Exploring Options

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I’m wanting to explore my options, and get back to basics where my photography is involved. Rob and Tom both graciously offered to let me borrow camera bodies — a Nikon FG from Rob, and an FE from Tom, while I make some determinations about what I want to do — and Donna’s new FM-10 is on the way.

I’m still leaning towards trying to pick up an FM. However …

This past Sunday, Donna and I attended Part II of a Tim Edberg seminar on nature photography. Part II was “the shoot.” I spent the day concentrating on a couple of things, one of which I pretty much nailed (more on that this evening).

The other area of concentration, the jury is still out on. I decided to take full control of my Nikon N8008. The N8008 is an auto-focus 35mm SLR, with a full range of exposure modes. Manual exposure mode is pretty good on the camera, but, I’m not so sure about the focusing. (Of course, I didn’t finish the roll of color slide film I started on Sunday, and I won’t see the results until I get that roll of film out of the camera and developed.)

Here’s why.

Before I get too far into this, the N8008 is basically the same camera Tim uses, with remarkable results. My only issue with the camera for manual focus (I think) is that the focusing screen has no focus aids — no split image or microprism — just the ground glass, which is not what I’m used to for manual focusing.

So, the one major different between Tim’s gear and my gear is that Tim uses only prime lenses, with larger maximum apertures, and I have mostly zoom lenses, with their associated smaller apertures. That couple of stops makes a huge difference in viewfinder brightness, especially when I’ve got a polarizor, ND and/or other filter on the camera. Of course, a darker viewfinder makes it much harder to focus.

There are a couple of ways around this. First, get new lenses, which is a fairly expensive proposition, even though I would plan to buy used optics on eBay to save money. The second is to replace the focusing screen in the camera with a brighter one. Or (best of both worlds), both.

Nikon only offers a couple of screens for the N8008, and neither have a split image center. They really don’t expect that some who buys an autofocus camera is planning to do much manual focusing. They’re betting on that whole marketing mantra thing I talked about before. Enter Beattie and their Intenscreen line. Their focusing screens are supposed to be significantly brighter than the stock Nikon screens, and their available for under $100. They have six different models, both for my existing N8008, and also for some FM and FE models. (A caveat with the FM/FE series is that, due to the design of the metering system, some compensation may be required).

The point of all this is that I’ve got plenty of options, and the experimentation phase will be interesting and educational. The little bit of playing I’ve done so far does indicate that in less-than-optimal lighting conditions, the stock split image screen of an FE is a little dark (half the circle goes black on me) with my Sigma 28-135 f:3.8-5.6, and that could be a problem with lots of nature work.