The Dark Proceeds. (Vintage Imperial Shuttle, Vintage Emperor, Vintage Emperor's Royal Guards, Vintage Stormtroopers)
This post marks a potential sea change in this blog.
See, about 9 months ago I was given an extraordinary camera for my 40th birthday. The Lumix DMC-LX5 captures our toddler’s every movement with piercing clarity and speed. But I’ve been reluctant to introduce it into these pages of action figure photography for fear that the results would be at odds with the existing body of work. The older camera with it’s inferior performance somehow seems the appropriate match for these ancient toys.
But lately I’ve been tempted to experiment and compare results. There’ve been tight races, but today for the first time I felt that the Lumix just couldn’t be denied. Mind you the old Panasonic came close. Really close. If you want to check out that image, you can have a peek right here.
What I like about the older Panasonic in this case is that it has a more narrow lens that shows exactly what’s in front of the camera, as it appears. That Imperial Shuttle really looks like the Imperial Shuttle. The Lumix on the other hand has a much wider lens, so imagery quickly becomes distorted, especially towards the edges of the frame. In this situation the shuttle has a distorted and dramatic perspective that unfortunately takes away it’s immediate toyness.
So what do you think? With me or against me?
Well, my first impression is that I like the coloring of the Panasonic. It’s so much warmer. Also, this has something to do with crop, but the lack of feet in the Panasonic leads to a quicker acceptance of seeming to be “in” the photo – a more realistic angle as if the photographer were present and at the same scale of the figures. Curiously, as I look closely, it appears that one of the troopers is in more focus than the Emperor, which leads to an interesting interpretation of what’s going on in the scene.
Interesting observations Mike. Agreed on all counts. It’ll be interesting to see how this situation unfolds going forward!
I actually see your point about the superiority of this camera, the other picture, however, has more charm in my opinion… probably what you called the “toyness”…
There’s a sinister quality to this one, as opposed to the older camera’s photo, which I feel is more appropriate for these characters.