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  All photos in this article were taken by me, and were exported as JPEGs 2000px on the long axis.   The concept of doing more with less is nothing new; in many ways, it’s a fundamental principle of good design. That fact is readily apparent when it comes to the tools we use in our daily lives, be they physical or digital. When it comes to cameras, the consequences of getting this wrong– of doing less with more– range from simply inconvenient to downright counterproductive. Every choice that a manufacturer makes has the potential to fundamentally make or break the user experience. It’s with this idea in mind that I’m writing about the Minolta P’s (also known as the Freedom Vista and Riva Panorama), a point and shoot camera that’s unusual in both name and purpose. Despite its unassuming looks, there’s a real sense of ambition here– one that distinguishes the P’s in a way that isn’t just different , but meaningful. If you love the idea of seeing and shooting a world written w...

  Fujifilm TX-1 / Super-EBC Fujinon 45/4 / Ultrafine Xtreme 400 / Epson V550 "Hudson moment" describes, well, a moment featuring someone spending time by the eponymous river.  I've used this image as an example of heavily "weighted" compositions leveraging the panoramic format on a few occasions, as well as in a small series on moments of solitude amidst the big and bustling city. The image is dominated by three important lines.  The top of the safety rail (which lines up with the horizon) rides the boundary of the lower third, while the lampposts establish a strong frame-within-a-frame between them.  With a largely-symmetrical composition, the difference in visual "weight" on the right side (between both distribution of the New Jersey skyline and the subject) pulls the viewer in that direction.  Starting with the sitting person, the railing guides attention over to the other lamppost (particularly if the viewer is checking for lateral symmetry), at wh...

  Fujifilm TX-1 / Super-EBC Fujinon 45/4 / Ultrafine Xtreme 400 / Epson V550 "Jumping the gun" is another one from my early days with the TX-1.  Learning how to handle the camera and internalizing the lens' fields of view occupied most of my attention when I was out and about, which traded off more than a little bit with my actual situational awareness. Still, this is another photo where I remember seeing what was happening and recognizing that I was about to get a good frame if I could dial in the focus quickly enough.  To my recollection, it was a somewhat overcast day and so I wasn't stopped down as far as would have been nice, but enough so that a bit of a focus miss was okay.  This image has a very strong foreground/background divide that is literally depicted by the traffic island in the middle of the crosswalk.  In the foreground, the comparatively large figure of the cyclist grabs the viewer's attention (because of size, position, and contrast); the next...

Fujifilm TX-1 / Super-EBC Fujinon 45/4 / Kodak Gold 400 / Epson V550  This one's very simple.  A bicyclist is quite literally riding the line (well, visually; if you look closely I think they're an inch or a few to the left of it) between the bike lane and the general street.  As far as early shots with the Fujifilm TX-1 go, I think this one still acquits itself quite well; tricky format or no, there are many panoramic opportunities in a city. I could look into the specifics, but this was probably taken within the first week or two of ownership-- on the fourth roll I put through the camera, from the looks of it.  As with the "Child & Guardian x 2", I was still digitizing images at this point with my V550, so there's a bit of fuzziness to be had here. As far as how this image presents, I think it's pretty clear that the bicyclist is the first thing to jump out.  Viewers might initially lock onto the bright orange of the traffic barriers, but the foreground/...

  Leica R8 / Leica Macro-Elmarit-R 60/2.8 / Unknown / Epson V550 "Child & Guardian x 2" is a very old photo, taken in mid-2016 on a 400-speed black and white film that I apparently never tagged in Lightroom.  Regardless, I was playing around with the Leica R8, an odd (if lovely) 35mm SLR and the Macro-Elmarit-R 60/2.8.  The lens itself is outrageously sharp (as shown by the example image of my cat below, taken on the 10MP Leica DMR digital back).  Any lack of detail in the shot above is due to the combination of scanner and my lack of experience at the time (and I really ought to re-digitize this one). Leica R8 / Leica Macro-Elmarit-R 60/2.8 60mm is a bit of an odd focal length for a walkabout lens, but it was what I had at the time.  I was working in the finance sector on the east side of Manhattan, and there was a little plaza near my office that I'd often go to during lunch. Fortuitously, I spotted this picture-perfect arrangement of two older folks and k...

  This is a near-full rewrite of an article that was originally shared on Casual Photophile in August 2024. In addition to tweaking some content, I also wanted to correct a technical error and address some formatting issues that arose during publication. All photos in this article were taken by me, and were exported as JPEGs 2000px on the long axis. In 2016, I bought a camera, two lenses, and a bag full of accessories that completely changed my relationship with photography. At the time, I was on a rangefinder kick (via the Leica M6 TTL and Minolta CLE) and had also been dabbling with medium format (using a Mamiya 645, Bronica SQ-A, and a motley assortment of others) on the side. Within a year, everything else was gone. In the near-decade since, I’ve occasionally tried to get back into “regular” 3:2 shooting through various compacts, but none of them had any staying power. I liked some of them conceptually, sure, but… …I was too hooked on the Fujifilm TX-1, a 35m...