Ansel Adams: The Camera (The Ansel Adams Photography Series 1)
Reviews (195)
A Masterpiece
This book is a classic. On the face of it, you would question the relevance of the book in today's digital age. However, when I started to read the book, I marvelled at the beauty of the concepts that he outlined, and the clarity with which he explained them. His understanding of the camera, it's principles, is masterly. His lessons, pithy as they are, on visualisation, are timeless. They are as valid today as when he wrote them, and will be valid tomorrow. The principles of the camera, lenses, depth of field, hyper focal distance etc are valid today as they were yesterday, and his handling of the subject is masterly For one, like me, who would like to experiment again with the old cameras, this book its invaluable A masterpiece. A gem
The Big A's View through the camera
Ansel Adams is no longer corporeally walking the earth, calculating exposures and producing photographic visions. But his legacy, his works and his writings live on. And indeed, the Big A was a master of his craft and his written legacy still holds value even in the face of changing technology. Digital cameras have remapped much regarding how photography is done and at Universities, wet photography has been almost entirely dropped from curriculums in favor of digital media technologies. The question might for some be, is what the Big A wrote, still applicable? Yes it is. First, wet photography has not been totally eliminated. It may be argued that there are certain photographic results which cannot be obtained by digital photography that the film camera was capable of. Perhaps. But undoubtedly, obtaining a first hand and masterful knowledge of photography, digital or wet, and in particular what was done to conceive good end images, and technologically achieve those results as Ansel did, is applicable today. It's just done differently. What does not yet exist, is a good masterful book, such as Ansel's, which goes into the detail and breadth to explain how to achieve those similar results with digital media. To that end, I highly recommend Ansel Adams' book series as an intellectual stimulant which every photographer should digest wholly. Afterwards, the digital means to achieving the same levels of image fidelity and adjustments, still based on the zone system, will be at least suggested. Digital photographers exposed to Ansel's views on his craft will then find stimulus to fill in the blanks when attempting similar fidelity and adjustments with digitally obtained photographs.
A standard read for all serious photographers, even in 2012
Ansel Adams deserves a lot of credit for getting photography recognized as an art as well as technical advances in the field. Even though he worked with film (mainly black and white), and large format cameras, the principles he discusses in this book "The Camera" as well as his other books are still relevant today and found in modern incarnations in digital cameras, Photoshop, and the like. For anyone who is serious about photography and interested in understanding the underpinnings more deeply in order to take better photos rather than editing them into a better state afterwards, I recommend this book. I do however have to include the comment that Ansel Adams, while an artistic genius, was also very detail oriented and his writing, while enlightening, is sometimes dry and tedious. -William Milberry
Still very relavent if you realy want the fundamentals
This is for those who want learn from A to Z and not miss things along the way. If you want a fundamental understanding of how the camera and lenses work, regardless of image capture technology, this is your book. This is the true student of photographys place to start. If you just bought, or are impatient to buy, a DSLR and want to be competent quickly, this is not your book. There are certainly books more focused on todays technology, telling you what you need to know, and only what you need to know, to use the latest cameras. Such books would also explain the many shortcuts we have access to now that were not available with film. For many of us, that is not enough. It does not seem overly burdened by equipment of years past. It does talk about things that can be done without the equipment limitations many of us didn't know we had. It gives you a working understanding of the camera that you could spend a lifetime exploring.
His work is incredible
Photography is my new found love for the past 4 years and I have always been impressed with Ansel's work. What I did realize about this book is, if your a digital photographer the perspective is a bit different. As I said Ansel is a genus, but his perspective is film and the thinking is just a bit different.
Way more than most people could understand or use.
While a lot in this book may seem outdated at first, if you ever want to have any skill at photography and truly control your camera in manual mode everything in this book will be useful. For example the long section on large format view cameras seems outdated (for most users anyways) until you realize it explains in detail the effects of having your lens and film/sensor shifted at different angles or directions to change depth of field and lines of convergence and potential vignetting (relevant for tilt shift lenses). Very in depth explanations of many of the most basic principals and concepts of photography. This is not the DSLR for dummies book. This book really only works as part of the set of three though as they reference each other and build on concepts. It can be a bit dry at times (as in dull) and very technical (he doesn't dumb things down very often) and I would expect retention of the information would be a problem for someone starting from scratch in a single read through. It is a book that likes to explain "why" things in photography happen instead of just telling you that they happen, which is critical to really taking control of your exposures.
Wouldn't recommend!
This book is very dated and there is not a lot to learn in today's context. The only thing I liked are the photographs and may be I can learn from them something (combining them with the zone system explained in book 2 - The Negative). I don't think you would miss a lot by not buying this book.
Not formatted for Kindle
This book, as well as The Negative and The Print, are not formatted for any Kindle device. They are made as simple screen copies of the twofold pages and cannot be zoomed in to be read. No use of any Kindle functionality and impossible to read even with a loop. Do not buy.
First step in ascent mastership
This book is first of trilogy of Ansel Adams - one of the greatest aesthetic photography ideologists of 20 century, and this particular edition is the latest, it was edited considering modern tendencies of digital and optics. This book is ideal for neophytes of photography, it explaining all technical fundamentals of photography, including theory and technical aspects, and preparing reader for following parts (negative and print). Book includes very useful intertext system with "links", glossary, a lot of pictures and schemes. The text of book is very clear, straight and not too "pro" and scientific, even few mathematics formulas are very clear (and I'm not a math person at all). This book is essential to any begginer - film or digital, truly bible of photography that raised more than one generation of photographers. Best present for those who are interested in photography and best guide for those who's studying (and probably for those who's teaching as well, to get idea of step-by-step explanation). What is really good about this book that you can always refer to it if you need to clear and refresh any part or formula using glossary or index.
A Must Read for Film Camera Enthusiasts
This is a great book for anyone interested in enhancing their knowledge about film photography. I'd recommend it for anyone interested in purchasing and using a film camera. Just as the title suggests, this book is about the camera itself. There's a useful chapter on lenses that will help you decide which type of lens to buy for your shooting needs. Plus there's a good chapter on image management: how to compose shots to create visually interesting photographs. I've read all three books in this series, and while they do lean on the technical side I still consider them essential references for film camera enthusiasts.
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