Category: Photography

I was in Lincoln again this week visiting a couple of data centres to resolve hardware faults. As always I had a camera with me and in my lunch break went for a walk through the centre of town.

I grabbed a few shots before heading into an independent coffee shop for a coffee and sandwich.

With my transport needs met by several different modes, the main one for work being a motorcycle to cut through traffic quickly, I again started down the rabbit hole of what small camera would fill a particular every day carry niche when my Leica or Nikon ZF were a little to big.

As always my heart leads me towards a Ricoh GR or Fuji X100. The Fuji is not really any smaller and the Ricoh is expensive for a compact. For that money one can get something a little more flexible and fun. So I have been looking at the Olympus Pen line up. I came close to pulling the trigger on the original micro four thirds Pen when it was first released and it’s still a fun little camera. I started to look around and one can pick one up for about £80 in the local camera store.

Lens choice would be tough. The 17mm would be a start but would also like something a little wider.

Under EU law warranty is generally two years. For other locations it can be a little as six months.

Now Nikon have announced an extended five year warranty on new Nikkor lens, for a number of locations. Check the Nikon website and see if your area is covered.

Now that spring is here events are shall we say springing up all over.

Last Saturday one of the local villages had a spring fair.

Selections of local craft, a raffle and all the usual village events.

I was travelling light with a Leica M10 body and a 35mm ASPH f/2 Summicon. All that was needed for a few snaps like these.

So after two years we were back at the Photo and Video Show 2026.

The trip was uneventful. Traveling in a modern electric car is easy and stress free. We shot down there not worrying about charge, and parked up in the dedicated EV carpark that the NEC has. Not everyone with an electric car did this, some headed for the BP rapid charging hub, to charge for half an hour before finding a normal car parking space, but using the slow AC trickle charges in the dedicated car park was far easier if your intending to stop more then a few hours.

We pulled into the car park and headed to Starbucks for coffee and a comfort break and then headed into the show, while the car was left to sip electrons.

First stop the Olympus stand or OM as there known as now. I really like Olympus, back in the film days I came close to buying a OM4, and have always had great affection for the Pen series. There latest camera that’s has caught my eye is the OM3, this shot was taken with it using the OM black and white profile with the 17mm lens attached.

The London camera exchange was the next place to visit, I was looking for offers on Nikkor 85mm f/1.2 or 135mm f/1.8, but no luck here. Chris did pick up a teleconverter at a good discount.

We then checked out a few bag stands, Chris liked the Shimoda ruck sacks and their internal modules but not the cheapest, but as luck would have it we spotted the Shimoda stall, and they were selling direct at far cheaper costs, so Chris picked up a rucksack and a internal cube module for it.

I was hoping to check out Voigtländer but there were not there, so off to the Nikon stand which I must say was very busy. I tried and and compared the 85mm f/1.2 and the 135mm f/1.8. In look, feel and weight there are extremely similar.

Can you tell which of the two images above were taken with the 85mm and which with the 135mm, they look very close. I felt that the 85mm was factionally faster to focus but but are stunning lens, I think I will definitely end up buying both of them but which one first?

Once thing I have noticed going to theses shows over the years is the change in the demographic. It used to be all men attending and the stands had men selling the goods with a pretty model often stood there to photograph.

Now there the audience visiting were a mix of men and lots more young women coming into the craft. Also the staff on the stands were a mix of highly professional men and women who knew their stuff. Where stands did provide models for you to focus it was as likely to be a male character actor as a woman. One stand had a karate students doing kata.

Up to know Chris had been doing the buying but I had nothing to show for it. We went around both the LCE (London Camera Exchange )and WEX (Warehouse Express) stands but no offers on Nikon lens.

Time to seek out monitors and I had a great chat at the EIZO stand. A new monitor was a must for me as my now thirteen year old NEC Pro Reference monitor was starting to fail. They pointed out they have a five year warranty, and a UK based service centre. The CG2700S and CG2700X both caught my eye, from memory the S was 2.5k and the X was a 4K monitor, the CG range have build in calibration so that’s something you can set and forget. Normally these type of monitors are eye-wateringly expensive.

I checked the normal prices and they’re certainly not cheap, but the show offer was over £1100 off with free delivery, so I placed an order for the X model.

We went around the Adobe stand, where they were teaching people how to use the newer Lightroom. I stick to Lightroom classic, storing my photos in Adobe’s cloud is not an option for me.

Ricoh were there and I got my hands on the new monochrome version of their GR.

Unfortunately I could not get access to the SD card slot so could not get any files to bring home.

Canon and Epson were both there, for a change I did not pick up any more paper.

Lastly it was time for medium format.

Hasselbland were not there but I did get my hands on a Fuji medium format camera and I must say the ergonomics have certainly improved over the last time I used one.

So it was time to go, there were a few little stands we visited, books and a stand selling dresses for models which I took a leaflet from, always useful sourcing new props and clothes for studio projects.

And that was it another year done. I understand next year there going to try London again so I’ll not be going.

It was fun and I’ll likely be back in another two years if they come back to the NEC.

I am currently on the look out for a new portrait lens. I am torn between the Nikkor 85mm f/1.2 and the Nikkor 135mm f/1.8.

I can see use cases for both, but it’s likely the 85mm would see the most use. At the Photoshop today I’ll be trying both out to see what I think.