I feel dirty.

I feel dirty., originally uploaded by edfooliu.

Because I (a) bought new gear far surpassing--and wholly inappropriate
for--my current skill level, and (b) am clearly compensating for something.

I'll have to take this puppy out somewhere to get some quality playtime in, but a few first impressions of my circa 1980s-1990s Nikkor 80-200mm f4.5:



Manual everything....is a challenge. That said, there is something inherently pleasurable of directly interfacing with a machine--the smoothness of sliding and twisting the barrel, the satisfying, weighted click of the aperture ring.... There's a solid tactility to it all, and the thing just feels tight and precise. Some of you might know I'm a sucker for build quality and subjective feel, and I'm already in love with this baby (yes, rationalizing real hard). It's built like a tank. I feel like I could club a man half to death and after wiping the blood off, snap some incriminating evidence with no problems. From 100 ft away.

Of course, this lens also makes blindingly obvious how far we've come in the last two decades. Where AF can lock-on in fractions of a second, it takes me several to get the focus in the ballpark (with the wobbling of my hands causing the focal plane to sweep all over the subject). Without realtime metering, I have to resort to review mode for trial-and-error exposure tuning (imagine doing this on _film_). Even things like flash sync are easy to take for granted.

It's like modern dual-clutch gearboxes (or the theoretical CVT) versus rowing your own gears. I can't imagine getting anywhere near the speed and versatility of modern lens even after extensive practice. For now, though, it's kinda fun, and I can't argue with the price.