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Get the childhood memories out of the closet! (25.06.2015)
The middle-aged generation now has the opportunity to rediscover their memories from childhood and youth in colours. Colour photo was a rarity in the 70s to 80s but at some point it was possible to get ORWO slide film from the photo shops, Salvo started to make slide frames in addition to slays and the images of hobby photographers turned into colours.
When was the last time you watched slides from the wall? Do you still have a slide projector? Have you ever looked if those once very colourful slides are not affected by the wear and tear of time and turned yellowish and unsharp?
It is time to digitize those slides because this is the only way to save your slide collection from the final destruction. It is possible to use the services of the photo lab to digitize your slides or to buy a super good quality yet very expensive film scanner. Fortunately, Nikon has made photo digitization very easy. All you need to do is simply buy an additional Nikon ES-1 device for your DSLR camera.
ES-1 is meant for DSLR cameras to copy the slides. ES-1 perfectly fits with Nikkor AF-S DX Micro 40mm f2.8G lens. The process itself is simple. For more comfortable use, attach the camera to a tripod. The lens is directed to the light source; for example, the light coming from the window is very good. It is definitely not sensible to photograph towards the sun or any other strong and colourful light source. Make sure that the slide in the adapter is direct and upright. Often, when copying old slides, it is difficult to understand when the image is mirrored. It is forth to follow the numbers and letters on the slide. Also, the matt side of the slide should also hint the right side. The emulsion layer is always matter than the base of the film stock and it was always placed towards the lens while photographing; thus, you should place the slide into the adapter so that the matt side is towards the lens. The film clip is always a little curved in the frame, so you should focus every slide again while photographing them.
The follow-up photo processing mostly depends on the quality of the copied slide. If the slide is in good shape, then the only thing to do is to cut the frame into the right size so that the edges are not seen on the photo. If the slide has suffered damages throughout the time, then fixing the damages of dust, scratches and finger marks could be very complicated and sometimes even the specialists who know their work well do not get the best results. Then, you should accept the slide as it is and think that the time passed only gives value to it. To save your slide collection in the best possible shape, you should not postpone the digitization into the indefinite future.
Digitizing slides is interesting and emotional. You can save a piece of a visual history. Don’t forget to create joy for your parents with rediscovered moments from the passed times.
How to catch the colourfulness of the butterflies on the photo?
Spring and summer are the peak seasons for close-up photography. The macro lens catches numerous butterflies, bugs and the beauty of the blossoms. Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G AF-S ED-IF VR II that has become very popular has left another Nikkor line’s “old doer“ 200mm F4D IF-ED AF Micro Nikkor undeservedly in the shadows.
We recommend this lens mostly to those who try to catch the colourful life of the butterflies. It is hard to photograph butterflies because they sense the movement of the photographer really well and escape fast every time you try to get close to them. 200mm macro lens gives you the opportunity to get the full-sized butterfly in frame from a notably longer distance and the chances to get a good picture raise a lot. The lens has a very sharp and high contrast sketch. Longer focal length gives a notably softer background. The disadvantage of this lens would be its quite slow and noisy focusing system which gets the auto focus gear from the camera motor. But when focusing manually, it is not a problem at all. It is also good that there is an attachment place for the tripod on the lens. It is not that comfortable to photograph butterflies with a tripod but the opportunity to use a monopod makes the camera much more stable and replacing it is faster as well.
