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Post by belgiumreporter on May 3, 2020 9:09:18 GMT -5
This week i finally was able to find a 65mm wideangle lens for my C33, toghether with the 135 tele and 80 standard i now got a complete "basic" set. The 65mm allows for nice close ups with the C33's bellows fully extended,but this comes with some problems wich are inherent on all TLR's. First there's the parralax, this can be taken into account and the paramender or tri pod with a easy adjustable center column can solve this inconvinience. The real problem is the unability to have visual control over the dept of field with diffrent apperures. Surely there's the dept of field tables,but they won't give you a visual confirmation on how the shot exactly will look like . Anyway the C33 and lenses are next on the list to run some film through after i finished with the Konica Hexar film shoot wich has been seriously delayed by the corona crisis.
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Post by belgiumreporter on May 2, 2020 10:30:20 GMT -5
When looking for slide scanning solutions i made this set up with the "old" 1:1 50 macro takumar, a F to M42 mount converter ring, Yashica slide copying attachement and the D800. This set up worked wonderfull, though only straight 1to1 copies are posible (no zooming). Still results are great and it's a very fast to work with solution for slide or negative "digitising" The yashica attachment has a sliding tubus for easy adjusting of focus, allmost any diffuse lightsource is suitable and because everything is mounted on camera there's no risk of camera shake with any lenght of exposure. this is what the set up looks like the yashica copying attachment (saved from the scrapyard ) an example 1977 vintage slide "scanned" with this set up
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Post by belgiumreporter on May 2, 2020 7:51:14 GMT -5
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Post by belgiumreporter on May 1, 2020 7:48:37 GMT -5
The fun thing with many digital compacts or cell phones is the possibility to make seamless panorama's, something wich was allmost inpossible in analogue days, unless you had a widelux, horizont or similar panorama camera. Here's a few examples i've made with the S9900,P600 and AW100 nikon compacts: Azores iguazu Brazil Praia de Chavez cabo Verde Torres del Paine Chili Chalkidiki Greece Arkjufelsfoss Iceland Agra India Pico Ruivo Madeira Wilson Bay New Zeeland Pairi Daiza Belgium Hell bourg Réunion Sapa Vietnam
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Post by belgiumreporter on Apr 30, 2020 4:57:44 GMT -5
Toori Ka Jhaira Bavdi (step well) Jodpur India. Shot with the motorola mot G7 Power cell phone. I've allways been reluctant towwards cell phone photography, but must admit the latest types of cell phones do produce good images and come in handy for those "on the road" snap shots. Wrong shot, this is made with the D7100
This is the Toori Ka Jhaira shot with the motorola
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Post by belgiumreporter on Apr 29, 2020 13:41:28 GMT -5
I've had these RTS 1's for over a long time, one worked fine the other was jammed solid with the mirror stuck in the upright position. Now with some time to spare i thought to have a look at them and see if the one that was working didn't decide to die on me to. This wasn't the case, after i put in the battery it sprung to life and did everything it was supposed to do. The other RTS refused to unlock even with the fresh battery, so i decided to take a closer look to try to determine just how far it was gone... The metering did work so that part of the electronics seemed to be fine, but no matter what i did, the mirror wouldn't stay down and film transport was jammed rock solid. At that point i thought, since these RTS cameras aren't worth that much, to open it up to have a look at the insides of the camera in the hope i could see anything that was broken (i once had a quarts 139 in wich one of the levers of the transport mechanism was broken after wich i scrapped that camera). So i removed the base plate to start my examination from there. Apparantly nothing was broken but once more it became clear that none of the gears was moving even the slightest bit even when i applied a bit of force. I then started to look for parts that could be moved and found two small spring operated levers wich could be armed, i then connected the battery then when pushing the the exposure button they moved back in their original position. Apart from that nothing else happened, but i kept on trying untill all of the sudden i heard the mirror slap. With all the gears for no apparant reason now unblocked it was possible top trip the shutter and arm the camera again. I never thought it would be that simple and that the RTS somewhere in an exposure cycle could become so blocked that it felt like the gears where welded togheter. Anyway, i've put the base plate back on and the camera has been working ever since. I am glad that i was able (with no knowledge on my side) to fix what was basically a worthless contax RTS to one wich at least is working back again. The next thing i will be looking in to is the problem of the leather separating from the body, should i try to glue it back on or should i recover it with some nice lizzard skin, we'll see... The happy family, back togheter and fully functional :-)
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Post by belgiumreporter on Apr 21, 2020 8:51:20 GMT -5
When i went through the drawers searching for old nikkors i came across this 50mm 2,8 EL nikkor. I knew these enlarger lenses make great macro lenses because of their flat field performance and great sharpness. Time to try it out ! I've used a fotodiox 40,5 to 52mm conversion ring to be able to mount the lens in a reversed position on the nikon BR2 ring. This combination without any further extention rings gave me a on sensor 0,75 life size magnification. The 50mm2,8 EL is the latest “plastic” version this one is the easiest one to adapt because of it's 40,5mm front thread, but i guess similar results can be obtained with any of the early versions. Mounted on the D7100 i've set the aperture at f4 for this test. Because these lenses can be found very cheap now, they make an unbeatable macro set up, i don't think anything below 100$ will give this kind of results ! One shot macro of the cactus flower at f4 Stack of 9 images (all f4) i probably would have gotten even better results if i used some more shots in the stack In combination with the Nikon PB-4 bellows at full extention i get a 4x lifesize magnification. The shot below was made with the front plate tilted to get enhanced dept of field, with the lens at f11 this was sufficient to get everything i wanted in focus without the need for focus stacking. Closing the aperture further down would in this set up cause diffraction, the little gain it would give in dept of field would be punished by less overall sharpness. The D7100 with PB-4 -BR2- and 50mm EL nikkor This is the 4x lifesize close up of the stamen from the cactus flower made with the above setup.
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Post by belgiumreporter on Apr 21, 2020 6:24:43 GMT -5
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Post by belgiumreporter on Apr 19, 2020 5:04:46 GMT -5
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Post by belgiumreporter on Apr 18, 2020 7:59:38 GMT -5
Over the years, togheter with the cameras, the lenses came. Some of them i've bought others came with cameras i've bought. They became so many that i came to a point i couldn't remember what exactly i've got lens wise. Now with some corona time at hand i've opened up some drawers and found amongst others these “classic” nikkors. I'll post some example shots i've made with each of them in the following posts, still trying to decide wich set up i'll make as a subject... 1) 20mm nikkor 1:3,5 2) 24mm nikkor N-C 1:2,8 3) 25-50 Zoom Nikkor 1:4 4) 28mm Nikkor N 1:2 5) 28mm PC-Nikkor 1:3,5 6) 35mm Nikkor 1:2 7) 45mm GN Nikkor-C 1:2,8 8) 55mm Nikkor SC 1:1,2 9) 85mm Nikkor -H 1:1,8 10) 105mm Nikkor 1:2,5 11) 135mm Nikkor 1:2 12) 135mm Nikkor 1:2,8 13) 200mm Nikkor 1:4 14) 200mm Micro Nikkor 1:4 15) 300mm Nikkor ED 1:4,5 16) 500mm Reflex Nikkor 1:8 Okay, here we go, the first one is the 20mm 3,5 I've bought in in the early eighties, after having dissapointing results with tokina wide-angles i bit the bullit, sold them and bought this nikkor. Haven't regret that descision and the lens is still with me now, on the AF bodies it has been replaced with the sigma 20mm 1:1,9. The next one is the 28mm PC only bought this recently. Works fine on digital and you won't lose any pixels when correcting pespective, like you would have in post processing. The 35mm 2 is supposed to be the best of the 35mm line up back in the day. 25-50 mmzoom horrendesly expensive when it was new, an incredible achievement by nikon back then, still gives stellar performance, but is limited by it's max apperture and closest focussing distance (1 meter) 55mm1:1,2 lets in a lot of light, isn't as sharp as some would wish, rather harsh out of focus areas 105mm 2,5 the famous “afghan girl with the green eyes” national geographic cover photo lens. For some the best portrait lens ever. 135mm 2 large and heavy, very difficult to focus because of the very shallow dept of field. 200mm 4 a true classic was in lots of photographers bags for when 135mm wasn't long enough, still even today great performance. 200mm “micro” about the same performance as the 200mm but focussing goes down to 1:2 300mm 4 ED best of the many different versins of this 300mm, bought it only recently just to have it :-) 500mm mirror one of the lenses i've bought in the beginning of my career, didn't used it much but never felt the need to part with it for those rare occasions when i did need it. I couldn't test all of the lenses as some are non AI, the only full frame DSLR body accepting these is the Df sadly i haven't got one... All of these lenses have their own virtues wich can't be shown in just one image, still i hope the test shots will give an idea about how the image is rendered by these different lenses. The focussing point of all shots was at the front bumper overrider from the T-bird. All lenses at their max aperture, camera used D800.
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Post by belgiumreporter on Apr 15, 2020 7:42:19 GMT -5
The V1 isn't a wide angle friendly system. Indeed i isn't The nikon 1 system has 2 main problems, 1) not very wide angle friendly, the only real wideangle would be the 6,7-13mm zoom wich would equal a 19 to 37 mm in full frame. This however is a very elusive lens and a quick ebay search led to 5 being available prices ranging from 678$ to 1087$ (all of them in Japan) so unless you have a lot of money to burn i don't think this would be a good option for wide angle shots on the 1 system. However, there's a cheaper and even wider solution available in the form of the high quality nikon converters wich were made original to fit the coolpix 9900 type cameras but are easily adaptable to just about any other lens or camera. There's the WC-E63 0,63x wich will, combined with the 10mm standard lens give you the approx field of view of a 20mm in full frame. Even wider is the FC-E8- 0,21x fish eye converter once again in combination with the 10 will give a bit over 200° circular image about the same goes for the FC-09 0,2x but this is a very big chunk of glas wich in my opinion will give to much strain on the (non original) lens it is mounted on. These converters don't work well with the 1 zoom lenses (sharpness) The V2 with the difrent converters Here's a few examples with the 10mm- WC-E63 and FC-08 combination. the 10-30 zoom /FC-08 combination dosn't give the best sharpness. Same scene the 10mm without converter 2, and this is a diffrent story, because of the small sensor size even the 18,5mm 1:1,8 won't give good out of focus areas in the image, for this i don't see a solution. Also note the “grain” in the out of focus areas, even though the camera was set at the lowest (160)ASA and the lack of dynamic range due to the small sensor size. Nikon 1 with 18,5mm at 1:1,8 Nikon D800 with 50mm at 1:2 On the other hand, with the longer focal lenghts great results are possible the 50-500 becomes a 140-1400mm equivalent and the 120-300 2,8 becomes a 336- 840mm 2,8 equivalent. The 1 system has it's virtues, but with nikon now working on the expansion of the Z system for those who seek mirrorless system cameras, the 1 will become history or a fun toy to play around with providing it can be found at a reasonable (low) price.
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Post by belgiumreporter on Apr 14, 2020 9:42:36 GMT -5
One interesting bit of asahi history is that the M42 mount was introduced by the Zeiss Dresden factory for the first Contax SLR and apparently was licenced by the japanese (if such a thing as a copyright on a simple thread can exist) p. Indeed, just checked to be sure
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Post by belgiumreporter on Apr 14, 2020 9:03:38 GMT -5
just a quick comparison to keep myselve busy in my quarantine, between the Nikkor 55 1:1.2 and the sigma 50mm 1:1.4 and just for fun i've trown in the nikkor 24-85 1:2.8-3.5. Subject as you can see is the budha statue in my garden against the background rhododenderon now in full bloom Ive upoaded the shots in full resolution, did this the first time don't know if anyone can see them as such, it would be worth it so you could examine the full potential of the files. Note, the 55mm 1:1.2 is next to inposible to critical focus handheld, i've tried to focus on the eye of the budha, it worked in the 1:1.2 shot but mised on the 1:1.4 shot, this is a hit and mis process, manual focussing such a lens on a digital body will lead to much frustration... Also note the out of focus areas of the sigma are smoother than the nikkors.
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Post by belgiumreporter on Apr 13, 2020 12:04:24 GMT -5
With some spare time at hand i thought to get the mamiya out of the case it has been residing in for the last three years. Everything seems to be working fine and once more i was amased at the bright viewfinder of the 645 super. Even the 85-210 4.5 zoom is easy to focus, what a diffrence from the hasselblads and rollei's. It's a wonderfull camera and i love the 80mm 1.9 and the ultra wide 35mm 3.5. Still, i'm thinking of parting with it as the last time i used it i noticed just how slow it is to work with. I've sold both my other two 645 1000S without any regrets, but i just can't seem to let this one go even though i'll probably never use it again. Dos anyone else have a camera he or she just can't part with, knowing it will never be used again and it won't fit in with the rest of the collection?
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Post by belgiumreporter on Apr 12, 2020 6:06:32 GMT -5
This test started out just out of curiosity if my sigma 120-300 2.8 would perform any better on a camera with contrast detection than it does on phase detection. The 120-300 allways gave me trouble on my DSLR's and the build in AF fine tune of the DSLR's just wasn't sufficient to solve the problem. Now it so happens i've got some nikon 1 body's and an FT1 adapter so i thought i'd mount the lens on the 1V2. To my surprise it performed very good at any aperture focus was very fast and spot on so my initial thought that there was something wrong with the lens isn't true. The solution would be to bring both dslr camera and lens to the repair shop to have them matched for phase detection use. (or buy a Z body ) While i was at it i thought to compare some of the 300mm lenses i have at my disposal. So i tried these: Nikkor*ED300mm 1:4.5 Sigma 50-500 1:4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM D @300mm Sigma 120-300mm D1:2.8APO HSM Sigma 70-200mm 1.28II Macro HSM EX Nikon As Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4.5-5.6G ED VR To make a long story short all of them performed very well exept for the nikkor 70-300. At first i thought the performance wasn't good because i forgot to switch of the VR while using it on a tri pod, but when i switched it of there wasn't any noticable diffrence... this lens however performs very well on my DSLR's but for some strange reason it won't work well on the nikon 1 bodies... The lenses: This is the scene: Enlarging the good ones: And the bad one: All shots were made camera mounted on a Manfrotto 028 tripod with a 400 geared head
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