Cameron Davidson | 500 AGL » Digital

Hasselblad Research | WW II Aerials | BJP

Cameron Davidson — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:52:17 +0000

http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/report/2075593/close-focus-hasselblads-research-department

My friend Grant Symon sent this article to me. If you own Hassies and are interested in aerials or just the history of photography, check out this article.

Paradigm Case

Cameron Davidson — Wed, 11 May 2011 13:17:27 +0000

http://theparadigmcase.blogspot.com/2011/05/case-on-art-cameron-davidson.html

A intelligent, thoughtful and well written blog. Worthy of repeated visits. The tagline say’s it all.

Life should be an expression of oneself, an outward reflection.

Be your own person, no matter who that is.

And by doing so, create your own PARADIGM because there are no rules.

They wrote a short piece on my work. Thanks to Theo at Paradigm Case.

New York City iPad is now free – going for 50K in downloads

Cameron Davidson — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 19:11:41 +0000

My Aerial new York City app is gratis until March31st, 2011. So far there are over 15K in downloads the past ten days. I would love to see it hit 50K by the end of next month.

If you have an iPad – here is the link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/aerial-new-york-city/id395699743?mt=8

I hope you enjoy the flight. If you like the app, please pass the word and link on.

Thank you.

Cameron

New York City Aerial Photography

Cameron Davidson — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 00:38:32 +0000

My first iPad app went live today. 48 of my favorite aerials of New York City shot from low flying helicopters. Images include: The Gates Exhibit in Central Park in 2005, early tilt/shift and toy lens aerials plus many recent night and dusk aerials of Manhattan. Aerial New York City is available now in the iTunes store.

Aptus 12 | 80 Megapixels

Cameron Davidson — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:42:25 +0000

I so want one of these puppies. Just a mere 32K in U.S. dollars. But then again, clients are concerned that the 33 MP files from the Leaf 75 are too big. So maybe not. But can you imagine the size of the prints you could make? The detail you could see in aerials would be unbelievable. Couple it with an Alpa and a Schneider Digital Lens and that would be lethal combination.

British Journal of Photography Story about the Aptus 12

UPDATE: A English photographer friend has shot with this back. (Julian Cornish-Trestrail) Check out this!
http://www.captureintegration.com/2010/09/20/leaf-aptus-ii-12-aptus-ii-12r/

Middle Peninsula, Commonwealth of Virginia

Cameron Davidson — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 01:25:05 +0000

Another Alpa 12 test, 47 XL, Leaf Back, three way stitch. Processed in Raw Developer with Velvia 100F as an Exposure add-on for fun. The whompiness in the edge is part of the test to see how closely PS aligns the image from three. More testing needed. I am very happy with the lens, camera, back combo. Trying to decide if C1 or Leaf Capture is the best. Using the lens cast corrections for this lens is critical.

I’ve been messing around in Exposure this evening. Going for the wonderful old cyan and short lived B&W Polaroid film look.

Good News for iView/Expression Media users

Cameron Davidson — Tue, 25 May 2010 14:12:15 +0000

iView/Expression Media is back in the game.

Phase One has purchased Expression Media from Microsoft.

I wonder if they will incorporate it into Capture One and become a solid competitor to Aperture and Lightroom? Capture One is the raw converter of choice for many photographers. (It has been mine for years)

Click here to read the Phase One Press Release.

For a few weeks, Capture One users can obtain a free copy of Expression Media. Got to the Phase One site, sign in and follow the instructions. It requires your Capture One product key.

Most likely the Phase One server will get overloaded today. I just downloaded my copy which brings me up to date from my very old version 2.6 of iView.

Not just Capture One, but if you own iView you get Expression Media free as well:

http://www.phaseone.com/en/Software/Expression-Media-2/Special-offer.aspx

Customers who own iView Media or iView MediaPro may download Expression Media 2 for FREE until June 30 2010.

Get a Mac | 2006-2009

Cameron Davidson — Sun, 23 May 2010 07:12:16 +0000

Featured on several Macintosh related sites. This is pretty funny!

New Brontax Medium Format Digital System

Cameron Davidson — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:20:30 +0000

Yesterday morning, I returned from Palm Springs where I was invited to meet with several Japanese camera executives. There is yet another medium format camera to be launched. The Brontax! Taking the best optics of the Zeiss Contax and rugged reliability of the classic Bronica medium-format camera, the Brontax DFI will launch this summer with seven new AF lenses plus the ability to use classic Bronica and Zeiss Contax mount lenses. The camera features a dual lens mount plus the ability via adapters to use Hassy V and FE mount glass. The new Brontax digital back is a direct competitor to The Leica S2 in terms of resolution. It is a 39 MP back that will use industry standard raw converters. Writing a DNG file, the camera joins Leica in support of the Adobe open raw standard.

I had a chance to shoot with the camera and it felt good. The viewfinder is bright and crisp. Camera feel was similar to the Contax 645 with a larger viewfinder than the Contax plus an ingenious vertical shutter that sync’s with strobes at 1/400th and slower. Focus was reasonably quick for medium format and included seven points across the frame. Using a CMOS chip, it shoots HD video which should be really amazing with the Hassy 100m F/2 FE lens. (I expect the prices on this lens to hit the roof and go beyond absurd)

The executives and marketing gurus were a bit coy about release dates, but the hints I got were by Photokina. I expect that the press releases and a few images from the camera will be available by the end of the photo festival this week.

A couple of friends were also in the meeting and commented how much they enjoyed the camera. One buddy is a well known celebrity shooter and he just photographed an actress who left a TV show before the end of her contract and showed me a few frames. The images were as good as any medium-format system that I’ve seen so far.

What impressed me about the camera was how the engineers took the many failings of medium-format systems and addressed them. Multi-focus viewfinder, reasonably quick autofocus, high-shutter speed sync, decent viewfinder plus the ability to use legacy lenses.

There were no NDA’s that needed to be signed.(Not sure why?) A test camera is being shipped to me later this week and I plan to shoot two aerial projects in the Midwest later this month. (alongside my trusty Nikon D3s/D3x combo)

I am pretty excited about this new camera. I’ve owned and used Bronica, Hassy V and H cameras, Mamiya 645 and continue to use my Rolleiflex TLR for film projects. I have to say this is the first medium-format camera that feels right. The ergonomic design is perfect, the viewfinder rocks and the capture rate is pretty decent for medium format, 1.2 seconds between captures and a buffer of thirty-seven frames. It requires the faster Sandisk or Lexar CF cards and the tethering is via a Firewire 800 or USB connection.

Thats it for now. I’ll write more as soon as the camera arrives and I’ve had a chance to shoot a few frames.

The Sandpit – incredible little short film of New York City

Cameron Davidson — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:51:55 +0000

http://aerofilm.blogspot.com/2010/02/sandpit-short-film-by-aero-director-sam.html

Read the story about how he did the shooting and post. Well worth it. Time lapse with a Nikon D3 and two lenses. Tilt/Shift effect added in post. Over 30K in frames shot.

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.