Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm getting itchy for new stuff. A flashgun and some filters should do it. Are the cheapo flashguns on ebay a false economy?

Yes they are, I got given one and it sucked arse. Jessops own brand are the cheaper best value for money alternative.

Had a proper go on the fujifilm X100 in the brief periods when it wasn't raining. Then they say "quirky" about the focusing system they ain't joking. The viewfinder (in both modes) does on occasion what can only be described as "locks up" till it hits focus and this is with the latest firmware. That's not just in low light, it was also in very bright sunlight, compared to a dslr it can be "slow as shit" to focus. Checking what you have just taken sometimes makes it get all confused over what viewfinder mode it is supposed to be using and it freaks out a bit. You need a class 10 card or it takes forever to write. It's metering system blows the whites in sunlight when doing close ups if you are not careful (this was mostly when I was photographing a white flower) and does not like focusing on white in general, I suspect it's going to be easier to use the EVF and full manual at times. This is certainly not a beginners camera, you need to know exactly what everything means or does because the camera won't help you.

Those were the niggles, for street and portraits it's damn near perfection. The IQ is extraordinary, the colours amazing, the metering when doing a normal street scene is bang on, macro mode is incredibly useful for portraits (you can get as close as 4 inches). It is also not a beginners camera, this son of a bitch is making me work and think, same as all my old film cameras do. I'm going to take it to the winter gardens which should set a nice challenge for the both of us. It's also really wonderful to hold and use, the OVF with the overlay is smashing and reminds me of the wonderful ones on the old canon point and shoots.

Would I buy one? Yes if I owned a DSLR and needed a carry round. The Olympus OM-D is nearly flawless and so much easier to use but I wouldn't mind borrowing this when I don't want easy or for street in the short term until I can get a good case for the Olympus (the camera I'm borrowing has all sorts of nifty accessories, and it's box has "my other camera is a M3" in tippex on it, I'm not allowed to touch that, or the leicas but then nor is his wife of 40 years)

Hello fellow Nikonians,

Just noticed an update for distortion control. Covers lots of bodies (D5000, D90) and Nikkor lenses that we own as a hive. I guess some of you may have done this already but it's new to me anyway.

Here's the link for the Windows download: http://nikonimglib.com/dcdata/#os-windows

There's a Mac one too here: http://nikonimglib.com/dcdata/#os-macintosh

My 85mm 1.8 arrived today, just in time for a bird of prey shoot on Friday. Excited.

Did I post a link to SkyDrive for my Japan photos? Because I'd
appreciate some vague critique of shooting and hints for processing, if anyone had time to flick through. nothing in depth, especially because there's a lot and it's all unsorted.

Going back to the debate about Flickr -- this is interesting.

Conclusive? No. Possibly indicative of flickr's biggest challenge? Yeah, I think it might be.

Is that the same guy as before? Because he's making the same basic errors.

1) Flickr isn't designed as a social network. The others all, with the possible extension of Instagram, are
2) Flickr is somewhere where you put pictures you (in the main) think are good pictures. Not getting a reaction to a picture of a post-it with "please like me" on Flickr shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone
3) People visit Facebook/Twitter in 10s to 100s of times a day. Flickr, a few times a week.
4) I don't want to live in a society where the value of tools on the internet is based on how easy it is to get people to 'like' something of yours



Eugh. Flickr used to be the world's best online photo album site. And I'd argue it still is. Stop being obsessed with sharing. Quantity really doesn't have a quality all of its own.

Yeah these seem like things that the CEO of Yahoo should maybe be bothered about. Me, not so much.

But surely if they wanted to take on those other things then they'd do away with the paid pro accounts and stick adverts on there.

I've spotted a pretty good-nick Rolleicord TLR camera in a shop near here. It's medium format film camera, 6x6 negs, and is the sort of camera the amazing Vivian Maier used in her New York street stuff throughout her life.

Bit pricey at £95 but I am hugely tempted to give it a go.

Here's what Vivian did with the camera...

http://www.vivianmaier.com/portfolios/new-york-1/

The media department was having a clear out of their old cameras so I had a snoop. Managed to get a Canon Powershot G3. Pretty pleased with it as well. It's only 4 mega pixels but has full manual controls, a 2.0 lens and does raw. I've taken a few nice pictures in playing with it. In short: chuffed. Pics to follow

Here's a few that I took before the 32MB (!) CF card filled up

Excellent.

Was that a freebie then?

Yep. They were literally throwing them away

A whole shitload of camera gear up for auction here:

http://www.joneslanglasalle.co.uk/Unite ... Sales.aspx

Good news, everyone!

Tomorrow I'll have my first medium format camera. Well, not strictly own, I'm getting it on long term loan. It's a Yashica Mat 124G twin lens reflex camera, I believe, and I can't wait to run some 120 film through it. I reckon I'll use Portra 400 for portraits, Fuji Velvia for night shoots and Ilford for street photography and still life.

Going to be ace fun test-driving it on Confederate and Union reenactors on the weekend, too!

We used to have a medium format camera at school when I did my photography GCSE. Seemed to just take bigger photos. What was I missing?

Basically it packs in:

Far more tonal variation, which is lovely for smooth transitions between colours and shades.

Damn good lens glass.

A greater depth between subjects making the photos more involving.

Far better control of highlights.

Excellent for street photography in that you look down through a waist-level finder and people assume you're tinkering with the settings.

Way more information in 120 film than 35mm. Even high-spec digital cameras aren't quite up to the 120 standard, apart from the super-pricey Hassleblads and Nikon D800 etc. A 35mm negative is the size of a stamp. The 120mm is the size of a playing card. This means not only that you get more detail, but you can enlarge the pictures far bigger without losing anything.

Check out this guy for his medium format TLR camera work:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/patrickjoust/

Looking forward to seeing your results Pete.

(No pressure, dude.)

Zoidberg style: Whoop whoop whoop!

I've got the Yashica 124G and it's a beaut! Lenses looks clear of any marks, haze, scratches or fungus. Shutter sounds okay, no scuff marks on the casing even and it has the leather case and strap and everything. I've bought a roll of Kodak Portra 400 so it's portrait time a-go-go come Saturday evening and Sunday morning. It's heavy, though! I have to say as well, it looks rather cool.

Me so excited. Me want to cry.

And now I've just loaded my first film, in an incredibly nervous and tentative way whilst watching cute big-eyed Australian lass do same on YouTube. It's fun cranking up the camera. Whee!

*Googles "Yashica 124G"*

Oh yeah, nice. You must wear a bowler hat when using that out on the street. It would be the proper thing to do.

Or be chain smoking Gauloises.

You'll be doing wetplates next. Which would be awesome.

I may need the 50mm f/1.8 for my nex. Lovely portrait shots come off it because of the bokeh (second-hand explanation as I'm sure you would all guess, it being me talking). Extremely narrow focal depth.

Alternatively, I could see how well the background blur function works.

I'll just leave this here for you, Peter.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004 ... ukdeals-21

Sexy! If only my sister wasn't getting married, thus imminently impoverishing me, eh?

But the next camera I get will be full frame, no doubt about it. The D600 will one day be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.

Anyway, update on the Yashica Mat 124G. I successfully shot a reel of 12 of in it. It's a pleasure to use once you've worked out the obtuseness of the film cranking system. I chewed up two rolls before I got to grips with it. The loveliest thing about it is the viewfinder, looking through it feels like plunging into a movie. Also, the focusing knob is great fun, twidling shots in and out of focus is oddly satisfying. I used a film exposure chart I downloaded off the net and it seemed to answer reasonably well, though bracketing is sort of recommended. Out of the twelve shots only two came out as I truly desired, of Barker's Coffee. I showed the staff at the indie coffee shop these two pics of their place and they really liked, and told me that they're looking for framed prints to put on the wall of the place on their soon to open tea shop, and photos of that place in the coffee shop. They suggested I contact the manager.

So I'm going to try and wheedle a commission. Pics are below:






Funny thing though, I thought I was shooting colour at the time. Turns out it's a rare B&W offshoot varient of the celebrated Portra colour film. Tch. Shooting these got me quite a bit of attention in the coffee shop, as the staff and folk were fascinated by the old vintage unusualness of the camera and kept asking me about it. I felt quite the hipster.

Ugh, hipsters.

Great stuff, Pete. Nice to see the pics you've had from the medium format camera. How much is an average roll of film for one of these then?

I remember the ones we had at college were Bronica's (?). Never used them myself, only the Pentax SLRs, but I remember talking to a colleage while he was setting upo a still life shoot and being baffled at the view finder showing everything in reverse.

Good luck getting the commision. You deserve it.

I'm debating about buying:

1) A fast prime for the Nikon. Although I already have a fast prime on the GF1, so that might not be worthwhile.
2) A fast zoom for the Nikon. The Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 looks tasty and not un-affordable. A friend is getting married early next year and I'd like some new glass.
3) Some sort of studio lights to go in my dining room for food photography. Yes, really.

Not sure how to advise there really. Food studio sounds fun.

I think one of these will be going on my Christmas list, Santa had better bring me the "black edition" or else I'll sulk like fuck:

http://gopro.com/hd-hero3-cameras

Oooh. All depends on how much brass you got. If you're going the fast zoom route for the Nikon with a Tamron, this is probably your best bet with the 17-50mm f/2.8:

http://www.bythom.com/1750lens.htm

For wedding portraits with a bit of candid flexibility I'd strongly recommend the 50mm f/1.8G prime. It's actually got nigh-as-good bokeh as its more expensive f/1.4 brother and is a snappy auto-focuser to boot. Plus, sexy prime at only about £170.

As for studio lights I don't know so much about that, but there's some good DIY budget guides out there involving making soft-boxes to diffuse light from cheap IKEA lamps and the like. That might get you where you want to go. I concur that light is everything in photography, even over glass. I just wish I could figure out the mysteries of flash better, it still confounds me somewhat.



Ooh. Bronica. Never used one but I respect 'em from the number of photogs I've met who have good things to say. Bronicas have never had the romance of the Rollei or the Hassleblad, but they are strongly respected as a good Brit workhorse. The Yashica Mat shows everything in reverse too. Oddly, some of my friends when playing with it process this immediately and find no problem. For myself, and others, well we struggle a bit. Anyway, the film costs between £5 and £6 depending on what you go for, if you buy it from a high street shop. Online it's a good deal cheaper, which is where I'll be purchasing in future. Developing is £4.50, with an added £6 for prints and a few more quid on top for a CD. If I go down this route I'll wind up buying a scanner I think, to offset that cost. Obv I'll be looking for money from the coffee shop if I get my commission, and not any bullshit about increasing 'profile'. Petey needs new shoes, motherfuckers!

Pentax SLR 50mm f/1.4 supposed to be lovely, and reasonably cheap.

I think so too. I'm definitely at the level where I'm finding light limiting -- my kitchen gets little natural light in the evenings, particularly during winter, and has halogen spotlights that are dismal for photography. I'm thinking I could devote half of the dining table semi-permanently; put a cheap tripod to one side, with one or two light rigs on tripods or table stands, experiment with diffusers to see how I get on. Not sure about light tents; I don't really want the "floating in space" look and few of them are big enough for my needs, I think.

Won't autofocus on my D5000, which I think would bother me. I think the 50-75 mm range in the other lens would be nice for portrait work, too.

I already have a 40 mm equivalent f/1.7 lens on the GF1; that's the only reason I haven't bought that lens for the Nikon. Having said that, the GF1 struggles at ISO 400 and is unusable above it; that's one reason to consider the Nikkor prime. I dunno. Can't decide if carrying two bodies is worse than lens swapping either.

Aye indeed, I'd start cheap on this end and work up if required. Couple of lamps with some moderately pricey daylight LEDs at first I think.

Oh yeah... I'm also considering a SB-700.

It's a lot to spend at once, but then again I've not spent any money on camera gear in a year so it's not too bad. (I hope.)

I have, staggeringly, still not bought the 50mm prime for the NEX after seeing how good it is.

Mostly I'd forgotten about it til you just said "fast prime" though.


Tits.

Hmm, I'd be very interested to see what you go with and the kind of results you get. I've been taking a lot of cupcake/cake/cookie pictures recently, but I'm shooting in natural light with long exposures to get the desired effect, and I'm definitely wondering if a basic lighting setup might help.

(Condescendingly sarcastic, in the voice of an old public school housemaster, possibly played by Alistair Simms...)

SO. Mr Morte wishes to know which camera his friend should go for, eh? Well, I am prodigously gratified that he asked me so conveniently in the correct place, for in the following of conversations of this sort I am so apt to lose my thread... etc.

*Cough*

Sorry.

So! Well, I hate to admit it but the 650D is a damn fine camera, the most attractive points of which are a very good touchscreen and a sensibly generous 18 megapixel resolution. The direct competitor is the Nikon D5200, out soon. This Nikon camera has 24mp and better autofocusing, with more intuitive in-camera creative picture controls. But it does lack a touchscreen. However it will weigh in at £200 more on release, though it will quickly settle to the same price as the 650D.

If said friend is after a direct competitor immediately, then the D3200 has a truly brilliant sensor, but slightly poorer handling and autofocus than the D5200 and 650D. If said friend enjoys going out and about in rugged conditions then the D7000 is a great bet. It's a bit cheaper now, though still a touch more than the 650D in most places, but has great controls and handling, a still mighty-fine sensor and superb weather sealing meaning you can shoot in the rain and snow without fear.

Once again, MarkG's advice be the best one - go tell them to handle it in store. A decent place will alow them to shoot a fair bit in store with samples, to really get a feel for it. Also check the Flickr groups belonging to the camera and its kit lens, and see what 'feel' you prefer visually.

I will say the Nikon kit lens of 18-55mm VRII is a leap ahead of Canon's, but the Canon prime lenses are a bit more competitive in price, I believe.

Oooo...cheers Pete...I shall cut and paste the advice and send it on.

Cheers matey.

Looks like Jessops is going into administration.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20958659

While I've been in a couple of branches I've not been overly fond of (I felt like Mr Burns demanding a package sent by Gyrocopter to Siam in the tiny, Das Bootian Liverpool branch, when I asked for some 120 film) I rather like Jessops. I bought my D40x from them and then, later, the D90. The staff in the Cardiff branch are friendly and I got them to make a nice canvas print of Lord Rixondale's dog, Minnie, made for his wife.

Most importantly for one who likes to actually, y'know, find out how a camera feels before purchasing it's a sore blow to discover this chain is in jeapordy. I cannot help but feel sometimes that we're all cutting our own throats in taking all our business online, or opting to buy cameras from supermarkets that don't give a shit - especially since they only ever stock the cheapest consumer cameras and kit lenses. Here's hoping they manage to recover.

More reason to support your local independent stores.

Before buying online.

Sad to see them go, as I've used them in the past too. Bought my 35mm lens from the Blackpool branch and had lots of prints made at the Preston store.

Our local indie told my old man to go to Jessops, find a model he liked and then he would try and match the (non sale) price or even better it. In the event he bettered it.

Just been on ebay and bought a lens hood and two filters, yellow and green, for my Yashica MAT 124G. Apparently the hood really adds contrast to a shot, and the yellow filter is tops for B&W, the green for colour landscapes. Neat. That and all the 120 film I hope I'll be getting for my birthday will mean lots of film fun for me this year!

Getting a flash has transformed my food photography. I'm really happy with it. So far, I've only used it on-camera, bouncing the light off the ceiling or a wall. Next on the agenda is a cheap (~£75) lighting rig consisting of a stand, umbrella, and off-camera TTL cord to let me experiment with different lighting angles. Samples in spoiler:



More: http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardgay ... 714947985/

I do like your crockery, Doctor Gaywood. Very stylish.

Hope to see you in line this season!

Canonistas! I'm after a wide to middling zoom, something in the 15-50 range. Any recommendations?

I have just ordered a Fujifilm X100. Arrives Tuesday. Good review here:



Yeah, I know there's a newer version in the X100s, but I actually prefer the sensor on this one - it's more filmic, even if it is 12mp to the new camera's 16mp. (Unless you're printing bigger than a 23" you don't need more than 10mp, seriously.) Plus it's £500 cheaper and the new firmware has it performing almost as fast its successor. This will be my new main everyday camera. It's Flickr 'Interesting' stream is here: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=x100&ss=1&s=int

I can't wait until it arrives! (Runs to door and sits down impatiently staring at it ala Scott Pilgrim.)

Wow, beautiful bit of kit. Sounds like it was designed for you.

In camera panoramic stitching is a nice feature too.

I approve.

YAY!

It's here! I've charged the battery and formatted the memory card (95mbps!) and am now giddy to begin. It feels great in the hand and looks lush too.

That's a quick format