skip to main |
skip to sidebar
It's finally happened. I replaced my DSLR, the faithful Nikon D300. I love that camera, lusted for it before I possessed it and now in retirement, remember it fondly. Mine was configured just the way you see it above: D300, MB-D10 battery pack and the Nikkor 18-200mm "super-zoom". I toted that thing everywhere. The Dallas Arboretum for family pictures, top of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, all over Taiwan, to every kid sporting event and to every family outing. I bought it used of course, but it never game me the slightest hiccup. The lens packed it in once due to a dead stabilization motor, but that was my fault due to forgetting to turn that off while using it on a tripod. But that got repaired and it just kept right on taking pictures.
Over the years, I did manage to use a couple of other lenses on it; the Nikkor 18-70mm and the legendary 50mm manual focus Nikkor f1.4. The former came on the D70 that I own previously and the later a gift from my brother after he had it electronically converted to talk to current Nikon mounts. Nice equipment that still shoots nice pictures..... why change now?
This isn't exactly the way I look, but it sure is the way I feel these days. While our vacation trip to Disney forever changed what I'm willing to drive long distance with kids and luggage; our trip to DC forever changed what I'm willing to carry in photographic equipment!
This was the instrument of change! I don't mean I replaced the D300 with the Lumix LX5! Here's what happened. I felt like I needed to be able to have something small enough to fit in a pocket, since there are places that don't allow the big professional style cameras, plus I wanted to be able to shoot video as well. Given that we were going to DC and would be inside of buildings a lot, I wanted something that gave a little wider view than most pocket cameras were capable of giving. It turns out that this little Lumix would do all that and was cheap since it was a few years old at that time. I found one down in Waco for about a $100 and grabbed it. Since that time, most things that was too much for the phone got assigned to the little Lumix.
So, I've been periodically keeping an eye on cameras of this type for some time. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I came across a few of the GX7s bidding at a low price on eBay. One of them, even came with a lens, so I bid on it and got it for just over $240 shipped. At this point, I'd better back up to the point where I had decided that the D300 was too big and heavy. Not only that, it wouldn't do video which I've increasing found that I needed.
Some of you might remember that I had gone down this road before, when I wanted to build an alternate system that was small, light and easy to carry. As much as I liked that camera, I couldn't live without an eye-level viewfinder......
....and trust me when I say that I tried to live with the rather awkward attachment viewfinder. So I gave up and sold it for what I paid for it. In the meantime, Panasonic had brought out the GX1 which fixed most of what was wanting on the GF1, but it was too much and the recent failure too fresh. Then the GX7 came out and it was everything I wanted.... just cost too much. But that was the last quarter of 2013 and in the world of consumer electronics, 5 years is a long time. By the last quarter of 2018, that $1100 GX7 is now sub-$250 and this particular one came with the 12-32mm lens. For those of you not familiar with Micro-4/3 format, that's 24-64mm in the 35mm world. Barring the 14-140mm superzoom, or the 20mm/f1.7 pancake lens, this was my next most coveted glass.
Wouldn't I have rather gotten the more current GX8? Sure, but I didn't want to give $500+ for the body alone. Besides, my days of envisioning myself as a Cartier-Bresson are long gone. If I really were willing to spend more money, I'd have bought this...
The Olympus Pen-F that I would argue to be the perfect combination of most beautiful and capable digital camera today. But alas, we who live on teacher salaries, have to make hard choices. Enough of dreaming. What do I really want/need to be fully converted over to the new system.
2 lenses and a flash. The main lens will be the 14-140mm and that will live on the camera most of the time, the 20mm/f1.7 for low ambient light. And of course the other solution for low ambient light; the Godox TT350, because unlike Nikon; there's no advantage to paying more and going with Panasonic. This will make traveling a one bag experience without the back pain of carrying a full-sized DSLR.
This year, for Spring Break; we're planning on going to Washington DC. This has been on the docket for some time now and "come hell or high water", we're going! As it works out, with children 3 years apart, here in the state of Texas, both of them are taking some version of American History in school, so it's the most obvious time to go. We sure don't want to go in the summer. Nobody wants to be in DC during that time of year!
One of the obvious things about any trip there is that there'll be lots of pictures taken. I know what you're thinking! He's going to talk about replacing his camera..... ah..... no..... Doh! Let me go ahead and say that I evaluated this strategy long and hard.
The Olympus Pen-F has had me salivating for some time now. Just think about it: it's up-to-date current state-of-the-art, it's new and stunning. I could channel my long forgotten inner "range-finder" camera street photographer..... Besides, it's way smaller than the beast!!!
Let's cut to the chase. At the end of the day, my old Nikon D300 with the 18-200mm lens mounted can shoot virtually every photo I need to shoot. When I do my part, it can shoot them all well. I have pretty much all the lenses I need and I own it. Don't have to buy a thing!
Except this. What the D300 can't do is video, nor can it remake itself into something that can go anywhere inside a pocket. If those of you with long memories think this reminds you of my short affair with the Panasonic GF1, you'd be close.... but no cigar.
Here are the 2 cameras compared. You can easily put the LX5 in a jacket pocket or even some pants pockets, but certainly not the GF1. Even when it has the 20mm pancake lens on and the VF-1 viewfinder off. Where the GF1 can rightfully have "big camera" pretensions with it's Micro 4/3rds sensor, the LX5 is a compact from the ground up with a sensor a quarter of the size. However, with the resolution at 10 Megapixels, it does a nice job without a lot of noise... unless you get frisky with the ISO! It's main calling cards?
It can go anywhere and not call attention to itself, very unlike the huge D300!
It's lens starts at a 35mm equivalent of 24mm! With lots of inside (yet panoramic) photo opportunities such as above in DC, it's pretty much be with me the whole time.
Would I love to get a new camera? YES! Would I love the new Olympus? YESSSSS!!! Do I need it? Can I get done what needs to be done with what I have? Will switching systems fix the thing that the D300 can't do? Ahhh.... No...... Sometimes you just have to be satisfied with what you have and do the cheap fix. Yup; it was cheap. I picked up my slightly beat up LX5 off of Craigslist for $95. Yes, I had to jump through hoops, meaning that I had to get a former student who's going to school down in Waco to pick it up after giving the money to her brother to give to her mom to deposit in her account! But hey. Problem solved..... frugally.
You've probably noticed that I've gone slightly "off the tracks". I know some of you are quietly saying that you've known this for years! I haven't yet decided that it's due to age induced nostalgia, or that I am in fact on to something. But here's the thing: I'm beginning to think that shooting pictures with film is different than shooting them in digital..... and "NO", I don't mean the technical difference in the medium which is an argument that will go on forever. No, I mean the psychology of shooting something that's permanent vs. what we know full well, we can and will simply delete because it isn't quite what we want it to be, then shoot again.
If you're "old" like me, you remember constantly keeping an eye on the frame counter to make sure you don't run out of it at a critical time. I even remember back when I was doing some "professional" work, I'd even sacrifice a few frames toward the end of a roll, and replace it with a fresh one just to make certain that you weren't caught reloading at an inopportune time. I even clearly remember luxuriating in the feel of having the relatively expansive 36 exposure rolls vs. the 24! There's nothing quite like that "film awareness" to keep you focus on getting the most from each frame.
I feel like I do a pretty good job of it when I'm using the D300, which is a weighty and serious camera. This is particularly true when I've got the old 50mm/f1.4 Nikkor attached, since it's manual focus only. However, it's still not quite the same. I find myself, spending more time making sure that either the automation is off, or I am in fact overriding it correctly, than simply setting and shooting.
So, I find that the vast majority of the time when I want that simple connection of working with the light, I turn to the D40 with one of my collection of manual lenses. Since they have no connection to the body other than the mechanics of the mount, they really only pass and focus light. Yes, I'm aware that I can simply turn the settings on the D300 to manual and essentially do the same thing. But it's not the same mindset as having no other recourse.
In recent months, I've been involved in a bit of collecting with old photographic equipment. It started when my brother sent me some of his old gear with included a Topcon Uni. It's quite old and not really a practical "user", but it got me thinking and looking at old equipment. That, in combination of my posts regarding a "compact" DSLR system and the role of the Konica TC had in my consciousness really stirred the cobwebs in the old memory. So, I bought one. It was all of about $15 after shipping and had no lens, but did include peeling leatherette cover at no extra charge. I don't have the slightest idea if it works or not since the batteries it uses are no longer produced. I do have a couple of lenses for it though, so......
Yeah, this could be me. OK, no Jimmy Stewart spying on his murderous neighbor with the stunning Grace Kelly, but heh!?! OK, no weird Exacta VX camera or giant 400mm lens either. However, I do have some film in the cabinet here and I could see myself taking an old camera out every now and then to shoot a roll. What if that Konica isn't in "shooting" condition?
Here's what I'd love to use. A Minolta XE-7 (XE in Japan, XE-1 in Europe). It's the very first camera that I ever fell completely in love with.... back in something like 1973/4. It's in my humble opinion; the most beautiful single lens reflex camera ever made (especially when mounted with an MC Rokkor-X 50mm/f1.4 lens). They seem to go pretty routinely in the $35 range. It's a "dead system" (kind of like Latin as a language), so there is relatively little competition for the lenses. Of course there's the EVIL (electronic view interchangeable lens) crowd who adapt lenses to their cameras, but those guys are still relatively rare. They tend to concentrate on old Nikkors and Zuikos, driving those prices up! Will this become a successful experiment? Who knows. I just think it's important, and fun, to shake things up every now and then. Oh yeah; that pictures up at the top? The Contax RTS, arguably the most beautiful SLR ever made (designed by Porche); it's just eye candy. You can pick up one of the bodies for like $50, but those lenses go for ridiculous money these days!
The "Family Truckster", well, actually....the family Civic Hybrid got to take a little trip this past week..... to the tune of 3 states in 3 days! We had already planned on making a little Texas triangle during out Spring Break, which was going to entail driving from DFW to Amarillo (about 7 hours) to see my wife's grandfather, then down to Carlsbad, New Mexico (about 5 hours down to Artesia where we planned to stay the night), through Carlsbad, New Mexico, on to Lubbock, Texas (about 4 hours) to see friends and attend a wedding, then home (about 7 more hours). As you can see, travel in this part of the country is calculated in hours instead of miles (or kilometers), so you can see how much of a day it's going to chew up. If you do this type of driving, even occasionally, you might want to consider a Hybrid. With the exception of driving through the "haboob" (33 mpg), I routinely got between 42 and 44 miles per gallon in the fully loaded car driving typically at 77 or 73 miles per hour (depending on the speed limit). That should fully explain why we drove that vehicle vs. our Chevy Trailblazer SUV!
However, the hand of God intervened and we received word of a death in the family which required our presence up in Cherokee country, in eastern Oklahoma (almost to the Arkansas border). So, instead of leaving on Tuesday, we left on Sunday. DFW to Stilwell, OK (about 6 hours) for the family needs, then, from there to Amarillo (about 8 hours), since it didn't make sense to go back to Dallas first.
Yup, that's right; just west of Oklahoma City where the land flattens out significantly, the wind started to really pick up.......and all that, that implies out in this part of the country. In fact, we would find out later that, gusts were up to 60mph! So, inside of your head, imagine, driving a fairly lightweight car, with a constant crosswind (almost completely 90 degrees most of the time) of about 40mph, with those gusts, plus the road looking like this most of the way. Let's just say it wasn't much fun.
The 5 plus hours, the following day, plus the 3 plus hours of the day after that mostly looked like this.....when we were lucky. You might want to ask why would I subject myself and the family to this.
You might have heard of Carlsbad Caverns, some of the most extensive naturally occurring cavern complexes in the world and a National Park. Over the last 40 years, I've probably been there at least 15 times, but for my kids, it was just the right age to go. Just one instance of seeing my 10 year-old son with his mouth open and no words coming out would have been enough, but it rendered him pretty-much speechless for several hours! If you haven't taken your young kids to Carlsbad, it's well worth the hours of desert driving. I do have a couple of recommendations, especially if your family is as nerdy as mine. Stop in Roswell and tool around the curio shops specializing in "the Incident" surround the alleged 1947 UFO incident and ensuing "cover-up". We then drove down the road and stayed at the particularly clean and efficient Legacy Inn, in Artesia. Very nice for a microtel style hotel. How does one keep himself/herself sane during all those hours of driving?
The most important daddy device known to man! Given that it's an Apple device, you long time readers know that it takes a lot for me to make that pronouncement! Our original 30Gb iPod video that I bought my wife years ago was literally bursting at the seams. So, when I upgraded her laptop to the T500, I also cleared off my 80Gb Classic and moved her account to it. Basically, our entire library of music is on this device and we can just grab it when we head out the door. The battery easily goes 7-8 hours on the more extended drives and so generally doesn't require charging.
For anyone who has traveled with a 10 year old, OR a 7 year old, much less a 10 AND a 7 year old, then you know that long hours in a car are challenging. We handle this with a twin attack. Our kids have been trained from a young age to read..... a lot, so they each carried 3 books, we also had their tablets along for the ride. One had her iPad2 and the other had the Android version ThinkPad tablet like the one I use. We also have a little 7" screen'd DVD player for some of the longer stretches (more than 3 hours). The wife was similarly equipped except that along with her Hi-Tech iPad Air, the decidedly Low-Tech crocheting needels and yarn as well.
As for me, I rarely go anywhere for more than a day without my travel computer; the ThinkPad X301. Then of course, since we were going as a family to interesting places; that required the serious camera; the Nikon D300.
Some of you might think it's excessive, but I also carried my ThinkPad Tablet, identical to the one my son uses, except mine has more storage capacity. This is my reading device, as well as quick "look-ups". It might sound crazy, but we used virtually all of these devices every place we went and most every day. The camera being the only one that didn't get consistent use, but when I did use it; I used it A LOT, such as in the Caverns.
The technological surprise of this trip? My wife's new iPad Air has completely eliminated the secondary small "pocket camera" that people used to always carry. She didn't even take her Nikon S8100 along. I strongly suspect that it will continue to gather dust in the coming years.
Coming from the "no surprise at all" category? It's of course, the increasing reliance on the integrated GPS system. Even when I didn't need it, it was reassuring to watch yourself making progress across the plains or deserts. Such is the state of the modern vacation. Same places. Different equipment.
You might be able to tell by the Post title, that this is a little bit of a different piece. And no: it isn't some sort of a Confucius saying..... it's adapted from that famous and fictitious Alabaman, Forrest Gump of course.
I realize that I've spent a lot of the last couple of months talking about cameras, lenses, and flashes. Unlike my other topics, such as computing equipment, who's function is self-evident, photography equipment demands a higher level of proof. By nature of the beast, we want to see what it does. For the last 2 weeks, I've been doing just that; culminating in last night's visit to the Chinese Lantern Festival at Fair Park, here in Dallas.
It gave a perfect sample of something that most any family photography might encounter. An outing that offered challenging lighting, subject material, sometimes awkward shooting angles in a crowd, and an event that demanded to be recorded!
I carried my high-powered camera, the D300, but mounted the 18-70mm (27-105mm eq.) lens instead of the 18-200mm super-zoom. I didn't need reach, but needed the extra half-stop of light that the shorter lens gave me at the long end. I gave up the VR function of the longer lens for that. I'm sure, looking at the lighting in the pictures, you can see why. Although I carried the flash, I didn't use it at all. I'm sure most of you understand that virtually none of the colored lights would have shown up when using the flash. I'll actually show you an image later where I used a flash, how and why I did it.
In this case, the stage lighting was plenty to get the performers, but I had to also get the colored lights of the stage as well. So, I ended up using a very high ISO, which the D300 does very well without too much "noise" so I would high enough shutter speed to stop the action. In actuality, I didn't want to completely stop the action, I wanted to have some sense of motion without completely blurring the performer. And that's why I used the manual focus, 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor that my brother sent me. Sure, I would have loved for it to be a little "longer", but it was OK, at the 75mm that the APS-C sensor sees it at. This ultra-fast lens allowed me to see a VERY bright image in the finder which helped with the focusing.
For these other pictures? I used the AF zoom for it's ability to frame exactly from the angle I wanted to use. It turned out to be easier than I thought since the "lanterns" themselves gave off plenty of light which leaned more toward "daylight" than night. Everything was fine as long as you didn't get too much of the night around the subject(s) to throw the camera off.
Before we go away from the D300 and the 50mm Nikkor, here's another reason for it's use. Not only is it very sharp (barring photographer error), it can also give you as thin of a depth of field as you want! Check out this Crepe Myrtle "berries" encased in ice from our early December storm.
Now, on to the D40 and it's stable of manual focus lenses that I've been jammering about. The first picture is of course from the same ice storm, but it was shot with the $15, Tamron Adaptall 300mm lens. The second is from some time later to demonstrate it's sharpness, contrast of color rendition.
Then last weekend, we ran up to northeastern, Oklahoma to see some relatives. This happened right after the arrival of the Tamron Adaptall-2 28-50mm lens. It was the pricey acquisition at $40, but hey; we all need to occasionally splurge..... right! It was quite challenging to focus in the indoor pool of our hotel, but the unique underwater lights gave a very interesting effect. So I decided to play around a little. I knew if I adjusted for the ambient light, I could get it, but then, I'd have a fine picture of a pool. If I wanted my kids to be visible in the picture, I'd have to use a flash. As it turns out; I found to my dismay that the Quantaray XLF-50 is Nikon iTTL automatic ONLY!!! As such, will not work with a manual lens mounted. So I went completely manual, shot some test frames, to find that; what I read some years ago was true. If you use a slower shutter speed, it lets in more ambient light, and the flash cycle will stop the subject motion in the foreground. Using the D40's pop-up flash; as you can see, it did just that! My other pictures were of our relatives which of course, I don't want to use without their permission, so you'll have to trust me in that the D40 handles beautifully with the 28-50mm Tamron and that it's a perfect carry camera for random stuff.
Now you know. I actually do shoot photographs with the bargain equipment that I seek out!
