The Nikon f4 with Kodak Ektar. I am really liking this combo.

Cape Cod

So I was wrong the F4 did take a few good pictures. This is Provincetown right at the tip of the cape. This is the Ken Rockwell digital camera and F4 scanned at the 1 hour photo shop.

Cape Cod

I dragged my F4 and an assortment of lenses along for a weekend on the Cape. My wife and I went to Provincetown and I shouldered the F4 with a 35-70 F2.8 AF. I thought the perfect walk around set up however I couldn't get it to focus so I lugged a big paperweight around. later after we were back at the car I dragged out my D5000 and kit lens and banged off a few shots at Marconi Beach

Manual Focus

Threw the 20mm F3.5 AI on the D5000 and dragged it along to work today. I had a chance to stop at a park in Easthampton Ma. These were manual focused and the exposure was a guesstimate. I didn't even check the histogram it was a run and gun. I think they came out great nice color and sharp.

HOF

Morning like this is why photography is a great hobby. Get outside and play with the cameras, it doesn't get any better that this.

Morning at the Basketball Hall of Fame

The city of Springfield Ma had these 6 foot fiberglass sneakers decorated by local artists. They were displayed around the city in conjunction with the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. It was a beautiful late summer morning so I headed up to the HOF. I brought along my Nikon D5000 and a Nikon F4 with 3 lenses. These pics are all from the D5000. I was struck the huge difference in the apparent size of the image in the viewfinders. When you go from the F4 to the D5000 it looks like you are composing on a postage stamp. That being said I am having a tough time focusing my 28mm F3.5 AI manually. I have tried it on the F3 and the F4 without much luck. It looks like these old eyes are going to have to go auto focus full time. These pictures are right out of the camera no crop no manipulation I downloaded and posted them. That is the beauty of digital the sense of immediacy.

I dropped the old Vivitar Series 1 28 -90 zoom on the D5000. It was very old school. I metered manually with with my Gossen Luna Pro. I focused manually and took several shots of the bleeding hearts in my backyard. Several were out of focus as it is not easy to manually focus on a D5000. This is a crop of the best shot. As I don't have a macro lens I used cropping to pull me in tighter.

This is an older photo done with my D70. It was taken at dusk on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. They have extensive flower gardens on the Canadian side. The light levels were getting low. I used the 18-70 kit lens. That was a very good lens its biggest problem was a tendency to vignette wide open.

I took out the Nikon f4 for a test drive yesterday. This is an amazing picture taking machine. It is a big bulky massive camera. Operating it is very similar to older mechanical cameras, you have to set the aperture on the lens there is a shutter speed dial. I set in aperture priority and almost forgot to check the shutter speed before taking a picture. I used aperture priority for years and I was most comfortable with that mode yet I have been using full program with digital. They big full bright viewfinder is always great to work with. Now we have to wait until I get the film processed to see what I captured. There is always a revelation when you spread it out on the light box. We will have to wait and see.

30mm Sigma

I am sending the lens back. I tried some more shots and nothing was in focus. The picture of Gypsy must have been a lucky mis focus.

Gypsy

Just a quick grab shot to make sure the Sigma works. I was using it wide open to check the depth of field. I am impressed, sharpness is not an issue color and clarity look good the shallow depth of field is another tool in the arsenal. Using a fast standard lens is much different than using a slow zoom. You have to move your feet more and try out different compositions rather than stand in one place and fiddle with the zoom. Moving your feet changes the spatial relationship between objects, it changes the perspective.

This is Gyspy my dog model. She and her predecessor are my models when I am trying out a new toy. They work cheap.