Railway Photo Gallery
Equipment
Over the years I have used a variety of
cameras:
Praktica MTL50 (December
1985 to March 1996)
Centon DF300 (March 1996 to July 2005)
Minolta X300s (December 1997 to July 2005)
Nikon F65 (February 2003 to April 2007)
Fujifinepix S5500 (July 2005 to February 2006)
Nikon D50 (February 2006 to February 2007)
Nikon D80 (February 2007 to January 2009)
Nikon D300 (January 2009 to date)
It can be seen from the above list, that at times I was operating several cameras. While I was using nothing but film, I often had three bodies in use, one with daylight slide film, one with black and white film and another with tungsten film for night photography. Then when I bought the Nikon D50, I operated it on a frame with the Nikon F65 so I was taking every shot on film and on digital. In April 2007, I ceased using film, upgraded to a Nikon D80 and went 100% digital. After nearly two years with the D80, I upgraded to a D300 and I have a variety of lenses that can be used with this camera (some inherited from as far back as my old Nikon F65). The main lenses that I use now are a Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 EX lens and a Nikkor 35mm f2 prime lens (with x1.5 sensor crop, this equates to the equivalent of a 52.5mm standard lens on a 35mm SLR). The other lenses are a Nikkor 50mm f1.8 standard lens, a Nikkor 70-300mm f4-5.6 G lens and a Nikkor 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 DX lens. I also have a Nikkor 35-70mm f2.8 zoom lens, but this has developed a focusing fault and has been replaced by the Sigma.
I have been extremely pleased with the performance of the Nikon digital SLR's and I seem to have now settled on using a D300 combined with the Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 EX lens or the 35mm f2 Nikkor lens. All of my photographs are shot in RAW format and then processed using Bibble Lite. I have used other RAW processors, but Bibble Lite seems to give me the best results.
As well as the camera equipment, I have also invested in a digital projector so that I can continue to present shows to railway clubs and societies despite only shooting digital images now. The projector I currently use is a Relysis RHTP200 which is a stand alone unit that does not need to have a PC connected to it in order to present a show. Images can be shown by using the built in DVD player or card reader. The unit also comes with wireless speakers too, so it doubles up quite nicely as a home cinema! I have found however that this unit gives the best clarity for displaying photos when it is connected up to a PC.