The images that I have here will strike some as a kind of throwback to the early days of digital photography. There's a very good reason for that... they were all shot with photographic gear that is now easily a decade or more old. I am proud to say that I don't use high-resolution cameras, modern optics, or heavy Photoshop manipulation in my photography. Although these things have brought us greater imaging perfection, for me they have also helped to make many of today's photographs look just a little bit too clinical, inorganic, and even outright fake (especially if they are rendered in HDR).

Personally my preference has always been for photographs with vibrant color, rich tonality, and a strong sense of depth rendition. Many modern images, however, strike me as a bit thin and muted. The underlying cause is that virtually all cameras made after 2007 have much weaker color filter arrays (CFA's) in order to achieve better high-ISO performance and a higher megapixel count. In essence modern cameras have traded away some color fidelity for the sake of better resolution and low-light sensitivity. Fortunately I can afford to shoot near base-ISO and find 10-12MP resolutions to be more than enough for print and web publishing. Paradoxically this has made early digital cameras better tools for me since these were produced in an era when ultra-strong color filters were still in vogue. Older cameras basically enable me to work without any color tradeoffs.

Whenever I can I shoot at 10MP or lower with old-school CCD cameras like the Nikon D1x, Nikon D200, Nikon D60, and Fuji S5 Pro. On the occasions when I truly need quicker AF tracking or better high-ISO performance, I switch to either my Nikon D700 or Canon 5Dc. Both of these early CMOS cameras have low-density 12MP sensors. As a result their color filters are still among the strongest to be found among all CMOS camera bodies made.

Given my preference for older cameras it's probably not surprising that I also prefer older lenses for their rendering character. Sadly the design priorities for new lenses has shifted away from three dimensional rendering to extracting the maximum sharpness possible for high-resolution sensors. How is this generally done? Designers correct for every little lens aberration and soft corners by adding an often absurd number of glass and plastic elements to their lenses. Primes that used to have 3-6 elements and could fit in a pocket have mushroomed into tripod behemoths with 12 or more elements. Some now approach the size and weight of professional f/2.8 zooms. And while sharpness wide open has indeed improved slightly in modern lenses, the way these lenses draw their images largely looks clinical, flat, and characterless to me.

Fortunately my older bodies pair well with older lenses. On my full frame Nikon's I currently shoot the AF Nikkor 20mm f/2.8D, 24mm f/2.8D, 35mm f/2D, 50mm f/1.8D, 60mm f/2.8D, 85mm f/1.8D, and 180mm f/2.8D. On my Nikon APS-C bodies and the Fuji S5 Pro the DX AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G and 17-55mm DX f/2.8G are my lenses of choice. But if I can afford to shoot at a more leisurely pace I will eagerly use any of my exotic manual focus lenses instead. The Kerlee 35mm f/1.2, Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 AI-S, Voigtlander Nokton 58mm f/1.4 SL-II N, and Leica Summicron R 90mm f/2 pre-asph all don't have auto-focus, but each render images exquisitely. For the Canon 5D Classic my lenses of choice are the Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L Mk I, 50mm f/1.4 USM, 85mm f/1.8 USM, and 135mm f/2L. Regardless of platform, those lenses that produce exceptional 3D Pop inevitably become my favorites.