Family, Photography and other misc news
When the Nikon Zf was released a Small Rig grip was available right from the start. More and more camera companies are working with companies like Small Rig so that accessories are available to photographers right from the start. I can image the cage system being very popular to turn this into a really good b roll video tool, or if like me your new to video a primary tool to get your started on your video journey.
In the studio getting the colour right is fairly straightforward.
Once the lighting and exposure is all correct it’s a simple step of selecting a grey card or colour checker card and setting the white balance but what about mixed light or outdoors.
Here at the image on the top of this page we have balanced for the outdoor light and we are also using a little bit of fill in flash also at a daylight colour balance. These leaves the lamp giving a warm glow.
Outdoors things get far harder.
Now here in this image we have the golden hue of the light from the wheat and a slightly blue tinted over cast sky. The colour can be balanced a lot easier then some out door pictures.
It’s when you start to get green hues in the picture where it gets difficult. Sometimes you just have to correct as best as you can and accept that if you correct for one thing then something else will not look correct.
Sometimes I visit a place to look for future picture taking options. In this situation, maybe a phone camera will do, but I prefer a real camera. Often its my Leica or Nikon Zf that serve me in this as a note taking camera.
For quite a while I used the Nikon V1, a small sensored and small bodied camera that would always fit in a jacket pocket with ease or not be noticed when hung over the shoulder. I the the picture above with it while scouting for a location to shoot the abbey with using my large format camera gear.
I recently came across a youtube video that really well encapsulated my thoughts on this subject of scouting a location really well. Check out Courtney Victoria’s YouTube channel.
Another week and another trip into Lincoln.
A stroll along some of the side streets resulted in a few snaps but nothing too special. Still you have to practice.
And you will never capture that amazing street shot if you do not have your camera with you and ready.
Sunday morning saw me walking Ted the Greyhound around a local village.
I decided to dig into the back of my photo cupboard in my office and dig out one of my older mirrorless cameras.
I picked up my old Nikon V1 a tiny mirrorless camera from 2011, and popped on a telephoto lens. This tiny combination gave me a reach from 90 to 300mm.
The tiny 10 megapixel camera was not a big success for Nikon its tiny CX 1 inch format was considered two small, but for a small everyday carry, its quite a capable little camera.
Too many people people feel you have to have 35mm full frame, and look down on the smaller formats. As a photographer I have large format 5×4 inch camera, full frame medium format, full frame 35mm, and DX and this little CX. I am also considering adding a small MicroFourThirds kit. All have there place and each has an advantage and disadvantage.
I can image the comments on in forums now. Useless camera, no EVF wheres my 28mm f/1.2 S but pancake size!
This is a nice product with good video and good performance. If you after a small camera and are a landscape photographer who composes on the rear screen this is not a bad option. If your a content creator and need a b-roll camera or are getting into video, again its not a bad choice.
This is not the camera for everyone and many photo centric users will be vocal in it not being for them. Put there will be some users who love this. A good camera to flesh out the range.
Now Nikon I will say wheres the small 17mm f/2.8, a quality 28mm. The recent f/1.4 none S lens are a good start for their small cameras but we need more small lens.
I use a window manager on my main linux laptop, I find to it helps me to concentrate. The linux build is quite minimal.
Recently hyprland changed its config file to lua. I had been putting it off, but in the end I had to re-write my config file in lua. It was surprisingly straight forward. One thing I could not get working was window resizing using the standard VIM keys.
I had a few attempts at trying to resolve this but was struggling to find the command I needed, what I tried always gave me errors. I could not find an example on line every example was for pre-lua, but eventually I found the command:
hl.dsp.window.resize
Yep easy once you know.
So if your searching yourself here are the four lines you need in your Hyprland Config Lua file for resizing windows with the VIM keys.
hl.bind(mainMod .. ” + CTRL +h”, hl.dsp.window.resize({ x = -10, y = 0, relative = true }))
hl.bind(mainMod .. ” + CTRL +l”, hl.dsp.window.resize({ x = 10, y = 0, relative = true }))
hl.bind(mainMod .. ” + CTRL +k”, hl.dsp.window.resize({ x = 0, y = -10, relative = true }))
hl.bind(mainMod .. ” + CTRL +j”, hl.dsp.window.resize({ x = 0, y = 10, relative = true }))
The Z30 is a nice little DX crop factured camera if you happy with no EVF.
Rumour is, that there is a Z5II version coming so a full frame Z5 with no EVF.
For Nikon DX crop format lovers they are still waiting for a high end Z body. It seems everyone is concentrating on full frame.
Whether its walking the dog or just enjoying a walk myself; the small woodlands of Boutham Park are a great place for a quick walk.
Over the years since inventing 35mm photography, Leica have produced some interesting sometimes limited edition lens. An odd one is the M glass 66mm. Olympus liked their 55mm, and Nikon had a classic 58mm. Leica’s 66mm is an interesting choice of focal length, an in-between choice similar to the 40mm that has become popular recently.
Not sure how many Leica made but most of the uk stockists are sold out.
I am intending to add a 40mm to my collection at some point. Any none standard focal lengths you like?