Zoom Lenses and Fountain Pen Auctions

Prime lens walkabout as well as fountain pen and ink buying in Houston, TX

On a weekend trip to Houston, TX I challenged myself to get some good photos in an essentially random location with a single prime lens. For this exercise I found a location near downtown that I photographed with a 55mm f2.8 Mamiya 645 lens adapted to my Fujifilm GFX100ii using a 0.8x focal reducer. One of the interesting places I found was the former and unfortunately named Jefferson Davis Hospital, which is supposedly haunted. I also discuss a shopping trip I made to the most excellent Dromgoole's fountain pen and stationary store that is a staple of Rice Village in Houston. Dromgoole's always seems to have something that I just can't live without. This time I got a Sailor King of Pen urushi, a Pelikan M200 Cherry Blossom, and a Montblanc 146 Paris Olympics 1924 plus some inks from Diamine and Sailor.

Zoom Lenses and Fountain Pen Auctions

In this episode I discuss my experience with zoom lenses--I prefer primes--and also my experience with buying fountain pens at auction. First, I talk about Sony G-Master zoom lenses, the 16-35mm f2.8 GMII and the 24-70mm f2.8 GMII, both of which I've sold. Then I talk about some zoom lenses for my Fujifilm cameras that I actually love, the GF20-35mm f4 and the GF45-100mm f4 for my GFX cameras and the Sigma 17-40mm f1.8 for X-T5. I've found these Fujifilm zooms and the Sigma zoom especially useful in landscape applications. In the pen portion of the podcast I talk about buying fountain pens at auction, not eBay auctions, but from auction houses such as North American Pen Auctions Ltd. and PBA Galleries.

The amazing Sigma 200mm f/2 lens and Pelikan raden fountain pens (a new one was just released)

In this episode I express my enthusiasm for the Sigma 200mm f/2 DG OS Sports lens, a fast telephoto lens that is essentially perfect and one of the best lenses ever made. I picked it up used, almost on a whim, and I'm so glad I did; what a lens! On the topic of fountain pens I discuss Pelikan's raden urushi lineup and express my lack of enthusiasm for the newly released Pelikan Souverän M1000 Raden Stardust “Hoshikuzu" (Limited Edition). In my estimation the Raden Stardust is a bit boring and simplistic and not what I wanted in a new Pelikan raden pen.

RAW vs JPEG, DaVinci Resolve news, Platinum converters, and Montblanc Signature nibs

In this episode of Pictures and Pens I discuss my current approach to image capture by file type and camera system: RAW and JPEG for Fujifilm and RAW for Sony. I also discuss the exciting news that DaVinci Resolve has added still photo editing to their powerful software. And in pens I relate disappointment for Platinum and Nakaya converters despite my love for the pens generally. Finally, I declare the Montblanc 6B Signature nib the greatest nib ever made.

Adapting Voigtlander M-mount lenses and a Nakaya fountain pen

In this first episode I discuss adapting Voigtlander M-mount lenses to Sony E-mount mirroless cameras and the magic of the 40mm f1.2 Nokton Aspherical lens from Voigtlander on my Sony A7RV. Also discussed is a standard cigar shaped urushi fountain pen from Nakaya with kuro (black) ishime (stone finish) and a music nib.