Background Photos

While this photo may not look like much of a shot, it does make an excellent background photo.  I have used it on my facebook page as a background and it really sets off the picture of my daughter and I.  

There is very much a style to a good background photo.  It needs to say something, but at the same time blend in, which this photo does well.

Nikon FE-2 with Nikkor 24mm f2 - Queen Street East, Toronto

 

Pentax 21mm f3.2 AF Pancake purchase

I don't normally purchase newer Pentax lenses, but this was an exception.  My Dad is a Pentax user and he had been looking for a Pentax 21mm f3.2 pancake wide angle.  It turns out one of my camera friends had one he was looking to sell, so I traded my large format Ansco 5x7 body plus some cash for the lens.  

Its really amazing how small this lens is, and is totally dwarfed by my Sigma 20mm f1.8, and smaller even than my Nikon 20mm f4..  It's about the same size as a Nikon 45mm f2.8 Ai-P pancake.

I will send it to Australia shortly, but I decided I wanted to try it out.  I had a look on craigslist and found a mid 1980s Pentax SFX - an early AF film body.  After some brief negotiation, I ended up getting the body, a flash and a 2x teleconverter for the cost of the lithium battery ($5), so no great expenditure.  However it did take me an hour and a half to get it as I got stuck in traffic.

I shot a roll of film, and the camera and lens seem to work just fine, but there is no way to manually adjust the aperture as there is no aperture ring on this lens.  I also tried out a manual Ricoh 50mm f2 lens on the camera, which also worked well.  The two lenses bring up different menus on the screen which you can select from.  Essentially the manual lens only works in Aperture Priority (A) and full Manual (M), while with the AF you can select program with several different sub modes such as sports and landscape.

All in all, a couple good finds and I look forward to getting the film back.

Nikon FE-2  - Nikon 24mm f2

D600 Pre-order

A couple days ago I went to Henry's to try and put a pre-order on a Nikon D600.  As it has not been officially released, they would not let me do it.  The lady I spoke to however, was knowledgable about the supposed specs, which leads me to believe it isn't far off.  She wasn't sure how long delivery would be after launch, saying it varied wildly from 2 weeks (Canon T4i and Nikon D3200) to over 3 months (Nikon D800).

So, as soon as it launches, I will put in a pre-order and see if I can get my hands on one.

Nikon FE2 with Nikkor 24mm f2