Base10 is on his way to work on the subway this morning on a chilly December day in NYC. I toyed with the idea of riding the bike in, but it's very windy and let's just say my bike skills are not what they once were.

Anyway, it looks to be pretty quiet at work. There will be some tweaking to the recruit plan--I think they will be graduating tomorrow--but that's not really a heavy lift. The other thing I want to do today is go to Adorama and buy some glass for my Mamiya 7ii rangefinder.

For photo equiptment in NYC there are two sources: Adorama and B&H Photo. Base10 has a slight preference for Adorama but they're both good stores. Anyway, Base10 went to Adorama yesterday all set to buy, but they were closed. Interestingly, when I set out from work on this errand last week I was also stymied by an office emergency. Could this be mere coincidence? Hmm...

Anyway, I want to pick up the 150mm lens and probably one of the wides: either the 43 or 50mm. I'll probably skip the 65mm, for now.

I have to say that I've been taken by the idea of rangefinders. You can handhold them at amazingly slow shutter speeds and there are very high quality lenses available for them, both pricey and not so pricey. They are also quite small and quiet. Using fast film and fast lenses, they also really open up a world of low-light photography.

I'm even considering a 35mm camera--something I never thought I'd do again. A new Leica is out of the question--a brand new MP goes for like $3500 and that's just the body! However, you can get a used M3 for a decent price and Cosina/Voigtlander has some nice and reasonably priced Bessa cameras along with some very, very attractively priced, high quality lenses including some rectilinear ultrawides. This is clearly the shortcoming of digital. A 1.5 frame enlargement pretty much eliminates the ability to do ultrawideangle shots.

- posted by Base10 @ 11:24 AM