Mirror, Mirror.....

Well, it came....and it's everything I expected it to be. If the Tokina RMC 500mm f/f8.0 Catadioptrics isn't the smallest/lightest lens of that class, then it's pretty darned close! At 3.95" and 17.2oz, it's amazingly small. When mounted on the Nikon D300, which although not a full-sized pro camera like the D3, is still pretty big (especially with the MB-D10 battery grip attached), this lens actually looks kind of small (relatively speaking of course)! The balance and smoothness of the long-throw focusing mechanism is amazing to someone used to modern AF lenses. Most importantly, it balances extremely well on my camera. There is also one technical issue that makes it (and the Tamron) advantageous for me. Both of those lenses (and the Nikkor of course) having an actual Nikon "AI" mount vs. a "T" mount thus having the mechanism to transfer the lens' information to the camera. You might be asking yourself, "what's the big deal"? After all, these lenses have exactly ONE F-Stop! Well....bear with me here; in this case, since the pro and semi-pro Nikons have the mechanism to take information from older manual focus lenses, AND the ability to "tell" the camera what lens it has on via a menu function, this small, but important piece allows the D300 to use that all important one F-Stop in it's automation. This is far different than not having any lens information when using a "T" mount.

But why this lens, instead of the Phoenix/Samyang that I already own? It's better built, by quite a bit. That's not to say that the Samy is "bad", because it's not. But that lens is made to sell at around $100, 2005 dollars, versus the Tokina which had a suggested retail of around $450 in 1980 dollars. Certainly that would also explain the fitted case, metal reversible lens hood, and the 3 included 35.5mm filters! ....But the feel! Can't explain it.....you'd have to hold it and turn the focusing ring yourself. Some of it might be the very long throw to go from minimum to maximum focus. Surprisingly the Samyang is a wee bit physically longer than the Tokina without the hood.

I don't know that the Tokina isn't going to be any sharper. Only time and lots of photos will tell. And this post isn't about that. It's really about that which I've nibbled around the edge of for a while now. I love mirror lenses....always have. It goes back to the first time I saw a picture of a Russian-made "MTO" lenses in British photography magazines of the 1970's. I was hooked! In today's market, they are commonly listed as Rubinars, but back then, they were called by there correct name: Maksutovs, so named from it's designer, Russian, Dmitri Dmitrievich Maksutov. It actually a derivitive of the Maksutov-Cassegrain variation of the Schmidt camera. You see those names a lot in relation to mirror telescopes of the same or similar types. I love the telescopes too, but can't afford them (as long as I remain with my current hobbies) and am too lazy to learn astronomy....at least for right now. 

These things were huge! However, as modern computer driven designs advanced and production techniques did too, the lenses themselves became smaller and smaller. By the late 70's and early 80's, the Japanese had it down to an the current size, but it was an American company contracting with an American firm using American computer-aided design that would astound the world. This was the Vivitar (Ponder and Best), Series One "Solid Cat" of the late 70's. I remember it clearly, since I thought it was about the coolest thing I ever saw! Although, it's $650 price tag put it in the category of "unobtainable", it was less unobtainable than the Nikkor 500mm which was more like $800-1000 at that time. The lens was actually designed at Opcon, by E. Betensky who had worked for Perkin-Elmer, who ended up doing the production. Fortunately these lenses (600mm and 800mm) turned out right the first time, unlike the Hubble! This was a really interesting design in that instead of simply having mirrors and very few, thin glass elements, it used rather large glass elements and eliminated the air-space making them much more compact than the norm and virtually impervious to atmospheric conditions and damage. So it's no surprise that the U.S. Army used this design for their scopes that the company contracted.

For the starry-eyed teenager of the day, these things were products that we saw in magazine articles and color brochures that we'd send away for, or sneak out of the camera shop while hoping that the scowling sales clerk didn't say something! Then, we'd go home and stare at that "family" picture which showed all the lenses together where the 1000mm and 500mm reflexes would dwarf the others by their girth. But we all dreamed about them of course, since they were at least somewhat obtainable on a per "mm" basis. We all knew that those other (refractor) behemoths with the giant (and exotic) elements had prices with more numbers than would compute in our young brains. 

Then the 90's happened, and Korea (South) came out of the "dark ages" to join the 20th and rapidly approaching 21st century. Their methodology was simple; first to "be the Japanese", then second, to "out Japanese, the Japanese". This happened on all fronts from ship to chip building.....also, cameras and optics. Sure it was the lower end of the industry for a long time. High-end glass elements take a long time to learn how to make. Just ask the Japanese! It wasn't until Nikon in the late 50's and early 60's and Kyocera (Contax) in the 70's that they were thought to be comparable to the Germans. So the Koreans started with the basics that weren't too optically complicated: the 500mm f/8 Preset and 500mm f/8 Mirror lenses were/are staples. Those ubiquitous Samyang/Phoenix/Bower/Vivitar/etc. lenses that cover eBay in that focal length. No, they aren't great, but they aren't terrible either. 

This was tried and true territory. The same path that the Japanese independent giants like Sigma, Tamron and Tokina used to get started. Remember the Spiratones, Cambrons, the Five-Star? There are of course, many more. 

So, today we have a wide variety of mirror lenses to work with on both the new and used market. No, it's not their "hey-day" anymore and even the last of the mainstream camera manufacturers, Sony has ended production of the old Minolta Rokkor design. However, in varying numbers, they are all still available through the miracle that is eBay where the Nikkor can be found in the dozens, the Samyang in the hundreds, and even the Vivitar Series One is regularly present. A few months ago, I bought one of the Samy's for less than $25 and thought I'd be satisfied. That was delusional! For me, where mirror lenses are concerned, there was always the big three: the Nikkor, the Vivitar Series One and the Tamron SP/Tokina RMC.

Of those three, only one is "affordable" in my world, the Tokina. I've seen this sell from a range of below $50 to close to $150. I figured that if complete, I'd be happy to pay up to around $75, which is exactly what this one ended up being. However, it wasn't just the cost though. Although the conventional thought has it as not as sharp as the OEMs and the Tamron. However, most reviewers (who aren't obviously anti-mirror) seems to rate it as being close and adequately sharp performer the type. At this point in time, I'm not quite ready to spend the over $300 that the other ones sell for, but I can completely see myself developing into a mirror collector someday.....if I'm not already!

The Odd and the Orphan'd

It's pretty evident that I love oddities. These things have largely been eliminated from the modern market place. It wasn't always this way though. For a long time, in the field of photography, idiosycracies were very common. Many, if not all camera companies came into existence on the backs of engineers, and there's perhaps no more idiosyncratic group than they. Before the current day of intense global competition and accountant run corporations, most of the worlds great industrial entities were created and run by inventor/engineers. Everyone from Thomas Edison to Yoshihisa Maitani have led iconic companies into developing the products that make our world what it is today. However, the highly talented are often stubbornly individualistic. And this creates the oddities that I find so interesting. 

Being the son of an engineer, I wasn't even aware of the weirdness I was raised into, until I was a little older. The summer before my Junior year of high school, my life-long friend Eric moved to town. He liked most things of the same things I did and we became friends pretty quickly. One of our common interest was/is photography. Other than the very cool Nikon F that his mother, the professional artist used, he had a drawer full of old cameras. We took them apart, painted them, played around with them in general. The oddest was a Petri-flex 7, that as you can see was "not like the others". Little did we know that one day it would become a much sought after collector's classic! So a word to the wise; don't let your teenagers break all your old stuff!

Back in the world of the late 60's and early 70's, the camera market here in the U.S. was the hot thing, and everybody wanted into it. This made for a wide variety of companies and models. Many of them were very interesting and often extremely well made. A great example was the Miranda as depicted above. Although highly advanced for the time with it's interchangeable prism, there was all manner of funny little things about it like the use of external lens and shutter linkages much like the iconic Exacta.

Speaking of the Exacta; since the market-place of that time wasn't "commoditized" yet, many products had unusual features like the VX shown above that was "left-handed" in it's control layout! Here it's being used by laid up photojournalist as played by Jimmy Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock's movie, "Rear Window" to spy on his neighbors. I thought this camera was so cool I actually traded for one years ago from a artist friend. It now resides in my friend, Pat's collection.

Don't think this camera looks unusual? It might not be.....if it came out in 1974, but for 1969, it was ahead of it's time, as was most products that Mamiya/Sekor produced until the end about a decade later. If it peaks your interests, by all means, Google it. There's a great website out there on the company. However, it's (and it's successor's, as well as the company's) idiosyncracies ended up doing it in.....but it certainly wasn't the performance. I have a bit of odd history with this camera. In 1975 when I took over as the yearbook photographer for my high school, this was what they had, along with a 135mm lens and a Yashica 124G twin lens reflex. Two years later I finally convince the school to replace it with a Canon AE-1. Just could never get over the slow to change lenses screw-mount, or the "stop-down" metering.

So; is there a point of these misc. ramblings down memory's lane? Why yes....now that you ask! "Unusual" doesn't always mean "bad", it's often simply a quirk or a matter of timing. This can be a very good thing for the bargain hunter. In the past, I've specifically talked about the Olympus E330 as well as the Konica/Minolta 7D, but haven't really address the concept overall. In the case of the Olympus, it has been orphaned due to the company's move to the Micro 4/3rd lens mount which eliminated the mirror box, thus making every one of the original 4/3rds models obsolete. Wow, that puts LOT of good cameras out there! Everything ranging from the professional level E-1, E-3, and E-5 to the super compact E-4xx series. There's even a compatible 4/3rds to m4/3rds adapter so you can keep using this glass on the newer bodies. 

Then of course, there's the Konica/Minolta 7D and 5D cameras that I've previously blogged about. And in fact, they aren't even really obsolete! The designs and optics along with the mount is that which Sony uses for it's Alpha series. So yes; by all means take advantage of consumer ignorance that causes the prices of these great cameras to be depressed to pick up an eminently useable product.

Last, but not least is this little not-so-secret, secret. For some years, Samsung was cloning Pentax DSLRs. This began with the *istD and went on till the K-10 model. It's a practice that's been common in the industry for years, with participation from all manner of companies ranging from Sears to Leica. In this case though, we are talking a current mount, and relatively up-to-date camera features. It's not an association that is "in the news" because Samsung has since abandoned the concept for their own mount combined with a "mirrorless" APS-C sensor'd design. Never-the-less, the Samsung GX-10 which is the their version of the Pentax K10D, at 10Mp is an excellent candidate to be a family camera. 

 No! Nobody is asking you to do the equivelent of driving an AMC Pacer. Nobody wants to be that weird, but if you're willing to think "outside the box"...in this case, the "big box", there are lots of bargains to be had.





 

 

In a Fit of Madness!

Long ago, in a land a little bit far way......there lived a jolly elf......AND HIS NAME WAS NOT SANTA CLAUS!!! Although he looked like St. Nick. Actually, his name was Milton Adams, the year was 1978, the "land" was Texas Tech University, in Lubbock, Texas. It just seems like it was a long time ago!

It was long enough though that Vegas were still to be seen on the roads. I was driving a silver '74 "Kamback" like the one in the picture, because my brother had killed the white '71 "hatchback" the previous year. It was the summer before my senior year of high school, and our yearbook sponsor wanted to send her photographers to a one week camp/workshop at TTU. It was the geek kids' dream scenario; an excuse to go anywhere and everywhere carrying cameras, somebody else pays for film, processing and oh....did I forget to mention it was during the week of Band Camp!?! So yeah....a campus literally overrun with teenage girls away from home....... It was a tough job, but my best friend Eric and I figured we were up to the task.

What we did all day was to run around shooting pictures of anything and everything, then we'd develop them and discuss the results. I used my Canon A1 with motor drive and Eric had his mom's Nikon F. We thought we were pretty well equipped for a couple of high school kids! However, our gear was nothing compartively speaking. Our instructor, the aforementioned Milton was a staff photographer for the Lubbock Avalanche Journal newspaper. And his preferred equipment was one or more Nikon F2s, with motor drives and frequently a 500mm Nikkor "mirror" lens mounted. To say that he and his gear had an impact on us is putting it mildly. Although Milton had the disposition and physique of Buddha, but he had a sharp mind, whit and was a patient teacher. For our part, we tried to soak up as much knowledge as possible. One thing though that stuck in my mind was that big mirror lens!  I had never seen a one "in the flesh" much less the legendary (and rather large), Nikkor. I thought that people only ever used them on a tripod. He not only used it, but used it handheld!!! The effect when mounted on a motor-driven F2 was substantial!

I wasn't able to justify buying one of my own for a long time. Anyone who's ever attempted to use one can tell you that they are a bit of a specialty item and an acquired taste as well. Plus the Nikkors (like most any Nikkor) was completely out of my financial range, on top of which I wasn't shooting Nikons then. However, I did covet some of the offerings from the major independent manufacturers, such as the Tamron SP Adaptall II, the Tokina, but especially the Perkin-Elmer made Vivitar Series I 600mm or 800mm "Solid Cats". Unfortunately, even they were all north of $400. Then in the early 90's while I was using Pentaxes, the Koreans got into the game and started selling the pretty decent Samyang for less than $200. I bought one, but rarely had occasion to use it so it went into a trade for a pair of Spica TC-50 speakers. 

Then last week, some thirty five years on from Photography Camp and Milton, I finally bought into a Nikon mount mirror lens. This time it's a mint condition Tokina complete with fitted case, filters, caps and the original hood. This model is very small and light (as 500mm mirrors go). It should be a great match for my D300 with the battery grip attached. I expect it to arrive some time later this week, so I'm a little bit excited!

End of An Era

I've dabbled in Minidiscs for a long time, almost for as long as they've been in the country. At first, they were too expensive, but then I was able to buy a used Sony MZ-R30 and I fell in love with it. Back in those days, you could even walk into a Sears (SEARS!!!) and buy blank discs, which might explain why I have 45 recordable MDs sitting around. 

I even took my R30 out and recorded with it in "the field". No; I didn't "bootleg" any concerts (although Minidiscs were a favorite of that crew): I just did our church choir's performances. I would even title the discs and tracks using the scroll wheel! This was essentially the perfect medium to replace the cassette for me. ....Yes, I was a "mix tape" maker. I even lusted after the very rare versions that attached to a computer which allowed a PC to do the editing and titling although I never could afford one.

I could and did afford this though: the Yamaha MDX-793, one of the top MD decks of the time. It recorded and played beautifully, AND fit perfectly in my extensive A/V system. We were so minidisc-centric in those days that my wife even had me buy her one so she could have music while working out. Things percolated along pretty well for some time, till we moved about 9 years ago. They got packed up and over the course of the next few years, we just stopped using them. 

There was a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the arrival of the iPod. Although, I'll defend the sound quality of the minidisc to my grave, you just can't deny the convenience of the hard drive devices after all the music has been ripped to it. We might have been some of the last hold-outs, as we didn't get one till the 5th Generation (video) version. I bought a 30Gb one for my wife and as they say; the rest is history. We now have 3 working iPods, plus some dead parts units. For me, the ability to do all the organization on the computer and the ability to stream one set of files throughout our network was the ultimate "killer" feature. In fact, my 80Gb "Classic" also doubles as my portable mass storage.

 

Actually, for me, the last few years have seen a renaissance of sorts. First there was a pair of Sony professional decks (one record, one play) that was picked up from a college radio station for $20. Then I came across the Sony MXD-D40 combo, CD/MD deck at a local Goodwill for $8!

At one point, I almost went whole-hog and got the last (and greatest) recorder/player that Sony brought out about 6 years ago in the MZ-NH1. But I decided that north of $300 was too much for a rarely used "hanger queen". Which brings us to the cross-roads I was at about a week ago. While doing one of my periodic readings on the state of minidiscs, I came across an article discussing the end Sony production, which if you didn't already know it, effectively means the end of all minidisc production period. Of course, this brought on the usual bout of nostalgia, so I looked around on eBay to see what prices were doing. Apparently, they are now "up" some, so I was left with a dilemma. Hold on to it as a "collector" format, or sell off?

....And after careful consideration, which included weighing my various other hobbies, space restrictions, pricing etc., I've decided to "List It". Thus the end of an era.

 

World of Laser Printers: Part 3

OK, there was no big cup of coffee on my desk, but you get the idea. The other night, I stayed up late.....till about 2-2:15 am. What happened was that I have a client who wanted a laser printer. You don't have to tell me twice! You guys know that I'm a huge proponent of the home use of "workgroup" sized laser printers. They are easy to find, reliable, cheap to buy AND cheap to run. But until the other night, I didn't know they were easy to fix. .....well....I kind of knew, but had never done it before. 

I know this is super-geeky, but I routinely watch repair and upgrade videos on YouTube. Sometimes, of things that I don't own and aren't likely to either! Anyway, there are a bunch of videos on there that show technicians fixing HP LaserJets. This didn't mean anything to me till last week.

Then, one of these happened. Last week, while out looking for a laser printer for my client, I went into a little computer store in a neighboring town. You know the kind, it smells dusty and the weird old electronics odor. Things are piled everywhere and there's an old guy in the back with glasses on his head. He had several piles of lasers of various sizes, so it was apparent to me that he dealt in corporate surplus. I love those places. I felt like Luke Skywalker nosing around for starship parts in Mos Eisley Space-Port! One of the piles had the mid-sized HPs that I love; LaserJet 5p, 6p, 2100, and 2200. I asked the guy about them. He said that they didn't have toner, but worked and I got him down to $35. OK; $35 isn't "nothing", but really....these things were well over the $500 mark when they were introduced and built like it, not something that sells for $100, which if you haven't already figured out, is why I bought this for my client vs. one of the newer HP/Samsung monochrome lasers that sell for that. 

I get this thing home, and put in a NOS (new old stock), actual HP toner cartridge into it and it immediately jams. I open the back, pull out the nasty "fan-fold" jam with streaks of sticky black goo on it. Some of you are now saying; ah-hah!!!... that's what you get for buying an old piece from a place like that! OK....it was $35, cash (no tax) dollars. So I look in this thing and there's the aforementioned black goo all over the place in the back. I'm thinking it's the fuser unit and the film tube has sprung a lubricant leak. I take it back and the buy gives me another one. Then he notices that it has a broken toner lid hinge. So he gives me the one I bought, and this other one saying that if I'd take that, I can keep the left-overs for parts. So I got my butt outta there before he changes his mind! Actually, I'm not very surprised at all. He deals with surplus volume. He just wants that stuff out of this store. This is where YouTube comes in. If I hadn't already watch the videos on how to replace/repair the fuser assembly, I wouldn't have done this. Sure it took me a while to get the lid off like the video, but after that, it took me 5 minutes to get the part out. Then I swapped it with the other machine and I was ready to go. $35 for the printer, $15 for the toner, an hour of time to fix it and I sold it for $75. That printer will probably be in use for the next 5 years at least with a toner cost per year of less than $10....probably closer to $5 per!

Now I have a working spare with a bad lid that needs to have the fuser fixed. From another video, I found out that the "black goo" was the rubber wheels melting. Apparently there was a series that Canon (the laser engine maker) got a bad run of pick-up wheels. That'll cost me $10 to fix. So now, I have another printer out there in the garage that needs about $25 worth of parts to fix. There are literally tons of them out there waiting around in warehouses, wrapped up in plastic waiting to somebody to watch a YouTube video and show them some love.

System Integration (The Frugal Way)

I hate mismatching things. Of course it could be argued that Woody Allen and any relatively feminine woman would be a mismatch, but you get the point. This was a concept that never really occurred to me when I was working with very similar in shape and size Nikon cameras. As you can see, in terms of generalities, there's not a lot to give between the D300 and D50.

Although there is a fair bit of difference in mass between the two, the general shape and how you have to deal with each one still put them in the same league in terms of handling. When you pack them for travel, or some particular event that you plan to use them at, you end up with very similar packages. Much of this has to do with their accessories being the same size.

You guys probably remember, few weeks ago when the Panasonic GF-1 arrived, one of the first things I did was to pull out the D300 and set them side-by-side. And over the course of this time, the thing that became apparent to me is that in order to not lose the gains of using a Micro 4/3rds system, I needed to match the attachments and accessories I carry. So I began thinking about what would work with, and travel well with the new camera.

The first point of discussion is of course, the choice of lenses for it. Which is one of the reasons that my first target will the the Panasonic/Lumix 20mm/f1.7. That's it on the left, not the rather large Panasonic/Leica 45mm Elmarit on the camera! 

Even with the LVF-1 finder attached, it's still a pretty small package. Yes; I already found one for $75, so I bought it. An old SLR user like me is still much more comfortable using a viewfinder, especially when outside. There's also the 14mm/f2.8 lens which is even smaller and that will probably be a target as well....eventually. But this package makes a very nice "carry around" set, capable of making images very similar to the D300 under most conditions. 

However, most of time when I travel, I not only take a camera, but a computer as well. And matching this camera with a full-sized notebook computer would be defeating the purpose of having it.

Then something occurred to me. Android being what they are (almost infinitely customizable through APPs), maybe these two would be a great traveling pair. I already had a "viewer" APP that I'm very happy with, so I spent some time looking at various image editing APPs and settled on a couple to try (I'll report back after I've used them a while). Furthermore, the ThinkPad Tablet has a very photo friendly hi-res IPS display, but also not only a full-sized SD card reader, but a full-sized USB port as well. This will allow me off-load images either by connecting a card reader and copying over to a storage SD card, or by putting the camera's card in the internal reader and connection an external drive! All this while being able to view, sort and do minor editing on the tablet. And as if there was some sort of a predestined synergy with this concept, I came across a perfectly sized bag to put it all in. Around that time, I did one of my Goodwill "fly-bys" and found a small Timbuk2 bag.....for $3. I haven't been able to find the model their website yet, but it basically looks exactly like my "daily carry" messenger bag, but half the size in every dimension. Despite the size, it fits the tablet, various cords, batteries and chargers, plus the Panasonic with lens. All this in a bag that doesn't look like camera bag, much less with a target making camera logo on it.

Next time, I'll discuss what-all I carry in the "Big Rig"....