2015 Nissan NV200 | 10,000 Miles

Sometime next week I will hit 10,000 miles on my Nissan NV200.  It’s hard believe that I have owned this van for 9 months.  

As a car that is rather new to the US, I feel it is a hidden gem.  It has problems none the less but it’s been great for my requirements.  

For those of you who don’t know, I bought this NV200 to convert it to my living space.  I wanted a solution that was cheap, safe, and that was reliable in the future.  I am constantly working and it was very hard to justify my West Hollywood rent, especially when I was never home.  I try and work on movies as much as possible.  When I am not working on movies I work on my own content and I spend time traveling.  As much as I hate to admit it, a van was the perfect compromise.

It would allow me to travel in my off times and it would help me save money.  As a guy in my early 20’s it’s very hard to justify spending a $1,000 a month on rent when I am never there.

When I was looking for an urban cargo van I took about a month to research them and visit dealers.  This was the first car I was planning to buy new.  Mainly due to the problem that the Nissan NV200 was so new that there no used ones on craigslist.  

The two models I compared were the Ford Transit Connect and the Nissan NV200.  I honestly wanted the Ford Transit Connect because I felt the recent redesign made the car much more attractive, especially over the Nissan.

2015 Ford Transit

2015 Nissan NV200

But I quickly realized that the Nissan has a much better economic design and has much more space compared to the Ford.

So I bought the NV200.  I paid $20,000 out the door, taxes, fees, and etc.  I got the S model with rear windows and cruise control upgrade.  

Since then I have taken the van all over California and up to Portland.  It’s been my home since I bought it and it’s been an incredible one at that.  It feels so great to own my living and to not have to share it with a roommate.  There are many compromises when living in a car but for me, they outweigh the comprising of living in a rented apartment with a roommate .  

As far as a review on the van, I am not a car guy.  I believe cars are made to get from point A to point B.  Don’t get me wrong I hope to one day own a Porsche Classic, but until then cars are meant to get you from point A to point B.  

One of the biggest selling points of the NV200 was the CVT and the gas mileage.  For those who are not familiar, a CVT is a Continuous Variable Transmission.  It’s a transmission that doesn’t have gears but instead used belts to maximize fuel economy.  With my solar panel mounted, my fridge, my bed, and all my belongings I still get about 26 MPG (city and highway).  It’s incredible that this white box is able to get such great fuel economy.  

The Nissan NV200 holds 122.7 ft³ of cargo.  The Ford Transit Connect in comparison has 105.9 ft³.  That extra 16 ft³ makes a significant difference when it comes to a living space.  Combine that with the added benefits of the backwards mounted passenger seat and the table I build with my friend Ziggy off the passenger rear door and it ends up being a relatively big space in comparison to the what the eye sees when walking by.

With 10,000 miles I have had zero problems.  I have changed the oil and rotated the tires myself.  Currently I am running full synthetic oil and a mobil one filter.  With my 10,000 mile oil change I am taking a sample and sending it in to get tested.  I personally feel that changing oil every 5,000 miles is excessive but there is no way of knowing without testing it. I will report back when the results have come back from the lab.  

The biggest problem I have found so far is that the plastic in the interior of the NV200 is some of the cheapest plastic I have ever experienced in a car.  My Honda Civic was 11 years old when I sold it and it and the plastic inside looked better than my van does after only 10 months.  I would have thought because it was a cargo van that the plastic would have been more industrial, but my assumption was wrong.  The slightest touch and a mark seems to appear.  

The tires are the next problem with the van.  Most people are quick to notice that the van has relatively small wheels for it’s size.  I know I did.  Upon researching online I found that the tires are only rated at 15,000 miles.  Let me repeat that: a commercial vehicle has stock tires rated at 15,000 miles.  Not only that but the only tires that fit the NV200 and meet the weight requirements are exclusively sold by Nissan and cost upwards of $350- $400 a piece.  Luckily for me I do not come close to the weight rating of these tires so I will be changing after I hit 15,000 miles.

For a reference I found some that Costco carries that are 92% the weight rating, cost about $100 apiece, and have a 40,000 mile warranty.

Nissan, is a 15,000 mile tire for $400 really the best you can do?

Looking back, I made the right purchase. The look of the NV200 has definitely grown on me and I love the optical illusion that never suggestions that a 6’3” guy could be living in it.  It has played to my advantage many times.

After 8 months of living and sleeping around Los Angeles, I have never been hassled by residents or cops, and that was the goal.  Yes I would love to own a Sprinter 4x4 but I would never be able to live the quiet low key life that the NV200 enables me to live.  

If you are able to get past the cheap plastic interior and the cheaply made tires you will see that the NV200 is a great van.  It’s competitor, the Ford Transit, starts at more than $2,000 MSRP above the Nissan and comes with a warranty that doesn’t come close to the 5 year / 100,000 warranty that Nissan offers.  

Toyota HiAce

Nissan NV350

As much as I love this car I cannot ignore the fact that both Nissan and Toyota have an incredible lineup of urban commercial vehicles overseas that would fit my conversion dreams perfectly.  

Let’s hope by the time they bring the others over, I still have a desire to live in a van.  

In Defense of a Light Meter

Everything below was shot on a Sony A7rii with a Loxia 35mm F2 lens.  Unless otherwise noted, all photos have only been adjusted for lens corrections.  

I purchased a light meter, a Sekonic L-758Cine to be specific.

I've had it for about a month but I hadn't gotten the chance to use it due to work.  Thursday I headed to downtown to get some footage for my marriage video and I took the meter with me.

ISO 800 | F 2.8 | 1/50 second

Left: general enviornment

Right: hot spot in deep frame

The reason I bought the meter is because I shoot mainly video.  On my A7rii I shoot primarily in a log setting called SLog, which helps when grading the video in post.  SLog is very unsharp, unsaturated, and low contrast.  Thus it is hard to tell exposure.  There have been a couple critical shots that I have missed due to SLog exposure and I wanted to make sure that won't happen again.  So I bought a meter so I could learn exactly how SLog is working.

SLog2

SLog2 graded in DaVinci Resolve

In working on movies, I am surprised how often light meters are used these days.  Generally most DPs I work for use them to set the initial T stop before any monitors get up.  But I have noticed a trend, the DPs who shot the most beautiful work are the ones who go by their meter, not the monitor.  

ISO 800 | F 3.2 | 1/50 second

General Environment

When shooting in the dark subway I immediately noticed that I like to underexpose by about a stop or so.

ISO 800 | F 2.5 | 1/50 second

For example with this picture of this Lexus, based on my tastes I think it looks best at F 2.5. 

But the meter said...

F 1.4 split.

But a F 1.4 split, as you can see below,  looks much too overexposed. 

ISO 1000 | F 2.0 | 1/50 second

With photography, everything is all personal preference.  I generally prefer underexposing when it is dark out.  

ISO 100 | F 6.3 | 1/50 second

When it is daytime I have learned that I like overexposing by a 1/3 to a 1/2 a stop.  In the picture above I went 3/4 to a full stop over (which was probably a little too much).  

In the daylight I enjoy it when my highlights roll off, as you can see in the bridge in the upper left. Overexposing also helps to lower contrast, which is a look I often go for.  

Carry around this light meter that is about the size of my actually camera has once again reinforced the idea of slowing down when shooting.  Using a light meter is less about nailing the perfect exposure and more about realizing what I am doing.  Because these days you pretty much just have to get within two stops over or under and you can fix it in post.  The perfect exposure is unnecessary in photography thank to 16 bit uncompressed RAW photos.

Unfortunately that is not the case for video.  This light meter has earned a place in my pelican and I will be using it from here on out to explore SLog.

All photos below have been processed 

For more of my photography visit my flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/madebyspencer

Week 15: I Don't Believe In Marriage

I realized while doing research and interviews for this week's video that I know very little about love and marriage.  Talking to my friends who had been together 10+ years made me completely change what I wanted to say.  This is not me attempting to tell the world that I don’t believe in their marriage.  This is me attempting to figure out why I don’t believe in marriage.  You see, chances are when I look at this video in 5, 10, 15 years my view on marriage will have drastically changed.  That is why I made this video.  To document the views and beliefs of 22 year old me.  

A preservation of the past to enable a better future

Week 14: I Wasn't A Natural at Photography

Look at 'em legs!

I've been taking pictures since I was 9 when my dad bought a 3.2 megapixel camera at Staples. I loved that camera so much that I saved up all my birthday money and money from chores to buy my own!

I love taking pictures but for most of my life it has been a way for me to nerd out on this little computer that was a camera. I wasn't in love with photography or light. I didn't even think about story or all those other terms people use to describe photography that wins awards. I was into it because it was a computer!

It wasn't until a couple years ago when Canon released the Canon 6d that I really started to get into photography. I had to commit by spending more than half the money I was worth to buy that camera. But you know what? Spending a couple grand on a camera made me go out and use that camera. It wasn't another toy that just took up shelf space.

It was the first camera that I took out of auto mode. That Canon 6d I shot 65,000 picture on it before I sold it a couple months ago.

And for a majority of those 65,000 shutter clicks, I didn't like the photos I took. I want proud of them.

I spent years taking photos and not liking them.  I didn’t know at the time but that is just a part of life https://vimeo.com/85040589.

I have hundreds of pictures of my room because it is my childhood room where I learned photography.  [It was never this clean, see below]

I started to figure out how to take pictures I liked because of the hours I spent photographing my childhood bedroom. 

Listening to music and taking pictures. Pictures that for the most part are pretty bad! I'm not going to lie. I wasn't better than the average bear when it came to photography!

See my computer screen from the close up above! Now this was the norm.  Just looking at this photo makes me feel at home!

But there is something special about learning something new in your bedroom. No one's watching, there are no expectations. 

I would nerd out about photography while I was stocking shelves at Trader Joe's with my friend Andy. Then I would come home and shoot my bedroom!  Failing over and over behind a closed door. 

I explored all over Los Angeles with my camera (2013)

I would then take would I learned and head out to explore Los Angeles with my camera. The main reason I did it was so I could remember the places I had discovered. 

My camera was a convenience, not the purpose. 

I was taking thousands of photos around Los Angeles for no one else's eyes except for my own. 

Back to my childhood room.  Oh how I loved Mad Men

Then I would come back home and I would edit them. I would share sometimes but not very often. I was doing it for me. 

I took pictures of EVERYTHING.  

When I turned 20 for an entire year I took a camera everywhere I went. Sometimes it was my big Canon 6d and other times it was a small point and shoot. For most days I didn't even take a picture. I would just carry the camera. But I realized that I looked at the world differently when I knew I had a camera. It made the world a more beautiful place to look at becuase I forced myself to look at it in a different perspective. 

I used to dress like this when I went to Downtown Los Angeles so hotels would think I was a European Tourist and would not bug me for being in their building.  Or maybe I just had mad style!?!?!

This may be the most generic photo I have ever taken.  But I took it! Oh yes Spencer took this! Along with 135 other versions of this EXACT photo! Oh art

Before I ever took an original looking photo. Before I ever started to develop a style I took the most boring generic photos one has ever seen. Photos that don't stand out or could ever be labeled to me. Like the one above. I know we all have seen dodger stadium at least 100 times from this angle. But here's the thing you have to go through this phase of copying others in order to get past it. 

Slowly I started to notice I was liking my photos more and more.  I noticed the less photos I took the happier I was with the outcome.  

Now a days my photography and more importantly cinematography has gotten to a point where I love the world I see. And finally after all these years I am able to take a picture and make it look better than I ever imagined in my mind's eye. 

I started to craft a style that was not textbook perfect.  I like out of focus sometimes! (said every art student in america)

Hey I'm getting a little better!

But don't mistake me. I wasn't a natural. I don't believe in natural talent without practice. 

I can be artists too!! Look at me! Look at me! But wow I love this photo.  It did take 200 exposures or more.  Is it really worth it? no

I was the photographer taking hundreds of exposures of the same subject with the same lighting and every other elements. Just so I could get the perfect picture. And I would drive myself insane when I would try and edit. 

This is my old lightroom catalog.  This is ridiculous! How many exposures do I need of a photo? Don't do this. Please don't do this.  

*Nothing says "I don't know photography" quite like Spencer's old lightroom catalogs! 

Now I don't take as many  photos. And there is a purpose behind that and the link to my happiness in photography. It's called paradox of choice and there have been many papers written on it. 

I have learned that I love extreme wides where the people could almost be fake.  

My 9 to 9 currently is that I work on movies in Hollywood. I've worked with amazing Directors of Photography. Often their advice is don't worry about everything going digital. Slow down use a light meter, don't take so many pictures.

I've done the picture part and this week I picked up my first light meter on Craigslist! And I must say it's badass!  It really helps me to think less about the camera and instead of what is actually in front of the lens. 

Now a days it's been all about shadows and how cinematic I can make it feel.  And yes this could use some fill

At the end of the day get out and shoot! Don't think just shoot and you will figure it out. My first "serious camera" I put 65,000 shutter clicks on it. Just shoot shit, not the same shit, but different shit and have fun.

Don't let getting popular or will people watch or look at my "art" influence you. 

Close your door and do it for you. That's the most important lesson I've ever learned. 

And remember I was horrible compared to the average bear. 

-typed on a phone (please forgive me)