The thing I've grown to like about this camera is that it rewards instinct more than it rewards thinking. A photographer with a Diana is like an amoeba, just bumping into stuff and reacting on a chemical level to immediate surroundings. After I've run a roll through it and before I develop it I have very little idea what any of the images will look like. In a world increasingly engineered to eliminate uncertainties, surprises like these are a 16 frame treasure chest.
On the flip side, perhaps raw instinct is what Canon had in mind when developing the press release for the EOS 50D. As described breathlessly in the latest PhotoMedia, the camera comes with a Creative Auto mode which "turns technical terms like 'aperture' into common terms like 'blur the background' or 'lighten or darken the image' on the display screen." The camera also comes with SmileGuard technology which locks the shutter until a smile is detected. Although the press release doesn't specifically mention it the camera will also translate "any shutter release" into "take photos that look exactly like everyone else". At last George Eastman's promise You press the button, we do the rest has become a pocket-held reality.
You can probably guess my body's instinctual reaction to these developments.
3 comments:
Yet just think of all the great, suddenly-cheap cameras that will be available soon because they don't do all the work for you. (Well, I'm hoping that's the case at any rate.)
you have some really great images.
the kid with the birthday cake is absolutely mesmerizing.
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