Oxford Street —> Selfridge X’mas decoration (?)
The all photos here were taken by a homemade 1/4 lens on NikonZ7.
Economical downtern reflected from uncirtainty of the Brexit etc etc might be making shy economy, hence their design were pretty economical here too.
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1/4 Lens for London
They are the snap shots by the 1/4 Lens on the Nikon Z7 —— colour balance was automatic ( B/W effect was not intended = just happened)
Incidentally, it was not the end of the world. 😀
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Hi-ISO noise
Till now, I thought that the noise caused by Hi-ISO setting was just a nuisance, or necessary evil though, I became aware, in certain case, it could be an useful tool.
(ISO represent the degree of amplification of the signal —– any electronic signal would produce the noise when it was intensively amplified = whether it was audio signal, or light signal from the image sensor, when they were amplified, the residual charge in the circuit line etc etc were also amplified hence those noise was superimposed onto the main signal. — you may say why the digital signal has noise = the output signal of image sensor IS analog, until they were AD converted. = Here, in the AD converter, the depth of 12 or 14 bit etc decide the quality of the image. = one bit more mean twice as much process will be needed for each pixel of the image sensor ! = You see how enormous the task is = That’s why almost all digital camera is Japanese (inside of Leica is Panasonic) and almost all image sensor is Sony —– Who else would bother to take such awkward task in the world. 😀 )
Even among the oil paint, many different styles = so, in the soft paintery effect photography, there could be a grainy style —– looks not too bad.
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Morning Sky – Dec’19
This one was by the Fragmented lens on Nikon Z. (Camera itself set the ISO to 12800 (not me) = So, the noise was too high — still, as an image, it wasn’t too bad. Unlike a soft smooth image, the roughened up texture showed quite strong impact. I like it.
This image was too murky though, that was what this homemade lens was made for.
Only a decent lens in this post = Zeiss Distagon —– costed me a bit. 😀
Small part of disposable camera lens makes not too bad image !
This Pentax lens itself IS a pretty good decent lens, even if it was for 110 size camera but mounted on a full size mirrorless Nikon Z.
We can take picture in any excuse. Nothing hinder us to be creative.
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Night sky
Time to time, we see extremely red night sky or red moon. Yet still, we may not necessary take picture of it, or to know why the sky was so red.
When it’s red, it’s red all night till morning.
This photo was taken by the “Fragmented Lens” with the colour balance setting for Shade. (long exposure showed more noise)
The same camera but the lens was changed to 110 Pentax 24mm lens.
When the camera’s colour balance was set to Auto, the image became like this = was this because the red shift was nutralised by the camera’s image processor, OR red was not there in the first place but created in the camera ? (To compensate “Shade” = 7000K Colour balance, the image would be pushed to warmer orangery colour, hence red sky !)
And this photo showed that the red colour was in fact the refrected light on the clowd. Unless the light from the ground was refrected back, we can’t see it, in other words the sky was not burning but the grounds.
Then, how about tonight full (?) moon in the sky ?
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Fragmented Lens
After making 1/2, 1/4 lens cameras, there are many fragmented lenses left behind. Even fragmented — its still functions as an optical lens.
Zennist’s tendency is = No attachment, — yet still, (strangely) go for whole hog. So, why not test those small plastic fragment ?
As (or used to be) an optical lens of one time use camera, it works as a lens, even though it was fragmented to such small fraction.
And a remarkable point of those fun camera lens IS they are very well designed aspherical omuni-focus lens. Therefore, they can capture the image in distence to
close subject such as this without any focusing control. (well, you may say, more or less)
So, for the general use, they do an enough work. What do you ask more (for its less than £10 price). 😀
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1/4 lens !
After two attempt of two 1/2 double lens, it would go to even 1/4, naturally. (Anyway, it was only a matter of hacksaw and a glue work. And it was what an Otaku lives for. 😀 )
The plastic lens was mounted to the Sony A7R camera (yet the lens can be attached to the Nikon Z as well.)
So, this homemade lens will produce the image even worse than those W-lens A or B ! 😀 —– can you guess how happy I am. Ha Ha Ha 😀
In case, if anyone wanted to see more natural image for a comparison, those are the images from the ordinary (?) 110 Pentax 24mm lens on the Nikon Z.
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Tripod for Ensign Camera
As I wrote in the previous post, Ensign Ful-Vue camera has no tripod screw, despite that its shutter has Time (B) setting. It’s not difficult to put a 1/4″ tripod screw = just fix a thick metal plate with 1/4″ screw hole to the camera bottom. —– ? – Then gave a thought. Virtually all of my cameras has been fitted with tripod quick plate. —— So, instead to put a 1/4″ screw plate, then attach a quick plate on it, why not to put a quick plate directly to the camera bottom.
And the quick plate doesn’t necessary to be a genuine heavy one = can be a simply bent aluminium plate. = why not. 😀
With a homemade quick plate, the Ensign camera can be mounted to a tripod in such a convenience. (While costing almost nothing ! )
This is the beauty of DIY homemade. 😀
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Ensign Viewfinder Camera ?
This photo was taken through the viewfinder of the 1940s Ensign camera.
Ensign camera was produced by the English Houghtons Ltd. And this streamlined Ful-Vue was made around 1946, using 120 film for 6×6 format.
I got this camera from the London Camera Exchange’s odds and ends box however as it came together with other shopping, I don’t know how much the price of this one though —– as it was non working dirty junk, price could not be more than few pound. SO, I spent next few days to clean and repair. (now the camera was cleaned and in good working condition !)
Camera itself was designed in the streamlined style and having large “aerial image viewfinder” (so that, it was named “Ful-Vue”) —– While checking this aerial image, I realised that I can take picture through this viewfinder. = = = So, I fixed a thin Nikon Z mount adaptor on Ensign’s viewfinder.
Unlike aerial image itself, the image through viewfinder lens could give only 1 feet (30 cm) focus. —– still, for close-up photo, its soft image was pretty interesting.
Though the viewfinder lens doesn’t have any great quality. Its got quite a heavy chromatic aberration. (still, for a fuzzy photo fan, those red and blue fringes were the mere accompanying decoration)
A difficulty of shooting with this camera was, to shoot a front subject while looking down, while following the subject which moves opposite direction. (because, they are the mirror image —– yet, strangely, while viewfinder’s aerial image is not reversed, why the photograph through the same lens got to be reversed or upside down ? ? ? 😀
May be I should have proper shooting test of this camera through its main lens, which is about 95 mm focal length with 12 mm diameter (its mean, the lens is about F8) —– but, no F-aperture, or Focus control ! = even worse, I don’t know how fast is its “Instant” shutter speed. (Shutter has Instant and Time ( = B) setting though, there is no tripod screw — How to use this B setting ? ? ? = 1940s people must have very solid steady hand) 😀
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Archery Contest — Zen ? ? ?
There is an annual Archery Contest in a Japanese Buddhists Temple = Sanjyu-sangen-do, Kyoto. (If you are interested in its details, please google > Toshi-ya, Sanjyu-sangen-do ) (the Viz here is the Female Archer’s day’)
What I want to talk about here is not about its history or meaning, but the way how Japanese Archery / Kyu-do was done.
From the Viz here, you must be realised that the Japanese Kyu-do mount the Arrow outside of the Bow, and not aiming the Arrow while watching its direction from the back. Unlike a western archery, cross-bow, or a riful gun there is no “sight” to aim the target. The eyes, the head of archer is the other side. So, you might be wondering how the archer could aim the Arrow to the target ?
Training is to train the body function, its power and the coordination to higher level. —– In the case of Karate, (say, hit an opponent by a fist) the movement and the control is rather simple as it is the matter of the hand’s movement. Though, if it involve a weapon, the coordination has to become a bit more complicated as the movement became indirect. — still, like cutting a lemon, the body (hand) need to keep the knife steady and make its movement constant, while involving rather small number of the muscles, while having the straight feedback of the each movement through the eyes. (On this “cutting lemon” arrangement, even a direction of the knife blade could be changed while the blade is in the middle of lemon.)
Though, the Japanese Kyu-do’s control is incredibly indirect. Certainly the Archer is seeing the target and stand towards the target though, we can not see any further details of the control, how minute adjustment of the angle was transelated into the arm’s muscle or body position etc.
In this field, a book [ZEN in the ART of ARCHERY] by Eugen Herrigel has almost historical significance. (—– though, as the Kyu-do has no mechanical system of the “Control”, neither Zen use the verbal communication to explain how, the book wouldn’t give you any answer how the arrow could hit the tail of the first arrow. But only hinting something spiritual made the arrow to fly.)
In Zen term, it is the state of the Ichijo = Body and the Mind, the Bow and the Arrow, the target, and even the air all became one by abandoning all those. In Buddhists term, it was absorbed by Dharma. = By abandoning all the aim or thought to hit, obtaining the natural control of the Dharma = this paradox IS the core of the Zen Buddhism.
In This extent, the Book by Eugen Herrigel was a very rare and important guide book to learn the Zen. To learn the Zen, an innocent, naive man could not able to learn anything by sitting. Because there wouldn’t be any explanation of Zen let alone what the sitting for. Yet still, that book explain, how to negate the own Ego by exactry follow and copy the way to do the Kyu-do. And the way to abondan even the intention to hit = to become the Void oneself. (The book was written by the outsider = not by Zen monk, hence the trade secret has been exposed ! ) So, the reader could able to learn the mechanism of the Zen.
However, if it was looked at more demystified angle, the control of the Kyu-do might be somewhat similar to the Skiing. Control of the ski board couldn’t be done by just the legs but needs to have all the coordination of the whole body, on top of the snow condition and the topography, even the weather. Then the certain aim or a mind goes to the ski, yet still, we are not skiing while thinking how to ski. There may not be a kind of “The Mind of Ski” —– it could be empty. But, without having any thinking of control, if the aim was goes left, the ski goes left. There may not be any mythical control behind still, in the certain level of advanced skill, whole control of ski or Kyu-do could be done in the almost God’s hand level. —– This advancement could be achieved also under the Zen approach, still, make it thankful to the mythical Dharma or just a physical advancement would be a matter of one’s belief.
—– So, it was the same situation, when I was making aluminium sculpture “Buddha 2009” I needed to find the aluminium pipes for the material, then I found a lots of discarded pipes from a construction site = its always like this happen on me. (What I’m doing synchronise with Dharma —– or they help me) .
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