hjoseph7

Sorry about the harshness, maybe one Marguerita too many. Here is an example(not very good) of what street photography actually is: https://jamesmaherphotography.com/street_photography/what-is-street-photography/ You can also read photo books on "Henri Cartier-Bresson" one of the greatest of street photographers.

I think some of you people need to pick up a book about "Street Photography" is instead of posting these meaning less "snap-shots" that a 2 year old can take. Street Photography is about the esiest photographic genre, but it does require you to use your brain for christ sakes.

It looks like they are heading Online like many magazines seem to be doing these days, but you can still get the printed version. I started getting 2-3 emails from them every day, so I had to unubscribe from their Newsletter ...

The good thing about all of this, is that while everybody is chasing the latest doo-dads, the previous top-of the line camera prices go down and you can get them used on eBay, or at any retailer that sells used goods. You can partially blame the "Professional Reviewer" industry, yes I call it an industry because these guys get paid to review products. They usually have a list of features in mind like "4K" and if the camera being reviewed doesn't have it, it is labeled a dud, or obsolete. Another reason is stiff competition between camera brands. They all try to out do each other with features that the other guy doesn't have. This has always been the case even with film cameras. On the other hand, if it wasn't for competition between camera brands, cameras would remain the same and we would still be using camera's with 6MP. As far as the greatest and latest feature, you got to ask yourself "Is this going to improve my photography in any way ?". If your photography is just a Hobby then you are probably going to enjoy those new features by yourself. If you get paid for your photography the client is probably not going to notice unless if you point it out. Notice that camera brands like Leica usually stay out of this viscious competitive cycle other brands go through. They try to keep up with the latest technology, but their cameras are much simpler than Nikon or Sony. They mainly concentrate on the Image quality which is the most important thing.

Canon point-and-shoot Elph 180 is selling for a whopping $389 on Amazon ! The prices are a much better on eBay but still kind of high ($200-$250+ ) for such a mediocre camera. I paid $129 for mine at Sears about 5 years ago. Actaully my first one got stolen, so I had to get another one. I would never pay what they are charging for it now. I rarely use it since I have my iPhone with me all the time. I was thinking about giving it to my sister, but maybe i should hold on to it. In a few more years it might be worth $1000 !

My backup Canon 50D is getting a little long in the tooth, so I'm thinking about replacing it with a similar camera. What I like about the 80D is the fully articulated screen, long battery life and yes, pop-up flash. Those seem like meaningless features, but to me they are very important for the type of shooting I do. One thing I hate is to have a battery suddenly die on you while you are in the field, or having to constantly charge it. I always wanted a "flippy screen," none of my current cameras has one and not only that, you can focus just by touching the screen ! Some people don't like the pop-up flash because they say it's not "professional", but I can't even count the times when the pop-up flash on my camera helped me get a shot, or save a shot. I say Why not ? In any case my pennies can only go so far being that I'm semi retired. I was also looking at the Canon 5D Mark IV, the Pentax K3 III and even an old Yashica TLR. Mirrorless, forget about it, I don't have the funds, or the inclination to go that way right now. Of course there is also the 90D which is even more modern and more expensive than the 80D. The 90D has of course more megapixels and a Joy-stick that is missing from the 80D. Other than that the cameras are about the same(IMHO). Canon stopped incorporating the Joy-stick on all their pro-summer APS-C cameras starting with the 60D, Why ? that's cannon for you. Good thing they decided to put it back on the 90D. My 50D still has a Joy-stick and to me looks and feels better built than either the 80D, or the 90D. Maybe when my Canon 6D which I recently had CLA'd conks out, I might think about the 5D Mark IV, but as of now it is my only FF DSLR. One thing I learned about the 6D is that it is NOT a professional camera. The images it takes might look that way, but it can't handle the riggors of every day life for too long.

Pentax 35mm f2.8 Macro @ f22

Here is the same subject taken with the Pentax 100mm f2.8 Macro @f22. I got about 8+ inches of additional working space, but the magnification remained about the same ?

I have tons of Macro equipment that is basically collecting dust. Instead of waiting for the weather to clear around here, I decided to put some of that equipment to use. This was taken with a Pentak K-5 II camera, 50mm f4 Macro Preset lens(circa 1962) @f22, Viltrox L1161 LED light. As you can tell I need a lot of practice !

Nikon F4 + Nikon SB-24 Speedlight I got to admit this is a super heavy unit. The kind you slam on your bosses desk demanding a raise ! Nevertheless, I don't mind the heaviness. It makes you feel as if you are using a bonafide Professional camera. The Nikkor 35-70 Nikons first Professional Zoom is super-sharp ! The SB-24 is all push button, no menu's to scroll through. To me this is simpler makes it much easier to understand without a manual. I'm running a couple of rolls of Kodak Gold 200 36 exp. Shooting film really makes you think twice before wasting frames. I got all day, so I'm chosing my shots carefully...

Once I turned on the modeling lights, the units(blowers) switched on automatically...

I'm not sure if your timer works the same as my Unicolor Jingle Bell timer, but I'm guessing the process is similar. My Jingle Bell timer has only one ring to work with while your timer seems to have several rings for different processes. The way it works (at least the way mine does) is that each little red tab determines a time interval. Lets say your process consisted of 5 minutes developing time, 1 minute stop-bath and 5 minutes fixer time, you would only need 3 little red tabs. One tab would be placed at the 5 minute mark, the second tab would be placed 1 minutes from the 5 minute-tab( preferably 2 minutes to give you time between intervals) and the third little red tab would be placed 5 minutes from the second tab. While the entire ring spins for 60 minutes or so, each time it encounters a red tab it rings, or makes a click sound. The ring or click sound is too alarm you that 1 step in the process has completed and the next step is about to begin. I'm not sure why your timer is not ringing/clicking ? I have a couple of old GrabLab timers where you have to move the second hand for each Step in a process. That is you have to do everything manually instead of using the little red tabs. After each step the Grablab timers are suposed to either buzz, ring or click. Some of my older timers have stopped doing that, or the sound is barely perceptible for some reason ? I think it's from just sitting around too long without being used(but I could be wrong) because when I first purchased them, I didn't have that problem. I have two Grablab timers that are in that condition. I was thinking about opening them up to see what could be causing this, but I never got around to it.

I have owned the EF 70-200 f2.8 which was a beast of a lens with virtually no faults when it came to optics. Even wide open at f2.8 it took great pictures. The only thing I had against it was that it was big, heavy and obtrusive. As soon as you placed this thing on your camera, every body thinks you are a professional photo journalist or something. It's a very intimidating lens ! Unfortunately I had to sell it, barely used. I then puchased the EF 70-200 F4 a few years later for about a 1/3 of the price of my f2.8. I would say it was worth it optics wise . The quality of the images were just as good as my f2.8 if not a tad sharper ! Of course this lens was not only smaller, but lighter. Because of the weight I thought I might survive with this lens being a Non-IS at a wedding, or event, but boy was I wrong. I kept missing so many shots, especially at the longer focal lenghts that it was ridiculous. The only way to avoid this was to put the lens on a tripod, which was not always possible. Finally, I trade it it in for the 70-200 f4 IS for about 1/2 the price of my original f2.8. To me, if you don't need to shoot at the wider f2.8, the f4 will do almost everything its big brother can optically. You can still get great Bokeh because it's a long lens, although you might not be able to get that razor-thin DOP Hollywood look you get by shooting at f2.8 . One thing, the IS on the f4 is noisy and makes a a weird whirling sound that can get annoying in quiet venues, but at least you know it's working. I don't mind the weird sound, because at least I come home with more Keepers. Regardless it's a spectacular lens, one of Canon's best. Mine came without a Tripod Mount, so I had to get a cheap clone off eBay. A new one will cost you about $80 from Canon.

Makes sense thanks !

I always wondered why some tripods come with an extra threaded hole to maybe tighten the center column ? Most of my tripods has one. At first I tought I lost the tightening screw that is supposed to go there, but then I noticed that all of my tripods are missing that screw ?

"While I'm not lazy nor is this beyond my skill level, .. I did want ro buy ( Prêt-à-Porter ) a solution with a cooler... I guess I'll have to think about this some more!! " My darkroom which is in a walk-in closet heats up to about 79F in the summer and in the winter averages about 72-75F. This is still not cool enough for some chemichals plus you can't really control the ambient temperature at will. In my darkroom I use a Sterilite 4 drawer shelf such as this one:(the one shown is 3 drawer, but mine is 4 drawers) . It cost me about $30 I put all my chemicals and trays inside this drawer when developing paper. The reason why I use this drawer is because I don't want to spill chemicals on the rug in my walk-in closet. My landlord might kill me. I was thinking about rigging up one of these Peltier Cooling systems into the drawer somehow, but currently I'm not sure how do do it ? The Peltier AC systems are not as powerful as regular air-conditioners but they can certainly cool a small area like Sterilite drawer(I hope)...

I just compared the Nikkor 35mm f2.8 against my newly aquired 35mm AF f2. Actually, my 35mm f1.8 G DX without any aperture ring, is the sharpest of the 2 lenses. For the money, the 35mm f1.8 G is a bargain, at least for what I paid for it. Surprisingly though, my 35-70mm Ai f3.5 Zoom lens from 1977, https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/35-70mm-35-ai.htm is just as sharp if not a tad sharper than the 35mm f1.8 G lens beleive it or not ! I purchased this old lens years ago, but because of a floppy focusing ring, was thinking about turning into a not-so expensive paper weight. I even sent it to Nikon, but they told me they could not fix it because it was too old, so I lubricated it myself. Now it works fine, but the one thing to avoid with this lens is pointing it anywhere near the Sun because it flares awfully !!. Other than that, it is extremely sharp at all focal lengths, at almost every aperture and is very contrasty. Might be the perfect fit for my Nikon F4 camera...