Family, Photography and other misc news
One from the Archives, a walk down the river in Lincoln, down to Stamp End Lock. This area is still heavily industrialised but not as much as in years past. Lots of old buildings and warehouses in the area that once used the river for transport.
Working outside is something I enjoy. Its not something I do often and its always a bit risky with the weather in the British Isles.
Now we are in the middle of winter my thoughts on these cold days do start to dream of warmer days and what I may want to do when the warmer weather does arrive.
Lincolnshire is a rural county and its not too hard to find a friendly farmer with a remove field to take photographers like the one above.
Noctilux M 35mm f/1.2 is rumoured to be released soon. I would be interested in this lens, will it come under the price of the Nikon 35mm f/1.2? That I doubt, but the Leica 35mm f/1.2 will work on both my Lecia cameras and my Nikon’s.
I had a photoshoot yesterday near York, so thought I would dig out an old image from Whitby one of my favourite English holiday destinations.
So I posted a while ago that Ricoh had made a development announcement of a Black and White GR compact. Well today the retailers started to accept pre-orders. Here in the UK its £1600 which for a dedicated black and white camera is the cheapest yet.
If your after a dedicated black and white camera, then its this, a Leica Q3 or Leica M, unless you have the budget for a medium format black and white digital back.
So for a new year resolution I set myself a musical goal of practicing at least 5 minutes a day, for six days a week for the whole of January. So far it’s been good. I have yet to miss a day for piano and only missed one day in the first week for banjo.
This week has been cold and snowy at the beginning of the week and wet and cold towards the end.
The few times the sun came out I grabbed the camera and took a few snaps. Nothing special but you never know when a great scene may come your way.
Many people like Fuji because of their film presets, and while other cameras offer them, its been Fuji that have captured the imagination of photographers.
Nikon have custom picture controls and now with their cloud service its even easier to create and share your presets.
The shot above is a simple high contrast image with the preset Black and White Deep Tone applied. Great for dark and moody pictures like this.
Of course shooting RAW you can take an image anyway you want. The above image had the contrast lowered and just enhanced for Brook’s hair.
Of course in the studio lighting can be used to enhance or reduce contrast like in this image of Kimberly.
I am seeing rumours about how Leica will develop their next sensor in house. Reports also mention that the current sensor is ‘just’ a Sony sensor.
Those who follow Leica will understand that they have been working closely and have been developing in conjunction with a number of Germain Universities sensor technology for a while now. Sony the sensor company have a number of base designs that you can order from them and put your own tech into; and they will also fabricate custom designs of your own. The sensor manufacture division of Sony is very different to the division that makes and runs Sony cameras which they bought from Minolta, they are a customer of the sensor division just like anyone else. Buying a Sony camera with a Sony sensor will not be the same sensor tech as other camera manufactures. For the high end cameras its often a unique sensor being made just for that company.
Nikon announced the new Nikon 24-105mm f/4 to f/7.1 non S lens.
This is a nice budget kit lens and a reasonable travel lens for people who like to travel light.
This shot of Kimberly was taken with a 105 prime at f/8 so a beginner could make good use of this lens within the 50 – 105mm range and shoot in the studio at f/8 or f/11.
The weight is good and its about half the weight of the 24-120mm f/4 S and much cheaper.
The chat on the internet is as you would expect very negative towards this lens. It’s cheap, small and light, something has to give and it’s that variable aperture. An f/7.1 at 105 is pretty slow, but in the studio no issues, and with modern high ISO performance not too much to worry about. Yes the 24-70mm f/4 S is better and so is the 24-120mm f/4 S; but they’re not coming in at anything like this price. unless you consider secondhand. If you can afford the S lens then get them, if not start with this or pick up some nice second hand primes. Choice is good, don’t criticise a lens just because its not for you.
I would never buy this but if it came in a kit with a Nikon Z5II as a starter system and I was getting into the photography this is a great option for newbies.