Last weekend, I hooked up with >30 (other) photogs/nerds/geeks/whateveryoucallthem in the Burgers' Zoo in Arnhem
(NL). Objective to capture some animals (on film or digital media), and
to talk about everything (but not limited to) related to photography.
I
attended several of these meetings over the years, and I must say that
these outings are always a lot of fun. This time I brought my Leica M9
(28mm, 35mm and 50mm), and my Nikon D300 (with the Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8
VR).
Apart from the mainstream gear that was around (Canon, Nikon with their $$$ L/Pro lenses), there were some oldies as well. A Canon VT rangefinder
(with a rapidwinder in the bottom plate) from the early 50's, with some
Canon 39mm screw lenses that were almost as old as the camera.
Focussing manually has it's advantages. First, the number of potential lenses for your body sky-rockets. There are numerous old and new extraordinary good MANUAL FOCUS lenses available for the modern DSLR. Examples are lenses by Voigtlander, Carl Zeiss, and the old Nikon (Ai-S) lenses. The problem is that most of the modern cameras lack a decent (visual) indicator for when your object is in focus. My Nikon D300 has a small indicator (a dot) in the viewfinder which notifies you when you've got focus. But when you shoot with large apertures (e.g. f/2, f/1.8, f/1.4 or f/1.2) on MF lenses you have to keep track of your composition (through the viewfinder), and watch the 'in-focus' indicator. Something I find very hard to do. I allways seem to miss at least one of them. Missing composition is easy to fix in post-processing, but fixing focus can't be done.
Thankfully, there's a solution to this problem; Katz Eye Optics. These guys offer old-skool focusing screens for the modern digital SLR's. All you have to do is replace the focusing screen with theirs. You can do this yourself, or your camera brand service-center should be able to do it for you (at additional cost). I did it myself though, and ran into a problem (of course). But more on that later...
After being gone for at least a decade, Skunk Anansie is back with a new album. Last week thay gave a concert in the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam (NL), and it felt like old times.
It wasn't a concert where they played mainly new songs from their new album Wonderlustre. They mainly played those great old songs like Hedonisme, Brazen, Every Day Hurts (Twisted), and many many more.
Skunk Anansie @ HMHThis was also the first time I could use my new Nikon P7000 at a concert. Photo's were pretty much out of the question, since we were sitting all the way at the back. That's to far. Even for the 200mm at the long end on the Nikon. So I shot several videos.
PhotoLinkerI tend to geotag most of my photos. This way I have location information with the photo for future reference. It's also a neat feature that you might exploit when creating photo albums with e.g. iPhoto. The GPS coordinates in the images creates the option to create maps in iPhoto albums.
I use geotagging in two different ways. I use the jf Geocoding plugin in Lightroom and the PhotoLinker application. Both have their (dis)advantages. Something I won't go into in this post.
Nikon Coolpix P7000Some of the readers may know that I used the Panasonic Lumix LX3 as a backup/compact camera for the times a dSLR isn't welcome (or practical). One of the places where a dSLR isn't welcome is your average (pop)concert. The Lumix LX3 was (and still is) an excellent compact camera with astonishing low-light capabilities. The only problem I had with the camera was that the zoom function only went to 60mm (35mm equivalent), and 60mm is a bit short when you're not standing directly in front of the podium....
Last night we went to a concert/CD-release of the Belgium rockband Triggerfinger. This was also the first time I brought my new Nikon P7000. The following photos and video were shot with this new Nikon Coolpix Perfomance series compact camera.
The concert was great. Great enough to get their latest CD in the lobby. I hope we're gonna hear more of them.
I was in the market for a hand-strap. Nikon offers a AH-4 hand-strap for their cameras, but that accessory is over $70 USD. Not something you buy without knowing if it 'suits' you. Sure, I could get the official AH-4, and find out after a couple of days that it's not my cup of tea. Chances are slim that the store will get it back with a full refund, since it's used.
So I started to look around for a cheaper option, and I found one (well, several) on eBay. This Nikon Hand-Strap II is supposed to be official in/from Korea, but even the Korean Nikon website only shows the original AH-4. So it's a (cheap) knock-off, but that didn't keep me from getting one.
Nikon 24mm f/1.4G EDNikon is catching up with Canon in regards to the (really) fast prime lenses. They announced a new 24mm f/1.4G ED (link to the techpart)wide-angle lens today. This new lens makes it possible to do low-light photography with a maximum aperture of 1.4. Especially when you're shooting with a low-light monster like the Nikon D700 or D3(x/s).
The lens should also give you a nice depth of field (DoF) when shooting wide open, and being relatively close to your subject. We all know that wide-angle lenses tend to have a large DoF due to wide-angle optic characteristics (et voila).
;)
;)
;)