January 1, 2021
#411
Gentle reader,
Happy New Year! Which is not something that means a lot to me, at my age, 64, it basically means time for a new calendar. Yes, we still use paper calendars. Well, I do. Nancy has a smart phone, so she has it right there, I'm sure my Sonim XP3 military grade flip phone has that ability as well, but have never checked.
But I digress, another thing I'm good at. I do have some OCD tendencies, but I use my power for good.
Once I realized one could stream YouTube on the big screen, well, 42 inches is big to us, I start my day with it and watch it other times as well. Why people can be so content to stare, bent over, watching a phone screen, I'll never understand.
Anyway, (I digressed again) just before sitting down to do this article, I watched Sarah-n-Tuned latest end-of-the-year video. She let slip that she is 35. Many a single male (and no doubt female) viewer was curious about that:
That's What She Said! // 2020 Bloopers & Deleted Scenes - YouTube
She really is a remarkable young woman with great talent and perseverance.
BACK to the task at hand, the title states that this is the third in the series about my overhauling the look of the room we call "the office" in our humble home. Here are links to the two previous chapters:
The Robb Collections: Moving My Large Scale Diecast Car Collections And Rethinking The Room
The Robb Collections: Rethinking The Room, Part Two 1965 to 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans And Steve McQueen Original Photos
THIS one has little to do with cars, which have been one of my passions for all my life.
After "finishing" the room's walls the last time, I still had to do something with the collected toys, and still carded diecast cars as well as a few framed items I had initially boxed.
I have owned more than 500 film cameras from when I collected them. And I have not counted the number of digital models, so far.
That being said, I currently have a Nikon DSLR, a D300, and the two Panasonic LUMIX cameras shown above. I just counted the LUMIX cameras I sold, there were sixteen of them, including four Micro Four Thirds interchangeable lens mirrorless cameras. So, a total of eighteen LUMIX models. Plus two, (three actually) Fujifilm digital models, both bought for me by Nancy.
She surprised me with a Fujifilm digital camera a 1.3megapixel basic model so I could add photos to my eBay auctions, so it must have been 1998 or 99. The second one she gave me a few years later, my first "Bridge" camera, was a S7000 which was replaced under warranty by Fujifilm. Previous Nikon models were a D70S and D200.
So, you can probably tell, having the latest and greatest is not my thing. My car is sixteen years old and I hope to keep it forever. It's rare and perfect for me.
So, to show you what the room looked like in an earlier attempt to neaten it up, here is a years earlier article I wrote about it:
The Robb Collections: The OFFICE a virtual tour
Of the bookshelves then, only the low one with diecast cars in it's top compartment remain. The desk, chair and walnut cabinet I built in the 1970's and the shelf right inside the door are still in the same position, but their contents have changed.
Getting BACK on topic, this article IS supposed to be about this room AND the use of screw (or thread) on auxiliary lenses. The photo above was made with my FZ200 LUMIX camera while I was standing where I am sitting right now. It was at it's widest setting a 35mm equivalent of 25mm, thus a wide angle shot.
While this shot, I added the Panasonic DMW-LWA52 wide angle lens with a multiplication factor of 0.75X. (Shouldn't that be division factor?) Anyway, it converts the 24mm wide angle end of Panasonic LUMIX LX series of camera lenses to 18mm in 35mm measurements. The difference in how much is seen is obvious.
Since I imagine that you cannot see the difference with the wall above, and the way it looked in the previous chapter, so I will tell you what they are. I moved the item which is now behind the right speaker from the side wall. I also framed and added the amazing print of a PENCIL drawing of a Porsche 924 made by Alfredo Toffaneli. The one and probably only Porsche we have owned was a 924S model.
I also made some extension mounts for the two Smith-Victor ten inch photography lights which brings them down a foot from the ceiling. Which is what those two things hanging from the ceiling with round white things on them are.
Please let me know if these images seem too DARK, when I
edited them my usual way, then viewed them in the photo viewer, they were
dark, so I lightened them some.
I have two LUMIX cameras, as I said. My third LX model so far is the LX7 with it's fast and fantastic Leica 24-90mm f1.4 Vario-Summilux lens. And the larger and more capable looking one is a FZ200 with it's CONSTANT aperture lens which reaches from 25-600mm f2.8 Leica Vario-Elmar lens.
I have two LUMIX lenses and two aftermarket, "third
party" I think is the correct term, models. One fisheye cheaply made and sold by
Opteka and an older Tokina 3X telephoto conversion lens.
As mentioned the shortest lens was made specifically for the LUMIX LX cameras. While the tallest lens is the DMW-LT55 (mag. factor 1.7X) which was made for the FZ series of Superzoom LUMIX cameras. It extends the 600mm reach to 1020mm or just over one meter.
This shot was made with the FZ200 at 25mm focal length. The second photo, below, was made from the same place with the add-on DMW-LT55 lens: As you can see, the shot is crisp and clear and the license plate blocking filter works great. So, this lens does exactly as Panasonic expected it to, when it is used on the correct camera. That's my car, by the way, the one I hope to keep forever. There is more to it that meets the eye.
My Nikon D300 with a very unique 2X teleconverter mounted on it and the 50mm f1.8 "normal" lens mounted to the converter.
Unlike rear-mount (that's what she said!) teleconverter lenses (above) which mount TO the camera body and the lens is mounted to IT, front mount auxiliary lenses do not reduce light to the film or sensor. That and their ease of use and fairly good results are the positives about them.
Back to the room. Remember, that is what I'm writing about? As I mentioned I still had to do something with the toys and a few other things. SO, I will show you the room step-by-step starting with that same wall and the doorway which is to the LEFT of the first photo below, and walk you around the room from there.
This photo and the one below splits the wide black and white photo of a pit stop during the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans race in the rain on June 13th or14th, 1970.
The wall mounted wiring for the overhead lights serve as a divider/aligner for the Monster Cable Navajo White Flat speaker wiring I installed for the BOSE 301 speakers Nancy bought me MANY years ago.
Now, you can get a better look at Steve McQueen, top right. That was on the side wall before. One can just see the top of one of my Klipsch KG4 speakers.
Where Steve's visage was before, now hangs the commemorative poster handed to us after we watched the latest STAR WARS movie on opening day.
Below that is the Nurburgring map. And below that is a poster denoting the history of Audi in racing and a colorful poster from the fun TV series called CHUCK.
Now, looking towards the front wall, the 42" HDTV I use for simulation racing. The stack of vintage Yamaha stereo equipment topped by an OPPO universal disc player and my Epson photo/film scanner. The equipment accurately drives the speakers across from me.
Standing in the same location, but now facing the side wall of the house. I added some smaller framed photos and all of the carded diecast cars.
This is the cabinet/shelf I mentioned before. I made it from white walnut wood (the kind which yield the walnuts we eat) back in the 1970's with the tutelage of my girlfriend's father. The tree was on his property in Mutton Hollow, Virginia. The tree had died, so he had it felled and sawn into boards. It is made up of four 3/4 inch thick, five inch wide boards, per side, which were joined together with wood glue.
A couple of smaller pieces had these worm holes in them, so I made this one front and center.
The closet which I fitted out, floor to ceiling with twelve inch deep shelves.
The shelf you see there has Nancy's late-father's HO train cars and engines along with ones we bought. Locomotives are on top.
Reminders of my thirty-five years working on Washington, D.C. subway cars from which I retired almost four years ago. The Star Wars framed poster hung here before my efforts to fill out the walls.
The 1987 Porsche line up of cars, official poster. Top left is the 924S which was the budget model originally listed at $19,995 in 1986. Which equates to $47,213.69 in today's money.
We have six grandchildren, five boys and one girl who was the fifth one born. So, toys are what they are all about. UN-fortunately, Grampa's toys are off limits. Fear not, they have MANY more than we do in our collections.
We saw the film, Wall-e and loved it, Nancy bought the plush version of him and the Go-Dog-Go! dog for me. It was a favorite book of mine as a kid.
We, like countless millions, loved the Toy Story series of films. The hat less Woody was a recent thrift store find. You may have noticed Buzz Lightyear and a Buddy Lee action figure to the right of this cabinet top in an earlier photo. There voices still work as does Buzz's Karate-chop action and "laser".
I loved cowboy films and TV shows, especially Roy Rogers. Although my young mind wondered why there were CARS in the shows. We saw the Monty Python salute Spamalot in D.C. at the Fords Theater where President Lincoln was shot. Thus the Holy Grail Ale and Spamalot Spam can.
The antique train was a surprise find the neighbors had set out for the trash. It still works, lights and noises and engineer moving to look out the side.
Here is the Opteka $14.95 fisheye lens mounted directly to the FZ200's lens.
The optional telephoto lens requires a special adapter tube which screws into the camera body around the lens.
Here is the results standing where I am now sitting. I cropped it to a square. Sharp lens? No, but one gets what one pays for.
Boxes for the two lenses. Optika does make a much better fisheye lens but it's more than ten times the price. For more on fisheye lenses, see here:
The same lens on the LX7. It too requires a special adapter tube mounted to the body to hold the 18mm lens.
It may be me, but this image looks a little better. The Summilux lens is superior to the Elmar lens on the FZ200. Here is the LUMIX 18mm lens mounted on the LX7. That device on top of the camera is the optional eye-level viewfinder.
You can see how the lens fits the adapter perfectly and it almost looks like it is a micro-four-thirds camera.
The Tokina 3X lens mounted on the LX7.
Photo below shows the LX7 flanked by the Tokina on the left and the LUMIX lens ON the adapter on the right.
Now, some shots out the window, and I know shooting through two panes of glass and a screen is not going to yield clear results. But it's cold outside and being retired, I am spoiled.
Using the FZ200, here is the mailbox.
And this is with the Lumix lens which is equivalent to 1020mm. Not very clear, yet you saw the photo of my Volvo shot with this and it IS clear.
This is the results of the Tokina lens. It is difficult to handhold long lenses regardless of size, shape or weight. So, this 1800mm equivalent shot is quite poor. Finally, here is the entire LUMIX family including the flash and softbox.
These shots are with the LX7 camera. Above is at 90mm equivalent. You can see reflections of the solar toys in the glass.
Lastly, the Tokina 3X mounted on the LX7. similar results, at 370mm equivalent focal length. Vignetting and soft edges have convinced me that the Tokina needs to go back on eBay and the Opteka fisheye is a "fun" effects lens at best.
This article ran a lot longer than I intended. But it was fun to shoot and write.
Please take a moment to click or tap the FOLLOW button at the bottom of the list of dates. You will receive notifications of new articles. Also, feel free to leave a comment below or on Facebook.
Thanks!
Scott & Nancy
January 1, 2021
#410
