Tripod
To me a tripod is vital as I love long exposures. I started out with a very cheap one from Dixons which was a ‘proof of concept’ purchase. When it broke I looked for a better quality one. I visited a good camera shop and worked my way up the price range until I found one I thought suited in both handling, weight and cost. It’s a Velbon but that is chance – it could quite easily have been one of several other makes.
What I didn’t appreciate at the time was how useful having legs that could adjust independently would be. It’s not quite as stable as one where they are braced, but it lets me use it in all sorts of situations where a braced tripod simply couldn’t be used.
I have two quick release plates for it. One lives on the bottom of the camera, the other on the bottom of the 60-250mm lens.
ND Filters
I love filmy shots of water as you can see from a number of my images – I’m a big fan of Turner and the impressionists.
Originally I was setting the lowest ISO and stopping down, and in dark places that sometimes works, but sometimes I couldn’t get a slow enough shutter speed.
Realising I needed more control I invested in some P-size Cokin-style ND filters. These have a couple of advantages over conventional screw-in filters:
- They can be used on almost any lens – all I have to do is buy the correct size filter ring, which is a relatively cheap item;
- They can be stacked to a degree without causing significant vignetting;
I aim to start with ISO 100 and a reasonable aperture – say f8 – and use the LCD on the back of the camera to check the effect. I stack filters to get the effect I like, and sometimes alter the ISO & aperture as well.
Of course one of the joys of digital photography is that it costs no more to take 10 shots than 1!
Film Scanner – Nikon Coolscan 5000
I have a lots of 35mm slides and negatives and wanted to digitize them, so I took a deep breath and brought a Nikon LS5000 ED scanner, and then a slide feeder for it from Ebay.
It does a terrific job in no small part because of the Digital ICE software. I scanned all my slides fairly quickly, but scanning the negatives is taking time (as in decades!) as they are relatively fiddly to feed and scan. The EXIF for scanned images says the camera is an ‘Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 5000 ED’.
Bits and Pieces
Of course there is a bit more to it than a camera, tripod and ND filters… I take spare batteries and the printed manual if I go with ‘all the kit’ plus several other small items. I have a photographer’s rucksack to make it all easier to carry. I could do with a tripod bag as well, not to mention a porter!
Printers
Naturally I also have a printer or three…