Ecstasy and agony

While attending this year's SuperHero Street Fair, the neck strap on the V1 managed to slip free of the buckle, causing the camera to drop a foot or so to the sidewalk. The hood on the 30-110mm has several scratches and nicks. The left corner of the V1 also has some chips. Not a good day.

The event was more populated with costume revelers this year, making it a constant shoot fest. I used all the lenses in my small bag (35mm, 50mm, 30-110mm, and 10-30mm), with the 50mm getting the least use as it was a bit  too long. I do love how the V1 kit can be so small yet have such breadth and depth. I do wish that F-mount AF lenses were able to use AF points other than the center as focus-and-recompose is a pain for events.

I haven't gone through all the images as 2013 is still calling. In the meanwhile, here are some that jumped out and demanded to be edited.

The downside of digital

It's finally over. After almost two months, I've finished editing the final photo from the Bay to Breakers. I was there for five hours, which explains why I ended up with so many shots. Staying later means more photos of the party crowd. Not too many nude runners this year (or I missed them due to the crowd density).

The pictures came out nicely despite the sun coming out later in the day. The usual kit of D3+70-200mm VR+TC-14E. No flash this time. The usual case of eye strain after the event, and a hungry belly.

Complete set of photos can be found here

Hit rate: 566/2,510, or 23%

Now that the B2B ordeal is over, I can go back to my regular editing schedule, which puts me further back to September of last year. Sigh.

Popping the cosplay cherry

I've been to several comic book conventions, JPop festivals, and cherry blossom parades. But I've never attended a pure cosplay event. I managed to attend one last weekend, and it was a bit of overload. Lots of people in costumes, and lots of photographers milling around them. Some photogs even brought lighting setups with them. Talk about dedication.

I only managed a few shots, as most of the time I was just gawking and enjoying the view. Hopefully I'll be better prepared for the next one. I stuck to my favorite portrait lens (the 105mm f/2DC), and it didn't disappoint. There are times when I'm amazed at what this lens produces. It has a pop that's lacking in the 70-200VR. Hopefully Nikon will update it with an AF-S version so I can use it on the V1 and D3200.

On a side note, there was one photog using a view camera. It was interesting to watch him do the careful setup and focus required by such a large rig. It would be nice to see his results, given the care and time he put into his photos. Another one was using a medium format Mamiya, which was a surprisingly light rig. Large format rights would be fun to try, but my manual focus skills are pretty nonexistent, so it wouldn't be much fun.

Hit rate: 16/58, or 28%

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Full album can be found here

On another side note, I've been stuck trying to edit photos in a chronological order. So future posts will be jumping back and forth as I find albums that are more interesting or need more timely processing than others.

Scanning adventures

I've had the Nikon Coolscan V for a week or so now. The output is the best of the three scanners I've tried (my ancient Epson Perfection 2450 flatbed and a Plustek 7600i). Clean negatives come out nice and sharp. Old, faded negatives come out decent. Scanning is still a slow process, especially if you add more processing. But the XPS 8700 and the Coolscan V work well together, allowing me to do other things while a scan is going on (unlike the Epson and Plustek that would only let you scan when connected to my old XPS 420).

I still haven't had much luck cleaning film. PEC-12 works on some negs, but leaves bad scratches that ICE can't clean up. Old slide film holds up better than negative film. I'm not sure if it's the film itself or the quality of processing. I'm storing the negs in archival sleeves as a lot of the PVC (and other unidentified plastic) sleeves tend to attach to and damage the film. 

Film just doesn't hold up to digital; The grain structure takes away detail and sharpness when compared to today's digital cameras. The only exception would be black and white film. There's something about it that I can't re-create in digital, no matter what plugin or preset I've tried. 

My technique also sucked big time. Lots of good shots were ruined by being out of focus, or having bad exposure. AF is definitely a big help for me. Not having EXIF information, I can only guess at the camera and lens combinations along with exposure settings.

But the fun part is discovering a few gems. 

Even more toys

Things have been a little busy on the hardware front. Getting the Dell XPS 8700 set up has been a bit of a chore, from locating product keys and install files to getting the settings back to where they were before. But that's almost done. Maybe another week or so for the minor programs.

My 64GB Lexar Pro 1066x CF card finally arrived. The D3 would not fully recognize the card; I could format it in the camera (that takes a bit of time), but then the camera indicated zero remaining shots. A quick check of Nikon's website shows that I'm two revs behind on firmware updates. Another 10mins or so to download and update the camera, and I now have 1.7k (NEF + JPEG fine) remaining shots. Hopefully the buffer will clear up faster the next time I'm doing surfing shots.

My daily craigslist search has produced a Nikon LS-50/Coolscan  V scanner. Searching the interwebs gives me the drivers needed for Windows 8. The Nikon Scan software isn't too bad. Image quality of scanned Ektachrome results in vibrant colors. Sadly, the slides have some dirt on them that Digital ICE can't remove. Scanning film is a slow process, and requires quite a bit of patience. Well worth it to save those family moments.