contains Festival/Art photography.
20120210-Cahuitawww.thisfabtrek.com > equipment > camera
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Cameras and Lenses, some other stuff.
"Only using the equipment all the time makes a photographer one day".
1997, first money, first SLR, a F70 (1994) Nikon and a few cheap Sigma and Tamron lenses, so I was on Nikon as opposed to Canon; it is hard to switch once you paid out for good lenses. In fact till date I know nothing about Canons.
2000 get a manual Nikon FM2, keep things simple, use it with a fixed Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens, later with a Nikkor 28mm f/1.4; nice.
2003, want a "good" camera, invest in a Nikon F100; should have gone digital then... used a Minolta slide scanner ... a cumbersome process. Still I take the scanner and film camera traveling in 2004.
2005, only half a year later, buy a FujiFilm FinPix S3 Pro DSLR, later another one, this was a lauded camera. Each camera its own lens, Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 AF-S and 70-200mm f/2.8 AF-S VR. The optimist then thought that prevents dust on the image sensor. Yes these lenses are awesome, good lens do make happy, this is where love starts.
The S3 is nice, a bit slow, but also the fabtrek is a slow journey. It doesn't really shoot RAWs either, this clogs it down, but jpgs are handier on the road anyway where storage is scarce. Amazing is how the S3s held over 6 years, taking all the Sahel dust, red wine, yes they became buggy, the first picture after turning them on is always black, the rubber grip came off, the plastic on the ISO wheel too, but surprise they're still going. "Treat yourself to a new camera," Pieter van der Houwen.
Sensor dust is the problem, cleaning the sensor of sticky, gluey, burnt in dust really only works in theory and I have confined myself as much as I can to shooting at F2.8; that requires less editing in Photoshop afterwards. Obviously this is not satisfactory.
Mostly I use the 17-35mm lens; with the S3's DX-format this really means shooting at 24-50mm, so quite normal and it comes into action for 90% of all shots. The 70-200mm is used on festivals, sometimes with the 2x teleconverter to hunt birds; that means shooting at 600mm, nice.
2007 Sep in Bamako, Mali, I leave the slide scanner, the Nikon F100, a Manfrotto tripod behind; chunk. I keep the FM2.
2011, there has been a quantum leap in photography technology over 6 year. one day in April I just close my eyes and buy a Nikon D700 and a 24-70mm f/2.8. I simple had to!
| AF 28 mm f/1.4 Nikkor | Nice but no quick focusing, seems like a bit of yestergear, hardly use it, will sell it. | 578g |
|---|---|---|
| AF 50 mm f/1.8 Nikkor | Still mounted on the FM2, hardly use it. | 214g |
| AFS-Nikkor 17-35 mm f/2.8 ED-IF | Wide-angle zoom lens, the standard when I bought it. It is an expensive paper holder now, as one sad day I put it in the washing machine. | 794g |
| AFS-Nikkor 24-70 mm f/2.8 ED | Now the standard. | g |
| AFS 70-200 mm f/2.8 G ED-IF VR | VR's the thing, for stage. Read review. | 1,536g |
| Nikon 2x Teleconverter | Works nicely with 70-200mm, for birds in the sky. | g |
| D700 | Full frame 12mp and sensor cleaning technology and a lot more. | 1074g |
| 2 Fuji FinePix S3 pro | My old cameras with sensors full of dust, read review1, review2, review3. Not for the speed, but the colors, still working after all those years on the road. | 815g |
| SB 600 Speedlight | a new investment after the old fell down. review. | 300g |
| SB 26 Speedlight | from my 1997 investment (repaired for back up). | g |
| Nikon F100 + MB15 | Who cares about the F100 these days. One day just left it behind in Bamako. | 1,195g |
| Nikon FM2 | Refreshing basics, just who wants to spend on film, processing, scanning... | 608g |
| Sekonic Dualmaster L-558 Exposure Meter | Whereever I left this... | 342g |
| Photoflex Lightdisk | Never used it. | 330g |
| Manfrotto Tripod | Not heavy enough for windy conditions, unsharp images ... | 2,800g |
| Manfrotto Monopod | Never used it, it kind of rusts/oxidizes. | 890g |
| Large Gitzo Tripot | 400 Euros, piece of sh!t, 2 legs got stuck and they weren't able to repair it in 6 weeks. | Too heavy to take anywhere... |
| Manfrotto 303Plus Panoramic Photography Head | Panoramic Photography, something I wanted to get into... which requires so much work and time which I don't have. | 2,340g |
| Manfrotto Levelling Base | For the panorama shots. | 600g |
- Links to sites about cameras, lenses etc. I turn to that at times.
- Sites that I looked at that publish pictures of the world's great photographers.
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