Adam Trahan: My Current Photography Kit

My favorite lens, the Japanese market Nikkor 50mm f1.8 AIS

As I returned to photography and as an amateur, I made a lot of mistakes due to what is called, GAS, Gear Acquisition Syndrome. It is real and difficult to avoid as curiosity overwhelms the desire to methodically improve by practice. As I gained experience, I began to increase my knowledge of operating the gear yet my desire to explore options was far greater than the lessons I would learn by experiencing in graduated steps. I thought I could buy better pictures by buying better lenses. I began to think that digital photography, that technology was driving my interest and I could see instant results.

The timing was wrong. It wasn’t a mistake, it was a lesson that wasn’t efficient to the buget.

Earning experiences by taking pictures and studying light, utilizing knowledge and control over camera settings, composing images with the experience of time in the field is the way. Reading about a lens and seeing pictures from famous professionals, the desire to own that lens was far too easy to make that choice.

I buy most of my lenses from Japan. I have learned the order and purchase process, the grading of a lens and what to avoid through trial and error. You can’t realize the use of a lens until it is in your hands. Learning this process went right along with gear acquisition syndrome.

The equipment, lens and camera body held value and are commodities. The value in a popular lens is held and if I didn’t like it, I could just sell it.

As I started to gain knowledge in manual focus photography, I wanted to become more efficient with expenditures. I researched digital single lens reflex camera bodies and acquired the D780, the lens junkies digital camera. The day I purchase it, I did not own one single auto focus lens.

I began to research and bought my first AF lens, the AF-S Nikkor 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 G ED VR FX. It was a beautiful lens and camera combination that made my job as a photographer very easy. As I gained interest in digital photography, I realized the quality of zoom lenses had increased to the point that I could gain almost all the focal lengths I wanted in one lens. I bought the AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f3.5-5.6 G ED VR FX. With this lens on my digital camera body, I had the ability to take a full spectrum of focal lengths in one single lens. My photography was improving!

I begin to inquire on all the AF lens versions, the different generations of AF lenses and started selling my collection of MF equipment to purchase the modern digital equipment that I thought was greatly accelerating my image quality. I knew I needed a full spectrum of focal lengths and that was the direction I took with manual focus equipment.

I sold all of my manual-focus kit to fund the purchase of a modern DSLR quiver. After making that decision and completing the task over several months, I was quite happy with my equipment yet something really important was missing. I had everything I needed in my photography equipment. I began to understand what was missing. It was my passion to grab my camera and just explore… Photography became more of a process and less discovering the magic in capturing light. Manual focus photography was the reason I enjoyed photography. I had removed the passion replacing it with a process.

Being honest is foundation of everything I do. I had made a mistake. Manual Focus photography was what drove my interest in taking pictures. I had sold my kit to focus on improving yet I had made a huge error in my photography by removing the reason why I was did it in the first place!

I had removed the magic in creating my photography.

From mistakes, opportunity arises.

This is the story of Version Two.

I am writing this page as I am content with my choices and even the history of how I got here. I have minimized my modern digital equipment to a very purposeful kit. And now I have put together a meaningful collection of MF lenses that make up my manual focus 35mm film kit. The F6 can utilize all my AF lenses and mount my MF lenses as well while utilizing all the technology that Nikon provides a professional photographer.

I wear the badge of Amateur Photographer proudly. I am not driven by money to produce photographs for others. My whole experience is mine and the journey is as well. I will not belittle what a professional does yet I do this for fun.

The 35mm MF FE camera body is absolutely perfect for the minimalist kit. The FE is absolutely perfect for me, it’s just what I need and nothing more. The lenses I’ve chosen for it are fantastic and legendary. When I make a decision to take pictures with my equipment, the question I ask myself is, digital or film?

The answer is film, using a manual focus camera.

If I absolutely have to have perfect pictures, I use the auto focus film or digital camera.

If I want passion and magic, I choose a manual focus camera every time.
I am a film photographer. A manual focus film camera is the way I became a photographer and the reason I have returned to it. Digital photography is the reason why I’ve stopped film photography twice in the past.

The thoughts that I have now are based in experience. I have an absolutely beautiful 35mm film camera that I can use in the manual mode to take pictures from 15mm through 500mm. Perfect focus and exposure. I’ve built a purely MF kit that concentrates on focal lengths that produce the pictures that I want. A 20mm lens that makes beautiful wide angle images and is extremely compact. Another compact 50mm normal perspective lens along with a professional at the time of it’s release normal 35-70mm zoom. I have an excellent 75-150mm telephoto zoom that has made iconic landscape images that are legendary and a 105mm portrait lens that has more performance in it than I can realize at this time.

As an amateur photographer, I make this web site for me, to track my progress and to use as a resource to learn from. I choose film and a fantastic DSLR, the uber special D780. From my understanding, I use my DSLR a little differently. I do that by looking through the viewfinder 95% of the time. When I do use live view, it is for overhead shots and night photography.

The below list looks like a lot but that’s my complete kit for three different systems, lens for a manual focus FE, auto focus lenses for a D780 and F6 and the single medium format lens for the Mamiya M645 1000s.

Manual Focus

Nikon FE

Nikkor 20mm f4 AI

Nikkor 35-70 f3.5 AI-S

Nikkor 50mm f1.2 AIS

Nikkor 50mm f1.8 AI-S