Vlad Savov has really done a great job of laying out the pieces of this puzzle you need to think about and in what order.

Ultimately, the number one lesson in photography is that there are always tradeoffs. If you want the best possible image quality, you’ll need specialized and bulky equipment. Should portability be your highest priority, you’ll simply have to accept that some photos and creative ideas will be beyond your reach.

In other words, there is no one camera that’s perfect. This is why I use three: iPhone 4S, Canon S100 (and S95) and Canon 5D (at some point upgraded to the next Canon 5X). Each has its place.

[via Kottke.org]

My friend Gary Sharp is visiting for Thanksgiving and he caught me doing some framing of prints for an upcoming show I’ve got.

For those who do their own framing, I found out the hard way that using acrylite (acrylic) for the glazing of large prints (23.5″ squares) can be problematic: the acrylic bowed just a bit and when I was working on the back of the frames I scratched numerous pieces as I moved the frames around on my work table. Given this I’ve decided to switch the glazing on these larger pieces to glass which I’m buying from a local frame shop to avoid the long distance shipping from the place I buy my frames from. Glass is certainly more fragile and a bit heavier but it makes for a sturdier package once it’s all together, one doesn’t have to give recipients special cleaning instructions, and the glare seems close to the same.

Gary caught me checking the surface of a newly glazed matted print before it gets put into its frame.

Great in-depth investigation.

As one with an iPhone 4S, a Canon PowerShot S100 and a Canon 5D and some nice lenses, I can attest that the iPhone 4S does not replace the other cameras fully but it does eat into the point and shoot space. and the fact that one can post to various social spaces directly from it makes it a heck of a lot of fun to use (as was the iPhone 4). The 4S camera is spectacular but the lack of image controls, a real viewfinder, interchangeable lenses and more make it inappropriate for high end photo work.

Still, when Gary, Anne and I go to New York this weekend I’ll be carrying the iPhone 4S and the Canon Powershot S100 but no 5D.

For my work at the Getty Center or my portfolio work for Joy Brown I’d never consider anything but the 5D.

[via Edward]

Tip: consider making wish lists of things you buy often, like ink and paper for for your printer. That way you’re not searching all the time for things. I have four wishlists:

Stuff I want (camera gear)
Stuff I have (camera gear
Ink and Paper
Other stuff (other electronics)

I now have access to these lists on my iPhone. Useful and no doubt useful for B&H too.

B&H Photo app in iTunes

The American Civil Liberties Union overview of your rights as a photographer in the United States.

Stefanie Gordon took a picture of the Space Shuttle taking off from a commercial airliner. No doubt some of you have seen the image. She tweeted it to friends with Twitter when she landed and didn’t think much more about it.

By the time she was out of the airport she was getting congratulatory messages about the image from people she’d never met. The image went viral in a matter of minutes and has been viewed over a million times.

The linked to piece above discusses the legal technicalities of taking pictures, sharing them and having them lifted by third parties you don’t know who see them on the web. Fascinating stuff and well thought out. Bottom line:

The mere act of taking a photograph means the photographer holds the copyright for that picture. Sharing it on a social media site does nothing to limit or reduce that fundamental right.

[via Coudal Partners]

Blurb, a popular self-publishing company based in San Francisco, has tried to assuage that fear by planting a pop-up store, its first, in the middle of SoHo in New York. It will be there until the end of the month, complete with displays of finished books created by real customers.

5Dmk2/7D lens comparison test from Mike Collins on Vimeo.

This is a short test with the tripod in the same spot switching between prime lenses to show how the crop affects the 7D. The subject, ace stand in Chris Clement, was roughly five feet from the camera. This isn’t meant to be an aesthetic test to show the difference in image quality between the two cameras. It’s a down and dirty field guide for myself and the other shooters we work with so we can quickly figure what lens we want to use on each camera.

We go from 20mm all the way to 100mm with a Lensbaby composer thrown in at the very end.

This is quite useful and for all who fog over when they hear someone attempt to explain what a smaller sensor does to the image a lens projects onto the back of the camera, this excellent video should help.

[via PetaPixel]

Watch the video (flash) at the bottom of the article.

ScanMyPhotos is a photo scanning service that will scan as many photographs that will fit into large USPS flat rate box for $149. And, they do it fast with 24 hour turnaround.

They also do slide scanning with prepaid USPS boxes for a flat rate: Prepaid Slide Scanning Box.

[via Lens Culture]

Vish Vishvanath has written a wonderful appreciation to this most important archive of historic Magnum photographs that was bought by Michael Dell and loaned to the University of Texas at Austin and are now open to the pubic.

[via Lensculture]