Today’s Post by Joe Farace
The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything close-up. — Chuck Palahniuk
In a guest post on my old blog, Jason Anderson wrote that, “At some point, the allure of macro photography in all its intricate detail entices us all to either buy or rent some glass that has the power to take us to the enchanting 1:1 ratio where we can see things full size!”
How I made this shot: The photograph at left was made with a Minolta DiMage Xt on the campus of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst during the annual NECCC conference when I was lucky enough to be invited to be a speaker at the event. According to the EXIF data, the exposure was 1/180 sec at F/8 ad ISO 160.
Good ideas and good cameras never die. Case in point: The Konica Minolta DiMage Xt used to make this photograph. I loved this little 3.2-megapixel and found it the ideal camera to carry when traveling. (You can read my post on travel photography tips here.) The DiMage Xt used a 3x folded zoom lens. With the folded design, no moving parts of the lens are outside the camera body as with a traditional point-and-shoot. Instead, a 45-degree mirror bounced light to a conventional zoom lens that was tucked inside the camera body.
The X” series continued through several more models, including the Konica Minolta DiMAGE Xg, following Minolta’s shotgun wedding with Konica. What is more than amazing to me is that here is a camera that was introduced in 2003 by a company that’s no longer making cameras and you can buy used versions on eBay for, the last time I checked, at prices ranging from ten bucks to $100. Because of its diminutive size and good image quality (for just 3.2 megapixels) the Minolta DiMage Xt is an ideal camera to give to a kid that’s interested in photography and I did just that back in the day and that young person today is a professional photographer in Portland.
Along with photographer Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography that’s available from Amazon for $21.50 with used copies starting around five bucks0 as I write this. The Kindle price is expensive for some reason (not Barry or me.)