2000 page views on my flickr album!

Yes, around 1700 CET my flickr album went trough the 2000 page views. Now if only more people left a comment....

sinterklaas_klein

sinterklaas_klein
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

It's the time of the year again! Foreigners have a look at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

Nikon lens compatibility

There's a lot of confusion in forums on this subject. I thought perhaps it would be useful to write something about it. People seem to think that they need a DX lens or that only older lenses with a D on it will work with their new D50/D70/D80

Here's the deal:

Any Autofocus lens will work on your digital body!
There's a few sigma lenses that can cause problems under some conditions, Sigma is aware and fixes the problems. There's also lenses made for the pronea serie, labeled as IX. These turn up at very attractive prices on the second hand market but cannot be used on your Nikon dSLR.


Manual focus lenses will work as long as they're Ai.
Non ai lenses can be converted, see http://www.aiconversions.com/ for information. Mounting an unconverted lens can seriously damage your camera.
However, on anything but the D1, D2 and D200 these will not meter. What does that mean to you? It means you're own your own to get your images properly exposed. You can use a hand-held light meter, you can simply guesstimate and use your histogram but you're own your own!

What AI lenses to avoid?
According to my D50 manual the following lenses should be avoided because they can damage your camera.
Some fisheyes: 6mm f/5.6, 8mm f/8, OP 10mm f5.6
21mm f/4
ED 180-600mm f/8 (serials 174041-174180)
ED 360-1200mm f.11 (serials 174031-174127)
200-600mm f/9.5
Anything made for the F3AF
PC 28mm f/4 (serials below 180900)
PC 35 mm f/3.5
1000mm f.6.3
1000mm f/11 (serials 142361-143000)
2000mm f/11 (serials 200111-200310)

As you can see a lot of rather exotic lenses on this list. If you have a Thom Hogan ebook (which I can recommend, there's also a table in there of what works and what doesn't. If you're happy enough to own a D200 have a look at http://www.nikonians.org/nikon/d200_and_non-cpu_lenses/index.html

Rocks Rock

Rocks Rock
Originally uploaded by Dan Harrod.

Not often you'll see me blog somebody else's photo but with this I just had to. Not only a very good composition but also an excellent B&W conversion.

Available light

DSC_0691b_small
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

Is sometimes not much like yesterday at 13.00 when I shot this.

Finally some time for a walk with the family and the weather's like this. Shot about 60 frames and this was the only decent one. I like it, reminds me a bit of the Lord of the Rings films.

Does gear matter?

I like to think it doesns't matter as much as skill. I got into a heated discussion over on the dpreview forums over it. A wife was asking the group if a D80 +28-80 +70-300 would make a nice Christmas present for her husband. Now the crop factor makes a 28-80 loose some wide angle but otherwise it isn't a bad lens. A bunch of the lens snobs felt otherwise. Yes, a 18-70 would be nicer but come on, you can still take very good pics with this kit. I got both lenses, the 28-80 is a nice portrait zoom and the 70-300 is nice if you got enough light.

Wanted list

Now, what would you buy if you could spend a bundle on Nikon gear? Here's what I'd buy if I won the lottery. :-)

D200
MB-D200 grip
18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor
50mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor
60mm f/2.8D AF Micro-Nikkor
85mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor
180mm f/2.8D ED-IF AF Nikkor
80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED VR AF Zoom-Nikkor
An SB-800 or two.
A nice case to put it all in.

Partial donations are of course very welcome.

But seriously, these are nice toys but as long as my son can still shoot this with a cheap-ass 20 year old 35-70, it's not needed to take great photos.