Fotografia

Southampton, shot with the Nikkor 35-135 AF - All rights reserved - (C) Marco Venturini Autieri 2010 - also available on iStock

Having just received my second Contax 139 (to replace my beloved original one that I got when I was 16), I reckon this is the right time to summarise my photographic equipment.

I am not a collector. I own cameras and lenses because I use them, with the only exception of the first in the list below:

• Zenit 12XP with the screw-mount Helios 58/2: I still keep it because it was my first serious camera (I was 14), and I shot many pictures with it. My father, of course, would always pay for the development and print, without objecting to their inherent non-art.
• Contax 139 Quartz: two bodies, since the first one is almost dead for the lens-hit-with-the-mirror syndrome.
• Carl Zeiss Contax/Yashica Sonnar 135/2.8: mechanically, I love it, it’s a jewel. Optically, it is good, which is a disappointment, because with such a name, a lens should be excellent. I often think of selling it.
• I used to own a Carl Zeiss Contax/Yashica Planar 50/1.7, but my aforementioned father damaged it while trying to un-mount it from my 139 as if it were a Nikkor lens, so I sold it.
• Carl Zeiss Contax/Yashica Tessar 45/2.8: just lovely, optically excellent and compact. Probably in conbination with the 139 is the most compact SLR solution ever.
• Tamron SP 90/2.5 Adaptall macro 1:2: I can use this on my Fuji S3 as well as on my Contax and Nikon. Supersharp and contrasty, I could easily live with this one and sell the Sonnar.
• Olympus XA: could well be my only camera need, but the lens vignettes too much (at all apertures). Fantastic otherwise. I have pictures shot with it accepted into iStock Vetta and Alamy!
• Nikon FM2n: I never doubt it will work. I bought it after watching Blowup (yes, I know the camera in the movie is not the same) and I mostly use it today with the Ilford Delta 3200.
• Nikkor AF-D 50/1.4: optically fantastic from f/2, but flimsy and ugly plastic otherwise. I also had an AI 50/1.4 but, unwisely, I sold it.
• I had a Nikkor AF 35-135 3.5-4.5  zoom (see pic in the post), that I soon sold because it was really, really bad, optically.
• Wide-angles: a fantastic Nikkor AI UD 20/3.5 that today replaces the wide-angle lenses I owned in the past, all sold: a Vivitar 24/2.8 screw-mount, a Nikkor AI 24/2.8, a Tamron SP 17/3.5
• Nikkor AF-S 24-120 VR: optically bad, my first experiment in terms of VR, that works great.
• Bronica SQ-A, with a Zenzanon PS 80/2.8 (great!) and a Zenzanon PS 150/4 (great!). I bought it to replace my Mamiya C220 with 80/2.8 that was fantastic but, unfortunately, defective.
• Fuji S3: my only digital camera. Great sensor (great dynamic range and great colours, bad resolution), very slow, small and dim viewfinder, heavy and bulky.

It’s time for another camera bag.

Durham is one of those towns that work better in Black and White.

Some time ago I proposed it would not be difficult to improve on the quality of the current photos of Durham found on the web.

I photographed the Cathedral and… well, what would the Cathedral be without the potent lighting equipment that surrounds it?

Here it is.

Bronica SQ-A

Fuji S3

By the way, my iStock  collection of Durham pictures is growing.

People talk of good portrait lenses, but usually forget about good portrait cameras.
My Bronica SQ-A is a great camera, but not a great portrait camera. Unless used in a studio, on a tripod, with the mirror locked up and with your eyes on the model rather than in the viewfinder, what happens in practice is that the Earth-shattering mirror scares the model – who closes the eyes – and that you cannot verify this because the mirror locks you out of the image.

From this point of view, the Mamiyas C220 and C330 are much better – no mirror noise and no mirror black out.

This said, these two portrais of Misha were shot with the Bronica SQ-A.

“Lavoro, non ho tempo per dedicarmi alla fotografia” è, più o meno, la scusa di chiunque abbia una professione (che non sia quella del fotografo).

Questa è la foto del retro di un relè elettromeccanico: praticamente ciò con cui ho a che fare durante le ore d’ufficio.

Ovviamente, posso pubblicarla solo oggi, a settimane di distanza dallo scatto: non ho avuto tempo, ho dovuto lavorare…

…e che importa se e` il freddo e nebbioso mare della Contea di Durham?

The sea at the evening - Nikon D40, standard zoom, Photoshop

I have added a new gallery, City bits. Please enjoy (responsibly).

Please also note this new website address. Hopefully this is going to stay for long.

Most of us, most of the times, thinking of photography, think of taking pictures rather than making.

It’s true for me, too.

At times, however, I have an idea in mind and I need to create it in order to shoot it. The following is an example. Besides the usual difficulties of light and exposure, I had to figure out what lens and what perspective would match the vision I had in mind. I confess it was not easy, and the end result, that however I like, is not like the image I had in mind.

On iStock the English version is available too.

Sometimes, shooting in RAW pays back, especially if we are playing with our new digital toy, and have a long learning way ahead.

This picture is over two years old. When I shot it, I used one of the crappiest Nikon lenses (the 35-135 AF zoom, now sold) and I was not into subtle retouching at all.

I am publishing it now, because I feel I finally managed to correct its lack of sharpness (that you cannot see, anyhow, in this small file size) and micro-contrast. Also, because I feel it represents at the best my feelings for London.

Also available on iStock.

I have created a new photographic gallery here on Shade of Light. It is the first gallery where I can break free from the previous limitations due to wordpress.com

This gallery (”Regno Vegetale“) is dedicated to those few times that flowers and plants have attracted my imagination more than sea has.