28mm f/1.4E ED Nikkor Review
April 8, 2023
The Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28mm ƒ/1.4E ED is a $2000 (US) prime lens. This, on the surface, looks like poor value proposition. After all, even the cheapest kit lens is going to have a 28mm equivalent focal length at its wide end. So a review of this lens needs to start with addressing why someone would even consider paying for this lens.
Unique Qualities of 28mm Optically, a 28mm1 lens provides a wide field of view, which roughly matches what we see or percieve of our environment.
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Quest for the Best Focal Length
March 23, 2023
If I were to be left with only one focal length to take photos with for the rest of my life, which would I pick? This is my journey through 15+ years to find the answer to that question. Why it’s taken me this long to arrive the answer has a lot to do with experimentation, self-discovery and some great technological advancements. It all starts with the wrong type of 50mm.
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Fujifilm X100V Review: An Unfulfilled Dream
March 20, 2023
A few months ago, I reviewed the Fujifilm X-E4 and mentioned that I got that camera because
For years, I’ve been searching for something that’s compact, elegant and competent – a “Vanity Camera”, as I call it. After much deliberation, I settled on getting the world’s prettiest camera, a Fujifilm x100v. Except, as of this writing, I couldn’t find a new body in three different countries that I looked.
Well, it turned out that my brother managed to find an X100V and was gracious enough to swap it for my X-E4 kit.
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Fujifilm X-E4: An Engaging Experience I'd Rather Not Have
September 1, 2022
When I’m on a business trip and I go for breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant, I want to take a few photos of the ambience and the food. However, my Nikon D750 feels a bit like an overkill for this job, as does my Nikon D500… or Z6 or even Z50.
What I want for this occasion is something svelte. Like a Nikon Coolpix A or a Nikon J5. Except the former is as usable as a butter knife for carving steak and the latter is often outdone by an iPhone.
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exiftool Examples
May 6, 2021
Following is a collection of real exiftool commands that I’ve used, along with explanations of what each does. exiftool is a command-line utility that provides very powerful EXIF reading, writing and searching capabilities.
I’m writing this down because I often spend a lot of time reading through exiftool documentation to find out how to get something done, just to forget it within hours. All of these examples work on a Unix shell environment like ZSH on MacOS or the various Linux shells.
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D7100 and AF-P DX 70-300 VR on an Airshow
March 13, 2017
Aero India is a biennial air show that takes place on an airfield on the outskirts of Bangalore. As per Wikipedia, it’s the world’s largest air show after the one in Paris. I first came to know of it when a friend of mine armed with a Nikon D70s and a non-VR 70-300 f/4-5.6 came back with some fabulous shots way back in 2007. Ten years later, I got to visit the show with a Nikon D7100 and an AF-P DX 70-300mm f/4.
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Factoring the Crop
August 21, 2016
Here’s a picture whose EXIF I have stripped so you won’t know what equipment was used to shoot it.
If you had to guess the sensor size, considering that this is a minimally edited photo, what would be your guess? FX? DX? m43? 1″? 1/1.7″? 1/2.3″?
Small sensor systems are all the rage these days. 24-1200mm zoom in a handy little package. How about that? The problem is, tiny sensors come with compromises.
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AF-S Nikkor 20mm ƒ/1.8G on DX
August 16, 2016
Early this year, I acquired a used 20mm ƒ/1.8G Nikkor lens. I only have DX bodies and the 20mm works more like a wide-normal prime than an ultra-wide, as on FX.
20mm ƒ/1.8G Nikkor on a D7100. It’s big. Why use 20mm ƒ/1.8G? on DX? I had long wanted to have a small, fast 24mm prime for my DX bodies. While the 35mm ƒ/1.8 DX is compact enough, I don’t like it that much.
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Nikon D750 + 20mm f/1.8G Nikkor
March 24, 2015
A few days ago I got the opportunity to try out a Nikon D750, along with the new 20mm f/1.8G Nikkor lens. It wasn’t the best of times for trying out new toys for me, because of which I couldn’t get any presentable shots. I still got some shooting to do with it and I would go ahead to include those non-presentable shots anyway. Nikon D750 with 20mm f/1.8G Nikkor AF-S 20mm f/1.
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Carrying Cameras
December 22, 2014
The Problem One of the big issues I face while photographing outdoors is that of having to carry a big 1.5 kg camera, and usually additional lenses and accessories weighing another 1-2 kg, all the time while out shooting for the day. The default carrying solution – neck strap – has a couple of disadvantages:
It’s extremely tiring for the neck muscles It’s very fiddly, and gets in the way too much Most of you might already have faced problem #1.
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