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Finally managed to get my hands on this power house baby from Stephen Gandy’s Cameraquest. This fantastic piece of lens is great for portraits and street photography due to it’s focal length and size. Clearly, Voigtlander has established itself as one of the sought after brands among the legends.

The specifications is as follows:

***INFORMATION FROM CAMERAQUEST***

The Nokton 58/1.4 is a revised version of Cosina’s 2003 limited edition 58/1.4 Topcor — a quick sell out with only 1600 available world wide.  With its beautiful image quality, it went on to become a highly sought favorite in the Japanese home market.

• Full Frame Coverage

• 58/1.4 fast lens, effectively a 85/1.4 on smaller format APS-C digital SLRs, making this an ideal fast DSLR portrait lens

• CPUs for metering compatibility with Nikon digital SLRs

• Nikon AIS mount for film or digital SLRs

• Seven elements in six optical groups

• 9 Aperture blades

• Size 320 grams, 64.4mm diameter, 47.5 length (AIS)

• Filter size 58mm

• Close Up to .45 meter (1:5.8)

• Angle of view with film 40 degrees

• Smallest aperture f/16

Basically, this lens is available in Nikon and Pentax mount. This is a full time manual lens, another nostalgic feel for me. The build quality for this lens is really solid as it is build from metal, the focusing ring is well dampen and smooth throughout it’s focusing range.

After having it for 1 week, this lens stayed on my camera most of the time, as the bokeh really blows me away. The image quality is really fantastic, it is sharp and the contrast is brilliant. Well, enough said, let’s see how this lens performed.

Till here then, wishing you a Happy Chinese New Year and a happy tiger year!

~Later~

Following up from previous post, I covered a event over the weekend and fair to say, I manage to fire off ~800 shots in TTL and the battery pack didn’t let me down.

As a conclusion, for the price to pay as compared to it’s functions, clearly money well spend!!!

Few days ago, I was browsing online looking for an external battery pack for my speedlight, I came across many types of battery packs, Nikon SD-9A, loads of made in China products on Ebay and Phottix. With a little bit more of research, I manage to get hold a unit from Shashinki for RM225.00 including postage, not too bad (Nope, I was not paid by Shashinki to say that). Well, I choose to use Phottix because so far, I had good experience with other Phottix products and the price is pretty reasonable unlike others.

My parcel arrived …..

Came in a well made, good quality box.

One thing I can say, the shipping from Shashinki is fantastic, as they really took the time to wrap it with bubble wrap to ensure minimal damage if one drops the parcel, kudos!

Well, the item includes, a 1-page manual in Japanese and English language, a pouch to carry the battery pack, the battery pack itself with the necessary connectors and a small nut to attach the battery pack to your camera shall you need it.

This unit accepts 6 AA batteries and hence according to the manufacturer, it reduces the recycling time to recharge the flash by half. Build quality wise, I would say it is acceptable for the price.

Well, this weekend, I will be able to really test this unit out as I have an event to cover.

Till then, adios!

Recently, I bought a genuine leather phone case which is made in Turkey. Judging from the looks of it, it looks rather stylish and business like. The quality of this product is fantastic as the sewing is good and it is padded inside with lining as well, so your phone will be protected and will not be scratched. Well, check out this video and if you are interested to get one, feel free to email me, jonathan@jonkam.com. Cases available are Nokia E71, Iphone 3Gs/G and Blackberry Bold. The price is pretty reasonable. Oh ya and the phone is not included.

Ever since I started photography, I have always been changing camera bags every now and then, as there was not a 1 bag fits all. Came across a Crumpler Messenger Boy 7500 lately, which the design is only available in Europe, sorry folks, this design is not available in Malaysia, Singapore or Australia, after a few days of waiting, finally…. it has ARRIVED. So let’s jump right in for a little review…

As usual, packaging for Crumpler is always fantastic, as it is well wrap in a plastic bag

Ta da, it is off white & bronze!!!!

With this bag, it has 2 sections, 1 which is the main compartment and the other is a small front pocket, which all other small items can be stored.

Now, let’s open it up and have a look inside.

Let’s see what equipment can it fit

Tested with a Nikon D300 with Battery Grip and a Nikon 17-55mm f2.8 attached (with hood reversed) and beside it is a SB-900. Judging from the other empty compartment, easily, it will hold a 50mm f1.8 with a 85mm f1.8 stack on top of it. If not, you could always store another lens or a pocket drive or cleaning accessory and such. Well, I am able to fit a 80-200 f2.8 AF-D vertically into that space.

Built quality of this product is fantastic, the padding is sufficient, the material is durable and has waterproof linings. Clearly a feature that would be useful is the single-hand buckle, where you can adjust the strap without the need to put the bag down, instead, just use one hand to adjust the strap and buckle. So am I satisfied with it? YES !!!

With that, I conclude my mini review and hope that you found it useful.