Overload: The Problem with Full-Frame Cameras

Launching a fishing boat through the surf. Madras City Beach, India.    

I used to think nothing of carrying a bag loaded with 25 or 30 pounds of cameras and lenses.

I don't think much of it now, either. 

I can't believe I went to India, South Korea, and Singapore in 1992 carrying a bag with three 35mm Olympus OM film cameras and four lenses, another case containing a (heavy) Pentax 6x7 camera and some flash units, and a bunch of film for both cameras. But I was young and vigorous then -- just a 54 year old kid.

And maybe a little bit stupid. Although I and my client were happy with the pictures, I could probably have done a better job with less equipment to juggle. But I went on being a packhorse for a long time, eventually moving to digital photography and still heavier cameras.

The tipping point for me came in 2010, when I hauled two Canon bodies and a basic set of three pro zooms and a 50mm macro lens on a trip to Israel and Jordan. 

 Sweating my load on the long walk into Petra, the ancient city carved out of rock, I chanced to meet a man who was carrying only a micro 4/3s Olympus EP-2 body with the 14-42mm kit lens and a VF-2 viewfinder. We talked for a few minutes, then I asked if I could hold his camera. What a revelation it was to think that I could have made almost every picture on my trip with that tiny rig.

I had been reading about micro 4/3s, so when I got home, I ordered an E-PL1, then later, a pair of E-M5s and some lenses. 

In 2017 I made the break complete, selling all my Canon stuff, and later, most of my m4/3s equipment and buying Fuji X-system bodies and lenses. I was surprised to find that a Fuji X-T20 is actually a little smaller than an Oly E-M5.

However, the size of the camera bodies is not really the issue. The problem is the size and weight of lenses for full-frame cameras. Sony A-series full-frame bodies are about the same size as my APS-C format Fuji X-T3, but when you add a working kit of lenses, the weight saved by the lighter body doesn't make much difference to the overall load. For almost anything you might need to do with a camera these days, full-frame bodies and lenses are simply overload.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography   digital photography  Olympus E-M5 camera    Olympus OM1 camera     Fuji X-T20 camera   film photography    Canon digital cameras    micro 4/3s    APS-C     Fuji X-T3     Pentax 6x7 film camera     Olympus E-PL1 Olympus EP-2

Does Format Make a Difference?

Our pond on Deer Run Farm, MeLemore Cove, Walker County, Georgia.

Nowadays, not as much as you might think. 

We had the picture you're looking at made into a 24x36-inch print to hang over our fireplace. It looks great. I have also had it printed 48 inches wide. Still looks great. It was made with an Olympus E-M5, a 16-megapixel digital camera with a tiny micro 4/3s sensor. The actual size of the sensor is 17.3x13 millimeters -- one fourth the size of a 35mm film frame.

Butterfly on azalea in our back yard, Deer Run Farm.

This is another file that was made into a 24x36-inch print. It was photographed with a Fuji X-T20, with a 24-megapixel sensor measuring 25.1x16.7 millimeters. About half the size of a frame of 35mm film. I wish you could see these pictures full size. The sharpness and resolution are superb.

Many blogs and podcasts will tell you that you need a full-frame sensor (24x36mm, the size of a 35mm film frame) to get high resolution files. That may have been true once, but no longer. Cameras made in the last few years combined with recently developed processing software have pretty much wiped out the difference. Even as far back as 2003, I discovered that my six megapixel APS-C Canon 10D could make a 16x20 print indistinguishable from one made from my medium-format Pentax 6x7 film camera. 

My friend Dennis Mook, who blogs at https:/thewanderinglensman.com/, owns cameras in all three formats: micro 4/3s, APS-C, and full-frame, so he did a test to see how much difference he could see in the actual files from his micro 4/3s Olympus OM1 and those from his full-frame Nikon Z8. 

The difference: not much. You can read about it here. (You should be reading his blog as a regular thing anyway.)

I began shooting micro 4/3s Olympus E-M5s alongside my full-frame Canons in 2012. In 2017 I sold the Canons and one E-M5 and switched to APS-C-frame Fujifilm cameras exclusively. I'm quite happy with the files they make. I'll tell you more about my thinking in the next post.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography   digital photography  Olympus E-M5 camera    Olympus OM1 camera     Fuji X-T20 camera   Nikon Z8 camera    Canon digital cameras    micro 4/3s    APS-C     Canon 10D camera     Pentax 6x7 film camera

Celebrating Another Happy Christmas

 

 That was us. On Christmas Day, 1973.

 Hard to believe that picture records a Christmas Day 51 years ago. But so it does, and there we were.

It was a happy time in our lives. Louise was in her last year of nursing school, and I was doing well in a new career with Continental Film Productions. We had come through some difficult times after moving from Miami to Chattanooga in 1970, but now things were looking up for the Jenkins. So we dressed up, even though there was no one there but us, because it was a day to celebrate. We even gave ourselves a new TV as a family Christmas present.

Many years have passed since that Christmas, but they didn't just pass: we filled those days and years with work and travel, growing and building, joys and sorrows, and made them rich with memories. For many years when we lived on our small farm in McLemore Cove our family gathered at our house each Christmas. We miss those days.

As we celebrate another Christmas 51 years later, those two young boys have grown into strong and substantial men with families and significant careers. Two of our grandchildren are still in college; the others are scattered around the country with homes and careers of their own.

Today we will be having Christmas dinner with our son Don and his family. It won't be like that Christmas Day 51 years ago, yet, in many ways it will be the same: family, food, and most all, faith. That faith in Jesus Christ who has loved and sustained us through the years. Not just a baby in a manger, but the all-powerful God and ruler of the universe. To him be glory and gratitude forever. I hope you know him too. 

There is no Christmas without Christ. May you have a merry, blessed, Christmas.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   family  Christmas   McLemore Cove   

Rediscovering the Grand Canyon -- in Orlando

 The Grand Canyon. Looking upriver from the North Rim.

As you may know if you've been a frequent reader of this blog, we spent the first two weeks of December in Orlando, settling the affairs of Louise's older sister, Arlene, who passed away at age 95 following hip replacement surgery. 

Arlene had told us many times that she had made all necessary arrangements for her death, and that she was leaving everything to charity. However, she omitted one very important detail: she failed to arrange for someone to contact her attorney and set things in motion when she died. On the evening of November 26, we received a call from the rehabilitation center informing us that Mrs. Jensen had died, and what should they do with the body?

They gave us the name of a nearby funeral home, which we contacted and asked to pick up and hold the body while we worked things out. Then we loaded our luggage and the dog into the redoubtable Kia and set out for Florida. It was a slow and miserable two-day drive in post-Thanksgiving traffic.

Once on scene, we looked through her papers and found the name of her lawyer and also the crematorium where she had pre-paid for the disposal of her body. But everything was very slow moving, and it was more than a week before the lawyer could actually meet with us. We were eventually able to get things worked out. She told us that we should take any small things we wanted of Arlene's possessions from the house. 

And that brings me to the point of this post: The thing I particularly wanted was the 16x32-inch canvas panel of the Grand Canyon that I had given Arlene in 2018 following our trip west. I ordered the print from Shutterfly and had it sent directly to her from the lab without seeing it. So when I first saw it at Arlene's house I was amazed at how much it looked like an intricate painting. It was like seeing the canyon all over again. 

Made with the little Fuji X-T20 camera and the lightly-regarded XC 16-50mm kit lens, it is incredibly detailed. I wish you could see it full size. It's now hanging in our living room.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography   digital photography   travel photography    Fuji X-T20 camera     Fujicron Xc16-50 lens    Grand Canyon    canvas prints     Shutterfly