The occasional scrivener

I’ve recently acquired two new pieces of kit for my Nikon D200, the MB-D200 battery grip and the Nikkor 35mm ƒ/1.8 AF-S DX lens.

I like the grip, even if it adds significantly to the weight and bulk of the D200. But it lets me shoot verticals easier, and it significantly extends the battery life of the D200 (one of the camera’s weak points!). It also enables the camera to hang flatter against my hip when hanging by its strap.

Drawbacks include the strap getting in the way of the viewfinder, and that it’s hard to hit the exposure lock button from the vertical position.

I’ve only had the 35mm for a few days but so far I like it a lot. 35mm on crop is equivalent to a 52mm field-of-view on a film/FX body, and as most of Nikon’s 50mm lenses are really 52mm this gives you the classic slightly-longer-than-normal “50mm” look. The fast max aperture gives you nice thin depth-of-field if that’s your thing — the closer you get to your subject, the better in this case — and it’s pretty small and light, good things in my book.

Niggles include no aperture ring (not gonna see those on new Nikkors in the future, though) and lack of focus scale. On the plus side it’s “real” AF-S (with instant manual override) and it’s damn cheap - barely more expensive than a kit zoom. Nikon should really make kits with this for new cameras, if only to shut the prime purists up.

Pics made with the lens will be showing up under my 35mm ƒ/1.8 AF-S DX tag on Flickr!

I headed down to Kraków the weekend before last to hang out with my good buds Jedrek, Mike and Jan. We’d rented 2 apartments in the old town, and spent 3 days hanging out, shooting, and drinking lots and lots of Tyskie beer and sour cherry vodka.

I really enjoyed the city, even if it’s clear it’s a bit of a tourist trap (the flights were full of Swedish high school kids going to visit Auschwitz, and the sight of that labour camp being touted as a destination on par with the salt mines by tour guides was a bit jarring). It’s clear that Poland has made great strides since 1990, and it’s heartening to see the Polish people reach towards their full potential, free of the imposed dead hand of the Soviet-sponsored Communist regime.

It was the Kraków Photo month, and the theme was British photography. We attended a mini lecture by Martin Parr, and saw some great exhibitions in the different spaces in town. Among the higlights were Mark Power’s exhibition and some prints by John Davies.

I never did get around to visit Auschwitz, which I was more interested in as a meta-visit, that is, I was more interested in the way the message is presented rather than the message itself. But in the end it turned out that we didn’t have the time to go together and I didn’t want to make the trip on my own.

Kraków reminded me a lot of Lund when I was a student there, and I’m happy I was able to visit it during warm weather before torrential rainfall flooded the city. I’m happy I got the time to visit Poland and I hope to be able return soon.