m e g a p e r l s

This rather enthusiastic article goes on about the great technological advances in digital cameras this year.

How digital cameras are getting more responsive, like conventional cameras are today. How sensors and with them image quality improves, again like film today. How storage capacity gets bigger, how image stabilisation will be part of any camera and more and more.

But has anyone thought about what will happen when digital has caught up with conventional? A camera cannot take a picture faster than you press the button, neither does it make sense to capture more than the eye can see, which incidentally is what film does today adequately, aesthetics aside. What else apart from optics can be improved after that? To be able to take 10.000 images before having to empty the storage space instead of just a roll of film with 36? To take 24 frames per second?

We’re getting close to the point where a camera is a camera is a camera. And a camera will always just be a special device to capture an image. The resource requirements for that purpose are finite and it is hard to see any further possible advance once all those requirements are met.

In the computer world we get faster processors and bigger hard drives all the time. But the computer, unlike a camera, is a general purpose device. More resource-intensive applications for computers keep appearing, but once say video editing, hard disk recording and 3D modelling are taken care of - which besides are applications that 90% of users will never use - there will be very little reason for bigger and better machines. Just like with digital cameras very soon.

That is not to say that one should stick to film or whatever. The overall advantages of the digital workflow are far too significant and it would be silly to ignore them. However as far just advancing digital camera technology is concerned, the time will come where you won’t need better. Because you’ll already have it.

My attempt of a PhotoRant, with friendly regards to the Botzilla Journal.

切現 [きりげん] (kirigen) is Japanese for clip test. It is easy to remember because kiri means ‘to cut’ and gen is the gen in genzou (development). At the lab I daringly used kurippu tesuto, thinking it is probably an imported term anyway, but far from it. There is actually a Japanese term for it, which I always note and appreciate.

So what is a clip test you ask? This procedure is often used in the case of processing somewhat important transparency/slide film, which needs rather accurate exposure. This is because there is no printing stage at which you can correct a bad exposure. If you ask your professional lab for a clip test (I doubt that consumer labs would do it, and besides it would take far too much time; a pro lab can turn around slide film in 3 hours), only a limited part of the film will be processed - according to your specification - while the rest is left untouched for later. This is for the photographer to assess whether exposure is on or not. If you’re off, then at least the rest of the film(s) can be processed with some corrective instructions (push/pull) and you get your desired results for that film or shot (in case you used several rolls of the same stock under the same conditions).

There are several trade-offs with clip tests though: first you will destroy at least one shot. Since the film is cut and it is impossible to cut precisely between two frames on undeveloped film, the scissors will split one frame - so if you were on and this was the shot of your life, you’ve ruined it and will kick yourself forever for doing it. Secondly, if you were off, you have also lost all the other frames that were developed as part of the clip, because naturally only the so far undeveloped part of the film will benefit from the correction. This lovely lady above was mutilated by a clip test. The upper part is the test clip, a little too dark. The lower part was pushed half a stop showing an optimal image. So while I feel bad for having cut her head off once, there are plenty of other nice shots in the correctly processed part of the film to make up for it.

Moral of the story: expose correctly at the first place and avoid clip tests, which are also costly (¥450 at Create), but that’s often easier said than done. Routinely shooting is the best remedy to build confidence in your abilities to meter and expose correctly. Sometimes you just need total control and confidence about how it will come out. If you get your clip back and don’t know what to do with it in terms of applying corrective processing, don’t be shy and ask lab staff for opinion and advice.

It took a while, but here they finally are: pictures taken during our one week holiday in Bali, Indonesia in January. The reason for the delay is that we simply took too many pics: 4 rolls of film and over 100 with the digital. Editing and captioning those takes longer than you think. And even after an admittedly not very stringent edit, 156 pictures are left in the album. Yes, I could edit it down even harder, but hey, is there a better way to bore family and friends?

I admit I am pleasantly surprised by the trip, it was better than I expected. It was my first trip within Asia and across the equator. While we were travelling in the wet season (there are only two seasons there, wet and dry), the climate added a lot more character to the location. The lush green vegetation, humid air and exotic smells just came out tremendously, and if it is nice and warm one doesn’t mind a few big drops of rain.

We spent 4 days in a slightly “touristised” village named Ubud, the rest in a resort in Kuta at the coast (where the bomb went off). If you ever go, don’t bother with the beach and coastal area, unless you like monstrous development inflicted using the money of rich westerners. The hinterland is where it is at.

We were extremely lucky that our visit coincided with the holidays of Galungan, which is a Hindu festival taking place every six months. People dress up and decorate their houses, it was absolutely magnificent. Looking at the gallery, you may find that the series of photos are roughly categorisable into general impressions of buildings, vegetation and landscape, sights in the village of Ubud (palace, market etc), the beautiful rice paddies, street scenes and impressions from Galungan festival and photos from a Balinese Gamelan and Legong dance performance. We hope you like the photos.

As for technical details, images were either shot on Agfa Ultra 100 colour negative film and scanned by Fuji (and sadly over-sharpened as the artifacts show, but I pass it off as film grain here) and digitally using a Canon G2. When travelling from Japan we recommend specialist operator バリ王 (Bali Oh)