Man maths

I was perfectly content with my iPhone 16 Pro Max… until I saw reviews of the new iPhone 18 Pro series. New to the latest iPhone are updates to the photographic styles - essentially fancy filters for photos taken with the phone. I’ve been a fan of photographic styles since this very iPhone 16 Pro Max was launched with the ability to customize the default tone mapping. I can (finally) toggle the color and dial back the crunchiness that iPhone photos have sort of become notorious for.

New to the iPhone 18 Pro line is more tone options, one of which is film. Right along with the prevailing photography zeigeist, I adore the look of film. My primary shooter is a Fujifilm XT-5. Nostalgia Neg is my preferred film simulation, and I am fully happy with the JPEG files that are straight out of the camera. These days, Adobe Lightroom for me is more of a collation app than heavy editing.

I always thought it would be nice for the iPhone to have such a film simulation out of the box using the native camera app. I didn’t think it would happen, but by god Apple did it! I wasn’t at all planning to spend $1,200 for a new phone this year, yet the mighty corporation from Cupertino has done it again.

This is where a bit of girl man maths comes in. Firstly, thanks to the chronic memory chip shortage caused by the AI boom, both models of the iPhone 18 Pro series has increased in price by $100. I skirted that extra cost by downsizing from the Max model of my iPhone 16 Pro to the regular sized iPhone 18 Pro. Same price as the old phone, just smaller screen real estate. A necessary sacrifice.

Secondly, my existing iPhone 16 Pro Max is fully functional and unblemished, so a perfect trade-in candidate. That knocks the price down by $610. Third, I opted out of buying AppleCare for the new phone, which I bought and carried on the old one. As someone who takes care of his stuff really well, the extra insurance is a needless financial outlay. So, save some additional money there.

Lastly, for the first time in my iPhone owning life, I bought a third-party case. $50 (plus tax) for Apple’s first-party case is ludicrously expensive, given there are so many Chinese-made options on Amazon that are just as nice, for about $15. Even if the third-party case doesn’t last as long, there’s enough money difference to buy two more before equaling the price of one Apple case.

That’s how I do man maths: make a big purchase, then find small ways to alleviate the total expenditure.

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Taking off.

JPEG shooter

This past Sunday I got a chance to take my new Fujifilm X-T5 camera out for some first time test shooting. A photowalk around San Francisco Chinatown in the afternoon was called for. After reading the manual front to back and adjusting the custom buttons to my liking, it was time to see what the X-T5 camera can do. (Pairing it with a Fujinon XF 23mm F2 lens.)

Perhaps it’s the substantial money I dropped on essentially switching to a new system (Sony to Fujifilm) talking, but I was pretty immediately smitten with the X-T5. A touchscreen on a camera is so useful (My old Sony A7R2 did not have one). On the Fujifilm I can touch to lock focus on a subject/object and it will do so until I tap again to cancel. It honestly feels kind of cheating to me. I remember the old days of having only eight focusing points on a DSLR, and needing to perform the focus and recompose technique.

Now I can simply touch almost anywhere on the frame and it will lock focus automatically. Magical.

Fujifilm’s famous film simulation modes is as advertised. After seeing how each of them look, I chose Nostalgic Negative as my go to. Nostalgic Neg has the bump in saturation I typical do for my own RAW edits, plus a warm tonality that I prefer over something cool. Set white balance to automatic, and I simply let the X-T5 do its own interpretation of the scene vis a vis the colors.

Kind of funny how I’m essentially treating a “DSLR” camera as a point-and-shoot. It’s like going back to the days of instant film cameras: I don’t control how a film roll will look coming out of development. Being able to get interesting and usable JPEG files straight out of the camera makes me want to go shoot more. Because upon returning home, all I do is transfer the JPEG files off the X-T5 and onto my Mac’s Photos app. That's it! I’ve not touched any of the RAW files from the Chinatown photowalk - there’s really no need.

At some point I might even shoot only in JPEG…

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Jewel on the crown.

Obi-Wan anthology film is official

It’s finally official. The Obi-Wan Kenobi film is happening.

Ever since Disney bought out the entire Star Wars IP from Lucas and announced they were going to do anthology movies alongside three new saga films, I’ve been saying - along with practically every other fan out there - doing an Obi-Wan solo films is an absolute no brainer. Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan was one of the few bright spots in the prequel trilogy, and us fans are all wondering just what the Jedi Master got up to in between within the time between the Jedi purge and Leia’s distress message. 

Not confirmed is that Ewan McGregor is for sure doing it, but it’s mere formalities at this point, isn’t it. At least we hope it is: I for one will refuse to watch an Obi-Wan film without McGregor playing the titular character. 

The Obi-Wan Kenobi anthology movie may perhaps be the perfect tie-in between the prequels and original trilogy. They can bring back the same actors from Episode III to play Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru - we will no doubt be seeing a young Luke. Ian McDiarmid can reprise as the Emperor Palpatine, and the main villain can be, who else, Darth Vader himself. After the incredible and indelible hallway sequence in Rogue One, who doesn’t want more Darth Vader?

Hayden Christensen can even redeem himself to play Anakin in flashbacks. 

Qui-Gon force ghost? A brief visit to see Master Yoda? 

I for one cannot wait for a deep character-study film on Obi-Wan in what is for sure amongst his darkest days as the republic dissolves into the Empire. I’m immensely happy it’s officially happening.