Edwin Remsberg Photographs

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

What's in Edwin's Camera bag - Part 3

Up close and personal

Nikon D3s camera
Nikon D700 camera
Zeiss 120mm 4.0 CF Makro Planar lens with nikon adapter
Hasselblad bellows rail for the Zeiss lens
Nikon 105 2.8 lens
Nikon 85 1.8 lens
Nikon 60 2.8 lens

This is what I use for shooting food , bugs, and flowers. The 120 Zeiss is hands down the sharpest lens I have ever put on a camera. It is really just amazing. Add the bellows and you can count the angels on the head of a pin. It is also huge and slow. You have to shoot stopped down so it can be pretty dark to compose and focus. The 105 Nikon is probably my favorite Nikon lens. Really sweet. I always focus manually with it. The 85 I use a lot for food shoots , wide open to blow out the background and give a lot of separation. I am less enamored of the 60 and use it mostly when I cant get far enough back to make the longer glass work.

What is missing?

Zeiss 100 2.0 ZF Makro I really want one .

What's in Edwin's Camera bag - Part 2

My (current) favorite things

Nikon D700 Camera
Nikkor 55 1.2 lens (1971)
Nikkor 85 1.8 lens (1965)
Nikkor 28 2.0 lens (early 1970's)
Domke F6 bag
8 or 16 gb cards and extra battery

This is the bag I carry then I'm shooting things I am passionate about and fancy myself a great artist. I am having a love affair with early nikon glass. With small modifications to the mount they work really well with full frame digital bodies. There is something of a dreamy creamy quality to them when used wide open that is hard to match with anything else. They focus so smoothy and feel so good in your hand compared to modern plastic stuff. The D700 is by far my favorite camera body. Small and light with stunning low light performance. I shoot by the light of tea candles and dying fireflies with it and the 55 1.2 I could never use these with the DX sensor Nikons.

What's missing?

I'd still like to have a nice 35 1.4 of the same vintage (they are expensive and get beat up). Occasionally I will throw in a modern 135 2.0 when I feel the need of something longer but generally not. Any of the Zeiss ZF lenses would be at home here. I really like the 100 2.0 makro.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

What's in Edwin's Camera bag - Part 1

I often get asked what gear I carry and I'm afraid there is not really one answer. I actually carry multiple bags configured differently for different things. This week with snow having made chaos of my plans I'll show off a few things -

The basic zoom bag

Nikon D3s camera
Nikon D700 camera
Nikon 17-35 2.8 lens
Nikon 28-70 2.8 lens
Nikon 80-200 2.8 lens
Nikon 105 2.8 Macro
a couple of sb800 remote flash units and a battery pack for them
extra cards and batteries.

This is the ready for whatever kit. Big and heavy but all the bases are covered and there is a bit of redundancy in case I have problems with any one item. The fast Nikon zooms are sharp enough and the 105 is just a really nice piece of glass that lets me work close. With the zooms I do not have to change lenses so often which helps keep dust out of the camera body (a big issue for me)

What's missing?
I really need to replace the older zoom lenses with the newer 24-70 2.8 and the 70-200 2.8 and I would be able to get by with just those two instead of the current 3 zooms for most things.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Some final thoughts from the Christmas goose

Nothing to worry about here Mr. Goose. Just a bunch of your friends hanging around at this perfectly innocent looking rectangle of marsh grass. Definitely not a trap. Come on in, we are all having fun.