Fortunate F3 Find

A Nikon F3 HP found again, put a special strap and a no less special lens on it

I’m moving house and while getting some furniture out of the old place, my son found my old Nikon F3 HP among the flotsam and the jetsam. A nice surprise!

Nikon D850 Video Capture

Just a sample of the gear you need for a decent video recording with the Nikon D850.

A little update from being on call over the weekend in the hospital. In the downtime between patients, I set up the camera and the field recorder to capture 4 K video.

Smoking the Peace Pipe with Nikon

Café scene with new, old Nikon D850, photographed (with AI support) with iPhone 14 Pro. Post-processed the RAW file, but the result is still too harsh.

What do you call it when you buy a camera again? Stupidity? Tenacity? A vote of confidence? Whatever, after I got rid of my Leica SL2-S, I no longer had a full frame autofocus camera either. But I still have a few F-Nikkors, for example the AI-S 1:1.2 50 mm or the incomparable (also not with “Plena”) DC Nikkor 1:2.0 105 mm. So 3 years after selling it, I bought another Nikon D850 from Calumet Photographic in Hamburg Bahrenfeld. And look how much better it represents the café scene:

With AF-S Nikkor 24-70 mm 1:2.8E ED

No comparison, right? Here are a few JPEGs from the way back from the café:

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At home I found the NEF + JPEG setting, here I show a few further processed RAW images from the garden:

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And finally one that shows the exact focus on the beer bottle and the beautiful bo’keh:

The zoom at 28 mm and f/2.8.

Here’s to a beautiful and detailed rediscovery!

My Favorite Cameras, And Why

There’s a backside to it.

My name is Christoph, and I have GAS (gear acquisition syndrome), like many of you reading this ‘blog, I assume.

Now that this is out of the way, I’d like to present a list of my favorite cameras (135 film format and digital, I’m just starting into medium format film, so let’s leave that for later …). One or two photos of the cameras each and some reasons why I like them:

Baudrillard’s Nikon

Wait! Isn’t that a Nikon FM-2? (Photo © Nikon)

It’s a small, lightweight, plastic, APS-C sensor, system camera from Nikon. But it’s also a simulacrum. Let’s see how well the simulation turned out:

How I Scan My XPan Films

Cosmetics lesson on Ku’damm

Well, up to now it’s been only two rolls of Kodak Tri-X 400 out of the new, old XPan and you can see the results here and here. You may wonder how I scan them, how much of a bother it is and here is how:

For Jimi

It’s not the music, neither the lifestyle. They are just unique camera straps. Photo on a M11 © Rock & Roll

The camera straps I prefer these days are from Rock & Roll (see the categories below for a comment on the company’s former name) and are sewn from individual leather loops that interlock. Like Hendrix’s guitar strap!

T. Rex, Vermeer Blacks and Bo’keh

First images with the Nikon F4s, on Fujifilm Neopan 1600, developed and scanned this morning.

If you want to get it done, do it yourself

Video review of my Nikon F4s with action finder DA-20. Cut and postprocessed by GoPro’s AI built into the Quick App. Kinda sorta works, but nah! Skynet is not here yet. I’ll be back!

Nikon AE Action Finder DA(LEK)-20

Exterminate!!! Namely matrix metering, the lower display in the viewfinder and some exposure modes if you don’t have an Ai-S or D lens mounted.