Capturing the Noble Audio 6

Few high-calibre commercial photographers bother shooting headphones. Fewer still bother with earphones. Jewellery, watches, and the like cater to customers used to precious products and precious prices. 

But the world of mid to high-tier portable audiophile equipment abounds with jewellery-like marvels.  

The Noble Audio 6, a 108.000¥ earphone, is as much a looker as it was fun to shoot. 

Noble 6's clean lines, delicate logo, and subtle hues look great under the right light. And the right light isn't a simple exercise beginning and ending with soft box to the left, soft box to the right, upon which many self-styled commercial still life photographers rely. Soft boxes are great tools for certain photography. And just like an Estwing and a Stanley, both hammers, cater to specific users, soft boxes have their users and their uses. 

But I rarely use them in my studio.

Coaxing out that light, and nailing the sharp reflections necessary to define Classics's curves, were labours of love. I crafted dozens of reflection panels, holders, gobos, and spent hours placing my lights just right. My goals were many but I focused on contrasting the gentle curve of the Noble logo against the chassis panels, bolts, and pulling the eyes down and down until they exited off the sound tubes.

The bolts fastening Noble's Classic Line chassis are its headlamps. Its countersunk cable port is its cockpit. Its chiselled sound tubes are its exhaust system. And while I reckon my metaphors are off, I'm very happy with how each earphone looks. Noble were, and are, ecstatic.

At Fujiya Avic's 2015 Spring Headphone festival, Noble had a single side printed out, the short side of which was just over a metre. It looked fantastic and helped to draw crowds that constantly hugged their booth.

Both Noble Audio and I have received no end of compliments. My greatest joy is making a great something look stellar. It is the main reason that I turn down commercial requests from clients that obviously don't put much effort into their work. 

In this instance, Noble Audio's hard work begat mine. 

For those of you interested, I captured most of Noble Audio's earphones through a Sony A7r mounted to a Rolleiflex X-ACT 2 technical camera. I exclusively shoot Rodenstock digital lenses.

Panasonic GH4 meets Fujinon Digipower XA55

I decided to try my Fujinon XA55 Digipower lens with a Panasonic GH4. It worked surprisingly well. Everything is shot in UHD, 25p. All camera settings is set to default. Standard gamma and color settings. Since I couldn't use ND-filters, I had to use shutter speeds around 1/200 in the sunlight.

Incredible video showing both the zoom range and optical quality of Fujifilm's awesome Fujinon Digipower XA55.

My thanks go out to Thomas Tsai Photography for this link.

Yes PhaseOne

Speaking of Phase One's new IQ3 backs and modular system, Thom Hogan agrees that the IQ system is a cut above the rest:

“- Openness to discussing technology. Unlike the Japanese companies, PhaseOne (and to a large degree Leica, as well) seems to be more than willing to let dealers, reporters, and even some users talk directly to engineers, and to let the engineers actually discuss the technologies in the camera and why certain decisions were made.

I can vouch for the fact that every question I’ve had about PhaseOne’s products in the past few years has been met with a direct and complete answer from an appropriate person within the organization.

- Modularity. To a large degree, most medium format cameras have always been modular, but the return of the waist level viewfinder with matrix metering and the way this new body, finders, and digital backs communicate seems to indicate that PhaseOne has upped their game in terms of building a system that will better handle future upgrades. The whole system seems to have the more modern approach I’ve been advocating in camera design for some time now. ”

Source: Yes PhaseOne

Just how good are Fuji x @iso6400?

The only answer to the question posed by DPReview forum member, labe, is excellent; although The Davinator's reply is pretty much spot on:

“The D610 is going to be a solid two stops better at high iso. That said, I’ve used the X-Pro1 at 6400 iso during wedding receptions and produced wonderful 8x10 and 11x14 prints for album work. As good as the Nikon for noise....nope. But the Fuji WB and color spanks the Nikon.”

From Tywyn to London with the Olympus 8mm f/1,8 fisheye

Wonderful review of the Olympus 8mm f/1,8 fisheye lens over at Mirror Lessons:

“This 8mm Fisheye lens is the first in the world to have a fast aperture of 1.8. It is the third Fisheye lens designed for the Micro Four Thirds system in addition to the Lumix 8mm f/3.5 and Samyang 7.5mm f/3.5. As explained in the first gallery, which shows the capabilities of the 7-14mm, we decided to postpone our review so that we can spend more time with the lenses and put them through their paces in Canada. Here you will find lots of image samples taken with the M.Zuiko 8mm Fisheye to give you an idea of what it is capable of.”

Source: From Tywyn to London, part II: Olympus 8mm f/1.8 Fisheye image samples

Check out Part I here: From Tywyn to London, part I: Olympus 7-14mm f/2.8 image samples