Nikon D40

The Nikon D40 is my primary Digital Camera. It has a 6.3 mpx sensor and has the nikon F mount. However it only autofocuses with AF-S Lenses of which I have three. The others I must focus manually. The camera itself is very versatile and light. I have set the custom button to change the ISO as I feel that having easy access to this combined with Aperture priority, Shutter priority, or full Manual modes allows me to exercise total control over the exposure to take the image that I want.

Nikon N80

The Nikon N80 is my primary 35mm Film Camera. Unlike the D40 it has purely manual settings with a Program setting that you can override. This camera provides great exposure and is the most durable of my cameras. I also use a battery grip with this and it makes it more comfortable to hold as well as allowing the use of AA batteries. 90% of the time I have XP2 loaded in it! It autofocuses with all of my lenses however the 2 fx lenses (18-55 & 35) will not provide full frame coverage due to the size of the lens.

Lenses

Nikon AF-S 35mm f/1.8 - This tends to live on my D40. It’s smooth focus and large aperture allow me to capture shots with nice bookeh.

Nikon AF-S 18-55mm dx - This is a good multipurpose zoom but suffers a little from chromatic aberration at the wide end in bright light. It came with the D40

Nikon AF-S 55-200mm - A decent mid zoom it is of higher quality than the 18-55 although I dont use it as much as I’d like.

Sigma AF-D 70-300m Macro - a lovely zoom which I must manual focus on the D40 where it functions as a 105-450mm lens with macro! I took the bee photograph with this lens.

Nikon AF-D 50mm f/1.8 - My other newest addition. This acts as a 75mm prime ‘portrait’ lens on the D40 and a standard lens on the N80 where acts as the N80’s ‘default’ lens.

Nikon AF-D 28-80mm - The F80’s kit lens. Pretty good all rounder and I can use it with diopters on the D40 to take macro shots.

Filters

All of my lenses have UV filters in order to protect the lens from scratches. Tend to cut out haze on bright days if shooting a landscape.

I also possess a 58mm Circular Polarising Filter which I have used occasionally for landscapes although they are not really my main  interest.

I have some 58mm macro filters/diopters (+1,+2,+4,+10) which I find to be interesting for doing still macro photos although I prefer to get up close with a prime lens.

Film

In University I learned photography with film cameras and have moved onto digital.

My favorite film is Ilford XP2. This is a medium grain (ISO 400) C41 (colour process) film that actually produces images in black and white. This means that today it is cheaper to get processed than ‘true’ black and white film - unless you develop B&W yourself and scan the negatives. In addition I find the film grain to be pleasant and offer a nice addition to the image.

I have also have tired some Kodak CN400BW - basically the Kodak C41 B&W film. It came out a bit ‘softer’ than the XP2 but worked out nicely overall.

I have shot one roll of Velvia in my life and have the film unmounted.

In addition I have  tried some Kodachrome 64 which came out nicely but is now sadly discontinued. If I ever acquire a film/slide scanner I could put some of these images up.

Sadly due to availability of film, cost of processing and time I’m not sure if I will be continuing with film.