A reluctant

It was a Friday afternoon in the Adirondacks. I had been out with some friends cross-country skiing on a snowy afternoon. After skiing, on the way back to town, I made a few phone calls to home. I stopped for gas, then we proceeded to a nearby brewpub to enjoy some of the local libations.

After some sampling the pub’s offerings, I dropped my friend off at his home and proceeded to mine. Reflexively I patted my clothing searching for the familiar rectangular density of my Galaxy S8. Failing to locate it, I searched the car, including all the little crevices, for the device. No luck.

In my living room, I opened my laptop and went to the Verizon locate app. This usually works like a charm, and usually find that my phone is somewhere nearby. Unfortunately, on this occasion, the app could not connect.

Uh oh.

I ended up returning to the brewpub and was assured that no phone had turned up. I called my friend, who confirmed he had not taken it by mistake.

Oh, crap.

As near as I can tell, I dropped it at the gas station but given the snow cover, I never heard the thud. I suspect I then drove over it on the way out.

Driving the 350 miles home the next day without a communications device was really odd. Arriving back in Pennsylvania in midafternoon, I made a beeline to the local Verizon store to acquire a new device.

Now I’m typically a cheap, refurb kinda guy. But as there were none on hand, I was forced to purchase new. I have always liked the Samsung Galaxy phones and was aware that a new phone, the Galaxy S21 was to be introduced in slightly more than a week. There was no way I was going to wait that long. I purchased one of the current flagship models, the Galaxy S20 5G UW.

So as much as I was unhappy to buy a new phone, the situation offered an opportunity. The Samsung I purchased is known to have a very high-performing camera module, competitive with the other flagship phones. So at least this purchase gives me the opportunity to find out whether smartphone photography has advanced to a point where it can produce interesting image files.

So how about the phone? In general, it works great and has a beautiful screen with snappy graphics. It’s responsive, slightly more so than my previous device. It’s made of metal and Gorilla Glass 6, so it is presumably pretty rugged. It has a very long battery life compared to my old phone which is certainly convenient.

I noticed that external sensors, such as heart rate and oxygen saturation have been eliminated. Thoughtfully, they are now available on a Galaxy Watch 3 which one can purchase for roughly $400 more. Thanks, Samsung.

So, in summary, it’s a nice phone, but damn expensive. I understand that Samsung understands this and that the S21 will be further de-contented and significantly less expensive. Hopefully, this phone will last me a long time.

But then there is the camera module. The S20 appears to share similar if not identical photography capabilities with the newer S 21. in this case, this device is 3 generations more advanced than my previous Galaxy. I was obviously curious to assess the improvements.

The specifications are certainly interesting. This camera has 3 sensors. The main camera has a 12-megapixel chip and an F1.8 fixed aperture lens. The native focal length however appears to be equivalent to a normal lens unlike the default wide-angle focal length seen in most earlier cameras. This makes it much more useful in my style of photography. There is another 12-megapixel sensor for an ultra-wide lens. Both of these sensors were apparently redesigned with larger pixels, which will reduce noise, and improve low light performance (there is a “low light” mode).

The third sensor is a 64-megapixel sensor serving a telephoto lens. Though it has 30 X combined optical and digital zoom capability (digital zoom is generally a bad thing) It has 3x lossless zoom. This is, it retains a full 12 megapixel of data up to a 3X magnification. This really opens up possibilities for photography on a smartphone. The S20 also shoots raw images in the Adobe proprietary .dng format which simplifies processing in their software.

There also seems to be a capable video section, with a 4K resolution. I don’t shoot much video, but I did capture some footage that looked significantly better than anything seen on previous cameras. This camera appears to have stabilization though I’m not sure whether it is electronic or mechanical (sees probably the former).

I tried the low light (Night) mode. It’s a jpg-only mode and lets the shutter speed drift pretty slow. This was shot in my dark workshop with my lights off but minimal window lighting.

My initial landscape efforts looked pretty promising. The images, at least on screen actually appeared to have enough dynamic range and micro-contrast that it occurred to me that I might want to get more serious.

Now, I find shooting images with a smartphone extremely awkward as they are difficult to hold, and it’s hard to trigger the shutter without camera movement.

I found a possible solution on Amazon. I purchased an inexpensive cell phone holder with threads for a tripod puck. Included in the package was a simple Bluetooth remote with a lanyard allowing it to be permanently attached to the mount. This was simple to connect to my phone, allowing me to take shake-free images, and truly explore this camera’s potential.

Another nice improvement in the new phone regards the treatment of raw (.dng) files. I preferentially shoot this format in my cameras because of the flexibility it gives you in editing. It was available on my previous phone, but the files were difficult for Photoshop to read. It requiring me to import the files to the computer before they could be sorted and edited. This phone allows Photoshop to read them directly, and records and displays them in a 4/3 format rather than the wider format JPEG’s, so they can be quickly identified. This is also a more photographic format in my view.

So I begin carrying the S20 alone, without any backup camera gear on my outdoor outings. At first, I had the settings wrong, and the camera only took jpegs. These look promising on the screen.

Back at the computer, however, Samsungs processing algorithms are revealed. They feature high contrast, over-sharpening, and at the same time smoothing of details. This may be great for an 18-year-old’s cleavage squeezing puckered-up selfie shot, but it’s lousy for landscape.

But then I set the camera up on the tripod, and put it into Pro mode, shooting raw files. Suddenly things were different. I took these two shots one in .jpg, one in .dng both on the tripod to assess the difference. For reference, I then mounted and shot my pocket camera, the Sony RX100 Mark III which is not the most current model of the camera and has more resolution than the Samsung ( 20 megapixels versus 12). I processed them as closely as I could in Adobe Camera Raw.

The “pro mode” shoots with the main sensor and lens, there are no zoom capabilities. It allows you to adjust, shutter speed, iso, white balance (the aperture is fixed. Because of the small sensor, the depth of field is significant, even at an open aperture. As you can see above, the issues seen in the jpg files go away, and the results are impressive, approaching those of the much more sophisticated Sony. This is a much better result than was achieved by the S8 which I tested in a similar fashion some years ago.

I wanted to see how much adjustment flexibility, the Samsung .dng files would have given that one of the main that we shoot in “raw” modes is to have the flexibility to adjust them later in Photoshop. The image below I’d like to say was deliberately overexposed. The native file was completely blown out with no detail particularly in the snow, but it recovered nicely upon processing.

So what does it all mean? Basically, the Galaxy S20 sports pleasant jpg image quality for small screen viewing but suffers from over-processing when more critically evaluated. Shoot in “pro mode” and image quality is much improved, but you must deal with the fixed focal length and aperture. Still, the “normal” field of view is useful and because of the small sensor, the depth of field is probably a good compromise.

Am I going to stop carrying my Fujifilm equipment?…no.

Am I going to play with this some more? …absolutely.

As always, I would be honored if you would share this with your friends.

Header Image: Clearing the Storm ((Samsung Galaxy G20 UW 5G)

As I have written before, I like snow. This makes me somewhat of an outlier among my friends in northeastern Pennsylvania. Sadly, at least for me, this winter is panning out to be a bust in that regard. Even in the highlands where I reside, we have been experiencing tepid little 1 to 2-inch snowfalls, which will melt before becoming part of a snowpack potentially useful for recreation.

The lack of winter scenery makes photography rather unrewarding. I need to find snow.

In Pennsylvania, that means traveling north and west where the climate is colder, and the high terrain, closer to the Great Lakes can capture the lake effect precipitation. On a whim, I packed my car with gear and set my nav system with the destination of Wellsboro Pennsylvania in Tioga County.

Now I used to spend a lot of time in Wellsboro as it is located in the middle of an absolutely glorious wilderness area where I have mountain biked, skied, and backpacked. My children will remember camping there, to visit Pennsylvania’s “Grand Canyon”, also known as the Pine Creek Gorge.

Now I have always felt the former moniker was a bit pretentious, as there are equally dramatic features, in other parts of the state. I think of the Loyalsock Gorge at World’s End State Park, not to mention our own Lehigh River Gorge. Nonetheless, someone in Tioga County had the marketing chutzpah to grab the name and so it stands.

In the last 10 years, I’ve unconsciously I think avoided traveling the back roads of northern Pennsylvania. During much of that time, the fracking boom caused enormous traffic congestion as legions of tanker trucks bringing water to the fracking sites made travel unpleasant. As much of the fracking is over, I felt comfortable that a trip might be pleasant.

A trip from my home to Wellsboro, is about more than the destination, as the intervening scenery is also rather beautiful. It becomes important to resist the navigation system’s first impulse which is to keep you on route 80 W. It is better to use one of the more scenic state routes. In this case, I drove north to Route 118 which goes almost to Williamsport, and a short stint on Interstate 180, then to route 15 for most of the way to Wellsboro. The inefficiency of this route caused my navigation system to complain for a surprising amount of the trip before it finally caught on.

My camera gear for the trip was all Fujifilm, in this case, the X100F for street style shooting, and my XE3 with multiple lenses for landscape work. Both cameras recharge from USB and are light and compact.

The drive on Route 118 takes you through first forest areas, as it tracks south of North Mountain, arguably the southern front of the high Allegheny plateau. As you approach Williamsport, the altitude drops and the land flattens out to the vast farmland, so prevalent in the center of the state.

A short trip on route I-180 takes you to route 15 N, where you begin a pretty dramatic climb into the “endless mountain” region of the state.

Feeling hungry, I stopped at the town of Morris Pennsylvania, nestled in a creek valley among the overlooking ridges. I love small-town bar/restaurants and the Crossroads Inn is a wonderful example. Rustic but clean, it featured a robust menu that reportedly draws people from as far south as Williamsport, particularly for the roast beef. I share a lot of interests with the locals there, and the conversation turned to deer hunting, timbering and trout stocking.

I arrived in Wellsboro, as I planned about 2 PM to a hazy sky and the temperature in the mid-30s. Not wishing to waste time, I drove west out of town to Leonard Harrison State Park, which is the eastern overlook to the Gorge. My hope was to grab a tripod and photograph the multiple small waterfalls on the “Turkey Trail”, a path that leads from the rim to the floor of the canyon, but there were ice and snow present and thus the trail was closed for fear of injuries. As I was alone I elected not to poach. As the afternoon light improved, I shot images from the observation areas (I had no snow scenes of the canyon from the past).

As pretty as the canyon is, there’s also beauty to be found along the way. To the west of Wellsboro is an area of high rolling farmland that extends almost to the rim of the canyon itself. I remember many years ago hiking in the remote wilderness of the “West Rim Trail” along the gorge while watching a farmer cutting hay on the opposite side.

There are lovely old farmsteads on this network of back roads along with a smattering of churches of similar vintage.

At sunset, I returned to town, to claim my room at the Penn Wells Lodge, a very nice modern facility. My outside entrance room cost all of $87 and included a free breakfast.

Dinner was at a highly recommended restaurant called the Wellsboro House. I had a great meal and a lot of fun with a lovely crew of servers and wait staff.

The next morning once fortified, I took a walk around town to see what changed in the years since I’ve last visited.

Wellsboro itself is a wonderful self-sufficient town, the kind that often develops when there is no bigger city nearby. Though a tourist destination because of the canyon, it is obviously a full-service place of residence, with clothing stores, a furniture store, and a department store that all appear locally owned.

Heading out of town west, there is a neighborhood of beautiful old homes, some of which serve as bed-and-breakfasts.

Even in the dead of winter, the town is neat and clean, the historic storefronts, for the most part, occupied and decorated. There are a number of bars and restaurants, which from my experience in the past serve solid food in generous portions. There is a sense of civic pride, and apparently an interest in the arts, as there appeared to be multiple facilities dedicated to the pursuit.

I’m still not sure why there is a statue in the town park dedicated to the poem “Wynkin, Blinkin, and Nod”, rather than to some town founder or local military hero. Maybe I just lack a sense of whimsy.

I was looking forward to the trip home. To complete the scenic loop, I had decided to use State route 6 for the eastward leg of the trip home. This drive is one of the most beautiful in the state, as you travel past areas of rolling farmland, and scenic overlooks.

Unfortunately, fracking is still occurring and I got stuck behind two tanker trucks who drove annoyingly slowly, and far enough apart that it was unsafe to pass.

Driving along Route 6 there is a phenomenon I’ve noticed in the past. As you drive it seems that every other small town appears extremely rundown and impoverished, while the others are charming and well-maintained. It does remind one how fragile the economy can be in rural Pennsylvania.

My travels finally brought me to the town of Dushore, where I could finally part company with my buddies in the trucks. Here I turned south on to route 487 over Red Rock Mountain back to Route 118. Somewhat ironically it turned out that at the top of the mountain, at Ricketts Glen State Park, there was ample snow for recreation at a location roughly 40 minutes from my home.

Writing travelogues is not my usual deal. But in point of fact, the “Endless Mountain” region of Pennsylvania, stretching across most of the north is a spectacular destination easily reached by a large portion of the population of the Northeast. It’s not all beautiful, but for the most part, the scenery is gorgeous, rivaling places like Vermont and Maine. It’s well worth the trip.

Just watch out for tanker trucks.

I haven’t posted in a while. This is mainly because WordPress decided that they would completely change the functioning of the blog editor, and it took my rapidly aging brain some time to figure it out. Well, in the immortal words of Jack Torrance: “I’m Baaaaaaaaaack…”

I don’t know whether it’s the crappy photography conditions we’ve had, or my general satisfaction with the capabilities of my current equipment. It is even remotely possible, that finally, maturity and fiscal responsibility has settled on me perhaps 30 years late. For whatever reason I no longer yearn for the newest and best.

I no longer scour the pages of Dpreview for the latest equipment reviews.  I’ve stopped visiting the various Fujifilm forums. I dropped my subscriptions to Reid Reviews and the Luminous Landscape (though in the case of the latter site, it’s not really the same since Michael Reichmann died).

Nonetheless, new Fujifilm gear is likely in the pipeline, and probably not far from introduction. I’m not talking about The XT or XH lines, which have obviously been updated more recently. I’m talking about the cameras that I prefer to shoot, namely the X100 and X Pro lines. Both I think will be due soon for an update. What really bothers me, is that I’m not sure that I care.

What is happening???????

I currently shoot an X100F and an X Pro 2. In the case of the X100 series, I have owned all of the various versions starting with the original X100. It seemed to me that each time a new model came out, there was a fairly compelling reason to update the camera. This was also true of the X Pro 1 to X Pro 2 evolution. I am truly satisfied with my current equipment which has benefited from the constant evolution and improvement not only in the new models, but with subsequent firmware upgrades.

So what new features/ capabilities would an X100 “G” or an X Pro 3 need to offer in order to move up once again. I think part of the problem, is that I’m not a particularly demanding shooter. I’m not generally shooting sports, or wildlife. Most of the landscape I do is fairly deliberate. so what new features/ capabilities would cause me to upgrade? I suspect the next camera up will be the X100 series, so this will be where I focus in this article.

So, what might Fujifilm do to entice X100F owners to upgrade?

Well, there is the new sensor introduced in the XT3. At 28 megapixels there is slightly more resolution than the X100F’s 24 megapixels. High ISO performance is said to be the same or slightly worse than the previous sensor, with perhaps a gain in dynamic range, partly from the new lower base ISO. The latter feature would be useful, to slow shutter speeds for moving water, but overall, to me,the new sensor is not a huge draw.

How about weatherproofing? In a fixed lens camera, one would think this is easier to accomplish than in an interchangeable lens body. My sense is that it wouldn’t add much in the way of weight or bulk, and would be a nice addition to a camera used extensively for street photography. On the other hand, I use my cameras all the time in wet weather. Exercising some caution, I’ve never really had a problem with the X100 series.

A new lens might be interesting. The current 23mm f2.0 lens has been unchanged since the X100 introduction in 2011. It is a lovely optic, but it is known to be soft wide-open particularly close up. I would be interested, and an upgrade with a new lens, perhaps F1.8.  A deal breaker however, would a lack of compatability with the two lens converters Fuji currently offers ( for which  I spent good money on and use all the time).

They could improve the video performance, but I suspect, most X100 series users wouldn’t really care. Unless there have been big strides in technology, I don’t think there is adequate heat dissipation capacity in the small X100 frame for 4K (It’s borderline in the larger X Pro 2). You can always buy an XT3 if you want to shoot “Movin’ pitchures”.

Lens stabilization is always a welcome feature in a camera body. Given the size constraints with this line, I suspect it’s not possible to add it without increasing bulk. Ditto dual Card slots, or a separate memory card door like the X Pro 2

Better autofocus which is always claimed for upgraded cameras would also be useful, but I am relatively happy with the current performance of the “F”.

In short, because we’ve already had a look at the new sensor, the prospects for the upgraded X100/X Pro series aren’t very compelling from my limited viewpoint. The improvements that were so lauded in the XT3
(video and tracking autofocus) are not really that germane to these two camera series (at least in my hands).

I guess time will tell.