View on black.

Actually the room is called “The Pink Room”. As the rooms don’t have numbers, they’re called by their very individual color. We “explicitly” asked for a double, and were given the pink room. The second day I was approached by a guy who works there, and he asked, if I was the one who explicitly asked for the Pink Room. This felt kind of strange, and I replied that we didn’t ask for the Pink Room, but for a double. He answered with a kinda strange voice and an even stranger undertone, “Well, do you enjoy the Pink Room?”. Luckily he got a call at that very moment, and we didn’t have the chance to finish our conversation.

If you ever have to stay Berlin, consider this place. Paula, or better Paul, looks like the English answer to Paul Hogan, and is definitely worth having met in person.
Be aware that the locks at the room doors are rather useless. The first night it felt too strange to leave the laptop behind in the room, but it’s fine, Paula has her own way to secure the place, and I think it works fairly well…

Here’s a picture from the Holocaust Memorial:

View on black.

Inside the film and video museum in the Sony Center Berlin:

View on black.

A face above a doorway arch in a backyard:

View on black.

And finally this picture of a “Brazilian” flip-flop. I found it during the German quarter final of the soccer world cup close to the “Fan-Meile”. It’s still difficult for me to understand how one can loose a single flip-flop, as it was plus 30°C , and one can hardly be that drunk to not recognize the hot street under an unprotected foot.

View on black.

View on black

Lighting:
Above the clogs was SB-28 (1/32) with a DIY grid on it, in order to get the circle lighting the clogs.
Camera left was another SB-28 (1/64) firing into a shoot through umbrella for a tiny fill light.
D40, 17mm, f/11, 1/25, ISO400

If you care for the tracks:

01 Katzenjammer / A Bar in Amsterdam
02 Love Is All / Give It Back
03 The Action Design / Landmines
04 Winter Gloves / Let Me Drive
05 MGMT / It’s Working
06 Metric / Gimme Sympathy
07 OMD / Electricity
08 Seabear / In Winters Eyes
09 Nickel Eye / Brandy Of The Damned
10 Hindi Zahra / Stand Up
11 Jan Delay / Large
12 Sam & Dave / Hold On I’m Comin’
13 Sima Bina / Naz Kardanet Vaveyla
14 The Ventures / The Cruel Sea (Live in Japan’65)
15 Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip / Waiting For The Beat To Kick In…

Another picture, which will serve as a birthday card:

View on black.

Lighting:
Single SB-28 (1/64, tungsten gel, neutral density gel 2 stops) into a bent sheet of white paper (A3) hand held above the 15.
D40, 28mm, f/2, 1/80, ISO200

So far this was only possible using a D200/300 or better. But with the programmable Russian Dandelion chip every Nikon DSLR body will be able to meter with these old lenses.

This is what you’ll need:

• glue
• screwdriver
• file
• Dandelion chip (programming instructions, order here)

These are the instructions for the 2/28 AI-S. While most Nikkors are almost identical, others might differ slightly. I advise you to take a picture before every step you take, this might be a big help when you put things back together…

Step one:

Remove the three black screws that are marked with a red circle in the image.

If there are no black screws on top, you’ll find three silver screws on the side of the bayonet, holding the black ring. Actually, you’ll find four screws. Three will be identical in size and form and one will be different. The three that are the same are sunk in the bayonet and you need to remove them to get the black ring loose. The fourth screw is smaller and is not sunk in the bayonet. Don’t remove this one, as it holds a spring to pull back the aperture inside the bayonet.

Step two:

Remove the black ring and the three screws that hold the bayonet.

Step three:

Remove the bayonet, and place the lens cap on the lens for protection.

Step four:

File as much off the the black ring as you need in order to properly place the chip on it. To get an idea where you need to file, have a quick look at the picture of step six.

With some lenses you will need to file a lot. A metal saw might become very handy…

Step five:

Put the black ring with all the screws back on the silver bayonet. Place the white caliper on the bayonet, the yellow dot needs to be over gap.

Step six:

Now you need to glue the chip to the lens. The blue part of the caliper is where the chip goes. It’s not symmetric, and the right side of it will be the side of the chip with only one pin.

If you slightly misplace the caliper, that the flap in the upper red circle is a bit closer to the center than it should be, you’ll have enough space to place the chip between the caliper and the lens. Once you put the chip with glue on it in place, push the caliper in its intended position, centered on the bayonet, in order to make sure that the chip is in the right place.

Let the glue dry before you proceed.

Step seven:

Put the bayonet with the black ring and the chip back on the lens.

The “U” on the bayonet needs to be placed over the silver pin in the lens.

Don’t forget the screws that hold the bayonet…

This is what it looks like when it’s done:

Now the only thing left is to program the chip. Instructions can be found here.

It proved to be useful to turn off the image review and extend the Auto off timer for the menu.

You’ll need to close the aperture of the lens (f/16 or 22) to work properly in A, M and S mode. Once you’ve done  this, the aperture is controlled by the camera, and there is no need to change anything on the lens any more.

Hope this is helpful. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask them in the comments.

-doda

P.S.: Here is a quick test shot. The picture was taken with a D40, Nikkor 2/28 AI-S and the built-in flash. The camera was used in A-mode, while the flash was set to TTL: