and sometimes i just sits » reviews

Olympus XA @ Jam Packed

Ferraby — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:17:54 +0000

Olympus XA @ Jam Packed, Hobart.

I bought this used from a camera store in Hobart for AUD50 – What a steal !!!
It came with a manual, A11 accessory flash and 2 extra batteries.
Really small in size. Perfect ‘bring everywhere’ camera without compromising on manual features.

The Olympus XA is a 35 mm rangefinder camera built by Olympus of Japan. It was and still is one of the smallest rangefinder cameras ever made. The original model, the XA – widely regarded as the best – was the first of many XAs to follow (XA1, XA2, XA3, XA4) and was sold from 1979 to 1985. It features a true rangefinder focusing, a fast 35mm f2.8 lens, and aperture priority metering. Later cameras, models XA2 to XA4, featured scale focusing instead of rangefinders. Model XA1 used a fixed-focus lens.

The clam shell cover is a really nice touch and makes this camera very pocketable. This design proved to be very popular and was and is still featured on many of Olympus’ camera today – from the film MJU/Stylus epic all the way to the latest digitals.

Some specs:

Lens: 6 elements 5 groups F.Zuiko 35mm

Aperture: f/2.8–f/22

Shutter: 10s~1/500s leaf shutter

Focusing: 0.9m to infinity rangefinder

Exposure: aperture-priority metering with +1.5 exposure compensation for backlighting

Battery: 2 LR/SR44

Size: 102×64.5×40mm

Weight: 225g

Year: 1979–1985

Will post pictures soon. Stay close =D

On Photography: Films so far…

Ferraby — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 07:23:15 +0000

I started film photography again March this year and so far……….

Shot a total of 25 rolls of film……… and counting!!!
BW400CN(5), XP2(4), Reala(4),HP5(3), TriX(2) 400UC(2),XTRA 400(2), Gold 200(1), Ultramax 400(1), 800z(1)

On Photography: Annie Leibovitz At Work

Ferraby — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:09:45 +0000

Just finished reading ‘Annie Leibovitz At Work’

A truly insightful book into the life and works of one of todays modern masters in photography. I truly admire how she engages her subject and evokes such personal expressions in the portraits she captures.

The book also showcases her work in chronological order from her earlier days with film to more recent projects with digital workflows. Personally, i prefer her earlier works and my favourite has to be – ‘John Lennon and Yoko Ono, New York City, December 8, 1980’ and ‘Dr. Sanja Besarovic, Kosevo Hospital, Sarajevo, 1993’

On Photography: Nikon D700

Ferraby — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:00:26 +0000

There are hundreds of websites with articles regarding this camera…so what more can i add?
I purchased my D700 towards the end of ’08. Prior to that, i was using a D80 with several lenses, all of which i managed to auction off with a rather reasonable price thanks to eBay.

What do i think about my D700?

Obviously it is more expensive, and bigger and heavier.
Obviously it has much better specs compared to my D80 most notably the upgrade from DX to FX.
Obviously i can no longer use my DX lenses, thus the auction.
It does have a better resolution, though i doubt you can see the difference with the image size that i have here.
It does have a better vibrancy and a natural colour rendition. However, with the advancement of digital darkroom (i.e Capture NX, Photoshop, Aperture, Lightroom, etc) this is almost a non factor in my humble opinion.
It does have a better usability despite being a more advanced and complex camera. This is home run for me !!