Sign of the times…

Visit Jessops in Glasgow today. Met by the ‘greeter’  who asks if she can help. I said I’d come to see their professional department in the basement. ‘Ah, that’s closed just a big empty space with a cardboard box in the middle of it’. Being a persistent kind of fellow I asked what had become of the chiller cabinet of film, the strobe lighting, the large size inkjet and photographic paper, the chemical, the Pro Nikon cameras and lenses etc. ‘There’s a few boxes of the inkjet paper over there and some chemistry’ she gestured to the side of the store beyond the endless ads for Canon and Nikon starter kits. Sad sight really – I won’t be going back – just the way to fight the recession.

Nikon D700

A mature D-SLR at last. All the advantages of a full frame sensor with a modest pixel count – acceptable file size, decent enlargements (A2 not a problem) and low, low noise. I traded my D200 and DX lenses for a 700 last week. What a joy to be able to create images without troublesome noise at ISO 1600, even at 2000 and beyond the noise is more like colour neg film grain. Solid, if heavy (for me) camera. But the real delight is to program in a bunch of old manual lenses and go hunting with a trusty 50mm f/1.8 or vintage 55mm f/3.5 Micro Nikkor that act like they should regarding angle of view. Quickly profiled for Lightroom with a Macbeth ColorChecker – results very satisfying. There will be more to report.