Happy Holidays!

I would like to wish all my readers a safe and very happy holiday season.  May little elves make whatever you have wished for, and Santa will deliver them to you. Don't forget to take lots of pictures in this joyous season. You will treasure them later, guaranteed.

Megan & William in snow - Canon 5D & EF 85mm f1.2L

The Omnipresent Vespa Scooters

Vespa Scooter - Canon 5D & Vivitar Series-1 28mm f1.9 OM. Larger.

The Vespa scooters seem to be everywhere, in all sorts of colours.  Men ride them, but looks like more woman use them.  Very efficient and light on gas, they are perfect for travel within the city.  Electric bikes are also everywhere now, but they don't have the classy look of the Vespa, but then again, it's quieter, requires no license to operate, and much cheaper to buy.  Just don't forget to charge it.

Iris

Iris -- Canon 5D & EF 50mm f1.2L @ f1.4.

One of the many varieties of iris. My personal favourite is the blue ones, the one you see in the Van Gogh paintings.

Tokina AT-X 80-200mm f2.8 Contax Mount

Back in March, I mentioned that I bought a Tokina 80-200mmf 2.8 zoom in Contax mount. This is the lens my friend Tony bought early 1980 from Broadway Camera beside Henry's. It was jaw dropping expensive. If I remember correctly, it was more than $700 CAD. Being a poor student, I could only envy Tony. That was more than 25 years ago.

Anyway, I thought it was a steal for $25. I have only taken it out today to try it, as I am not a zoom person, especially long zooms. As with most 80-200mm f2.8 lenses, this one is quite heavy. The built quality is exemplary, focusing action is smooth and easy. But, there is one really bad design -- the hood. It's a clip-on type that could get knocked and lost. In fact, I lost it today within 1/2 hour of walking holding the lens. @#%@#$!

The only area I find not up to the flagship status of this lens is the image quality. It's a little soft wide open. Although improved by stopping down, this lens does not give me that razor sharp image that I expect from an expensive lens like this. Although I have not used the Tamron AdaptAll version of the 70-200mm f2.8, I bet you a dollar that it's far better.

I sound very negative about this lens, that's only because I expected much more for the amount of money one has to fork out to buy one. It give you pictures at f2.8 where other slower lenses can't, but image quality could be a little better.


Harley Road King. Nice bike, friendly riders who waved at me as I took the picture -- Canon 5D & Tokina 80-200mm f2.8 at f4. Embiggen.


The Vespa Trio -- Canon 5D & Tokina AT-X 80-200mm f2.8. Embiggen.


The Hug Me Tree - Canon 5D & Tokina AT-X 80-200mm f2.8 at f2.8.

Under the Don Bridge on Queen

Under the Don Bridge at Queen - Canon 5D & SMC Takumar 35mm f3.5

The SMC 35mm f3.5 is one of my all time favourite lenses. Very very small. Focuses so smoothly like no other, and it's insanely sharp. The SMC 24mm f3.5, SMC 28mm f3.5 and the SMC 35mm f3.5 are three of the best SMC Takumars that are affordable and produce great images, not to mention how well made they are.

Sparrow on Fence

Sparrow on fence - Canon 5D & EF 180mm f3.5L Macro @ f4.5. Larger Picture.

Took out the long neglected Canon 180mm f3.5L macro lens today to shoot the crab apple trees behind Marigold Gardens. There are two red and one white ones and they are in spectacular blossom, as you can see in the background of the picture above. This picture above turns out to be a better picture than the crab apple tree blossoms.

The 180L is an insanely sharp lens and one of the best made L lenses. Really should use it more often.

SMC Takumar 28mm f3.5 M42 Lens

When I first started using manual focus lenses on my digital SRL, this was one of the first few lenses that I bought. Over the years, I have owned, then sold at least four of these lenses of various flavours, but it always comes back in my lens collection. It's like a lover who, doesn't matter how many times you break up with, always in your mind, and never forgotten.

There are good reasons why this lens is so lovable and hard to forget. Let me be frank, although it's a very good lens overall, it's not particularly excellent in any one aspect, except, perhaps, flare resistance. It's a lens that won't stir my emotions, but when I don't have it, the lack of its presences is always felt. It is, an almost perfect all around lens, from the affordability standpoint.

No one will NOT mention the craftsmanship when talking about Takumar lenses. These lenses are some of the best made lenses you can buy, without forking out a small fortune. The petite size, silky smooth focusing mechanism, excellent optical performance, and the exceptionally good flare resistance are trade marks of the SMC Takuamr lenses. If you have never owned a manual focus lens, you really should buy the most beat-up looking Takumar lens, and hold it in your hand, and you will realize what a well made lens is supposed to be like.

This SMC 28mm f3.5 lens share the same traits as the SMC versions of the 24mm f3.5 and the 35mm f3.5. All of the three lenses perform similarly. My current copy of the 28mm 3.5 is sharp across the frame at around f8. Very little to fault this lens, except maybe the smallish maximum aperture of f3.5, but alas, you can't have small and larger aperture at the same time.

When mated with its original rectangular metal hood, damn, it looks gorgeous too!


Full blossom at Osgoode Hall - Canon 5D & SMC Takumar 28mm f3.5. Embiggen.


Stairs -- Canon 5D & SMC Takumar 28mm f3.5.

Photo Show and the Retina Lenses

Yesterday was another camera show. I think we have way too many camera shows in GTA. Twice is enough, I think. It's a show that I love to hate, because I always picked up stuff I don't need. Case in point, I bought more of the of the Kodak Retina mount lens -- Schneider Tele-Xenar 135mm f4, and 200mm f4.5. This pretty much completed my Schneider Retina Mount lenses, except the wide angle. I mistakenly bought a Retina-Curtar-Xenon 35mm f4, thinking it was a Kodak Retina mount, but it turns out to be a Contaflex mount.

Men know that the secret that holds the universe together is duct tape. Naturally, duct tape is my favourite tool. I strapped that Curtar-Xenon 35mm f4 onto a Yashica 50mm f2 lens barrel, taped it tightly with duct tape, and voila, a lens I can take pictures with. The sharpness of this lens is nothing to write home about, and it's far worse at the corners, even when stopped the heck down to the wazoo. Reminds me of the corners of c-mount lenses. This lens also flares like the light at the end of the tunnel - everything is white when there is any light falling onto the front elements. Ok, I understand it's a very old lens, and I have only used it once. Not a fair conclusion. Perhaps it has beautiful personalities I have not discovered yet. For the time being, it sits on the self and gives turn for other lenses. Perhaps I will come back to use it later and may even fall in love with it, who knows?


Looking at ya -- Canon 5D & Schneider-Kreuznach Retina-Curtar-Xenon 35mm f4. Larger Picture.


Mannequins - Canon 5D & Schneider-Kreuznach Retina-Curtar-Xenon 35mm f4.

Red Umbrella

Red Umbrella -- 5D & Soligor 70-220mm f3.5 M42 Mount. Rainy & dim day. ISO 3200.

It's funny how things seems to come together sometimes. I now have three copies of the 70-220mm f3.5 lens. Two Soligor (PK & M42 mount) and one Bushnell (OM mount). According to some Chinese Forums I have read, these lenses were made by Tokina and naturally there is a Tokina branded version as well. I believe there are at least three design revisions of this lens. The early version has yellow letterings and the later ones are green. The last design version has the focal length changed to 70-222mm. Never saw one of these, though.

My 5D on Its Last Leg

Robot Fish -- 5D & EF 85mm f1.2 @ f1.8. Larger Picture.

It started when I was in Ottawa a month ago. The auto focus system failed to work all of a sudden. I cleaned the contacts and pushed the mirror in and the camera started to work again. Today, while we were in Ontario Science Centre, the #%@$^% auto focus stopped working again. Tried my usual remedy but to no avail. It will have to go back to Canon and have it repaired.

This camera was bought used in August last year from Henry's Outlet store and I have shot roughly 10,000 frames in the last 6 months. That's a lot of pictures. Since I got the 5D, the Panasonic G1 didn't get much use and the 5D has been my primary camera.

I am really happy with the 5D. It's weak AA filter really makes the pictures crisp. The low light capability is great, even in today's standards. I routinely use ISO 800 and if necessary, ISO1600 and even 3200 (Max ISO). Contrast to what most people complain about, I am totally satisfied with the auto focus system on the 5D. It's not fast, but it's extremely accurate. The 6 hidden assist focus points really do their job well. To me, this camera has the most accurate auto focus system of all the cameras I have used.

The broken AF system on my 5D is downer, but when I bought the camera used, I knew what kind of chances I was getting. Hopefully it won't cost too much to get it repaired.

Shooting Swimming with Canon 5D

Let me say this first: Shooting sports with the Canon 5D is like having your soup with chopsticks.  It's not impossible, but there are better alternatives.

My kids had swim meets today but unfortunately I sold my 1D III three weeks ago.  The only camera I have that's capable of focusing relatively fast is the Canon 5D.  I thought of geting the 1D II again, but thought better of it in the end.  So, with no choice, but to shoot the events with the 5D.

Lighting in community centres are usually horrid.  This one is no exception, although it's already better than some.  Shooting at ISO 1600 @ f1.8 with my EF 200mm f1.8L would give me somewhere between 1/250s to 1/400s.  The real issue is slow frames per second and very small buffer.  Focusing accuracy on the 5D is actually excellent.  In the bursts of frames, the critical frame always seems to be between one of those three frames each second, darn it!  It's a far cry from the 10 frames per second of my now gone 1D III, or the 8 fps 1D II.  Since I always shoot RAW, no exceptions, this makes the buffer smaller still and also making buffer clearing much longer.  For this reason, keeper are relatively few.

In the end, there are few usable frames so I didn't feel too bad.  However, I am dreaming of a 1D Mark IV...

Murphy's Law

One of the more colourful and unique buildings in the Beaches area. Incidentally, there are other Murphy's Law Irish Pubs in other countries. Not sure if they are all owned by the same owner. Never been inside, but I would imagine it's a busy business. The building was once a bank, but in recent years, most banks have downsized the number of physical branches. The building looks really nice in the twilight.


Murphy's Law Irish Pub -- 5D & EF 50mm f1.2L @ f3.2, ISO 640. Larger Picture.

Kiron 28mm f2 (Nikon Ai Mount)

Your are forgiven if you have never heard of Kiron or Panagor (both brands owned by Kino Precision). They never sold many of their own brand of lenses and average person may never have seen one. But, Kino was one of the larger OEM manufacturers for other brands, including Vivitar. If memory serves, their 105mm f2.8 was perhaps one of the best macro lenses of its time, up there with the Tamron SP 90mm f2.5 Adaptall macro lens. Unlike Vivitar, who had some exotic and unusual lenses, I don't recall Kino ever made anything considered exotic. Certainly no ultra wide angle or long telephoto lenses that I know of.

I don't have many Kiron lenses myself, except the 28mm f2 (both Nikon and MD mount), and the Nikon mount 80-200mm f4.5 macro, which, by the way, is a great lens, if you compare it to similar lenses in the same era. Their lenses are well constructed, but have major problems with oil in the aperture blade. The 28mm f2 MD mount has it. Fortunately, the Nikon mount version is working well without this issue.

The Kiron 28mm f2 is balanced lens overall. A bit soft wide open, but not unusable. In the older days, I will even consider this as pretty good. Stop down to f4, it's very sharp, even at f2.8 it's very acceptable. One surprising thing I found was that the corners are not bad at all when stopped down. No, it's not as good as the Leica R28/2.8, but much better than the Vivitar 24mm f2.8 I wrote about. Probably because it's much easier to design a better 28mm lens than a 24mm lens.

So, is the extra stop of light worth the additional cost over a cheap 28mm f2.8? I think so. With most lenses, wide open is never really optimum, and when stop down 1 click, most lenses improve dramatically. You can look at it this way: treat your lens as an f2.8 lens, and it's quite good at this aperture. If you have an f2.8 lens, you would have to stop it down to f4 to achieve the sample sharpness, most likely. The bonus is that if you really need to to open up, you can still make a properly exposed picture that the f2.8 version can't do.


Natural & artificial light at play -- 5D & Kiron 28mm f2. Larger Picture.


Lean on me -- Panasonic G1 & Kiron 28mm f2 @ f2. Larger Picture.


Crippled Bike -- Panasonic G1 & Kiron 28mm f2 @ f2. Larger Picture.


English River -- Panasonic G1 & Kiron 28mm f2. Larger Picture.

Canon 5D EE-S Precision Matte Focusing Screen

When I got my used 5D, it came with a grid screen. Interesting, but pretty useless as I don't shot architecture, although it does help a bit in aiding the composition, especially in keeping the horizon straight. I am a manual focus lens maniac, and use them most of the time. The lack of a split screen for the 5D has bothered me, and I have been thinking of getting the EE-S screen, which many say will help.

Then I met Peter. Peter is a very nice guy who uses a 5D, and he shoots architecture, and he has an EE-S screen, and he needs a grid screen, and...Well, long story short. We exchanged the screens.

At first, the differences weren't that great in use between the grid and the darker EE-S screen, except that it's at least a stop darker, but as I have used it a bit more, I feel pretty comfortable getting accurate focusing, fast. Probably not as accurate as a split screen, but much better than the stock screen. The only down side is, of course, the very dark screen when using slower lenses. Although the screen is easy to change, it's inconvenient to do if you change lens a lot.

As its intended use, this screen is much better when used on very fast lenses. Ideal for lenses with aperture of f2 or faster. But, I regularly stop down the lenses to f8 to f11 and the screen still works well.

My conclusion is: buy it if you work with manual focus lenses a lot. Buy it from e-Bay. It's much cheaper. The local Henry's wants $75 for a piece of plastic, which can be had for half the price.

Daisy -- 5D & Leica R 90mm f2.8 (E55).

William -- 5D & Leica R 90mm f2.8 (E55)

180 Degrees

It's nice to get the wide angles back with the 5D. I didn't think I would miss full frame when I sold my 1Ds, but after using the Panasonic G1 for a few months, I looked forward to the wide angle views again. So today I took the Super Multi-Coated Takumar 17mm f4 fisheye, which has been sitting on the shelf for months, for a spin.

In more than a few occasions, I photographed my own fingers in the picture. With 180 degree of view, this was bound to happen.

Bikes -- SMC Takumar 17mm f4 & Canon 5D. Click on each picture for a larger version.