{"id":862,"date":"2026-11-14T22:21:52","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T22:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/?p=862"},"modified":"2026-11-14T22:21:52","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T22:21:52","slug":"cooling-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/?p=862","title":{"rendered":"Cooling Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

The clocks have gone back, the new NHL season is well underway, and there’s a chill in the morning air, happy days.<\/p>\n

Both restored FX-D have departed, the orange one I did last somewhat reluctantly, but with the FX-103 being that bit better to use, it was liable to sit on a shelf, so it’s gone.<\/p>\n

While sorting out photos for the orange FX-D to use online, I attached the 50mm lens that was going with it to my Fuji E-X5 via an adaptor, as per Analog in a Digital World<\/a> As the article says, like any other lens attached to an APS-C sensor camera, the crop factor is 1.5 (or 1.6 if you’re a Canon user), making the 50mm lens 75mm in real terms. This is portrait lens territory, anything from about 75mm to 90mm or up to the classic 135mm which was popular for 35mm film cameras are typically in this class, good for head and shoulders shots, preferably with a fast aperture coupled with\u00a0nice soft bokeh.<\/p>\n

The Yashica ML 50mm f2 I was selling with the FX-D is actually the slowest of five ML series 50mm lenses they made, with the f1.4 anchoring the fast end and also commanding the best used prices, as it’s a close relative to the Contax stablemate in terms of quality.<\/p>\n

What I wasn’t expecting was just how good the results would be when I used it!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Bearing in mind that this is a manual focus lens that’s 40 odd years old, and a modern 40MP sensor, with a fairly simple but TTL flash unit and minimal editing, aside from a crop I think. I really must try using the Yashica lenses I have more with the Fuji’, though after trying the 135mm f2.8, with faster shutter speeds or higher ISO or a tripod or all three!<\/p>\n

Another, thankfully working this time I hasten to add, Olympus XA-2 has arrived, along with something I’ve considered buying for a while, in the form of an Olympus PEN, an EE-3 to be precise. The PEN series are small half-frame 35mm cameras, full details are here Small Packages<\/a>. After getting the first film back taken with the EE-3, I definitely consider it a bargain buy.<\/p>\n

Compilation of my annual photo calendar I give to family and friends is complete and awaiting me delivering it, no surprises that there’s a distinct San Francisco vibe this year. But next year’s could well be interesting and choosing 12 photos may be tricky (hopefully). Hawaii beckons in February, while we’re back to Disney in Florida (again….) in October. Though that should make the autumn and Christmas selection easier, as Disney manage to switch from Halloween to all things Xmas overnight!<\/p>\n

Hawaii is a cruise, from SF again, has been booked for close on two years, but seems to have crept upon us in no time. It was one reason for our trip to the city by the bay this year, the longer we thought about what to cram into a day and a bit before embarking, the more we realised we needed much longer.<\/p>\n

Better still, there’s a total of 9 sea days. So 9 days of doing nothing except lounge around the pool (probably the adult only area so no kids running riot!), read my Kobo, listen to music, have a swim and make the most of the food choices, but don’t go mad with the drinks package!<\/p>\n

To be honest, neither location was high on my places to visit bucket list, especially the latter, where we are serial offenders. Much as it’s fun, the cost a typical holiday in Orlando doubles when you include the park tickets, but more than that, I’ve a list of more interesting places (to me at any rate) I want to visit, even one in Belgium! All I have to do now, is not come back with a personalised Light Sabre from Galaxy’s Edge to complement my R2D2 from last time….<\/p>\n

My germ of an idea for another book may be sprouting roots. A bit more research on the subject appears to show that there’s no competition, not one book dedicated to this subject. Better still, for me, there’s a fount of knowledge nearby, a theme to weave through it with photos as well, and time enough (I hope) to complete publication to coincide with another event. Next step, see how long I’ve got to do it.<\/p>\n

After a few weeks exploring with the Ace Pro 2, I’m more aware of what’s possible with it and some of its quirks. I definitely have to do more video with it and the cinematic lens it came with in addition to the standard lens, then decide what works best for me. This will hopefully mean no need to keep changing lenses. With an open door helicopter flight pencilled in, the last thing I want to see is a lens departing into the depths of the Pacific!<\/p>\n

Luckily, we’ve had some great photography weather and colours wise, Autumn is definitely my favourite time of year. Consequently, I’ve had chance to take a different camera out and shoot similar photos across 3-4 days to allow a basic comparison of how they perform.<\/p>\n

\"Woodland
Little Don Trail taken with Fuji XT5 + Sigma 18-50mm f2.8.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Autumn
Similar view, but taken with the Ace Pro 2 and Cinematic lens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have to say, whatever work Leica have done with Insta360 has been worth it. The output from the Ace Pro 2 seems less artificial than the GoPro 12’s was, and having considerably more options to control the exposure is vastly better when doing stills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The clocks have gone back, the new NHL season is well underway, and there’s a chill in the morning air, happy days. Both restored FX-D have departed, the orange one I did last somewhat reluctantly, but with the FX-103 being that bit better to use, it was liable to sit on a shelf, so it’s … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Cooling Down”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4F6SO-dU","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":863,"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions\/863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}