Bombay Beach

 

    Bombay Beach is a sleepy little community that lies on the shore of the Salton Sea in Southern California, about a 2hrs drive from the border.

    I decided to check out this little slice of paradise on a trip to Idyllwild a few months ago and this might be one of the most photogenic places I have ever seen. The Salton Sea was supposed to be the next Lake Tahoe but when the salt concentration rose, everything died and investors abandoned the area. However, there seem to be some resilient individuals who decided to call Bombay Beach home. In the 90s, flooding caused the sea to rise engulfing many of the homes on the shore.

     Today, the skeletons of these structures are still visible. The beach is literally made of fish bones. There is no sand in sight.  The remnants of an old airstream and a water tower create amazing subjects. There is so much to explore in this little slice of heaven that I am sure I will have to go back again.

Bombay Beach

M42 - EOS: The Dive

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawhead/)

    There is a plethora of old M42 lenses on ebay. Many of the them are Zeiss or other famous companies whose optic qualities rival modern day lenses. Naturally, when I first heard about this, I was enthralled. The ability to acquire amazing glass at close to a fraction of the price of modern day lenses seemed like a gold mine to me.

    I took my first dive by purchasing a Makinon 35-105mm M42 mount lens along with a M42 to EOS autoconfirm adapter. Although M42 lenses do not have autofocus and must be used the shutter priority, he autoficus confirm adapter allows some sort of communication with the lens and the camera. The adapter aids in focusing by lighting up the focus points when areas in that focus point are in focus, somewhat like an autoconfirm blink in an AF lens.

  But it was then when the problems began. First of all, if you don't have a full frame sensor and have to deal with small viewfinders and pentamirrors as in the XTi, there is no chance your actually going to be able to focus. In addition, I made a further mistake by getting a zoom lens. If you're going to get an M42 lens stick with the primes. The zoom ring was wobbly and I needed to refocus every time I zoomed. The optic quality was horrible and when used with the 50D, the pictures had so much chromatic aberration, I could barely make out the edges of objects and im not talking about some sort of Holga effect.

 All in all I think that there are many interesting lenses out there using the M42 mount. But most of them cannot be taken as serious lenses. They are by far not a replacement for the real thing. If you want a usable 50mm prime stick with the Canon 50 1.4. You won't be disappointed.

Links:
AF Confirm Adapter
Great Collection of M42 lenses

Cimarron, New Mexico

Backpacking in the Southern Rockies

In about 1 weeks time, I will be going to Cimarron, New Mexico on a ten day backpack through the southern rockies. This will be my first big backpack since my Whitney trip in 2006. Back then my photography interests were limited to my Casio P&S. Although the main goal of this trip is not photography, photography will remain a big aspect.

Gear:

Canon 50D

EF 20mm f/2.8

 EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6

 Slik 340 Tripod

Slik Ballhead
7GB worth of CF Cards

Tamrac 5682

Lowerpro Lens Case 1S

2 BP-511A battery packs

My main worry are the batteries. I know that based on the amount of memory I'm taking, I'll be limited to about 1200 shots. I will not be shooting RAW because its a pain to process and I don't want to deal with 20mb+ files sizes. According to Canon, I should be able to get about 800 pops per battery meaning that in real life it should be more around 600. I should have bought 2 or 3 chinese knockoffs they wouldn't have arrived in time. So I had to head on out to Samys and lay down $50 for a BP-511A, ridiculous I know. But hopefully I will be able to make it through those 10 days. I will be bringing a charger because I will be taking AMTRAK to Cimarron and I'm hoping they will have 120v outlets on the trains. Most plane bathrooms have them to I might be spending prolonged periods of time in the bathroom This should allow me to take some pictures from the train while keeping my battery charge at 100%.

Glass is definitely a big factor. In addition to what Im brining, I also have a EF 50mm f/1.4 and a M42 mount 35-105mm. I don't want to have to deal with a manual focus lens so the 35-105 is out. In addition, I believe that the 50 won't help me much. I love that lens but I don't see it getting much use on this trip. I am limited to two lenses because I have one on the body and one in the Lowepro case.

I decided to bring the 50D because although its heavier then the XTi, im less worried about it getting banged up. Plus, I bought the camera to be used to as long as I get some good pictures Im ok with a little ding here or there.

I only have one tripod, the Slik 340 which weighs as much as a small refrigerator but I guess thats what its gunna be.

Im using a Gregory Baltoro which has about 4000 cubic inches of space. Its small but it should do the job. We have two food pickups along the way so well only be carrying about 3 days of food at a time.

I hope that everything goes well and Ill post an update after I get back.