Tree Trunk

Interesting tree near the UT Campus at Harbord & Spadina -- Canon Digital Rebel 550D & Vivitar 200mm f3.5 AI mount.

A Day with the Schneider-Kreuznach Edixa-Xenar 50mm f2.8

Last time I wrote about the widely available, but not very reliable Domiplan, I felt that the Domiplan was a workable, if not stellar lens. After I wrote that, I realized that I have quite a few lenses with the Tessar design. The Domiplan being one, the pancake Carl Zeiss Tessar 45mm f2.8 is another, and today I took out the Schneider-Kreuznach Edixa-Xenar 50mm f2.8. I literally used it in the morning, afternoon, and the evening.

The Edixa-Xenar is at the other end of the scale compared to the Domiplan. I don't know if all of them are like that, but my copy has a stepless aperture ring. It's a very well made lens with multi-coated elements in M42 mount. The Domiplan was made in East Germany, and this one made in West Germany. The workmanship is immediately apparent when you look at them side by side.

I am loving this lens. I don't know why I didn't use it more before, possibly because it's a slow lens for a 50mm. It indeed looks unimpressive, but it's optically amazing, for an old lens. On the Digital Rebel 550D, there are no blurry corners. It's sharp in the center as well as the "edges" on non-full frame. What wowed me, like the Schneider DKL lenses, is the colour. This lens produces very saturated colours compared to other lenses. Sometimes the red looks overpowering.

The Edixa-Xenar 50mm f2.8 shows its best strength in overcast lighting. Many lenses will produce dull looking images in dull looking weather, but this one make beautiful colours pop. I am especially taken by its exquisite bokeh. This lens can render very nice out of focus areas, and it handles blown highlights with nice gradual roll-off, instead of dead white.

I think I over-paid for this lens, but the M42 mount is not very common with Schneider lenses, so I bought it. Who knows, it might actually appreciate in value!


White Rose. Walked out the door this morning and see the neighbour's beautiful rose. Embiggen.


On my way to work. Downtown Toronto from the Don Bridge on Queen. Embiggen.


Went out at lunch time and enjoyed some wonderful music and performance. Larger.


This bee was exhausted after some activities with another bee. Larger Picture.


Bokeh -- Reminds me of the Leica-R 90mm f2.8 2-CAM that I had long ago.


Evening shoot near Moss Park. My kids had swimming, and I stayed out and shot pictures. Larger.


Saw roses everywhere today. Love this pink variety. Very nice.

Greektown in Toronto

Street Lamp -- Canon Digital Rebel 550D & Pentacon 29mm f2.8.

Being a multi-cultural city, Toronto has very diverse regional cultures. We have Chinatwon, Greektown, Indian Basaar, Little Italy, etc. Each is unique and interesting. Greektown is known for the many fabulous restaurants. Each year, "Taste of the Danforth" is hosted in Greektown and people all over the city will come by and savour the many varieties of food and drinks, as well as enjoy the live music and other activities. The 3 day event started in 1994 and gets better each year.

Orange Poppy

Poppy Core -- Canon T2i & Leica-R 28mm f2.8 Elmarit. Larger Picture.

You can see poppies everywhere in the spring, but at this time of the spring, most have already lost their petal. It's a different kind of beauty, I think.

Canon 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS Lens - 3 Months Later

OK, I haven't been using the kit lens continuously for 3 months, but it's one of the most used kit lens I have had. I have shot about 1000 frames with this lens, so I think I can draw some conclusions.

Let's get the conclusion out of the way first. The 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS lens is totally worth the money. I am very glad that I bought it with the camera. It's far better than the non IS version that came with my original Rebel 300D.

The plastic built of the lens has actually held up well so far. The cheap plastic doesn't bother me too much, simply I don't focus manually with it. If I do, it would drive me insane. In fact, for the light weight, I quite enjoy using it as a walk around lens for day time shooting.

For a non-USM lens, it focuses very fast and quietly. I don't really have any focusing issues with the lens, possibly because I usually shoot at rather small apertures at f8 or f11. This is the sweet spot of the lens.

In terms of image quality, I find no faults, considering the low price paid, with Image Stabilization to boot. The lens is very sharp and contrasty. Adding a polarizing filter will make the colours come out much better than the naked lens. Strangely enough, there are six aperture blades, verses five for some lenses that are even more expensive. I consider the bokeh of this kit lens very acceptable. The Image Stabilization (IS) is quite effective and impressive, and this begs the question: If an effective IS can be built into a cheap lens like this, why not include it in all lenses? Certainly the cost is minimal.

The negative part of the lens, as we already know, is it's slowness at the long end. F5.6 is the optimal aperture for most primes, and this is the starting aperture for the kit lens at 55mm. It's almost impossible to use this lens at 55mm indoors without flash, which limits its usefulness. The other negative part of course, is the cheap built quality.

For most people, I suspect that they will be happy with the lens, and that many would be happy to have it as their only lens. Some of us buy it to get wide angle without forking out a king's ransom. It's a perfect complement to your primes, or when you want to go light with one lens in good light. It's one heck of a bargain.


Ontario Place -- Canon Digital Rebel 550D & 18-55mm IS Kit Lens. Embiggen.


Tall Ship -- Canon Digital Rebel 550D & 18-55mm IS Kit Lens. Embiggen.


The Marina Grille, Ontario Place -- Canon Digital Rebel 550D & 18-55mm IS Kit Lens.

Purple

Purple -- Canon Digital Rebel 550D & Pentacon 50mm f1.8 MC @ f1.8.

Pentacon lenses deserve more respect than they currently have. Some are truly excellent, like this MC version of the 50mm f1.8. Will talk more about this lens in a later post.

Robotic Silver Elvis

Silver Elvis -- Canon T2i & Fujica EBC 50mm f1.4 @ f1.4.

Silver Elvis has a new outfit. Last time I took a picture of him in April of 2009, he was completely silver, which actually looked better than the current silver and black.

Silver Elvis is a robot, and he is activated by the sound of money. I mean, activated by the sound when coins hit the money jar, for about 5 seconds. Then he will stand very still until more money hits the jar.

This picture doesn't look as good as one taken with the Konica 57mm f1.7 and the G1. For one thing, the crowd is larger so it was hard to isolate him, even when shot at f1.4. I have had the EBC 50mm f1.4 for a few years, but never really used it much. It's just too "common" LOL! But, the EBC 50mm f1.4 is one fabulous lens. Even sharper than the SMC Takumar at f1.4. The coating is fantastic. Little wonder the EBC lenses have a cult following.

Using Linear Polarizing Filter on Auto Focus Lenses

Aside from removing reflections from water and glass, there is nothing that makes your colour pop, and your blue sky more blue than a polarizing filter. Polarizing filters are among the most expensive filters, except the old linear kind, which I believe nobody makes any more, but are available in abundance in the used market at very low prices. As anyone who knows the difference between a linear and circular polarizing filter will tell you, using a linear polarizing filter with auto focus cameras has the side effect of unreliable metering and focusing. I don't doubt that linear polarizing filters affect auto focus cameras, but how, or how much?

I decided to give it a try today. I mounted a Hoya linear 58mm polarizer on the Canon EF-S 18-55mm kit lens, and headed to Ontario Place and give it a try. I have taken over 375 RAW pictures and a few minutes of HD video, and here is what I have found.

For the most part, AF and Metering are not affected, and if it did, I didn't see much difference to notice. The linear filter produced the same effect as the circular version. Through out the day, I had only encounter focusing hesitations near the end of the day, where I was taking pictures with the sun shining directly into the lens. The lens did managed to achieve focus at the end.

So, my understanding is that under certain situations, linear polarizing filter does affect the focusing. But for 99% of the time, it works fine with auto focus cameras.


Cinesphere -- Canon Digital Rebel 550D (T2i) & 18-55mm Kit Lens. Embiggen.


Reflection -- Canon Digital Rebel 550D (T2i) & 18-55mm Kit Lens. Embiggen.


Wheels -- Canon Digital Rebel 550D (T2i) & 18-55mm kit lens.

Kane

Kimberley & Terry's super dog posing for the camera -- Canon 550D & EF 100mm f2. Larger Picture.

AGO Observation Deck

Observation Deck - Canon T2i & Pentax-M 20mm f4. Embiggen.

Never noticed this new addition to the back of the Art Gallery until today. Very interesting design.

Blue House

Blue House - T2i & Vivitar Series-1 28mm f1.9.

Took a walk north west of Spadina & Queen yesterday lunch time. Never went that way before and it was nice to see some new places.

Petals on the Widewalk

Petals on the ground - Canon T2i & SMC Takumar 17mm f4 Fish Eye.

After a windy night, and by early morning, you can see a blanket of petals lining the sidewalk section of Leslie Street between Queen & Eastern. There are pink, yellow, and white from different trees that is beautiful to behold.

More Colours of Spring

The colours of spring -- Canon T2i & Contax Tessar 45mm f2.8. Embiggen.

Tamron SP 24-48mm f3.5-3.8 Adaptall-2

Big Tree - Canon T2i & Tamron SP 24-48mm f3.5-3.8. Embiggen.

Picked up this lens at the photo show couple weeks ago for peanuts. In overall good condition but is missing the most important accessory -- the hood. This lens is horrible with flare, despite the BBAR MC coating. The hood may help a bit. The lens itself is very well made as most SP series in the Adaptall system is. Very heavy for a smallish lens and feels very dense. This lens could almost be considered a constant aperture lens: f3.5-3.8, a 1/3 stop?

This 24-48mm lens performs OK on the 550D with a high density sensor. Not bitingly sharp, especially at the wide end, but it's not too shabby either. Edges (on 1.6x crop body) is quite respectable. In fact, the "edge" is almost as good as the center at f5.6-f8. Haven't tried it on full frame yet, but I would expect it to be pretty good.

At small aperture in a clear day at 24mm setting, this lens, like many wide angle lenses, makes the sky look very blue without a polarizing filter, but looks like one was used. I quite like that "Velvia" blue, although it looks very fake. This is even more pronounced when developed with the Landscape setting. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I like it.

Keep in mind that most zooms are not very good in the early days. It's obvious that Tamron put quite a bit of effort into designing this lens. A nice wide angle range on full frame.

Oh yeah, it has infrared markings for 24mm and 48mm. I would expect one for 35mm setting too, but no. The amount of IR compensation between 24mm and 48mm is quite large. One reason I don't like using zoom for IR pictures.

Will have an update when I get around to use it on the 5D.

Sun Rising Over Downtown Toronto

Sun Rising - Canon T2i & Tamron Adaptall-2 28mm f2.5 at f8.

Drove wife to work early this morning and on my way home, saw the sun slowly rising over downtown Toronto. It was beautiful.

Vivitar Series-1 28mm f1.9 OM Mount

s Series-1 lenses were some of the best and most unique in its time. The 28mm f1.9 is one of the cult classics. Very fast for a wide angle at the time the lens was made. This is the second copy of the 28mm f1.9 lens I have. The other one is an MD mount. Both look and work identically. Very sharp lens, especially in the center. I like the warm colour this lens captures. Contrast is a bit low wide open but still sharp. Over all a great lens that deserves the Series-1 moniker. Will update on this lens in a later date.


Let's Play Ball - Canon T2i & Vivitar Series-1 28mm f1.9 OM Mount. Larger Picture.


Torture Flare Test. The VMC coating is very effective -- T2i & Vivitar 28mm f1.9. Larger Picture.


Untiltled - T2i & Vivitar Series-1 28mm f1.9. Larger Picture.


Glass Art - T2i & Vivitar Series-1 28mm f1.9.

Old City Hall in the Morning

Old City Hall - Canon T2i & Carl Zeiss Tessar 45mm f2.8 Pancake Lens.

Bench

Bench - Canon T2i & Pentax Ultra-Achromatic-Takumar 300mm f5.6.

This lens drives me crazy. On one hand the image quality and colour is wonderful, on the other hand, the internal reflection causes all pictures to have a brighter center of the image than the rest of the picture. It also vignettes on full frame. Not sure if it's built like this or the lens is defective. It does not look like it has been tempered with as it's cosmetically excellent.

Moss Park Play Ground

Moss Park is quite pretty in spring -- T2i & Vivitar 28mm f2.0 AI Mount. Larger Picture.

Macro Madness

Macro photography fascinates me, but I am not very good at it. For one thing, to be serious, you will need to bring a tripod at the very minimum, in order to obtain sharp pictures. At macro distance, every little shake is magnified many times. I am just too lazy. Another thing with macro photography, is that its accessories are extremely expensive. Ring lights, rails, good tripod/head, and not to forget the lens itself, and all add up to thousands of dollars.

That does not stop me from buying macro lenses, of course. A lens junkie does not know when to stop and what is enough. At one point, I had more than a dozen macro lenses of all kind. Even at the current count, I still have 7. Among them are: Takumar 50mm f4 (1:1 version), Carl Zeiss S-Planar 60mm f2.8 Makro, Kilfitt 90mm f2.8, and Canon 180mm f3.5L. My favourite, and the one I use the most, is the Contax mount Carl Zeiss 60mm f2.8 makro (1:1 German version). This is one of the sharpest lenses of all the macros. Very large and heavy for a 60mm lens but is hand holdable. It also doubles as a standard lens, so it's much more versatile than the Canon 180L, which, without a tripod, is next to impossible to get sharp pictures at full macro distance. The Canon 180L is an extremely sharp lens as well and is probably one of the best made lens, in terms of construction quality. Due to its size, the 180L gets used probably 2 to 3 times a year.

But the Zeiss S-Planar 60mm Makro is something else. It's not as good as the 100mm APO, but I don't think it's that far behind. Even wide open at f2.8, this lens is razor sharp. All macro lenses are optimized for best optical performance at close distance, and therefore at infinity, some won't be very good at resolving details. The 60mm Makro is equally good at infinity as it is at macro. It's one of these lenses that I will not sell, unless I need the money to save my life.


Lady Bug - Canon T2i & Carl Zeiss S-Planar 60mm f2.8 Makro. Larger Picture.


Mannequin - Canon T2i & Carl Zeiss S-Planar 60mm f2.8 Makro. Larger Picture.