A7 doing Good Job or just Meddling too much ?

Quite a while, time to time (I don’t remember how many years)

I’ve been taking picture of the sky from my window.  Naturally, its

looks changes season to season, and it’s not necessary a dramatic

beautiful sky.   It’s just a sky.

As I don’t go out for drinking or look for a bottom of the girls,

watching the sky is a healthy alternative (and cost nothing.)   😀

Not just watching but taking photo mean, by a camera.  

So that, my Nikon with 18mm Zeiss lens has been a fixture on front

of the window quite a while.   And, — as I got Sony A7 and the adapter

to fit a Nikon lens to its E-Mount, I tested its 18mm lens on the A7 body.

—– though, the sky over dence leafy tree is a very contrasty image =

to the SONY camera.  (Canon 5D or Nikon D810 just take as it IS)

But, A7 is keep meddling (— are they try to brighten the dark shadow

of the tree ? — how do they know what image I want to have !)

DO they believe that they can make it for ME ? — how patronizing.

— should I say,”Thank you very much” OR “Silly YOU, stop it”  😦

                * * * * *

Exactly the same trend to “Smart Phone” with hundreds of the

Fancy App,  Sony can do many tricks, such as the Panorama here.

(Above was a part of 18mm — 360 degree Panorama

— in my kitchen)  😀

And this was a Panorama made by a 16mm Nikon Fisheye lens

(vertical line shows no distortion !)

— may be a fun to some user though, I’m very sceptic to those

too much Digital intervention.    It’s rather spoils the spirit of

the Photography than enhance it.   Spending more time gazing

 at the PC screen, than to stand against the subject = we are

going into more and more virtual environment and

losing the real touch of the life. 

—– And to the camera company themselves, = if the digitally

stiched-up photo is good enough, who need to buy expensive

wide-angle lens ?

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Photographer’s Gallery

Probably the most well-known iconic figure in the Photographer’s Gallery

must be the guy always sitting there, Alan.  —– In this occasion, he was

captured by the Toy camera lens, costed less than  £2.  —– Still,

considering its humble origin, the photo here wasn’t too bad, isn’t it ? 

Or, I would say, the quality and the quite present softness is superb.

(Did you noticed, there was no focused point or depth of field kind

on the picture = because the lens was omnifocas.)

(And, did you see the man’s face, he was not smiling.  If you thought

otherwise, your eyes are not seeing reality of the life.  Look again.)

But, rest of the images here were taken by my Pinhole-machine.   😀

About the info’ of what they are doing now = please see their website.

This is not a journalistic report but the shadow, what I saw there

and how I reacted.

MMMMMMMMMMM (sometime, I keep my mouth shut)

😀

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Useless Information (?)

Image here was made by a Tri-color Pinhole which I could mount on

the A7 camera through Nikon to EOS and EOS to E-mount adapter. 

(What a hustle ! = I’ll tell you later.)

During all those hustle, what I found were — (though they may not

necessary useful to you.)    😀

1)  You can use Pentax-K lens cap on Nikon lens. (Photo Left) 

2)  Likewise, the same Pentax-K  lens cap will fit to the Sony

E-mount lens. (Photo Middle) 

3)  Sony E-mount body cap will fit to the Nikon body. (Photo Right)

4)  The adapter, EOS to E mount I got from Ebay (about £5 or so) had

a trouble — as bayonet spring was too wide and obstructing the lens

bottom goes into = I needed to file-down the width of those 3 springs

(where I marked in Red on the photo Right = see enlarged) 

(Photo shows the bayonet spring and a broken hence replaced screw)

= If you found the same trouble, you need to do the same — or buy

another, more expensive one. (So, they changed the price to £7.xx) 😀

(Think, why it was cheap = being defective, it became a deadstock and

sold as a scrap.   Then, Chinese guy made a Net business to sell away

= how many customers sending back and claim a money back which

would cost more, and the address may not even existed.)   😀

The funny story was, as I put negative feedback on ebay, the seller

contacted me saying if I change the feedback to positive,they will

refund me, so I replied them “As this blog explained, I’ve modified

its defect and now I’m using it, therefore no need of refund, still,

the fact remain I wouldn’t change the negative feedback” —

then, they send me yet another mail

“We will send you £2,  so change the feed back to positive” =

Are they thinking that they can buy me £2 ! = What a mentality !

Is this a norm in China ?   horrifying isn’t it ! 

To see the situation, I gave a through check of those adapters.

(To be fair, I obtained even one more EOS-NEX adapter)

In order to make a bayonet fixing tight enough= not clutter,

still smooth enough to dismount, the spring was used beneath

the craw (such as the one I’ve shown few picture before with

red mark), other cheaper alternative is to make a slit in the

claw (Photo above Left = yellow marked) and make the slit

bend to give some flexibility.    Though, the other EOS-NEX

adapter showed funny character = Canon’s EFS (plastic mount)

could be mounted but metal mount thousand pound lens couldn’t. 

Because the adapter’s female claw was too thick.  ==> I needed

to file down the claws thinner. (Photo Right — with blue color

marker =  it’s easy to see where I do need to cut !)

(It’s funny to discover, that the Canon is making their

cheap EFS lens mount even thinner and loose.)

5)  Nikon G to EOS adapter sold on the Net, the rotating lever may be

too long and stack with the lens bottom.  So that, if you found the sign

of such symptom, DON’T mount the lens to EOS with such adapter.  

You need to file-down the tip of the lever (marked in Red in the

photo above) a bit shorter, and make sure the lever moves freely.

So, — after I’ve sorted out those troubles, I could mount my

Tri-color Pinhole (here, Pink, Yellow, Sky)  to the A7 body.

( Then after thought, I should make another one for A7, since an

Olympus body cap which is fit to A7 is  £0.99 and etc is free, but

the use of those adapter which is costing £5, £10 makes no sense.)

And, this was the photo of, now rather familiar view — by

the Zeiss Distagon 18mm, designed for Nikon mount.

—– A nightmare of the mount adapter IS = once the lens stack

to the body, there is no way else other than to destroy the lens.

(Pull-off the screws, fixed to the mount with sheer force or hack-saw 

the lens bottom while showering the camera with saw dust.)

Is it funny ?

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PS :  If you are looking for the Body Cap for Sony NEX mount to use

for a Pinhole experiment etc. or just for body cover, now in the Ebay

you can find the pair of E-mount (NEX) Rear Lens Cap + Body Cap

for £0.99 —– you don’t need to hastle finding out OM cap.   🙂

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Pinhole Machine for A7R

While having Olympus OM body cap handy, which happen to be a

perfect fit to Sony A7, E-Mount, I could easily make a Pinhole System. 

= With or without Fisheye effect and the choice of Single Pinhole or

Double Density Pinhole. (So, I can do it in the industrial scale !)

Other than a strange color hue on the peripheral, the pinhole shot was

well-managed by the camera’s AUTO setting = Automatically chosen

ISO 6,400.  Just aim and click.  Single Pinhole, Photo above left. 

Double Density Pinhole, Photo right.

And a Mob-phone-camera Fisheye adapter was attached with.

(Since, Foster beer can run out, this time the Pinholes were made

on a Danish variety.   (Photo Top, Right)   😀 

I think, its looks, works pretty good.

* * * * *

Again, to be fair to the paying customers, this is the real staff

Canon Fisheye (Zoom 8~15mm).  With a help of just arrived EF

to E-mount adapter.  —– See the dimensional difference.

(A7 camera’s Focus-peeking worked very well =  able to show

the difference of 10cm on the 15mm image was remarkable !)

= definitely, miles better than my eye-sight !

—– Though, am I going to use the Alpha 7 in this way is quite

questionable.  So far, I found the use of the A7 with the Homemade

Toy lens, and the Pinhole machine is very handy and comfortable. 

In addition, I might use A7 for Digitizing the Transparency  and

make another tilting bellows to take advantage of the

A7 camera’s 18mm flange-back.

(Use 35mm film camera’s lens, it can focus from infinity.)

 

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Fun lens on the Alpha 7R

Picture here is a kind, nobody would be impressed, still nobody

would complain kind.  It was made by a lens of rather humble origin,

came from discarded toy camera. —– Considering it’s utterly cheap

existence (two plastic lenses structure) the picture isn’t too bad at all.

On the time, people see the picture on the 5″x3″ chemist print,

this kind of quality was perfectly acceptable.

In fact, I’ve talked about this lens, few post ago.

And now, the lens has been properly (in certain extent  😀 )

re-structured for Alpha 7 camera. (Beautiful isn’t it ?) Ha ha ha.

(So, the lens can take landscape to portrait without refocusing

or change F-aperture kind = anyhow, no controls here at all.)

Only the trouble I found with this combination was = mysterious

blurred image they makes.  It was under a blight day light. 

The AUTO setting on the camera, A7R chose ISO 1600 and

shutter speed was  1/160.  

Why the picture was blurred ? — I set up a tripod (not a heavy weight,

still proper Gizzo tripod) — strangely, still the picture was blurred. 

It was nothing but a mystery.  (Obviously, I need to test further though,

at moment, this IS a lens (other than Pinhole) I got for this camera.

(I’m waiting to receive lens adapter for this camera.) — Whether this

body got a resonance to  1/160 shutter vibration, or the camera activating

other function to cause adverse effect ? = So, I tested the camera on

manual setting :  ISO 3200-1/320, ISO 1600-1/160, ISO 800-1/80,

ISO 400-1/40, ISO 200-1/20. Iso 100-1/10, Iso 50-1/5.  All hand-held.

ISO 3200 – 1/320

ISO 50 – 1/5

Those photos above were the shot on the test.    Non of them

showed heavy blur = it seems, the AUTO and  1/160 combination did

the Blurring business.  😀   — on the AUTO setting, other function

of which I’m not fully understood the implication, meddling in.

(Such as when the A7 thought, the image is too high contrast, the

automatic HDR operation comes in = gives three consecutive

exposures = unexpected hand may not keep still.)

I guess, something adverse effect of AUTO might have had happened.

It’s still a mystery Sir. 

* * * * *

To be fair to a Paying Customer, this is the quality if you pay the price.

This photo was taken by  Canon EF 40mm F2.8  on 5D Mk-III

— can you see the difference ?   (It’s costing  £100 more.)

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Southbank by Gaudy Lens (1)

Yesterday I went to the Southbank to see my friend and took those

pictures too.   Sun was baking hot and the air was steaming. 

(You might thought, the lens used was yet another pinhole though,

wrong — it was the Gaudy Lens = as I chase the same fuzzy effect,

the image may look the same kind though, the fuzziness of this image

was created by the aberration of the single grass.

Not only the aberration, the hallation on the untreated lens surface

was very strong.  But, that’s what I wanted. 

(If you want clear picture use your Phone camera please.)

And for this kind of subjects, was sharp details necessary ?

I don’t think so. 

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Fun with Alpha 7R

My newly arrived toy, Sony A7R has quite a few advantages to many

other cameras. — Not mention small and light, but it’s remarkablly

thin body and the flexishible control system to accept many kind of

the lenses, gives great opportunity to play with fancy optics =

and have a fun.  😀

On this occasion, I show you how to utilize junk camera lens.

The Camera came from an Odds Ends box of a shop, was it £1 ?

— I don’t remember.    The lens was literally gauged out from the

plastic body. (Photo Left)     And it was stack to also gauged camera

body cap. (Photo Middle) —– and put onto the A7R. (Photo Right)

I couldn’t figure out who made this camera, nevertheless,

it’s says focus Free ! = The lens stack on the A7R camera produced a

photo like this = far subjects (Right is the enlarged image)

And to the subjects less than 1m distance without any change of focus !

(exposure was given by the camera’s AV setting)

The camera, A7R gives so-called “focus peeking” and showing it

as the Red lines on the View Screen. (It’s mean, the camera thought,

that area has be in focus.)

—– ? ? ?  Then, I started to wonder “What they mean FOCUSED”

(From now, I wouldn’t trust what they says.   😀  )

And the trouble of the A7R seemed to appear, they ARE very seceptic

to the camera shake. = this picture was 1/160 sec’ shutter speed with

ISO 1600 —–> Still I needed to use a tripod for the photo one above !

(Obviously, a small and light body with

such noisy shutter creates big shock ! = No wonder, why they needed to

redesign new camera with quiet shutter = My one was a defective !)

It’s not funny.

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Pinhole Photos on Alpha 7R

As I promised I made a pinhole to my friend’s  A7 camera.

8mm hole was made on a body cap and thin aluminium

panel (beer can) with 0.3mm hole was stuck inside of the hole.

Utterly funny accidental discovery was, a body cap of  A7 can

be used on Nikon body, if it was inserted off 180 degree. = so,

the test of this pinhole was done by a D810 body while pulling

the Ai-coupling lever. —– Then, another coincidence, I saw a

good second-hand  A7R in a camera shop = what a convenient

timing = I bought it — by trading the Olympus OM-D away

(because the Olympus body seems to be falling apart.)

Therfore, those test shot was made by a SONY  A7R, on the

way to see my friend.  😀

Some thing very remarkable was that all of those photos were

made almost automatic = camera has been set to AUTO and

without me changing ISO, Color balance etc, nothing, but just

aim and click. (the best of all, I could click while seeing

the view finder image.)  (It seemed, ISO was set 6400,

shutter speed were about 1/15~1/60 though,

I hate the Shutter nois, and the color)

On coincidence, I started to make the Pinhole Photo on this  A7R. 

— Even funnier discovery I made was, that the Olympus’ old

OM body cap fit to the  A7 body if it was inserted 180 degree

off direction = I don’t need to order and wait a month to get it.

(Body cap or thin (and cheap) adapter is the base to make “Things”)

So, first of all, my own pinhole was tested on a OM body cap while

the beer can panel was placed on the bottom of the body cap.

(Body cap penetrating 4mm into the  A7R = its mean 18mm

flange back – 4mm = 14mm ! — This pinhole can make 14mm

ultra-wide lens effect ! —– Well, in theory.   😀 )

So, this IS the 14mm wide pinhole image ! —– though,

with the Cosine Rule, light fall off is such significant, image

became round.  “Like Pinhole camera”  Ha ha ha.  😀

And this is the comparison, Nikon 16mm Fisheye lens’ view.

(Sound a bit patronizing, though, you have to see, what sort of

effort was paid to compensate the light fall off on the lens design. 

And, see the pinhole image above to see there is no distortion =

distortion was caused by the light-bending optics = Pinhole is

not bending the light (because they are not a lens)   😀

—– Well, I got a toy.   😀

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SONY a7 for Pinhole Photo

My friend photographer, Antonio showed me a small camera.

(Along side his big Hasselblad ELM.)

It was a first encounter with SONY alpha camera —– despite

seeing a lots of camera review etc, so the photographic images

were familiar still, the real camera in its fresh was a shock to me. 

Almost the same size of the M4/3 camera still, having full frame !

(And the lens attached was a Zeiss, the images were quite crisp.)

So, I tested how SONY  a7 camera can handle the Pinhole.

My set of Pinhole was mounted with an adapter (in this photo

the camera was a Olympus) and made a Mono-hole image.

And this one was a Multi-Pinhole image.

Then, this one was a Double-Density Pinhole image.

And those photos were a comparison of the view of my Pinhole

against the Zeiss Planer 35mm lens. (Mind you, my Pinhole is a

wide-angle pinhole with a concave lens attached on front.)

—– the Pinhole view (left) seems wider than 28mm lens.

The most remarkable point of  a7 camera IS, despite it is a full frame

camera, yet still as a mirror less, its flange back is only 18mm thin ! 

—– So, if a panel with a hole was attached on the camera mount, it

will have a 18mm ultra wide-angle lens’ view.    And I tested it while

placing the Pinhole panel directly on the camera mount (though,

there were a lot of light leak — still, we can see pretty wide image !)

To compare this image to the photo of 35mm image above,

how it IS wide is clearly visible. (= This is the big advantage.)

I promised to Antonio, I’ll make a Pinhole adapter for his a7

camera. (In practice, I’ll just make a hole on his body cap.)  🙂 

And I might buy SONY.   😀

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Tanbo-Art — Godgilla

Well, Tanbo Art mean Rice field Drawing = the drawing was made

by the different color of the rice crop = it’s mean, each crop was

planted exact position months ago.   And each colored crop was

pains takingly developed and the seeds has been kept over the years

by the local farmers — only for this fun.   (Still, with this Drawing,

it’s made this utterly non assuming local village “Inaka-date,

Aomori prefecture, famous and attracting thousands of tourists.)

So, for this year, they created Godgilla !  (Photo from Jiji news)

—– This almost like an obsessive dedication and the pains taking

attention is nothing but the Zen Practice (though they, the farmer

themselves may not aware of it at all.) = (Zen Ethos has been so

deeply sublimated in Japan, people does not necessary know why

it has to be done in that way, for what reason.  Yet still, as a custom

or tradition, it has been kept and practiced exactly the same way

hundred of the years, it’s forming the collective belief, the Ethos.)

.

One of the International research found, that the Japanese are the

most “Atheist” like people (doesn’t believe God or Buddha exists)

still, they all believe the fate or the punishment from the heaven.

= it’s mean, the teachings has been such deeply sublimated, hence

the words or the title figure has been completely forgotten still

the mind has been shaped down to the unconscious level.

(You may not aware why you were offered disposal chopstick when

you were invited their party / diner = they feel the chopstick is not

clean once you touched = So that, Japanese doesn’t eat like Chinese

or Korean from the same bowl but take the food to their own small

dish, avoiding a chance of the chopsticks touch others’.

—– The teachings of Right-Wrong / Do-Not Do were

deepen to the unconscious mind / chemical level.)

= So, once they were convinced and started to DO, there couldn’t

be any doubt or hindrance, down to unconscious level —– Do 

grow the best rice or make a strongest sword. = Just do it.

And do it without the self conscious, (it’s mean, no Ego or Greed

= mind is free) the result would be the best.

This is the Zen.

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