The price to performance of used cameras is absurd. My view is that digital photography tech hit maturity in 2008 with the release of the Canon 5D Mark II and Nikon D700.
There is an overwhelming amount of professional gear out there at rock bottom prices. Consumer gear can be a blast when it’s cheap enough. The right camera for a style of shooting is going to be better than whatever the newest camera happens to be. (Unless you’re doing sports/action/wildlife. AF tech is getting absurd.)
I have had batteries fall apart, fail within months, and with a capacity far below what’s on the label. It’s difficult to find good quality third party batteries.
There is an easy way ANYONE can inexpensively capacity test camera batteries. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to capacity test camera batteries. It is a simple DIY project that only requires, ~$30, a screwdriver, and pair of wire strippers.
All lenses aren’t equal, especially when it comes to vintage and early digital camera lenses. Modern lenses will give you images that are razor sharp corner to corner. Vintage lenses can set themselves apart by how they render, the color you can get with them, interesting bokeh, or other characteristics not valued by current photographers.
On the other hand, many vintage lenses are not good. Their performance may not be good enough to set them apart from other lenses. Worse, as time has gone on some lenses have defects such as haze, fungus, balsam separation, or degraded grease, that will render them worthless because of the difficulty in repair.
I’m somewhat indiscriminate in my purchasing of gear, so I get a mix of good, bad, and average. The lens reviews will help you find a lens worth owning. These are popular film cameras that recieve frequent lens questions.
Recent Posts
The T80 is a great camera.
If you don’t have a lens or desire a new lens, this page will talk about the top 5 lenses to use with your T80 camera.
Additional details are below, but if you’re limited on time, below is the list:
The T90 is an awesome 35mm film camera.
This article will talk about the best 5 lenses for the T90 camera.
Additional details are below, however if you’re in a rush, here is the list of the lenses:
The Canon AV-1 uses Canon FD-mount lenses. There’s a complete lineup of FD lenses, but availability can be an issue.
Here’s the list of best lenses:
Canon Powershot cameras can use CompactFlash or SD memory cards.
Models that use CompactFlash are only compatible with a maximum capacity of 2GB. Using a card with a larger capacity than that will cause errors.
There are three different types of SD cards used in Canon PowerShot cameras. The file system used by the camera determines the maximum capacity of SD card that can be used. The abbreviation can be seen on card labels.
Balsam separation is when lens elements that have been epoxied together started to delaminate. The description was originally specific to Canada balsam. However, this also applies to modern lenses that use various epoxies.
What balsam separation looks like will depend on the lens coatings. For older lenses without any or early coatings, the lens elements can look milky or powdery white.
With lenses from the 1970’s and newer, the delamination looks like a white or reflected rainbow halo around the problem area. This will usually be along the outer edge of the elements, but can occur in other areas.
Stripping a screw can end a repair. The most common cause of a stripped screw head is from using the wrong screwdriver.
For cameras, lenses, and other products made in Japan, JIS cross point screwdrivers are required. (Japanese Industrial Standards)
At a quick glance, JIS screw heads look similar to Phillips. Using a Phillips screwdriver increases the chance of stripping the head of a screw.
