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.
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The Canon FT QL is a single-lens reflex camera (SLR) that was released in 1966 and sold through 1972. In 1971 the Canon FTb QL and Canon F-1 were released as replacements for the FT QL.
This is Canon’s first camera body with TTL (Through the lens) metering. With this new feature, you can be confident that you will get the correct exposure.
QL stands for “Quick Load.” Living up to the name, the Canon FT QL is very easy to load film into.
Navigating the Sony A7 menu can be difficult. The layout is poor and setting names are not clear on what they do.
This is a list of settings the I use for adapted lenses on my Sony A7. They should also be similar to what you would find on a A7R.
My favorite lenses to adapt are macro lenses. The best one I have found has been the Vivitar 90mm f/2.8.
Glaringly obvious problems exist with the Sony A7. Reading reviews from when the camera was released 5 years ago don’t mention any of the problems.
After purchasing a used A7, I began to immediately notice problems I was not made aware of.
The star eater problem is the only deal-breaker, and it only applies to astrophotographers. Other issues can be worked around or avoided, as long as you are aware of them.
The Nikon 28mm f/2.8 Series E lens is the widest of all the Series E lenses. Introduced as a budget lens, it still fills that role today. It has an AI-S mount so it will work on most Nikon cameras.
A huge number of these lenses were sold in the early 1980s. As such, copies are widely available.
The Nikon 50mm f/1.8 Series E has remained a popular lens for more than 40 years. It was originally designed as a budget lens, but became popular with professionals.
Often referred to as a pancake lens, the lens is short and light. With caps on the lens, it can easily fit into a jacket pocket. A camera can also still fit under a jacket with the lens mounted. This makes the lens ideal for travel and keeping a low profile.
If you want macro images with a greater depth of field, you’re going to have to focus stack. Manually doing the process takes a long time.
The WeMacro rail is a motorized macro rail and camera trigger. Once a shot is set up, you can hit start and walk away. When you come back, you’ll have images ready to be stacked.
Black anodized aluminum is screwed together to make the frame. The machining of the aluminum parts is of acceptable quality. The linear screw and rails are higher quality and are free from defects.