We have now reached week 10 of the Wolf/ Levine “2-week lockdown to flatten the curve”.

For my county, Luzerne, and other counties in eastern Pennsylvania, there is a tiny light at the end of the tunnel. On Friday, we are going to be allowed to exercise a slightly larger sliver of our former civil rights. We are moving into the “yellow” phase.

For many people, this will seem like thin gruel. Though the governor will allow us to open more of our businesses, which will undoubtedly help some to survive, he still refuses to allow restaurants, hair care professionals, athletic facilities, and shockingly, the almighty casinos to reopen. Schools also remained closed, even though children are minimally affected by this virus. Church services are still functionally forbidden.

He is finally allowing much of the Northwest of the state to move into the so-called “green” phase. Even this however is rather restricted with some businesses limited to 75% of capacity, and bars/restaurants limited to 50%. The governor likes to refer to this as “the new normal”.

He now apparently believes, that we cannot return to baseline until there is a vaccine (presumably one that is widely available). Perhaps conveniently for him, this is unlikely to occur before early November.

If I lived for instance in Tioga, Cameron, or Sullivan County each of which has low single-digit numbers of cases, and no deaths, I would be furious. These counties have likely had more influenza cases than COVID cases, yet they are only now being allowed into the “green” phase. Imagine owning a small business in say, Coudersport, and watching it fail, arguably for no good reason.

Germane to this, is new data out of the CDC suggesting that the death rate of this virus, based on the ever-growing number of documented asymptomatic cases, is down to about 0.25%. This is roughly what is seen during a bad influenza year.

,Another fascinating study has found that 40% of random blood samples collected from patients prior to the pandemic have immunologic cross-reactivity with COVID 19. In other words: some of us may have had full or partial immunity to this coronavirus all along. This helps to explain so many infected ended up asymptomatic or with very mild cases.

As I reflect on this, I think most everyone supported a short period of lockdown, especially given circumstances such as those in Italy, and of course in New York City. It was not unreasonable to think that such a dire situation could’ve happened here. It clearly did not, but despite this, the lockdown continues.

In fact, most of the severity of COVID 19 in Pennsylvania occurred because of the Wolf/ Levine decision to insist that infected patients be admitted to nursing care facilities. This of course occurred at the same time Dr. Levine insisted her elderly mother be moved from just such a facility, to a hotel. I don’t really want to fault a decision to protect an aging parent, but the sense of risk to the mother should have absolutely informed the decisions affecting other elders at risk.

If one looks at deaths per 100,000 of the population, Pennsylvania’s number is 40. Florida, early on did the opposite and prohibited COVID patients from admission to nursing facilities. Their death rate that is one quarter as large. As more than 2/3 of deaths in Pennsylvania involved nursing facilities or personal care homes, the numbers make sense. And remember, Florida locked down less severely, and opened earlier, than Pa.

Now to be fair, there was a concern at the beginning of the pandemic that hospital beds would quickly fill, and nursing homes would have to be utilized for convalescing patients. On the other hand, the first outbreaks in the country, occurred in Washington state where it swept in deadly fashion through nursing homes in the Seattle area. This might have been a clue as to what not to do.

At any rate, the disease statistics being used to justify our imprisonment were mostly the result of faulty decisions made at the beginning of this pandemic. And so far as I can tell the governor’s emergency powers have no time limit.

I was curious about what limitations different states place on their executive branch during times of emergency. It turns out that 35 states are like Pennsylvania, in that they allow the governor to change both statutes and regulations under emergency powers. Seven states allow Governors to only change regulations, and 8 states give the governor no explicit power under these circumstances.

While we need to our governors, to have flexibility during times of emergency, this should have limits.

We need to revamp the system. I imagine the law modified so that at some point, perhaps a month, any emergency authority should expire, which would relax all the restrictions that have been imposed. This would occur unless the state legislature voted to extend the time limits. Any extension by statute ought to itself be limited, requiring additional votes. This would force the governor to work with the legislative branch, rather than reject their input as Governor Wolf has done.

I have no wish to disparage fellow public servants who in the beginning, worked very hard to contain this pandemic. Happily they succeeded. As this drags on, it is not hard to believe that other factors are at play.

And they’re likely no longer about us.

Cell phone cameras have many uses. I use mine to take quick snaps of documents, serial number plates or VIN numbers on cars or power equipment, or to take a quick image of someone’s business card. I send “food porn” of my barbecue efforts to my fellow cooks and product shots to Craigslist. For legal reasons. I have documented auto accidents I have experienced. All of this is very useful in my life.

Notice however that among the things I use my camera phone for, actual creative photography is not among them. I far prefer having a “real camera” at hand for those sorts of images, and I generally do. However, there are those times, when a potential image appears before me, and I am “unarmed”. Under these circumstances, I am forced to make do with my smartphone camera. These images tend to build up in my phone’s image files, among the images of serial number badges, tractor parts, and documents I need to send along to others.

Roughly once a year I take the time to pull these pictures out of my phone on the vague hope that they will be editable into her useful image. So in terms of this year, This is what I got.

Cell phone cameras, in general, are lousy for true creative photography. There are a variety of reasons for this. #1 They tend to have a very wide-angle lens, which unless you understand how to shoot wide, tend to produce flat-looking boring images. I know now that several cameras offer multiple focal lengths which will be helpful for subject isolation and less distorted portraits, but mine does not.

 They also tend to shoot in a wide format aspect ratio which can also be challenging in terms of framing.

The lenses typically are not particularly high quality. The bigger technical problem tends to be the imagers, which are very small, with lots of tiny pixels that, because of their size tend to create a fairly low signal to noise ratio(bad).

Recently a number of more thoughtful cell phone manufacturers have decreased the megapixel count of their photo chips, which improves image quality at the expense of resolution. My Samsung Galaxy S8, which is hardly a new camera phone, has a 12-megapixel imager, down from the 16 megapixels of its predecessor. Still, it’s pretty noisy, particularly shot indoors. Because of this, the dynamic range is rather limited.

I’ve written other articles here, where I give examples of comparison images between my Sony Rx 100, which has a still small, but much larger than a cell phone imager. It also has a much better lens. Real cameras work better.

Now that she isn’t to say that cell phones can’t produce enjoyable images. They just need to be viewed small, on phones or tablets. I find that when I try to actually print a smartphone image, I’ve got to keep the print size way down for them to look like anything reasonable. Generally, I don’t even try to print them at all.

Now there are some things you can do, to try and improve your cell phone results. My Samsung has the ability to shoot raw files, which makes them more editable in software.

 I have my phone set up with separate screen icons, that take me either to the camera’s normal mode where I can shoot Jpegs or the so-called “pro mode” where the camera will shoot raw. This latter mode offers me additional exposure and focus adjustments I can access prior to acquiring the image. One frustration that I have is that the raw images on the phone, despite the fact that they are recorded as the proprietary Photoshop. dng raw file, do not display in Photoshop unless I download them to my computer. This can make rooting out an individual image somewhat troublesome.

Still, if I come upon a scene that seems congruent with the focal length and the aspect ratio of the device, I will attempt a capture. Most times I end up deleting the image, but once in a while, I will save them for future use on my computer hard drive. Oh, and make sure your lens is clean.

So what is my message from all of this? I guess what I want people to understand, is that despite all the hype from the manufacturers about the incredible performance of their phone’s cameras, in most cases, it will be markedly inferior to a modest, larger sensor photography device. People should not view their camera phones as replacements for real photo gear, but perhaps as adjuncts, relatively low quality but always at hand.

Though I do have some nice-looking food porn.

The”late adopter” strikes again.

I had been interested in the Fujifilm XE3 since it was introduced in September of 2017. I already had 2 bodies with the same sensor and processor ( the X100F and the X Pro 2) and couldn’t justify the introductory price. So I bided my time.

Several months back, a deal was offered on the XE3 in this case bundled with the XF23mm f2.0 lens and I finally gave in.  The new camera was meant to replace my previous small bodied interchangeable lens camera, the X-T10 for one with the same image quality and controls which I have grown accustomed to on my other bodies.  I’ve been shooting enough now that I have some thoughts on where this camera and lens fit in, at least in my workflow.

This is not meant as a technical review , for this equipment has been out a long time, and there are many in- depth evaluations available elsewhere.  This piece, merely fulfills my self-imposed obligation to have something to say about the Fujifilm gear that I acquire.

The XE# is really small.  It is certainly smaller than its predecessor, the XE2, thanks in part to the loss of the directional pad, and some of the external buttons functions are taken up by a touch screen.

With the 23mm lens mounted, the combination is quite compact though not as much so is my X100F.  But like that camera, it is discreet and non-threatening, and I think another good choice for street shooting.  Though not quite as sturdy in feel as the fully weatherproofed X Pro 2, it definitely feels substantial, and “part of the family”.

It has a very adequate electronic viewfinder with the usual features.  There is a new icon on the screen however signaling the functioning of the touchscreen, which can be turned off, turn on fully, or to avoid being activated by one’s nose, activated on one side only.  So far I’ve tended to keep it off as it’s reasonably easy to unintentionally trigger a camera function.  But the screen is fully customizable as are the other buttons and dials on the camera. I may yet turn it back on.

In keeping with its status as a more amateur/enthusiast product, it carries a switch on its top plate, offering to move the camera into an “auto” mode.  This switch can be inadvertently triggered, likely changing the settings and format you have chosen (it has happened to me).  I should probably use some gaffers tape to keep it from moving.

The camera is quick and responsive, it seems to have autofocus performance certainly similar to my X Pro 2.  In fact with a joystick, it shoots pretty much like a miniature version of the camera.  And with the same sensor and processor, it has the same image quality.

A new feature of this camera is Bluetooth.  This allows you to connect for control from your cell phone in a matter that is less battery intensive than the Wi-Fi connection used in previous cameras.  I’ve played with this a bit and it seems to work well.  Using my phone’s display helps to make up for the fixed rear screen of the camera. 

The XF 23 mm f2.0 WP is a small compact lens, fairly well built with a small sun shield, which hugs the front element.  The small lens cap either fits on the filter threads of the lens or the orifice of the sun shield.  The focus ring moves smoothly, and the overall impression of quality is high.  Though I have done no formal testing on the lens, I had been shooting some casual landscapes with it, and so far it seems to be very sharp.  I know from MTF testing published elsewhere, that the lens outperforms the lens in the X100 series, and stands up well to the significantly larger 23 mm f1.4 version that has become one of my favorite optics in the XF series.

In fact, this camera and lens combination really begs the question as to why I need an X100 series camera.  Though this combination is larger than the fixed lens X100, I’m not sure the size difference is significant.  The other main difference would be the X100’s optical/electronic viewfinder but I’ve rarely if ever use the optical feature so this is somewhat lost on me. 

Now some of you are probably thinking: why should I buy the XE3 when there is a new generation of Fujifilm products, with a new sensor and processor being introduced. Well maybe, because the new hardware brings only slightly improved resolution and dynamic range over those products I currently own. 

As I’ve written elsewhere I’m starting to think that cameras in general and Fujifilm products, in particular, are reaching a point where further improvement to the basic technology is slowing.  If I am right, it probably makes sense, at least in terms of cost/benefit ratio, to buy equipment one series behind, so to pick up bargains.

We’ll see how long I stick to that idea.