1) In today’s “The Ideal Retro Camera” at The Online Photographer, Mike talks a bit more about the new announced Nikon Df and what would be the perfect retro digital camera. Amusingly, he uses the Nikon FM3a in size comparison against the new Nikon Df and states that the perfect lens would be a Zeiss Planar 50mm not the new special edition Nikon 50mm.
When I shoot film with my Nikon FM3a, I do not miss digital. But when I use my Nikon D800, I wish it was the size and weight of the FM3a. I would be wildly excited in a new Nikon professional level DSLR that was small and light like the FM3a. The new Nikon Df is still a bit big.
I realize that many of you would say that Fuji has already made that camera with their mirrorless X-E and X-Pro series cameras, but honestly I would rather invest in a few more F mount lenses than get a new body or a whole new system right now. Also, my Nokia 808 PureView and the Lumia 1020 satisfy my pick-up, go and shoot, urges than remembering to bring a mirrorless along with the lenses.
But the guts of a Nikon D800 or D4 stuffed into a FM3a body? A Nikon Df2…
2) Patrick J Endres’ wonderful photo of the Big Arctic.
3) A great quote from 3 Quarks Daily’s Abbas Raza:
“There should be no dividing line between science and the arts. I think they should all be taught as equally important intellectual activities. And that’s what we have tried to do at 3QD; we try to find things that are interesting. It doesn’t matter what subject area they’re in.”
4) Well worth the read, an essay on naming, slurs, and college by professor Amardeep Singh:
“But when someone calls me “raghead” or “towelhead” or “Bin Laden,” that can be a form of naming from without. This is why it’s not enough to say, “oh, it’s just words, you can shake them off.” Actually, you can’t shake them off so easily, any more than you can shake off the primal association you have with your own first name. As with ethnic slurs, the names we are given by our parents are not chosen by us. And yet we accept them as helping to define who we are. Do slurs that are wielded against me also then define me?”