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30 IS THE NEW 50

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Following a bit of a dry period photographically, I decided to cheer myself up with a quick surf on ebay for a cheap lens. As the Samsung NX series has been discontinued in 2015, there is often kit available fairly reasonably, due to its obsolescence. A quick look revealed two NX lenses - both 30mm pancakes and both starting at under a fiver. One was a black version, cosmetically sound, but untested. The other was the white version, in poor condition for parts or not working. The white one had clearly suffered a little and the front mount was missing. I decided to have bid on the black one, for a small amount, but was quickly outbid. So I looked at the white one again and made a cursory offer of £10.00. My offer was accepted and the lens arrived yesterday. Meanwhile the black untested one finished its run at £51.00! On receiving the lens, apart from the missing ring on the front, it seemed to be in good order, so I mounted it on the camera. It hummed, clicked and then the dreaded '...
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ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

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One of my favourite and most enduring iPhone photography apps is ‘Hipstamatic’. It’s been around for many years now and has been updated into two versions, a subscription based version aimed at social media and photo sharing and a classic version, which originally had monthly updates with optional features that users could choose to purchase. The basic idea is to recreate an analogue experience on the phone, by using a film emulation, lens and optional flash, to turn the phone into an analogue style camera. In this, it works extremely well and the various packs can be interchanged endlessly to create combinations of the three elements, to suit personal tastes. Mostly, the purchased packs provide a distinct and interesting set of effects in the app.Since the second version was released a few years ago, Classic is still supported but on a less frequent basis, with new packs appearing around every two months. Generally, the packs are themed on a style, movement or a geographical area. The...
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