Regarding Photography Gear

So , regarding photog stuff – have you noticed how the word ‘so’ is over used to start a sentence ?

Start again-

Regarding photog stuff. when I started doing my photography back in the dark ages, I used to have a hand held lightmeter reading which then had to be manually entered into the camera . I used manual stop down lenses , mostly fixed focal length lenses. Black and white film with grain like canon balls at iso 400. Imagine my excitement when I had a camera with through the lens metering, then lenses which automatically stopped down. Then zoom lenses.

In the processing area I used to develop my negatives and then print using an enlarger, all black and white. PanF, FP4 , HP4 etc. My late Dad who passed away just recently was a really good photographer and he taught me a lot. He had a go at developing and printing colour . He spent all one sunny Saturday morning in a very dark room with a little dim green light. He finally came out with a print the size of a postcard which we reconned was a bit on the green side. So colour was not an option.

Then came the digital revolution . It’s unbelievable what cameras can do now. However you still need to pay attention to things to get good shots. I know that the pictures that mobile phones can take now are extremely good but I still like to control what I do with an SLR (just a nerd but I enjoy it). Anyway, so then I go mad and buy a mirrorless camera , wow. It took me a little while to get used to it but I’m very impressed. It allows me to go full frame without the extra weight . I really like my DX but there is something extra when I use the full size sensor.

Now I’m using mirrorless but I’ve kept my dx . I can get 450 mm with my DX using my 70-300 lens . This a very cheap way of getting a long focal length lens rather than the telephone nos. you have to pay. I think I might take both my DX and mirrorless to Africa next year. Maybe my wife might like to have a go with one of them. Dunno.

Today I need to walk round the field but it’s raining at the moment, so I will wait a while. (Correct use of the word so)

Phone camera

I just bought a flash cos the z6 ii doesn’t have built in one. I bought a second hand nikon sb400 speedlight . It seems to work well. I did a little test and you can bounce the flash off the ceiling and , yes good I would say.

I am going to do some tests. I want to know if having the 70-300 lens on my dx is really much of an advantage compared to using the Z6 full frame and the 70-300. The dx will give me the 450 mm focal length but a smaller sensor so if I compare an enlaged image from the z6 with the dx . How does that compare re. quality of image and resolution.

I finally got round to doing my test . I have compared nikon dx 7500 70-300 with nikon full frame z6 70-300 and keeping the iso , apature and speed the same . I took a series of shots then I cropped the z6 results to be the same size as the the dx version . So that the pictures in size are identical – i.e. the image content is the same.  In terms of quality and resolution I  can’t tell the difference. If anything the z6 images are slightly better. So do I just sell all my dx gear – not sure . But there seems little advantage in using the 70-300 on the dx to get 450 mm zoom when I can post process the z6 images and get the same result. However keeping the d7500 for it’s own sake makes more sense because it is a great camera . Dunno !

OK. Didn’t particularly like the results from the af-s 70-300 so I have bought a second hand af-s 80-400 g after considering the z 100-400 but it’s just too expensive. However first tests are looking good . It’s obviously much heavier than my 70-300 but about the same weight as the z 100-400. It goes very well with my monopod and results look very good. So it could be just what I need. Then back to the decision regarding my dx gear. Do I flog it all etc. Not sure again !

After going out and using my z6 with the 24-200 and getting excellent results even on a dull day I am now convinced z6_2 , 24-50, 24-200, 80-400. Flog my dx gear. That’s it ! Just waiting for the weather to cheer up a bit and I can take some pictures .