All posts filed under: Japan

F.A.Q.’s Which film do you use?

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95 % of the time I shoot with 220 rolls of Fujifilm’s Fujichrome Provia 100F. The Pentax 67II gives you 10 images on a 120 roll, and 21 images on a 220 roll. Using 220 means I get one extra shot compared to shooting two rolls of 120, processing is a little cheaper and I spend less time changing film. 220 rolls of Provia aren’t available on Amazon but you can get them from B&H Photo. I use Provia 100F for it’s ultra-fine grain, and great color reproduction. However, I sometimes use Provia 400X if I have to shoot on an overcast day or for fire festivals. (Provia 400x is not available in 220 so I use 120 rolls) On my next trip as I’m going to be shooting some landscapes (hopefully with blue skies and cherry blossom) so I have also got a couple of boxes of Velvia 100F for higher color saturation. I wouldn’t use Velvia for portraits, for this Astia 100F would be a better option. I have only used Kodak products …

Japan Guidebooks

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I have a stack of Japan guidebooks that I have bought or aquired over the last decade. I’ve spent most of the last week preparing for my next trip up to the mainland so I felt I could give a few brief pointers about the differences in books available and which I would recommend. I’m only going to discuss the guidebooks I’ve actually used, but if you’ve read another I’d love to hear your comments. In a later blog I’ll give a list of useful Japan travel websites. As a quick means of comparison I will mention the amount of information each book has on Matsuyama (one of the places I will be going). Let’s start with the heavyweights. Lonely Planet Japan (Pages on Matsuyama: 5 including 2 page city map)  The Rough Guide to Japan (Pages on Matsuyama: 12 including city map and Dogo onsen map.) The problem I have with the Lonely Planet and the Rough Guide is their places to eat, and places to stay sections seem to be almost arbitrary. It …

“Most Interesting” images on Flickr

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One clever feature on Flickr is the ability to track the popularity of your images. There is a program that will determine your most interesting images based on comments and views. It then creates a special set for your Photostream. My top 36 “most interesting” images as of March 15th are those above. It appears that women in bikinis and men’s bottoms are popular favorites. Nice to see that my labrador Bear sneaked in there at number 36.

Okinawan Lizard

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I found this little creature in the bathroom this morning. He was quite cold so easy to catch and happy to sunbathe while I took some photos. (In fact, once I had finished taking photos with my point & shoot I went back in the house got out my Pentax 67, changed lenses, attached a 1:1 macro adapter, inserted film, found light meter, and he was still relaxing on the shell when I came back.) I have field guides for Japanese birds, and even a list of Okinawan dragonflies, I don’t however have a list of herps (This is where my friend Matt would step in when I lived in Peru ). Does anyone out there now what species this is?

“The Pacific” a new HBO miniseries

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Yesterday I watched an interview with Tom Hanks on The Colbert Report. Hanks discussed his latest project, the HBO miniseries titled The Pacific. Following on from the critically acclaimed Band of Brothers that was based on  events in Europe during WWII, The Pacific will look  at the Pacific Theater of Operations. Events in the series include the invasions of Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. I am very interested to see how the invasion of Okinawa is portrayed. The Battle of Okinawa, also known as the Typhoon of Steel was one of the most horrific events in history. Thousands of American and Japanese troops were killed, and along with them approximately 140,000 civilians. Some died during the air assault, others from malaria, starvation and forced mass suicides. Trapped between two warring powers, the Okinawans were killed by both sides. Okinawans that survived the war, have told me that by remembering the events it will hopefully prevent a similar tragedy from ever happening again. Having heard some of their stories, it is hard to visit places like the cliffs of …

Pentax 645D at Yodobashi

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A day before tomorrow’s big announcement, Yodobashi Camera has released all the details along with the price. You can see the details on the Yodobashi website. Body  is 848,000 yen and a new 645 55mm lens is 100,000 yen. Not sure on the release date at the moment. The body and lens are also available at Amazon.co.jp here  PENTAX 645D with 10% Amazon points.

Pentax 645D : 40 megapixels from 44x35mm sensor

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With just a few days until the camera is revealed there has been a steady trickle of information released by email and on a special “new” section of the Pentax Japan website. For those who can’t read Japanese, as summary of the information so far is: News Vol. 1 Sensor 1.7 times the size of full frame 35mm News Vol. 2  Eight custom image functions News Vol. 3  Dual SD/SDHC memory card slots. News Vol. 4  40 megapixel sensor News Vol. 5  44 x 33mm sensor All very interesting. The rest of the details should be released on the 11th at the CP+ Camera & Photo Imaging Show in Yokohama. (As a guess I expect the sensor to be the KODAK KAF-40000 )