The Prince and The Slag: Medium format film versus phone camera

2010-12-15T15:42:00.000-08:00

Which one do you prefer? One was taken on one of the best camera and lenses ever made, the other was taken on a phone. (Both were taken by an idiot man on holiday.)

The shot straight out the iPhone, taken using Hipstamatic

The shot straight out the Mamiya 7. 80mm lens with Kodak professional film

I've accidentally acquired quite a few cameras over the last 7 or 8 years whilst I've been experimenting with different formats, lenses and makers, trying to find my perfect setup.

The Mamiya 7 I picked up on Ebay a few years ago has been one of my favourites. It's not the easiest camera to use but if you're patient and a bit lucky you can get absolutely stunning results thanks to the lovely compressed perspective of an 80mm lens on a large negative... chuck in some lovely bokeh and also edge to edge sharpness. You can read more about the camera and the quality of the lenses elsewhere, there are dozens of glowing reviews and testimonials many claim the lenses are "the best ever made". Read the Chuck Norris of Camera reviews opinion here. The only problem with the camera is cost; a roll of film is £3-£5 and development only is another £5. With 10 shots on a film (if you're lucky) that's £1 every time you press the shutter (whether you've removed the lens cap or not - doh).

So being in love with the results produced by one of the best camera and lens combos man has so far created is an enjoyable but pricey affair. Which leads me on to the slag of all camera formats; the mobile phone camera. I was a skeptic for a long time - to me it was at best an emergency option to capture drunk friends when your compact camera was unavailable or for taking videos of cats doing funny stuff*. This was my until I acquired an iphone a couple of months ago. The main camera is pretty decent on it's own but the most interesting and addictive way of using it is with the Hipstamatic app, which attempts to emulate film and lens combinations from the days of analogue. The colour effects and in particular the delightfully subtle edge burning on (I think) the "John S" lens can really make compositions come alive.

On a recent trip to New York I found myself grabbing the camera-phone as my go to camera, despite lugging the Mamiya 7 and another "proper" digital camera around with me. I just couldn't believe that such visually arresting images could be possible with such a measly little lens and with an image sensor the size of a mouse's toenail. I've included a comparison of a couple of snaps; both straight out the camera with no processing. (I obviously had to scan the negative from the Mamiya but haven't photoshopped it.) If you were to pixel peep, the Mamiya would win hands down but in the real world, where I tend to rarely make physical prints larger than 12", the image size from the iPhone is more than adequate. Yep, there's certainly more to life than image resolution (although digital camera makers would hate everyone to know this because as they say** "pixels make pounds".

*I don't really do this and why the internet is 35% cat videos is quite beyond me.
**I just made this up.
***US version might be "dots make dollars".

The Joy of Swankolab

2010-12-14T15:24:00.000-08:00

The picture of a lady in a news stand was OK...

But Swankolab adds a twang of interesting colour tone.

Swankolab is a cheeky little application from the Hipstamatic people. It imitates a dark room complete with an array of developing chemicals. It's a bit gimmicky but it's fun to use and you can get some pleasing effects from otherwise ordinary photos. Unlike Hipstamatic you can try multiple attempts with different combinations of effects and use any image you can get your hands on. I've included a before and after of a shot I took of a newstand lady in New York - swankolab has given the picture a little extra oomph I think. (For the gear geeks -cough- the picture was taken with an Olympus EP1 with 20mm f1.7 pancake lens)

iPhone post test

2010-12-12T11:36:00.001-08:00

Here's a photo taken with a telephone. The future has arrived.

Sam Witney Photography: Making photos go in your life since 1980

The Prince and The Slag: Medium format film versus phone camera

The Joy of Swankolab

iPhone post test