Showing posts with label taking a photo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label taking a photo. Show all posts

Friday, June 8, 2018

Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f/1.8 MC lens sample photos without pp.

Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f/1.8 MC lens technical details:

type: Prime lens
mount type: M42
optical design: 6 elements in 5 group
aperture range: f/1.8~f/22
aperture blade: 6
minimum focus: 35 cm
filter thread size: 49mm
weight: 250g
length: 43mm

I don't much care about this technical details of lens. But sometimes it can be useful.
For example, if I already have 49mm uv filter or hood, I can use with this lens.
And I'm walking long hours when I do photo-walks. So if lens wasn't heavy, it was very suitable for me. That is the reason that I mostly shoot with prime lens.
So I do check those things from the technical details.


You can read more about the lens from here:




Photos of the lens that I used.

Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f/1.8 red MC lens

Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f/1.8 red MC lens



Technical notes:

These photos were all taken with handheld and I used M42 lens to Sony E mount or Micro four thirds adapter so I have no idea about aperture number for the photo.

When I am taking photos, I do use Raw file format. So I need to convert raw file to jpg file and during that time, I do some post-processing--this is kind of darkroom process in developing film.
And when I do this, I don't use any default setting from Rawtherapee--open source software because there has some image modification settings like sharpening, micro-contrast and among other things.
I don't use Adobe Photoshop but this also has same kind of default setting with sharpening.
This isn't important for photography. But this is about the lens--what kind of photo I can take with this lens. So sharpening won't help to know about the lens.

So when I do use Rawtherapee, I removed all the default setting.
I will do these adjustments, if necessary:
 - click the auto button in exposure tab--automatically calculate the exposure value,
 - adjust exposure value, if overall image was still dark or too bright,
 - adjust contrast(between 3 and 18) in L*a*b* adjustments tab,
 - if there have some areas were too dark or too bright which makes me feel unbalance the overall look, adjust the shadow/highlight value.
 - Sometimes, white balance set to auto or slightly reduce the temperature value. Because Sony A7's white balance value was quite terrible when I do use other brand lens--not Sony E mount lens.



Sample photos:

Sony A7 with Pancolar 50mm f/1.8:

Cherry blossom at Hanja, Cheongdo

Bokeh(?) shot
* It was not properly focused and some parts were overexposured--this is really small flower so little breeze make photo shake. I did include it for the bokeh--out of focus area.


at the Sincheongyo - Korean word gyo means bridge
When I used Rawtherapee with this photo's raw file, it came out too dark. So I did use Sony's Imaging Edge software and change the only white balance to auto. And then rotate a bit and adjust levels with Gimp--open source software.


Self-portrait through mirror
I should cut some useless and distracting part--left and right side. But this is more about finding out lens capabilities. So I will just leave it that.
I did use Sony's Imaging Edge software--increase exposure value to 0.33 ev(1 stop or 1 click) and then creative style to portrait.


Rapeseed




Olympus E-P3 with Pancolar 50mm f/1.8 - Olympus E-P3 has crop factor of x2 so lens became 100mm lens--so it's more like a medium telephoto lens.
Only one time I did take photo with Olympus E-P3 because I didn't expect this lens as medium telephoto lens. And I couldn't familiarise with colour that produce.

But this bokeh was interesting so I included it here.

Bokeh shot(?)
at the Sincheongyo
This photo was taken at same place as above--with Sony A7. So you can see how much it cropped.

When I took those photos, I took the shot in jpg, not raw file. And I did use Olympus Viewer software with Auto Tone Correction function--not any other modification.




P.S. If you'd like to read in Korean, you can read it from here--this is my Korean blog.

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Nikon 24mm f/2.8 AI-S Nikkor lens sample photos.

Nikon Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 Ai-s lens technical details:

format: 35mm SLR
type: Prime lens

mount type: Nikon F mount
optical design: 9 elements in 9 group
aperture range: f/2.8~f/22
aperture blade: 7
minimum focus: 30 cm
filter thread size: 52mm
weight: 275g
length: 45.7mm

I don't much care about this technical details of lens. But sometimes it can be useful.
For example, if I already have 52mm uv filter or hood, I can use with this lens.
And I'm walking long hours when I do photo-walks. So if lens wasn't heavy, it was very suitable for me. That is the reason that I mostly shoot with prime lens.
So I do check those things from the technical details.


You can read more about the lens from here:



About the lens evaluation:

I'm not that much good at judging about the lens. But I read quite a lot about the lens from the web.
And quite number of times, I'm finding very strange remark--like this one.

I can't say I really like what Nikon 24mm f2.8 ais produce. And I probably can say I really don't like the corner or edge area--but not all the photos I took. So sometimes or many times, it was quite okay with those corner or edge area.
So if some people saying Nikon 24mm f2.8 ais was bad--because she or he doesn't like what Nikon 24mm f2.8 produce, I probably can agree.

But problem is when some people trying to prove Nikon 24mm f2.8 ais lens were terrible lens--with compare the extremely expensive--excellent lens.
Some people compare this lens with Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens--I don't know much about zoom lens but I think this is one of best zoom lens that Nikon produced, or with Nikon 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5G lens.
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 costs about $1,800. And Nikon 18-35mm costs about $750.

Nikon 24mm f2.8 ais is old lens so compare with market price wasn't fair. But newer version of this lens is Nikon 24mm f2.4d so it costs $339. You can probably buy Nikon 24mm f2.8 ais lens for about $120 to $200.
Many people were trying to compare with these huge different price tag--$1,800 lens to compare with far less than $339 lens.
Does it make sense to you?

At least, they don't try to compare with Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 lens which quite number of people refer to one of best wide angle zoom lens--not only Nikon lens, among other brand lens like Canon.


This lens can't be really good like Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens or probably like Nikon 28mm f/2.8 Ai-S lens. But I don't think it is worse than 20mm f/2.8d lens--that also quite hard to judge because 20mm was wider than 24mm lens so corner wasn't worse than 24mm.

Nikon 24mm f/2.8 ais probably wasn't great lens like Nikon 50mm f/1.8 or Nikon 28mm f/2.8 Ai-S(minimum focus to 0.2 meter version). But I think it is quite good lens or at least, it's okay lens--not everyone, of course. And many people include me was slightly disappointed with corner--quite soft.
So if you use with crop body, I think you probably won't disappoint--people have different taste of things so some people might disappoint though.


Photos of the lens that I used.
Nikon Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 Ai-s lens

Nikon Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 Ai-s lens



Technical notes:

These photos were all taken with handheld and I used Nikon lens to Sony E mount or Micro four thirds adapter so I have no idea about aperture number for the photo. Some photos were taken with Nikon D7000 which can recorded aperture number.

When I am taking photos, I do use Raw file format. So I need to convert Raw file to jpg file and during that time, I do some post-processing--this is kind of darkroom process in developing film.
And when I do this, I don't use any default setting from Rawtherapee because there has some image modification settings like sharpening, micro-contrast and among other things.
I don't use Adobe Photoshop but this also has same kind of default setting with sharpening.
This isn't important for photography. But this is about the lens--what kind of photo I can take with this lens. So sharpening won't help to know about the lens.

So when I do use Rawtherapee, I removed all the default setting.
I will do these adajustments, if necessary:
 - click the auto button in exposure tab--automatically calculate the exposure value,
 - adjust exposure value, if overall image was still dark or too bright,
 - adjust contrast(between 3 and 18) in L*a*b* adjustments tab,
 - if there have some areas were too dark or too bright which makes me feel unbalance the overall look, adjust the shadow/highlight value.
 - Sometimes, white balance set to auto. Because Sony A7's white balance value was quite terrible when I do use other brand lens--not Sony E mount lens.



Sample photos:

Nikon D7000 with Nikon 24mm f2.8 lens - Nikon D7000 has crop factor of x1.5 so this lens became 36mm lens.

at the Dongdaemun design plaza, Seoul

at the Guinsa Buddhist temple, Danyang
I was trying to focus center part but it came out like that. But you can see how out of focus part looks like--Nikon D7000 has crop factor of x1.5 so Nikon 24mm became 36mm.
With crop body, it is still useful for close up--or macro shot.

Winter in Guinsa - Korean 'sa' means Buddhist temple.
Winter in Guinsa - Korean 'sa' means Buddhist temple. - from my flickr account.


at the Sincheongyo, Daegu
As you can see from the photo, it was mixture of quite bad pollution, smog and not very bright winter sun light.


Olympus E-P3 with Nikon 24mm f2.8 lens - Olympus E-P3 has crop factor of x2 so this is lens became 48mm lens--not wide at all.

at Sincheongyo, Daegu

at Hanja, Cheongdo
P.S. I forgot to mention that this photo was post-processed with Olympus Viewer 3 program. Because I felt that it has some noise--ISO 200 so I didn't use Rawtherapee.



This photo was cropped out from previous photo. I did use auto-white balance function in Gimp--open source software. For making clear the leaves and water droplets.


Sony A7 with Nikon 24mm f2.8 lens:

at Sincheongyo, Daegu

near Chilseongsijang, Daegu
This is handheld-HDR shot which automatically generate from Sony A7--HDR paiting in Picture effect menu. And it took three shots to make one HDR photo.
That is the reason why you can see left side of photos with ghost--halo of cars.
I did include this photo because this photo shows Nikon 24mm f2.8's capability--Sony A7 wasn't crop body like above's.



Three photos were taken at same spot--Sincheongyo. Olympus E-P3's was slight different angle though.
So you can compare the full frame camera with crop body camera--crop factor of x1.5 and x2.



with tilt adapter:

I have a tilt adapter which can capture diorama style photo.
I don't know much about this diorama effect but I'm just showing what it will do with this adapter.

Nikon 24mm f/2.8 with tilt Nikon-Nex adapter
This is Nikon 24mm f/2.8 lens with tilt Nikon to Sony e mount adapter.


snowing town, Daegu

at Sincheon-dunchi, Daegu



P.S. If you'd like to read in Korean, you can read it from here--this is my Korean blog.

Monday, June 4, 2018

Olympus Zuiko Auto-T 200mm f/4 lens sample photos.

Olympus OM-System Zuiko Auto-T 200mm f/4 lens technical details:

format: 35mm SLR
type: Prime lens
manufactured: late 1970s ~ 1980s

mount type: Olympus OM
optical design: 5 elements in 4 group
aperture range: f/4~f/32
aperture blade: 8
minimum focus: 2.5 m
filter thread size: 55mm
weight: 515g
length: 127mm
lens coating: Multi coating
Built-in lens hood


I don't much care about this technical details of lens. But sometimes it can be useful.
For example, if I already have 55mm uv filter or hood, I can use with this lens. And I'm walking long hours when I do photo-walks. So if lens wasn't heavy, it was very suitable for me.
So I do check those things from that technical details.

You can read more about the lens from here:


Photos of the lens that I used.
Olympus Zuiko Auto-T 200mm f/4

Olympus Zuiko Auto-T 200mm f/4


Technical notes:

These photos were all taken with handheld and I used Olympus OM lens to Sony E mount or Micro four thirds adapter so I have no idea about aperture number for the photo.

When I am taking photos, I do use Raw file format. So I need to convert Raw file to jpg file and during that time, I do some post-processing--this is kind of darkroom process in developing film.
And when I do this, I don't use any default setting from Rawtherapee because there has some image modification settings like sharpening, micro-contrast and among other things.
I don't use Adobe Photoshop but this also has same kind of default setting.
This isn't important for photography. But this is about the lens--what kind of photo I can take with this lens. So sharpening won't help to know about the lens.

So when I do use Rawtherapee, I removed all the default setting and set to these - contrast: 18, saturation: 3, lightness: 2 in exposure group.
I will do this, if necessary:
 - increase exposure value, if overall image was dark.
 - if there have some areas were too dark or too bright which makes me feel unbalance the overall look, adjust the shadow/highlight value.
 - Sometimes, white balance set to auto. Because Sony A7's white balance value was quite terrible when I do use other brand lens--not Sony E mount lens.


My photos aren't that great so you can check out other people's sample photos:



Sample photos:
I didn't record aperture value so I can't be sure.
But it probably between f/4 to f/5.6. Because judging by the time--late afternoon and I tried to make stand out only birds--I mean other parts to make bokeh so it should be wide open-ish aperture.


Olympus E-P3 with Olympus 200mm f/4:
Below two photos were captured at ISO 500. So those noises were made by Olympus E-P3.

Mallard - Olympus E-P3 with Olympus 200mm f/4
I thought those wave's colors were bit weird but I choose to include it here. Because those thick-ish color expresses about the Olympus(camera and lens)'s style.

Grey heron - Olympus E-P3 with Olympus 200mm f/4

If compare the photos below and above, Olympus E-P3 photos' birds are more bigger.
Olympus E-P3's crop factor is x2 so Olympus 200mm became 400mm which can help to make more close to the subject.
This is one of reason that crop body can be suitable for wildlife photography.


Sony A7 with Olympus 200mm f/4:

Eurasian skylark - Sony A7 with Olympus 200mm f/4
Crop the image from above--Eurasian skylark.
Eurasian skylark - Sony A7 with Olympus 200mm f/4

Below two photos were captured at ISO 2500. So those noises were made by Sony A7.

Wild duck - Sony A7 with Olympus 200mm f/4

Winter leaves - Sony A7 with Olympus 200mm f/4

Grey heron - Sony A7 with Olympus 200mm f/4



P.S. If you'd like to read in Korean, you can read it from here--this is my Korean blog.

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 Nikon mount APS-C lens on full frame camera--Sony A7


Quite cheaper way to get the f/1.4 lens.

In Korea, secondhand Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM lens was not expensive--about $106 to $130 US dollars, especially Nikon mount. And others like Canon, Alpha mount were more--but not so much.
And secondhand Sigma 30mm f/1.4 for Sony E mount costs around $280.

Other cheap way to get the 1.4 lens is old lens like Takumar 50mm f1.4 or Nikon/Canon 50mm f1.4 which is slightly cheaper than Sigma.
But when put this lens on APS-C camera, it became 75mm lens. Because of crop factor.


According to the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM lens - Wikipedia web page, on APS-C sensor cameras, its filed of view equivalent to a 46mm lens. Or slightly more for other camera like Canon, older Sigma bodies.


Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM for Nikon mount lens on Sony A7 camera


It can use more than 46mm lens on full frame camera.

When I try to use Sigma 30mm lens on Sony A7, I felt that I can use slightly more than 46mm.
For example, if I shot for portrait or close up(or macro), out of centre area--or out of focus area, don't need sharp--clear image. I mean most of time, that area was blur area. So this case, I can use more than 46mm.




Technical notes:

These photos were all taken with handheld and I used Nikon G lens to Sony E mount(Nex) adapter so I have no idea about aperture number for the photo.

When I do post-processing the raw image file, I prefer to use Rawtherapee-open source software.
But when I am taking photos with not Sony e mount lens--especially old legacy lens, Sony A7 choose very wrong white balance value.
So this time, I choose to use Sony Imaging Edge software for better white balance value--I don't think it can make better but it probably better than Sony A7 camera's.


Imaging Edge value setting:
 - Brightness: +0.33 ev (1 stop)
 - White balance: Preset to 'Auto'
 - Creative style: Landscape or Standard
 - Jpg compression level: 2 (total 4 level and one level lower than high quality setting)

like this:
screenshot of Imaging Edge - value setting


I didn't do any other editing, especially sharpening the image.  So you can see how Sigma 30mm f1.4 Nikon mount lens performs on Sony A7 camera.


Sony A7 - APS-C Size Capture setting in menu

Sony A7 can automatically crop when the APS-C lens was used. Which can set (on, off or Auto) the APS-C size capture in Sony A7's menu.


So first photo was full frame capture.
And second photo was turn on the APS-C size capture.

full frame image

APS-C Size Capture - On image


You can manually crop the image like this:
screenshot of Faststone Image Viewer's crop board.

Sony A7 can capture 6000 x 4000 = 24MP(MegaPixel).
APS-C size capture - On can capture 3936 x 2624 = 10.33MP
crop the image manually like above - 4401 x 2934 = 12.91MP

But when I crop the image manually, image's edge side won't be very good. Because lens wasn't design for those areas.

crop the image manually from full frame.


Other example:
full frame image

APS-C Size Capture - On image


full frame image
APS-C Size Capture - On image


This photo's out of centre and out of focus area are blur so it can crop the image more than previous image--like this:
4893 x 3262 = 15.96MP - bigger than previous one--3936 x 2624 = 10.33MP.
screenshot of Faststone Image Viewer's crop board.

crop the image manually from full frame.


If I'd like to make more bigger size, I can do like this:
screenshot of Rawtherapee's crop image

5357 x 3356 = 17.98MP.
crop the image manually from full frame.

Corners and edges are very dark and not so great. But I think it was quite usable.


So having a APS-C lens on full frame camera wasn't bad idea, I think.

This lens wasn't design for the full frame so you shouldn't expect better result on corner area though.



Another sample photo from my flickr account:
City roses. (Sigma 30mm f/1.4 APS-C lens on full frame camera)


P.S. If you'd like to read in Korean, you can read it from here--this is my Korean blog.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Platycladus trees in Dodong, Daegu. And thought on Kodachrome film.


Platycladus-oriental thuja trees in Dodong forest of oriental arborvitae, Daegu
Platycladus-oriental thuja trees in Dodong forest of oriental arborvitae, Daegu


This is my contribution to Wiki Loves Earth 2017.
This place was designated to the natural monuments of Korea(South). You can see this photo at Korean wikipedia 대구 도동 측백나무 숲 - 위키백과
or here.


Technical note:
Photo taken with Sony A7 and Nikon 105mm f2.5 Ai-s lens.
I don't remember exact aperture number but judging by time--sunset, out of focus area and shutter speed, it probably f/2.5 or f/3.2-ish.
And then raw file processed with RawTherapee.
 - exposure - auto
 - increase highlight and shadow
 - film simulation to Kodak Kodachrome 200
And then that processed jpg file post processed with Gimp.
 - adjust level
 - adjust curves
 - resized to 3600 pixels.



thought on Kodachrome film.

RawTherapee support variety of film simulation so I have more than 100 of film simulation. One of my favourite is Kodachrome. I just don't understand why--even Kodachrome film simulation looked superb, Kodak stopped producing it.
Early 2017, Kodak said they will bring back Ektachrome though so it might possible to Kodachrome, too.

Saturday, July 1, 2017

back to basics: fell in love with manual focus


back to basics: fell in love with manual focus


When I went to that place for taking photos, I brought Nikon 105mm f2.5 manual lens also but I thought I might try Nikon 50mm f1.4d. And it didn't focus well because auto focus system doesn't focus what I wanted. So I had to control myself.

Take control the scene makes me feel good--actually amazing.

My Nikon D90's viewfinder wasn't bigger so it wasn't easy. It took me very long time to get the result what I want. So it requires so many of trials and errors.
I didn't bother much because I felt it was huge improvement from my previous Nikon D70--especially viewfinder.

And I was having great time with those trials and errors.

I precisely focus the what you see in the photo. I have other 15 photos with same scene and of course, focus was slightly different than this photo.

Of course, you can also take same photo with auto focus system.


But it won't be easy because viewfinder was small and LCD screen was so small to check whether focus the right part or not.
I wrote this at May 30, 2014 and later on, I use manual lens most of the time. And now I prefer to use manual lens only. I even forgot about how to use auto focus lens.


Post processing:
Crop the photo with Nikon ViewNX2.
And then auto white balance with GIMP.