Yesterday I decided to buy myself a new lens. It is the Nikon AF Nikkor 70-210 1:4-5.6. It was a used lens so it did not cost much. I hope at least that I did not pay too much for it. As far as I know such lenses do cost around 300Eur so 170Eur should be a fine price.

If you have other information or tips, tell me. I still have two weeks to give it back, if I am not happy with it.

I made some images with it. The last image in the photoblog is made with the new lens. I still have to learn how to use it. What setting it needs and so on.

You can see the lens here.

As you probably saw in my Photoblog the EXIF information on the right under the Picture shows in the last few images that they were taken with a D50. Yes I really got my Nikon D50! Weee! 😉

I hope now that at least the quality of the shots got better now. But I also think that the images themselves are better now. I have a lot more freedom compared to my old camera. And taking an image is no more such a hassle.

I still miss some wide angle lens and a tele lens from time to time. But with some time on my hands I hopefully will have some money to change that situation too. Tamron or Sigma or even Nikon themselves will have some nice lenses for me. The problem is that photography is a very expensive hobby.

Someone in the #photogeeks channel posted a nice comparison some time ago: “I had a choice for my hobby. Collecting Faberge eggs or photography.” The only difference between the two is that the photo gear is not gaining on value like the eggs do.

I love my new camera and I hope to be able to take some amazing shots with it. For my and your amusement. Photography is now making even more fun.

The only problem is that my expectations to myself and yours probably too will rise now and I will have to work even harder to satisfy them. 😉

Today was my lucky (in some way) day!

I am currently pretty ill so I had to go to the city to get some medicine and visit a doctor. As I already was there I gave my last film roll I made for development. It was a kodak shop and they said that I can have the images back in one hour.

Using that time I went to a drugstore and got something for my cough and asked for a doctor in the area. As I went to the doctor he had already closed. Because I wanted the images badly (otherwise I would have nothing to put online in my photoblog) I went to another photo shop and looked around. There was a very helpful guy with whom I started a conversation. He showed me the Canon 350D and Nikon D50 for comparison.

Now comes the interesting part. Both cameras are technically same. The canon has some drawbacks. First of all it does not really lie in the hand. The grip for the right hand is somehaw small and does not fill the hand. The controls are edgy and one has the feeling that this thing is real plastic. Also the shutter sound is edgy. It is a simple “klack”.

Now the Nikon for comparison. It feels bit bigger. (even if both cameras have no noticable weight difference) The grip lies very good in the hand. The surface is rugged and feels more like a metal body and not plastic. Very pleasant. The controls are big and smooth. Also the shutter has a nice sound. The camera is purring when you release the shutter. Lovely thing. I also think that Nikon is less noisy then the Canon.

This comparison is fully subjective. And when you think about buying anyone of that cameras try yourself. And pull your own criteria for the final choice.

When you want to compare the cameras using the more technical and objective approach you can go to DPReview and take a look.

I know for myself that I fell in love with the D50. The only problem is the money 🙁

The next thing that is pushing me to buy a digital SLR is that the light meter in the Praktica is finally fully broken. Before it got only stuck and now it is not working at all. And I hear something falling around inside. Another point is the price of film development. I payed 26Euro today. The positive side was that they finally done everything right. The negatives are cut correctly and quality of the photocd is very good. But 26Euro??? Sorry guys that is too expensive!

Back to Praktica … I am very sad about the camera being broken I really started to fall in love with that camera too… 🙁

I finally have the first Images developed that I took with Praktica. They are really good, better then I expected. I posted the first sample in my photoblog, there are more to come. Sadly the scans are not as good as they could be so you can not see the real quality of the shots 🙁 but I think you will still get an impression.

I developed the images at PhotoPorst. The guys cut the negatives not correctly so some images have cut off corners. The scanned images are also not the quality I would expect. The next time I will try another photo shop. Hopefully they will do it better. We have 5 photo shops here in Rosenheim so I have something to choose from. 😉