The return of the FE2

There is a rumour on the internet that Nikon will sell a full frame DSLR that is styled similarly to Nikon's excellent FM2 of 30+ years ago.  I've owned both an FE2 (sister camera to the FM2) and an F3 (similar, but a bit more robust), and loved them both.  I liked the relatively light weight, compact size and classic styling.  I will admit that neither got significant use (the convenience of digital does that), but both shot photos I can instantly remember.

Personally, I love classic styling, and the Fuji X100 is the camera that best encapsulates this.  If the pricing is right (ie under $2000) I can see a digital FE2 being a major hit.  I've got my hand up!

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

An afternoon at the Distillery District - Part 2: Fujifilm GA645

This shoot was my first real go of the GA645, and it is a really nice camera to use.  Despite it being compact for a medium format camera, it totally dwarfed the other two. Not only that, it weighed almost three times as much as the feather weight X100.

The camera is relatively easy to load and use.  Any familiarity with a roll film camera previously will help the user load the camera, but it's no harder than a Nikon FE2.  The only tricky bit is winding the film to the appropriate starting point, and also remembering to click the bottom spool locators into place.

When in use it couldn't be easier.  I used aperture priority and off I went.  The viewfinder is where all the action happens.  The finder frame automatically corrects for parallex and changes substantially from infinity to minimum focus distance (approx 0.7m).  There is a read out that gives an approximation of the distance from the subject, which is all adjusted by pushing the shutter half way down, just like on a D-SLR.

Being almost totally automatic, the GA645 is much closer to the X100 than the completely manual Leica in terms of ease of use.  It really is not much more than point and shoot.

The film I used was some out of date Kodak Portra 160 NC.  This is a low contrast film, designed to be used for weddings and softer portraits.  It was probably not appropriate for the subject matter, but a good trial film.  

I am looking forward to the results!

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