OT: The Art of Tea (for Two)…Pu Erhs
By Ctein When I first wrote about the art of tea, I mentioned pu erhs, and several people asked me what they were. It's no wonder. Pu erh teas have only been freely available in the U.S. for a score...
Lenses are to Cameras as Applications are to Computers
By Ctein I got a bit of amusement from Mike's #1 choice for "Most Desirable Camera on the Planet" a few weeks ago because only two days previously I had been thinking about that very same camera and...well.... I was...
How to ‘Scan’ Film with a CameraWell (Part 2)
Editor's Introduction: This week's column from Ctein, a continuation of last week's, outlines the technique needed for a procedure we don't necessarily recommend. Ctein's purpose in these columns is a) to help people who are trying this as well as...
Where Are They?
By Ctein Okay, so my "keeping the 'X' (as in, the unknown) in 'Xmas'" column normally appears the week of the solstice. There's a good reason it's a week late this year. I forgot. When I did remember, I had...
Burning Our Bridges
By Ctein Are we losing the ability to scan film? I like my digital prints from film much better than my darkroom prints (dye transfer notwithstanding). To those of you who still like darkroom printing of film, I think that's...
OT: The Art of Tea
This is my tea shelf. You can only see about half of what I have; the jars are ranked three rows deep. The cardboard and paper packages contain my pu-erh bings; the rest are various looseleaf teas in airtight jars....
Introduction to Digital Printing Part III
By Ctein [Before we get started, a brief aside: My Minolta DiMAGE Multi Pro AF-5000 scanner has died and is in need of electronics servicing. Precision Camera no longer works on this model. If you know of someone in the...
How to Review (or Buy) a Lens (or Camera)
By Ctein 'Tis the "Season of Spending"—at least that's what the radio commercials tell me. They wouldn't lie to me, would they? I thought I might devote this column to some consumerist advice. What goes through my head when I...
Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 12mm f/2 Lens: Review
By Ctein "You get what you pay for." This bit of anti-consumerism is frequently trotted out as an excuse for high prices, as if it were some law of nature. It's not. Sometimes you get a lot more than what...
Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8 Lens: Review
By Ctein The Olympus 45mm ƒ/1.8 lens for Micro 4/3 is a moderately priced ($400) moderate telephoto, equivalent to 90mm in 35mm terms. I fell into lust with this lens as soon as Mike first described it last summer. It...
The Not-So-Slippery-Slope of Piracy
By Ctein Okay, this time I'm going to make you guys do the heavy lifting. I have a serious essay question for you. Please, no flip answers. Don't worry, it won't determine your final grade...but it might re-determine your outlook....
What Artists Have a Right to Expect
By Ctein A couple of weeks back, a reader asked me if I still held to an observation I had made a while ago in one of my columns: ...Artists who hope or expect the majority of the audience to...
