photography – Page 80 – Wolfgang Lonien

April 27, 2014April 27, 2014

A universal digital back?

I’ve read an almost similar quote in the past already, and in fact it was partly the reason for me to get into the mirrorless µ43rds system. But it’s even more true for the Sony A7 family with their “full frame” sensors which almost have the exact same size like 135 film used to have. To quote Giles about it:

“So , if you are familiar with mirrorless cameras, they aspired to become a universal digital back, because their short distance to flange allowed them to accommodate any FF35 lens, with no need to correct the crop factor which other systems have (as high as 2x, in the case of m4/3) with a focal reducer.”

(from his article in “Sony A7, or the Lego FF System“)

Right. The price, body-only of the basic A7 (24MP) model here in Germany is 1230€ (at Amazon and others, partly with free shipping). And I would have a really good Olympus OM 50mm/1.4 which would be very nice to have on such a camera.

Those 50mm lenses on the “Pens” (I used the OM Zuiko 50mm/1.8 at f/5.6 here, hand-held at 1/8 of a second at ISO 800, which wouldn’t have been possible on these Sony cameras, since they don’t have image stabilization built in. So using these I would have had to use an even higher ISO setting, or a tripod. Cropped to 3:2 format during post to get a feeling for that other format again.)

My brother Willi has a Canon FD 50mm/1.8, a Canon FD 24mm/2.8, and a Sigma Zoom with Canon FD mount which would also be very nice when used with such a non-crop digital sensor. Both the resolution and also the dynamic range couldn’t be met with smaller systems like APS-C or µ43rds, which makes that thought a very tempting one indeed. That new Sony system doesn’t have all the native lens options that Canon or Nikon have for their DSLRs, but as a mirrorless system with a built-in electronic viewfinder at an even lower price than these older DSLRs, the Sony would be superior at least when used with these “legacy” lenses anyway.

Thinking about it since a while already…

April 27, 2014

After the rain

Well the weather predictions usually are right as long as they predict “bad” weather. Which means we’ve finally had some rain. I woke up late on this last day of my week off, and we didn’t go out – except me when having a smoke on the veranda. I took this photo with the camera set to black & white, and cropped it into a 16:10 format so it can fill my screen:

After the rain, on a Sunday in spring

Thanks for viewing.

April 26, 2014

Me, by Sebastian Schoen

Got my image taken last Tuesday by another fellow photographer. His name is Sebastian Schön (you can write German Umlauts using the original vocal followed by an ‘e’ if you don’t have that on your keyboard, so in this case, ‘Sebastian Schoen’ would be ok as well).

He has an impressive collection of portraits and made some book already, and you can also see some of his work at a big local magazine called “Stern” (=star). He was published in their Stern View Spotlight No. 81, from page 29. See more photos from Sebastian there.

He made this photo of me using his Nikon D800 with what looked like a Nikkor 85mm/1.8G lens – didn’t look that close.

Thanks Sebastian – cannot wait to see more of your great portraits!

April 25, 2014

Tuna the cat, sleeping, with Mitchie’s 20mm lens

Had the camera on -0.3EV when I took this, but it had to be corrected to +0.5EV during post. Even at ISO 800, this push of +0.8 steps still gave a nice result. The camera was set to black & white without a simulated filter, and using RawTherapee I toned the image a bit with pushing the lights of the ‘b’ curve in LAB mode to +18 – in my opinion that fits the ‘old fashioned’ look of a b&w image taken with a 40mm-equivalent lens:

Tuna the cat, sleeping on Zuleikha’s bed, April 2014

Thanks for viewing.

April 24, 2014

Thursday: two photos taken with the “kit zoom”

Wow. A week off isn’t much – these days are going much too fast. It’s Thursday already, and today we even didn’t leave the house, tho it was warmer outside than in.

I played around with the “kit zoom” of my Olympus E-PL5 camera, taking about the equivalent of a roll of film (about 35 shots or so). Some I can’t show, but here are two from today:

Zuleikha, April 2014

Long way down

Both taken with ISO 800 and the lens as wide open as the focal length allowed. These lenses have the best price-/performance-ratio you can get, and for a photographer who’s just beginning, they’re possibly the best way to get into it all. Very convenient, and more than good enough, especially for a walk-around lens during daytime. I don’t use mine that often, since I prefer my fixed focal length lenses with 14, 25, and 45mm, but this one almost covers the range of these three. Just get one of these if you plan to buy a camera. It might be everything you really need.

Thanks for reading.

April 22, 2014April 22, 2014

The night sky

It’s Wednesday morning already, and I’m still awake. Which isn’t unusual when I have a week off like now, but because yesterday during daytime I didn’t take a single photo (instead several of me were taken – which I don’t have yet), I decided to leave the flat way after dinner for a short walk around town.

I did take some photos, but looking at this night’s sky was what amazed me the most. So here are two photos from around the old and new protestant churches – I did take one from the first place already some time ago, but still:

The sky above 1/2

The sky above 2/2

Both taken with the Panasonic Lumix 14mm/2.5 lens on my Olympus E-PL5 camera. Slightly auto-cropped due to rotation correction. I had to manually focus the lens for the second one, because it was much darker in reality than what you see here. But with magnification in the electronic viewfinder that still worked quite well, even if that “Live View” appeared to be a bit noisy – yes, it was that dark.

Thanks for viewing.

April 21, 2014

Easter Sunday and Monday

Easter was quiet & easy this year, at least for us. We had thought about visiting my dad, but he didn’t feel too well and asked us to rather come another time. So yesterday we were invited for a barbecue in the garden of some friends, where I took these two:

Easter eggs

Tic tac toe

And today we’ve followed a tip of one of our neighbours and went to Gernsheim, which is some 20km south of Gross-Gerau in the direction of Mannheim. Here are three photos from this short trip:

River Rhine at Gernsheim

Not the bridge of Avignon – we can do the same…

Ferry over the Rhine, in Gernsheim

The two photos from yesterday were taken with the Olympus 45mm/1.8 lens, the three from today with the PanaLeica 25mm/1.4 and a polarizer.

Thanks for viewing.

April 18, 2014

Two more from Wednesday, five from today

From my lunch walk on Wednesday:

Sapling

Westerbach

And from a short walk of today:

Ruins of a former concentration camp

A stone of a former concentration camp

Detail of one of the wooden bridges over Gundbach

This was once a living thing as well

Hope

All taken with an Olympus E-PL5 camera and a Panasonic Leica 25mm/1.4 lens.

Thanks for viewing.

April 16, 2014

Reflections

From my lunch walk of today, taken with a polarizer:

Reflections

Thanks for viewing.

April 15, 2014

Plants, in- and outside the office

Today I saw a nice article and some great photography by Thomas Stirr. He sometimes takes photos of flowers with telephoto lenses, so I thought: “why not?”, and mounted my 40-150mm lens onto my “Pen” camera. Then, during lunch break only, I looked around and took these:

A plant inside the office

A plant outside the office

Of course these can’t compete with what Thomas shows. But since I had less than an hour for that lunch break, and tho the first one isn’t “critically” sharp (it’s hand-held with 1/13 of a second with an equivalent of 300mm at ISO 5000), it’s a beginning. Should do this more often, like Mitchie (my wife) also does.

Inspirational article, and if you like flower and nature photography, he’s well worth a look.

Thanks for viewing.