The camera thread.

I was only talking about getting into medium format with some flickr pals last week. I love the - well I'm not sure of the word, but maybe 'depth' is the right one? - that you get. Quite apart from the fact that the cameras look cool.

Looking forward to seeing your results.

Sitting in a friend's garden on Sunday, I took the prism off and was kinda amazed at the clarity and three-dimensionality of the image coming through the focusing screen. You can see why waist-level finders are so popular with these cameras. Surely we can find one of those for a fiver?! But then we're back to guessing the exposure...

Love my old Bronica SQ-A, haven't used it in some time except for a few slides since I don't have darkroom access or a scanner. But oh how I miss 6x6.

I prefer the waist-level finder and guessing exposure - with color neg or B&W, you've got plenty of leeway. Or you can pick up an incident light meter cheap ($25-100), meter a patch of light that's similar to whatever you're shooting (assuming you can't meter directly at your subject).

I <3 medium format

I just bought one of these

http://www.leicagallery.com/images/gr1.gif

Hey, I've got a major problem. The aperture on my lens (on a Pentax K1000) doesn't seem to be moving. When the lens is out of the camera it's normal, but when it's in, it stays wide open the whole time. My light meter is working fine though, which is kind of wierd, I guess.

How worried should I be?

These look like expensive fun:

http://a.img-dpreview.com/news/0807/Nikon/pcelenses.jpg

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0807/08070102nikonpcemicro45mm85mm.asp

Hey, I've got a major problem. The aperture on my lens (on a Pentax K1000) doesn't seem to be moving. When the lens is out of the camera it's normal, but when it's in, it stays wide open the whole time.

Do you mean: even when you change the aperture setting the iris doesn't move? That's normal (certainly on most SLRs including my Pentax ME) - the iris doesn't actually stop down until you take the picture, so that you have maximum brightness in the viewfinder. If it didn't work like this, then your viewfinder would be too dark to see very much when you're stopped all the way to f22. This is why lots of SLRs have a "depth of field preview" control, to override this behaviour.

Ed: oof, very nice. Even if they wouldn't work on my F801!

brilliant!!

http://www.uncrate.com/men/images/2008/07/samsung-tl9.jpg

http://www.uncrate.com/men/images/2008/07/samsung-tl9-2.jpg

Ha! I saw some old film compacts recently (Nikon?) that had analogue display dials in the top-plate - only they were for aperture/shutter speed settings, I think.

nikon, yes

mmmmmm dials

Yes, that was it! Smashing. Anyway, there are a couple in a display case in the Camera Cafe in Bloomsbury if you're interested. Not to mention multiples of every Leica M body...

droooooool
http://craigmod.com/journal/gf1-fieldtest/

Hi,

who can recommend me a camera in the $200-350 range? I already spend enough of my time fetishizing analogue by making 16mm films so I want to keep this simple and get a digital camera. Cannot afford to go higher on price but want something that isn't just a total point n' click and maybe with half-decent low light capability?

Thanks!

I've been eyeing this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerShot-Digital-Optical-Stabilized/dp/B002LITT42

Thanks! Pleasingly retro looking

there's discussion here too

Compact camera recommendations

Any thoughts on the Nikon D3100 and/or what would you buy around the £300 mark?

And will I regret going for an 18-55 lens rather than an 18-105?

And will I regret going for an 18-55 lens rather than an 18-105?
--djh

Depends on the type of photos you want to take?

I prefer prime lenses so don't really know!

aperture range on both?

Is there an option of a kit with one or the other, or are you buying the lens separately?

I had the 18-55mm with my D40x and it was fine, but rarely use it after i got the 35mm f1.8 prime - very good lens (bar a little barrel distortion) and remains my default.

The smaller lens was a Nikon AF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR.

Not really sure *what* I want to take photos of, really ...

it might be a default camera snob position but I think a prime is always the best bet.

(Excuse the naivety) Prime?

fixed focal length, not a zoom basically

(usually) faster and with better glass.

I'd say I value the wider aperture of a prime over the ability to zoom in on things - if I use my 18-70 it tends to be wide open for landscape stuff, very occasionally.

I'd go with the Nikon 35mm f/1.8G lens with the small Nikon DSLR bodies.

Thanks all.

Close to pulling the trigger on a Fuji x100f
Walmart has it for a 200 discount somehow

Woop out of stock

It’s a great camera tbh and if you can get a deal it’s a fun carry. I’m not 100% on where they are in the update cycle tho so buyer beware

I want that large sensor for low light shenanigans

True. Also a little light rigging makes the onboard flash v pleasant

Also looking at the new XF10 and the Ricoh GR ii. ... just can’t justify that $1.3k price for the x100F.

I bought my X100 (original model) used about 6 years ago - the sensor on these handles light and colour so beautifully. It's got its quirks but I have never felt like leaving it behind.

pre ordered the xf 10

Can’t wait to use an image sensor 10x the size of what’s in my phone

had my original X100 for about 5/6 years. love it. might jump on the next model after the X100F

the x100 series are maybe my favourite cameras ever

Those of you that have the x100 - what is it about that camera that you really enjoy, or that’s unique? The new XF has the same sensor but is only $500...

it takes great pictures, with minimal fiddling required. great low light performance, great JPEGs, and - even though it’s not required - it has the settings/features that let you fiddle if you want to

it’s silent too. leaf shutter fires with minimal pressing. it’s unobtrusive so can be carried all day when on holiday or strapped across the back if cycling. great B&W JPEGs too

it’s idiosyncratic as all hell but once you get used to it, it’s a great camera. love it

things I’d like: better colour reproduction; faster focus; better manual focus. I gather the X100F improves each of these

yeah, it weighs next to nothing, it's essentially silent, the quality of images is wonderful

if you're not used to shooting with primes it'll probably take a bit of getting used to but it's worth it

Great RAW set; I like the color and contrast out of camera. I find that the lens has character, moreso than a more expensive prime or 2000 dollar zoom that has to be uniform/perfect. It pairs well w my 5D when I have two cameras going at once. The rangefinder is just something I’m used to, so having that feature in a digital is pretty great. In terms of useability it’s set it and forget it, so even though it has a lot of features that you can micro manage it’s simple enough to effectively become a point n shoot w a fixed lens

I alternate between wanting it to be wider (like and 18mm) and being satisfied w what I have but that’s not a complaint

The wide converter has stellar reviews, reputed to be even sharper than the prime it's going through ... I don't even know how this is possible?
And yeah its low light and colour rendering are just beautiful. Original X100 has a different sensor setup (Bayer filtered CMOS) to the later models (X-Trans filtered CMOS II for the S/T or CMOS III for the F).
This is a JPEG literally straight out of the X100, point and shoot: https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3798/12351945543_afc3631df0_o.jpg

I had a X100 and then an X100T - what everyone else said but I will say that I never used the optical viewfinder on the T. It didn't offer anything over the EVF for me. The size of my X-T2 and a lens isn't that much larger than the X100F (neither is pocketable since I live in a place where I don't own a coat), the XF would be even closer.

re: quality, I like the design of the Fujis but I don't think it's really better (image-wise) than any of the other cameras on the market now and there's still a big jump between APS-C and full-frame (but you'd have to drop $4k+ to get the equivalent of an X100F in full frame from Sony or Leica).

Fuji's in-camera JPG processing is fantastic, but I run everything through LR so in-camera JPGs don't matter much to me.