The second entry for this series is going to be a short one. But a very spontaneous one. Today was a lovely nice sunny and warm day. Perfect ice-cream weather haha. After the sun went down and the temperatures dropped a bit it was my time to shine. At least that how it felt to me haha. I just very randomly left for a little drive just out of town. No big plans, no expectations, nothing. But then I found some pretty decent spots and places that I just had to snap. And so I did. Here's a selection of tonight's shots. The sky was clear, very moody with the sun juuuust in there. It made the forest and the fields look so amazing. Don't you think?
All these pictures were taken between my hometown Grathem, and the one next to us to the north. Baexem. This area is not part of "Het Leudal" that I wrote about in my previous post. But its in the same municipality though. So, lets just call it part of it, shall we? Anyways, little spontaneous trips like these make me appreciate my surroundings. Far away, but also very much so: locally. Good end to a nice weekend! see you around folks!
-Arjan
Nikkor 35-70mm F3.3-4.5 AF
Last week I picked up this old lens that was up for sale on the internet. I was after a little extra "fun" lens to add to my camera bag for quite a while. I just couldn't decide on what lens to get. Also, I was not planning on spending a large amount of money for just a "fun" lens. Sure, I have a wishlist of lenses that I one day would love to call mine (the AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED for example) but that would put me back between €1000/1600, and I just can't afford that right now.
So I was looking around, and found this super cheap Nikkor 35-70mm F3.3-4.5 (got it for €25)
And I just had my first little test shots with it on my Nikon D7000. Nothing spectacular, just quick snapshots to get a feel for the lens and see how it holds up despite being quite an old lens. Let's be honest here, its not going to be super fast, super sharp, and for that matter not super impressive. Not useful in quite some situations as well as you can imagine. Why? think about chromatic aberration, its a bit soft here and there... if you need the images you produce to be as sharp as they can be, don't use this lens.
But, all in all its a nice little lens to have. Its super light, its relatively strong in low light due to the f3.3. It does a decent job on bokeh and with my D7000 its auto focusing perfectly fine. And all of this for just €25, you feel me? Can't go wrong. It is probably coming along in my bag whenever I am outside, exploring and enjoying the outdoors. For some casual snaps here and there. Here's a really quick snapshot I took with the lens just after I picked it up.
The photographs of the lens itself were taken with my D7000 and my trusty Nikkor 50mm F1.8.
Thanks for reading, see you next time!
- Arjan Wilmsen