Scout Images

So we have all accumulated a whole lot of gear. The better camera body, the nice glass…but have we turned around and looked what all this spending has allowed you to achieve?

In the last few years I have made a whirlwind transition from my first SLR that I owned (my sorely missed Nikon D40X + AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IF) to buying a D300, adding a S5 Pro and enough glass to make most people cry. However, in recent months I have returned back to the smaller, lighter, simpler form factor with the addition of the D60 and more recently the AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G. Don’t worry, I am not getting all “Ken Rockwell” on you all.

I have really missed the inconspicuous nature and the creative freedom that such the smaller lighter bodies allow. But more importantly I have found myself using less, carrying less and spending less time worrying about what to use and spending more time taking photos. Most importantly I have in a sense recaptured some of the spontaneity in my photos that I lost when I moved to larger and heavier gear. In retrospect, I was happier with more of my work from the D40X compared to the work I did with the D300 and co. This is actually no fluke, restricting oneself forces us to think about what we do, makes us stop to compose, forces us to consider the chance of success of a shot.

I recently added the AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IF VR into my kit bag. This lens harks back to the limitations of my 18-135mm but with a more restrictive range. The combination of the D60+16-85 is very reminiscent of the D40x+18-135 in size so it is in many ways a homecoming for me. Although I didnt bring home as many keepers on my last trip up to the Gold Coast where I ONLY brought this kit, I felt so free when I was using it. In short, I did not feel painfully restricted. I would happily travel again with only this kit.

This draws me to my main point: there is an innate sense of satisfaction in using simple gear. At the present I am happiest when I have a fast prime attached to my camera. In saying this, I do not mean an exotic prime, but the lowly 50mm f/1.8 or the 35mm f/1.8. Why? The answer is simple, with a fast, inexpensive prime I can enjoy all the benefits of my large, heavy, expensive f/2.8 lenses in a package that is not a pain to carry around. I have sharpness equal to professional zooms, I have great depth of field control and all in a tiny package that no one runs away from.

So what primes? I have mentioned two lenses, one that has been in my kit longer than any other lens, and the other an addition that I have found hard to remove from my cameras.

The first is the traditional 50mm f/1.8 (aka “fast fifty”, “nifty fifty”), a lens that is cheap to make, superbly sharp and regardless of the manufacturer always one of the best. These lenses were traditionally the lenses sold in kits with film SLR’s. The lowly 50mm f/1.8 is what is termed a “normal” lens, meaning it gives us a field of view similar to that of what we see, however digital throws a curve ball at us as the field of view is cropped. This leaves us with a 50mm f/1.8 that has the field of view of a traditional 75mm (but not the same compression though). So on APS-C (DX in Nikon terms) the 50mm f/1.8 has proven to be a bit too “long” to be a useful walk around, this has not stopped many from buying and loving this lens (and it’s f/1.4 and even f/1.2 brothers). For me, the AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D represents the first extra lens I bought, and since the day I picked it up it has been in the kit bag even though I had to focus it manually on the D40x. It proves to be a great low light lens and due to the crop a fairly good portrait lens.

The 2nd lens in question here is the AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G. I bought this lens on a whim, when I was woken by a very good friend who happened to be in New York and wanted to ask me which lens to buy (the 35mm or the 50mm mentioned earlier), I advised the 35mm and was quickly asked if I wanted one as well…the rest is history. Since I received my lens it has not really left the camera body. Traditionally the 35mm focal length is a bit wider than normal but not very wide, however on APS-C (or DX) 35mm provides a 52.5mm field of view….maybe you can see something here. For those who have not worked it out, 35mm is the digital 50mm, the normal field of view! Like a traditional 50mm f/1.8, Nikon’s DX 35mm f/1.8 is a small, lightweight package that offers supreme sharpness and depth of field control. I have found that this lens has just enough width of most everyday candid and street photography, therefore it has been constantly on one of my cameras (usually the D60).

Between the 50mm and the 35mm (or digital 50mm) we have two simple lenses that are both fulfilling to use and inexpensive. For those of you who are not using Nikon: 4/3rds have the 25mm pancake, and Canon sounds to be making a cheap 35mm f/1.8 as well, not to mention the 35mm primes (also available for Pentax). Everyone should try a “fast 50″ of some description. It is these basics that make photography fun and you’ll be surprised with what they can teach you!

For added versatility, consider coupling one of these lenses with a set of extension tubes, or even close up filters, (available here) for a handy macro solution!

Firstly I am happy to announce that my migration from 3ix to BlueHost is now complete. There are still a few issues with the integration of WordPress and Gallery2 using WPG2 (similar to those dating back from my last incident) with a lot of my photo thumbnail links not working properly. So far I have fixed everything dating back from Jan 1st 2010 and will continue to fix these links as time passes. I ask for patience, and apologise for any inconvenience cause.

On a more positive note I have joined the Phottix Affiliate program, so if your after some Phottix gear please click through on the links that will appear on this site.

I came into work today and was surprised that we received a copy of the AF-S Nikkor 16-35mm F/4 VR. Now being me I could not resist giving this lens a once over.

So, mounted on a D3000 (first camera I grabbed) I had a peek.

Thoughts?

-SHARP – great in the centre all the way to the edges, a bit soft at edges at F4, but very good by F/5,6

-DISTORTION – noticeable, but not bad barrel distortion at 16mm, only seen because I shot some tiles

-CHROMATIC ABBERATION – present at the edges, but very small amounts and not something you would notice in usage.

I WANT ONE!!!

So if you were thinking about this instead of the 14-24mm do have a look.

PS. Build is very solid, rubber seal is present, both zoom and focus rings are nice…very 24-70mm like, but the lens feels like it is made from plastic rather than metal.

Finally, after another whole day of working on this website, full functionality has been restored. However all the image links posted prior to this evening are now broken. I dont have the energy to fix all of these (they have to be done manually) but I may slowly go back and fix them in the long run.

You will also notice that I no longer run Contact Form 7, this plugin appears to conflict with WPG2 so I have opted to leave it out.

I have just rolled back my my WordPress database with the hope of clearing things up, but it has failed to do so.  Until I can get this issue fixed I ask you all to be patient.

Please use THIS LINK TO VISIT THE GALLERY.

Hopefully I will be able to get WPG2 working soon.

In the meantime there are a lot of images in earlier posts that are not showing, I will get onto fixing these eventually.

Cheers

Cameron

I just wanted to apologise to anyone who has been trying to access this website during the last two days as it has been inaccessible.

I was exploring some SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) options that were available for me when two things happened. Firstly, my web host’s servers developed a problem (I think it may have been a malicious attack) which disabled all access to my website including the back end via cPanel. After a brief live chat with the technician’s this problem was reported and fixed.

However, unknown to myself, some of my wordpress files had been corrupted causing this site to have all sorts of server problems and being completely unable to load, with the standalone gallery still being accessible. This required a reinstall of wordpress (which I have just completed).

Once again, apologies for the interruption in service, and hopefully this will not happen again.

Apologies for the late post, but my excuse is that I have already wished you all a happy new year. Anyhow, I just wanted to start off the new year with a few reminders, and a few resolutions. Firstly, I made the effort to change the copyright tags on all my camera to reflect the new year, and am about to do the same with all the tags used for my photos.

I have to remind myself that I have to get out there and take more photos, and pick my gear wisely, especially last nights somewhat poor choice, more on that later (possibly when I get those pictures up).

I resolve to accomplish a few things in the coming year:

• finish my personal project “Boxes That Capture Light”
• continue to hone my people photography
• get this business back on track
• return to using slow lenses (I get the feeling that using purely fast glass has made me lazy over the last year to 18 months)
• get the gear purchasing under control (NO MORE GEAR….maybe only a basic zoom or prime lens to match the D60)
• give that waterproof casing a workout

Does anyone have anything else that they think I should add to this list?

I had a sudden realisation….a lot of my gear is away at the moment. Just in case you were interested, and just a bit of me thinking out loud, what is away and where is it?

Nikon D300 – with Nikon Australia for service on LCD issue (Grrrr fix it and stop giving me excuses)

Nikon F80 – on extended loan to a friend for a Photography course (should be coming back soon)

Nikon FM2n – with Camera Service Clinic for service

Tokina 10-17mm Fisheye  - loan to a friend (should be back soon)

Nikkor AF-D 50mm f/1.8 – just about to be loaned to a friend

Now that I have put it down…it seems that I am very light on camera bodies at the moment but looking alright for glass, so the situation is not as dire as first thought.

I have to apologise for the long time between posts. I have just become very time poor recently and have only just managed to find the time to process some photos from last weekend’s trip up to the Blue Mountains for a Sublime Point dawn shoot. Other than that, there has been a fair bit of other stuff happening…with more cameras going out to service.

Today I dropped off my treasured FM2n to get the aperture indexing ring replaced, having discovered that it was modified by its previous owner (to use non AI lenses) and ordered a new focus screen for my S5 Pro. This means two of my five cameras are currently away for service (the D300 is back at Nikon but I will be checking on it tomorrow, and now the FM2n is away as well) and a third still away on extended loan (I should be getting the F80D back soon though). This leaves me with the S5 Pro and the D60 until the others come back.

Now that I have expressed the sad state of affairs in terms of camera bodies, I should show you some of the work that the two remaining cameras have been doing recently…..

First up lets have a look at the trip up to the Blue Mountains. Dawn at Sublime Point is great to watch, even when the conditions are not great for photography. I was pretty disappointed to find that the S5 Pro had picked up a few dust bunnies on the sensor and in the viewfinder (I actually damaged the focus screen trying to get the viewfinder clean) so you will actually be able to see some dust bunnies on some of my shots.

As a bonus I have decided to post a few images from the Long Table Laneway Dinner (14th Oct 2009) taken with my D60. A lot of these images were taken at high ISO with slow shutter speeds but I figured that having a few images was better than having none. However there is a bit of FishEye fun in this album.

As with most people, there are a number of items that I lust for, and another set of items that simply dont exist but I would love to see. SO I thought I would share my wish list with you all…..more