jmi
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Post by jmi on Nov 19, 2006 7:54:06 GMT -5
As many of you know I'm also an astronomer but got started as an amateur so it remains a hobby/other interest too... Thought I might share this one with you: This is a 17/24 inch Schmidt camera at the Institute of Astronomy. Made by Grubb Parsons in 1953. To put the size in perspective the mount extends into the lower floor of this 2-storey building, and the tube you see is about 3m long... Been disused for the last 15 years or so, but I intend to play with it a bit more in the near future. I have already successfully exposed some photographic paper in it, waiting for a reasonably good free night at the weekend to run some film. I also took up playing bass guitar, but not very well yet
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jmi
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Posts: 60
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Post by jmi on Feb 21, 2008 21:31:45 GMT -5
For me it's definitely wide too, very close to 100% of my shots these days are with 50mm or wider (on 135), with the notable exception of tightly cropped portraits where I usually have the 180mm on the 6x7. The longest lens I have ever owned is my FD 100mm macro, and it doesn't get used very often! However last time I went on a photo-walk with the local flickr group, nearly everybody was shooting long lenses - I get the impression that a lot of the dSLR crowd use mostly the "tele" focal lengths. The notable exceptions were one guy with an M6 and a 40mm, and me with my 21mm on the M3 (I should note that we did a bit of shooting around the market, etc. and I got noticed/hassled far less standing right in people's faces with the 21 than the others did with the honkin' white Canon L glass standing half a mile away, although I'll admit the "up close and personal" approach requires considerably more nerve)
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jmi
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Posts: 60
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Post by jmi on May 13, 2007 16:16:07 GMT -5
I have to agree, my 50/1.8 AI is my most used (and of course cheapest) Nikon lens by a very large margin. I often carry just the 50 with a 12mm extension tube in a pocket - great for the sort of close shooting I like to do a lot of.
As Bob says, these make a great combo with the FM2n in my case. I always use lens hoods (waaay to clumsy with fingers and front elements otherwise - plus no nasty fiddly lens caps required) so it's not quite a pancake, but the portability of this setup takes some beating. It's even easier to carry than the Leica.
Ron - I too wonder about those reviews claiming the 1.8 is better than the 1.4. My suspicion has always been that it's splitting hairs to tell the difference between the two, except for distortion - as I understand it the 1.4 has barrel distortion (by necessity in the fast lens design AFAIK). It follows that the reviewers were probably testing by shooting pictures of brick walls or something!
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jmi
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Posts: 60
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Post by jmi on Apr 16, 2007 14:03:27 GMT -5
Don't Campkins still have a shop on Rose Crescent? They had a used camera dept up the stairs. I used to browse around their shops but I thought that they were a bit expensive. We visited the American Cemetery many years ago; a very moving place. They do indeed, the used department is still on the 1st floor. They are somewhat expensive, although that used department also sell on ebay. The company in fact owns three separate premises - Rose Crescent, Kings Parade and Clifton Road. Ron - I always consider the town and university to be one and the same, but that's certainly not traditionally the case - "town" vs "gown". Of course this opinion is probably because I straddle the gap being both a local and a graduate of the university. thanks btw! Grain - your eyes are good This scanner has rather a lot of it compared to my older flatbed. Not sure I like the way it scans B+W. Didn't cost much so maybe I got what I paid for.... OTOH I like a bit of grain.
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jmi
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Posts: 60
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Post by jmi on Apr 12, 2007 13:55:02 GMT -5
Oh yes, regarding the colleges - I wouldn't exactly call the college porters a security service, but it is true that monitoring the cameras is now one of their responsibilities. The University also has a security division which is responsible for security at the departments and some of the colleges.
The site where I work has a lot of cameras and alarm systems, etc which were installed after we had a bunch of very expensive computer equipment stolen. They were clearly professional computer thieves because they knew exactly what they wanted and which bits to take.
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jmi
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Posts: 60
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Post by jmi on Apr 12, 2007 13:50:49 GMT -5
Back from work now... thank you kindly for all your comments!
Randy and Wayne - yes indeed - video cameras everywhere over here. Kinda worries me occasionally that I can't go anywhere without being watched any more. As you may have noticed London has a particularly large amount of the things.
Regarding the camera store - it was probably Campkins Camera Exchange on King's parade. It still exists, but it's now in the roof of KP professional on Clifton Road (it's the same company - KP stands for King's Parade) a bit of a way out. IIRC the owner said they couldn't afford to keep the original premises. They do indeed have a great collection of kit there, I occasionally go and drool. Unfortunately they are quite expensive especially compared to the unmentionable online auction site so I don't think they do anywhere near as much business nowadays.
I've not been to the American cemetary in years, which is silly really given that I work at the Institute of Astronomy out on Madingley Road...
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jmi
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Posts: 60
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Post by jmi on Apr 11, 2007 14:40:20 GMT -5
Well, it's where I live for the moment at least. I'll be moving to... Cambridge MA in the autumn A few while walking round on Saturday. I was trying (not entirely succeeding perhaps) to work to the theme of "alternative Cambridge" to try to show it a bit more from my perspective as a local: But I couldn't resist this: Taken with my beloved Leica M3 that has featured on this board before, first two were the 21/4 CV with a yellow filter and the rest the 50/2 cron. Tri-X. Criticism most welcome. EDIT - sorry about the harshness, just noticed flickr seems to have gone berserk with the USM on these. Still getting used to the right numbers for the new scanner it seems.
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jmi
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Posts: 60
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Bales
Sept 2, 2006 15:30:29 GMT -5
Post by jmi on Sept 2, 2006 15:30:29 GMT -5
Thanks both of you!
It is indeed just good light, no filters at all, taken at about 9am. I was on my bike whizzing past and just had to stop. They are in direct sun which looks to have put everything important within the (fairly wide) latitude of the film.
I really must make use of a whole field full near my house (with tripod this time), just waiting for the right light.
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jmi
Senior Member
Posts: 60
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Bales
Sept 2, 2006 8:14:51 GMT -5
Post by jmi on Sept 2, 2006 8:14:51 GMT -5
A pretty typical sight of this season round here: Olympus OM2n, Zuiko 50mm f/1.4, Fuji Sensia 100 About this time last year. Only just got a scanner that does a halfway acceptable job on slides.
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jmi
Senior Member
Posts: 60
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Post by jmi on May 28, 2007 2:20:07 GMT -5
I think we have a few XA fans on this board The one that really interests me right now is the XA4, I quite like 28mm. They seem to be a little hard to find though.
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jmi
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Posts: 60
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Post by jmi on May 26, 2007 6:51:14 GMT -5
I've been in a funny mood recently I have to travel by air a lot for work, before I started doing so I used to like going away, now I really don't. But that's always the way. The station is Paddington, like most of the London stations it's a beatiful Victorian building. I can thoroughly recommend the XA, these are fantastic little cameras. Mine was quite cheap on the auction site, just had to do the light seals. A lot of people seem to complain about the vignetting at 2.8 and 4, I quite like it for effect. The lens is not very sharp at f/2.8 though - apparently the Stylus Epic is a lot better in this regard, but didn't fit the bill for me otherwise - auto focus, auto flash and no control over the exposure, no thanks.
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jmi
Senior Member
Posts: 60
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Post by jmi on May 26, 2007 5:42:00 GMT -5
It's a boring Saturday morning, OK Favourite mode of transport: Quite like this one too: Hate this one: 3 hour delays in both directions. Gotta love air travel. All from the same roll of Fuji Pro 400H through my XA. Thank you for humouring me
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jmi
Senior Member
Posts: 60
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Post by jmi on May 3, 2007 13:40:34 GMT -5
Yep, certainly can recommend Jon Goodman, nice guy too. I've done the seals on a few cams now, Olympus XA was the hardest, and my Mamiya C220 the easiest, but even the XA wasn't difficult, just a bit time consuming. And gunky.
Bear in mind I'm a programmer really so have no mechanical skills whatsoever...
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jmi
Senior Member
Posts: 60
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Post by jmi on Mar 9, 2008 17:28:35 GMT -5
Good point, I always find dSLR viewfinders to be like looking down a tiny tunnel at the best of times! They do try to compensate by upping the magnification, but at 0.92x it's only the equivalent of the older Canikon budget models with their 0.7 something if I did the maths right. As for me I think I'm spoiled by the beautiful finders I have used most extensively - OM2, FM2n, M3, 'blad, RB67 An M8 with a full frame sensor (say the Canon 5D one) and built-in IS, that might even get me to part with the $5k they want for it! *drool* Just think of what that could do with a Noctilux on it... (and the huge hole in the bank balance)
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jmi
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Posts: 60
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Post by jmi on Mar 9, 2008 9:14:41 GMT -5
Gene - you make a good point with the 4/3 sensor size. I see the argument that 4/3 can't be any good because the sensor is smaller all the time on various web sites! Really the main difference is in aspect ratio, and I prefer the "squarer" formats anyway, 135 and APS-C are too "skinny" for my tastes - 4/3 should be about right being the same aspect ratio as 6x4.5 medium format. The 4x5 / 8x10 / 6x7 format is also quite nice but maybe a bit too close to square. Here's to hoping they complement this normal prime with some wide primes - I'm sure I am not alone in wishing more for those than the normal lens A fast 12 or 14 would be great on this system for a bit of street shooting, etc. Regarding the in-body stabilisation, I expect they left it out in order for people to have a reason to buy the more expensive models! I've never used it so have no idea how effective it is on short lenses anyway - although if it does as claimed, maybe it'd be enough to redress the problems with the SLR mirror slap and get me back down to the speeds I can do on my M3. Recent experience with the Mamiya RB67 has led me to believe that a lot of the mirror slap problems with dSLR bodies are at least in part due to this crazy trend for very high frame rates - the RB has a governor on the mirror and the motion is fairly slow compared to most 135 SLRs. That and the size/weight aspect seem to make it far more handholdable than it has any right to be! I can handhold this much slower than any of my 35mm SLR bodies and still get acceptable results.
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