equipment

All posts tagged equipment

I survived without a full-frame camera!

Posted by Paul on December 13, 2012
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , , .

PDL_20121209_0042
Tombstone, AZ
As I review my photos, I get a laugh sometimes. Before I went to Arizona, I got into the same ‘conversation’ in my head about which camera to take. Finally, I squashed all of that chatter and decided to take the Nikon P-510 and my Olympus 35 LC, a circa 1967 film rangefinder and that’s what I did. The main reason was because of portability and the low hassle factor. At no point did I regret the decision. For the most part, we were out in the broad daylight – no need for a tripod and we did a lot of walking around and looking – you know, being tourist, so this camera was the perfect tool for that.
PDL_20121209_0022-3

I did have a slight bit of equipment lust and “what if” when I saw the owner of the bed and breakfast, Bob, who was also a amateur photographer, wielding an OM-D with a 28-300 mm lens on it. He said it was one of his favorites. However, that soon melted away as I found many uses for the 24 – 1000 mm lens on the 510. :)

All in all, I didn’t take many film shots, about 32 of the 36 on the roll. I’ll get around to developing them, but I sure did take quite a few with the 510 and even a few with the iPhone and the Hipstamatic app.

It was fun and I made the right choice of camera. I survived without a full frame camera. Sure, I’m not at Cedric’s level and willing to forgo a “real” camera for a camera phone, though! ;) Now, had I gone on my own, just to shoot, I would have taken the D700 and D300 for sure.

And now, the D600

Posted by Paul on September 13, 2012
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , , .

I got an email just a little while ago introducing the Nikon D600, a 24.3 MP, FX camera for $2,099, body only. It was interesting that Nikon skipped from D300 to D700 and is now working backwards. Hmmmm, I wonder what will be the D500 and D400? :)

Of course, it looks like a scaled down D800, smaller, fewer features, fewer pixels; however, this makes sense, considering production runs. Might as well hit both sides of the market. The interesting thing is that it only differs in price by about $800+ from the D800. I wonder if that is enough to cause some people to buy this one rather than the D800. And this, right on the heels of the iPhone 5 announcement. What’s a guy to do?! Absolutely nothing. I’m, surprisingly, not interested in either one of them.

What about you?

Dammit, Earl!

Posted by Paul on August 8, 2010
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , .

Leica_08072010_010-Edit.jpg
Ohhhhhhh….. bubbles …

I have it on good authority from other photographers that you cannot have too many cameras. I’m staring to believe that … perhaps I’ve believed it all along, but just didn’t care to admit it. :-)

Before I begin, I must say that I must stay away from Earl Moore. That guy always has the latest gadgets, toys, and cameras. I can’t keep up. LOL! When Earl, Monte, and I were sitting down chatting at Olive Garden, we were talking about, of course, cameras. I mentioned that there might be a Leica M9 in my future … the very distant future. First, I need to get rid of some debt, take some travel, etc. There are many things ahead of adding another $7,000 to Leica’s coffers. Many!

Anyway, I do find that I absolutely love rangefinder cameras for street shooting. They are unparalleled. It’s nice to be able to see what’s in the frame, but more importantly, what’s outside of and about to come into it. However, rangefinders are still a bit bulky to carry around all the time. Now, what’s left in my arsenal for that all the time carry around. My camera phone. Well, the short comings of the camera phone are obvious: super tiny sensor, limited to no control over exposure, framing, or focusing, etc. But, it beats not getting the shot at all. We live with what we have … almost.

Back to our conversation at the table. I should have known! Earl whips out this cool camera from his pocket, a Canon S90. Never heard of it because I stopped following cameras, which stopped my buying of cameras. :-) I’ve had my D300 for over 18 months! Impressive. Then he did the ultimate sin … he let me hold it. Dammit, Earl! Well, after looking at it and seeing that he pulled it out of his pocket, I thought … that’s it. I “need” one of those. No more missed shots. The perfect camera to put into my pocket to have with me on my walks with Hobbs, when I’m out running errands, etc.

Over the course of the next few days, I read reviews at Luminous Landscape and other places. I read comparisons between it and the Panasonic LX3 and came to the conclusion that they were about the same, save for the longer zoom length on the Canon. The longer zoom tilted it.

Yesterday, I made the decision to buy it (Like it really took me that long. I had probably decided before I left the table, but let’s just roll with it the other way. Makes me seem less impressionable!). This morning, I just got notice that my item has shipped. It should be here by Wednesday. Sigh … ;-)

Thankfully, you can never have too many cameras!

By the wayside: Old equipment

Posted by Paul on November 25, 2008
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , .

I’ve been thinking about this off and on, particularly when I look at the demise of my D2x as it sits, seemingly discarded, in one corner of the room. It rarely sees any use; however, it is still quite a capable camera.

I know that quite a few of you will be able to chime in on this. It’s a curiosity of mine. When you buy new photographic equipment, specifically a new camera body, what do you do with the old stuff?

I now have three Nikon camera bodies. From newest to oldest: D300, D40, D2x. The D2x was my first Nikon digital camera. What can I say? I wanted the best!

I use the D300 constantly, much the same way as I used the D2x. The D40 is my carry around camera that I use when I don’t want to use a tripod or am going for a photo walk, so to speak. Of the 3 cameras, two are nearly identical. The D2x and the D300. The D40 does not compare in any way to the other two, other than it produces photographs too. However, it is not meant to be a competitor.

Former glory
The D2x, used to be my go-to guy. It is still capable in every way. As a matter of fact, all of the pictures that I am using for my 2009 calendar were taken with the D2x! This was a surprise. I looked at the meta data after the fact. I kept the D2x mounted on the tripod and kept the D300 for close up, near-ground macro and walking around. There was a practical reason. I didn’t have a Really Right Stuff bracket for the D300 and didn’t want to spend an additional $200 to get one at the time.

So, what’s the difference?
As far as I’m concerned, the only differences that matter to me (sometimes) are:

  1. The sensor cleaner. A big plus!
  2. The D300′s better performance at higher ISO levels.
  3. The D300′s auto focus is a bit better and more up-to-date, but for the way that I use the camera, I get the same out of each one, so the other differences don’t matter.
  4. For shooting sports, they are equal. Both shoot at about 6 frames per second. Both of capable of shooting 8 frames per second, except the D2x has to do it cropped mode. The D300 needs a grip and either 8 AA batteries, or an En-El4a battery. But you can get a burst of 8 frames without the grip.

As you can see, the differences, from my point of view and usage, are small. I do feel that the D2x is more of a rugged, professional type camera than the D300. It just seems a bit more durable. I don’t hesitate to take it out in dust, light rain, fog, any type of weather. I’m a bit more hesitant with the D300. So, I was thinking that it would be my backup/tough(er) weather guy. I don’t want to sell, really, because I think that it does make an excellent starter or 6th man, to use basketball terms. I think that I’ll have to pick it up and use it some this weekend. :-)

Naturally, both of these photos were taken with the D2x. According to the meta data, the last shot that I took with the D2x was May 29th of this year. I think that it’s time for it to come out of retirement!

OK, so let’s hear it. I know that a number of you bought new cameras this year: Earl? Mark? Laurie? Kate? Gordon? Anita? JH? Amy? So, I know that I’m not alone! Speak on it!