The object (of painting) is not to reflect the visible but
to make visible (Paul Klee)
- If I ever find time:
- My favourite slides (mainly travel)
- My own photography tutorial going
into the physics of photograpy (optics)
- Equipment manufacturers (cameras, lenses, tripods, ...
which I own or dream of owning):
- Minolta:
I started photography with a Minolta XD-7. The Leica R
series (before the R8) copied (and improved) many of the
good features, and eliminated some of the bad features (most
notably, the non-lockable over/under exposure control lever) of
the XD-7.
- Leica:
I am the proud owner of an RE (couldn't afford an M6)
with a Vario-Elmar-R 3.5-4.5/28-70 lense (angle of view:
76-34, lens elements/groups: 11/8, focusing range: 0.5m,
weight: 465g) and a Tamron (I wish I could afford the Leica
Vario-APO-Elmarit-R 2.8/70-180) 3.5/70-210 SP.
I only make slides, which are either printed on CibaChrome,
or projected with a Leica P300 IR slide projector with a Colorplan-P2
CF 2.5/90 mm lense. The Super-Colorplan-P2 is an almost perfect
apochromatic lense, but with non-glass mounted slides, the sides
of the slide are not in focus (due to the curvature of a heated
slide). The Colorplan-P2 CF (Curved Field) lense gives a uniform
sharpness over the whole image for curved slides.
I will write up a report of my comparison of both lenses
soon (many thanks to Yves Van Heghe of the Belgian Leica distributor
Masson-Draguet for his support).
-
Nikon: I was tempted to buy an F4, but finally decided on
the Leica. If I ever buy a 100% mechanical reflex camera,
it will be the FM2.
-
Tamron:
Tamron is the only lense manufacturer which offers an adaptall
mount for Leica. It's frightfully expensive (100$), but some
Leica lenses are just unaffordable. Tamron has a series of
lenses called SP, which are of superior quality. To buy:
500mm mirror lense.
- Contax:
builds great cameras with
Zeiss lenses.
As a point and shoot (with manual aperture control !),
I would love to own a
T 2
or (given more funds), a
TVS (both
are built by Kyocera).
- Yashica:
As a low-cost alternative to the T2, my mom and I share a
Yashica T5,
a fully automatic, weatherproof point and shoot with a
Carl Zeiss Tessar f3.5 T* Lense. The T5 is the European version
of the American market Super T4.
- Metz
(part of the
Bogen Photo Corp.): Handlemount CL 45. Beware of NiCd battery
memory !
- Gitzo
(
B&H link) (
Bogen Link):
Reporter Series 2, Compact Performance Tripod
G226: load: 6kg, maximum extension: 149cm, minimum usable height:
27cm (by reversing center column, the tripod can be used even lower),
leg sections: 4, center column sections: 2, folded length:
44cm, weight: 2.2kg. This Performance style tripod has a variable
leg spread of 24 degrees and 60 degrees.
Ball Head G1275: load capacity: 5kg, height: 11cm, weight: 450g
(I'm contemplating buying an Arca-Swiss ballhead).
-
Tamrac: Convertible Shoulder and Hip Bag (Compact
Convertible).
- Dream on ... with a lot of time and money, I would
get a Linhof view camera.
- Photo Equipment Vendors:
- B&H Photo Video
(New York)
is the ultimate (price, quality, ...) place for buying camera
equipment.
- PhotoStop
A gateway to photography resources
- Photo Links:
magazines, equipment, ... (in German)
- Miscallaneous Photo Links:
-
photo.net gathers photo reviews, links,
guidelines, ...
-
B&H links page (has links to most manufacturers)
-
Charles Daney's Photography Pages
-
Bengt's Photo Page
-
Rob Newcomb's ArtSpot contains a very neat photo tutorial
- World Press Photo