Tripod — give a thought

Among rather delicate Photo equipment, Tripod is exceptionally physical.

No another equipment would be thrown into a car floor. —– and may be that

was a reason why a film company disposed and gave a broken tripod to me.

When I got a huge Bilora tripod (Photo Left),  it’s legs were crushed. I replaced

them with 3 Manfrotto’s Monopod and put Gitzo No.4 (largest) Tripod-head.

= This 15 Kg heavy tripod can extend to 3 m high(with extension column) and

never produced blared image caused by a vibration, resonance kind. (of cause) !

(I was using this for Pentax 6×7 high-angle shot, or large format 4×5 kind.)

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Center Photo is a rather light-weight Gitzo (Reporter) with Ball-socket head.

Unlike other Gitzo which got 3 axis (X,Y,Z) fixing,

this ball-socket head has “a kind of” ease for quick

adjustment.  In the same time it is a disadvantage.  

If 3 axis can be adjusted individually = for instance, while keeping X,Y

fixed, but change only Z direction, it can have finer control.  

And being as light-weight and thin pipe, (even worse, ball and socket’s joint

is rather thin long neck) this tripod is sceptic to vibrate when all the

combination and the balance of the weight happened to resonates.

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And the Photo right is one of my small tripod (but not the smallest) which

become flat, when not in use. (Easily slip into a bag. )  

This tripod extends to 1 m and fold to 38 cm, the weight is mere 500 g !

It’s a typical case, “Better than nothing” but never perfect in any aspects.  🙂

The most important point of using tripod is, never fallen into an expectation

of false security. = Unless the tripod is really hefty heavy one, the use of tripod

may create more adverse effect = causing the blur.  Somewhere like a beach or

hill side, when the wind was strong, the tripod may be vibrating with the wind.

(You can feel it while rightly touch the leg.)

Test your tripod with your camera mounted —–> Click a shutter while rightly

touching your finger to the tripod leg. = If you feel tripod vibrates,

that is a quality of your tripod ! => Need to become aware of FALSE security !

Then take a measure.  Such as, hung something heavy from the tripod.

When tripod is vibrating, instead to use a Remote-Trigger or Delay-shutter,

grip the camera (on the tripod) and trigger the shutter by your finger !

(Hand works as a dumper. )  —– Or completely opposite approach against

Shutter-shock = drastically lower ISO and the shutter speed and make

shutter speed something like one second to few seconds !  

Unless the subject is moving, strangely, the photo become much sharper.

(See it yourself !  🙂 )

—– From the experiences seeing the broken Carbon Fibre Tripod, Golf club

and Fishing rod,  I’m not a fan of Carbon Fibre.  = When they brake, they

disintegrates.  Broken aluminium leg is still “a kind of leg” = You still able

to shoot a last photo or two on it. 

But, disintegrated bunch of plastic is utterly useless.  

Not to have a feeling of “false security” mean, better carry an insurance

for the worst situation too = carry one Kg more for stronger tripod !

After all, the steadiness and the reliability comes from its solid weight.  🙂

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Pinhole Portrait Picture

Some one might say, they looks like the photos of the earliest (100 KP)

digital camera. —– Oh, com’n they were created by a pretty expensive DSLR  

5D, Mk-III you know how much the cost !

(Taken at the Wednesday Workshop in Greenwich) 

And the others might say  “What a waste of time” = Hours of days of work,

and created this ? —– What for ? ? ?   Oh, com’n what’s wrong with you ?

I wanted to show = to be a portrait, what’s the minimum the picture

need to have — or other words, “Enough” to describe the person.  🙂

In fact, it was the same one = Semi-Fisheye,  Diopt-Pinhole Hybrid,  

Double-density Pinhole. Very very sophisticated Posh system, you know ? 

Ha ha ha   😀

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Camera Shake / Resonance of Tripod

On the previous post, the top photo taken by 200 mm Lens which was

held against the Camera body, was inevitably shaky and couldn’t been

properly focused.  When I realized that there is Catkins, I set-up a tripod

and 500 mm lens —– but after few clicks, I discovered that the photos

were utterly fuzzy.  => I increased ISO speed hence shutter speed,  still

the situation wasn’t get any better.     

Have look the information of the photo,  left bottom under the Histogram =

O mm lens mean Non-Canon lens, ISO 1600 and Shutter speed  1/2500 Sec.  

This was not off-focused image. ( no double line, typical to Mirror lens there) 

As the photo on the tripod showed the funny shake, I resorted with

hand held.  And strangely (you say), it produced much sharper image.

This time,  ISO 400 and the Shutter speed was  1/ 320. 

It was well known only to few people = a Shake caused by the Resonating

equipment. = In here, 500 mm lens, Canon 5D, and Gitzo Reporter Tripod

almost fully extended has happened to resonated and gave very fine vibration.

(If the extension of the tripod was shortened, there may not be a vibration.

= that is the tricky part of the  [Resonance] = hard to predict though, it is

possible to test => hit the set-up of the tripod with a stick and listen the

sound = if they makes good long sound “Boom” = Resonation suspected ! )

The photo above (heavily clopped image) by the

Tamron 500 mm Mirror lens,  hand held and  

ISO 1600, the Shutter speed was  1/8000 ! = I like a glare of branches.

(Human body is a dumper = wouldn’t resonates —– thanks goodness !)

May be I should find the frequency of this resonating vibration, because

Anti-Vibration system in the lens may not have an effect to higher frequency.

(I tested it with Anti-vibration of 70~200 F2.8 lens though as it got totally

different weight and the balance, the same resonance wasn’t replicated.)

May be I should talk about the Tripod in near future.

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Catkins on Alder Tree

Few days ago, I gave a peek to a broken Sony DSLR lens through Canon 5D

and saw it still works as a  200 mm optics.  —– then, I realized, what I saw

was not just a shape of a winter tree.  —– It’s Catkins there already !

With a serious attempt, I took picture of it with 500 mm lens on a tripod.

Yes, in deed it was the Catkins. = Without having any serious cold spell,

London started to have a Spring. —– I wouldn’t say I like cold but,

I believe the nature needs it as a cycle. 

The lens I was playing was the one I bought for £10 as a broken junk =

Sony-Minolta’s 18-200 mm Zoom lens, which has been seemingly dropped

and the barrel was broken into pieces. —– Still, amazingly, the main optics

kept its integrity and maintained its function = it can Zoom, and focus,

F-aperture is still working (though, setting only from the body side).

Since the Sony DSLR lens has Flange-back 44.5mm, to focus a bit forward

(in fact, 0.5mm exact) can give an infinity focus on Canon EOS body.

With some test shot, I was pretty impressed with its clever design and the

resilience = It’s a broken lens though, it is still usable as 18 mm to

200 mm lens. (with certain manual improvisation ! )

[] 

(Photo Left / Edge of the Lens was welded.   Center / Screw mounted Lens.  

Photo Right / Pincer Tool for the Lens mount ring.  This tool

called “Kanime” in Japan was given by the Pentax (Asahi-Kogaku)

—– Code of the tool = AK-1-1-LA means Asahi-Kogaku-1-1-Lens Assembly

when I had an exhibition in their Gallery in Tokyo )

But because it was made using  “Hot stamp” (drop a lens into plastic barrel

then heat seal) it was not expected to be disassembled and it was very hard

to modify and re-use.  —– I’m thinking what to use or making out of it ?

(Use for projection kind may be interesting, as the lens got

more than x11 times Zooming ratio.) 

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Lens Mount Adapter — AF type ? ? ?

Majority of the reader here may not know what this is.  This is a close-up

device called camera bellows. (This one came from a Photo-Slide  

Duplicator  “Illumitron” sold in the 80s. — I think. ) It would extend

the focus of the Lens much further, therefore creates close-up pictures.

(On this photo, Nikon 24mm F2 lens was mounted in reverse direction

to give even higher magnification. )

With full extension of Bellows, 24mm lens can give  x10 image  (Photo Left)

—– with less extension, this image was  x4  (Photo Right)

And those images were the Butterfly’s wing.  (Photo Left / x10 / 24mm F2)

(Photo Right / x1.5 / Micro Nikkor 55mm F3.5) 

Not necessary bellows —– to use any non-dedicated lens on the camera body,

we need to use a “Lens Mount Adapter”.    Especially with the Camera, which

Flange-back was thinner than the lens, such as Canon’s EOS was 44mm and

the Pentax’s  Flange-back was 45.5mm => It would give a margin of 1.5mm

to create an adapter. And the Photo above was the world first “Pentax to EOS”

adapter I made myself, soon after Canon introduced their EOS camera.

(Pentax P-K adapter was Epoxy Glued to a EOS T-mount adapter which was

cut to 1.500mm thin exact.) (Photo Left and the Center) 

There are many Pentax (M-42) to EOS adapters in the Net.  (Photo Right)

And this is the Nikon Adapter = a genuine Nikon Mount Ring from their K-3

ring was screwed on to a EOS T-mount ring which was cut to 1.250mm thin

—– together with the mount ring, it made a 2.5mm thick Mount Adapter.

I put a thin lever to move Nikon’s F-aperture using a wire from a Paper-clip.  

(Photo Center)     And I also made a special Lens Rear Cap with 

aluminium tub to protect this thin lever. (Photo Right)

Untill few years ago, the mount adapter sold in the Net was just a mechanical

adapter though, a type proclaiming to give AF confirmation started to appear.

On today’s hi-tech camera, the lens and the body need to work close together.  

The body (or it’s CPU) needs to know Which Lens, What Max F-aperture,

Which setting on the Zoom, Where is the current focus setting, etc etc.  

To give those informations, a circuit board with Micro-controller was

connected through the lens mount contact. (Photo Left / from Sony Lens)

 The Mount Adapter with Focus

 Confirmation has an electronic contact

and the inside having 1.5x3mm  size

Micro-controller which supposed to

give Lens Informations, such as Manual

Focus setting (hence the camera should 

give focus confirmation only) — but, all

the adapter I bought, non ever worked !  

(On the photo, 5 pins of the chip were

connected to each lens contacts ) 

I’ve tested Nikon type,  Contax type,  Pentax type, Olympus etc from many

different suppliers, from £7 to as much as £30 though, no AF confirmation

 but only showed F1.4 was the best.  Others were even worse like photos above !  

I smelled very fishy, I didn’t go any further.  (There is a high risk to damage

the camera  such as —— the report from a user.)

My guess was that, one or two, once or twice it might have worked before

though, Canon up-dated their firmware and blocked them = mass produced

(and fake as well) chip was sold, and the Opportunists are making a money

out of fraud !  (How many people actuary claiming money back ?  😀 )

So, the question is what to do with

such useless and potentially harmful

mount adapter. = as long as

electronically malfunctioning chip is

there, it can’t be used with camera.

—–> The answer is just remove it !  

Put the mount ring on a cooker’s hot-plate

or with any mean, heat it up to about 200 degree C ( Epoxy glue will be soften)

and use a knife to scrape it off.  Then you can use it manual, perfectly, safely.

(Never use wet towel to hold hot ring = hot steam will burn your finger.  

= Use dry kitchen towel instead.   Be be careful not to get burned ! ! ! ) 

Some maker is boasting “Precise engineering” though, I found most of

them were 0.3mm or so thinner = If it was too thick, it may trouble to

have an infinity focus though, if it was too thin, rotate the lens more. 😀  

And some User report saying “Expensive type has better fix (more firm

mounting) —– This is purely a myth.  

My Tamron 500mm lens has double adapter mount  (Tamron to Nikon +

Nikon to EOS / Photo Left)  hence it’s hard to call it anything solid !

—– Still it can create solid sharp image.  => Grip the camera body and

the lens, try shake them = you can see the lens wobble (on the gap of

lens mount it moves more than 0.5mm !). (Photo Right)  

Especially a Zoom Lens, they wobble a lots, and when you shake it,

you may even hear the rattling noise —– If it was made too tight,

lens couldn’t give a quick focus.   😀    Its loose construction was

the norm of the lens and not much trouble in the normal use.

(Your wobbling hand is far more trouble than the loose lens ! )

———————————–

PS: A funny story was that, when I tested “Lens Extension Cable” my 5D

might have changed its firmware settings inside and since then one of the

“AF confirm” type Adapter (For Contax / Sold by EMF) started working !

(Now, time to time AF confirm sign light-up, still

all the lens was treated as 50 mm F1.4) 

[]

Wide-angle Pinhole Photo

 In the previous post, I’ve shown you ultra-wide or Semi-fisheye “Diopt-Pinhole

Hybrid Photos” which mean, it used not only pinhole but combined with an

optical lens too. —– The photos here shows you how the device looks like.  

In fact it was a very simple device = Double-density Pinhole was mounted back of

an EOS mount-adapter and a pretty heavy concave lens was mounted on its front.

[]

If anybody try to do a pinhole photo on a SLR camera, (still, it could be done in

all sorts of the way such as a “Photo-sensitive emulsion was painted on a panel

which was placed inside of a huge Shipping container box and a small pinhole was

made opposite wall = Transportable [Camera Obscura] ) in most of the case,

people places a pinhole panel on the camera front where the lens was removed

and obtained fuzzy image of about standard lens. (If a camera used was Full-frame

DSLR, it would be equivalent 45~50mm lens but with APS size, it would be about

85mm lens image).

Because, such as Canon EOS camera has 44mm flange-back (distance from lens

mount to image-sensor) and the diagonal size of 36x24mm frame was 43.26mm

=> If you draw a Triangle 43.26mm wide, and 44mm high, you will get a spread

of the top-angle 54 degrees.

The shorter the hight of triangle, the wider the spread though, you can’t place a

Pinhole panel closer than 37mm (7mm inside of the Camera) otherwise it

obstructs (or damages) the mirror.   This limitation lead me to resort with an

optical glass to obtain wider view in the pinhole photography.

So, the inside of the device, you can see blue panel of a beer-can (Photo Center)

and the Double-density pinhole of which the outer hole was 1.5mm and the

center hole was about 0.15~0.2mm. (Photo Right).

After a field test, where I found hopeless Halation in this optics, I realized that

I need to give an Anti-reflection covering to the shiny beer-can. 😀

—– (The photos above shows the comparison = with or without Concave lens.

—– Note : Pinhole Photo has NO distortion or any optical aberrations

—– = Since it is not Optics NOR bends the light. (Save a Diffraction. ) 

— (Being Pinhole, there is NO focus or Depth of Field = Fun to make a Close-up !)

It needs further refinement still, at least, I got pretty wide “Pinhole Photo” view.

—– whether it was worthwhile or meaningful was arguable though, it was

what I wanted. (with fun ! )  😀

By the way, the lens I’ve used was cannibalised from a “Fisheye adapter lens”

widely available in the net.  (about £10~£15 but quality is what we paid

= I mean Don’t expect too much.  —– this is a Fun Project.  😀 )   

And about the lens mount-adapter, I’ll talk about it in the next post.

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Dulwich Park — Semi-Fisheye Pinhole-photo

If you try Pinhole Photography on SLR camera, most likely you get

an image of about Standard lens (45~50mm).   In order to get even

wider image I made “Diopt-Pinhole Hybrid System” —– And

I got Semi-Fisheye Pinhole images.  (More details in the next post.)

(In this post, other lens was 15 mm lens.)  

Pinhole itself was “Double Density Pinhole” and on front of pinhole panel,

I mounted very strong concave lens. —– hence, the viewing angle was

determined by the concave lens and the image was created by the Pinhole.

Strong concave lens created quite a distortion too = hence semi-fisheye.

I can take very sharp photo though, it was not my creation.  Simply, the

lens I used was happened to be very sharp, that’s all.  As it was not my make

and available to anybody = anybody use the same lens, the picture would be

sharp.  It is an old crèche situation = “Nice photo !”  “Yes, camera was good”.

I fed-up with nice sharp photo, so, I’m creating rather fuzzy unsharp images

which is definitely my creation and I’m solely responsible.

And this is the first field test of  “Diopt-Pinhole Hybrid Photography” 🙂

(Probably first ever in the world.  😀 ) 

Dulwich is in the walking distance and they got quite few nice old buildings.

Though, I excuse not to provide detailed information of the subjects.

(I only need to test optical effects.)

( I wonder, why Snowdrop has no other than white flower ?

—– Don’t tell me because the snow is always white.  😀 ))

I don’t know, is there anybody actuary living in this “Park warden’s house”?

For a soft focus effect, Double-density Pinhole seemed to be a bit too much

or need to make even smaller, sharper hole.   And the concave lens creates

hopeless halation —– a bit more work was required here.   🙂

[]

Greenwich Park again — Red Deer

Greenwich Park has a Red Deer enclosure in their south eastern

corner = closer to the back gate.

Unlike its northern part, closer to the Thames , where Royal Naval College,

Royal Observatory are attracting the numerous visitors, its southern part

maintains more natural environment = small pond, dense rhododendron

bush etc etc and naturally we can see many birds, even red deer.

South of the park is the Black Heath area.  Heath mean, the land covered by

the Heather plant. (Well, in the old days.)   Heather is a Elicaseae plant and a

cousin of Rhododendron ! (You believe or not  😀 ) ( Heath looks like this !)

And where ever a natural reserve and a pond, the Birds gathers.  —– and

where ever the Birds gathers, Human forks / Kids coming to feed them.  🙂

(It’s a well established custom of the modern society)

Not so many people thinks to make them a roast duck.  🙂

——– (Photos were taken by Tamron 500 mm SP F8 Mirror lens)

 I was really fascinated by (1) the quality of this 40 years old lens and

(2) how the birds can keep their feather dry ! 

So, the Red Deere here are not for Venison !

Photo above, left was a view of 15 mm lens and in its center, a

white-dot was a Wood Pigeon = photo Right, shot by 800 mm lens. 

The building with clock tower is a very historic old School. (So, I heard )

Sound very dashing but looks pretty miserable building = Trident Hall.

This one is really the Pride of England or its past glory !

Old Royal Naval College.

(The photo Center is the Trinity Hospital. Photo Right, Cutty Sark Ship)

Camera used was Canon 5D Mk3,  Pentax 15 mm F3.5,

Tamron SP 500 mm F8 Mirror lens,  800 mm Mirror Lens ??? make. 

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Western God — Eastern Heaven

While talking with a Japanese lawyer about the Human-right, the most

fundamental difference in its origin become clear. = The origin of the

Judea-Christian God was such as like Gilgamesh who went to the heaven

and became the God. That’s why even the God speaks the same language

and able to listen a man’s play.

So that, even God’s given Ten Commandment was written in human

language but applicable only to the mankind = not to animals or to the

Great nature.   And because of the God has human origin or a product of

human imagination hence, having the same sentiment and the logic.

Therefore having the same fundamental needs, and expresses its needs as

the right (or in the other words Our EGO) and demanded.

This is a so-called human-right circulated in the western society.

—– You can imagine to live anywhere though, the people accept

you to live there is depends on their attitude = You can not demand.

You want to live is your wish though whether you can survive or not

depend on your fate.    Still believing, you can demand to your fate is,

because you know that the fate / God is negotiable, since he is a same

kind having the same mind. 

[]

In comparison, the Easterner has no God but the Heaven (Taoism) or

the Dharma (Buddhism) as the ruling Supreme Power.

But as it has no personified figure or human like character, it remained as an

invisible abstract notion whose power is absolute and to be feared.   Under this

Supreme Power, we exists only under its shadow.  = Nobody has independent

“Right” kind, merely having the given opportunity to stay here.  

But in the same time, this Supreme Power is not a tyrant but the power to

exercise Justice in Rational way. (= If not Rational, its system will not work.)    

Therefore the fate this Supreme Power has given us is the equivalent of

our “Right” (or the Cause of us to exist or not exist = Fate, even as a Death.)

[]

The idea of social system under this Eastern Ethos is = “All the system has to

be operated accordance with this Justice” = abstract notion of “Right or Wrong”

exists in the society as the Absolute Moral which is not negotiable or given a

margin of discretion.   And the most important point of this Eastern Ethos and

its system is, not just applicable to the human but it extends to all the nature.

Therefore, it causes us to exists but in the same time, in the same extent,

it causes the rain or even earthquake to occur = all the dynamism of

the Dharma or Power of the Heaven.

[]

So-called Civil-right has its origin in more or less the same story.   Such as like

King John who was forced to sign the Magna Carta, he was not a man of

Supreme Power = merely yet another Warlord, who happen to be a King then.

So, as a part of negotiation and the expression of power balance, the Magna Carta

was composed. = It was nothing like the God’s given Right to preserve human

dignity but a mare bargain of do and do not.

[]

In comparison, eastern Emperor was the Heaven-chosen Ruler ! (In its legend ! 😀 )

So, his power is absolute and not negotiable at all. —– the trade-off to the ruler is,

he couldn’t make a mistake since he was supposed to be the wisest-man who is able

to see the invisible sign of the Heaven to know incoming disaster etc etc —– if failed,

he would be ousted by the popular up-rise. (This was the Chinese history in the past

4000~5000 years !) —– In contrast, the authority of Japanese Emperor has never

been contested and its blood-line has never broken in the past 2000 years.  So that,

former Palace of the Emperor in Kyoto has no defence structure at all, ie; no high

wall or moat, since it was not necessary as Emperor never made mistake and nobody

ever stand against him.   (Current Palace in Tokyo was originally built for Shogun.) 

(Any short coming occured, it was all due to his courtier or minister’s mistake and

their head could have been chopped off, leaving the Emperor’s authority intact. :-D)

[]

—– in such system, there couldn’t be a prescribed law to guaranty the right of the

subjects, since there could always be the different condition and circumstances.

Therefore, the precedence never be generalised = always, “Such and such year

what was said” and it only worked as a reference. = had no bounding power.

= Everything was depends on the discretion of the Emperor or the Shogun.

So, this was the reason why in the Eastern society there couldn’t be the

development of Human-Right has ever taken place. = Since there couldn’t be

a possibility of negotiation against the ultimate, invisible power. —– but the

western idea of Human-right was made up with a negotiation between the

[Man] and a notion of yet [Another Man with power] therefore, a reasonable

line was drawn as applicable to the both side.

= So, it’s funny to hear that the so-called Western Human-right said to have

divine origin. ( Oh, really, what’s divine you meant ? !   😀 )

(Eastern philosophy never indulge [So-called Equality] = IF it exists, it negates

the fundamental teachings of the Karma and the Moment dependence of the

Dharma (and one’s life).  —– The reason why the Sangha of

Lord Buddha had no Cast in its group was, not because of the notion of Equality

but because of the cause to generate a Cast, the SELF of Previous Life is not exists.

But it doesn’t mean, the person would be born Karma Free. = Far from it,

If The Karma doesn’t exist, the Cause to create the person is neither there.

= Person wouldn’t come to this world. 😀

Can you ever imagine that you can force the Karma to create you with

the want of Human-right. 😀

(You can not negotiate it with the Karma, but you just follow.   😀 )

___/\___

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River Thames (on the Greenwich)

Those are the photos from the last week Shooting session

— or walking with camera in Greenwich.

The center of the photo, the tallest building is the Canary wharf, and

right hand side there is the Millennium Dome.

The camera was Canon 5D Mk3 and the Lens was Pentax 15mm F3.5

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