, most-read articles on the IR site in the past two weeks
----------------

From Daguerreotype to gelatin silver: A 30-minute crash course on the history of film processes

By Steve Meltzer

In six short, excellent videos from the George Eastman House -- each about three to six minutes long -- the history of film photography is told in terms of the processes behind it, from the Daguerreotype to gelatin silver prints. The Eastman House staff, led by Alison Nordstrom, senior curator of photographs, takes us through the history of each process. They describe each process, its impact on photography and how it changed the broader society. Nordstrom, for instance, reminds us that because of photography, for the first time millions of people could see the faces of family members who had died long before they were born.

Read more about the "See: Untold Stories" video series and watch the first one here http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/17/from-daguerreotype-to-gelatin-silver-30-minute-crash-course-photo-history

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IR's recap of the new Flickr and the firestorm stirred up by Yahoo CEO Melissa Mayer

Yahoo unveils revamped Flickr photo service with 1TB of free storage space

By Dan Havlik

Capping off its earlier announcement that it would purchase photo blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion, Yahoo also unveiled a complete redesign for its Flickr photo sharing service, including offering 1-terabyte of free storage space for users. Yahoo's announcement came at a press event in New York City tonight, where the company showed off screen shots of the new Flickr, which looks radically different from the service's previous incarnation with bigger photos and much less surrounding white space.

Read more here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/20/yahoo-unveils-revamped-flickr-photo-service-with-1tb-of-free-storage-space

FAQ for the new Flickr: What\92s changed and what\92s stayed the same?

By Tim Barribeau

Yahoo's announcement\A0of the overhauled Flickr has got a lot of people excited for very good reasons: 1TB of free storage and an exciting new design is a lot to like. But with a new pricing structure, there are still a lot of questions about how the system will work for old Pro users, new users, and everyone in between.

The basic differences between the various account types in the overhauled Flickr are laid out here, which should help you sort through the confusion a bit. However, we're going to try to address some of the thornier issues going on with the new Flickr, that haven't been laid out by parent company Yahoo or Flickr itself, quite so clearly yet.

Read more here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/21/FAQ-for-the-new-Flickr-whats-changed-and-whats-stayed-the-same

Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer catches heat for comments about Flickr and pro photographers

By Dan Havlik

Yahoo made big news yesterday when it announced it had purchased photo blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion, and then unveiled a totally revamped Flickr photo sharing service, which includes 1TB of free storage for users. But it's what Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said during a discussion about the new Flickr that has made even bigger news with professional photographers today. It's also made some of them quite upset.

Read more here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/21/yahoo-chief-marissa-mayer-catches-heat-for-comments-about-flickr-and-profes

By Dan Havlik

Less than a day after Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer stirred up a firestorm of criticism for comments some felt were disparaging of professional photographers, she took to Twitter to offer several rounds of apologies to her followers. Indeed, nearly every tweeted reply in the last 24 hours from Mayer's Twitter account had the word "apology," "apologize," or "apologies" in it.

"I worded my answer terribly. I really apologize for what it sounded like outside of the context and notion of Flickr Pro," one of Mayer's tweets read.

Read more here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/22/yahoo-ceo-marissa-mayer-apologizes-on-twitter-for-misstatement-about-pros

(Editor's note: The following opinion piece is by Scott Johnson, the primary photographer at Contrast Studio in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada. It first appeared on Contrast Studio's blog and does not necessarily reflect the views of Imaging Resource.)

I\92ve been thinking about the evolution (or devolution, depending on your point of view) of the photography industry a LOT lately, and after reading the statement below, it seemed like the right time to chime in:

"There's no such thing as Flickr Pro because today, with cameras as pervasive as they are, there's no such thing, really, as professional photographers, when there's everything that's professional photographers. Certainly there's varying levels of skills but we didn't want to have a Flickr Pro anymore. We wanted everyone to have professional quality photo space and sharing."

- Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO, May 2013

Her comment, understandably, hit the emotional backbone of the photography community and many comments and blog posts followed, most of them blasting her for being so callous and thoughtless.

When I saw the video\A0(about 46 minutes in), I thought her comment had been taken out of context, and that she was specifically referring towards the trends that Flickr was experiencing. But aside from what appears to be an off-the cuff response to a reporter\92s question, the question she raised is a great one: is there a line between the Amateur and Pro Photographer?

Sadly, I don\92t think there is.

Read more of Scott Johnson's opinion here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/23/is-there-a-line-between-amateur-and-professional-photography-opinion

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Testing out 500px's new web photo portfolio service

By Tim Barribeau

Last month 500px announced it was rolling out a new portfolio system for paying users, and over the last week or two, users have been receiving emails letting them know that the service is now up and running.We took 500px's new portfolio system for a spin to see just how easy it is to get a dedicated site for your images looking nice and pretty.

To find out what we thought of this new service from 500px, which is a direct competitor to Flickr's recently overhauled system, read more here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/23/Online-photo-portfolio-review-Testing-out-500pxs-new-web-portfolio-servic

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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.

Finding long lenses for the Sony NEX-7

Now the proud owner of a new Sony NEX-7 I find I made a mistake in buying it with the kit lens since I am more accustomed to shooting at longer focal distances. Sony lens' are so expensive. Does anyone else make "E" lenses for this camera?

T. Bennett Finley

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Hi Bennett --

Unfortunately, there's not a lot of third-party lenses available for the Sony E-mount, but there are at least a few. In the "longer zoom" category, it comes down to just one, though: Tamron makes the 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III VC, but it's very new, so we haven't tested it ourselves, nor are there any user reviews on SLRgear for it yet. (We actually have one sitting in the lab downstairs, waiting for lens tech Rob to get to it, but it's a ways down in the queue, we won't likely have it tested and posted for another 6 weeks or so yet.) You can find it on Amazon, though, and reviews there are pretty positive. Amazon is selling it for $739.

That competes with two Sony models, only one of which we've tested. The older Sony 18-200mm was really pretty good for a super-zoom, with very well-behaved blur characteristics (see the blur viewer in our review on SLRgear), but as you get out to 200mm, the corners get pretty soft. That said, the center stays quite sharp, and it's a lens I've happily used myself on many occasions. The one downside to it is that it's *big*, which I'm told is a consequence of having an unusually compliant IS system designed to accommodate greater amounts of camera/lens movement during video recording. (It also has stepless aperture actuation and very quiet AF, likewise designed with video in mind.) Amazon sells this lens for $898, and customers there give it very high marks.

More recently, Sony has come out with a considerably more svelte version that also incorporates "power zoom" for smooth zooming during video, or (maybe?) more convenient zooming for still shots. Amazon sells it for $50 less than the earlier version, but there seems to be more negative comment on it, perhaps caused by some early QC issues. (It's perhaps worth noting, though, that one of the reviewers who gave this version three stars had also used the Tamron 18-200mm, and said that the Sony is "definitely better.")

Not having tested either the new Sony or the recently introduced Tamron, I really can't give a qualified opinion as to which of the three you should buy. I've been really happy whenever I used the original Sony 18-200mm, my only complaint being the bulk. Working from my current state of knowledge, I personally would probably bite the bullet and go with the older Sony 18-200mm, but I'm eager to see what sort of results Rob finds in the lab when he tests the Tamron, and especially the new Sony, whenever we can lay hands on one.

-- Dave E.

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An Adobe Camera RAW workaround

Greetings, and thanks for a brilliant newsletter!

I have Photoshop Elements 10, and have been shooting RAW and developing with this system for the past eight months with my Nikon D3100. I have now bought a D5200 and the system won't open the RAW file, telling me it is wrong. This is a huge step back for me as now I must shoot JPEG again. What can I do? I have Nikon VIEWNX2 but was just getting comfortable with PS and was getting some great results...

Regards,
Dave Ross

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Hi Dave --

Yeah, that's one way Adobe gets people to keep buying the latest version of their software; the versions of Camera Raw that support newer cameras only work with newer versions of their apps. There is a workaround, though, if you're willing to put up with a little inconvenience. Adobe distributes a free program alongside Camera Raw, called Adobe DNG Converter. This will convert any files the current Camera Raw version recognizes into Adobe DNG ("Digital Negative") format. For cameras with conventional Bayer-array sensors (everything but Sigma cameras with Foveon sensors or Fujifilm ones using their X-Trans technology), this conversion is lossless, and DNG is in fact a fairly universal format, and one that your Photoshop Elements should be able to read without any problems. You can read about the DNG format and download the converter here.

So it won't be quite as convenient -- you'll first have to convert your NEF files to DNG using the converter -- but once that's done, you should be able to proceed exactly as before.

-- Dave E.

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Re: Photo Award Winner and Image Manipulation

In any version shown here the photo of the men carrying the dead kids is a remarkably powerful image. Frankly I don't understand what the brouhaha is all about. For example, in all versions the bruise appears on the kid's forehead. So what if Photoshop could make the image a bit more contrasty. It changes nothing
basic about it. Manipulation is little different than, let's say, choosing between a #3 or #4 paper in the good old days.

Jack

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Hi Jack --

Ai yi yi - I don't want to get back into that argument, I've already spent *way* too much time arguing the merits or demerits of the case on the comments page for that article. I personally objected to the image on the grounds that the photographer was turning a news photo into what looked like a movie poster, trying to play up the emotion. I hate it when I feel someone's trying to manipulate my feelings to follow their own agenda. FWIW, though, I seem to be in a minority, most people seemed to feel as you do.

-- Dave E.

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Compact cameras that take add-on filters

I have a compact camera now and not wishing to return to my slr with telephoto heavy weight size but I do miss my add-on polarizing filter. Are there any other compact cameras that will take an add-on polarizing filter like the new Olympus tg-2 but longer zoom than 4x?

Zeke

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Hi Zeke -

Wow, that's a tough order. Fortunately, it seems we have that data buried deep in our camera features database. There aren't many, and none that I can find that are anywhere near as compact as the TG-2, but some superzooms have filter threads on them. From our database, it looks like models that do are the Panasonic FZ200 (24x, 52mm filter threads), Fujifilm HS30EXR, HS25EXR, and HS35EXR (all 30x, 58mm threads), Fujifilm HS50EXR (42x, 58mm threads).

Of these, the only one we've tested was the Panasonic FZ200. Our conclusion was that it was a good camera, worthy of a Dave's Pick. Read the review for all the details: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/panasonic-fz200/panasonic-fz200A.HTM

As it happens, I've personally shot with the FZ200, and even though it was a prototype sample at the time, I was extremely impressed with how sharp the lens was at the center of the frame, even at maximum telephoto. Panasonic wouldn't let me share the photos I shot, due to its prototype status, but the lens really amazed me. In one series, I was shooting fairly tight portrait shots of a model from about 20 feet away. (Yes, 20 feet, that's what a superzoom can do for you.) When I got the images to my computer, I was astounded to see that the lens/camera had resolved the incredibly fine peach fuzz hairs on the model's face.(!) The FZ200 does have some CA and corner blurriness, and the usual high-ISO limitations of a 1/2.3" sensor, but the overall image quality would be quite a step up from your TG-2. On the other hand, though, the FZ200 costs a lot more, is *much* bigger, and isn't waterproof or shockproof.

I don't know if that helps, but I can almost guarantee that we're the only organization with a database that could have produced that data. :-)

-- Dave E.

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Thoughts about and kudos for your last newsletter

You guys have done a good job by adding images to the IR Newsletter. I enjoyed your stuff from the issue about photojournalism and what amount of post processing is "allowed." Funny thing there. You can get a lot of debates. Simply cropping can alter the feel and look of an image and that is just as much pre or post processing and damnably as "editorial" as one can ever get.

But hey, the composition of the photo you featured -- that is the thing that rivets our attention and the fact that they are coming onto the photographer and moving in his direction. It is so in your face.

Later on, the Winogrand article was wonderful. I'm 60. I enjoyed photographic imagery at my library in upstate New York from the age of 13. Before that it was Life and Look and National Geographic.

Back to photography, at 14, I was so fortunate, I found the quarto-size books with wonderful images and stared at them for hours. How tos on photographing an oncoming steam locomotive at night with banks of wired-together flash bulbs\85 that was tour de force photography.

Winogrand brought me back to why 35mm Nikons and Leicas -- these small cameras with modest film size took off, eclipsing the 2x2 cameras and the smaller 6x7 or 4x5 cameras of their day.

Now, I do need to go back to the 35mm shot of the news journalist that is the subject of your article. That image would blow away (RAW mode alone) anything possible on film.

All those angry men, dead bodies in their arms, no mothers in sight -- they reflect a scene, a place, a mindset that we can hardly imagine here in our country and they are storming this person taking this image!

That is the power of photography, to capture the pathos, to be there, to capture it so we can STUDY IT, long after the fleeting moment of an alley being swarmed with saddened and angered men holding their dead children.

Photography is only a couple of centuries old, and it has had a huge impact on us all, in a way that we can't fathom yet, in the life of humans on earth.

Thank you, thank you for your thinking and your efforts. I know you need advertising, and that is fine, but it is a useful marriage of tools, this blog of yours and those advertisements.

Thank you for alerting me to the Winogrand exposition, I will see it in Washington, D.C. I can jump on the Metro and see it when it is here.

John Bishop

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Hi John -

It's great to hear you enjoyed those articles so much! I enjoyed the Winogrand piece myself. Readers have really been enjoying the series of historic posts Steve Meltzer has been writing for us, expect to see more of them (a couple earlier in this newsletter!) in an ongoing basis.

-- Dave E.

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Completely agree with your Olympus E-PM2 review

I wanted to share my experience with the 45mm 1.8 lens. Let me tell you, matched with my Olympus E-PM2, it is a dream combination. Sharp and so good in low light. Maybe I'll spring for the 75mm. I have always been an Olympus fan, they keep coming out with great cameras like the OM-1 and the OM-D E-M5.

Your review closely matched my experiences with this camera, especially your frustration with the menu system. The lens is just as you describe, a little better than average, but does well. Thanks for another great review, and not just because you are validating my purchase.

Regards,
Robin Lent

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Hi Robin -

It's always good to hear that our reviews match reality for our readers, thanks for sending in that note. I must confess that I couldn't really understand the E-PM2 myself. They tried to dumb-down the menus to make them "simpler" for the point-and-shoot crowd moving up, but I think they lost a lot in usability in the process. It is a pretty sweet little package, though, and I can't complain about the image quality, especially paired with their optics. That's one big advantage of the Micro Four Thirds system over most any other mirrorless platform. Between Olympus and Panasonic, there's a wide range of really excellent glass available for them, at a range of price points.

At any rate, thanks for the email validating our findings, and best wishes for many thousands of exposures with your E-PM2 (and many more lenses in your kit to shoot with it)!

(For those of you who might be interested in picking up an E-PM2, Amazon is selling them for $499 with a kit lens, $449 body only. For others just looking to get into the Micro Four Thirds world on a budget, there are some absolutely crazy prices out there on cameras like the Panasonic GX1, such as this one from Adorama, for just $249 body-only. You can also find the very nice Olympus E-P3 with kit lens for a crazy-low $369. Thanks go to Associate Editor William Brawley for scouting out these deals. You can check our news page regularly for his deal posts; he's been posting new sales and discounts nearly every week day.)

-- 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:

- Accessories: Manfrotto Befree travel tripod doesn't break the bank or your back (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/30/manfrotto-befree-travel-tripod-doesnt-break-the-bank-or-your-back)

- News: Redesign your own camera! Samsung NX300, NX2000 source code released (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/28/redesign-your-own-camera-samsung-nx300-nx2000-source-code-released)

- Hack: Magic Lantern brings to gift of RAW video to Canon 50D (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/28/magic-lantern-brings-the-gift-of-raw-video-to-canon-50d)

- News: Raspberry Pi cameras get sent into space and the results are out of this world (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/28/Raspberry-Pi-cameras-get-sent-into-space-and-photo-results-are-out-of-t)

- News: Sold! Signed print of Eisenstaedt’s “Kiss in Times Square” and Leica that shot it fetch big bucks at auction (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/27/sold-signed-print-of-eisenstaedts-kiss-in-times-square-and-leica-that-shot)

- Lenses: Sigma ships new prime and zoom lenses for Nikon, Pentax and Sony (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/24/sigma-ships-new-prime-and-zoom-lenses-for-nikon-pentax-sony)

- First Shots: Pixel peep test images from new Panasonic G6 and GF6 (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/24/panasonic-g6-and-gf6-first-shots-posted-pixel-peep-test-images-new-CSCs)

- Video: Torture test shows Nikon D3S being dragged to hell and back (and surviving) (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/23/torture-test-video-shows-nikon-d3s-being-dragged-to-hell-and-back-and-survi)

- First Shots: How do test photos from the Sony HX50V "world's smallest 30x zoom" stack up? (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/22/sony-hx50v-first-shots-how-do-test-photos-worlds-smallest-30x-zoom-stack-up)

- Photo Art: Photographer finds perfect surface for his striking tintype images -- old tin cans (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/05/21/photographer-finds-perfect-surface-for-his-tintype-photography-old-tin-cans)

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NEXT ISSUE
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Our next issue will be mailed to you in just one week, on Friday, June 7, with a special edition. Stay tuned!

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
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Review Index: http://www.imaging-resource.com/camera-reviews
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Happy snapping!
Dave Etchells & Roger Slavens
mailto: editor@imaging-resource.com