About my Photography

Photography

My first cameras were a Minolta X-300, somewhere in the early 90s, then a Minolta SRT-101, two Minolta XD7 and a Minolta X-700 with a set of fixed focal length objective lenses from 17mm to 500mm. Most images were made with the XD7. The cost/quality ratio of old pre 1980 Minolta cameras is quite good and this was essential during my studies where I didn't have much money. Those cameras accompanied me on many travels around the world. In 2003 I bought a Nikon F100 and some lenses and sold most of my Minolta stuff, because I wanted a camera with fast autofocus, spot-metering and fast APO zooms and was tired of changing lenses all times. I chose Nikon because It is the only brand that uses the same bajonet on all MF and AF SLR cameras. In July 2004 I bought a Nikon D70 digital SLR.

Underwater Photography

I began diving in May 2000 and started underwater photography in July 2001 after 50 dives. I bought a Nikon Coolpix 990 with a UK Germany underwater case and a Subtronic Gamma strobe. I chose digital because I am too curious and don't want to spend weeks without knowing what's on the pictures. Experience with this combination: Coolpix 990 autofocus, release and image store delay are rather slow. Catching fast moving objects is a matter of luck. The camera's offaxis pseudo TTL is not reliable and gets obscured by the wideangle lens. The Subtronic strobe gives a wonderful warm and soft light. After experimenting with various camera settings I mostly use this combination: 1/125s, ISO 100, sunlight white balance, variing aperture and flash intensity. I consider switching to a new camera, probably a Nikon D70, but unfortunately no good underwater strobe supports the new TTL protocol of digital cameras.

Scanning and Image Processing

Before 2005 slides and negatives were scanned with a Nikon Coolscan LS-2000 using Hamrick's great VueScan on GNU/Linux. Image Processing was done with The GIMP or when using digital pictures Adobe Photoshop on MacOS X. In 2005 I purchased a Nikon Coolscan LS-50.