Category Archives: Gear

I suffer from gear addiction

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Hi, guys, I’m the new one.
I’m Sarah.
And I am a gear addict.

 

Shiny shiny, shiny new models everywhere.

Wherever I look, someone presents the latest and greatest, the must-haves of the minute. I am sitting at my desk feeling bad. Bad about neither having the objects of my desire nor the money to buy them. Thinking that I will not achieve what I want to achieve without having them.

Spiraling that until I don’t know anymore what else I ever wanted than buying gear.
Having gear.
Needing gear.
Collecting gear.
Buying more gear.
Not actually doing anything with gear, because I’m searching for gear. Looking at gear. Longing for gear. Craving for gear.

I got no time to go out using the stuff I got.
Because I’m a gear addict.
A broke gear addict.

Ok, to be fair, I was not there.
At least not completely.
But the tendencies were written on the wall and into my balance.
So my creativity went down the sewer.

Don’t get me wrong: gear is not the creativity killer.

It’s the idea to be only able to be creative with certain gear.
And that, my friends, is the exact opposite of creativity.
Nothing limits creativity more than this idea. At least for me.
Nothing gets more into the way of actually being creative.

During the last few months, I started to drift away from my targets, lost all I wanted to achieve with my channel out of sight.
Fair enough, I learned a lot. Theoretically.
In real life, I stood still.
Worse. I sat still.

Sure, I could go out and start filming. But without a gimbal? Without that super lightweight tripod?
And there may be no chance at all to get the shot framed without a 0.95 Leica lens. On a four grand body of course. The sound will be certainly shitty without having at least a four-track recorder, three mics, and a boom stick. Not to mention the necessity of light in all variations clamped to the military-grade rig.

But will it be enough? It’s only 4k and that could be a bummer. Ok, I never graded raw footage, but that’s not the point.
How much was this used Arri Alexa on eBay again?

I guess most of you know that. There’s always something better and there’s always something new.
And if not – it will be released soon. So, it’s time to talk about the specs now. Or at least about the rumored specs.

I really don’t want to criticize any channel by any means. There are fantastic reviewers making great content I love to watch. And some of them make their living from it, all my respect for that. I would be happy to get a little gig for a shooting.

But one thing for sure: did you ever see one of the guys building and benchmarking gaming PCs actually play? Like real gaming, not only playing some shooter for 10 seconds to see the frame rate.

The same effect seems to be present on some photo channels: does their review gear ever leave their YouTube studio? I doubt it. Maybe an insurance issue? Or maybe they changed gearing up with shooting? I don’t know, and it’s not my part to judge.

But there’s one thing I know for sure: that’s not me. At least not now, hopefully never. I won’t feel the joy of shooting, of wandering around, looking for frames, and the beauty of the moment.
I want to come home, slide the card in the slot, have a mug of coffee and see my pictures and footage. I don’t care if don’t have the latest and greatest, I want to master what I have before I move on.

And I am a one-woman show without a car. That’s where reality kicks in. I can’t carry all this stuff. And I certainly can’t use it at the same time. It is simply not possible, not for me at least.

Guess I’m repeating myself: don’t get me wrong. Of course, gear does matter. There are tasks that definitely ask for certain technology to make it happen. I couldn’t shoot a blockbuster with my camera and I could not record the sound with my microphone for it. I could not edit 8k footage with my computer and I could not render high-end CGI on it.

But you know what: even if I would have a Hollywood studio with all the big boys’ toys in it, I still could not shoot a blockbuster.
Why?
Because I have no clue how to do it. I simply lack the ability, knowledge, and necessary skills.

And I don’t want it.

Oh yes, I would love to take part for a day or two to smell the air and get the feeling. But that’s not my dream career. I’m old enough to take shorter steps.

 

So, what do I want?

I want to make my channel, create content I love – which hopefully will be loved by you.
I want to create and make art.
I feel that I’m on a great journey, now that I have chosen the solo creator pathway.
It feels right, it feels good, and there’s so much to learn and see out there.

 

Anything else?

Forgot that I’m a gear addict? I’m not the handbag type, I’m the daypack type.
I want to play with all the gear I can get.
Really get, physically get here on my desk in my hands. Bought it with my money.
But I won’t get driven by gear. I’m back in the driver’s seat for good.

Ok, I’m open for donations, review specimens, and all the other goodies. But my subscriber counter sets a natural limit to that. So, if you want me to review the latest Leica, hit the button and the bell.
Until that shows any effect, you got to get along with my cheap and cheerful solutions, vintage goodies, and weird cheapos.

Deal? If so, I hope you enjoyed my confession.
See you next time for another step deeper into my nerdy world of a woman and her camera gear.

My apologies, shitty queen Pentax 110, your lenses are great – in some cases

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Well well well, sometimes, dear audience, your blogger is a little too fast with her judgments.
You maybe have read my ode to “The queen of a shitty system”, the Pentax 110? If not, here is the chance to do so.

My conclusion was in a nutshell: I don’t get all the YouTubers and vintage lens nerds who are after the shardy remains of this weird DSLR 110 camera.
My apologies, I now understand. At least partial.
When I got my hands on the 18mm 2.8 lens, I just tried it at home and in the garden. Both with anticlimatic results after all of the hype.
So I decided to write the post and store them on my shelf for good.

Revisited Pentax 110 simply cause why not

So the camera and the subsequent lenses sat on said shelf. And bugging me big time. Not because of the money, they cost next to nothing.
But because of the simple fact, that I couldn’t believe that YouTubers like microfour nerd, which I really appreciate, were so wrong.
I mean, this system was discontinued in the early 80ies, the lenses are dirt cheap, so there is no influencer-alarm-bell ringing in my ears.
Could I’ve been wrong? Well, ehm, yes. I was.

Portrait time

I had the honor and pleasure to shoot some new profile pictures for a friend of mine – one of the very rare pandemic contacts. And what would be better than bringing some vintage goodies?
Somehow the Pentax lens found its way into my rucksack. And somehow onto the camera. With stunning results.
The colour rendering is a nightmare if you’re looking for crisp and clear pictures.
It’s not the sharpest tool in the quiver, by far not. This lens is harsh in a very interesting way.
Really harsh.
And that’s where the fun starts.

 

Going black & white

After these very promising results, I decided to take this tiny little something of a lens with me on my next trip to the outside.
You know, into this mystical land we used to live in before the virus.
In my case on Sunday afternoon in Munich’s borough Glockenbach.
Nice architecture, nice afternoon sun. Some people and some space to experiment.

harsh reflection

stray light

enjoying the sun

vintage beauty

 

So I changed my mind on these little lenses completely.
How do you see it?
Please leave your comments!

Pentax colour wizardry: the 50mm f1.7

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Some lenses come with the delivery service from Amazon.
And some come with a story.
So does my nifty-fifty 50mm Pentax M 1:1.7. That’s the lens that got me seriously addicted to photography. Mounted as a kit lens on the very first SLR in my life – a Pentax MX – I fell in love with it. Ok, I had no option, it was THE lense. The ONLY lense. Nevertheless, this little mighty manual focus glass showed me for the first time the world through the finder. It stayed with me and on my Pentax until it got nicked. Straight from my checked baggage somewhere between Bangkok and Moscow. That was during the nineties, everybody was into APS, digital was a promise for a bright future, so I didn’t care too much.
Until I got back to vintage lenses. And found my childhood love again on the world’s largest dating platform for camera nerds: eBay.

Sure it’s priceless – but you can get this beauty for around 30 € as she’s not as popular as her radioactive 1.4 sister.

If you’re interested in the inner values: there are plenty of descriptions out there. I’m much more interested in the results, that’s what I’m shooting for.
A perfect fit with an PK adapter on Micro Four Thirds.
It feels so good in the hands. Solid metal, smooth rings, a certain weight.
So let’s go for a walk down to the river and let’s see what it can do in 2020.