Crazy over lenses

And so I return after a long break .......
Time seem to fly nowadays. As the global unease over the economic situation mounts, so too did work in the office. To find time after work is tough. More and more, the only break I find is the lunch break. By 5.30 in the afternoon, the mind is a blank and I am am only thinking of food - those nice sweetened and calorie rich fat inducing saliva stimulating desserts....

I finally bought the 18-200mm nikkor lens for my D60 today. I have been eyeing that lens for more than a year. Recently I had the chance to try out the Sigma 18-200mm. I liked the feel and the pictures. BUT the focusing ring sits just at edge of your palm. So when you take a shot, you will find that ring turning against your palm - yikes. Also the zoom ring is located right at the base. I find it hard to sit the lens on my palm. In fact I was quite dissapointed with the design.

I tried the Nikkor. Ergonomics won. Even though it was much more expensive than the Sigma
the lens just sits into your palm and you just focus and shoot. I was surprise that Tim told me that it felt good - given that the lens is heavier than the 18-55mm we are used to.

My wife had been urging me to buy that lens for over 2 months now. She was even willing to pay for half the lens! The truth, I believe is so that I would just stop pinning about the 18-200mm. Strange that I am actually quite a whiner. Now I understand proverbs where it said that it is better to sleep on the roof than in the same room of a nagging wife.

Am I happy with the lens? Well I only manage to get about 10 shots - about 20 minutes shooting time. The rest was taken up by both Ben and Tim. I like the results - but I am no pro.

I was actually quite apprehensive after spending a significant portion of savings to get the lens. But to see both the boys enjoying the lens put things in perspective and gave me some respite from my conscience. My family enjoys this too! I find it a great blessing to share common ground with the boys and wife. We all enjoy good well taken pictures. We all also enjoy taking pictures. We talk about taking good pictures - we are no pros... just "juara kampung"

I recall the time when I was entering my teens when I woke up one day and realised that I had drifted apart from my dad. After that we only shared "polite" conversations over superficial topics. We seldom had heart to heart communication. Even when dad was dying in hospital, the daily visits was good - but we could never touch heart to heart. I wanted so much to hug him and tell him how grateful I was for all his sacrifices. We did not have common ground. It was too late to find common ground.