Let's see what £40 Buys you on Ebay....

Nevermind all that nonsense about, is old good now BS that seems to have a hypnotic effect on people with nothing better to do, read it or write it it's a timewasting futile pointless thing! One thing these empty thoughts never talk about is the most important thing you need to learn about, Light, it doesn't care if you've spent 10k or £1, it works the same way.

It's knowing and learning what you want to achieve and using the tools to get to that end and knowing any limitations and working WITH those, not seeing them as a negative, which some seem to thrive on, strange folk indeed.

It's the 2.4 Children Syndrome, templates are boring, useful but boring as boring can be.

So armed with some fingers and 15 mins spare time, let's have a look at reality....

Search Parameters: (Don't forget this is just one day, other days reveal less, some more....)

Nikon / UK Only / BIN / Used / £40 or under.

Lens:

• NIKON 35-70mm F/3.3-4.5 AF NIKKOR - £30
  
• Nikon 50mm f1.8 Series E - £40
• Nikon 75 - 150mm f3.5 Series E - £39.95
  

*Something for everyone generally. All good glass, no damage or 'quick fixes', working perfectly, I personally never look for f5.6 lenses, usable but you may as well go for the lesser f stop version as price difference is negligable if you look for long enough and no one would know what lens you used in any of your pics.

Camera:

• Nikon D70 digital camera in great working order. Body is in clean tidy condition with light marks and scratches on back screen. Supplied with battery and charger. Shutter count is 17472. - £30
• Nikon EM 35mm SLR Film Camera Body + Case. Camera is in excellent and fully tested and working. Comes in the fitted Nikon Case - £29.99 There was another for £24.99

*There are usually some F90's knocking about but not today and you'll find some D40's on other days, if you really want to dabble cheaply with film, my 2 working F50's were £3 each! So film or digital and no one would know what camera you used in any of your pics!

Flash:

• Nikon Speedlight SB-27 - £39.99
• Nikon SPEEDLIGHT SB-50DX inc Case and most accessories - £37.99

*Don't forget working with older gear only needs era specific accessories, my SB-600 was £40 and usually there are some about as that's the one to look for and no one would know what flash you used in any of your pics!

Filters:

That old nugget, never mind what you read, if you want to use one, use 10 if you want, for me it's doesn't even need thinking about once I've decided what Filter to use on which lens.

I use them for protection, for the glass, to add fall protection, a filter and a cap are a good bumper for an edge of lens drop. You'll read about oh colour casts and blah....After millions and years of research I finally found a solution, a few turns anti clockwise seems to work or in laymans terms, take it off.

It protects the lens whilst handling and putting in and out of a bag quickly, if no cap is needed, it's peace of mind and now don't even think about it, free the brain.

I use the best non aluminium ones I can afford at the time I need one, it can be frustrating though as filter prices are really variable at any given day, one minute it's £15 then a day later one turns up for £6.99 inc free postage....!!! And I don't buy from sellers who say, 'may be some light cleaning marks', there is or there isn't, not 'may be' what, have their eyes stop working....

So here we go:

• Hama 'Pro Series' filters are an underated nice find. (< £10)
  
• Hoya Standard are perfectly fine.
  
• B&W 010 are a nice quality brass option. (Approx £20)
• Nikon OEM are mostly Hoya STD prices, for common types but the few extra pennies make you feel warm and cosy inside when it's matched with it's Hood brother, completing a ménage à trois of yum.
• Some Harumi filters have a good reputation but hard to find definative references to which ones are really good.

* What I find hilarious is that you'll see reports of some filters being hard to clean, well that's because they are using the same crap chemical that is sold to mugs and all of a sudden glass and its coatings are delicate and need to be cleaned with super duper expensive crap. They are made of glass FFS, it isn't soft and can be cleaned perfectly with some mild detergent and some warm water, a nice soft cloth and some compressed air, it's not rocket science, want to clean the edges, most decent filters can be unscrewed so the glass can be removed, the worst enemy of filters are your own greasy fingers.

* I recently tried some different cloths and 'spray' that reportedly does the job, made by Leitz, it is shite, the cloths don't work and I just ended up breathing on them to clean them properly with a lens tissue.

* I don't know enough (<Anything ;>) ) about other Camera makers OEM Filters to comment on them.

* Cheap imported filters are cheap for a reason, glass for a start but the mounts can be useful if experimenting, for cheap parts but remember what I said a few posts ago....It was approx, again:

• When you get to a certain level of interest in photography you need to learn other skills or gain knowledge in other subjects, metallurgy for one, mixing metals in certain conditions isn't always a good thing, fine shavings, (Metal Dust and glass aren't friends!), bad friction....Not always needed but I like to buy things to keep and not have to constantly replace as it's softer and more fragile than 'metal', brass etc ones, it's false economy and then there's the reliability view, then there's the hardness of the glass, then there's....Sadly a by product of 'progress' and cheap manufacturing methods to create a perpetual money scheme, buy good, buy once, that's why I personally buy mostly OEM Filters.
  

Accessory:

It's easy to find a nice Bag or Tripod, some notable mentions:

• Lowepro Messenger bags are great, understated and cheap, good for lens storage as well, as a bit square.
  
•  Any Tenba DNA for discreet use, easy access and flexible inside but hard to find a good size one for £40<
  
• For me, an older Manfrotto Tripod if possible with removable base plate, think they are good value for the quality you get, you may have to hunt for a cheaper one, they hold their price for a reason. (Added 250923: Just picked up a Manfrotto 055 with 121 Head and Bag for £30 from Facebook Marketplace, so EB isn't the only source for goodies)
  

*Only buy Lens Hoods if you need really need to, save your money, when you do only buy OEM as you will find them cheap enough if you are patient enough and no one would know what hood you used in any of your pics! (Personally under £10 is my base)

Fun:

Not much around today but to steer away from the norm, look for:

• Nikon BR2/A Reversing Ring. £20 approx, although the 'A' version seems to hold its value more than the BR2 but that will work as well, depending on camera.
  
• Nikon Close Up Filters. From £5 if you are lucky, but £10 > should buy you up to No.2, the 'T' series are more expensive.
  
• Teleconverter, my TC 1.6A was £33, if you time it right you could pick up a TC-201 for £40<
• Extension Tubes, manual or AF, my own recent set of Kenro AF ones were £25 and I picked up a set of Nikon K ones for £14.
  

Depressing:

• Missed a F4S for £35....Boohoo!....It does happen but there will always be another along.
• Also a PK-13 Extension Tube for £150, dreamers LOL, mine came with a PK-12 for £17.
  

Disclaimer:

• Before you go spilling your milk, these are perfectly adequate to grab most pics in most common situations in high quality and produce very good prints that most generally will never use, most consumer Digital Cameras are underused IMHO, unless you want to be a Wildlife or Sports Photographer etc....Even then you could find a cheap kit to get started, maybe next time I'll focus on a more specific type of needs. (I might do a subject I know nothing about to see if some 'base criteria' works/applies across the activity, I'll choose a subject randomly, do no research, then do a 'enough to get a decent pic as cheap as possible under £100' attempt, mmmm!)
  

If you bought any of the above as soon as they landed you could take pics with them and not one person would know if it was a day old or 20 yr old gear when looking at the pics, anyone who thinks that Cameras are aware of how old they are and start not working as the day they left the factory because new gear comes out is delusional, but also shows how the internet has made people well....Let's say....Dumbed-down..

Sure, nothing stopping anyone paying what they want for whatever they want but, here the focus is cost, benefit, reliability, consistancy, possibilty and hopefully showing that nice Photography equipment shouldn't be restricted just by 'needing' expensive money, but is sometiimes, just by views! As I've said before, never take one persons view on decision making, even mine....especially mine! Smi)y Face.

Photography is an old craft, older than the internet, believe it or not, so there are plenty of experienced, hands on good Photographers telling their real life stories with equipment, my quick guide to look away:

• Any 'Review' site that uses any affilate links.
• Some 'Commercial' sites maybe Copy/Pasted.

But it's mostly common sense, the good ones are easy to weed out from Googles maddening 'sell me anything BS' search results, some good start ones are:

https://www.dpreview.com/

The Reviews are useful, nice Technical Info inc and some good info can be filtered in the Forums.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/

Guess the focus but some nice user reviews in the Lens Section inc 3rd Party with added images to back up comments. User reviews seem balanced as there are good and bad in the same product.

You'll also find links at both sites to other good sites, especially the Forums, I do sometimes search independant websites that concentrate on what I might be looking for or something unusual, that's how I found out about the Leitz 16466M Adapter, elsewhere on the site, a lovely cheap quality solution. (Since that post, my next one on the way, was £12 delivered)

For now, over and out....