photography musings

Nikon 70-200 VR II update

2010-05-15T11:16:00.000-07:00

I have previously commented on the 70-200mm VR I and compared it to the 70-300mm VR. I did not have favorable view of the 70-200mm at the time and I sold the lens shortly thereafter. It turned out to be a good decision because Nikon soon released the VR II version of the lens. This lens is absolutely amazing and it is definite improvement over the previous version. But there are some caveats, so

Blog updates

2010-05-02T19:54:00.000-07:00

I did not even realize that it is now almost a year since I updated my blog. Basically I just did not have enough free time and when I did have time I was not in a mood to update my blog. But now I am back again in the blog update mode. So I am going to do a series of photography related topics again.Though I did not update my blog I was rapidly updating my photography gear and experience. I have

Vacation Break

2009-05-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

I am just back from my vacation and will updating soon and frequently. The Teleconverter series of blogs, Sigma DP2 and Canon 500D closeup filter blog articles are in the works. Watch out for them.

Nikon Teleconverters

2009-05-03T07:20:00.000-07:00

Teleconverters are optical extenders which will magnify the image and effectively increase the focal length of a lens. My experience is limited to the latest Nikon TC-XXE II teleconverters and Kenko pro TCs. I will be discussing my experiences with TCs and compare Nikon and kenko. I will also discuss my experiences of using TCs with Nikon 70-200mm VR, Nikon 70-300mm VR, Nikon 300mm AFS lenses and

Nikon 50mm f/1.2 AIS vs Zeiss 50mm f/1.4

2009-04-17T17:48:00.000-07:00

I have had the opportunity to use these two lenses. Obviously the question is which is better. Let's see the qualities of these 2 lenses.Wide open: The Nikon is f/1.2 while the Zeiss is f/1.4 and the Nikkor is eminently usable at this aperture. The view through such a lens through a full frame camera is a real joy to use. You also get the one half stop advantage which may prove to be very

Nikon 50mm f/1.2 AIS review

2009-04-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

The Nikon D700 is an incredible low light camera. When I started using this camera, I started to yearn for a super fast lens capable of extremely low light work. Naturally I stumbled upon the fastest Nikon lens in production. This is the Nikon 50mm f/1.2 AIS. I already had the Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 so this Nikkor had serious competition. The Lens:This is a superb manual focus lens well worthy of

Zeiss 50mm F/1.4 review

2009-03-28T07:39:00.001-07:00

Zeiss is one of the oldest and legendary optical manufacturers. They were pioneers of most of the lens designs. The 50mm lens is also one of the oldest and most used focal length range in photography. The initial 50mm designs were Tessars followed by Sonnars. The Planar design was developed, as the name implies, to limit distortion. This was more than 100 years ago. Today most 50mm lenses by any

Fuji F200EXR review

2009-03-19T09:04:00.000-07:00

I was a brief owner of the Fuji F200EXR for 2 days. I was tempted by the potential of this camera considering its touted high ISO capabilities and higher dynamic range. So I bought this even though it did not have RAW which is an essential feature of my usual work flow. The camera is purely intended for Auto all consumers, nothing wrong with that but I expected atleast some flexibility with

Sigma DP2 A Non Review

2009-03-13T18:02:00.000-07:00

This is not a review but just my impressions about a camera which has the potential to be promising. This camera was announced around Photokina 2008 and now at PMA 2009, more details are emerging.The Sigma DP1 was released in Q1 of 2008. This is a compact camera but what distinguishes it from other cameras are its Foveon Sensor, Fixed focal length lens and APS-C size of the sensor. Many of us

Bokeh Rant

2009-03-06T14:52:00.000-08:00