Interited Lenses
Daily, Geeky August 29th, 2009
It’s midnight and I’m writing a new entry while watching a Saturday evening EPL match in downtown Bangkok. It was an exhaustive but fun day. I met my high-school friends at Siam Paragon for lunch, watched G.I. Joe (and I may recommend it to anyone who’s looking for something not contentious). Then we went for Golf driving site near Ekkamai. It was my first time to hold the bat, nevertheless I managed to drive the balls almost 100 yards at the end of the day thanks to my experienced friend. It was enjoyable and we’re looking forward to play these shots again.
Anyway, a few days ago I went over some drawers to explore a collection of my dad’s lenses he obtained 20 plus years ago. They are unarguably ancient, but mostly in immaculate conditions. I’m gonna nick a few as he no longer into photography any more.
Let’s start with the body. I remembered him using this taking family photos when I was young before he later possessed several non-slr automatic film cameras. From labels on the camera, I believe it’s a first generation Nikon FE. According to the production date on wikipedia, it should be about 30 years old.
Attached to it is the nikon 43-86mm f3.5, that I haven’t tested.
This long ancient-looking lens is a tamron made, 85-210mm (why zoom ranges of these old lenses are so strange?).
My dad seems to quite like Tamron as he’s got another Tamron lens. This one, though, is a prime, 24mm f2.5.
These Tamron lenses are unlike new Tamrons that readily mount to Nikon, they require an adaptall (not a typo, they are called ‘adaptall’ on the box) to mount them on Nikon bodies.
Let’s move to a more interesting one, this one is the Nikon 50mm f1.4. I would expect this one to be ideal for low-light conditions.
I mounted this one on my Nikon d4o and quickly took a trial shot (of my dad). To be truthful, given how old it is, the result impresses me.
Ok, the last lens. I guess this one is the newest in his collection, Nikon 16mm Fisheye f2.8. It’s the only AF one. This means that I don’t have to manually set the aperture (it doesn’t auto focus on my body still). Surprisingly, I found it still in production nowsaday.
Aesthetically, it’s pristine. Unfortunatelly, when it took some test shots, it revealed foggy and blurry images. This implies that this lens needs thorough and proper cleaning. I will call Nikon Thailand on Monday to inquire about the possibility.
The reason of choosing a bathroom as a location is solely to see how wide the lens is, nothing else!
Tags: Digital Photography, Driving, G.I. Joe, Golf, Nikkor, Nikon 16mm Fisheye f2.8, Nikon 43-86mm f3.5, Nikon 50mm f1.4, Nikon d40, Nikon FE, Tamron 24mm f2.5, Tamron 85-210mm
The Last Day
Daily, Geeky August 22nd, 2009
Yesterday (Friday) was my last day at GSK.
In fact, my line manager, the person who interviewed me in, assigned me works and looked after me, wasn’t in. He had gone for a conference in Istanbul for the whole week. However his colleagues (well technically my colleagues too) took me out to a lovely pub and treated me a nice lunch (and I was stuffed =) ). I was, undoubtedly, very impressed. Those were 8 weeks of an unforgettable experience.
What I actually want to tell is, they know that I’m a physicist, I’m from Cambridge and my work was programming-related. These may take an important role when they were finding me a leaving work gift.
I was given two books, one from all other colleagues, and one from my line manager. Here is the first one.
Haven’t read it, but it’s definitely something scientific. Could be a good read.
Right, this is the second one, from my line manager, who supposedly knows me better than others.
Umm, well, you are not telling me I’m a geek, are you?
The book catches my attention though, I’ve read a couple pages. Basically, they are all bout selected science-related places all over the world. The format is, the background info on a place, some related theories, equations and a little visitor.
I found many places I even never heard of, they are not just science museums. Though, I know almost all theories and technical stuffs in the book. Still, I swear, I’m not that geeky. Please don’t call me geek after all.
Oh, one more thing. I’m flying back home on Monday, so I got to temporarily stop watching Air Crash Investigation otherwise I might freak out on the plane.
Tags: Air Crash Investigation, GlaxoSmithKline, GSK, internship, Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, The Geek Atlas
Oh well, my first intention was to post a new entry every week. But being me, I kept deferring until now. Not that I don’t have anything to rant about, there are in fact so many. I just didn’t start.
Well, week 7 has gone, it’s my last week at GSK next week. It’s been pretty interesting. I enjoyed it and learnt tremendously. Having said that, there were time that I didn’t have enough work to do, and those times were seriously insipid.
What was it all about? … I’ve been working in a not-so-large (~10 ppl) group of crystallographers. My primary works were programming. Not much I can say here otherwise I may easily get into trouble.
Last several weeks I have been traveling a lot to Cambridge and London. Countless times to Cambridge let alone three in the last week. Had an excursion to Windsor, photos are already on facebook, will put them up on flickr some time.
This may be the reason that motivates me to post this entry. Recently I came across this fascinating documentary on National Geographic channal, Air Crash Investigation. I’ve seen several episodes. I’ve got to say I’m already addicted.
Typically I’m not into any TV shows, I would rather spend all day in front of a monitor than a telly. Ok, I like movies, but not tv shows in general. CSI New York failed to attract my interest and I stopped watching it after three episodes. ‘24′ well, this one is exceptional, I’ve seen two seasons, but have no plan to start another as its so demanding.
Unlike others, I really enjoy Air Crash Investigation, I’m not sure is it because my former interest in large airplanes or aviation or something. You got to see it yourself and you may, like me, love it. If you don’t know where to start, I gonna post the episode I saw on tv last Sunday, this one is I have to say, exceptional.
Tell me, if you like it!
PS I plan to post another entry tomorrow, let’s see if I will succeed.
Tags: Air Crash Investigation, GlaxoSmithKline, GSK, internship, Youtube
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