FotoKruse

Photography as a hobby

Jan 29 2017

About FotoKruse.eu and Jan-Willem Kruse

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Pencil icon to edit the post Modified on 16 August 2023

About FotoKruse.eu

FotoKruse.eu shows the best photos (at least that is my opinion) made by myself (Jan-Willem Kruse) and my wife (Wilma Kruse) and occasionally by our children (of which one off the two has also been infected by the photography virus). Photography is for us a hobby next to our day jobs.

Since I started using a digital camera we are developing our photography skills by reading a lot of books, following online courses, looking at images made by others and be critical about photos we made ourselves. Gradually the photos are improving and others started to give compliments.

Our equipment history

My first Minolta camera bought in 1988 was updated a few years later when autofocus was introduced with a newer Minolta (note Minolta did not joing the digital world and was bought by Sony). This second camera was mostly used during holidays as developing the negatives and getting prints was expensive. When our children were born I realized I was paying a lot of money for prints, which I could better invest in a digital camera. As the digital camera area had started and became less pricey I bought my first digital SLR camera, the Nikon D100.

A few years later my wife became interested in photography and we decided she would take the Nikon D100 and I bought a new Nikon D200, which had a lot more possibilities and a larger LCD screen at the back. Six years later I bought a Nikon D800, costing a small fortune but I never regretted it. My wife took over the Nikon D200.

In 2022 the first signals appeared the D800 had aging issues, so what to do for our first trip to Switzerland and the COVID19 effects of difficulties to buy a camera from stock. The Nikon Z9 was brand new and very hard to get. I was lucky and was offered one from a local store 100km away. Yes it was expensive and I was in serious doubt if I should buy it. At the day I needed to make the final decision, the Nikon D800 failed again…. So I bought it. So far I 100% don’t regret is. What a marvelous camera with a lot of configuration options. Makes also very nice 4k / 8k videos. Why did I not buy a Nikon Z6ii or Z7ii? Both are somewhat older and reading numerous reviews miss handy functions. So invest in newest technology or older? Also the Z9 has built in GPS.  If I now would need to buy a new camera it would probably be a Nikon Z8 (having almost same functionality as the Z9).

This year just before our next summer holiday the Nikon D800 used by my wife became worse. As Nikon had nice cashback actions we could save around 1000 euro’s on a Nikon Z6ii and hence my wife has now a Nikon Z6ii, which seeing the increased frequency of taking photos she loves.

Camera

  • Nikon Z9
  • Nikon Z6ii
  • GoPro Hero 11

Lenses

  • Nikon Z 14-24 mm f/2.8
  • Nikon Z 24-75 mm f/4
  • Nikon Z 24-120 mm f/4
  • Nikon Z 100-400 mm

Teleconverter

  • Nikon Z Teleconverter 2x

Other material

  • Gitzo carbon tripod

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