flashlights, camera with flash, seems somehow connected :bigsmile:
With you there! These days I'm not prepared to lug around my own body weight - in the 80's I used to wander round Edinburgh with a 5x4" Sinar F, a dozen or so double darkslides and the two tripods the beast needed. The shots were mostly rubbish, but the tonal gradation was awesome! But these days carrying a 50+ kilo (110+lbs) mound of kit just isn't happening.
But with those monster negatives prints of up to about five acres were a possibility. ;)
Pity phone cameras are almost invariably awful since just about everyone seems to use one of those for everything.
35mm is full frame. People who shoot digital have to pay a premium to match that sensor size.
The 50mm lens is at a good range too— mot too telephoto that neglects the dramatic effect, and not too wide that limits framing choice.
I just started using Flickr again since they give a terabyte of storage free instead of just 200 pics or whatever it was.
+1 with you on that, Don. My days of walking around with about 20 kilos on my back are over. Mind you, I love the long, fast lenses. Like this one I used to own here:
Beautiful lens, excellent images. Got it 2nd hand at a good price, but sold it off after about a year. Just to cumbersome and heavy for an old codger like me 
Actually, looking at all the images I ever took; the ones I like most were taken with a really simple set-up, usually with a wide-angle or short tele lens.
As for cellphones, I hardly ever use mine for taking photographs. The pixel quality is just not there (yet).
When dSLRs started becoming mainstream the prices of older used manual focus lenses plummetted as everybody thought they wanted the new AF-everything to go with the new super-whizzy bodies.
As a result I was able to pick up some incredible value older high quality glass from previous generations, for utterly peanuts. Glass that still shoots as good as it always did, and when it gets down to it, the image is what counts and the lens immensely affects that.
I love AF, though, but being a tightwad I cannot find the motivation to rook myself purchasing an AF lens with bits that will go wrong and wear out much faster than a simple MF lens. I do have a couple of them, but just enough to cover the ranges I need if I’m going out to shoot something that might actually need AF or I simply can’t be bothered with MF that day 
Now, the prices of all those good old MF lenses have rocketed (although you can still find several bargains) as more people have bought dSLRs and and balked at the cost of digital glass, so looked at the alternatives. If I were to sell them, I’d clean up, but it’ll be a cold, dead day when they’re prised from my hands.
It’s the circle of life! I think I need more lights to take photos of. Then more camera gear to take better photos!
That bird shot was taken with a 50D and a 300mm F4 L IS. I actually have not tried any of the 400mm in real outdoor situations, but im not that into large tele-lenses.
I could not justify having the 300mm, used it too little. It was also slow focusing with extender.
70-200 F 2,8 L IS was great, but too heavy for general use. I just settled for the 70-200 F4 L IS.
…
Sometimes you have to tried more to better appreciate less. Enjoy your 60D, its a superb all-round camera!
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I’m looking at the 100-400L or the relatively recent 70-300L, leaning towards the 300. I need the versatility if I’m going to pay that much for a lens.
I agree, I do not want to carry around any of the large primes, especially for the price.
70-200 F2.8L IS has one primary purpose in my mind; sports (including auto racing) photography. There are secondary uses it does well, but if you are not into sports shooting this lens is overkill, go for the F4 version.
I was considering the 7D, but the body price was almost double, and for my use I could not justify that added cost. Definitely worth it though if the added performance and functionality are needed.
I got a DSLR just couple months ago, still learning to make decent photos :s
So, do y’all think it’d be ok to spotlight my daughter during graduation with my new S2200 in order to get better pictures with my 5DMkII/200mm f/2.8L IS?
Or would that be frowned upon?
Use Nikon SB-900 instead, I heard it’s lumen output and CRI are way higher 
you hit hte nail on the head
i find this for many things, even flashlights
Oops, looks like my post messed up the quote, it was from Racer86 I believe.
Ah, the the olde FM2 and FE2. Have both sitting in my closet now from my former life as a photographer. I have sold off all my medium format stuff. Well, almost all of it. Still have a Mamiya twin lens setup.
Anyway, one thing you need to do is have the gray foam rubber replaced, sorry to say. AND you should have the lenses and shutters gone over and adusted, especially the aperture lens blades as one poster mentioned.
Problem is that the gray foam falls apart and degrades into this mucky sticky yuck and starts to flake off into little pieces that will stick to your film and just make an ungodly mess. Never understood why camera companies never seemed to find anything better than that gray foam for light trapping. The shutters and lenses are also an issue because they get out of whack and that focal-plane shutter sticking can rip itself to shreds. So, depending on where you are, please take it to a reputable tech and have him go over it, especially since it is a manual shutter that does need to be adjusted.
FM2 and FE2 were groundbreakers in that they were the first focal planes to allow photogs to flash synch outside at 1/250th second for flash fill, the pro photog’s friend, and the reason many of us were forced to lug around the hassle of a Hasselblad, whose leaf shutters allowed high-speed synch. The FM2 will also operate without a battery (as another poster opined) but ONLY at 1/250th second SS.
Kodak is in bankruptcy and although you can still buy the film for now, it will be made by a receiving company, although still bear the kodak name, at least that’s what I read several weeks ago.
If I never have to shoot film again, it will be too soon, although it does have its retro adherents and a hard-to-copy quality.
Good luck on your new purchase! Hope you post some of your new FM2 pix here, hopefully lit by flashlights!
Really nice photos! The site was a bit slow but I still enjoyed watching them all. :)
That was probably the one I most regretted selling. It was a very, very battered C3 and a couple of lenses. The Sinar gear - well my back sang hymns of joy the day I got rid of that! Especially the tripods that could have been used to jack up tanks.
I didn't miss the RB67 or the assorted Hassleblads (And yes, I do know how to spell it. I've never come across a device that annoyed me so much) I'd had - but I still miss that C3 twenty-five years later. Like my Nikons, it had a very, very hard life. It spent a couple of years in a desert in the 80's. Got dropped, got shot at, and in general had an exciting life. But never missed a beat as long as you didn't actually want the shutter to close on "B". Which is why lenscaps were invented.
I do believe that the FM2’s mechanical shutter operated at all shutter speeds without a battery. The battery only powered the light meter.
My F3, however, would only operate at 1/60 sec (back-up mechanical speed) without batteries.
Nice, I love old camera gear but my wallet hates it! :bigsmile:
My father in-law gifted me his old canon T-80 lately, this body is a PITA but the lens it comes with is really nice.
A FD 50 f1.4 latest model, both items are in mint condition (plus a simple Canon flash).
Now I need to find myself a decent body which uses the Canon FD mount.
The best camera is the one you have with you at the time.
And to quote Ansell Adams, “The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!”
Another I like, don’t know who it was, “After a fine meal, would you compliment the chef on his fine pots and pans?”
Far too much emphasis is put on photographic equipment, rather than the photography. But what would I know? I have a Sony DSLR!
It is nice to have some decent gear, though.
Saying that, the best street pic I ever saw was taken on the fly by an off-duty (as far as you can say that) photojournalist from a regional newspaper, who happened to be walking along a city street when a thug was being chased down by two plain-clothed cops.
Said thug pulled out a slasher knife and launched himself at the cops, who threw him to the floor and kicked the sheet out of him (this was thirty years ago, when that was acceptable). The moments were captured on film, on a humble Rollei 35S pocket cam the PJ always carried.
Of course the sheet-kicking wasn’t shown, but the mid-air knife attack was, and won a Press award that year.