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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.
I'm actually supposed to be at the Tyler (Texas) Zoo this morning with the kids, cousins, In-Laws, you name it. But the little excursion fell through, so here I am "blogging"..... about photography ..... instead of doing it!
Some photographers are like me (no, that's not my collection), as much, or more collectors. Although, I must admit that I do have a bit of a wee collection myself. I'm not here to talk about collecting which is actually a bit out of my areas of expertise, but creating a stable of cameras to shoot pictures in different situations by using different cameras that suits the purpose the best. Although it might actually seem like conspicuous consumption, my intent AND application is quite the opposite (as you'll see).
It all started here some years ago when I went "whole hog" DSLR and sold everything for a Nikon D70 and 18-200mm lens. It could just as well have been the Canon 20D, but that buying decision was completely driven by the lens. This turned out to be the correct one, since I still have it and use it as my primary lens. Some 7+ years down the road (and one VR motor replacement later), it spends most of it's time on my D300 which does our family's photographic heavy lifting.
When I say "heavy lifting"; that's exactly what I mean! Configured like this (or some version there-of ), it's a little bulky and difficult to manage for long periods of time. However, I must say that it does a fantastic job (when I do mine), and has alleviated me from employing a professional for family and children portraits over the years. Although it's no longer "state of the art", it does what I need it to do. But, what about when I don't need to do as much?
As of last year, I have the option to take; not as much camera! As you might have read in my "Compact Camera/System" series, a progression over several camera models has brought me to this option. AND over that same amount of time, I've also been accumulating lenses of a size/performance appropriate for it as well. Although a lowly 6mp by today's standards of 24 and 36mp, it's does a fine job for snap shots in package size that will fit in a winter coat pocket. It goes to places like amusement parks, and family gatherings where I neither want nor need the bigger/heavier/more capable D300.
And then there's this. Given the size of the D40, does it even have a role? Well yes, it does actually. I probably wouldn't have gone out and bought it on my own, but since it arrived unbidden (along with other stuff) from my brother when he was cleaning out: I took it in like that "stray kitty". Interestingly enough; unlike it's brother Coolpix 8800 with the 35-200mm eq. lens, this 8400 with the 24-85mm eq. lens gives it the ability to do quick indoor pics unlike anything else I have! Plus lacking the pentaprism hump of an SLR and having a completely retractable lens, gives it an advantage over over the D40. Is there more?
Oh, there's LOTS more! But as part of my day to day line-up of "starters"; this is it. The Nikon CoolPix 995 of 2001!!! What on earth do I do with it? First of all, it only tops out at 3.3 megapixels, so it's not too difficult to dial down it's file to sizes to be appropriate for web use without having to fiddle with them in software. You know; pics for ads and such. Plus it's unique split body design allows me to have it twist into contortions for different angles instead of my old aching body! A couple more things. Yes, I have adapter lenses for it as well. Right now, just a wide and a fisheye, but with a 28mm accessory mount size, it's easy to find adapters for any kind of instruments like telescopes and microscopes! Another area that the twisting body design comes into play. Besides, I got mine off of Craigslist locally for about $10, then a second one showed up courtesy of my brother with the fisheye attached!
So, there they are; the "starters" on "my team" (left to right- 995, 8400, D40, D300). In fact, I employed the second 995 to shoot this picture! None were bought new. None were bought anywhere close to their original selling price. Actually, I'm not even certain that every piece of photographic equipment I own put together cost me as much as the $1800 list price of the D300 by itself! Yes: old equipment have their limitations. However, they can all be very useful if used for the right tasks. They can all be easily found out there for a ridiculously small percentage of their original selling price. They're kind of like the San Antonio Spurs of cameras!
There are few things that get photographers' hearts racing like a "new" lens. Especially, one that's as unusual as a mirror lens; otherwise know by the awkward name of catadioptric! Some months ago, in my Mirror, Mirror post, I talked about picking up a Tokina 500mm f/8.0 "Cat" lens off of eBay for a pretty darned good price. Then, I found that it had some fungus growth on the inside of the front element and the seller refunded me half the price of it, so this lens ended up being south of $30.
So, yesterday after the Thanksgiving meal and rocket-launch-a-paloosa, I headed out with this lens mounted on the D300, MB-D10 attached, and the whole rig attached to my mono-pod. I don't mind if I do say so myself: I looked good! AP or National Geographic should start sending me checks!
This was about as good as it got! Not terribly impressive, is it? Oh, but it gets better!
If you go ahead and pull this up at full-size, you'll see that some of the grass in the lower right-hand corner is darned sharp!
Apparently, it was the camera's (lens', computer's, fence's) fault...... Uhhhh, no; it's just photography. Photography isn't just equipment, it isn't just talent, it's mostly skill which is acquired through hard work.
It's unfortunate, but you can't just grab up some nice equipment, go out into the woods with a "how to" book and get it done. I shot images for the better part of an hour till the wife came out and wanted to know what I was doing at which point, I basically ran out of light. An f/8 (f/11 effective) mirror lens needs lots of good light even to shoot bad images. If there's a lens out there that takes more work for a photographer to get good at using, I don't know what it is. Thinking back, to the days where I carried a camera literally everywhere, there was a reason I was astounded by our photography instructor who regularly used a 500mm Nikkor mirror hand-held. No, it's not the lens. Yes, the beast of a Nikkor is a better mirror than the little Tokina, but as you can see, it's not the mirror bugaboo, contrast, that's the issue here.
- I didn't hold it very steady even for shooting at 1/1000th of a second or higher....
- I clearly didn't do the best job focusing either, and if you didn't already know, the depth of field for a 500mm (750mm effective on APS-C sensor'd camera) f/8 is pretty darned unforgiving.
- I probably should have used a tripod instead of a mono-pod, but then; what would be the point of using a compact mirror anyway!
So yeah, I'm going to need lots of work with this lens if I'm going to get any good with it.
However, it wasn't an all-bad afternoon....photographically speaking. I did shoot some pictures with my regular "go-to" lens, the 18-200mm VR Nikkor and I got another reminder of how much better the use of "fill-flash" is when shooting in bright contrasty conditions! Here's is a picture of Josh "the Rocketeer" with his helper, Katie "Space Disaster" getting ready for a launch.
That turned out pretty well; photographically, as well as aeronautically.
