October 18, 2005
The Birthday Girl (OR: Full Frame; 50mm)
A photographer let me borrow his Canon 5D today. And while the test would have been truer had i matched the exposure settings, these two images were taken of the same subject, with the same lens, at the same distance. One with the Canon 5D, the other, with a Canon 10D. Both are displayed here, straight from their camera's. Both are scaled down to %15 of their orignal capture size (click on image for accurate size comparison) :
| Canon EOS 10D | Canon EOS 5D |
| Jpeg Large Capture: 2048 x 3072 px 2005-10-18T15:22:21-07:00 Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec Exposure Program: Manual F-Stop: f/8.0 ISO Speed Ratings: 200 Focal Length: 50.0 mm Flash: Did not fire | Jpeg Large Capture: 2912 x 4368 px 2005-10-18T01:18:54-07:00 Shutter Speed: 1/6400 sec Exposure Program: Manual F-Stop: f/2.8 ISO Speed Ratings: 1600 Focal Length: 50.0 mm Flash: Did not fire |
Occasionally I ramble on about the inverse correlation between the quality of the medium and the convenience of the message. (Marshall Macluan, where are you now?) Voice, Music, Photography, even the printed word are all taking severe sacrifices in quality and trading it in for speed, accessibility, and feasibility.
"Have you ever read "Camera Lucida?" a student once asked me, (A: No I haven't. I'll download some else's synopsis of it and read it on my cell phone sometime.) as i explained how we will never again hear the sound of a dial tone; hear our family's voices on the phone not wrapped VoIP data packets, nor ever see real celluloid film- moving or still, see my memories made in family photo albums without jpg artifacting, or ever know what letterpress type feels like in on real paper made from wood pulp....
Since the inception of the digital SLR camera, photographers again have made a trade. We have traded in film and the camera bodies that house it for a relatively cheap (i.e. small) CMOS chip. The consequence: we don't see as much as we used to. The frame size of a digital SLR made image is cropped significantly.
Significantly, of course- until we get used to it.
Canon released a "full frame" (full frame compared to the traditional size of 35-mm film) camera, the 5D. I have been saving for a new mamiya medium format camera, I wanted to see more than I do out of a digital SLR. Once i saw the image produced from a 5D, I was awestruck. Digital cameras have only been around in earnest for 5 or 6 years, but already, I had forgotten the sacrifices in image size (let alone the image quality, digital noise, etc.) made so that i can see my image on the back of the camera right after i take it.
Standards are lowering, by some scales. And i don't they will ever tip back. Forget Medium format and the wonderfully deep and big images they yeild, I decided today. -It's old fashioned film anyways. I am happy enough just to get my 35-mm frame back. Remember the good old days of the 1990's? Those were the days: I was in high school. Gas cost $1.25. All the girls were pretty,.... Music was on CDs, and I could actually see something through a camera. How soon I forget.
Technology tries to make things better.
Technology tries to make things easier.
Technology tries to make things full framed.
Technology tries to make things as good as they are in real life, only easier.
-Happy Birthday Prada. My full framed friend.
Posted by Todd Roeth at October 18, 2005 09:05 PM