A borrowed camera: Nikon D80

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The only camera I took on my recent trip to Geneva was my Sony RX100 M3. I love this camera, but the compromise for such a small camera with a relatively large sensor is that the lens only zooms to th 35mm equivalent of 70mm. I thought I might need something with a longer zoom (and of course I won’t miss the opportunity to try out a new camera) so I asked my son-in-law if I could borrow his Nikon D80 and Sigma 18-200mm f3.5-f6.3 lens. He agreed.

The Nikon D80 became available in the US around September, 2006. It has a 10.2 Megapixel CCD sensor and when it came out it was considered as an enthusiast camera fitting in between the entry-level D50 and the semi-professional / professional D200.

On picking it up it felt solid and well built. It powered up quickly and felt very responsive. Focus was quick and accurate and the viewfinder was large and precise. A nice feature was the LCD panel on the top plate. Although I didn’t try to customize the camera much, it was obvious that there were many options to do so. Menus were intuitive and easy to use. The LCD monitor was decent considering the age of the camera. Battery life seemed to be pretty good.

Images had good resolution and great detail and I really liked the colors. Exposure was all I wanted it to be.

I didn’t find anything much that I didn’t like.

Although this camera is now over 10 years old it’s extremely capable and I very much enjoyed using it. For general photography and web use, and if you don’t need to print much larger than 8×10 (and most people don’t) this is a fine camera. They seem to sell on ebay for about $100 for just the body, and maybe around $200 with a lens (when it first came out I believe it sold in the $1,000-$1,200 range).

Digital review has a detailed review.

As for the lens. A 15 August, 2005 review in Ephotozine, concludes:

This lens once again proves that it is extremely difficult to produce the ideal all-in-one lens. Whilst this one is very good at the wide end, it does start to show the limitations of the design type at the long end. But if you consider the advantages of just having the one lens and the reduction in lens changes that could let in dust, there are some saving graces. All in all it is a nice lens if you can put up with the long end fall off.

In summary the main positive points of the Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC are:

  • Performance at wide end
  • Focal Range
  • Size and weight
  • Easy Manual Focus

Negative points are:

  • Optical quality falls off towards telephoto end
  • Autofocus a little noisy and slow.

I was fine with the results produced.

For some pictures taken with this camera see:

Minolta Maxxum 5 – Results

by Posted in Cameras, Minolta Maxxum 5, Ruins Leave a comment
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Above, Seat and Tree, Peekskill Hollow Road.

To try out the Maxxum 5 I first took a few pictures here and there, and then decided to go to Oscawana Park. It’s situated on the site of the former McAndrews estate. Mcandrewsestate.org describes the site as follows:

In the woods of Westchester County, in a place that was once Oscawana-on-Hudson NY, are the remains of a grand 75 acre estate. It was once owned by Guillaume Reusens, a Belgian diplomat, tobacco baron, and breeder of fine race horses. His estate featured a huge Victorian mansion, a full sized race track complete with an elaborate two story judges’ stand, fountains, the Colonial Fox / Cruger mansion, several other homes, and all the livestock, machinery, and staff needed to run a large working farm.

The McAndrews Estate, formerly known as Long View or Reusens Farm, was maintained and sustained by Guillaume Reusens and his descendants for 70 years. But in the 1960’s – the property was abandoned. It fell into disrepair and was looted, vandalized, and set ablaze. It became a haven for curious teenagers. Its once open fields and avenues overgrown; its buildings crumbling and rotting.

By 1970 Westchester County had condemned and purchased the property from the McAndrews family, and then demolished almost all of the buildings and structures that remained. For the past 40+ years the property has remained open to the pubic as unincorporated park land. Where once there were open fields and stunning river views, there is now a towering forest. Generations of local residents have walked its trails, explored the ruins, and wondered about the history of this unique and mysterious place.

I’d read that there were some interesting ruins and for once I managed to get up early enough to “catch the light”. This was where I made my first mistake: it was much darker under the leafy canopy than I had anticipated. The light was also very contrasty. I’d loaded the camera with an old (I don’t know what effect the age of the film might have had on the results) roll of BW400CN C-41 black and white film. My second mistake (related to the first mistake) was not to have taken something to stabilize the camera (e.g. a tripod or monopod). My third mistake was stubbornly taking along the lens that came with the camera: a Minolta 28-100 AF lens f3.5 (22)-f5.6 D lens. I imagine that this was the camera’s original kit lens and that it’s quality is probably mediocre at best. So the end result was that I was trying to take mostly landscape type pictures, most of which required a lot of depth of field while hand holding the camera at shutter speeds that were way too slow.

So how did the camera do. First it was a pleasure to use. It’s very small and easy to hold. Focus was fast and responsive. Even though I was was rather unfamiliar with the camera I was easily able to locate and operate the various dials and buttons. It was all quite intuitive.

The end results were (for the reasons above) rather patchy. You can see from the first few pictures (taken when the light was decent) that the camera is capable of delivering good results. When we hit the difficult lighting conditions as Oscawana Park, I (note I’m saying I and not the camera) struggled to get a decent depth of field at a tolerable shutter speed. Many of the pictures were either not sharp throughout (too little depth of field) or fuzzy because of camera shake resulting from the slow shutter speeds. The camera also seemed to have trouble with the very contrasty light.

I really liked the camera and don’t feel that I really gave it a chance to show what it could do. I think I’ll try it again in better lighting. I may even take it back to Oscawana Park, but in different light (a cloudy day might soften the contrasty light) and with a tripod.

I should note that I also had a Sony NEX 5N with a 50mm f1.9 Schneider Kreuzenach Retina-Xenon with me. This camera/lens combination didn’t do any better with the difficult lighting. In fact my impression is that the Maxxum 5 produced more impressive results. And, of course the 75mm equivalent Xenon wasn’t much help with the landscape type pictures I wanted to take (i.e. I couldn’t usually get far enough back to get the view I wanted without ending up in the bushes – or more likely the poison ivy. That was my fourth mistake – wearing shorts rather than trousers and exposing myself to noxious plants and ticks carrying Lyme disease).

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Log bound stream.

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Eagles on Old Briarcliff Road, Briarcliff Manor.

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Oscawana Park, Race Track Reservoir.

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Oscawana Park, Old Cow Barn.

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Oscawana Park, Old Cow Barn – Rear View.

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Oscawana Park, Old Fountain.

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Oscawana Park, Ruined Staircase.

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Oscawana Park, Remains of the Racetrack.

May Film Camera – Minolta Maxxum 5

by Posted in Camera Collection, Cameras, Film, Minolta Maxxum 5, Minolta Maxxum/Dynax 5, Monthly Film Camera Leave a comment
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I don’t recall how I managed to acquire this camera. It could be that someone gave it to me. I’ve mentioned before that I missed the entire autofocus fim era so it might be that reading a good review and finding a decently priced one prompted me to get it. Or it could be that it came with a lens that I could use on my Sony Alpha DSLR. I already have a number of Konica/Minolta/Sony lenses for the DSLR so maybe I thought that having a reasonably inexpensive, later model Minolta AF film camera would be nice (to go with my Nikon N90s, Canon EOS 650, and Canon EOS Elan IIe all of which I love to use).

It’s a Minolta Maxxum 5, the less expensive sibling of the Maxxum/Dynax 7 and 9 cameras, which still command significantly more money. My copy came with a Minolta 28-100 AF lens f3.5 (22)-f5.6 D lens, a strap, a Tiffen UV filter, and a lens hood. It’s also the data back version. (I don’t like data backs and so immediately turned it off) and has a BP-200 battery pack.

It’s very small and is quite light. I like the look and feel of it. While obviously designed to meet a low price point (i.e. lots of plastic) it feels quite solidly made. Because it’s an inexpensive camera, however, this doesn’t mean that it lacks features – quite the contrary. It has a top shutter speed of 1/4000; bracketing; continuous and 7-point autofocus; exposure compensation; automatic (from DX coding) or manual selection of ISO from 6-6400; and multiple exposure capability. It also has an interesting reset button, which returns all settings to default if you mess something up. Powerful, but perhaps a little bewildering are the 14 customizations, which allow you to set up the camera how you want it. They cover such areas as flash settings, leaving the film leader out, spot metering options, metering patterns, etc. Unfortunately you’ll probably need a “cheat sheet” to remember what they are as they are all referenced by number.

The top display shows all of the set options at a glance. Other controls for flash and exposure compensation, spot metering and selecting AF points are conveniently placed. The camera has a built in pop-up flash, which I doubt I’ll use (I’m terrible at flash photography and prefer to use available light). There are also buttons, which select (in conjunction with turning the command dial) scene modes (portrait, landscape, macro, action, night) and drive mode (single frame advance, continuous frame advance, self timer and remote control) options. To the bottom right on lens mount is a depth of field preview button, and on the left a manual/autofocus toggle button. On the right side of the body is a port for a wired remote. It’s the same as the port on my Sony Alpha 500 DSLR so I can use the wired remote with both cameras.

The camera also has “Eye Start” and begins to focus as soon as you lift it up. I don’t like this feature and immediately turned it off. Focus and exposure setting can be locked using a half press of the shutter button.

I found the mode dial initially a little confusing. For example to select aperture priority you have to turn the dial to PASM, then press and hold the central “func” button while turning the control dial on the front. This then cycles through the available options (seen on the top screen). When you reach ‘A’ you let go of the ‘func’ button and you’re all set. It’s not particularly difficult or time consuming – just different from what I was used to (i.e. selecting the programme mode directly from the dial itself). Other settings on the dial include bracketing options; audio signal; eye start, custom settings; ISO; AF options (A,C,S); red-eye reduction.

The viewfinder of the Maxxum 5 is bright and the display on the bottom shows just the essentials: focus pattern, focus confirmation, shutter speed, aperture and exposure setting.

It has a decent sized grip and was very pleasant to use. It would be easily possible to build a substantial system (body and older Minolta AF lenses) at very little cost. Definitely a very likable camera.

I’ll post some results later.

St. Philip’s Church in the Highlands, Garrison

by Posted in Buildings/Structures, Cemeteries, Fed 50mm F3.5 Collapsible, Fed2, Film Leave a comment
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Yet another film photograph. I’ve always loved this church – largely because it doesn’t really seem to belong in the US. I’ve seen so many like it in my own country (the UK) that seeing this one really makes me feel at home, and a little nostalgic. In fact the church resembles, to a certain extent, St. Mary’s church in Sandbach, where I grew up.

This one has a rich history. According to Wikipedia:

The church was originally established ca. 1770 when St. Peter’s Church in Peekskill was granted charter by King George III. The wardens, Beverley Robinson and Charles Moore, decided to establish a parish to the north, in the area known as Four Corners, to serve families in that area. After a short period in another church and a parishioner’s home, a small wooden chapel was built where the present church stands. The current graveyard was also started at the same time. The new complex was possibly named St. Philip’s in honor of the Philipse family, original patentees of the area and Robinson’s in-laws.

The Rev. John Doty, the first rector of both churches, left for Nova Scotia after a few years as he was a staunch Loyalist in an area increasingly divided over revolutionary politics. Robinson, too, declined an invitation from his friend John Jay to swear allegiance to the newly created United States, and actively worked to support the British by organizing the Loyal American Legion and coordinating intelligence-gathering efforts. His lands and home were eventually confiscated by the new government of New York, and he left for England after the war, never to return.

A similar fate would befall half of St. Philip’s families, and the church was so despised locally for its Tory associations that legend has it a mob came together to burn it down at one point during the later years. They were supposedly dissuaded from doing so by George Washington himself, who stood at the door and said “That, sir, is my church!” In gratitude the stained glass window in the church’s vestibule depicts him.

…

A new pastor, the Rev. Charles Frederick Hoffman, arrived in May 1860. The completion of the Hudson River Railroad through nearby Garrison Landing had made the community more accessible to New York City and a desirable place to live for some of the most socially prominent families of the day, many of whom were congregants. Hoffman saw that the growing church needed a new building.

His congregation responded. Henry Belcher donated three acres (1.2 ha) for the building and grounds, and others raised $10,000 for its construction. The design came from another worshipper at St. Philip’s, Richard Upjohn, already famous for Manhattan’s Trinity Church. The new structure, a one-story Gothic Revival building of gray granite, was finished in 1861 and consecrated the next year.

In the decades afterwards, a carriage house and shed were built near the church. At the turn of the century, a parish house was built.

The picture was taken with a Fed 2 rangefinder camera and Fed 50mm f3.5 collapsible lens (based on the Leitz Elmar). I believe the film was Kodak Gold 400.

For a more complete history of St. Philips Church see (in a variety of different formats) History of St. Philip’s church in the Highlands, Garrison, New York, including, up to 1840, St. Peter’s church on the manor of Cortlandt by Chorley, E. Clowes (Edward Clowes), 1865-1949

Tarrytown Reservoir

by Posted in Black & White, Film, Jupiter-8 50mm f2, Zorki4 Leave a comment
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As I recall this was taken in the early days of my camera collecting (September, 2011 I think) with a Zorki 4 rangefinder camera and a 50mm f/2 Jupiter-8 Former Soviet Union lens – one of the earlier chrome models. I believe the film used was Kodak T-MAX 400, but I’m not entirely sure. I believe this to be so because I have a note saying that it is. However, it doesn’t look to me like a picture taken with a Jupiter-8. It looks to me more like the other lens I was using around that time: an Industar 61.