Oleg Novikov Photography - What's New

November 8th, 2009

When you are on a roll, you are on a roll—my review of the AF Nikkor 24mm f/2.8D has been posted. Quite interestingly, the AF Nikkor 24mm f/2.8D and the AF Nikkor 28mm f/2.8D have very similar performance signatures in almost every aspect, with the 24mm lens probably being a wee bit...

November 6th, 2009

Executive Chairman of Hasselblad, Dr. Larry Hansen, was recently in Shanghai and wanted to hear from me in person about my experience with the CFV-39 digital back in the field in general and the drawbacks that I found in particular. It is always very encouraging when a company's new product...

November 3rd, 2009

I recently came across Sarah Vaughan's version of "All of me" and, lo and behold, among all the versions of the song that I have it is now by far my favourite—to the extent that, to me, it seems to have taken the composition onto an entirely new level. Do not ask me how it managed...

November 1st, 2009

My review of the Hasselblad CFV–39 digital back is now online. I realise that most of you will not be interested in it; nonetheless, you might want to skim through it just to see some of the new photographs from the recent expedition. In the second part of the review there is a photograph of...

October 27th, 2009

When photographing in Gansu Province and Inner Mongolia earlier this month I felt a strange itch—a subtle yet undeniable shift in my perception of composition. More specifically, I did not seem to be appreciative of and comfortable with the "standard" rules anymore. I suppose it had...

October 23rd, 2009

Warning: this post is mostly indecipherable tech–talk. Recently one of the readers asked me the following question: I usually use a circle of confusion of 0.020 (vs. the normal .030) for 35mm film to get acceptable prints up to 12x18". How do you calculate DOF and hyperfocal distance with...

October 21st, 2009

I mentioned prior to the trip to Gansu and Inner Mongolia that I was hoping to photograph star trails again. We spent two days and one night photographing in Badain Jaran Desert (巴丹吉林沙漠), which, according to Chinese National Geography, is the most beautiful...

October 17th, 2009

The trip to Gansu and Inner Mongolia went as planned and anticipated. This time around, apparently for a change, the weather was fully on our side and there were exciting photographic opportunities almost every day. The distances between the main destinations were quite considerable and so I had...

September 28th, 2009

In the first half of October I will be traveling in Gansu Province (甘肃省) and Inner Mongolia (内蒙古), China. I will first fly to Lanzhou (兰州) and then drive all the way up to Ejin (额济纳; marked with the red balloon in the...

September 22nd, 2009

Just when I thought that the Panasonic Lumix GF–1 was going to become my next carry–everywhere camera Leica announced the X1. As good as the GF–1 looks at the moment, it seems that the Leica X1 is the first compact camera that was designed for serious photographers from scratch...

September 11th, 2009

It is now almost certain that I will be going on another very promising photographic expedition in early October and, to sort of wrap the Kamchatka theme up and move forward, I thought I would post a few comments on what worked well and what did not during the trip in terms of photo gear. Here...

September 5th, 2009

While in Russia I finished reading Miles Davis' autobiography (with Quincy Troupe). I highly recommend this book to anyone who is even remotely interested in jazz music; also, here is a quotation that, albeit rather indirectly, opines on the film vs. digital issue: "Musicians have to play the...

September 2nd, 2009

The trip to Kamchatka was an absolutely brilliant experience. It started even before our aircraft landed as I was gazing through the window at the volcanoes of the peninsula with my mouth agape; once on the ground, every single day was filled to the brim with things that I had never seen, done or...

July 31st, 2009

Some of my friends say that my photographic—and otherwise—life has been focused on China a little bit too intensely and that I should try exploring other cultures, too. Recent events in my life have lead me to the point where I feel that I need to have a break from China for at least a...

July 24th, 2009

As you most likely already know the day before yesterday witnessed the longest complete solar eclipse of our century. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate—it was cloudy from early morning and started raining later in the day. In Shanghai the eclipse could not be seen at all; we,...

July 19th, 2009

The "strange mount" that I mentioned in the previous post turned out to be an M42 to Nikon F mount adaptor (most likely an old Soviet design, too). The reason I thought it was the lens' mount was that the adaptor has apparently been attached to the lens for such a long time that the lens...

July 11th, 2009

A few weeks ago one of my friends gave me an old Soviet telephoto lens—MC MTO–11 10/1000. Yes, you read that correctly—the lens' focal length is 1000mm and it has a fixed aperture of f/10. On a DX format camera its field of view is equivalent to that of a 1500mm lens! I have to...

July 6th, 2009

Back to pixel–peeping. I had to return the Canon 5D Mark II before I had enough time with the camera to write meaningful observations on it; I did not manage to compare 21MP digital capture to properly scanned medium format film in terms of resolution, too. Nonetheless, I have compared the...

June 9th, 2009

The beautiful island that I mentioned in the previous post was Mount Putuo in Zhejiang Province, China. I photographed there a couple of times in the past and the only reason I went there again was that it is easily accessible from Shanghai and, relatively speaking, not too touristy—this time...

May 28th, 2009

A couple of days ago I started shooting with my Nikon D700 and the Canon 5D Mark II side by side and was immediately startled by a rather curious observation. Basically, for my high ISO performance comparison test I shot the same scene with 35mm fixed-focal-length/prime lenses mounted on the...

May 24th, 2009

It is funny how sometimes you think of something and then read a passage in a book that sounds uncannily similar—not exactly the same but sort of coming from the same place. "There are moments in our lives, there are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual—become...

May 16th, 2009

So how does 12MP digital capture compare with high quality scans from medium format slide film in terms of resolution? To give you a short and quick answer, prints from film scans show more detail, albeit not by a massive margin. If you are interested in the whole story then have a look at part...

May 4th, 2009

With the help of my friend Alexander Maltsev who is currently optimising html code of the Web site and, unlike yours truly, is absolutely brilliant with these things, I have now added an RSS feed (the small icon next to the page title as well as on the right side in the address line of your...

May 3rd, 2009

Some pictures that we take are really strange. You know right from the start that they will not appeal to anyone else or stand any critique. Wrong composition, inappropriate light, inadequate subject (lack thereof whatsoever, quite possibly) or, worse yet, all of the classic mistakes embodied in...

April 22nd, 2009

Part three of my ongoing Nikon D700 camera user experience report, Image quality, has now been posted. What is next? Next I am going to have some fun and see how 12MP digital capture compares against properly scanned medium format slides in terms of resolution—stay tuned! -- Delivered by...

April 16th, 2009

Photographer is the leading photographic magazine in Ukraine that specialises in fine art photography; it is also one of the most important magazines endorsed by FIAP (Fédération Internationale de l'Art Photographique) in Europe. The latest edition of the...

March 29th, 2009

So, finally, I have conducted a test to ascertain whether there is any discernable difference between 16-bit and 8-bit printing. I chose four photographs and printed each image twice, in 16-bit and 8-bit mode (converting 16-bit image to 8-bit mode and saving it as a separate file as the last step...

March 25th, 2009

I have finally managed to install the latest printer driver for my Epson 4880C printer. As it turns out, the driver was fully functional but Epson did not document its installation procedure properly. According to Epson, it has to be done as follows: 1. Download the file. 2. Double-click the...

March 24th, 2009

One of the difficult things in the photographic process is recognising your unsuccessful images, or images that are not quite what you had hoped they would be, as such and letting go of them. The essence of the issue lies in the fact that photography (fine art photography, at least) is a highly...

February 25th, 2009

To me, one of the most difficult things about photographic expeditions is deciding what to occupy myself with in the evenings after a full day of photography. Granted, there are many things you can do: working on the photographs shot during the day (a privilege of digital photographers), reading a...

February 21st, 2009

Expectations is an elusive, immeasurable yet crucial variable in the equations of our lives. The number of things that are measured against expectations, which often includes life itself, is overwhelming. Very often expectations are difficult to articulate or express clearly yet we tend to know...

January 26th, 2009

As planned, tomorrow I am off to Western Sichuan Province. Meanwhile and for what it is worth, have a look at my ten desert island CDs. -- Delivered by Feed43 service

January 15th, 2009

As you might recall, in the end of last year I (finally) realised that to produce a cohesive, finished and meaningful body of photographic work it is necessary to work within the framework of a project. This year I intend to put this notion into practice and have now commenced two projects that I...