Heavy, Wet Snow Aplenty

I was overjoyed this morning that the temperature will be in the positive territory, and I did have fun shooting with the Minolta Rokkor-X 250mm f5.6 mirror lens. Just right before heading home, heavy and web snow started to come down, seemingly with a vengeance. It did, however, provided some interesting opportunities for photography. I stopped a couple times and shot a few frames. In a very short time, the lens, camera and myself were all wet. I was afraid the camera/lens might be damaged by moisture but everything turned out fine.

Man at work - Minolta Rokkor-X 250mm f5.6 Mirror Lens & NEX-6. Click for larger.

My Bike - Minolta Rokkor-X 250mm f5.6 Mirror Lens & NEX-6. Click for larger.

Fellow Cyclist - Minolta Rokkor-X 250mm f5.6 Mirror Lens & NEX-6.

Internal Gear Hub Revisited

I have been riding, on and off, the 4-speed bike that I put together about 3 months ago using the Shimano Inter-4 4-speed internal gear hub. Generally, I like it quite a bit, but at times, the gear ratio leaves me wanting. I know this sounds strange coming from a guy who rides a single speed bike most of the time, but when you are on a single speed bike, you don't think about shifting, and riding a bike with gear shifter, it's a different mindset.  

The Good:
"Silent" shifting
Simple and low maintenance
Gear ratio is good enough for most situations

The Bad:
Heavy
More drag than normal wheel
Noisy when coasting
Trigger shifter sucks (er, sticks)
Coaster Brake is a real drag; engages far too easily
A nightmare to change a flat tire

As you can see, there are more bads than good.  So I have been looking for an alternative. Came across a very cheap, decades old Sturmey Archer 3-speed gear hub; installed it, works great, and less heavy than the Shimano 4-speed, and lower drag too.  Again, coasting is noisy, and even less gear ratio than the Shimano, and the trigger shifter was not designed for flat handlebar. I was able to make it work, but it's not elegant. More searching...

"New" 8-Speed Bike - Sony NEX-6 & Super Takumar 105mm f2.8. Click for larger.

Enter the Shimano Nexus 8-speed Red Band. Like the Canon L lenses, this one came with a red band around it to differentiate itself from the normal Nexus 8-speed; it's a premium line, but below the top of the line Alfine hubs.  The hub, unfortunately, came with a wheel that's not the right size for me, not to mention the weird and uncommon 24 spoke holes.  Took me a little while to find the rim with 24-spokes, but I really prefer a double-walled rim.  Oh well, didn't want to wait so I laced it up.  This is the 4th wheel I have laced, but still can't master the skills of truing it longitudinally. I find it very hard to make the wheel round; a problem compounded by the lack of a wheel truing station.

Anyways, as imperfect as the wheel is, I mounted it on a more sturdy MASI single speed steel frame with horizontal dropout.  I had to get the yellow non-turn washer as the original was grey, for a slanted angle dropout.  It was not easy to find locally.

Shimano Nexus Red Band 8-Speed shifter - NEX-6 & Super Takumar 105mm f2.8. Click for larger.

Since I have decided to build a new commuter bike, and winter is coming, I was more careful about the components used. For the chain, I used a heavy gauge and heavy duty YBN-MK918 BMX/single speed chain.  I have been using this chain for a few years now and it's bomb proof, but more noisy than the SRAM PC-1 chain that I also use.  The cranks are Sugino VP with a 50t chainring. The front wheel is a Shimano with a DH-2N71 dynamo hub. The dynamo hub will eliminate the need to worry about batteries for the light. Front light uses a very bright single LED and I can turn it off if I don't need it on.  I had one light that had no switch, and used the halogen bulb and it wasn't bright enough and uses much more power and thus creates more drag for the dynamo hub.  LED dynamo lights used to be very hard to find, but now they are relatively common.  A search on eBay will give you lots of choices.

Shimano Dynamo Hub - NEX-6 & Super Takumar 105mm f2.8. Click for larger.

Still looking for an LED rear light that can be powered by the dynamo; there are lots of choices too, but I will decide after I get a bike rack and pannier. The rack has to provide mounting provision for a rear light. Unfortunately, the frame was not designed to take bike racks and fenders; an adapter needs to be made so that I can mount the rack on the hub axle.

The bike, even with a front dynamo hub engaged, runs smoother and less drag than the bike with the 4-speed hub.  In fact, this setup feels like riding a conventional derailleur bike, and I am very happy about.  The weight of the dynamo hub in the front balances the weight of the gear hub at the back, and the bike doesn't feel rear heavy and the overall weight is very manageable.

So far, my observations of the Nexus 8 hub:

The Good:
Very quiet shifting and coasting; almost like a normal wheel
very low drag
Adequate gear ratios (until I get hold of an 11 or 14 speed hub, haha)
Lighter than the Inter-4 4-speed hub and provides more gears


The Bad:
Expensive - ok this is relative. If you consider a good derailleur group set, the cost could be more.
Still more drag than a derailleur system
Gear shifter only comes with flat bar option; if you like drop bars, you will have to buy a third party shifter

Hopefully, this bike will get me through winter without giving me any troubles.

Canon 40mm f2.8 STM Pancake Lens

In case you haven't heard, Canon is selling pancakes, the tiny 40mm f2.8 pancake lens, that is. This is the first time in Canon's lens making history that they introduced an interchangeable pancake lens. They did designed and made some pancake lenses used on point & shoot film cameras before but not on SLRs. So what's the big deal? It's tiny, of course. More than that, it's cheap, and most importantly, it's optically excellent. The picture below shoes how small the lens is, compared to its big brother, the Canon 50mm f1.2L.

The little brother - Canon 50mm f1.2L vs 40mm f2.8

Size is relative, of couse. When compared to other pancake lenses, the Canon is not the smallest. Let's not compare it to the wafer thin auto focus Pentax 40mm f2.8 SX, it's even larger than the older Pentax-M 40mm f2.8 and the Contax Carl Zeiss 45mm f2.8 Tessar, as you can see below. When mounted on my 5D II or 1D III, it looks kind of funny, but on the small Canon 100D, the combo will look incredibly small and compact.

The three Amigos: Pentax-M 40mm f2.8, Canon 40mm f2.8 and Contax 45mm f2.8

If you haven't read Roger Sicala's test on the Canon 40mm f2.8, please do read it. Roger is a great writer and his blog is always worth your time to read. I haven't used this lens much, but for those pictures I have taken, it's a great little lens and I like it a lot. If memory serves me correctly, the Canon 40mm f2.8 is sharper than both the Contax and Pentax pancakes, especially at the corners. It doesn't focus as fast as a USM lens, and is noisier too. I don't see how this lens, which was made for video using Stepper Motor (STM), the focusing noise will surely be recorded.

Should you buy one? Yes. Sometimes when it's on sale, it goes as low as $150, not much more than the Plastic Fantastic EF 50mm f1.8, but a much better build lens, and optically better. You won't be disappointed.

Bicycle - Canon 5D Mark II & 40mm f2.8 STM @ f2.8

Canon nFD 50mm f1.2L Samples

The Canon New FD (nFD) mount 50mm f1.2L is slightly larger and heavier than the normal, non-L, nFD 50mm f1.2 (see picture below). It's very well built and you know and feel the quality workmanship by holding it in your hand. I shot a few pictures with it this morning and I am quite satisfied with it. Not really a huge difference between this and the non-L nFD 50mm f1.2; if there is, you would have to pixel peek to death to find it. I promise, if I find the time and will myself to the task, I will do a comparison of the two lenses.

Three brothers - nFD 50mm f1.2L [left], nFD 50mm f1.2 [middle], and nFD 50mm f1.4 [right]

Size comparison. Click for larger

Crossing. shot through windshell - NEX-6 & Canon nFD 50mm f1.2L @ f1.4. Click for larger 

Streetcar - NEX-6 & Canon nFD 50mm f1.2L @ f1.4

Using a Focusing Helicoid as a Lens Adapter

One of the most annoying problems with old manual focus lenses, is that over time, some of them would fail to attain infinity focus, due to wear or misalignment. The Vivitar 24mm f2.8 TX lens I looked that the other day was an example. The normal course of action is to get it repaired/adjusted, but this could get expensive. Worse, sometimes after a lens repair, it would have other issues like de-centering or other problems. The solution is to use a focusing helicoid in place of a lens adapter.

Helicoid as an adapter on NEX-5N. Click for larger.

My focusing helicoids were originally purchased to be used with odd ball lenses that don't have focusing mechanisms of their own, like enlarging and projection lenses, but they are equally good, and often better, when used as a lens adapter, because a focusing helicoid would make the lens focus closer than its minimum focus distance, but at the same time allows the lens to focus past infinity. The 18-35mm Yeenon helicoid is just slightly thinner than a dedicated NEX to M42 adapter when not extended. This means all M42 lenses mounted on it will focus pass infinity. This solves the problem for lenses that can not focus to infinity by itself.

Allen Garden - NEX-6 & Vivitar 24mm f2.8 TX & Yeenon Helicoid. Click for larger.

Currently, I can only use M42 lenses on the Yeenon Helicoid, as the helicoid has an M42 mount when fitted with a 52mm to 42mm step-down ring. In actual use, there is almost no different than using just a lens adapter, except you focus with the focusing helicoid or the focusing mechanism on the lens. When using the lens for close-ups, you can rack out the focusing on both the helicoid and the lens to simulate the effect of  an extension tube to achieve macro magnification.

So yes, the helicoid is a very flexible tool.

True Love Cafe - NEX-6 & Isco-Gottingen Westagon 50mm f2 & Yeenon Helicoid.

Bicycle Posts in Toronto

Bicycle posts in Toronto has been slowly increasing in number as more people are riding their bikes.  You can see them practically everywhere in public places.  For decades, they remained unchanged, like the one below.  A ring bolted to a post.  It's functional, if not boring.  Last year, a project was started to create more interesting bike posts, mostly designed by students.  Unfortunately, there aren't that many of them and most of bike posts are still the same old.

Bicycle Posts near Bellevue Square Park - NEX-5N & Canon FD 85mm f1.8 @ f1.8. Click for larger.

Loving the Rollei HFT 50mm f1.8 Planar

Bike -- NEX-5N & Rollei HFT 50mm f1.8 Planar QBM Mount

I have been shooting with this lens for the last few days.  Not a lot of pictures, but have taken it with me when I am out and about.  Amazingly sharp lens with beautiful colours.  It's truly a bargain for a Zeiss designed lens.  It's well made too.