Sony's FDA-EV1S OLED Viewfinder for NEX-5N

Window -- NEX-5N & Leitz Hektor 135mm f4.5

I noticed that when I got the EVF from Adam yesterday, that it would not give me a flat screen in the finder and instead, the picture looks warped.  Only the center looks in focus, the two sides are not.  This can be fixed temporarily by sliding the diopter all the way to the back, and then readjust.  However, after a little while, or you turn it on the next time, it happens again.  At the moment, I am not sure if it's the EVF or my camera.  Hopefully I can test this next week with Adam's NEX-5N.

Other than that, I love this EVF.  It's super high resolution and is quite a bit better than the one in my Panasonic G1.  Focusing with manual lenses are so much easier, and now I can actually SEE what I am shooting in bright day light.  Having the EVF also allows me to shoot at a slower shutter speed and still get sharp pictures.

The only worry I have is that it looks very flimsy.  I normally just toss my camera in my bag and I don't know how much abuse it could take.

In any case, I hope the problem can be fixed, or this will drive me crazy every time I look through the EVF.

Spring Has Sprung

Daffodil - NEX-5N & Rollei Planar 50mm f1.8 HFT

Without fail, every spring, nature surprises me with its sudden display of colours when I least expected.  Flowers, buds, and young leaves all seem to have come out seemingly overnight.  Ah, spring!  It's a love/hate season for me.  On one hand, I love the flowers and greens and other colours that feed our senses, but on the other hand, the seasonal allergy from pollen is making me miserable.  Why can't I have my cake, and eat it too?

On a side note, I bought the Sony EVF for my NEX-5N from Adam.  Tried it briefly and I love it.  So much easier to focus for manual lenses, though the eye piece prevents me from seeing the whole screen, because I wear eye glasses.  I guess I will be keeping the 5N for a little while more.

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f2.8 Sample

Budding -- NEX-5N & Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f2.8 M42 Mount

Another lens that I bought from the camera show.  It came attached to a Praktica FX M42 body that the seller doesn't want back even though I told him he could have it.  This body has a waist level finder and as far as I know, it still works and in good looking shape.  Sadly, this body will most likely end up in the dump.

I have never had a Tessar 50mm f2.8 that has circular aperture, like this Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f2.8.  It has the M42 mount and has the red T coating as well and the flare resistance is quite good for a lens this old.   Unfortunately, the focusing ring is very stiff.  It's manageable, but hardly conductive to the fun of photography.  I quite like the images from the this Tessar though.  As with most lenses with Tessar design, the lens is very sharp even at open aperture.  As you can see, the bokeh is not bad at all.

Perhaps I should have it CLAed.

Kowa Super Prominar 76mm f1.9 Projection Lens

Tokyo Bell - NEX-5N & Kowa Super Prominar 76mm f1.9

Couldn't restraint myself this Sunday and I went to the camera show.  I was kind of disappointed that stuff were getting very expensive.  I picked up some more projection lenses, five to be exact.  This Kowa Super Priminar 76mm f1.9 is one of them.  Another Kowa is a Super Prominar 102mm f1.9.  Both are very well build and have a built-in hood, very unusual for a projection lens, but perfect as a picture taking lens.  Another one of the them is the Zeiss Ikon Ernostar 110mm f1.9, which I am looking forward to trying out, but it has a very short lens register and won't work even with my short focusing helicoid.  This is one monster of a projection lens.  Very heavy.  Need to find a way to get it to focus to infinity, or close to infinity.

Behind Bars -- NEX-5N & Kowa Super Prominar 76mm f1.9

I managed to put the Kowa 76mm f1.9 on the Vivitar focusing helicoid and shot a few frames this afternoon before I surrender to the cold temperature and came back to the office.  So far I really like this lens.  Super sharp and relatively fast.  I was able to make it focus from very close to infinity.  Can't wait to try it out as a portrait lens, as well as some colourful flower shots when it's deeper into the spring.

Shooting Around the Neighbourhood

Self Portrait -- NEX-5N & Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 200mm f2.8

I do a fare amount of shooting during my lunch hour.  There are two advantages to his.  One is for the exercise.  A 30 to 45 minute walk after eating lunch is a good form of exercise.  The other advantage is, as Robin Wong puts it, "shutter therapy".  Quite often I don't get one pictures that I like after a 45 minute shoot, but sometimes you could get a few in one shooting. After shooting around the work area for the last ten years, I still find something interesting, sometimes fun to shoot. Even though I ride my bicycle to work everyday, I don't do much hop off and photograph any more, as I used to.  I prefer a leisure walk and shoot.

The One that Got Away

Windows -- NEX-5N & Vivitar Series-1 28mm f1.9

Last time I wrote about my favourite wide angle primes, I didn't list the Vivitar Series-1 28mm f1.9.  See, this is the problem of having too many lenses.  In fact, The 28mm f1.9 is one of my favourites.  I believe that when this lens was introduced, it was one of the fastest 28mm lenses on the market.  Almost everyone else has the 28mm f2 or f2.8.  Many consider this lens as one of the Vivitar Cult Classics, for a very good reason.

Fire Hydrant -- NEX-5N & Vivitar Series-1 28mm f1.9

Apart from its very fast maximum aperture of f1.9, its optical quality is also excellent.  It's quite sharp in the center at wide open, and it has the strange and unique exploding bokeh, like this, and this.  The build quality is also superb.  Very heavy for a 28mm lens.  A fantastic lens for full frame as a general use fast wide angle lens.
Very enjoyable lens to use, and worthy of a space in your camera bag (or lens shelf).

Meyer-Gorlitz Primotar 18cm f3.5 Samples

One-wheeled Bike -- NEX-5N & Meyer-Gorlitz Primotar 18cm f3.5

Frankly, I am disappointed with this lens.  When I shot the first  few samples at home, the light was flat and the pictures came out not so bad.  The other day I shot with this lens in full sun, most pictures came out that look like they have a layer of fog.  I guess either the hoods were not long enough, or the lens just behaves like this in very bright light.

Four red chairs -- NEX-5N & Meyer-Gorlitz Primotar 18cm f3.5

From what I can tell from all the pictures I took that day, this lens has very little contrast below f5.6 in bright lights.  The nice bokeh of this lens couldn't save the day.  Perhaps, it's only suited to shoot in flat light.

Bokeh -- NEX-5N & Meyer-Gorlitz Primotar 18cm f3.5

More Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 200mm f2.8 Samples

Street Lamp -- NEX-5N & Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 200mm f2.8 @ f2.8

The Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 200mm f2.8 is my first Sonnar lens.  I have had it since 2005.  Though not used extensively, it has always been one of my favourite manual focus lenses.  At more than 1kg, this lens looks funny when mounted on the NEX-5N, not to mention how difficult it is to focus.  The Peaking Level is a godsend!  It helps tremendously in achieving accurate focusing.

I now have two of these lenses.  Don't ask me why.  Perhaps I just like it a lot, and it's not a lens you see often in the used market locally.  It cost slightly more than what I paid for my first one in 2005.  Considering the price appreciation on used lenses, it's not a bad deal.

Stop -- NEX-5N & Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 200mm f2.8 @ f2.8

Like most Sonnar designs, this one has very nice bokeh.  I like the bokeh a lot.  It's like a creamy soft cheese that melts in your mouth.  The longer focal lengths makes it easier to throw the background out of focus to isolate the subject of interest.  The only gripe I have is the two meter minimum focus distance, making it hard to get close ups.  An M42 extension tube of about 5mm would come in handy when close up is needed.

William's Helmet -- NEX-5N & Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 200mm f2.8 @ f2.8

More Exakta Stuff

Pink Ribbons -- NEX-5N & Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 135mm f4 @ f4

Unearthed another Exakta mount lens: the Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm f4.  Don't believe I have used this one before and I have no idea when I bought it; probably quite a few years ago.  I think most people know the Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm f3.5 in M42 mount better than this one, as the M42 version is a lot more popular.  I had the M42 version once, and it looks almost like the 135mm f4.  Both have zebra patterns but the 135mm f3.5 is a little bigger.  Both are great lenses.

Bokeh Test -- NEX-5N & Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 135mm f4 @ f4, EXA mount

I find the Sonnar design tend to have very nice bokeh, and this one is no exception. It's very pleasing to me.  Of course, the other qualities that people like it is its sharpness.  Even at f4, this lens is very very sharp (as is the f3.5 M42 version).  It's completely usables.  If it's sharpness you are looking for, this lens will not disappoint.

My only beef with this, and most of the East German lenses, is that the focusing is not smooth due to the lubricant drying up, making the focus action very rough.  The Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm f2.8 has the same problem.

I quite like this lens, and it has a pretty good one meter minimum focusing distance, which is close enough for some relatively close ups. It's a nice lens to have.

Playing with the Meyer-Gorlitz Primotar 18cm f3.5

Bokeh -- NEX-5N & Meyer-Gorlitz Primotar 18cm f3.5

If there is anything that seems to be in abundance in camera shows, it's old medium format lenses.  Or it used to be any way.  I picked up quite a few of them over the years, because they are quite cheap for the likes of Meyer-Gorlitz and some very old no name ones.  All of these lenses are uncoated, and require a shutter to work if you want to shoot film with them.  Making them to work on DSLRs are not exactly easy either, especially for the long focal lengths.  In the case of this Meyer-Gorlitz 18cm f3.5, the extension tubes required is very long, consisting of two digcam adapter rings and five 55mm filter rings and the Vivitar 2X macro focusing helicoid.

First picture turned out like it was shot in a thick mist.  I knew immediately that a hood is required.  Put on an old 55mm Minolta 135mm hood on, and the contrast improved quite a bit, but I ended up using two of them taped together in order to provide enough shielding to stray lights.  Still, contrast is pretty low.  In fact, peaking level shows almost nothing even in contrasty objects until dialed down to f5.6.  But I like the rendering from this lens.

I see optical similarity from this lens and the Wollensak 209mm f4.5, although the Wollensak is sharper wide open than the Gorlitz.  Both lens have very good resolving power and render pictures with excellent details.  They also produce yummy bokehs.  Check out a similar shot with the Wollensak 209mm f4.5, taken more than three years ago:

Bokeh -- Canon 1Ds & Wollensak 209mm f4.5.

I think I will spend more time with the Gorlitz 18cm f3.5, especially when we have more colours that spring will bring.
 

Swim Meet - March 2012

Another swim meet today for the regional swim teams.  Megan and Ryan attended swim meet.  As usual, Megan did a fantastic job, winning all individual events in her age group #1 in all of them, except one even that she was disqualified without just (have video to prove it).  Ryan also did much better than his last time.  Both of them worked really hard during the swim team practices.

Megan Butterfly style -- 1D Mark III & EF 200mm f1.8L

Megan Breast Stroke -- 1D Mark III & EF 200mm f1.8L

Ryan Back Crawl -- 1D Mark III & EF 200mm f1.8L

Megan, waiting for next event -- 1D Mark III & EF 85mm f1.2 @ f1.2.

Isco-Gottingen Isconar 100mm f4

Red & Gray -- NEX-5N & Isco-Gottingen Isconar 100mm f4

The Isconar 100mm f4 is not really a common lens that you see often.  In fact, you don't see too many Isco-Gottingen lenses in North America.  The only reason I bought it, aside from its cheap price, is that I don't many Isco lenses.  The lens itself is slim and long but has a very small diameter.  Minimum focus distance is 1.5m (5 ft).  Not really a sharp lens until stopped down to at least f5.6.  At f4, without a hood, the image is flat with a creamy layer of white light.  Very low contrast wide open.  But one stop down the lens is starting to get quite sharp.  

I just don't understand the purpose of this lens.  It's kind of slow for portraiture, and the long minimum focus distance means it's not for headshots (on full frame).  It does have circular aperture blades and boheh isn't too bad. Perhaps the lens was designed as a general purpose medium telephoto lens.

Curver -- NEX-5N & Isconar 100mm f4

Anyways, I only shot this lens a few times and I just happened to find it in one of my boxes of lenses that I don't use often, and decided to take it out.  Perhaps, it deserves to see more light than it has been given.  I think with an extension tube, it would make for a nice close up lens too.

Solo Steel Drummer

Steel drummer - NEX-5N & Kern-Paillard Switar 75mm f1.9. The seemingly drunk fellow leaning on the wall was actually recording the music.

Part of the reason people like c-mount lenses on their NEX and M4/3 cameras is that they have very short lens registers and the mount adapter is very thin, making them look like they are native E-Mount or M4/3 mount lenses.  I do think though, that the manual focus lens market has gone mad.  Prices keep going up like there is no ceiling.  If I had to start my lens collection now, I certainly would not have been able to buy the lenses I want.  Now whenever I see a good deal, I would buy the lenses and keep them, because, if I want to buy the same lens back, I may never be able to buy it the price I sell them now.

You've got to admit that many of these old lenses do have their very unique characters.  Modern lenses are designed to be sharp and well corrected and so most would produce pictures that are hard to distinguish between them.  If you look at the picture above, you know immediately it can't be taken with an auto focus modern lens, because of the severely vignetting and blurry corners, not to mention the distortion at those corners.  Why would people pay hundreds of dollars for a lens with such defects?  All I can say is horse for courses.  Aren't choices great to have?

Say Cheese

Say Cheese - Sony NEX-5N & Birns & Sawyer (Tewe) 200mm f3.2 Cine Lens.

The weather has been fantastic the last few days.  Yesterday we decided to ride our bikes to the beach in the evening.  It was a wonderful ride along the beaches and there were so many people came out to enjoy the nice warm weather.  Naturally, I brought my camera with me, and the Birns & Sawyer 200mm f3.2.  I really like this lens and I am even warming up to its bokeh.  Even the naturally vignetting corners look acceptable now, which is part of its charm, I guess.  My thinking is that you can't change the characteristics of a lens, and might as well take advantage of it instead.  With some pictures, they have the "vintage" look, like the one above, shot at either f3.2 or f4.  I only converted it to B&W in CS4. No other changes were made.

Canon nFD 50mm f1.2 - A New Favourite

Ceremic thingy -- NEX-5N & Canon nFD 50mm f1.2

After having my Canon nFD 50mm f1.2's stuck aperture fixed, I never really compared it to older brother, the FD 55mm f1.2 S.SC for image quality purposes.  But, as I use the nFD 50mm f1.2 more, I have grown to like it more then the 55mm f1.2 as a picture taking lens.  The 50/1.2 is smaller, lighter and optically slightly better wide open at f1.2.  It's really not much bigger than the nFD 50mm f1.4.  Like the 55mm f1.2 S.S.C, this one has the same beautiful picture rendering and bokeh.  I can't imagine what the FD 50mm f1.2L or the FD 50mm f1.2 Aspheric would be like.  If they are better than the vanilla nFD 50mm f1.2 then there is not much improvement on the EF 50mm f1.2L.

Megan -- NEX-5N & Canon nFD 50mm f1.2.

Hosing Down

Hosing down -- Sony NEX-5N & Steinheil Quinar 135mm f2.8

I was taking my usual lunch hour walk around the area near where I work, and surprised to see that the two building on Peter and Richmond Streets were being demolished.  Took some pictures of the ruins and continued my walk.  On my way back, I saw this guy hosing down the dust created by the demolishing machine.  I thought it was funny because it looked like he was peeing :)

Took along the Steinheil Quinar 135mm f2.8.  It's arguably the best looking lens I have, not to mention that it has more than just good looks; its bokeh is fabulous and optics very sharp.

The (Forgotten) Fun of Infrared Photography

Ontario Place in False IR Colours -- Canon 20D IR Modified & Pentax-M 20mm f4

While importing my old pictures into Lightroom, I realized how few picture I took using the IR modified Canon 20D, and almost none for the whole year of 2011, and I really should be using it more.  Why?  Because it's fun! The IR filter used in my 20D does not completely fall into the infrared spectrum.  There are still some visible spectrum that go through the filter.  I love the mix of visible light and Infrared, because of the weird colours you can get, whereas a true infrared filter will give you only infrared pictures (B&W).  When the weather turns warmer, and the vegetation comes back, I will sure be out there more often with this camera this year.

Do we need a reason to like certain pictures?

Untitled -- Sony NEX-5N & Leica-R Summicron 35mm f2

For some strange reason, this picture resonates with me.  The old house walls close by contrast with the new buildings far away, the muted colours, the quietness, the seemingly dead end but really is not, and the two parked cars seems to back out any minute.  I enjoy looking at it, especially at a larger size, but there really is no reason to.

Weird.

109%

109% -- Canon 1D Mark III & EF 200mm f1.8L & 1.4X Teleconverter

Another picture from the OFSAA Swim Championship 2012.  I couldn't take pictures of the swimmers, therefore most of the pictures I took that day were of people standing close to the glass wall where the spectators sat.

Not sure if the glass wall has something to do with picture quality, but I now find that the pictures I took were quite a bit less sharp with the 1.4x teleconverter than the usual very sharp wide open performance of the 200mm f1.8L.  It's very usable, no question, but definitely not as good as the naked lens is.

Three Bells

Pay Phones -- NEX-5N & Leica-R 35mm f2 Summicron

I like shooting in cloudy, rainy weather. Sunny days are good too, but often you will get harsh shadows unless they stuff you shoot is under the shade.  I took a walk around Chinatown the other day in a cloudy rainy day with the Leica-R 35mm f2 Summicron, which I haven't used for a while.  If you read my blog, you would know that this is my favourite manual focus 35mm lens.  The other favourite is the Canon EF 35mm f1.4.

I think for most Leica lenses, the drawback is that they are more expensive than equivalent lenses from other companies, and they are very heavy, due to the all metal construction of the lenses.  If you want a well built lens, you will have to bear the weight. It's like very thing else in life: there is no such thing as a free lunch.  For this 35mm f2 Summicron, I really have no complains.  It's sharp at f2, and its colour and contrast is wonderful.  The only minor gripe is that it's very heavy, and the built-in hood is kind of loose and not long enough.  Also, flare resistance is not as good as the Takumar SMC 35mm f2.

Lifeguard

Lifeguard -- D Mark III & EF 200mm f1.8L with 1.4x Teleconverter shot wide open through a thick pane of glass.

Dillon and his school swim team made it to the OFSAA (provincial) Swim Championship and we spent a day in Milton's Sport Centre to cheer for him and his team.  The Sports Centre is a very nice and huge facility that sports 4 skating rinks, a large swimming pool, two gymnasiums and a host of other amenities.  Unfortunately, for today's swim competition, spectators were not allowed to go inside the pool to watch, and everyone had to watch the actions through a very thick pane of glass wall.  I brought a bag full of equipment, but taking pictures of the swimmers is next to impossible.  Of course, they want to sell you pictures they have captured for the event.  Very disappointed and this I have been to many swim meets and this is the first that I couldn't go inside the pool or take any pictures.

Today was the first time I used the Canon 1.4x teleconverter with the EF 200mm f1.8L, for an effective focal length of 280mm f2.5.  I was surprised the focusing speed was still very fast.  I only shot the pictures through the glass walls and it's still usable wide open (effectively f2.5).

Another Sample from the Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm f2.8

Tim S. Dool -- NEX-5N & Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm f2.8 @ f2.8

I have been using this lens quite a bit lately and really start to like it a lot, and I am wondering why modern 35mm lenses aren't designed like this one: very close focusing, sharp, and great bokeh.  Very hard to find wide angle lenses that have nice bokeh and this Flektogon is one of them.

Just out of curiosity, most container ships seem to stay at the port for a long time.  Two to three weeks is not uncommon.  This Tim S. Dool ship has been at the port for at least two weeks now. That seems very inefficient use of the ships.  Does it take that long to load/unload the goods, or there are other reason for the long stay?  Curious!

Can't Wait for Summer

Lining up for hotdog, Summer 2010 -- Canon 1D Mark IIn & Kinoptik Speciale Cine 210mm T3

If you are lucky enough to live in a place where the weather is warm all year around, you won't understand we Canadians how much we look forward to summer each year, especially if the winter is bad.  This year, other than a few very cold days, and a little bit of snow that quickly melted away, there isn't much of a winter as we normally would have.  I am certainly NOT complaining!

Can't wait for summer to roll around.

Minolta RF Rokkor-X 250mm f5.6 -- Second Look

So I have been using the Minolta RF Rokkor-X 250mm f5.6 on the NEX-5N, and slowly getting the hang of it. It's still too long a lens for me, and I don't have very steady hands, hence low keeper rate.  Many of the pictures come out blurry.  But, once the focus is nailed, the lens rewards you with very sharp images (for a mirror lens).  I want to stress that this is a very small lens for a 250mm focal length.  On of the reason many people want it.  You can see the picture below where it's compared to the Minolta 58mm f1.2.  The 58mm f1.2 is much heavier:

Size compared to the Minolta 58mm f1.2.

Although the X250 does not focus as close as the Tamron mirror lenses, it's still pretty good at minimum focus distance of 2.5 meters.  You can get pretty good close ups.  The original hood the came with the lens is way too short.  Mirror lenses tend to flare more easily than all glass lenses.  A longer hood would have helped to reduce the flare problem.

Bright Lights -- NEX-5N & Minolta RF 250mm f5.6 on tripod.

In think in terms of image quality, it's probably as good as a consumer lens would get for mirror lenses.  The build quality is excellent with very smooth focus action.  It's a perfect lens for EVIL cameras.  The longer focal length allows some stealth pictures to be taken without people getting mad at you, or, simply, some like the compressed perspective of long lenses.

Talk -- NEX-5N & Minolta RF 250mm f5.6

Canon EOS 5D Mark III - An object of desire

OK, I will say it.  I WANT the 5D Mark III!  It's a camera that fixes all of the 5D Mark II's short comings (ok, I still want the swivel screen).  The specs are pretty much the same as what the rumor have been saying, except the price, which is higher than what most people expected.

The image quality test at dpreview sure looks pretty good, but I don't think it's that far ahead of the 5D Mark II.  Strangely enough, if you check out Canon's official sample images, image #1 (the aurora) shot at ISO 800 has a  lot of chroma noise.  Not sure if they turned off the noise reduction or what.  Canon jpeg engine still falls behind Olympus, which generates exceptionally good jpeg as if they were converted from RAW.  Would 5D Mark II owners upgrade?  If I had the Mark II, I would probably not upgrade, unless superior auto focus is what you are after.  

For me, this camera would replace my 1D Mark III, but the price is just too high to justify at $3,888 CAD.  I guess it's a camera for most pros and semi pros of still and videographers.  I am sure many well heeled buyers will snap the 5D III up, but it's just too much money for non-money making use.  I will pick up a used 5D Mark II when it hits $1500, and keep my 1D III.

Megan -- Sony NEX-5N & Minolta RF Rokkor-X 250mm f5.6

Canon 5D Mark III -- Is it worth the hype?

Canonites are eagerly waiting for the unveiling of the long waited successor to the 5D Mark II, which has been one of the most successful and best selling full frame cameras in recent history.  So, the Mark III has a big shoe to fill. If the rumour is correct, it will have the 1DX auto focusing system, and a new 22MP sensor with high ISO going all the way up the wazoo! I am happy that Canon listens to its customers and didn't go nuts on pixel count on the popular 5D line, and instead, concentrates on high ISO and more dynamic range.  The only worry is that the price might be too high.  Anything over $2800 is too much, in my opinion.  The 5D II was something like $2800 on introduction.

On the other hand, I am sure Canon won't let Nikon steal the show with the D800's 36MP sensor.  I have no doubt they will have a competing model with 40 or more megapixel sensor, perhaps the 3D, or 5DX very shortly?

This is exciting times, even though for me, they are too expensive for me to afford, but glad to see the technology advances.  Who knows, in a couple of years, we may see a $1500 full frame 24MP camera.

Rock Skipping -- 1D Mark III & EF 135mm f2