London Adventure Show
I have a small image gallery of cool bikes and bike gear over on my Flickr page that I saw at the London Adventure Show this past week. There were some amazing bikes, like the Salsa Mukluk; cool lighting systems, like those from Exposure; innovative folding bikes from Pacific; and beautiful eye candy from Chris King; and more carbon bikes than I care to think about.
I have had the luxury of using the Exposure lights and can tell you they are amazing. I will be adding more of these to my kit for the upcoming winter bike expeditions and will be doing an entire write up on how amazing this kit is. If you look at the picture of the Exposure Six Pack mounted on the Salsa Mukluk you will see they make a perfect match for one another.
Lastly, cameras, cameras, cameras... This is such a crazy time for photographers, especially those who travel and travel light. I have been using my NEX-5 for the past year and it has really served me well. To remember what life was like behind a DSLR, I borrowed a Nikon D300s and mounted a vintage Nikon 50 1.8, MF lens and shot away.
Two things really hit me. First was just how much I prefer looking through a viewfinder. It is a way of seeing that just connects my brain to my eye and then to the camera. I really do miss that connection. Second, well one word, Brokeh. Boy do I love shooting shallow depth of field and seeing what comes out. It is amazing how the character of a lens, shot at shallow depth of field with interesting light, can create art out of nothing. The tire shot is a great example, with both the foreground and background deeply blurred, leaving nothing but some of the tread in focus.
Wow, now I have a real problem and I pity my friend who may have a hard time getting his D300s back. I have been patiently waiting to see if the NEX-7 solves this problem for me, but the delays in distribution have made me really second guess my desire to stick with the NEX line. Great camera but there are other options. I think in a perfect world I would switch to the Nikon V1 for my portable setup, and augment that with a used D700 or even a used D3s. This would provide me an ultra-light alternative capable of capturing stills, video, and some action -- and a more robust solution for landscape and heavy duty sports/wildlife imagery.
Time will tell how this all plays out, for now, off to buy a lottery ticket and see what happens.