Monday, August 27, 2012

Fun with Downgrading

It doesn’t make sense to still have fun after downgrading your gear, especially in photography?  On the contrary, while I dream of Hasselblad and Leica and Nikon D4 everyday, I actually found some good fun downgrading my lenses to some cheapo plastics!  And I’m talking about a budget starting from RM70 (US$22) vs. RM20,000 (US$6,200)!

Maha Vihara(
Nikon D100 mounted with Holga 60mm

 

I’ve decided to proceed with this more achievable project first, while figuring of ways to fund my other  (Hasselblad and Leica and Nikon D4) projects…  I ditched the Sigma zoom from my ever-faithful Nikon D100, and mounted a Holga lens I bought online (holgadirect.com) for about US$20, and I instantly start shooting highly saturated colors and heavily vignetted pictures, and there’s no need of any filters!


Zippy

 Nikon D100 mounted with Holga Fisheye


You may call this a ‘hybrid’ camera – digital camera with a analog lens – or anything you want, but the pictures are just amazing.   Soft-focused, low-res look, uneven light distribution, and all the no-no of a modern DSLR qualities are exactly what you are getting out of this lens J

 

But for some strange reasons, it simply looks nice and cool. 


View from the top

 Nikon D100 mounted with Holga Fisheye


While the Leica-Hasselblad-D4 Project is still very much up there, I’ve no regret downgrading.  I’ve even started to take a bigger interest in analog/film photography.  More on this later ;-)


Sky view
Nikon D100 mounted with Holga 60mm


Nikon D100 with my new Holga lens
My Nikon mounted with the Holga 60mm (Shot using an iPad!)