This one should be grouped under gadgets, but what the hell? I’m in Singapore right now and just received 2 packages from the US. One of them is a new tripod head, the previous one a Manfrotto 486RC2 has been sold to a nice gentleman here in Singapore over the weekend (seems its quite a hot ballhead on the marketplace). What did I replace it with? Went for an Arca-Swiss type head, and got Kirk Enterprise’s BH3 ballhead. I dont need something like the BH1 or a real Arca Swiss B1 sinc eI dont have a large 300mm f2.8 or larger lens for now. Had to change to a new ballhead becuase the Manfrotto head just doesn’t handle the F4s with the 80-200mm that well. When you compose and lock the head, it moves a little since the whole setup is too heavy.
Continue reading 'New Addition to the family… Ballhead and Scanner'»
Was out of the country for 3 days and when I came back the iPod battery was already flat. Seems that after a few years, the battery fails to retain charge. If its not used for a few weeks the battery will be flat. Not sure where the charges leaks to, but it just disappears.
Luckily my replacement battery arrived from the US last weekend and so its time to upgrade it. I’ll detail the upgrade later but it was almost painless, but while prying the case open I think I must have dislodged one of the button. Now the play button is integrated in the case. Meaning that all I have to do is to squeeze the bottom of the case to get the play/pause button to work! Will have to operate the case again soon when I have more time to repair this… but I thought its quite cool “feature” to have…
Today marks my first time on eBay… I’ve been watching items for a long time already but its the first bid today. Feels good. But you wont know that you have won till the end of the auction.
I was planning to get a new tripod head from Kirk Photo in the US but there’s this guy in Perth that sells a mint condition head (ok, older model, but I dont really care, the only change is the QR platform) and I more or less have the price I’m willing to pay for it. Lets see how it works out. I have the high bid today, but still with 48 hrs more to go.
Specs…
Lens: 25-50mm f4 AIS
Camera: Nikon F4 with MF23 back
Tested out my new used 25-50mm AIS lens on the F4 when I went on a street shoot today, and noticed that although its an AIS lens, and matrix metering works with it (seriously, I’ve never used the Matrix Meter before, prefering to use Central-weighted or Spot meter), when you’re on “A” (aperture priority) and one of the “P” (programmed) modes, no aperture information shows up on the MF23 back. This also means no aperture info is imprinted on to the film. I usually set the MF23 to print shutter and aperture setting information between frames, but with AIS lenses, it seems that it only prints shutter speed and you get a “–” for aperture.
When you set the F4 to “P” mode, the body doesn’t seem to be able to set the aperture on the camera, even if you stop it down to the smallest aperture setting. In effect the “P” setting works like “A” where you set the aperture using the aperture dial on the lens.
Don’t matter to me too much since I’m mostly on aperture priority or full manual.
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