Barryboy
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 274
- Name
- Rob
- Edit My Images
- Yes
New member here.... Not new to photography, as such, having watched my first print appear through the developer about 48 years ago. From that moment I was absolutely hooked and it's an interest that has been with me all of my life. I am pretty new to digital, however, and it has taken quite a bit of soul-searching for me to make the change from traditional B&W to digital.
I've always been a B&W fan, having worked my way through a host of cameras from the Brownie 127 in the 60's, some cheap rangefinders such as Agfa and Ricoh, through cheaper SLR's such as Pentacon, Zenith and Cosina finally spending more money and going with Canon. In between I also toyed with medium format using a Mamiya 645 system which really gave me superb prints. In fact I still have a Mamiyaflex 6x6 in the bag here.
However a change of house (and loss of my permanent darkroom) and the difficulty of getting materials these days has decided me to make the change. I have donated all my darkroom equipment to the local school and boy, were they ever grateful for it! My camera (EOS600) and lenses have been traded away (for about a quarter of what they were really worth!!!) and I bought a used Olympus Camedia 2.1mp camera to start with. This little camera gives cracking results when printed up to 7x5 or thereabouts but it's limitations are obvious in A4 prints. So I upgraded that one to a Canon A640 Powershot which was stolen in Barcelona last month and I will have to replace that one soon - what with, I don't know yet but would welcome some advice.
I have also bought a Nikon D70S with AF-S 18-70 f3.5 ED DX lens. I had to pay a little extra for the lens as this is supposed to an upgrade from the 'kit' lens and I'd be grateful for some feedback on that point - was I mugged? I have recently got a 100-300 Sigma zoom as I'd like to do some motorsport and aviation shots. I am also interested in macro work through my one of my other hobbies of wristwatches and have bought an elderly Micro-Nikkor 55mm lens to use in manual mode - yet to be used in anger, I'm afraid.... Other hobbies include riding my Honda Blackbird and rrinking far too much beer, so you can see why my wife thinks I'm a recycled teenager! As landscapes were always a favourite of mine I will probably end up getting a wider lens at some stage, because as I understand it the 18mm end of my zoom lens gives a 35mm equivalent of about 28mm. Plenty of time for that, though, as such wide lenses ain't cheap!
I use Photoshop C2 for preparing my prints. To be honest I'm only scratching the surface of this massive program so to upgrade would be a waste of money. In hindsight I wish I had bought an early version of Elements and now upgraded to Elements Version 7 but that's the way it goes, eh? My printer is a Canon something-or-other which seems fine now I have fitted a C.S.S. although one day I would like to upgrade to an A3 printer. Again, plenty of time for that.....
So that's me. I am hoping to gain a lot of tips from this forum and will be no doubt be posting up some questions looking for help. So please bear with me if they seem a bit inane or basic...
Stay lucky!
Rob
I've always been a B&W fan, having worked my way through a host of cameras from the Brownie 127 in the 60's, some cheap rangefinders such as Agfa and Ricoh, through cheaper SLR's such as Pentacon, Zenith and Cosina finally spending more money and going with Canon. In between I also toyed with medium format using a Mamiya 645 system which really gave me superb prints. In fact I still have a Mamiyaflex 6x6 in the bag here.
However a change of house (and loss of my permanent darkroom) and the difficulty of getting materials these days has decided me to make the change. I have donated all my darkroom equipment to the local school and boy, were they ever grateful for it! My camera (EOS600) and lenses have been traded away (for about a quarter of what they were really worth!!!) and I bought a used Olympus Camedia 2.1mp camera to start with. This little camera gives cracking results when printed up to 7x5 or thereabouts but it's limitations are obvious in A4 prints. So I upgraded that one to a Canon A640 Powershot which was stolen in Barcelona last month and I will have to replace that one soon - what with, I don't know yet but would welcome some advice.
I have also bought a Nikon D70S with AF-S 18-70 f3.5 ED DX lens. I had to pay a little extra for the lens as this is supposed to an upgrade from the 'kit' lens and I'd be grateful for some feedback on that point - was I mugged? I have recently got a 100-300 Sigma zoom as I'd like to do some motorsport and aviation shots. I am also interested in macro work through my one of my other hobbies of wristwatches and have bought an elderly Micro-Nikkor 55mm lens to use in manual mode - yet to be used in anger, I'm afraid.... Other hobbies include riding my Honda Blackbird and rrinking far too much beer, so you can see why my wife thinks I'm a recycled teenager! As landscapes were always a favourite of mine I will probably end up getting a wider lens at some stage, because as I understand it the 18mm end of my zoom lens gives a 35mm equivalent of about 28mm. Plenty of time for that, though, as such wide lenses ain't cheap!
I use Photoshop C2 for preparing my prints. To be honest I'm only scratching the surface of this massive program so to upgrade would be a waste of money. In hindsight I wish I had bought an early version of Elements and now upgraded to Elements Version 7 but that's the way it goes, eh? My printer is a Canon something-or-other which seems fine now I have fitted a C.S.S. although one day I would like to upgrade to an A3 printer. Again, plenty of time for that.....
So that's me. I am hoping to gain a lot of tips from this forum and will be no doubt be posting up some questions looking for help. So please bear with me if they seem a bit inane or basic...
Stay lucky!
Rob
Last edited:
Welcome to the forums. I am not a Nikon user so can't help you with the upgraded kit lens issue. You might find more responses to that if you make a thread in 
