Strangler in the toilet

Listening to Hanging Around in the bogs at work. It helps coax the little brown buggers out !

Hair cut for The Bonzo Boys

It that time of year again- the pre Christmas chop!

Nyarlathotep

Nyarlathotep
Originally uploaded by kraalomega

hungry ?

Product Review 3. Nikon AF 28 mm f2.8 lens

I was expecting to pay around £240 for this lens and so was happily surprised when I purchased this new on Ebay for £150. I immediately registered with Nikon, just to check it was OK and it went through fine. I’d financed this lens by selling my Sigma 24-70 f2.8, a good lens, but I found it focus sloppy while doing Carly and Lyns wedding on 22nd August 2009 and wanted something more consistent. I also wanted a prime that I would really make me work and think better. I find zooms make me lazy. As I’m currently shooting with the D200 (next upgrade will be the the D300) the 28 mm gives me approximately 42 mm and I have to say it’s a great size. Handy for most close work and indoor work. Here are a few example:

From Drop Box">The back room Westbourne Place

From Drop Box">Hand held lighting experiment in the back yard

From Drop Box">A close up of the Jasper

I find it a great general focal length; It small and light and can be easily manually focused, which I like to be able to do for certain shot. I think for the DX sensor camera, slightly preferable (and about the same cost) to the 35mm f2. Obviously the 35mm will give a better portrait image than the 28mm; but for the sort of wedding work I do, this is a great overall lens.

My next review will take a bit longer to post as I intend to do a large piece on my SU800 and the Nikon CLS and I want to do it in more depth.

Da Da for now xxx

Product review 2 - The Kinesis X-Harness

With the wedding of Carly and Lyn on the 22nd of August, came a raft of on the spot equipment test. The main one being my use of the Nikon Creative Lighting System or CLS for short and my Kinesis X-Harness http://www.kgear.com/index.html.

I’m going to cover my experiment with Nikon’s CLS at a later date, suffice it to say it went well and I have already expanded my system with an additional SB800 and an SU 800.

So, the harness. My main reason for going with a harness for my main kit support was because I had a notion to shoot entirely manual, metering with my Sekonic L-408 as I went along, so I wanted my hands free to meter, then step back and shoot. The second reason came when I finally came to put all of my kit together:

• Nikon D200
• Power Pack (not Nikon)
• Stroboframe Press-T Flash bracket
• Nikon SB-800
• Nikon SC-29 (connecting cable)
• Sigma 24-70 f2.8

That’s a lot of kit and the D200’s own strap really didn’t cut it, hence the harness decision. And it turned out to be a good decision.

First, I have to say the Kinesis harness looks very good in a somewhat special forces kind of way, but it doesn’t just look good it feels good.

• It’s light
• It doesn’t move about much
• it looks good.
• It feels good
• It doesn’t impede your own movement.
• It doesn’t get in the way of your pint (should you choose to have one) (or two)

It’s really a matter of comfort, and on the whole it worked well. I did, later in the day (and it was a long day) lose both the battery pack and the Stroboframe, mainly to lighten the load, but also I was using the Lumiquest 80-20, which I have discovered doesn’t work well with the flip top flash bracket.

From desktop folder">here's a pick

My only negative feedback isn’t an issue with Kinesis per say; it’s just I was hoping to wear a light jacket (open) to cover the harness and look less like a SWAT team sniper; this is possible, however, you’ll look like a hunch back. I opted instead for a black shirt. It was a warm day. If it wasn’t for the fact their web site is so hard to navigate and order from and that they have no U.K. distributor (I’d be up for the job !!!) I’d give it 10 out of 10, but they’ll have to live with 9 out of 10.


Here’s are pictures from their web link: http://www.kgear.com/h/H717.html#intro

Next Product Update: The Nikon 28mm f2.8