Blue Jeans

I return to the Tamron SP 35mm f/1.8 lens because its fidelity is so fine. It can also focus close enough to almost qualify as a macro lens. Used here on a Nikon D3s at 200 ISO; 1/250th; f/8. I find this lens to be just as useful - if not more so - on the Nikon D2Xs, and that is because the D2x series was excellent in every way but one: it was poor at ISO levels beyond 400. But put a fast lens with image stabilisation on it and you never need to go into murky ISO levels.

Nikon D3s and Tamron AF 70-210mm f/2.8 SP LD 67D at full telephoto. 12,800 ISO; 1/400th; f/4.5. This lens was in production from 1992 to 2003. It was designed with film in mind and the few reviews of it on the internet emphasise its robust construction whilst broadly saying it is optically good but not on the level of comparable lenses from the major manufacturers. Several reviewers mention its odd colour rendition but I've never noticed that. Generally, performance seems OK on 12 MP camera sensors.

Canon EF 35-105mm f/3.5-4.5 lens on a Canon EOS 30D camera. ISO 800; f/11; 1/400th; lens at 105mm (field of view equivalent 168mm).

Canon EOS 40D + Pentacon Auto f/1.8 50mm lens.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor-O.C 35mm f/2 lens.

Fujifilm FinePix S3Pro and 20mm f/3.5 AI-S Nikkor lens. Bjørn Rørslett rates this lens very highly for close-up work; less so for landscapes.

Canon EOS 30D + Sigma M42 80-200mm f4.5 - 5.6 zoom lens. Neither of these costs much now. The lens goes for pennies, sometimes literally, on eBay.

If you keep your clothes as long as I do - and that is for a generation in the case of these jeans - you learn something about clothing sold by supermarkets. This old pair of jeans is made from quite stout denim in comparison to the thin stuff now offered. Additionally, in the old days not only was the cloth of better quality, you got quite a bit more of it. You could live and let rooms in this pair, which suits me fine. You also discover that these days the manufacturers use shorter zips. I won’t offend sensibilities by developing this issue. I will simply state that there are limits and that they may have been exceeded.