Photography Nuts & Bolts

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Tizer
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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I wonder how he decides which one to take with him on his holidays! :extrawink:
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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Tizer wrote: 11 Sep 2020, 14:46 I wonder how he decides which one to take with him on his holidays! :extrawink:
:biggrin2:
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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Easy Peter, the smallest 'point and shoot' model!
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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I treated myself to a new lens today, a Zuiko 11-22mm f2.8/3.5. When I say new, it's used but in 'mint' condition. It'll give me the full frame camera equivalent of 22-44mm on my Olympus E30.
The widest lens I currently have is the equivalent of 35mm (on a full frame equivalent) as I'm geared up for mainly portrait photography. That's been a bit difficult this year, which reminds me I must get the studio lights out and power them up.
The 'new' lens will give a different perspective on landscapes so hopefully inspire me to blow the cobwebs off the cameras.
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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I love wide angle lens Kev.

Image

I used to have this one. Wonderful lens, it was rectilinear, if you took a pic of a brick wall square on, all the bricks were rectangular right out to the edge.

Image

Even when you were forced into non square angles it did a good job of minimising distortion. I paid £700 for it secondhand and sold it for £900 a few years later.
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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A serious bit of kit there. The four thirds digital format I use is no longer made (they went with micro four thirds to make the cameras smaller) so the lenses are getting harder to find. There are still a few 'new' examples left on the shelf but there are some really good used deals to be had. A 'new' one is the best part of a grand...
Screenshot_20201116-075250_eBay.jpg
I'm not paying that when I can get a 'mint' used one for £200 :-)
Should be here by Thursday, depends how busy Royal Mail are.
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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If you can find the latest version of the 13mm that went with the most modern cameras (Was it AIS version?) you are looking at over £20,000.
I hope the lens is all you want of it Kev. Once you get into those extremes they can vary. I have an old Nikkor 20MM that Roger Perry coveted, he said it was what he called 'a master lens', one that the lens grinders got very close to perfect. I can use it with my Nikon D200, it gives about the equivalent of 25MM but superb quality.
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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I certainly couldn't justify £20k for a lens :-)
The many reviews I've read about the 11-22 hopefully means it won't disappoint. It was made specifically for the four thirds format my Olympus cameras use, I do have an adapter, which enables me to use the older Olympus Zuiko OM fit lenses but this is really only practical for the longer focal lengths as the four thirds sensor effectively doubles the focal length. I have a 135mm f2.8 OM lens which gives me 270mm, it's OK but the fixed focal length doesn't make it really practical.
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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A knock from the postman, new toy has arrived.
Sits very nicely on the E30, best get out and play with it now.
20201117_112035.jpg
20201117_112131.jpg
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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Kev I'm not a camera buff but I read that Olympus cameras have sold their business to a private equity firm. Do you think this will affect the secondhand market?

Olylmpus.

There have been rumours circulating for a while but now it seems Olympus has sold its camera business to a private equity firm.

In the full statement, Olympus has said that the new company (NewCo) will ‘continue to offer high-quality, highly reliable products; and also continue to provide supports to the imaging solution products that have been
distributed by Olympus.’
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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Aye, I read that too. I don't think it'll have any impact on me, all the Olympus kit I have is now obsolete :-)

I went for Olympus digital cameras because of their lens quality. I had an Olympus OM2n and an OM10 as a backup in the 1980s, as with all 'film' cameras they all but disappeared. Olympus were heavily involved with the R&D of the four thirds system to build a DSLR. Sadly this went the same way as film...

I'll stick with the E30, and E520 as a backup, until they stop working and start using a phone to take pics :good:

Fortunately I didn't buy a Betamax video recorder despite being better technology than VHS :biggrin2:
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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Big Kev wrote: 17 Nov 2020, 13:48 Fortunately I didn't buy a Betamax video recorder despite being better technology than VHS
Yes Betamax was widely regarded as a better system but the technology race for superiority and share of the market didn't agree and VHS won the race. Both systems required a 270 degree orbital tape transport system. Betamax was simpler but quite brutal in the handling of the tape utilising only a single pick up post to wrap the tape around the helical scanning head. VHS on the other hand used two synchronised posts on either side of the scanning head to wrap the tape which led to longer tape life and less jams.

Sony were quite innovative at the time as they also developed the 3.5" floppy disk drive which did win out over the vastly superior 3" double sided Hitachi that was running alongside. The Sony 3.5" was cheaper to produce both the hardware and the media which is why it was adopted as standard on all PC's of the day.

Alan Sugar bought the rights out to the 3" Hitachi system and scooped up all redundant stock for his Amstrad PCW 8256 and 9512 Word-processing series of machines. They were based on a redundant processor running an obsolete version of CPM from floppy and associated Word-processing software. CMP versions of spreadsheet and database software soon followed. He bundled that with a cheap green screen mono display which also contained the CPU board and memory and an end of line separate custom produced dot matrix printer and flooded the market. You got a £50 discount off the retail price if you surrendered a manual typewriter in part exchange. This was built into the price and any brought in went straight to the tip. When the stock of 3" Hitachi drives ran out later models had the by then standard 3.5". I ran all the accounts and invoicing from one when I worked in the TV trade in Earby.

If you still have one of the variants they still fetch around £200-£250 on the collectors market.

Sorry for going off at a tangent but all in the spirit of obsolete technology.
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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I still have a VHS machine in the cupboard, no idea why :biggrin2:
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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And I still have one Betamax tape of a pilot I made with the BBC a long time ago......
Kev, George Graham told me he went on to Olympus from Leica because they were lighter and Olympus gave him a full set of cameras and lens as an advertisement.
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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Back on topic and here is question that I think I know the answer to but I'll ask anyway for advice.
I am thinking of shopping around for a reasonable second hand digital SLR.

I have an existing 35 - 200mm telephoto lens with a P/K mount which I used along with the stock lens on my Pentax P30 35mm SLR before the world went digital. My question is this, could I use this lens on a later generation digital SLR body? I know it's a bit of a daft question as it will depend firstly on the mount on the body and I suppose if a conversion collar was available.

Any advice from folk that have a bit more experience?
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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Hi Ian, it looks as though the Pentax SLR lenses are compatible with their DSLRs https://photo.stackexchange.com/questio ... 0Tv%20mode.

One thing to take into account is the APS-C sensor, used by the majority of DSLRs, is two thirds the size of full frame. This will extend the focal length of any 'full frame' lens you use on a DSLR by 1.5 which will give you 52-300mm with your 35-200.
Is the P30 manual focus?

Not sure exactly what you're looking for in the used market but there are some bargains to be had on Fleabay. As an example, this is a 10 year old model, with a kit lens, and a starting price of £80 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pentax-K-r-K ... 890.l49292
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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Thanks Kev, that's good to know and for the links.

Yes the P30 is manual focus. The 35mm/200mm lens is a Japanese Tokina AT-X model and I put a standard Sky Filter on to protect the business end.
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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I have a manual focus 135mm f2.8 Tamron lens, it has the Olympus OM mount and I have an adapter so it fits the Olympus digital four thirds. Because of the size of the four thirds chip, half full frame, I get a 270mm focal length and at f2 8 it can be useful. I probably only really use two of my lenses, a Sigma 18-50mm (which gives me a 35-100mm full frame equivalent) and the recently purchased Olympus 11-22mm (22-44mm eq). Hopefully I'll get a bit more use once we're all allowed out to play again.
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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I have several good Nikkor lens that fit my D200 but as Kev says, they all have the disadvantage of longer focal lengths and none of the auto features my fully auto DX 28 to 55 lens has. Consequence is that's the only one I use. I'm idle these days and all my pics are done with the Sureshot point and shoot.
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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I must confess to recently taking a lot of pics on my phone, this is mainly brought about by amateur photography not currently being a legitimate reason to be outdoors. A DSLR in your hand sort of gives the game away :biggrin2:
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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Yes, that's another thing that militates against the Nikon, you can't drop it into your pocket!
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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I bought one of these mini tripods recently to use with my Canon G11 for taking macro photos of my mineral specimens. Manfrotto It allows me to get the camera very close, above or alongside the specimen. The G11 is a compact but with a larger sensor and is very good for macro. I also bought the adapter for holding a smartphone - useful for video chats with family!

Here's a photo taken with the set up - click the image for a larger version, then click again to get even bigger. Lazulite and quartz crystals, Rapid Creek, Dawson Mining District, Yukon, Canada. Rare, dark-blue lazulite crystals (magnesium iron aluminium phosphate hydroxide) with clear, colourless quartz crystals on matrix. The specimen is 36mm wide. (Not to be confused with the more common lazurite which gives lapis lazuli its blue colour.)
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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Good stuff. I have a few tripods here, the most versatile is a 1980s Slik 88. It weighs a ton which is very useful if it's windy.
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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I almost bought one of those Gorilla pods until I saw the reviews where people had them collapse and drop their favourite camera on the ground from, e.g. off a wall! :smile:
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Re: Photography Nuts & Bolts

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Tizer wrote: 11 Feb 2021, 16:55 I almost bought one of those Gorilla pods until I saw the reviews where people had them collapse and drop their favourite camera on the ground from, e.g. off a wall! :smile:
I tried a Gorillapod, wasn't impressed. The idea of them is good but they aren't robust enough, a small beanbag is very versatile and easily fits in your pocket when out and about.
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