I finally got around to developing the film that I shot with the Nikon F100. The place where I got it developed also gave me a CD of all the developed pictures, which is pretty cool. It's almost like shooting digital.
The thing that I love about the F100 is that my lenses give true focal length as opposed to the D200, which has a small sensor resulting in a 1.5x crop factor. In other words, when I mount a 50mm lens on the F100, it appears as 50mm, while on the D200, the same lens appears as 75mm (50x1.5 crop factor).
This makes ultra-wide angle shooting a bit of a problem on the D200. Take for example the Sigma 12-24mm lens that I own. On the D200, it appears as 18-36mm. That's pretty wide...but when I mount the same lens on the F100, it is actually 12-24mm!!. That super wide.
The crop factor problem has now been solved by Nikon with the newer "FX" format cameras (D3 and D700 are the only 2 cameras from Nikon that currently have a FX sensor). I will eventually upgrade to these camera bodies but not just yet - as the D200 that I own is good enough for the time being.
This picture of the Sharq marina was taken with the Sigma at it's widest focal length of 12mm. It is so wide, that the entire marina can be captured on film. Of course, there is serious perspective distortion but that expected when shooting at such wide focal range.
I was not happy with the colors but I believe that has more to do with the film selection than with the camera itself. I am looking to see if I can get hold of some pro-grade film to do more experiments with film.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Reflections
I was trying to figure out a way to shoot still objects with some nice reflections. Not 100% reflections using a mirror - just a hint of the object's reflection.
The solution that I came up with is pretty simple (and cheap).
1. Take a kitchen cutting board (I used a white plastic one, but I guess any board will do; even some hard cardboard should be fine)
2. Tape some white A4 paper over it.
3. Wrap it in some plastic; preferably the self-adhesive plastic roll that you find in the bookstores to wrap school books.
The plastic over the white A4 paper gives a nice shiny reflections to your objects.
To take this picture, I placed my DIY reflective board inside a lightbox and had some fun taking pictures of various objects that I found around the house.
The solution that I came up with is pretty simple (and cheap).
1. Take a kitchen cutting board (I used a white plastic one, but I guess any board will do; even some hard cardboard should be fine)
2. Tape some white A4 paper over it.
3. Wrap it in some plastic; preferably the self-adhesive plastic roll that you find in the bookstores to wrap school books.
The plastic over the white A4 paper gives a nice shiny reflections to your objects.
To take this picture, I placed my DIY reflective board inside a lightbox and had some fun taking pictures of various objects that I found around the house.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Going back to basics with the Nikon F100.
I thought I'll try a little bit of film photography. Back in the good old days (before switching to digital), I used to own Minolta Dynax 300si. It took some pretty good pictures but lacked the functionality that I have now become accustomed to.
I've always had my eye on the Nikon FM2 (a fully manual camera) and this one, the Nikon F100. After I recently signed up for Paypal & eBay, I thought I'll give it a try to see if I could pick up one at a decent price.
I initially started bidding on a FM2 but quickly discovered that I can get a F100 for almost the same price. I located some mint-condition F100's and started bidding. This was my first experience in eBay bidding and I finally won this item for $274, which is a pretty decent deal.
The item was quickly shipped to my US mailing address and I finally received it 2 days back. The camera itself is in excellent condition and looks almost new. Handling wise, it feels exactly like my D200 and I am looking forward to trying out my Nikkor lens collection on this bad boy. The great thing is that because this is a SLR camera, I do not have to worry about crop factors. The ultra-wide Sigma 12-24 that I have will actually be really ultra-wide. It should be fun trying it out.
I've always had my eye on the Nikon FM2 (a fully manual camera) and this one, the Nikon F100. After I recently signed up for Paypal & eBay, I thought I'll give it a try to see if I could pick up one at a decent price.
I initially started bidding on a FM2 but quickly discovered that I can get a F100 for almost the same price. I located some mint-condition F100's and started bidding. This was my first experience in eBay bidding and I finally won this item for $274, which is a pretty decent deal.
The item was quickly shipped to my US mailing address and I finally received it 2 days back. The camera itself is in excellent condition and looks almost new. Handling wise, it feels exactly like my D200 and I am looking forward to trying out my Nikkor lens collection on this bad boy. The great thing is that because this is a SLR camera, I do not have to worry about crop factors. The ultra-wide Sigma 12-24 that I have will actually be really ultra-wide. It should be fun trying it out.
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