Review: Kodak Gold 200

28 Jun 2020 6 Comments

by richardhaw in nikon,lens repair,lens maintenance,nikon repair,, Nikon,museum,classic lenses,, Uncategorized

Hello, everybody! Does anybody here enjoy a McDonald’s burger? I used to think that they’re terrible since my gold-standard is always Burger King. It’s something that I used to eat a lot to save money but I didn’t recall loving it. I always thought that it’s bland, mediocre and small but it gets the job done. I came to realize lately that they’re better than how I remembered them to be and they can be quite tasty, too. There are some things that are worth a look after not having them for a long time. We’re probably attached to the image or taste of something that it made our opinion biased. Today, I’ll show you a good example of something that many of us take for granted but it really is a decent product that’s worth another look.

Introduction:

Everyone knows that my favorite cheap film is the Fujifilm Industrial 100. It was the best bang-for-buck film available locally but Fujifilm decided to end its production so prices went up to unreasonable levels. I was faced with no other choice but to make-peace with a film that I hated, the Kodak Gold 200. I never had any great experiences with it before but I also did not hate it so much that I won’t ever use it unlike Mitsubishi’s cheap version that I used to buy a very long time ago. I hated it because it didn’t give me the qualities of the Fujifilm Industrial 100 and I hated shooting with ISO200. It’s a weird ISO and I preferred ISO100 for slower films and ISO400 for moderate ones. This is a weird in-between ISO that I have not much use for. With ISO100 I could calculate my exposure within my mind but ISO200 throws things off.

This film is still priced reasonably-well despite not being cheap at all. I am a cheap photographer and I would never use expensive stocks unless the lens I used demands it. For taking mundane photos of daily things I prefer cheap films. Having said that, I bought many rolls of this to give it another chance. I was surprised by what I saw, it wasn’t as bad as I remembered it to be! It’s quite decent to be honest, maybe my photography skills have improved or I was just shooting with cheap equipment back then (a Canon T80 and zoom).

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Repair: Nikkor 135mm f/3.5 Ai-S

21 Jun 2020 8 Comments

by richardhaw in nikon,lens repair,lens maintenance,nikon repair,, Nikon,museum,classic lenses,, Uncategorized

Hello, everybody! I’m currently tired of what’s happening at work, life and the world. Things aren’t going smoothly and I have to deal with difficult and unreasonable people. Hopefully, that will all change as it’s driving me to my physical, mental and emotional limits. There’s always closure to everything, nothing is permanent. Speaking about closures, I’ll show you the last lens in one of Nikon’s longest-selling lens family. It marked the end of an era and it is a worthy lens to end it all.

Introduction:

The Nikkor 135mm f/3.5 Ai-S was sold from 1981 to 1983, a very short period as far as Nikkors go. It’s the last lens in the 135/3.5 family which began with the Nikkor-Q•C 13.5cm f/3.5 from the early days of Nikon. That lens family is known for being reliable, sharp and practical. With the arrival of autofocus and other technologies and trends, this lens family became redundant. The market demanded something else and that made it difficult to sell this lens.

It’s similar to the older Nikkor 135mm f/3.5 Ai in terms of dimensions but it’s lighter because it was made with fewer parts. It’s an elegant lens with clean lines and is a joy to hold in your hands.

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