Not really. I just wanted to say that.
In the photography universe, I am strictly a grain of sand. While it’s true I have been, and am still, involved with some projects that are now somewhat well-regarded, I am virtually unknown as a photographer in the town where I live, and where I’m primarily assumed to be more or less a professional flake.
And maybe some kind of writer.
Or something.
But, as a blogger, and sometimes a photo blogger, and as a, well, chief lackey prominent member of a pretty vocal group of gearheads, I have gotten to know a few people in the biz, as it were, and largely because of this I’ve gotten my hands on a pre-production sample of the new Pentax K-7 DSLR, and it has been pretty much glued to my hands for the last couple weeks, which made the drive to Arkansas and back a little adventurous. Matter of fact, the last photo I posted came from that camera, as did the shot of The Boy in the book shop, and you may have noticed that no amount of clicking or cursing would open either of those photos as larger versions. That’s due to a rule I agreed to abide by, that nothing I posted would exceed VGA dimensions, or 640×480.
The other rule, nothing over 1600 ISO, hasn’t really come into play yet for me. Why the rules, you ask? Simple: as a pre-production model, it doesn’t have the final version of the firmware installed. While we all know that nobody on the intertubes, and especially not on the pixel-peeping discussion groups, would ever, ever jump to any dire conclusions regarding image quality, rendering, or potentially the end of civilization itself after having seen a fistful of images from a preproduction camera, why take the chance?
I’ll not cough out the specs of the camera for you, rumored or otherwise, because it’s been done. Google Pentax K-7 for a good time. Indeed, there was such a glorious flurry of wild-assed guessing, smug insider allusions, and flat-out misinformation streaming from the fevered fingers of the world wide techno-weenie world that it became something of a sporting competition to see who could come up with the most outlandish feature and to swear upon the graves of cameras past that someone somewhere had confirmed it through the clever method of outright denial.
Kind of an old-school shooter, I still see cameras as tools, like hammers and computers, and I can only think of one of my many cameras that I ever formed anything close to an attachment to, and that was the Pentax LX, which is a dinosaur by today’s zippy measurement, but which is, as far as I’m concerned, the pinnacle of 35mm SLR design. Mine still sits within easy arm’s reach on my desk, and just so you know I have lost quite a chunk of allotted time for this particular entry to a thorough dusting, to which I sacrificed a citizen of my toothbrush stash, and a number of photographs of it, not to mention a thrilling interlude during which I cranked up the motor drive and detonated a satisfactory number of shutter cycles, wondering if I still have the eyesight for manual focus.
Where was I? Oh, yes. Cameras as tools, and I don’t get involved with them. This may change.
Entries (RSS)