Olympus E-M1 Photo Story Mode

It’s been rumored that Fujifilm will soon release a new “half frame” digital camera with a vertical sensor.  That’s a pretty cool feature, daring to be different and promoting the artistic idea of diptychs. (placing two somewhat related/unrelated images together and having that interplay evoke more studying or pondering over a composition that would otherwise […]

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More ZNO Mini Accordion Photo Books

I ordered some more ZNO 3×3″ Mini Accordion photos books last month. Some to keep, and some for gifts.  I just checked the website and the prices are still the same, but I did notice the shipping was a bit more than normal.  These products do come all the way from China, so who knows […]

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Random Bargain Lenses – Nikon 80-200mm f/4.5 and 35-70mm f/3.3-4.5

The other day I got some dirt cheap and beat up Nikon lenses.  A fully manual Nikon 80-200mm f/4.5 from probably 1977-1980 for $12, and an AF 35-70mm f/3.3-4.5 with a broken aperture lever for $20.  The 35-70mm from the late 80’s maybe early 1990 still autofocuses, but the lens can’t stop down and will […]

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Random Thrifting Haul – Canon Powershot A400 for $5!

Canon PowerShot A400 for $5! To follow up on my previous post, I got also got a screaming deal on this 2004 Canon digicam.  $5 and it came with a case! With “lofi” tech like this trending again I can’t believe it wasn’t snatched up by someone else.  Ironically though 3.3 megapixel cameras of this […]

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Random Thrifting Haul – Minolta 50mm f1.4 for $4!

Hello everyone, for these next series of posts I thought I would just post a few quick thoughts and images on photography gear and techniques I’ve been tinkering with. Some of it is vintage gear that I’ve thrifted, or some odd combination of cameras and lenses that I think would be neat to share with […]

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Random Camera Post – Nikon D4 5:4 Crop with DX Lens

Hello everyone, for these next series of posts I thought I would just post a few quick thoughts and images on photography gear and techniques I’ve been tinkering with. Some of it is vintage gear that I’ve thrifted, or some odd combination of cameras and lenses that I think would be neat to share with […]

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Canon R8 + Nikon 105mm f/1.4 vs Nikon D700 + 200mm f/2

I have enough material from work level stuff to post this quick comparison.  Not to show which one is “better,” but to just simply show the image rendering and bokeh that one can get with these two setups. The idea for this came from the Lunar New Year at Stone Mountain, as I wanted to […]

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ZNO Mini Accordion Book Review

I finally got these in yesterday, some ZNO Mini Accordion 3 x 3″ (8 x 8 cm) books. You can also get them in vertical format in 3.5 x 2.5″ size.  With the Pro price I got them for $4.50 each.  The shipping cost and time has been a bit more than normal, but what […]

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Vivitar Retro Keychain Camera Review!

Vivitar “Vintage” Keychain Camera Review 5. Five. Cinco. Ha. $5 was what this camera cost. (Thanks Jonathan) 5 bucks will barely get you a Wendy’s meal, but it might not even get you one banh mi in Atlanta these days.  For a brief time last week, this camera was on sale for $5 on Wal-Mart. […]

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Fujifilm X100 Review – Portraits & Random Life from 10+ Years

Fujifilm X100 Review – Portraits & Random Life from 10+ Years PART II Hello, here’s Part II of my Fujifilm X100 Retrospective. Part I was all about Wedding Photography and can be read Here. This one is all about random portraits, BTS shots from some of our photo hangout dates, and just ordinary scenes in […]

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Fujifilm X100 Review – Wedding Photos from 10+ Years

Hello everyone, in thinking of my series of posts about all the lovely cameras and lenses I have, I forgot that like many of my tools, I buy them, use them and never really got around to “reviewing” them. That’s how much I love taking pictures and editing. Much better than arguing online with random […]

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Nikon 18.5mm f/1.8 Samples + Review

Hello everyone Happy New Year. (The first of many if you cover enough different cultures as I do here in Atlanta!) In cleaning up work and old photos I think I’m going to start off with posting random camera gear thoughts and “reviews” that have been sitting on the back burner for so long. Again, […]

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Nikon D700 + 200mm f/2 Practice Photos

Hello everyone, here are some photos from the last two weeks or so with my new favorite combo, the Nikon D700 “Classic” and 200mm f/2.  Yes it’s a heavy beast of a setup, but man are the pictures sharp and colorful, with a contrast and punchiness that can be had straight out of camera.  Nothing […]

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Nikon 200mm f/2G VR Review…Finally 20 Years Later…

Nikon Nikkor 200mm f/2 G VR Sample Photos + Review It took about 20 years but I finally got one of the lenses that I’ve wanted for so long, the AF-S Nikon 200mm f/2G VR. It’s a heavy relic from the early days of DSLR imaging, announced in May of 2004, long before Nikon had […]

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Nikon Giugiaro Designed Cameras in My Collection

Above: Nikon D4, Nikon Df, and Nikon L35AF The other day I was thinking about toys, and how little kids from every walk of life love and cherish them.  When we first moved to this country, I’d just started Kindergarten and was so proud to participate in show-and-tell with my little racecar and the tiny […]

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Canon R8 Sample Photos + Portraits + Mini Review

I added a Canon EOS R8 for some work situations because it’s the only affordable mirrorless camera with a usable silent shutter.  Yeah, that’s pretty much it.  After all these years I still don’t have a Nikon FF mirrorless because the older Nikon DSLRs still produce top notch images, and their files work perfectly in […]

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Where to develop 35mm Film in Atlanta? (2024)

The other day I drove all the way to Douglasville GA to try out a new (to me) place for some film development, The Photo Spot.  I say all the way because as the old meme says, “Atlanta is 1 Hour from Atlanta.”  For the last couple of weeks here in the metro area traffic […]

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Olympus Stylus Epic Zoom 170 Roll 5&6 + Fujifilm

It took a year but I finally finished the roll of Fuji Superia 400 that I had in the Olympus Stylus.  I scanned these on the Epson V550 and left some of the dust and scratches in some of the frames for that authentic nostalgia.  The randomness of lint and crud on film photos really […]

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Nikon 85mm 1.4D + GFX 50S

Last week I thought I would give this combo another try–a now “vintage” Nikon 85mm 1.4D adapted to the GFX with the simple dummy adapter.  Last year I wasn’t too keen on the 67mm “equivalent” focal length when mounted on the medium format GFX sensor, but for this colorful spring I thought it would be […]

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Turning all My Old Cameras into Remote Cameras

The other day I thought it would be cool to turn all my old cameras into remote cameras that I could place in certain spots when I cover events–locations where it would be much easier to click a remote button as opposed to walking across the room and disrupting the flow of an event.  So […]

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Fall + Sony A7 + Canon EF 24mm 1.4L

Thanks for reading/viewing along on my journal here.  I know the last posts have been more of a visual record of my practicing with my various photography combos.  Just like getting up early to walk or shoot hoops, practicing with different camera combos to build up the muscle memory is always a good thing.  Plus […]

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Nikon V1 + FT1 + 18-55mm Kit Lens

The other day it dawned on me that I could use the cheap kit lens from the D5300, the ubiquitous 18-55mm on my various Nikon 1 cameras adapted with the FT1.  I’ve obviously used all of my F mount lenses on this thing for testing and goofing off purposes many times in the past but […]

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Fall Photos 2023 + Sigma SD10 + SD15

With my various photography gear I do treat it kind of like a video game, the RPG’s where you have to level up different weapons with experience points.  This season was about finally unlocking the code so to speak on Fujifilm .raf raw files after all these years, so my Sigma cameras haven’t been used […]

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Fall Photos 2023 + Nikon D5300 + 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

I bought a really excellent condition Nikon D5300 and kit lens the other day.  It was too cheap to pass up and after using the exif checker, this camera had only been used for about 4000 pictures.  I thought it would be nice to have a simple light camera that has a flip out screen […]

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