Marcus Rowland

Just got a Nikon-fit Samyang 8mm f3.5 on eBay - got lucky with an auction, got it for just over £100 including postage. Keeping my fingers crossed that it'll arrive safe and be OK.

Not sure yet if I'll keep it or sell it on, I'll have a good play with it first and see what the results are like. I think London is probably a good place for a lens like that, lots of fun architecture etc., so unless it's a real dog I'll probably keep it.

Anyone here had a play with one on a D90? Or any other Nikon for that matter?

It really depends what you're defending against - I usually have a filter on my "carry everywhere" Fuji 7500 bridge camera, but it's mainly there to keep dirt out since that gets carried around in a book bag most of the time. The last time I dropped it the filter cracked but didn't break and the lens was fine, but that's a much smaller lens so I suppose the glass in the filter gets more support from the filter ring.

Another reason to keep a filter on all the time is that I see a LOT of lenses with damaged filter rings - I suspect that most wouldn't have been damaged if they'd had a filter on when dropped.

I'd strongly recommend getting a card reader for future use - they're generally pretty cheap if you don't want anything too fancy, and sometimes can read from a card where a camera gives up. You can get SD, CF, and three or four other common slots into a unit about the size of a pack of playing cards, the one I currently use is also a 3-port USB hub.

A gallery of images shot with a Nikon D90 here:

https://www.flickr.c...157686356723841

Comparison of this lens and a 60mm Holga Lomography lens - Hint - there is a notable quality difference...

https://www.flickr.c...157661875567448

Well, sort of - it's a diamond lit by a green laser, a ring I inherited from my father many years ago. I shot this for a photo community on livejournal that sets topics once a week, this week was "diamond".

Nikon D90, 50mm lens, 36mm extension tube, green laser illumination, also some daylight and LED room light. 1/160th f11. Important safety hint - I used the liveview feature of the camera for this one so that I was not staring at a laser for extended periods, that's really not a good idea!

The monochromatic light looks a little odd, but it's fairly typical of laser lighting, it tends to drown out minor variations in shade.

What I actually wanted to do was use a UV laser, since diamonds fluoresce slightly, but it's gone missing since I last used it.

Nice! Really like the spiral staircase shot.

Took the 50 /1.8 (sorry, not f2, my memory is crap) out today and the results are pretty good. Really wish I'd thought to take extension tubes with me because I found some really nice but tiny lichens. Album here:

https://www.flickr.c...th/37336834321/

I've got a "new" 50mm f2 AF (the older type with motor in the camera body) which I'll probably be taking out for a test run some time this week. Not sure I can guarantee to only use that one camera and lens though, I'll probably be taking a lot of photos for ebay listings etc. But here are links to some one-lens shoots I did recently as part of deciding which lenses I want to keep

Yongnuo 50mm f2 (for Canon)

https://www.flickr.c...157683681276924

Made me realise I definitely wanted a 50mm for the Nikon. I'll probably sell it on if I'm satisfied with the Nikon 50mm.

Tamron 28-300

https://www.flickr.c...157685940258420

Keeping, unless something better comes along

Nikon 18-55 VR

https://www.flickr.c...157685127937342

Still undecided about this one

Nikon 35/1.8

https://www.flickr.c...157686865515384

Just listed it on eBay - it's a good lens but it doesn't inspire me, and I prefer a 50mm as my wide aperture prime lens.

Nicole,

 

My first SLR was a Zenit...I purchased it in France...It had the "Pentax" screw-mount base and came with a 50 something - want to say 52 or 58mm f2 lens.  It had a match needle on the upper right and you had to manually stop down the lens after focusing...

 

It would be interesting to see what they come out with!

The camera was probably a Zenit E, that was the most common version that had M42, the external meter, and manual stopdown. Unfortunately they go wrong a lot, I have ten or twelve in a box which I'll probably have to sell as a job lot for their minimal spares value.

The lens was almost certainly a Helios 58mm f2.0 - they're probably the lenses I sell the most (which is why I have so many Zenit bodies, I wouldn't touch them if they didn't have this lens or something as good e.g. Tessar), there are quite a lot around in the UK and they're very good for portrait, macro, and low light work, and the older manual version has very nice bokeh. Unfortunately you need an adapter with a lens to use them out to infinity on a Nikon, which degrades the image quality - and most adapters won't work anyway because the rear element of the lens protrudes far enough to hit the lens in the adapter at that end of the focusing scale! I've heard of there being versions with Nikon mounts but never seen one, and you need to be careful if you see one on eBay because they usually turn out to be the M42 version with a lensless adapter and only good for macro work.

I want to do a little photomicroscopy but my microscope is an old professional model and an awkward design - fairly high with a vertical camera tube - which would make it very difficult to use live view and a pain to use the viewfinder. When I've tried it in the past it's taken a long time to set up each shot and get a good result.

What I was hoping to use was some sort of tethering software, unfortunately it would have to be with my laptop, a MacBook Pro running the current release of OS-X, since the microscope is in another room to my Windows PC and I don't have room to set it up nearby. I say unfortunately because I have a good freeware tethering program for the PC, DigiCamControl, but can't find something that works properly for the mac. So far the closest is Sofortbild, but for some reason liveview isn't working, I have no idea why.

I really don't want to spend money on the Nikon software for this, it isn't really a very important project, just a favour for someone.

Any suggestions?

They can be vicious little sods, but mostly the ones in that park are pretty tame and will feed from your hand if you're careful, and we fortunately don't have rabies here at the moment. Unfortunately I didn't have any nuts or anything with me when I took this. I have an album of squirrel shots on flickr, but mostly taken with a little Fuji bridge camera, not Nikon

https://www.flickr.c...th/35619966610/

I'm not sure this squirrel appreciated my attentions; I was trying out my 18-55mm VR lens with my "new" D90, and made several attempts to get a good closeup with a lens that wasn't really ideal for the job.

Kensington Gardens, London, 1/250th f16

I see a lot of Russian gear in the cameras and lenses I buy and sell. The lenses are usually very good if a bit basic, the bodies have a tendency to be a bit flaky, but hopefully they've learned a few things since the 20th century.

Having said that, I tried a Nex 5 and couldn't get on with it at all, unless they're including a digital eye level viewfinder in the design I won't be very interested. I have no idea what mount they'll use, I suspect whichever one is cheapest to license and build if they don't go with a design of their own.

Re Russian large-format cameras, this is on sale in a pawn shop in London

https://webshop.cash...329/camera-lens

They do mail order, but I don't know if they ship outside Britain. I took a look at it in December but it wasn't advertised on line then. It had quite a lot of internal dust, but given the size cleaning may not be impossible.

Having faffed around for ages and come close to switching to Canon as my main system I've just ended up buying a D90 for £155, mostly trade-in - the pixel count is good enough for my needs and it has live view, retains compatibility with the older Nikon lenses with the screw-type autofocus, and does self-cleaning etc. So far I'm pretty pleased with it, I'll post pictures when there's actually some nice weather again and I can go out without getting soaked. It can't use pre-AI lenses at all, but they never seem to come my way anyway - if they do I can test them on my Canon with a Nikon adapter, I think they'll work.

Looks like it bayonets on, or is that a screw thread? Why would they put the name on the (presumably) inside? Could it be for something like a gun sight or a monocular?

I find his site very useful, any time I sell a lens I check to see if he's reviewed it and link to it if he has. And things like the Nikon lens / body compatibility charts are priceless.