Jack Dykinga: another one bites the d

[Marko]

But seriously, bit the dust?

To me, it looks more like making some others eat the dust...

[Oren Grad]

Oren - Ctein primarily shoots a Pentax 6x7 -strictly negs

He used to. He's already written in his TOP column that he hasn't shot film in a long time. But I also had the opportunity to spend a few hours schmoozing with him just a couple of weeks ago when he was in town. He's using only the Olympus and the Fuji now.

[Kirk Gittings]

Kirk - in my book Muench is an artistic zero. Period. Large format snapshooter. I don't care how many books and calendars he's sold. Great for Arizona Highways,
which is an interesting magazine in its own right, and I'll give him credit for improving slightly over time - but composition????? Just the same old stereotypes
one after the other. Once he bragged about taking fifty 4x5 shots in a single day;
why am I not surprised? Million and millions served - he is indeed the McDonalds
of outdoor photography, if fast food is your thing. Not mine.

Drew, I did a double take when I read this and went to your site to see if I had missed something, but your site is down. With the exception perhaps of Chris Jordan this criticism could probably be leveled at virtually every member of this site, myself included. Who here isn't working in a well worn path of some sort? This is not the home of cutting edge art, but there are some people here who are doing some damn fine work within some great traditions. Like my commercial architectural photography, Muench's books are his bread and butter-meant for a broad public. If you ever sat down with him to look at his personal portfolio, I think you would be knocked out. Some of his personal favorites are even B&W.

[Oren Grad]

That's almost half of what it was when it came out!

Damn, those prices are falling faster than real estate!

The silver (? ) lining to the brutal beating that this stuff is taking on resale is that some of the second-hand gear - with the older, lower-megapixel sensors - is approaching prices that are within reach of mere mortals. Forget the holy wars - the best thing of all is the chance to try and decide for oneself.

[Kirk Gittings]

For professionals, well.. I don't know anything about that.

As a professional, how do you pay for all that digital equipment? I was spending over 10K a year in film and processing (nearly 15K one year when I was shooting 4x5 exclusively). Now I charge "capture fees" for about the equivalent $ and all that money that was going out the door to labs now stays home.

[Drew Wiley]

Sorry Kirk - don't think I've ever seen a Muench photo that I would have been proud
of taking myself. Isn't aware of his frame. Not a bad sense of color sometimes, but
just snapshots - interesting subjects in the middle of something undefined, with a few predictable boring tricks like "near/far" exaggerated perspective. I'm not deriding his usefulness as an illustrator of popular media, or the fact that he has gone interesting places and had an enjoyable career. I've bought a few of his books
myself and at one time subscribed to Arizona Hwys, but just like Geographic, it's not the artistic content that attracts me but the story line or whatever, just like photojournalism. Used his Linhof like a point and shoot. Always got the impression
that composition was an uncomfortable veneer to him, though he worked hard and
did improve quite a bit after many years. And I don't waste my time going into places like Mtn Light - it's the kind of place that should be selling ceramic chipmunks (tourist trap). Once in awhile they show someone decent - but there ain't much real mountain light in there - mostly digital jam and honey on top of sugar cubes. I get a visceral nausea just looking in the windows as I drive by. Not joking - it literally affects me. Again, I'm not suggesting that they're not nice people. But when I look at
work by someone like Muench I can't see any extra layer of anything - except the
Grand Canyon once again behind the blooming cactus in the snow!

[Drew Wiley]

Sorry about the site being down briefly. Should be back up soon. But don't plan to
update it until the gallery gets built, which is going to take awhile given the recuperation needed from the last project, and everything contingent upon theoverall economy of course. Even the very rich aren't doing much casual spending right now, so I don't expect print sales to get serious momentum any time soon.

[Marko]

The silver (? ) lining to the brutal beating that this stuff is taking on resale is that some of the second-hand gear - with the older, lower-megapixel sensors - is approaching prices that are within reach of mere mortals. Forget the holy wars - the best thing of all is the chance to try and decide for oneself.

Of course, that was my point.

Digital technology has first made serious film technology really affordable. That's what made me begin playing with LF, after all. Back in the day when I was really serious about stuff and when I really, really wanted it, the prices were pretty much in the same orbit as today's top of the line MF digital. Today I have the equipment I could have only dreamt about back then for not much more than what I paid then for a decent 35mm system.

The second thing digital technology keeps doing is making itself more and more affordable at the same rate as it is improving.

Canon just announced an 18 MP DSLR on Monday for about $900 WITH a lens! Granted, both the lens and the body are bottom of the line, but how many 18 MP frames does one need to stitch to start approaching some very serious resolution and sizes?

The silver (? ) lining to the brutal beating that this stuff is taking on resale is that some of the second-hand gear - with the older, lower-megapixel sensors - is approaching prices that are within reach of mere mortals. Forget the holy wars - the best thing of all is the chance to try and decide for oneself.

Now, the other point is that it is not really taking a beating at all. What it does is getting amortized and those prices, however small, are just icing on the cake after the accountants are done with it.

[Oren Grad]

What it does is getting amortized and those prices, however small, are just icing on the cake after the accountants are done with it.

For sure. When it's a business proposition, if it doesn't look as though it will deliver a suitable return on investment, you don't buy it.

[Chris Strobel]

Of course, that was my point.

but how many 18 MP frames does one need to stitch to start approaching some very serious resolution and sizes?

You don't!Try 6MP from a Fuji F31, slap that baby on a little nodal ninja and your off to large format heaven with oodles of depth of field