What Next...

Well, I finally got to take a few snaps this past Tax Day (aka- show us your taxes, you lyin' SOB day). And we had quite the decent turnout here in SF for the local protest and march. I never go to "document" these affairs- more like try and find a few worthwhile images as a byproduct thereof. Was accompanied by my GR and FM3A, and while I shot mostly B&W with the FM and 20mm (1 roll- quite a bit for this tres conservative shooter), I did manage to get 2 keepers in color, although both were slightly "compromised."

Photo: © S. Banos

The portrait of the guy was mistakenly taken at ISO 800, while it could've been taken at 200 (drats!!!); it's still very much OK. Truth is, I've gotten much better at reminding myself to watch my ISO- it's just that it would be considerably easier still, if I could actually see it on the screen, alas, it's but the tiniest of blurs (as is the shutter speed). Can make it out with considerable concentration, but...

And the portrait of the female observer taken during the march (worthwhile photos of participants during an actual march, any march, before or after a protest are rare indeed), was taken on the sidelines as she watched in... fear, confusion, defiance? Close analysis will reveal some degree of camera shake (for once, sure wish I had had ISIS, I mean ISIL, I mean some sort of... IBIS?- sorry, really couldn't help that), but it's definitely on the safe side of sharp enough. 

Photo: © S. Banos

Meanwhile, I was having quite the battle in the analog arena just trying to manually focus my damn 20mm! Was I outta practice! I kept going back and forth like a, like a... guy having a really hard time trying to focus! My eyes are shot close up, but they're still pretty damn good in the field. Fact is, focusing with a twenty has never been easy under the best of circumstances; I kept waiting for it to "snap" into focus, but this lens doesn't snap, it more like... gradually coalesces without any digital beep, light or warning. Tough shit if ya don't notice. So it'll be interesting to see not only what's on that roll, but how much is in sharp focus.

Question is- where to go from here; that is, do I even stick with B&W analog? I got enough B&W restorations to see me a lifetime. And what's the use of a nice analog viewfinder- if ya can't even properly use and appreciate it anymore? Perhaps now's the time to finally pick up a "new" XT-1 for $800, it would eliminate the analog/digital, 2 camera balancing act when covering events- but I still haven't found a satisfactory way to post process digital B&W (should that even be a consideration?). Or maybe I should just dust off the bulky 'ol F100- and finally use... its auto focus! 

And while I'm figurin' on that- even though my original Plustek 7200 scanner's still going strong after more than ten years... Plustek refuses to let it jibe with Windows 10. And while there may, or may not be, a way to reconfigure the computerizer to make it go, It would probably be a whole lot cheaper to buy a whole new scanner (even for a few remaining scans) than to accidentally kneecap and sabotage my computer trying to somehow tweak it to run something I know not of...

First World Problems to be sure.