journal features

lens swamp!

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Tokyo, 2008.07.20

Mari found out about a camera fair in Ginza today. We went on a little trip, and I found both a Minolta XD body (to be a 'second') and the 85mm lens I've been looking for quite some time.

The body turned out to be full of mold, so I had to leave (it's bad when you see mold in the viewfinder) but I bought the lens. I'm pleased, it's just the thing for travel photography.

I figure that this is probably my last lens purchase. I've sold and discarded a few over the years as I was exploring different types of photography. But now that I've settled to only a few types of photography (travel & street) I only use a small set of prime lenses. The 20mm, 50mm, 100mm combination I've had for my Minolta gear was good, but I preferred the 20mm, 42mm, 75mm set up for my digital, and now I've moved the film gear's telephoto down a notch, closer to the 75mm I use for digital.

Just wandering around Ginza and Shinagawa today, I had a chance to tinker with the lens a bit. It's good.

rand()m quote

In the wake of 9/11, we [in America] have made the decision as a society that we can never again create something in which we can take pride, for fear that someone will destroy it. Moreover, we must suppress any trace of individualism, lest someone have the desire to rise above the bland sameness that protects us. I have, alas, no idea how to recapture our courage.

—Anonymous post to boingboing.net, 2009