The Limbo Connection's photos with the keyword: sunflower

Nikon D700 + AF Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8 Zoom lens at its macro setting (35mm).

Photographed with a Cosinon 135mm f/2.8 lens mounted on a Canon EOS 30D via an EOS-M42 adapter. I feel grief for the sunflower which collapsed under its own weight despite being tied to a stake for support. Transcending my mourning its passing is a feeling of joy in the ability of the Cosinon 135mm lens. It cost me £10 on eBay and must represent amazing value.

Photographed using a Chinon 55mm f/1.4 lens from the 1970s on a Canon EOS 30D camera, a model available from February 2006 to July 2007 and now probably of less value than the Chinon lens. I bought both of them on eBay during 2015 and regard them both as absolute bargains.

Photographed with a Nikkor 18-70mm lens on a Nikon D70s. 62mm. 400 ISO; f/8; 1/250th.

Today I bought a Nikon D70s, a camera dating from c.2005. The D70 models are some of the few SLR cameras with a CCD sensor. These were abandoned because alternative technology was cheaper. It is claimed that CCD technology provides a particular character of rendering and resolution; a vibrancy not always evident in the CMOS sensors which replaced them. Differences in colour and white balance can be adjusted in post processing, whereas the difference between a faintly antiseptic CMOS and a vibrant CCD cannot be replicated after the shutter has been activated. Zack Arias, a photographer who started out with the D70/70s described the skin tone resolving power of the D70, as “mind-blowing”. (I have yet to risk blowing my own mind). I thought it might be instructive to conduct my own tests, a fairly cheap exercise given the secondhand values of 14 year old digital cameras. I hope my D70 holds up long enough to reach a conclusion! Lens at 70mm. 200 ISO; f/8; 1/400th.

It is a wet summer’s day; I don’t think summer has any business being damp, but it must be endured. Hence the pedestrian subject material. I am using a Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 series E zoom lens on a Nikon D2Xs, which gives an angle of view quite a bit longer than the range on a full-frame camera. Notwithstanding that it must be focussed manually, it represents a bargain for its optical excellence - mine cost £31. Where else can you get 150mm at f/3.5 for such a small sum? With this lens plus a 35-70mm and a 20mm I should be ready for anything when the sun shines again. I have substituted a magnifying eyepiece for the original on the D2Xs. It makes what I see 1.2 times bigger. This is very good for focussing. It is called a Nikon DK-17M. I ought to have bought one years ago.

I bought an old Chinon CX camera from a seller on eBay. I didn't want the camera, I wanted the fast 55mm lens on it. In 1976, when this Chinon model was being sold for around £70, you could pay an extra tenner for a slightly faster lens (f/1.4 instead of f/1.7). Normally that's not a difference worth paying a premium for, but in this case the f/1.4 was almost certainly manufactured for Chinon by the Tomioka company. All these years later the lens is a bit compromised by dust and opacity inside the optics, yet is capable of turning in a decent performance.

Summer's almost gone We had some good times But they're gone The winter's coming on Summer's almost gone. (The Doors, 'Waiting for the Sun' LP, 1968) Nikon D700 + Nikon Series E 75-150mm f/3.5 lens.