Life is short.
There are two types of people in this late night snap. Those who hate what they do. And those who love what they do.
No prizes for guessing which is which.
An absolute sweetheart.
Our son Winston does karate in a down-on-its-luck area whose great redeeming quality is the presence of Kaufmann’s Cameras, one of the few remaining camera stores in these parts, 57 years in business, the last 21 at the same location on West 25th Avenue in San Mateo.
They have half a dozen consignment cases full of old film gear, languishing sadly (they keep a 30% commission).
I swung by when Winnie was doing yet another of his never ending belt tests yesterday (it’s their annuity income stream) and spotted one of the bargain label Nikon-E optics, the 75-150mm f/3.5 for sale, in mint condition. Small, 52mm filter, trombone zoom, MF of course and a fixed f/3.5 maximum aperture. A quick check on the iPad disclosed it’s a highly regarded optic, all metal, and the one Kaufmann’s had on consignment was mint, complete with UV filter and rear cap.
As generally seems to be the case the zoom trombone will move with gravity; two minutes with electrician’s black vinyl tape saw a strip applied underneath and the problem was solved.
Definition is super, with the merest hint of red fringing at 75mm, with slight vignetting at 150mm, both easily remedied in LR3. There’s no air pumping as you operate the trombone as the rear element is fixed – nice! That means no blast of airborne dirt in the direction of the camera’s innards as you zoom. The aperture ring is really close to the flange and takes some getting used to. Full click stops only with a fine solid feel. Zooming does not change the length, focus does, with a 3/4″ extension and a 200 degree rotation. It focuses to a very close 3 feet. At 150mm that’s pretty close. Both zooming and focus are wonderfully smooth and perfectly damped. Out of focus areas are nicely rendered. Both the front and rear glass elements are pretty much exposed, so a filter/rear cap make sense.
As there is no CPU in the lens to communicate focal length the D700 has to be told manually which length is in use if you want correct EXIF data. Up to nine various settings are allowed. The ‘Non CPU lens’ setting on the D700 does not have zoom options, so I set it at 86mm and f/3.5 and exposure automation is fine, with the usual focus confirmation. 86mm? It’s one of the strange options available and not likely to be confused with anything else when looking at EXIF data! Balance on the D700 is just so. Comfortable. All the markings on the lens are engraved and paint filled. Like they used to make them. No screen printing. I like that.
Cost? Would you believe $85 with filter and rear cap for a lightweight, high quality zoom with a fixed and fast f/3.5 maximum aperture? What’s not to like? It may have been Nikon’s ‘bargain’ line but there are no signs of cost cutting in either execution or performance. A wonderful adjunct to the 16-35mm ultra-wide zoom – similar length, much smaller diameter, similar weight. As I have no intention of carrying around a 70-200mm f/2.8 autofocus VR zoom weighing in at 3.3lbs and measuring 8.1″ in length (against 1.5 lbs and 5.2″ for the 75-150) I am happy to sacrifice AF, VR, the long end, the weight and the bulk. And did I mention this little sweetheart is some $2,300 less?
Higly recommended if you are OK with manual focus and a perfect companion to an ultrawide zoom as part of a ‘do (almost) everything’ outfit.
The Nikkor 75-150 budget zoom is an absolute sweetheart and costs a lot less than any sweetheart ever will. And while you are spending wildly on one of these gems, throw in a new Nikon HR-1 collapsible rubber screw-in lens hood for all of $15, which makes sense given the flare-prone, exposed front element. The original metal 52mm screw-in hood, HN-21, is hard to find.
You can download my custom lens correction profile for this lens, best used once a CPU has been installed in the lens, here.
CPU installation:
My lens is s/n 1814651, early all black design, (Sept. 1980) and permits a simple glue-on installation of the CPU. However, after correspondence with a reader it became clear that somewhere in the first run of these lenses, the all black ones like mine, s/n 1790801-1860019, Nikon changed the design and started using a much thicker baffle in the area where the CPU has to be installed. This means that the baffle will have to be removed and an arc machined out to accommodate the CPU. I do not know exactly where the change in design occurred, but the lens already used the thicker baffle at s/n 1837859. If any other readers are converting this lens, please drop me a line with your s/n so that I can narrow down the change point, for future reference. The later version with the chrome ring, s/n 1890001 and up appears to use the thicker baffle.
Hype dispelled.
What with everyone going on about the spectacular low light performance of the Sony sensor in the Nikon D700, I thought I would find out for myself, rather than read test charts. With the idea of using higher ISOs I set out on San Francisco’s streets an hour before sunset and messed with ISO 1600 and up a bit. While I had a lot of fun taking snaps I can happily dispel all the hype about the awesome noiselessness of the D700’s sensor. Yes, it’s fine at 1600 and no, it’s not as good as at 800. You can even tell the difference in an 18″ x 24″ print. Anything higher and luminance noise skyrockets. You can tweak it out in LR3 but at the expense of definition.
Comparing the results to those from my old Canon 5D, there’s little in it, quite frankly. Both have very large sensors and you would expect good noise performance from such relatively low pixel densities. But it’s not night and day compared with the excellent 16mp Panny sensor in the G3, as an example. Sure, it’s better, but not ‘blow you away’ better. The D700 had better be superior – it costs five times as much and has four times the sensor area.
If you must have full frame and are on a budget, a good used 5D body goes for $800. A D700 for $2,000. Unless you are heavily invested in Nikon lenses, the Canon would be the best price-performance choice by a country mile for all but those suffering from brand loyalty or some other strange hang-ups.
Enough noise about …. noise. Here are some snaps.
Because 3200 is too grainy to retain micro-detail, the ones below are all at 1250-1600 ISO, taken with the 16-35 lens at f/4. Yes you can get decent snaps at 3200, 6400 or even higher, but they sure will not look too pretty when printed large. Let’s be real here.
Outing with dad. ISO 1250.
Going home. On Sansome Street. Lots of noise in the shadows, underexposure
required to preserve detail in the Transamerica building. ISO 1600
Valentine store, Maiden Lane. ISO 1600.
Dumpster Diva. ISO 1600.
Muni bus. ISO 1600.
Kryptonite. ISO 1600.
Still, 1600 ISO is pretty decent and not a lot to complain about, except that it does not come cheap. While hosing a big DSLR around on the street tends to invite attention, San Francisco’s famously liberal culture makes that a low risk matter. Come to think of it, a couple of whacks around the head and ears with a D700 would likely do the recipient more damage than it would the camera.
Someone has been thinking here.
If, like me, you are a wimp who feels sorry for himself when carrying weight is involved, give the ThinkTank Retrospective line of camera bags a thought.
Background:
I wanted to be able to carry a reasonably versatile Nikon D700 outfit with a minimum of pain. The idea is that the body with the 16-35mm zoom (no toy, when it comes to size) goes in with the lens pointed vertically downwards, ready to be removed and prepared for action without messing with caps and lens mounting. I looked at all the big name bags – marques like Lowepro and Domke – and found that there really was nothing that recognized that this is the way most itinerant photographers work. You know, those of us who walk or ride a bike with our gear about us.
Click the image for the ThinkTank site.
Then I chanced upon something designed with the modern DSLR user in mind, from a company named ThinkTank. It fulfilled several of my requirements. The camera and lens combination goes in as described, there is room for another four lenses without cramming, it looks nothing like a camera bag, and has a truly broad strap and shoulder pad to spread the load. I did not want closure zippers, and the Retrospective 10 uses a large Velcro flap, with the option of disabling the Velcro for a loose flap and zero noise. It’s at this point that you start to realize that the designers have done some serious thinking.
Attention to detail. Velcro disabling flaps and business card holder.
Unexpected benefits include a zippered, interior pocket which will accommodate an iPad and a rain cover which slips on from the front, wrapping around the base then in towards your body, so as not to interfere with the shoulder strap. There’s also a regular handle for carrying like a suitcase. The iPad will fit more easily in either outside pocket – the Velcroed one in front or the zippered one next to your body; it’s a tight fit in the internal one, but will fit and the zipper can be closed. So there are no fewer than three iPad pockets! There is a clear plastic Velcro pocket inside the front flap to hold a handful of business cards.
Border terrier for size. The thinner strap is a small carrying handle.
In use.
D700 with 16-35mm fitted, 85mm and 300mm below, hidden area under top of D700 for two more lenses. iPad at right in zippered pocket.The blue tape top left retains the compact weatherproof cover.The 16-35mm zoom on the D700 is resting on its mounted lens hood. There’s a small, leather, embossed maker’s label sewn to the outside fabric, but it’s on the body side and invisible in use. Phew!
There are small open flaps top and bottom and a Velcroed one at left on the front. There are no tripod straps, and I doubt the bag would accommodate a full size DSLR like a Nikon D3 or D4/EOS 1D/D700 or 5D with battery grip plus many lenses. There are two larger sizes, the 20 and 30, for those. Indeed, if your idea of a fun time is an 85mm f/1.4 rather than my modest f/1.8, or a 200mm f/2 in lieu of my f/4, or you like huge 70-200 f/2.8 primes or even longer ‘pro’ zooms, then you should look at the larger ThinkTank sizes. And give Charles Atlas my regards when you hump all this weight to the site.
Broad strap and pad spread the weight.
The manufacturer’s site states:
“Think Tank Photo was started in January 2005 by two designers, Doug Murdoch and Mike Sturm, and two photographers, Deanne Fitzmaurice and Kurt Rogers. Deanne Fitzmaurice won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for photojournalism in 2005.”
It shows. And be sure to check out Deanne Fitzmaurice’s work in the link above.
In use:
The material and construction quality are excellent, and the bag works well in practice. I took it on a walk around San Francisco yesterday evening, and found that it worked best with the bag slung diagonally across my chest bandolier style, hanging at my left, with the D700 slung over the left shoulder, just above the bag. The Upstrap on the D700 is quite exceptionally resistant to slipping and, should it slip, the camera will land on top of the bag. In this way weight is distributed across both shoulders. Carrying a body/lens combination that heavy and bulky around your neck for any period of time not only invites ridicule, it will also drive up chiropractor bills. The shoulder pad slides on the strap which is much appreciated.
Here’s a couple of late evening snaps from that outing:
Yuerba Buena at night. D700, 16-35mm @ 24mm, ISO 1600.
Bagpiper, Pine Street at Sansome. D700, 85mm f/1.8D at f/1.8, ISO 1250.
My ‘standard’ lens is the 16-35 zoom, a range consonant with my brain’s sweet spot. When removed it’s simply dropped in the large, vacant central space and one of the other lenses is mounted on the body. I don’t bother with front lens caps, using only rear ones to protect the vulnerable aperture stop down lever. The side pockets could hold a small flashgun or a couple of granola bars, but are too slim for a bottle of water. That’s where a bike or your local pub comes in handy.
Conclusion:
The color and looks are very discreet, and the bag is recommended. It comes with a no-questions-asked lifetime warranty which was clearly not written by a schmuck. People who take responsibility for their products deserve to succeed.
Were I to return to my hiking days, I would use the Lowepro AW Trekker, which is a backpack design, with sternum strap and tripod holder. It will accommodate more gear than the ThinkTank but at a cost – gear takes far longer to deploy and you really must set the bag down on a flat surface to remove or replace components, otherwise expensive crashing sounds will ensue. It too, is a fine product, well made for long term use, and also comes with a weatherproof cover. It uses two long zippers for the top cover; these are hard to avoid in backpack designs.
The Lowepro AW Trekker.
Vogue ad.
I enjoy Vogue magazine for its advertising. The writing is nothing to well, write home about, and when you get issues glorifying the refined tastes of the wife of a middle Eastern autocrat who thinks nothing of murdering his people you wonder whether they will next be glorifying Eva Braun for her choice of boyfriend.
For the most part the ads are prosaic. After all, Vogue is a trade magazine whose primary purpose is to sell goods to distributors and retailers. Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes there’s a good laugh to be had from awful Photoshop work, like the March 2012 issue where a famous and famously overweight pop diva du jour has magically developed a svelte figure complete with sunken cheeks and high cheekbones. Who cares. This is sales not reportage. Photoshop away, says I. Yet, every now and then, you get something really special, as was the case with the Lord and Taylor ad back in 2006.
Another example of this multi-generational picture cropped up in a Dolce and Gabbana ad in the February, 2012 issue.
Posed seemingly outside an aged Italian villa, three generations are on display. The white haired paterfamilias and his (somewhat exiled) wife stand proudly amongst their children and grandchildren, all dressed in costly D&G attire. The faces are full of character, the young women beautiful and the whole thing is expertly arranged and rendered.
The picture shows a Sicilian family in the 50s. The beautiful women are the actress Monica Bellucci and the model Bianca Balti (right).
So profiles of dictator’s wives may not be why I buy Vogue, but the wait for things like this makes the modest annual subscription cost worth every penny. Highly recommended to the visually inclined. Sadly, I cannot find out who took this splendid photograph, part of an extended campaign.