Author Archives: Jim Radcliffe

Bear with me on this.  The payoff is worth the read. When I was in high school I had a job at the local radio station in my home town working weekends.  That job experience would lead to a career in broadcasting that spanned over 40 years.  When I was discharged from the Air Force [...]

Oh what fun it is to surf the various camera forums in advance of Photokina. Camera makers are “leaking” specs of their new cameras and some are actually putting out official press releases in advance of Photokina.  All of this has turned Internet camera forums into arenas in which FanBoys and Trolls are engaged in verbal [...]

Warning: What follows is satire… there is a degree of truth AND exaggeration in what you are about to read.   Confessions and Observations of a Leica user…   I finally took the plunge and bought a Leica.  I had to discover for myself the meaning of the Leica Mystique.  The unboxing was an incredible [...]

I am often amazed at the number of posts on forums by owners of cameras who can’t stop testing their camera.  Months after their initial purchase of the camera they are still posting test shots.  Do they never really use their cameras for any purpose other than “testing” the camera? How many brick walls, color [...]

There have been lots of new camera announcements lately and I found myself not to be excited by any of them.  None of them have made me slip into “Buy Mode” at this time. This is strange because over the years I have easily slipped into “Buy Mode” when the latest and greatest cameras were [...]

An individual in one of the camera forums recently criticized my blog because I don’t allow comments.  Why am I not surprised?  But just in case some of my gentler readers were wondering the same thing, here’s why. Do you recognize either of those guys to the left?  Does one or maybe both of them [...]

  We’ve all run into them online. Those self-appointed protectors of truth and detail who inhabit online photography forums. They are belligerent, usually in-your-face, combative, sarcastic, cynical, project an air of superiority, usually don’t actually take a lot of photos and when they do they are pretty much the same kind of snapshots a Noob might [...]

The quest for a perfect camera will always be an exercise in futility because we, as humans, are never satisfied with what we have for long.. and we simply cannot agree on the definition of perfect as it applies to cameras…. or anything else. For some a point and shoot is perfect.  It fits in [...]

First, don’t confuse a local camera show with the big ones which are attended by all the major camera makers.. think camera swap meet or flea market…. I used to be an active amateur radio operator and attended many “Hamfests” in which there were all sorts of stalls (think flea market) set up for amateur radio [...]

The WAC Syndrome WAC: Without A Camera I recently had to send in my Pentax K5 for repair due to what is now called “Mirror-Overrun”.  I was without my main camera for 13 days.  During that thirteen day period of time I found myself to be irritable, anxious, moody and generally unhappy.  Those symptoms are all [...]

I recently visited a photography gallery in Carmel, California.  What I saw there in the way of fine art black and white photography reawakened a desire to do more black and white conversions with no reference to what camera or lens was used. Why? Because the entire time I was viewing those marvelous photographs in [...]

Let me say right up front that I don’t dislike street photography.  It’s not my thing and I rarely shoot “street” but I do recognize good street when I see it. For the most part  I find much of what is presented as street photography to be boring snapshots… usually in black and white.  Apparently proper street [...]

Fanboy Definition: 1. A person who is completely loyal to a camera or camera brand regardless of whether said camera or camera company produces products that are overpriced, overrated or simply suck or not. 2. A pathetic insult often used by fanboys themselves to try and put down people who don’t like whatever it is [...]

I just made my first ever video involving the Pentax K5 and the Panasonic GF1.  Well, not really.. I used the stills I took with those cameras while in New Orleans to create a video using Windows Live Movie Maker.  Below is the result.. kinda cool and it adds a different dimension to the still [...]

First, let me make it very clear that Boxed Light is not a review site.  It is my own personal site broken down by the cameras I have owned or used and the images produced by those cameras. In addition, I have added this blog section which allows me to blather on about anything I please [...]

I am constantly amazed (and amused) by the people in various photography forums who continue to lust for and demand that camera makers do a better job of producing new cameras.  They want higher ISO (3200 is not enough), they want better dynamic range (ok, that’s not too bad), they want this feature and that [...]

This post isn’t even about cameras but I wanted to share it with you anyway because I know that most of us have been through a similar situation in the past or will go through something similar in the future. The abusurdity of the return policies of some of the companies we are all forced to do [...]

I routinely turn down people who wish to hire me to shoot weddings.  I probably shouldn’t do that as I might have an M9 by now if I took on wedding photography.  Wedding photography is quite lucrative.. if you are any good. Weddings are very demanding.  You need assistants.  You need the proper gear.  You need [...]