h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You'll probably feel more relaxed about it once you've found out more, and it starts to become just another 'fact of life' after a while. There's always plenty of folks round here to offer a sympathetic shoulder in the meantime.

Did you say you had a Guide entry underway at present? What was it?

~A~

Thanks.

I did start thinking of doing a guide entry on some thing to do with electronic engineering, but a few things have got in the way...

Ooh, that sounds technical.

Good to chat with you the other night.

Let me know if you get that Minox...!

~A~

Yeah it was nice to just sit back and chat for a while.

I'll certainly let you know if I do eventually get that camera. I think when I do it'll make a mate of mine cheesed off as like me he's a gadget nut and I'd have a camera smaller than his (he's got one of those fancy little cannon ixus aps jobbies).
I was talking with a friend of mine the other day about cameras (she's a photographer) as I'm thinking about getting a new big camera when I've saved up some money and it was suggested I get a Nikon F90?thread="sadface" class="smiley" src="http://www.h2g2.com/h2g2/skins/Alabaster/images/Smilies/f_sadface.gif"/>

Get an F80?thread="smiley - smiley" title="smiley" class="smiley" src="http://www.h2g2.com/h2g2/skins/Alabaster/images/Smilies/f_smiley.gif"/> Forget the F65?thread="smiley - winkeye" title="winkeye" class="smiley" src="http://www.h2g2.com/h2g2/skins/Alabaster/images/Smilies/f_winkeye.gif"/>

This friend... anyone I might have heard of?

~A~

Unbalanced? Non comprende

The F65?thread="smiley - biggrin" title="biggrin" class="smiley" src="http://www.h2g2.com/h2g2/skins/Alabaster/images/Smilies/f_biggrin.gif"/>

~A~

So that's what you mean by unbalanced. I've already got one entry level SLR, well I've actually got two but one is in somwhat damaged condition (the bottom plate is no longer there and the shutter has a habit of sticking).
If you come up with anything I might know about then I'll help but I don't know masses about the subject.

Ooh... what cameras would they be then?

I don't think knowing masses is necessarily essential... just enough enthusiasm to do a little research on a topic that perhaps interests you.

~A~

The cameras are (pulling them from their hiding places...)
Chinon CE-5 - The best working one.
Chinon CG-5 - The slightly worse one.
and an old Vivitar 283 flash (which keeps getting rebuilt).
The cameras were both second hand when I bought them, not at the same time though - I think I paid less than £100 total.
They're both semi auto with Aperture priority (set the aperture and it works out the shutter, is that right?) and very similar in features and build. They take Pentax-K fit lenses and I've a 28, 50 and 28-80mm to go with them. They aren't the newest are greatest cameras but as they don't do everything for you, you've got to learn a bit about how it works which can't be bad.

Aperture priority - my favourite mode.

I have to confess that since getting my 'automatic' camera, I tend to use the pre-set modes a lot, although this is partly due to the nature of the photography I do, which doesn't often leave much time for fiddling with the camera while composing a shot. However, the main reason is that I have been so busy actually using the camera that I still haven't got around to finding out just how you use it in 'manual' mode! On old manual cameras, setting the aperture and shutter speed is fairly obvious, but new cameras tend to have so many menus and displays that working out which combination of buttons provides which feature is not so instinctive!

I am beginning to find that I really need to access manual mode to compose the shot how I want it, so I guess I will just have to finish reading that manual!

I may start using the old (and not terribly good) manual SLR again, as I have a 200mm lens for it, whereas I only have a 28-80mm for the F80?thread="sadface" class="smiley" src="http://www.h2g2.com/h2g2/skins/Alabaster/images/Smilies/f_sadface.gif"/>

BTW, I've added some examples of potential entries to the photography project page now, if you fancy taking a look. http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A544367

~A~

Aperture priority - my favourite mode.

I have to confess that since getting my 'automatic' camera, I tend to use the pre-set modes a lot, although this is partly due to the nature of the photography I do, which doesn't often leave much time for fiddling with the camera while composing a shot. However, the main reason is that I have been so busy actually using the camera that I still haven't got around to finding out just how you use it in 'manual' mode! On old manual cameras, setting the aperture and shutter speed is fairly obvious, but new cameras tend to have so many menus and displays that working out which combination of buttons provides which feature is not so instinctive!

I am beginning to find that I really need to access manual mode to compose the shot how I want it, so I guess I will just have to finish reading that manual!

I may start using the old (and not terribly good) manual SLR again, as I have a 200mm lens for it, whereas I only have a 28-80mm for the F80?thread="sadface" class="smiley" src="http://www.h2g2.com/h2g2/skins/Alabaster/images/Smilies/f_sadface.gif"/>

BTW, I've added some examples of potential entries to the photography project page now, if you fancy taking a look. http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A544367

~A~

Don't you just hate it when that happens?!?

That's a lot of stuff to be considering!

I keep telling myself I'll go out and buy a tripod and take the camera walking to get some nice landscape stuff but I've not got round to it yet. Far too lazy to be getting up at silly hours to get the best light

yes

F&M is preventing a lot of photography I had planned this year, like wild flowers.

I also think that 'getting up early' may require me to go to bed somewhat earlier. Speaking of which...



~A~

Taking photos of flowers (wild or tame) isn't really my thing. I think I'd like to try some macro stuff but as usual being lazy and not wanting to spend too much money doesn't help

I saw a really good close-up shot of a watch strap! It was one of those metal link type straps, but it looked liked some amazing feat of engineering.

Anyway, I've done my photos of the fair now, so I can get back to working on my project.

So what project is this then?

As an electronic engineer, I keep thinking I want to take pictures of circuit boards and the like! Hmmm.

Just heard a couple of cracks of thunder while sitting here typing this, ooh err!

And some lightning too! (I thought I saw that as I walked home from the tube)
It's not raining here right this minute but I'm sure it's about to start soon enough