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What lens should I buy?

Don’t worry, this isn’t my photo for today – it’s just an additional post while I try and get my shopping list in order.

I’ve been trying to work out what lens I should buy next, and this morning I realised that my gallery software collects exif data for each image and stores it in the database.  One sql statement and a spreadsheet later and it would appear that I shoot more photos at 135mm than I do any other focal length (which is actually where my lens performs least well!)  and 26-115mm seems to be a fairly even spread, slightly clustering around a 50mm full frame equivalent.

The sample size is too small for any real analysis (and is incomplete as it only represents the 139 images I have exif data for) , but I think I’d probably get most use out of a new 70-200mm keeping my current lens for the 18-70mm range.  Possibly adding a cheap 50mm prime to the mix.

Damn.

That’s the expensive solution!

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Kodak Folding Brownie

This camera is one of my longer term restoration projects. It’s currently unusable. It’s totally light tight but the optics are all cloudy. It’s worth next to nothing, I could probably pick one up from ebay for about a tenner but that’s not the point.

I’d love to get it restored and back into service because it once belonged to my Grampy. The older I get, the more I wish he’d been around long enough for me to really appreciate him. By all accounts he was a hoarder, a tinkerer and a “builder of things” – all traits that I can very much relate to.

I have a handful of negatives that he shot with it, and I’d like to revisit the same locations and take the same shots – with the same camera – 50+ years on. It feels like the right thing to do.

Today’s “Honourable mentions” are the lens and frame counter from my rangefinder – a camera with much less personal history – but crystal clear optics!

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My Fisrt Rangefinder

I know, I know. I’m supposed to have just gone digital. What do I go and do? Buy another 35mm camera.

I found this camera in a charity shop in Horsham at the weekend. I’ve never owned a rangefinder, and it was under a tenner so I bought it. As far as I can tell it’s mechanically sound, although the light meter on the top doesn’t appear to work Edit: the light meter does actually work.

I’m going to load it up with slide film now, and take it out photowalking with me this week.

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Audio flash trigger…

I’ve spent the last couple of days building an audio flash trigger. The idea is that it fires the flash when it hears a loud noise, like a balloon popping or an egg smashing. So far, I’ve spent under £2 on the project. When I’m happy with it I’ll post some more info, build pictures and instructions etc.

It works, but it ‘s going to need a little bit of practice to get any decent results. This is the best I’ve managed so far:

The next stages are to:

• Solder up what I’ve got, so I can use my plugboard for something else
• Build a delay box to give better control over when the flash fires
• Either buy a new flash with power controls, or modify my existing flash (Replace the LDR with a variable resistor) – a lower output from the flash should be a shorter burst of light, which will reduce the motion blur I’m getting
• Sort out a black background cloth, and arrange some more interesting lighting!
• Get myself a lense that’s better suited to this than the one I’ve got…

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I’ve got a new camera!

Yay for new toys! I’ve finally given in and bought a digital SLR. Mainly because I got fed up with scanning 35mm film. Medium format I can cope with, 35mm is too fiddly and I just haven’t got the knack for laying it flat.

So, I’ve got a Nikon D80…

Off camera flash, ghetto studio setup can be seen in the setup shot…

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New toys, old toys

My new toys were delivered the other day. I’ve bought myself some wireless flash triggers so I can fiddle with off camera flash.

Unfortunately, my experiments are a little hit and miss as I don’t have the luxury of a digital SLR to learn my technique with. So I figure that if things are going to go wrong, I may as well encourage them and use the holga rather than anything consistent…

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A new week, a new gallery, a new camera…

It’s not my camera, it’s one we bought for use in the office (taking photos of whiteboard sessions etc). It’s a Fuji FinePix S6500fd and I quite like it. It’s somewhere between a digital compact and a low end DSLR. It will do everything from full manual (including focusing, shutter speed, aperture) to full auto. The physical interface to all the controls feels natural, and the focusing ring on the lens is a nice touch.

It’s got a few features missing which I think would probably stop me buying one for myself (Lack of cable release, hotshoe and a few other things) so I don’t think it’s going to put me off my goal of “buy a Nikon D80 after Christmas”

Its not too bad at macro stuff, and this is the chalkboard todo list in my kitchen. I need more clocks, everyone should have more clocks.

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