storpotaten

A splash of color

2012-01-27T02:47:00.001-08:00

Eventually summer will be back. 7D + 500/4L.

Interesting times ahead

2012-01-27T02:11:00.000-08:00

Looks like 2012 will be quite the year for the large sensor mirrorless cameras. While we are still waiting for Nikon and Canon to join the frenzy (and no, the Nikon 1 doesn't count, nor does the G1X as nice a camera as it appears), I see at least 4 exciting cameras on the horizon.

Anybody who pays the least bit of attention to digital cameras has by now heard of the Fui X-Pro 1. After the X100 became a hit for Fuji (who opted to go a more creative digital route than Kodak which appears to have paid off), everyone was clamoring for an interchangeable lens version of it. Well, here it is; a similarly styled camera with an even better sensor, and a set of nice prime lenses to go with it. The downside? Price. It was initially rumored to land around 1300EUR including the 35/1.4 ("normal"), and though we are still waiting for a final, final price, it appears we are now looking at some 2200EUR for this setup. While still a moderate price compared to the Leica M9 I feel they will be losing quite a few sales at this price point. Hopefully we will see it below the 1500EUR mark including lens sometime this year.

The Sony NEX-7 is not really new for 2012, but courtesy of production issues it is still not generally available. With its apparently excellent 24MP sensor and high res EVF this looks like a great platform for the great lenses that Sony somehow have forgotten to create for it. Sure, we have the 24/1.8 Zeiss which appears to be a solid piece of glass, but a single high quality prime does not a system make. With the pricing on the NEX-7 they are clearly not shooting for the point-and-shoot upgraders, and the serious enthusiasts are going to want some great glass to go with that great body. Of course there is the option to adapt all sorts of third party lenses, but without at least a 35,50,85 equivalent native fast prime setup I am staying away from this camera...for now.

Ricoh GXR is not new either, but being a modular system it is pretty hard to define what constitutes a "GXR camera". What is rumored to happen this year is the replacement of the A12 M mount module (though it was newly released) with a 16MP Sony sensor based AA-less M mount module. Considering how well Leica glass performs on the NEX-5N which has this sensor (though with an AA filter) the output from the alleged A16 M mount module should be nothing short of spectacular. Coupled with the excellent focusing aids and generally photographer-oriented interface this can be a real winner. Price? It ain't cheap, but might just be worth it. Once the new module hits the market we will see.

Finally, we have what just might be the most exciting camera of the bunch: The Olympus "OM" digital. At this point a few leaked pictures of it and a pile of rumors as far as specifications is all we have to go on, but if the real thing is anywhere near what the rumors point to we might get one hell of a nice camera from the guys at Olympus. 16MP sensor, built in EVF, weather sealed body, upgrades image stabilizer and more; all this for a rumored 1100EUR or so with a kit lens. I will admit that I was not much of a m4/3 fan, but looking closer at the system I see that they have an excellent lens lineup, some very good cameras, and the output appears to suffice for my needs. Carl Weese wrote an excellent article on TOP which convinced me of m4/3's viability for my shooting. "OM-D" and a 25/1.4? Well, that just might be the ticket.

So, 2012 is clearly the year of the serious mirrorless. We will see what else comes along. Good times!

First scans with V700

2012-01-21T05:44:00.000-08:00

Mamiya 645E, 80/2.8, Ultra 50
Working on scanning in all my negs with the V700.

So far medium format looks flat out excellent; I would not hesitate to make a 16x20 or larger from anything. 35mm does not look quite as good, but I am unsure as to whether it is due to the less-than-stellar gear I used to shoot with, or a lack of resolving power on the V700.

Crop of frame:

Acceptable or not? It makes a decent 8x10 but would not push it further.

Framed

2009-12-06T18:06:00.000-08:00

Canon 50D, 300/4, 1.4x
I usually don't like the "frame within a frame" approach, but sometimes it does the trick.

These Cormorants were hanging out on one of those big power line towers (the ones Ken Rockwell swears give you cancer) when I drove by this morning. Came back later--this time with camera--and a few were left.

Picking up a few Zuikos

2009-11-24T09:34:00.000-08:00

Some months back, I decided to try some "alt glass" on my 1Ds II. There were some M42 (screwmount) lenses I was fairly curious about, so ordered a Fotodiox adapter. Noticed they had an OM adapter as well, and figured it wouldn't hurt to at least try it, since I had an old 50/1.8 Zuiko sitting around. Well, the M42 glass didn't knock my socks off, but the little cheap Zuiko did.

Canon 1Ds Mark II, Zuiko 50/1.8 wide open

Didn't expect quite such sharpness, especially at f/1.8, from a tiny, very inexpensive piece of glass like this.

I did some more shooting with it, and continued to be surprised at how nicely it
renders, and how crisp the images were. Again, wide open (and check out the smooth bokeh).

Going through yet another gear reshuffle, I decided to part with the M42 glass and "standardize" on OM/Zuiko as my non-Canon, adapted glass. Did a little reading and based on my focal length needs and what I saw, found three lenses that I wanted to try out. A trip to ebay yielded a sample of each: 50/1.4, 28/3.5, 24/2.8 -- I would love to get my hands on the 85/2 but the Canon 85/1.8 is such a spectacular lens that I can't justify spending the $300 or so that the Zuiko runs.

The 50/1.4 arrived first, and I was eager to compare it to the 50/1.8. Alas, an unpleasant surprise awaited me when I opened the box.

It appears that a piece of light sealing material has come loose--likely from a deteriorating seal of some sort--and was moving around between two lens elements. In addition to that, the aperture blades moved at the speed of glaciers; this wouldn't be the end of the world since I am using stop down metering, but certainly was far from what I expected based on the description in the auction. Thankfully the seller is offering a 7 day return policy, so back it goes. I did try a few shots since shaking the lens a bit would move the thing out of sight temporarily, and found the lens to be very soft and low contrast, definitely far inferior to the hunble 50/1.8. I gather that later 50/1.4 lenses are far improved, supposedly those with a serial number in the 1.1 million or higher range. I might try to locate one of those later on.

A few hours later, UPS dropped a 24/2.8 on my doorstep. This one I was a little worried about when I bid on it since it was described as feeling a little "looser" than the seller's other lenses. For the price it was worth a gamble, I though, and was pleasantly surprised to find that whatever slop was in the focusing mechanism was so minor as to not affect anything at all. The lens came with the case and original metal hood (which I believe is the same as on the 28mm Zuikos), and the optics are in like-new condition. And like the 50/1.8, it's wonderfully sharp. The below shots wide open.

It is worth noting that the lens focuses down to 0.25 meters which gives you a lot of flexibility; not a true macro by any means, but close enough to get some interesting shots. The bokeh is a little "busier" than my Canon lenses, but not unpleasantly so. The sharpness does not come as a great surprise after I'd read this lens test which put it up against some top level Canon and Nikon glass, where it held its own admirably.

My 28/3.5 just arrived as I was typing up this post, so will post some images from it later. It appears to be in excellent shape, and for the money it should be quite the bargain. Yes, it's a little on the slow side, but where else would you find a decent performer in this focal length for the $30-40 they usually cost? Check out the Zuiko 28/3.5 love thread on FM for some really nice shots from these lenses.

One thing worth mentioning is that these lenses all use 49mm filters; if you are a frequent filter user (I am not) this might be a bonus.

As I spend some more time with these lenses, I will share some more images and impressions. For now, I think that they are true bargains when taking the optical performance and build quality into consideration.

By golly, it's Jupiter

2009-11-20T07:46:00.000-08:00

50D, 400/5.6, 1.4x

Well, this represents about 1/30th or so of the original frame. Even 560mm on a crop body doesn't get you very far! Still, amazed that I managed to get a planet...

The moon showed up too, though it's a little too "new" still.

Yashica F521 flickr group

2009-11-20T07:35:00.000-08:00

Be sure to visit the flickr group dedicated to this great little toy camera. It's slowly growing and people are posting some great shots!

The discussion area is worth a visit too, with a fair bit of interesting chatter about the camera and its potential.

Some more vignetting tests

2009-11-14T08:39:00.001-08:00

It looks like the vignetting mod is even better than I expected... see within.

Take a look at this crop from the edge of the above. The rocks continue all the way to the edge but see how they get all smeared into oblivion? I didn't quite expect that, but it looks like the vignetting mod has caused some optical issues as well -- bonus!

More images... macro seems mostly unaffected.

Again, look at the (lack of) detail in the lower left. Definitely getting somewhere.

It's a mystery to me...

2009-11-13T17:51:00.001-08:00

...the game commences, for the usual fee, plus expenses.

Err, yes, where was I? The strangest quirk of my "digital Holga" so far: when I open the door to remove the SD card, and thereby remove power from the camera, all my settings reset. All, except for language. It remains in English. The date/time resets immediately, but the language setting remains.

Yeah, explain THAT one to me.

(Nothing more to say, so here's a picture of some trees (Leica and beat up Summar)).

Vignetting Mod (I can't keep a secret)

2009-11-13T15:59:00.001-08:00

OK, OK, I was going to sit on this for a while and have people guessing but... I am terrible at keeping secrets. Vignetting mod described here. Disclaimer: don't sue me if you break something.

The two screws on top of the lens "plate"? Unscrew 'em. Then fold out the entire mess (it has catches on the bottom). Stick a suitable washer on the back part of the "lens" (really just a fake lens and a plastic element on the front). Mine was attached with gaffer's tape. Reassemble (try to keep from getting dust inside). Voila! In-camera vignetting, and we're one step closer to a "digital Holga". When you reassemble, make sure that you line up the lens with the plastic catch that controls the "macro" function; just set the lens to whichever of the two positions it was in when you removed it.

As a bonus, if you use a shiny washer it should add some potential reflections off the internals, for some unexpected flare.

Result:

Anyone up for figuring out how to "ruin" the optics properly? I tried putting a big bubble wrap "bubble" in front of it and as long as you can keep it smooth it "smears" the image nicely, but let it wrinkle and you see the wrinkles in the final image. Maybe some sort of plastic lens, like from a cheap pair of reading glasses, would work?

TTL and further vignetting

2009-11-13T15:33:00.000-08:00

Yashica F521, shot through Jupiter-9

Gets you pretty close... but wait, there's

Another "TTL" shot. This time through Zuiko 50mm lens.

First test of Super Secret Vignetting Mod (to be revealed). This is a test shot with no manipulation other than resizing. Just about the right amount of vignetting for me... oh yeah, it might add some occasional, uncontrollable flare under the right circumstances too. Now we're getting somewhere!

B&W Pelicans

2009-11-13T10:55:00.000-08:00

50D, 400/5.6

Dull light, but a B&W conversion can help in these situations.

Speeding Sandpiper

2009-11-12T17:55:00.000-08:00

Full of purpose, never a slow moment.

Though, sometimes the camera can freeze a moment, turning the frantic hunt into something more peaceful.

"Digital Holga" -- part one of something

2009-11-12T17:13:00.000-08:00

Yashica EZ F521, B&W mode

It's here, and it rained all day. Managed to get out in the evening right before the sun went away, and got to play with it a bit. Some comments and thoughts here.

As I mentioned in last night's very brief post, it's a very small camera. Even with the protruding lens (and I wonder how much of the lens is really optical elements and actually needed; could this camera be made flatter?) it fits just fine in the front pockets of my jeans. It is also quite light, as can be expected from its "frugal" all-plastic build.

The viewfinder is no better or worse than that on other compacts I've used. The fact that it even HAS one is unusual these days. One odd thing, though: the LCD can be turned off (the DISP button cycles between off, image only, and image with some info overlay), but when you then press the shutter button it doesn't take a picture, but rather turns the LCD back on. You then have to press the shutter button again to capture the image. This is a little unexpected and I must confess I don't quite understand what the logic was behind this. The LCD itself isn't a bad one; no adjustments or anything, but it refreshes smoothly, has decent enough resolution, and gets the job done. Better than I expected, to be honest. One bonus is that when you put it in any of the "effect" modes it's reflected in the LCD preview -- so you can see a black and white, or sepia, or funky colored image on the LCD before snapping the shot.

Even in "high" quality jpeg mode, there's often visible artifacting in various areas. Nothing terrible or unexpected however. You can apply "effects" to already captured images, and it will create a copy of the image with the effect applied while leaving the original intact. Cool!

One nuisance (but again, nobody bought this camera expecting smooth functionality or high quality) is that the settings for effect, exposure compensation etc are reset whenever the camera turns off. There's no way of disabling the automatic shutoff (and nor would you want to based on how quickly it eats through batteries from what I can tell), so if you want to use B&W mode with -0.7 compensation you just have to reset it every time it wakes up or powers on.

Slow shutter speeds can be fun

One thing of note is that all my shots have ISO 100, f/2.8 embedded in the exif. The fixed aperture is something I expected (I did not think such a cheaply constructed camera would have aperture control), but it is supposed to have "Auto ISO" so either the exif data is incorrect, the specs are incorrect, or something isn't working as intended. I snapped some available light indoor shots and compared to my 50D, and the camera seems to be unable to expose past 1/17 second, ISO 100. Curious and something that I'll have to investigate further.

Well, this covers my initial experience, brief as it was. I look forward to further experiments with the camera, and will look into whether anything can be easily done to modify or change the lens. I initially suspected it was entirely decoupled from the rest of the camera, but at a minimum it does have a switch to sense when put into "macro" mode (it being a fixed focus lens, this is the only change you can make to focusing distance). I am not sure what this switch might do other than turning on a small LED on the back of the camera, though!

Keep an eye out for further posts; hopefully we'll see some sun in the next few days so I can get some less gloomy looking shots.

PS: if you came here looking for information on how to change the language from Japanese, it's the bottom menu entry in the "tools" area.

The Eagle has landed (F521 arrives finally)

2009-11-11T18:20:00.000-08:00

Got home late this evening and a box from Japan was waiting for me. More tomorrow!
Initial thought: light and much smaller than expected.

Other Things That Fly

2009-10-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

50D, 300/4 IS + 1.4x
Birds weren't cooperating, so found some other flying creatures.

The one above, I am informed, is a "long tailed skipper". Had to get some help figuring that out.

The monarchs I at least recognized.

First Yashica F521 review is up!

2009-10-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

Go ahead and click -- here's the first review of the new F521.

Looks like almost everything I wished for.

The one thing I hoped for that I didn't get was the exposure compensation being controlled by buttons or a dial. It appears to be menu based. Depending on how well it meters it might not be much of an issue though.

The colors look very nice and punchy (without going into oversaturated blobs like on many cheaper cameras), the dynamic range appears surprisingly wide (look at how well it holds on to highlight detail), and as I suspected from the CMOS sensor and Yashica F924 shots, it does suffer from "rolling shutter syndrome"; check out how wobbly things get when he moves the camera around!

For the money this looks like a lot of fun, and just about what many expected it to be; a cheap, quirky piece of gear with some personality.

As soon as mine arrives I will post a review of my own!

Yashica F521 -- multi-lingual menus confirmed!

2009-10-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

There was some initial concern that the production version of the camera would have Japanese-only menus. Dirk @ Japan Exposures has just received one of the F521 and has confirmed that the menu is indeed multi-lingual (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and Japanese). Very good news!

With the initial language being Japanese I can possibly see people needing enough help to change the menu language, but that should not be a big deal.

Dirk is also working on a small review of the camera -- will be very interesting to see what he finds out.

But it only works on squirrels

2009-10-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

Picked up a Canon 300/4 IS to use over the winter since IS will come in handy when the light is less than ideal. Took it out for some bird hunting with no luck.

50D, 300/4 + 1.4x, 1/30 second wide open

It seems it only works on squirrels.

Now, I like a good squirrel shot as much as anyone, but two days' effort yielded nothing but these furry-tailed rats.

Once the birds start appearing again (honestly, where are you guys?) I will evaluate how it performs compared to the 400/5.6L -- if it does well enough for birds-in-flight I will probably keep it and part with the 400/5.6 later on. Time will tell.

Until then, squirrel.

"Digital Holga" closer to shipping -- update

2009-10-26T11:32:00.000-07:00

Dirk at Japan Exposures just informed me that the Yashica F521 should start shipping from the manufacturer October 29th; this means he should have a sample to review before long. One of the things still in flux is whether the menus will be Japanese-only or multi-language. We'll know soon!

Other things I am hoping to find out is how the exposure compensation works (buttons or menus), whether the ISO is auto-only, and if it seems possible to change/modify the lens. I'd probably take a Japanese-only version if it was the only thing available -- just gotta find someone to translate the important parts. What's Japanese for "format", anyone?

Found some more Yashica F924 stuff

2009-10-26T07:25:00.000-07:00

Well, still waiting for the F521 to arrive -- from what I gather it's delayed a bit and do not currently have an ETA.

So, while waiting, here's something fun to check out that's related to it: This google translated (it gets, uh, interesting at times) blog has a fair bit of Yashica F924 stuff. I speculated earlier on the F924 sharing components with the F521, so thought it worth taking a closer look at.

The guy's blog seems to contain a fair bit of interesting information on other quirky cameras too (and not surprisingly, he has a F521 on order) -- too bad I can't read Japanese and have to rely on the highly questionable google translation of it!

By the way, I've seen the F924 for sale on ebay for under $100, so for those who aren't wanting to wait for the F521, it might be worth looking into if you want a similar "toy" digital camera.

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

2009-10-24T10:34:00.001-07:00

After an unsuccessful beach trip earlier, this little guy was waiting for me outside the house. A little nervous at first, but once I sat down he wandered back over to where I was.

As usual, 50D + 400/5.6

First I thought Egret, but then noticed the oddly colored legs. Sibley guide and a couple of birding forums helped figure it out.

Looks quite different from the adult:

Resting Anhinga

2009-10-18T15:00:00.000-07:00

50D, 400/5.6

Caught this very relaxed looking Anhinga outside the house.

I am not sure if it's the same one that keeps showing up or if they are rotating, but they really aren't particularly scared of me wandering around there taking pictures of them lately. In fact, I am beginning to wonder if they enjoy posing!

Roach clips big hand, more on Yashica F521

2009-10-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

Check out this page somebody on flickr dug up. Small images but shows the color processing available in the camera. Nifty.

And the Google translation is priceless: "Recently, a digital camera equipped with a rare optical viewfinder can be taken not only the naked eye gazes into the LCD monitor."

(By the way, I dig the old school strap attachments; looks like I can put one of my 1970s "hippie straps" on there.)

The specs look like what was posted earlier, no surprises there. One thing that I wonder about is whether there is any communication between lens and body, and if not, how easy it would be to transplant other lenses on there. I have a plethora of old M42, OM, Leitz etc glass that could make for an interesting marriage with the (hopefully!) somewhat crummy CMOS sensor. I did the math and at ISO 100 1/2000 top shutter speed would put us around f/4 in bright sunlight which is a little smaller aperture than the f/3 or thereabouts would yield. If we lower the base ISO a little then the 1/2000 shutter speed would be sufficient for f/3 and it would be possible to have a fixed aperture lens... time will tell.

Of course, even the widest of my glass would make for tele lenses. :)

Is November here yet?

David and Goliath

2009-10-17T17:10:00.000-07:00

50D, 400/5.6
The beach is pretty dead this time a year as far as birding goes, but now and then some arrive and provide a little entertainment and photo opportunities.

Found on beach

2009-10-16T17:59:00.001-07:00

50D, 400/5.6

High key gull

2009-10-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you screw up and get lucky. (50D, 400/5.6)

I really do prefer manual mode for most of my shooting, but on occasion a combination of light change (e.g. sun coming out from behind a heavy cloud) and changing angles can result in some serious exposure errors if you aren't paying attention. Well, I wasn't, and ended up with this shot. Played with the raw file a bit and I could possibly rescue it in post processing, but decided to leave it as is; a somewhat ethereal bird portrait.

Speculation on the F521 "digital Holga"

2009-10-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

Was poking around a bit looking for information on the new Yashica EZ F521 camera. I speculated in the previous post about it being related to the EZ F524 which has similar specifications, but little information could be found on that camera.

But, it turns out there's yet another Yashica branded model that could be sharing components with this guy, and I found some actual images taken with it!

It's the Yashica EZ F924 -- looks like it's the same camera as the F524, except with a 9 megapixel sensor. Same lens (7.1mm f/3.2), same LCD, same looks... considering they are not putting a lot of money or R&D into this range of cameras I think it's a fairly safe bet that these components are the same we'll see used in the EZ F521 when it starts shipping.

And, it turns out somebody actually HAS one, and has posted some pictures from it. This guy's flickr set contains a pile of shots (mostly dark/indoors) from the F924. It looks promising, with some overly bright colors, poor white balance, and noticeable softness. Let's hope the F521 has a similarly "cheap" look to its images.

Hey, if we wanted sharp and pretty shots, we'd be out picking up a last generation Canon point and shoot for the same money, wouldn't we?

Added 10/16: Found another set of shots from the F924 here.

Yashica's "digital Holga"

2009-10-09T14:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought the Yashica name had died out long ago (and from what I gather, the name is all that really remains of the classic camera brand), but here they show up out of nowhere, and with a quirky camera to boot. Spotted at The Online Photographer earlier this week, this curious looking device is a rather basic digital camera; a 5MP sensor, optical(!) viewfinder, fixed lens with only two focus settings (macro and hyperfocal). The design, though, is definitely shooting for classic styling. As cheap as they are ($89 in Japan) I pre-ordered one from Japan Exposures, in hopes that it will effectively turn out to be a digital version of my beloved Holga. Time will tell.

Incidentally, Yashica has an "EZ F524" camera model that appears very similar in specifications. I wonder if this new camera is just a more retro looking variation of this guy.

Generic sunset, portrait

2009-10-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

50D, 24-105/4

Turns out you can use lenses OTHER than the 400/5.6 on a 50D. Who knew!
Since I'm not really into the "normal" wide angle (24-28mm on full frame) range, the 24-105/4 makes for a good walkaround lens on the 50D. The wicked barrel distortion on the wider end is not quite as big a problem as on a full frame camera, another bonus!

And while it's no 85/1.8 for portrait work, it can certainly get the job done:

Flying low

2009-10-03T11:22:00.001-07:00

50D, 400/5.6

It's always fascinating to watch the pelicans; such skilled flyers. You can sometimes spot them skimming the surface of the ocean, following the waves up and down, never missing a beat.

This particular shot was pure luck. I was shooting some gulls hanging out on the beach, and noticed something going past behind me. Unfortunately I was in manual exposure mode (as almost always) and underexposed the shot but a good stop and a half. Thankfully I was able to bring the exposure back up when processing the raw file without introducing too much noise.

The gulls posed nicely for me, too.

Cattle Egret

2009-06-22T10:36:00.000-07:00

First outing with the new 50D and 400/5.6 -- a delightful combo!
This guy showed up while I was looking for good Ibis shots. I had no idea what it was at first other than that it looked like "some sort of Egret" -- a wildlife photographer helped identify it. Beautiful bird, and I was fortunate enough to have a decent looking sky behind it.

Photo op

2009-06-12T09:57:00.000-07:00

Picture of the picture taker.

Found these guys doing a shoot in the Antwerp central train station.
Canon 1Ds II, 24-105. Was at lower ISO than I should, thank heavens for IS lenses.

Exposing manually for birds

2009-05-23T07:29:00.000-07:00

Royal Tern, manual exposure, 1/1250, f/7.1, ISO 200, Canon 20D and 400/5.6

You'd think that when shooting wildlife in action you would want as much as possible automated, but exposure might not be one of those things.

When I recently started attempting bird in flight shots, I was shooting in Av mode. This consisted of pretty much moving the aperture between 5.6 and 11 depending on how much light I had, in order to keep the shutter speeds up. But, the results were frequently not particularly good. As fine a metering system the current cameras have, there isn't much that can be done in scenarios like small white bird against black background, or black bird against bright blue sky... one has to dial in exposure compensation back and forth constantly and hope that with experience it'll be "close enough" to save in post processing.

Often though, the exposure was just too far off and I ended up with noise in the dark areas or blown out highlights that even RAW files wouldn't retain. So I decided to try shooting in manual mode. What I found was that when shooting in relatively consistent light this was a far superior method as the background and subject and their relative brightness no longer was an issue; the amount of light falling on them did not change so why should the exposure? Indeed this was a lifesaver for me--I could shoot a Pelican in the water and two seconds later a Royal Tern against a white cloud and both would be exposed properly. In any other mode it would have required some experienced--and fast!--fiddling with exposure compensation to accomplish. Seemingly counter-intuitive, manual mode in this instance actually makes things EASIER.

Royal Tern, manual exposure, 1/1250, f/7.1, ISO 200, Canon 20D and 400/5.6

So what method do I use for setting the meter? Well, to be honest it's a fairly crude and basic one. I pick a scene that's in the light I want to meter for, change the ISO, shutter speed and aperture until I find an acceptable combination (for birds in flight I like to stay above 1/1000 shutter speeds) that the camera meter thinks is proper, then fire a shot and inspect the histogram. If the scene contains a good range of tones (some shadows, some bright highlights) and the histogram looks good (as far to the right as possible without blowing anything out -- turn "blinkies" on in your camera review mode to spot that) I'll use this exposure setting until the light changes. Sometimes I'll end up moving things around a bit and getting above or below the camera suggested exposure, mainly in a quest to get as much data in the RAW file as possible (see Expose Right at LL for why I do that.)

Mourning Dove, Av mode, 1/500, f/9, ISO 640, Canon 1Ds Mark II and 400/5.6 with 1.4X converter

Sometimes, though, when the light is rapidly changing, I'll go back to Av mode. This lets me react quickly to an opportunity, and will get me shots I wouldn't get when in Manual mode since I'd have to spend time fiddling with the exposure settings. In Av mode I generally leave it at zero exposure compensation and just dial some in where I gauge that it's needed. No scientific method behind what direction and how much; at this point it's pretty much based on experience.

Hopefully this helps explain why manual exposure can sometimes make life much easier!

Street, Genk

2009-02-28T08:08:00.001-08:00

1Ds Mark II, 85/1.8 at f/2.2
One of very few "street" shots I've done. It's hard being subtle and stealthy with a Canon 1-series camera.

Uninspired

2009-01-09T19:50:00.000-08:00

1Ds Mark II, 50/1.4

Choo-choo

2008-12-28T15:56:00.000-08:00

Testing out the 1DsII. Miserable weather for shooting so far, but here's one.

Reaching

2008-12-05T17:04:00.001-08:00

Pentax K20D, Sigma 30/1.4

It's full of stars

2008-11-30T18:01:00.001-08:00

K20D, Lensbaby 2.0 Fun piece of glass, and has a surprisingly sharp "sweet spot" compared to the original Lensbaby.

Stuart McGuire

2008-11-30T17:33:00.000-08:00

From a local car restoration place / junk yard. K20D and DA 21mm Limited.
Overcast day, and it actually rained when taking these shots. Had to be quick; while the K20D is weather sealed, the lens isn't.

Edge sharpness of the 30/1.4 -- example

2008-11-01T12:47:00.001-07:00

I got curious as to just how well or poorly the 30/1.4 performs along the edges. It is certainly fairly soft there when wide open, but how about stopped down? I took the pumpkin/Halloween shot below and checked it out...
..and interestingly, it performs pretty darn well! The below samples shot at f/7.1

First, the unmolested (i.e. non-HDR processed) image.

Next, a 100% crop from one side:

Bad? Not at all! While it doesn't perform quite as admirably as my 40mm Limited, I wouldn't hesitate to use this for an overall walk-around lens. As I said in an earlier post, it's nothing to be praised resolution wise when you get near the edges/corners, but neither should you heed the advice of those who claims it's so soft the edges are just wasted and unusable...

For landscapes/architectural, you might find it lacking (there's some distortion too), but for a general purpose "normal" prime it is probably pretty ideal assuming you get a good sample.

Trick or treat

2008-10-30T19:07:00.001-07:00

Playing some more with HDR and the 30/1.4.
Surprisingly, at f/7.1 the corners look... pretty good! I know this lens has a rep for soft corners, and it isn't as good as many resolution wise, but I have to say that for most shots it is good enough and then some.

A tonion of onions (Sigma 30/1.4)

2008-10-26T12:21:00.000-07:00

(ISO 800, f/6.3, 1/60th)

The Sigma 30/1.4 finally arrived, after making its trek from Canada over the span of a few weeks...
(Honestly, what is the DEAL with buying from Canada? One package took over TWO MONTHS to arrive. You can get something from Japan in three days, but heaven forbid anything has to make it across the northern border...)

This is a pretty interesting piece of glass. While lenses like the Pentax DA 40mm Limited attempt to provide uniform sharpness across the board, the Sigma approach was more or less "to hell with the edges and corners, it's all about the center". Consequently, the center resolution even at f/1.4 is stunning. The edges, well, eventually they start catching up but one would be hard pressed to praise them at any aperture. Bad? Not at all; all lenses are compromises and you just have to pick the ones with the right strengths for your shooting. Take a look at the PhotoZone reviews for the DA 40/2.8 and the Sigma 30/1.4 to see just how radically they differ.

For a good walk-around normal-ish prime lens with excellent low light capabilities, this is a hard one to beat. Sure, there's the Pentax 31/1.8 which is an excellent excellent lens, but vastly more expensive. There's the DA 35mm Limited macro, which is also a very good lens but a full two stops slower than the Sigma. None of these are the "right" or "wrong" lens; as always you have to pick the one that best fits your needs. For me, it's the Sigma.

(ISO 400, f/1.4, 1/125th)

The Pentax 40/2.8 DA does "macro"

2008-10-19T18:15:00.001-07:00

The 40mm isn't exactly known for its closeup focusing abilities... But here it is in all its glory, stacking no fewer than THREE Hoya closeup filters (+1,+2,+3). Surprisingly the image quality didn't deteriorate significantly; probably this is due to the controlled environment. Lighting: 8x20 softbox on a 160ws monolight.

HDR is like crack

2008-10-12T17:31:00.001-07:00

I keep telling myself HDR is bad and wrong, but...
It's so hard to say no.
I finally broke down and decided to evaluate some of the HDR programs out there. The one I see referenced most often is Photomatix. However, I was less than impressed with the user interface and performance of it, so decided to download a bunch of others: Artizan, Dynamic Photo HDR, easyHDR, and a half dozen more. I kept coming back to Dynamic Photo HDR, since it has a simple, useful user interface, runs VERY quickly on my AMD Turion TL-58 powered Toshiba, and has a great price to boot. Will probably attempt to use it for less garish stuff in the future, but right now I can't help but push those sliders too far...

Push...push...

Row of Rears, Takeoff

2008-10-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

Some junkyard explorations near our house.
Right next to the one pro photo store still operating in this area, there is a car "restoration" outfit. Or so it claims to be; I have yet to see any of the rusting hulks outside actually go anywhere. Regardless, it makes for a fun place to go snap a few shots when I'm out picking up some supplies.

Pentax K20D, DA 16-45/4

Pretty Lighting on the Cheap

2008-10-01T18:32:00.000-07:00

Found some instructions on how to MacGyver a lightbox out of tissue paper and an old box.
This shot was done in a roughly 12" side cube, with the top and sides cut out, and some plain white tissue paper taped over the holes. The surface the camera is sitting on is a single 12" granite tile from Home Depot (cost $3.99), which provides a nice reflection. A single monolight was shot from the right, and some black and white pieces of craft paper were used to block and reflect the light. In retrospect, the light is a little too unbalanced and could use more fill from the left. Still, for the price you can't really argue with the results.

Interlude I

2008-10-01T17:19:00.001-07:00

Pentax K20D, Da 16-45/4, single snooted mono light from above.

The Nightmare

2008-10-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

Pentax K20D, Sears 135/2.8, snooted monolight bounced off foam core board.

A Crime Was Committed Here

2008-10-01T16:52:00.000-07:00

While shooting some ebay auction photos, inspiration struck...

My daughter had left her partially disassembled Mr Potatohead on the floor, and I had just read about strong shadows and boldly angled light in one of my lighting books. To get this harsh, dramatic lighting, I used a single monolight with a narrow snoot. It was set moderately low; probably 3 feet off the ground. The final image ended up being in a somewhat odd format (very wide), but the scene just would not have worked well in any other arrangement.

Camera used was Pentax K20D with Pentax DA 16-45/4 lens.