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Gear navel gazing: We take photos with it
by David Lee
10 articles that I didn't write in 2019
31.12.2019
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Thomas Kunz
I can't publish everything that I find funny at first glance. Others simply can't be realised. And others I put off for ages. The list of unwritten articles for 2019.
The end of the year, taking stock: What haven't I achieved this year? Quite a lot. Here's a list of the things that went down the drain and the not-so-good ideas - in no particular order.
1. Canon's mirror for mirrorless cameras
This one would have been really good. In September Petapixel reported on a Canon patent that constructs a mirror around mirrorless cameras. So that it becomes a reflex camera. This is so strange, it can't really be true, and yet - the patent obviously exists.
But firstly, not every patent becomes a product. In this case, I would bet that this won't happen. And secondly, the news was originally from January 2018, so it wasn't news.
2 The definitive guide to RGB, colour spaces and colour management
The problem is real. Everyone knows that their photos look different on their mobile than on their PC. I have two different screens connected to my PC and the colours look different on both. Which screen should I optimise for and how do I achieve an alignment?
For years I've been trying to write something about colour management. So far, I've always failed miserably. The problem: colour management is very complex and it's extremely difficult to pick out one small aspect. Because everything is somehow connected.
This time I've come a long way. Very far. But then I wanted to illustrate and test my beautiful theory with examples. And I realised that colour distortions always occur - except when I try to bring them about systematically. No matter what I did, everything always looked correct. I was describing a problem that didn't even exist in my real world.
Shortly after I posted the article, the problems reappeared.
3. the IT equipment of our editors
What I did for the photographic equipment, I also wanted to do for the IT equipment. Who uses what, and for what purpose?
It immediately became clear that a complete list would not make sense. Too much, too bureaucratic. I put the matter off. The longer I did this, the less funny the idea seemed to me. What's so exciting about the fact that one person has five notebooks and the other has none?
But maybe I'll do this article one day. With the emphasis on maybe.
4. Cubot, the boring brick
I don't know exactly what my colleague Livia does with her smartphone, but her battery is always empty. She therefore wanted to test a Cubot brand brick. 6000 mAh should also last her a day.
But then Livia fell ill for a long time and I wanted to take care of it. Apart from the fact that the battery problem is foreign to me, I didn't find the phone interesting. The question would be more interesting: How do I save battery power? But you can see what your power guzzlers are in the system settings. Spotify and Bluetooth streaming in general suck up a lot of battery, Snapchat is notorious, and of course certain games. All in all, too trivial for one article.
5th Amazon sells $13,000 lens for $94.48
On 15 July, it was "Prime Day" at Amazon, a bargain day similar to Black Friday. According to a report by Petapixel, numerous Amazon Prime customers were offered cameras, lenses and bundles for 94.50 US dollars - regardless of the normal price. Logically, this also applied to the Canon EF 800mm lens with a normal price of 13,000 dollars. Over 99 per cent discount. That was probably not the intention. But a deal is a deal.
The problem with this news: Amazon is digitec's most important competitor. It would have seemed like I was making fun of the competition.
6. Self-proclaimed experts who have no idea
YouTube photographer Mik Milman thinks that many YouTube photographers don't come across as experts and that this is a problem. For example, when they call themselves experts but only spread half-knowledge or even rubbish.
He has sparked a discussion that crops up from time to time. Anyone can call themselves an expert on the internet, that's nothing new. Likewise, many "experts" simply pass on what they have read in blogs or seen on YouTube. This is how myths persist, even if they are simply wrong.
But professional knowledge isn't everything. Many photographers have lost their income in recent years, which is why they are now pinning their hopes on YouTube. But Youtuber is not the same profession as photographer. It's not primarily about what you can do and how much you know, but how well you can communicate your skills and knowledge in front of the camera. Not every photographer is a good teacher or vlogger.
I think the topic is important, but it's difficult for me to say something about it without constantly having to justify myself. After all, I'm one of those people who give photography tips without ever having trained in photography. I can impart knowledge. But do I know enough? One possible solution: teaming up with a professional photographer, as I often do with Thomas Kunz.
7. Android as a music recording platform
In the fast-moving tech industry, I have to constantly revise my views. One such opinion of mine is: Android is useless for home recording. Too much latency, too little software. That's why there is still no equivalent to my old iPad recording article.
But then I wasn't masochistic enough for an Android article. Why should I invest a lot of time and energy in something that only might work when it already works perfectly for me with other means? Maybe later. When I really have nothing better to do.
8. headphone cable clutter explained physically
You carefully roll up the cable of your headphones. You place it carefully in the bag. Later, when you take it out, you realise that it is knotted - and not just once or twice, but dozens of times. It takes you several minutes to untangle it again. How is this possible? Black magic or simple physics? This question still fascinates me, even though many headphones today are wireless.
Unfortunately, my research led me relatively quickly to mathematical knot theory. And then it goes relatively quickly until I no longer understand anything. Wikipedia: "A non-trivial knot is a knot that cannot be deformed into the untrivial knot." Aha. "A knot K in the 3-sphere is trivial if and only if the complement S 3 ∖ K is homeomorphic to the full torus." So what? "The exact sequences naturally transform under the associated morphisms. By constructing suitable filterings, invariants can be constructed. An example of this is the node homology associated to a node K in a 3-manifold Y."
My brain now has more nodes than any headphone cable.
9th self-marketing of photographers
Internet and social media should have given everyone an equal chance to become famous, as there are no longer any barriers to publication. By now we all know that was an empty promise. You can publish as much as you want, but nobody cares.
How can a young, ambitious photographer become famous? Are today's mechanisms better, fairer than the old ones? And what impact does this have on photography as a whole? On art, culture, society?
I was actually just writing an article for the Photo Schweiz exhibition. My thoughts got out of hand. I never finished it.
10. nasty theories about user articles
I sometimes think I recognise patterns. For example, I once thought: User articles that start with "Sorry, but" are always stupid, unless the person is actually sorry. Or: If a product has 3 stars, half of it consists of 1-star reviews and half of it consists of 5-star reviews. Or: Whoever comments first has not read the article. Whoever comments last has not read the date. Those who write cynically think they are superior.
It's clear why this article doesn't exist and never will. As an author, complaining about reader comments is so mimimi. Unconfident and unprofessional. Feedback is part of the job and it's important. I often learn something or even get ideas for new articles. Thanks, guys - you're what makes the platform really come alive!
David Lee
Senior Editor
David.Lee@digitecgalaxus.chMy interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.
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