What's up Ya'll! Hope you're having a great week! Me? Pretty good! The year is half gone and I'm thinking about camera gear. Not to worry my new years resolution is still intact! I haven't bought any new gear this year and don't plan too. But that doesn't mean I can't think about it. Last weeks blog got me thinking how I do photography now compared to how I used to and I found out that I really like small cameras that don't hinder my moving around especially since I'm getting older. My needs are different. Most of my photography now is Travel/Street and just general photography and photowalks. I rarely need a big professional camera. When I first started shooting digital I was doing some portraits, a few events to include a few weddings and Landscape. But not so much now. Camera's have come a long way since I started shooting digital and especially from when I started shooting film. Lets look at my current digital setup.

My Current Digital Setup: My main camera is a full frame Sony A7III. In its day it was the bee's Knees but it is dated but for me it still doesn't hold me back. If I have to do some sort of "Professional" type work. Say a big Wildlife or Portrait or even Landscape trip this is the camera that I bring. I have all of the lenses that you think I would have for a Professional set up to go with it. My next camera is the A7C the C stands for Compact and the body is smaller but lenses are the same size. I can use the same lenses on both camera's. This is mostly my Street when I serious but if I'm shooting film too I tend to leave this one home and bring a Canon Point and shoot with me which takes up less room and still I get great photo's from it. It's almost like I have to talk myself into bringing the larger camera's anywhere because this point and shoot will do what I need although maybe not as much quality as the full frame. What I would really like to do is replace my Sony A7C and the Canon Point and shoot with something small with interchangeable lenses that I can easily carry. Lets talk sensor size because I know you're thinking about it .

Sensor Size: Most of my digital photography journey has been with a crop sensor (APSC) or Full frame. I have gone back and forth a few times and to tell you the truth there isn't really too much difference in them (the way I shoot) They both have advantages and disadvantages. Most of my photography on this website have been shot with crop sensor cameras . So to me the size really doesn't matter that much. I'm really happy with the photo's I get from my point and shoot and it has a type 1 sensor or a 1" sensor if you will. That is smaller than the crop sensor. So to me sensor size for quality isn't a factor but where it does matter is the size of the lenses. Crop sensor Lenses are much smaller than full frame. To me that is a big factor because I'm looking for something small.

What I'm Looking for In a Camera: First of all I want it to look good. I do like the retro look in a camera. I want it to be small, not tiny but small like one of my film cameras. I want a view finder (EVF) and I want the back screen to at least tilt. Touch screen would be nice my little Canon point and shoot has that and I love it. I want it to have 24 ish megapixels. A little more are less is okay. I don't need anything that is 40 or more. I would like In body stabilization. I would like smaller lenses than what I have been using. I would like it to be weather proof. Not really worried about Frames Per Second or any Video Capabilities . Not much to ask huh? LOL

Well if you've got this far you have probably figured out that I'm looking at Micro 4/3 camera. There are two companies that make them Panasonic (Lumix) And OM Systems (formally Olympus)  both have a universal camera mounts so lenses can be shared between them. So the Availability of lenses is very good. They are still producing camera's and their followers are almost cult like. OM Systems just came out with a camera this year that I'm very interested in the OM-3 Its built like a film camera with real metal and it has all the specs I'm looking for. Of course it's new and I don't get new cameras but by next year it will be used! LOL I'm looking to get a few lenses with it with at least one Prime. The micro 4/3rds cameras are two times smaller than full frame but larger than the 1" sensor I have in my Canon point and shoot. So I would be trading in or selling my A7C and a couple of lenses to get this camera. I would still have my full frame set up but this little camera will work well with my travel and street photography and my film photography.

I'm still six months away from committing to anything but that's what I'm looking at right now. What do you think? Am I Crazy or what? Until Next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! Hope you've had a great week. Here goes a topic I haven't talked about in a long time. Having a home studio whether it's Permanent (Spare bedroom) or Temporary is easy and inexpensive to get started in. But like everything you can spend a lot money if you want too but you don't have to and you can get excellent results with inexpensive gear. Having a home studio is great for table top photography and for family portraits. Having a system that will set up quickly and not having too much money invested can be rewarding. In this blog we are going to talk about the first off camera modifiers you should get that work great for all situations and are by far the least expensive you can get. The umbrella. There are basically three types of umbrellas you can purchase all can be had for say 30 bucks or less. Of course you can pay more but don't need to. The three types are Shoot Through, Reflective and Reflective with a sock. These umbrellas come in different flavors and colors. White being the most common and giving the softest light there are silver and gold ones as well that will give you specular highlights .

Shoot Through: This umbrella is probably the least expensive but to me a very versatile umbrella. Like the name implies this umbrella is between your light and the subject thus you shoot the light through the umbrella. I have used this umbrella a lot and it is great for creating soft portraits and one of its traits as with all umbrellas is that it throughs light all over. So it isn't really directional. But if you have a one light set up it is great because it will light your subject and your back ground very evenly.  This is probably my favorite umbrella and is colored white for softer tones.

Reflective: Reflective umbrellas are more directional. They do not bounce around the light as much as the shoot through although all umbrellas do spread the light a lot . The light source is placed between your subject and the umbrella and pointed away from your subject and directed into the umbrella where the light reflects off of a Silver or Gold or White surface and goes onto the subject. Since these umbrellas have a sharp edge they can direct more light on the subject and not as much the background. These umbrellas are great for spreading light on a large crowd as the shoot through is and can produce even light. With silver and gold reflective surfaces attached they can produce more specular highlights than a white surface.

Reflective with a Sock: The third kind is the most expensive just because it has more parts. It's a reflective umbrella with a sock over the opening making it almost a soft box. Being like a soft box it is capable of producing very soft light and is as directional as the reflective. It is a great all around umbrella and gives you the best of both worlds of a shoot through and a reflective umbrella. 

In my opinion the umbrella should be your first light modifier of your at home studio. It is cheap , versatile and gives great results. As your skills improve then you can go to other types of modifiers like soft boxes, snoots, beauty dishes. Being able to control the light you can make great photo's and the simple umbrella is a great way to start. Well that's enough for this week until next time Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

What's up Ya'll? This weeks blog is sort of a what if. If I could buy a camera from different camera companies what would I get? Would I get the most expensive one? Would I get the one that was centered on video instead of photo? "Or" Would I get one that is suited to my personality ? Well I wouldn't get the biggest and the baddest copy of what ever the flagship camera was . I do believe that I would not do that. In this blog I'm going to go through my thought process on what I think I would do. Now I'm an old timer brought up on film and most of my shooting are on photowalks  and travel type of stuff. So what I'm really going to be looking for is a classic styled camera that has the knobs and buttons that I grew up on film cameras. A retro style camera if you will one that is not too big or bulky that I can carry when I'm out and about. So let's go through some brands and see what I would get. Let's start with my current brand of camera's Sony.

Sony: I have been shooting Sony for almost a decade and have shot their crop sensor sized cameras A6000 series and have shot with full frame the A7 series. Sony doesn't have a retro style camera but the closest I could come too is the A6000 series of camera's. They are small have good quality and a good set of small lenses to choose from. Although I now shoot with a full frame camera the A7III and the Smaller A7C I think if I had to choose again I would get the crop sensor version. The A7C that I shoot now is about the same size but the lenses are bigger even the compact lenses that they sell just for the A7(C for Compact) camera. Next company let's go with Nikon.

Nikon: I am a big fan of Nikon and they were really my first serious cameras when I started digital. I shot with the D7000 series of cameras and then switched to the D800 series of cameras . I had the holy trinity of lensed to go with the big Nikon full frame . This was a great system and in my camera club Nikon is king. Don't really know why but they are. I think that they can do a lot and seem very complicated to me now that I've been shooting Sony for so long. But all of my friends shoot Nikon so they must  be good . I wouldn't get their flagship though I would get the Nikon Zf camera. It is a retro style 24 mp full frame. I've heard nothing but good things about it although being a full frame you still have to deal with larger lenses.  Let's look a Canon.

Canon: I own a couple of Canon digital cameras . Small ones. One has been converted to IR a Canon EOS M and I have the point and shoot Canon Powershot G7XII which I just love. Canon doesn't have any retro type cameras although there are always rumors of them making one. One that was made to copy the Canon AE-1 in digital form would be awesome or even one that copied the Canonet 17 would be cool but no offerings. I love the touch screen and the easy menus of the camera and if they came out with a retro I would definitely be looking for one. Next let's look at Fujifilm.

Fujifilm: Fujifilm has been making all of their money on the retro style cameras. It's what has made them as big as they are. From the X-Pro Series of range finder cameras that have interchangeable lenses to the X-100 series of camera's that have a single lens and is based on a range finder camera. Even their flagships use a SLR shaped camera body with all the dials and knobs to choose your settings with which I like. Oddly enough only one person uses Fujifilm in our club. A Medium format Camera GFX100rf just came out and sort of mirrors the body style of the X-100 camera. But if I were to get one I would get a X-Pro series of camera. Although they don't have a current version of this camera there are rumors that they will. Hope so! What about Micro 4/3 rds cameras?

M4/3's: Olympus put out a retro style called the Pen-F many years ago which is cool but out of date. OM- Systems (formally Olympus) Just came out with a retro style camera the OM-3. It is a SLR styled camera and being M43 camera the lenses would be small and very portable. This camera has ticked all the boxes on my list of camera's and if money wasn't a factor this would be one of my first choices and may still end up in my bag. In the Lumix side of the house I don't think that they are very retro and are strongest in the video side of the house. Now lets talk about the elephant in the room Leica.

Leica: Leica has the prestige and the history of royalty. (In the camera world) But for some reason I have never lusted for one. I know they are well engineered camera's and have a reputation for lasting for ever. But they are not really high tech either and they don't care. I think that if I had one of these camera's I would be scared I would break or do something I shouldn't with it and would spend more time polishing it instead of using it. I know that sounds silly but there you are. 

This is just an exercise of looking around and seeing what I would buy if I had a choice. What would you buy? Well Until Next time Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link