Your Cameras

haha I've never managed to remember the righty-lefty RF focusing thing

some people claim that they can achieve really fast focus by always keeping the lens focus all the way at macro or all the way at infinity and then to just swing the focus until it lines up and stops

I get around all this by being continually in ~zone focus~

I feel like the best accessory I've bought is the upstrap

http://www.upstrap-pro.com/

never falls off my shoulder unless I kneel to tie my shoes

oh that looks nice

I've got a Artisan & Artist silk strap that I like. Way too short to use as a neck strap, but perfect for wrapping around my wrist a couple of times. Stupid expensive normally, though, for a strap. You could do pretty much the same thing with paracord but I haven't seen anyone do a good paracord camera strap yet.

my boutique strap days are behind me I think. Had a Gordy's camera strap for awhile (one of these) but never ended up liking it. I wear the camera around my neck now. I'm increasingly convinced that if I don't I will certainly drop it.
I mostly either guess/zone focus or set to hyperfocal (out at least out to some set distance, like 20 meters or something). Only use the rangefinder occasionally.

with guess focussing, btw, for me it's much less about quickly seeing something, quickly guessing how far it is, and then adjusting the lens than it is about setting the lens ahead of anything else (to maybe 6ft, 8ft, 10ft, etc.) and then waiting until things are in that range. so if I'm walking I'm mostly seeing what things are falling within the prefocussed range I've set. I think it's not a bad way to work, since you've already thought about how close you'd like to be to a subject and have some idea of how much of the frame you'd like to fill. then you can do the quick little run when something is just out of range before snapping.

I did the prefocusing thing for candids in Uganda, only blew it on a few pics (DOF was way too narrow)

yeah I'm usually using a 35mm at f5.6-f11, only occasionally f4, so that provides some leeway.

http://i937.photobucket.com/albums/ad215/jiaoqu/vivitaruws.jpg

Confirmed my spot for a Fuji XPro-1 and 35/1.4 lens. Looking forward to being able to go longer and wider than 35mm.

nice, dylannn!

keep your fingers far away from the lens!

dope, I would like to pick up a vivitar ultra slim for $10 like gr80

I get around all this by being continually in ~zone focus~

dayo playing the zone. It's true, man-to-man focus takes more precision. But it can also be more effective. It's a matter of taste, almost.

I got a Contax ST because I've never really had a manual-focus SLR. It's awesome. Big, bright viewfinder, A+ ergonomics.

On the train home the other day, there was a guy with a camera phone taped to one end of a 5 or 6' long 1x3 board. He would stand between the train cars, hit the button to record video, and then hold the camera over the top of the train as it zipped along. I gave him my card and told him to write me with the link if he got any good video and put it online. I just thought it was such a cool bored-college-student-type-activity.

good idea bad idea: ~carefully~ using sugru to affix a lil nubbin to the shutter release as a poor man's soft release

the danger is it might get stick in the screw-in hole I would guess?

yeah that's my concern.

well the threads at least

http://www.rapidwinder.com/

might be worth it to buy one just to scratch the itch - about $22 after shipping iirc

I'm impatient.

also you guys talking about the screwy bit possibly causing damage made leery

ABORT

I'll mail you one of my extra soft-releases if you want to try one. I never check the e-mail attached to ILX - not sure what google-proofing requires these days but my email is mlpowell@<thesameasbeforethe@>.net

It can only cause damage if you put it in a bag with the SR on (or drop it/catch it on something), and lots of people get away with using one no problems. To be safe, you could just screw in the soft-release when you've got it around your neck or however you carry it when not in a bag.

SR makes most sense when you have low shutter speeds - like 1/15, 1/8, maybe 1/30 - so you could keep it in the bag for those situations

i don't have a camera bag :(

always wondered if a camera bag would serve to make me more or less inconspicuous, esp for street photography

(and ty milo!)

mostly its handy for putting things in!

do you have recommendations

Soft Release is the name of my new softcore porn zine, guys

i would like that very much to be true

I use this one:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/16034-REG/Domke_701_83B_F_803_Camera_Satchel_Shoulder.html

yikes, forgot how expensive it is

there's a chinese company called safrotto that makes domke knockoffs. used to be you could buy a safrotto knockoff for 1/2 or 1/3 of the domke price. maybe now it's 3/4 of the domke. domke's are made in the USA though so there's that.

however among a certain savvy group of thieves in foreign countries, "DOMKE" screams "HIGH END CAMERA EQUIPMENT." that's no less true of LOWEPRO though.

I'd check secondhand. I've seen cheap stuff on craigslist and in thrift stores. I like the low key-ness of a 'regular' soft bag from say the late 70s (I use my dad's old bag).

i'm kind of in to this http://www.etsy.com/listing/85065708/medium-dslr-camera-bag-with-leather

the high-end, boutique, only-bag-fit-to-carry-a-leica brands are artisan & artist and herringbone

http://www.artisanandartist.com/bags/index.htm

http://www.billingham.co.uk/pages/index.php

wow those billingham ones are gorgeous

Cheap camera bag - army surplus or messenger bag of your choosing plus a Domke insert.

I think I'm going to spring for a Courierware Incognito - all the legit camera bags I've tried are too bulky and structured (incl. Billingham), they feel weird to carry. The Courierware is along the lines of that Domke, but with a few niceties (zippered front pockets, zippered iPad pocket, etc., for ~$40 more.

http://courierbags.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=39&Itemid=162

if you don't care about iPad room, the Mini will hold a Leica plus film and come in at around the same $$$ as a Domke with zippers and stuff.

http://www.indianhillimageworks.com/catalog/camera-bags/the-bare-bones-bag-evolution-bbb-e
also nice - made by Courierware but a guy had them design a model to his specs

anyone ever played with a finepix x100? i'm still interesting in buying one, mainly because i've always had a dream of "shooting what i see" and because i very very rarely take any sort of zoom or autofocus shots with my camera.

I have/had (selling it so I can buy a XPro-1 whenever they arrive) one. It's a great little camera, as long as you don't need fast AF. It is AF-only, though, the manual focus is pretty useless. But it works a lot like a rangefinder or Hexar AF - center point focus and recompose, and even though the AF is slowish, it's accurate and faster than I'm able to focus with a RF.

The lens is fantastic - tack-sharp in the center from f/2.8 on, very usable at f/2.

Files are great from 200-800 and good beyond that - not as much range in the high ISOs compared to my old D700, but the camera is half the size of a D700+50mm.

I'm selling it because I miss being able to go wider or longer and I'm hoping the new sensor has a bit more dynamic range at 1600 and 3200. Sometimes starting to reconsider, though, as the XP1 is quite a bit larger and new Fuji models tend to have quirks that get ironed out in the first months.

also has an auto-panorama mode which I have not found a use for yet.

here's 180 degrees from my driveway

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7046/7009637847_7373d286c6_b.jpg
X100 Auto Panorama by celluloidpropaganda, on Flickr

huh you selling a rolleiflex too then?

I think so. It overlaps with my Bronica too much.

what's the digital equivalent to the yashica T4/ricoh GR1/contax T2 etc – ie simple, robust, small cameras with superb lenses capable of very high image quality

ricoh cameras, the class of cameras that includes the panasonic lx5, canon s90/s95/s100, etc.

kinda tempting to sell my gf1 and trade it for a small digital like those and a neg scanner