ACG Scrutineer

Happy Birthday, Lanya.

Can’t endure the lack of a tele lens since my old crappy Sigma 70-300mm has been traded for Tamron 70-300 of Pentax mount(well, for my girlfriend, personally I would prefer Tamron’s than Sigma’s after trying both.), I am looking around adorama’s used store to find some cheap but good ones to fill up the gap. I am kind of long waiting for a chance to get AFS 70-300 VR since it is said to be very fast and the actual output is fairly well, but the biggest problem is the budget, while I can’t simply afford those plastic toys which costs me some 500USD, both in money and in mind. So I am always looking for the good old days which may give me some lucky. Honestly speaking, Nikon does very good job for the compatibility issue on new DSLR with vintage lens. I have tried a AIS Micro-Nikkor 55mm/f3.5 sometime age and be surprised by the support of accurate metering and focus on my D200. From then on, I persuade myself with the mind that I should never go to those AFS ones unless I can earn more than 6000USD a month.

OK, today’s hero is AF 70-210mm f/4-5.6, which is an non-D version and I found it in Adorama. Firstly, it is very cheap, it costs me exactly 100USD after damning tax in NY, so I wouldn’t be on diet after buying this. And the most important thing is, as advertised on all review websites I visited, it is absolutely good. I like the the tone of this lens, and enjoy the sharpness only Nikon will give to you. I was at first been told by some reviews that maybe there is a very heavy ghost, flares and CA when using in the digital body, but after trying in a very extreme condition(against the sunlight, shoot the leaves and branches), I am totally satisfied with the performance it gives. And though there is no VR or ED in those good old days, and it is not constant aperture lens, but the MAX aperture is gorgeous and useful in the whole range. You can still get f/4 near 100mm, and f/4.2 near 135mm, I believe f/5 is up to near 185mm.

So I bring the lens to the central park, NYC is getting hotter those days and generally speaking the “official” summer should hit here in the first week of June. I shot almost all photos below with this 70-210mm.

Enjoy!

admin 图, 西域生活 Central Park, New York City, nikon

嗯，如标题所言，换了机身。
倒不是说受不了D60的操作，其实单dial设计还是挺不错的，D60最大的问题恐怕是高ISO下噪点压制不力和AF模式点数都很少吧。上了124后觉得D60的机身配77mm的镜头有点不伦不类，觊觎着D90嘛，可惜无论是新品还是二手价格都太贵，灵机一动不如找个便宜的D200玩玩。对我来说10M像素足以，11点AF也足以，最重要的是D200/300的手感让人欲罢不能啊。
找到的二手卖家是个自豪的称自己有40年摄影经验的Professional，当然我这等小白就只能听他的谆谆教诲了。拿到的机器特别新，因为一直都是在摄影棚里使用的，快门读数是8000，原有的配件一应俱全，总之很满意啦。因为之前稍微玩过一会别人的D200，所以操作机器根本不是问题，比D60大一圈的全金属机身带来的厚重感需要一段时间适应，不过重量带来的直接的好处是抑制手抖：昨晚试拍挂上70-300的大狗头在84mm的焦距上能用1/10sec的快门速度拍出可以看的照片。以前拿着D60前面按这么一个大炮筒在这种情况下只能干瞪眼了。看来防抖基本靠手这句话也并非完全正确的，因为机身重量也是它的一个变量啊。
另一个好处就是我不用手动对焦了，那个50/1.8的小痰盂在D60上只能MF，虽然D60的对焦meter设计的非常舒服，熟练之后也能迅速合焦，但毕竟还是AF的舒适。挂在D200上半按快门，小痰盂就开始轻快的扭动起来，或许之后也会拿它挂在机子上多些了吧。
略微让我感到不满意的是ISO不够高，室内光源环境下ISO上到640以上是经常有的事，或许是我对噪点比较敏感吧，看dpreview的测评他们觉得可以接受的噪点量都早超过了我的阈值。rip的时候我也喜欢用denoise滤镜把视频磨得很狠。不过D200的高ISO噪点也算是它的一个问题了，总之1600我是基本无法接受了，1000估计就是我认为可用的极致了。相比D60介于400-800的范围起来，也算增加了2-3档吧。
上几张照片吧：

admin 图, 西域生活 BJD, D200, D60, nikon

早就听说附近有个学校的荷花开了，上周日正好是个无风的阴天，虽然阴天被后面的实地拍摄证明是个测光上得大考验，但我还是一大早便提着一袋子镜头跑到那所学校去恣意拍片了。

说到拍荷花，应该来说是算花中比较好拍的了，大朵不说，花蕾花片和荷叶三者色彩的对比也容易拍出上好的照片，再加上成片盛开的立体感以及含苞欲放的千钧一发感，体裁实在太多了。

小上几张自觉对的起观众的片子

这次拍片，总结出几点自身的问题：
1、测光经验欠缺 正好碰上个阴霾的天气，测光就成了我的大问题，对于荷花这种容易充满全取景框的大型花卉，用中央重点都是很不明智的。开始用中央重点+M档，发现测光表完全不按自己意指运转，废了好几张片子，换上矩阵测光后发现M档明显改善。每次拍出废片都要想想，那胶片机没有预览的那些摄影师，是怎么测光的…不能被可以回放可以无限量删除重拍的数字便利生活给养无能了。
2、构图犹豫。老毛病了，个性使然么？我可不记得彻夜看米哭玩海猫时有这么犹豫来着=_,=
3、70-300的适马廉价头太肉了…那张莲蓬就是用70-300拍的，100%确实有点惨不忍睹了，发觉适马这头过于清淡也是原因之一：在成片的红绿之中找不到归宿了。

admin 图 nikon, 荷花