Make LED Ring Light

While hiding in my cave (:-D ) I found the time to do building work (Since, as

I don’t have a habit to watch TV (I don’t have a TV 

nor able for streaming video signal on USB dongle 

connection) or DVD,I have to DO something 😀 ).

From other project where I changed White LED to 

Color LED I got mountain of White LED, I decided

to make LED Ring Light which can utilize

those LEDs in number.

Ring Light can create (almost) shadowless  

image, or having faint shadow surrounding the  

subjects, some says, it is the Holy Grail in the Lighting effect. 🙂

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Funny situation these days is, we can get the LEDs from the products,  

such as an LED Work Light from Lidl which is using 40, 60 LEDs inside,

as cheap as £15 = much much cheaper than to buy LED itself from an

electronic supplier = hence disassemble and use them to make such as

a Ring Light can save a cost a lot. (advantage is, that the LEDs has been

selected and tested already by the maker and the Lidl, hence there is little

chance to get old type dead-stock from unknown supplier in the Net  🙂 )

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Basically, all about LED Ring Light is “How to mount a ring around the

lens front” — other than this, everything else are straight forward =

just put a lots of LEDs and connect it to the battery.

—– Sound easy though, the trouble is, not like in a good old days when

most of the lenses from one camera maker has only one or few filter sizes

(such as for Pentax = 49mm, Nikon = 52mm, Canon = 58mm etc), but

now as the role of filter is diminishing (now most of the visual effects were

created by Photoshop), lens doesn’t need to have the same filter size =

in the other words, to make a ring light capable to be used on many lenses

is nothing but a headache. 🙂

To make the situation even worse is, the use of Zoom lens is the norm now

and as the lens starts from wide-angle, it is necessary to make ring light NOT

vignettes (not cut off the corner of the image by the additional protruded edge)

= it got to be much larger than a front element of the lens.

On the other hand, some lenses especially on the smaller camera is getting

even smaller and many of them has even no filter thread on the front at all.

= it mean, the ring light got to be designed and made for the individual purpose

and the choice of lens. —– (hence, better to do DIY 🙂 )

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I decided to make one for my 100mm macro and other for 24mm~70mm Zoom.

So that the first sample here is to make it for my Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro (not 

the latest L type — it came to the market only two months later, but this one is

pretty sharp as well, and I like its smaller front lens which would cast less shadow

when we close to the subject and easier to give a lighting.

(in extreme close-up, large front lens allows only side-lighting. 

And I don’t see much of help from the so-called Image-stabilizer = if it helps two

or three stops, why not just set higher ISO speed.  And having very delicate lens

shifting mechanism which is suspending the lens element in the air by the

magnetic coils or ceramic motors, it would make the lens even more sensitive to

the shock.  🙂 )

[A ring to mount the LEDs can be made from a Phenol plastic board with copper

track for electronic circuit, to even just a card-board paper (if it is just for an

experiments, 1 mm thick card-board paper would be good enough) or to mount

the LED from the the back (through a hole) = Art-mounting-board is a good choice.

(Still, precisely drilling 30, 40 holes, this work needs to have a good Zen mind.)  😀

Which ever the material, you need to find the diameter of the ring and cut the

material.  ( I think the photos here are self-explanatory. )

Use caliper to find the diameter under the bayonet to mount lens hood. 

If no caliper in hand, use right-angled paper.

Then draw the circles of its mounting diameter.  I’m using a sharpened needle

mounted on the compass to cut the paper as well.  And cut the Phenol plastic

board, I’ve clumped a cutting blade on the compass.

A paper ring cutted with diameter of the lens  and outer diameter was placed

under the bayonet and the shape of it was taken.   (To place this paper ring /

template, under the lens bayonet, the ring needs to cut on one place to open)

Then the shape of the ring and the bayonet craw was copied on the card-board paper. 

( On the card board paper, two additional circles has to be drawn, + 6 mm larger

than inside diameter and  + 8.5 mm ) — To plot the position to put LED, divide 

+ 8.5 mm circle to 8.  Then, within a semi-circle of 1/8, find equidistant point to

put LEDs — In my case every 11 mm and the holes to insert LEDs are pierced

(Photo above middle)  If you put too few LED you will have ugly multiple shadow,

or if you put too many, the battery will run-out rather soon.  It is a compromise.

(sort of the standard is, put the LED at every 8~12 mm distance )

In this design, I’m connecting all the

LEDs in parallel, and you can see

the different way to connecting them.

Left Top = if the LED came from

another device and having already

trimmed leg, you have to make sure

to insert all of them keeping the same 

direction (inside of LED you will see

narrower pin (+) and the broader pin (-),

you have to insert LED all in the same orientation, say (+) = outside of the ring.

And connect them using a wire such as from telephone cable (better polish it 

before soldering) by running it inside and outside of the LED leg alternative way.

Then you will have two wire ring on the board.

Photo Middle = If you got newly bought LEDs (assuming all of them are having 

the same color and the brightness — some are more blueish 🙂 = the cheaper you

pay, you will have headache — To insert LED’s to the board keep longer leg (+)

outside, then you just bend each leg to touch next LED and cut excess, then

solder each leg next by next = you will get two wire ring on the board.

Photo bottom = If you don’t have soldering facility yourself, and no one to ask, 

don’t worry still you can do !  = Insert all the LED to the board (such as photo

above) always keeping longer leg outside, then bend the leg towards the next

LED and twist the leg wire to next one. Then bend next one’s leg to third LED’s

leg and so on (connect last one’s leg to the first one, need to insert the leg-wire

to the gap between the board. = you needs to have a bit of work.

Use a narrow-headed pliers or tweezers would be a good help.

When you got the board, with all the LEDs were connected together, then

connect the power wire to each wire ring —> and connect to the 4xAA battery

through 2.2~10 ohm 1W register. (this is the MUST ) = If LEDs weren’t light up,

connect the battery other way round. (Change polarity )   2.2 ohm register will

give you brighter light but shorten the battery life = 20~30 LEDs will drain the

power nearly 1 A from 4xAA battery it would last less than 1 hour, but with

10 ohm, it would not be as bright though, in an intermittent use, your battery will

last much longer = it’s depend on how you are going to use it. (Put a switch to

select High and Low would be an good idea).

( The register may get hot though it is normal = pay attention to the layout and

the design for this heat problem.)

(For serious video shooting, use 2.2 ohm and 4xD battery, and make others envy.)

If only a part of the ring was lighten up, it is the point where your connection was

loose = check the connection and tighten it up. If one or two LEDs were not

lighten up, it’s mean that LED was dead and needs to replace (it’s an awkward job

= it’s better to check all the LED before hand ).

Then, fix the power cable to the ring, tie it with strong thread like the photo above

right, or use heat-gun glue.  (I’ve covered the end of the cable with heat-shrink

tube for better protection)

When everything went well, end result should looks like this.

= Voila, LED Ring Light !

(In fact, I’ve used paper one for a template to make it on a Phenol plastic

circuit board.) —– Further to this, such as where to keep or mount a

battery case is largely depend on you.

And I’ll show you my final product in the coming post.

][

Yet again, Higgs Boson and the Buddhism

———————————————————————————————————————- (Image from  CEAN)

Behind the any Physical Phenomenon there is always Physics

(that’s why it’s was called so :-)) and LED is one of literally very visible sample.

= When particular material was stimulated by electric current, it start to vibrate (in Atomic level)

and start to emit the Photon.  As its frequency of the vibration (which depends on which material

and resonating structure) is happen to be the frequency of a visible light, we see the colored light.

= Voilà this is a Light Emitting Diode !

(Another material gives off different frequency, such as invisible infra-red = We call them not LED

but Infra-red Emitter. — One of them called Gan Diode gives much lower frequency, in a

Microwave range which can stimulates the water molecules hence heat up them = so, they were

used in a Microwave Cooker to heat up our meal. :-))

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LED will work only one Polarity hence it called Semiconductor.   Yet another material

which conductivity is not high like Silver or Copper = having high resistance (like Nickel-Chrome

Iron alloy), it convert the electric energy to an heat (and emits / radiates red to infra-red lay)

which ever the polarity = they are not Semiconductor hence “good old red-hot room heater” can

be connected to AC main (Alternative Current) = Polarities change 50~60 times in a second

(so that, heater can work on DC as well, such as the one in a car. :-))

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In the Buddhist’s term, the existences of those materials and its structures, and how

they are functioning and interact each other = the system and its governing law of

physics are called Dharma.

When a stimulant such as Electric energy causes the material to vibrates and start to emit the

photon = those relation, cause and the result are called Karma and a part of the Dharma.

—– So, to say the Dharma is the fundamental existences and its system default, and

the Karma is a variable given, which causes and starts the chain of reactions.

(So that, unless you switch on a LED, it wouldn’t light up, even if the system = the materials and

the structure, such as thin layer of Gallium Nitrate on a Ruby crystal is there).

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We human being often misunderstood that those technological inventions are solely “created” by the

human ingenuity though, it is utterly wrong, they are still within the Dharma and precisely following

the rules. = we are only utilizing its inherent character and maximizing the effect.

= We might have seen a back of a gang-star Al Capone in a bar, down town of Chicago for few seconds

= few second does not mean he exist only few seconds = he is still there out of our view.

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The scientists in CERN had glimpse of the Boson by paying so much high price for a ticket

= 1.4Tv (1.4Tela Volt given to the coil = the higher the voltage, magnetic field created has

stronger push to the Proton Particle) acceleration and smashed them together

= resulted to see the artifact of Boson.  (yes, only the Artifact = If you believe, it’s there 🙂 )

= Does the Boson exists only in such condition ? —– A virus might have seen under an expensive

electron microscope, it isn’t necessary they only exists in a chamber of microscope = without

microscope’s image,  they still exists. 😀

If the Boson isn’t exists, all the Particle couldn’t have their Mass = No gravity to

bound them together = World would be just disintegrated and disappear 😀

Trouble is, we = who could be a witness, are also made-up by those particles = we disappear too.

= The effect to have the same Dharma inside of us.

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I wouldn’t pretend to understand this level of Nuclear Physics, neither able to guess how

Peter Higgs could predict it on the paper, the existence of Higgs’ Boson which gives the mass to all

the particles should be there yet to be discovered !

—– So, we said to have all the elements of the Standard Model completed. —– ? ? ?

= Does it makes any difference over my life ? —– I don’t think so.

Even if the Standard Model is the ultimate truth, which is governing our existences, it wouldn’t make

any differences for me from a fantasy, useless delusion (sorry, scientists = you were payed to do the

research but I wasn’t = I have no reason to jump and dance with it’s discovery. 😀 )

Even Lord Buddha did ignored such details of the Dharma and left it unknowable.

= Even without having such knowledges, we know, we were still entwined with the Dharma.

= Still the matter for us is how to live the life in the every days front.

= I wouldn’t expect to see Boson in a super market and cook it for tonight’s soup.

Do you aware, the inside of an Apple, it has Boson = without it, it hadn’t fall to the ground hence

Newton couldn’t find the Gravity —– it must be true.  Believe me.

Ha ha ha 😀

___/\___

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Carl Zeiss 85mm F1.4 lens — and Maneki-Neko

On the face, photo here is a Japanese Kitsch, so-called Maneki-Neko / 招き猫

(of its rather small mascots) I found in a Japanese restaurant’s window.

For some people, me to branding Maneki-Neko as a Kitsch might be unfair as they are so popular

= almost like the nation’s most beloved icon.

So far I couldn’t find its origin —– probably once there was a cat sat on front of a shop moving

a hand as if he (she ?) is inviting the people = and he attracted a lots of customer,

hence the shop’s business flourished. —– And this story spread and has become a legend. 

(This might be an equivalent of Garden Gnome in this country, especially its Kitsch appearance :-D)

This is a photo just next of Maneki-Neko above = despite it looks very rustic, they are still same

Maneki-Neko, some may say more artistic though.

( Incidentally, a dog-like figure behind is probably a figure of Tosa Champion Dog = a thick rope

on the neck symbolizing that he was the Yoko-zuna / 横綱 (of Sumo wrestling rank = Sumo was

once a part of Shinto festival, hence the thick rope is common with a rope hanged on a Shinto Shrine

Gate / 鳥居) of a Dog fight competition. = may be the owner of the restaurant had him before and

the figure was it’s commemoration to became Yoko-zuna )

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Though, what those figures were about, was not a point of those photos.

The matter was a test of a depth of the focus of 85mm F1.4 lens made by Carl Zeiss

= once a must have lens for a professional portrait photographer, because of its high quality to

capture beautiful skin-tone and smooth softness of the out of focus Bokeh. —– the top photo was

in its F1.4 hence showed very shallow depth of focus, and the second one was set to F2.8.

( This lens convinced me to change my camera system from Nikon to Contax in the 80^s. 🙂 )

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Just for a curiosity, I tested this lens at the life-size close-up with 85mm extension ring.

( In general, if we extend the lens same as its focal length, it would produce life-size image —–

though, some exception)

This Carl Zeiss 85mm lens has shortest shooting distance 1m, not 0.85m therefore, it imply,

the lens was not designed (= aberration was not well corrected) for shorter than 1m.

The photo here which was taken at F1.4 showed its life-size close-up image.

( This is yet another experiment to see “How shallow the focus can be”).

—– In the photo, the focused image is pretty sharp though, the out of focus image showed

quite visible Chromatic Aberration. = right photo, the saturation was exaggerated to show

separate red and green images. (To see it, please click and enlarge the photo)

= it was utterly out of what this lens was designed.

To design large F- aperture of 1.4 was hard enough and never considered a situation

under such extreme close-up. 🙂

(In comparison to Primary lens, Zoom lens can adjust the position of each lens element, hence it is

easier to compensate the aberrations, many Zoom lens has very extreme yet sharp Macro setting

though, as the lenses were suspended by tiny 3 pins in the curved channel, one drop would destroy)

Everybody knows that a prism can make rainbow color

= when the light pass through an angled grass, the light

would be bent according to its color (wave-length of the

light) hence each color is separated = resulting a rainbow.

A lens is a kind of prism of which the angle of

the grass surface is gradually changing. = naturally, never all the color light comes

to the same focal-point = this is called Chromatic Aberration.

So that, lens designer compensate this effect by using different kind of lens element

within one photographic lens though, aberration also changes depend on the

distance of the object, it is impossible to be perfect. (Even for the Carl Zeiss  🙂 )

—– still, it was an interesting test for me = I never encounter the out-of-focus Bokeh image

in such clear red and green. (Again, please enlarge the photo to see it )

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LED Torch-Lamp

I don’t know how many LED torch lamp I had bought altogether. (not mention Christmas lights :-D)

Here the photo of some torch lamp still I have. —– though, with my bad habit, as often I

disassemble them and utilized it for another purpose, many of them are no longer here.

In the left photo, top is a torch-lamp made by OSRAM using 5 ordinary ( 5mm white ) LEDs

powered by 3xAA battery which I bought 8 or 9 years ago. (but I discarded outer casing which was

too bulky )

The second in the photo was made by Ansman, which is using Hi-power Lumiled 1W LED

and 2 lithium battery = it’s mean powered by 6 volts (current was regulated by a resister) —–

quite bright but, as it use lithium battery, very expensive to run.

non

In the right photo, which I found at Tesco was also 1W torch, but using only 2 AA battery !

LED ( Light Emitting Diode ) is, as the name suggests, a kind of semiconductor diode.

To make a diode start to emit the light ( Photon was emitted) it is necessary to give the high-enough

electric energy = higher than so-called Forward Voltage which is for White LED about 3.5V, therefore

if it was powered by the ordinary battery, it is necessary to use minimum 3 batteries (1.5 x 3 = 4.5 V

—– then the LED will work until the voltage drop below 3.5V)

The Tesco torch-lamp which was powered by only 2 AA batteries mean, it is having an electronic

circuit called DC-DC converter which rises the voltage from 1.5 x 2 = 3 V to

more than 3.5 V. = And in fact this circuit can keep out-put voltage near constant 4V until the

battery become almost empty.

And this torch light is using hi-power 1W LED made by Cree. Even more surprise, this torch was

sold £5  (can you believe ?) = So, I bought 4 of them at once. 😀

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—– But funny story here was, as this torch lamp is able to drain the battery until it is completely

empty = on the end of the life, the internal pressure of the battery rise = battery become fatter =

stack inside of the chamber. (Really a hell to pull the stacked batteries out. :-D)  Battery maker

wanted to make their M-H battery having higher capacity (without using rare earth material)

therefore, the easiest way to achieve this is, to make the battery casing larger and thinner.

In the same time the manufacturer of the torch-lamp body wanted to save the material,

therefore made it to the minimum size, just enough to accommodates the standard AA battery.

= this is the situation, a trouble was waiting to happen  😀

—– Yet still, the reason why I bought 4 of them is to make a video-light kind of device.

= If I use only its light head and having separate battery box, it wouldn’t give any trouble.

( 4 W video-light with DC-DC converter which gives constant out-put, for £ 20 is a bargain ! )

Same as Tesco’s torch-lamp, photos above, this LED torche are also using only 2 batteries

= to say, second generation LED torch-lamp.

= It came from Lidl with £15 price and using Cree’s 3W LED.

3W mean, LED draw almost 1A current, hence it needs to use 2xD type battery and quite

solid aluminum structure with water proof O-ring. (pretty heavy though, it is blindingly bright,

and thanks to a built-in mirror the light can concentrate to narrow 5 degree = can see 50m away)

This one, photo left, was also from the Lidl. But this is a cheaper plastic version and a cost £3.

Yet still this is 2xAA battery type. In the photo you can see a LED and a Switch-mode DC-DC

converter circuit.  In the circuit-board, round black component is a coil to induce high voltage, and

together with 2 transistors (one oscillate and other is acting as a feed-back comparator to stabilize

the voltage) supply the power to a LED. (round aluminum block under the LED is a heat-sink).

When the battery is new and giving 3.2V, it supply 130mA 3.5V to LED and even the batteries are

nearly the end of life = 0.8Vx2, converter still give the same 3.5V though much reduced current,

10mA therefore the light out-put is not as bright as on the beginning (still usable).

(This LED is about 1/2 to 1/3 W —– 3.5Vx0.13A= 0,45W on the paper, but it seemed LED is not

a genuine Cree = cheaper copy ?) = Still, this one could be a best buy

= second generation LED torch for £3 !

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Yet still, the battle in a market is so fierce, a torch-lamp, photo right,  looks very ancient which

is using 3 LEDs was found to be also 2xD type which cost whopping  £1 only ! ! !

By using 3 standard LED, heat is not much a problem and 0.1W each x3, the light out-put is more

or less the same as the other one.  The circuit-board has only 2 component with 3 LEDs

—– in one glance,  I thought they are 1 transistor and a register though, they are in fact,

transistor-shaped 3 pin microchip and a coil in a shape of register.

= it was a proper switch-mode DC-DC converter.

With an atmost mean simplification it managed to make a £1 products. (Wittingly or unwittingly)

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  In comparison to those rather elaborated approach,

  the photo left is the opposite.

  It was made in a meanest way —– it’s using

  3xAAA batteries in the traditional manner but uses

  no soldering at all but just push-fit, relying only

  on the friction = Still, if it is only £1 and as long as

  it works, who bother. 

  While using 9 LEDs, it has a reasonable brightness.

  —– But, my intention to buy this was, again for

  different purpose 😀 —– somewhat properly made aluminum

body which got ON-OFF switch and 3xAAA battery holder = it can be used like a battery case or

handle of another device.  Hence, I bought 10 of them. 😀

( to make such parts from scratch, it needs to have a lots of work, and it couldn’t be £1 )

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Whether, to use it as a Torch-Lamp or utilize part of it, they are very useful tool.

= Torch-Lamp is not only looking for a lost coin under the bed. 😀

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LED Lighting in Photography

In most of the case and for most of the people, Photography starts when the subject

was found to be there. = Has found mean [It was seen] = it’s mean [There was a light]

= if it was in a total darkness, we couldn’t see = we don’t notice its existence,

hence no photography.

Though, more of the often, photographer need to take picture because the subject was still

known to be there = it could be a nocturnal animal or cave paintings —– when I needed to take

picture of French wine cellars, it was a challenge. = It has to be clearly visible in the photo, yet to be

seen as a deep dark cellar = what a contradiction especially all the bottles were covered

with black fluffy fungi. 😀

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Modern Hi-Tech Camera seemed to be able to see better than our eyes though, it’s light measuring

capability is still only down to EV-o or -1 or so but  Auto Focus doesn’t necessary work under such

dim light. (Hence, Focus-assist-light in the Flash-light or so-called Active Focus System using

projected LED light).

But when the photography has gone outside of “expected scenario” of the use of camera, such as

[Pinhole photo] or use another lens for higher close-up magnification, lords of troubles comes in.

Equivalent F-aperture of Pinhole = F-125 (think, keep stopping-down F-22 to 32, 45, 64, 90

then to 125) or F-250 is far beyond of what camera can handle.—– Or, use a lens in reverse to

have x5 magnification, the image become too dark to see in the view finder

= additional strong light become necessary.

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Thanks to the easiness to use LED, which doesn’t heat-up the subject like as Halogen-light does,

I’ve been using them as a focus-light or even to take picture. = Use one or some LED to make a

focus-light is very easy such as seen in the another post [Tiny Life] (link here) —– it is just a

matter to connect LED to a power, normally to the battery(s), normally series with

small register. (I’m going to write about those “Technical” details in the next post) but an

easiest way is to utilize ordinary LED Torch-Lamp or even a USB Keyboard light which you can

find in a Pound-shop.  🙂

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Here some sample demonstration (of simple adaptation or simple “mod” work 😀 )

This is a little adaptation of a 1W LED Torch-Lamp (This one need only 2xAA battery !

= I’ll talk about a significance of 2xAA battery in the next post) —– in order to mount the lamp

to a stand, a piece of C-channel was drilled and 1/4” screw was tapped.

Use it as a spot light or diffused light etc is just up to your imagination.

And this is a way to use USB light.  = USB sockets were fixed and soldered to a piece of

circuit-board and they were connected to an 4xAA battery holder which acts as a stand as well.

One light has only one LED hence used as a spot-light and other has line of 5 LEDs hence covering

it with tissue-paper, it can be used as a diffused-light.

—– USB light was designed to be used on USB socket though, as long as it was

connected to 5V it will light up. (4×1.5V battery may give, up to 6V on the beginning though,

it wouldn’t destroy the LED, and even if you connected wrong polarity, it wouldn’t destroy them

neither, simply it wouldn’t light up = connect other-way round to make it light)

USB connector has 4 pins, of which both outside pins are carrying 5V supply.  You may find which

is + with multiple-tester though,  in this LED light case, JUST Connect = if it’s light = It’s right. 😀

Female USB socket can be taken out from Multiple USB Port which you can buy from £1 shop

= it’s much cheaper than to buy socket itself.  😀

If you don’t have soldering-iron and such skill, just smash open the USB plug = you

may find 2 wires in the spiral tube = fix the spiral tube with wire or what-so-ever the

manner and connect each wire to the battery + and – = if it doesn’t light-up,

change polarity.

(If you want to place the USB light on the camera, best way is to use camera bracket and fix the

spiral tube to the bracket and the cables can be extended to the battery holder.

(1m, 2m of wire wouldn’t make noticeable change of the brightness of LED)

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If you are interested in = just try.

You may realized how easy it is, and fun to experiment with mini photo-studio !

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Poppy = Impressionist’s photography / W-Pinhole Photo

As it is in the season, I’m seeing number of interesting photos of the Poppy in the Net.

One Photo-blogger Lemony showed her Poppy photo (link here) taken while intentionally

shaking the camera and created blurred image which I dubbed “Impressionist’s Photography”

and I promised her I’ll show my “Impressionist’s Photo” —– hence, here they are.

Isn’t this Impressionist, is this ?    Ha ha ha,    🙂

Those photos were taken by the Pinhole camera (Canon 5D Mk2)  but in this time it was by

two Pinholes of which the panel was fitted on front of the extension ring, therefore the

effective focal length was 84 mm.

With Two Pinholes, it produces off-positioned two images = similar to double exposure image,

or there used be a Double Image filter which used shallow prism = but such image can be made

by Photoshop much easily now. —– Still, I like those images, if the paintings of Impressionists

are still the painting, a photo of pinhole is still the photograph. (Why not ? )   😀

(What so ever, the best of all, two pinholes can make twice as many flowers instant.  😀  )

This photo was taken from the same position, but the Light Balance was set to Tungsten Light,

hence the color balance has shifted to blue. — (then,  contrast was increased and cropped)

= the image became even more like an Impressionist’s or an abstract painting.

This is an ordinary straight shot = as for a reference image. (Lens was Canon 70-200 F2.8 = set to

about 85 mm, and set to F4. —– ( This image looks like a Japanese Yamato-e Paintings.)

With the light balance set to Tungsten Light, it made the pale colored image more like a

Chinese panel painting.

Then, the same Poppies’ were taken by W-Pinhole. (not only the effect of the Pinhole, but

the wind shaken the flowers and made the image even more impressionistic  😀  )

(Under the wind, no flower stand still for 10 seconds, especially delicate Poppies )

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It seemed like the same situation, when people was bored by the too clean digital sound, they

started to go back Veiner or even Valve sound = when too clear sharp photo became too

ubiquitous, and easy to achieve, some went back to  B/W  Film Photography, some are even

trying to make their own print paper applying photo sensitive emulsion onto own material to

create textured fuzzy image (strangely, often fuzzy image seemed to have more connotations)

= there could be hundreds of the way to do photography.   (—– not only Pinhole   😀  )

This is the 84 mm W-Pinhole “lens” (?  😀 ) I’ve used.   Panel was a thin aluminum of a beer can

mounted on front of an extension ring.    Photo right is, with its “lens”  hood ! —– without lens,

it’s still need to have a Hood = you believe or not.  (Normally, a lens hood is to prevent a direct

sun hitting the lens = eliminates a ghost and halo.   Yet,  Pinhole without lens still needs to reduce

the light from the sky etc, which creates halo by scattering inside with diffraction. = Most of 

Pinhole Photographer doesn’t know this, as they think,  even the unnecessary halo is still the

character of the Pinhole photo  🙂  )  = Here,  seeing is believing.

Photo left is without Hood and the right, with hood = the difference is clear.    🙂

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Film Premier Show in Secret

A big film was shown as its Premier.   And it was performed in its iconic set-up.

So that, it is hard to say is this a film event or an art event ?  —- what so ever  it’s

an event to have very interesting, fun-full evening.  😀

————————————– (photo = simulation of the space craft landing)

As I’ve been asked to give technical advices and to assist with my electronical expertise,

and to show my art piece — strangely,  I was restricted by their Confidentiality Clause, hence

I can’t disclose the name of the film. (They says, Don’t tell to others until the event finished ! )

—– still you can get the ticket  from their web-site which I can’t  give its name neither  😀

Secrecy seems to be their secret of the success,  hence thousands of the guests are keep coming.

(Contradictorily,  they hand-out a printed program with excerpt from the Guardian News paper)

Now, month long show was ended, we are free to disclose the details and I can put more photos.

The Film was [Prometheuse] and the show was organised by [Secret Cinema] (link here).

The event was held in a secret location, still it is a conspicuous most event full event

= suddenly somebody got mad and the securities had to strain him ( according to the story

of the film = lots of happening etc. etc = to make a fun and unexpected experiences)  🙂

Go into a certain area, participants were given protective garment and taken to

the dark under world.  (This photo is for a lady who wanted to have it to copy and save  🙂 )

Then, discover such as an impressive installation of projected water vortex (video image was

created by  Doug Foster ), reflected on the water in a dark space, accompanied by the good sound

effects.  = Atmosphere is mesmerizing !   It was designed by my friend Francesco Pastori.  

(I’ve worked with Francesco in many projects together).

In the dark, luminous lines glow,  and with a head-light of a guide, you may find the confusing

multiple reflections. (Created by  Das Patterson)

Luminous tape in the dark was photographed, while camera was hand-held 5 second !

Or, go through spooky passages to discover yet more strange installations, inspired by the

concept of the film.  (Some are gone a bit too far from the story though, it’s not a problem  😉 )

Sound interactive LED lighting.

Or, Hydroponic agriculture system supposed provide the vegetables on the long voyage   😉

( Around here, Science lab’, Museum etc was produced and directed by Luke Harcourt )

And this is my Life Bottle, —– the Tissue culture to grow the life.  😀

(It is in the Science Lab —– don’t miss it, if you visit there  😀 )

When you are tired, the bay for an Hyper-Sleep was provided though, I haven’t tested whether

the sleep was automatically induced or not.  (or you can play Basket Ball instead )  🙂

To have a drink or two, many Bar or Restaurants are there.

A restaurant with live Piano (sound nice), or hundreds of real Lily flowers with its real smell  😉

Some Restaurants looks rather posh —– the guests may need to buy VIP tickets — ?

( As a poor Zennist, I have no idea how much the cost of VIP tickets are.  😀  )

Suddenly all the participants were assembled in a big room and the instruction was given.

The characters from the film were waking around etc. etc —– .  🙂

Then the clouds were lead to the another space to see the film in 3D !

( Though, as I said above, I can’t give the details of the  film = it was an impressive film   😀 )

( Now you know the Film though, it too late to go) 😉

It is amazing to see the good grown-ups having such unusual funs and enjoy the good time !

( To join them, you have to find more Info’ by yourself —- Guardian may have wrote about )

The event continues month long  = it’s mean I have to go-up there, time to time to change

the water in my bottle  😀 —– (By the way, I’m not payed ) = It was just for a FUN !

To have my own fun, I didn’t need to pay for them neither ! = it’s a secret to have a  smooth

uncomplicated life = Just respond to the situation without too much thinking or greed = this

is the way of the Zen Life, in its full of action.  🙂

When you live, there is no need to have an excuse or any justification = Just live as you have

happened to be in this world.   You didn’t chose. Still, you need to follow ! — What happened

was the situation given = You only got to do what you can do in your best = Hence no regret.  🙂

Cheers.

PS :  To the artists who’s work has been photographed here, can copy and use it free, if the one wish to do so.

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MEMS Microphne

I guess, the most of the readers may not understand what

this title means.  —– yet most of the people are using it

only without knowing = it is a microphone inside of

Mob-phone or Smart-phone.

= If you ever disassemble or happened to see inside of a broken

phone might have noticed a component which got a hole, right

behind of a hole on the phone’s outer shell. ——————————————- (Photo  Knowle’s MEMS Microphone )

—– In the past 10 years, the microphone has changed their round shape into square and the

principle how it works has completely changed.

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When I was in my junior school, I was a member of the Radio Club and we were in charge with the preparation

for a morning assembly or any event which use the PA system, and the control of the PA system as well.

(and often to repair them as long as we, together with the supervising teacher can manage )

Among the old disused equipment, I have seen Carbon Microphone and many

Crystal Microphones.  But the main Microphone on that time was the Dynamic Microphone.  

Then the teacher showed us latest procurement of Ribbon Microphone which can produce

much better sound quality.

[]

The granules of Carbon changes its conductivity under the pressure = hence put them

under a vibrating membrane can work as a microphone which needs no amplification hence

it is a cheapest kind in an audio system. ( Connect a carbon mic directory to a battery and a

magnetic head-phone in series and make a loop = it makes an audio communication system !

—– though, sound quality is not good at all, yet there wasn’t

anything else but Carbon-Mic even in a recording industry then.

—– The carbon granules absorb moisture, and a singer blows her breath to the mic, a recorded sound

deteriorates with its use !   So that, the top singer wanted to have a morning session, not in the afternoon 😀

(It’s from “History of Recording” kind of a book I read long time ago )

Carbon-Mic has been used in the Telephone system well into 60^th and I bought some of them in a second-hand

market (to see the inside and experiment with them 😀 )

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If you are a musician or dealing with sound systems must be familiar with Dynamic Microphone.

They are technically the same as an ordinary Speaker. = a coil was attached to a vibrating membrane or

speaker corn. —– the coil is placed between the magnet, so that, if it moves, with Electro-magnetic effect

= the changing electric signal will be created = this is a microphone.

But when electric signal was applied to the coil, it will be either attracted or repelled from the magnet hence

moves the corn according to the signal = this is a speaker.

—– So that, in my secondary school, once I connected the cables which goes to a speaker of a room of which

the teachers meeting was held, to a Microphone input and able to over-heard all the conversation.

( I didn’t disclose what I’ve heard and this is the first time me to revile the story 😀 )

(There is the matters in Impedance matching etc, but it worked and most of the case it works 😀 )

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In the old days, there was a Condenser Microphone in a Mob-phone. —– in any small devices, the Mic was

almost all ways a Condenser-Mic (commonly called Electoret Mic)  = Condenser Microphone was made of

a metal coated thin plastic film and the insulated metal base.   Two conductive plates facing each other having

an electric charge between them hence it was called Condenser. —– This electric charge changes if the

membrane vibrates with a sound, and this changing charge was amplified and used as a sound signal.

They are simple and small hence cheap therefore they were used everywhere despite of the sound quality is

not necessary good.

But since 2002 it was replaced by the MEMS Microphone made by Knowls (Google please)

( I saw a news, that their sale of Microphone reached to the 300 millions, since 2002. = Oh, Gosh ! )

= microscopic whisker suspended above base conductor, vibrates with sound wave, and this vibration was

converted into the electronic signal.  The cavity inside of Microphone should be designed to resonates with

the sound hence it works as a microphone.  If its whisker was made sensitive to magnetism, MEMS act as

a Compass, or when it detects the gravity it tells whether the device is upright or horizontal, like iPad does.

[]

Once the basic technology was established, MEMS devices infiltrated everywhere in the past 10 years or so.

Microscopic moving part was made by electro-etching (chemically dissolve and removes the material and

make a metal parts in a wanted shape ) or even carved by a Laser beam.

And the minute movement of this part (whisker) hence its change of the capacitive charge was detected and

converted into an electronic signal.

—– Can you imagine, in a so-called Motion Sensor such as in a Wii controller, microscopic whisker moves

with the movements and its movement was converted into an electronic signal to control the game.

Microns long whisker which was made of,  may be few thousands of atoms lined up, would be bent with its

flexibility, hence the electronic charge may change accordingly, and this change would be amplified,

—– but amplified to how many million times without noise. —– as they are commonly used everywhere

now, it mast be just reliable or even better than old technology though, still it is incredible to me.

[]

So, having an old rusted brain, I rather indulge an old memory, when I saw a small light bulb

connected straight to a Telephone’s Carbon-Microphone and battery, changed its brightness

when I pressed the center of the Microphone.  = It was a delightful amazing moment for a child !

How sweet and peaceful, in our old days were 😀 😀

___/\___

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Eating Bracken — Really ?

Eating raw fish such as in Sushi or Sashimi is now widely accepted

in the west. (And pretty well appreciated)

But they are only a tip of the iceberg in the “wired” Japanese menu.

A notorious fermented soya-bean = Nattou (納豆) might already been known to many

Japanese food connoisseur though, it is still not appreciated or in fact utterly rejected

by most of the westerners who feel it just rotten. 😀

[]

Fermentation in the food making process is a tricky business, hence its subtle technique is

unique to each culture and the products may only be consumed by the people in its culture.

One of the Japanese delicacy [Shio-kara / 塩辛] was made out of Squid or Fish-guts with

salt, kept in a jar long time, and made them decomposed and melt.  For some Japanese,

it is a mouth watering delicacy. (But may not be for your mouth 🙂 ) —– so, I thought,

this kind of cooking is unique only to Japanese though, I learned from Italian chef, they

make very special delicacy = keep the chopped rabbit meat in a sealed jar long time to

make them ferment and melt = it is the same idea.

And in Iceland, people makes very unique delicacy out of Shark meat, by keeping it long

time and made it half rotten. (then eat its ammonium smelled meat,

sound very yummy isn’t it :-D)

So, Japanese to accept [Rotten Milk products] such as Cheese, took long time

as its funny smell is nothing but a prohibitingly dirty smell to us.

[]

When bacteria decomposed the protein, generally we call its effect“Rotten”

though, if people find it is still useful, it was called “Fermentation” 😀

Strangely, our Taste-bud feel, somewhat decomposed protein (a kind of Amino-acid) tasty.

So that, a Soy-source was made out of decomposed (fermented) soy-bean protein.

And a Vietnamese Yokumani-source was a decomposed fish protein.

Even a beef has to be kept, about one month in a storage for its meat start to decompose

and become tender by the bacteria and its own enzyme.

And to make a good Palma-ham needs to have very delicate fermentation process = if it’s

gone too far, the meat is “rotten” and start to give a bad smell.

[]

But here I’m not showing fermented food, but just boiled Bracken. Yes, ubiquitous Bracken.

In the west, Bracken was classified to be a poisonous plant, but in Japan

everybody eat Bracken (Warabi / 蕨 ).

It may contain something = may be same extent of Spinach containing Oxalic Acid which

cause ulcer in the corner of the mouth if you eat a lot. ( Popeye must had one 😀 )

Unlike Spinach, eat 10 stems of Bracken once or twice a year wouldn’t cause any trouble.

As a matter of fact, non of the plant in the Fern family include Bracken has been used for

Herbal Medicine as they don’t have any potent chemical = despite of them on the Earth

hundreds of millions of years, they haven’t evolved to have even a flower, let alone a poison.

In the mountain shelter where I was a voluntary keeper, we collected 5 bin (80 cm tall) full

of Bracken to pickle in salt water, and served it to the guests all through the summer.

Naturally I eat as much amount everyday.  And a pickled Bracken was commonly sold at

shops as a local delicacy. —– In a kind of wisdom, traditionally it was boiled in ash water

though, I found it doesn’t need to be bothered.   (And I’m still here, live and kicking  😀 )

(A bitter tasted chemical seemed to be dissolved into brine or boiling water, and disappear)

Of cause, it has to be soft young shoot = the timing to get it would be crucial.

(This year, it came 2 weeks late though, colder region or mountain side may be even later)

Strangely, when I went to a park  (I wouldn’t say where, because in the strict term it might

be illegal = I never heard any English Nettle-Picker was ever prosecuted though,

I saw a news, Japanese was fined for picking Bracken = Racial matter ? )  where

I collect them every year,   I found somebody had already there. —– M m m ? ? ?

Did any Japanese come here ?   Or any English people started to eat them ?

To eat boiled  (5~7 Min’) Bracken, it has to be only with small amount of

Soy-source and Bonito fish shavings (Katsuo-bushi) to appreciate its

unique taste. (I think, they can be eaten just with Soy-source or even

with Mayonnaise but its taste might be too strong to settle with Bracken ) 

If you are interested in, you can try.

And enjoy natural taste of early summer. 🙂

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Homemade Lens Cap

While walking in the town with my camera on my shoulder, I realized, I’ve dropped a lens hood

and a cap of my Fish-eye Lens.   Because of the fish-eye lens is protruding on its front, the

Lens cap is a special type.  To buy this type must cost more than £ 50 and may need to order.

—– any how, I didn’t even check the price. I know it is extortionately expensive.

I absolutely have no will to buy it.

[]

Since when the camera industry started, their business model is always the same. Like Kodak

and their Brawny camera, camera itself was sold cheap = can be sold even without profit.

The profit was made from the sale of film and its print making process. Polaroid did the same.

But what about the camera maker who is not selling the film. = While selling the camera itself

cheap, their profit came from the sale of accessories such as interchangeable lens, flash light

even a piece of plastic, such as a lens cap, so, the price is kept such high.

—– Many years ago, a boss of big camera company complained me “ We are effectively

making promotional incentive goods to sell the film. The more we work hard and sell more

attractive cameras which makes more people taking photo, it only creates the more profit to

the Film company, not for us 😦 ”

[]

Then, the Digital revolution completely changed the rules of the game.

Photography no longer need to use the film, hence both Kodak and Polaroid bankrupted.

(Fuji Film escaped this by investing digital imaging technology long before digital cameras

appeared, such as working with Xerox and bought Electronic Scanner’s maker, Crossfield,

then utilizing their film emulsion technology, they diversified, expanded even into forefront

of nano technology).

[]

Thanks to have, such as image-sensor manufacturer, like Toshiba, Sony next door, Japanese

Digital camera evolved very quick though I didn’t buy them until I was fully convinced

that the sensor reached to the level of a film camera. ( I’m not implying such as a

top grade DSLR reached as good as Film camera, but when I saw the sample photos of

Canon 5D, I found the photo showed a flaw of the lens, it’s mean the resolution

of the sensor was reached to the limit of average lens = good enough for average

use) —– So that I bought 5D Mk-2  for my first ever Digital Camera.

(I waited a full-frame DSLR for my collection of ultra-wide and fisheye lenses)

—– comparing the cost of film and its process, still it is cheap, and no need

to mention its convenience to use in the Internet environment.

[]

But coming down to a low-tech, just for a molded plastic lens cap, I wouldn’t pay a price of

hi-tech camera.   I’m an humble, or more precisely mean, poor person. (In principle 🙂 )

So, I decided to make it myself and went to Pound-shop to find the best suited material.

= basically, cap for Fish-eye lens is a pan-shaped shallow cap.  Only a matter is, its diameter.

On the photo right, what I found were a fancy color-changing light and moisturizing hand

cream (of its container, not the cream of cause 😀 )

Light housing has bayonet craw which somewhat fit to the lens front bayonet though, it was

made by Styrole Plastic, hence it may easily brake when it got impact. The cream jar was

made by Polypropylene, hence having certain flexibility to grip the lens top with right fiction.

So that, I’ve chosen to use cream jar. And for top lid, I found a junk Pendulum

of old clock 😉  = Cut the jar to a shallow ring and hot-glued the metal disc of pendulum.

Voilà, a lens cap which cost me only £1 —– still I need to work a bit more to prevent it

accidentally come off and lost again.

So, this is the finished product with some stitching work.  = Over the metal cap,

I cover it with chamois and the additional Velcro strap is to tether the cap

to the lens. 

[]

As I’ve been keep saying, this kind of DIY work is a game. = the more free minded

approach, it would be a fun.   (Not mention, it would save the cost too.

It’s far better to use the same money to a memory card kind) 😀 —– only remaining

headache is “ What to do with a moisturizing cream now kept in honey jar ?” I don’t take or

use any artificial things include the medicine on to my body, especially what can you expect

from £1 cream.—– Anyhow, sweet peach smelled, smooth skin Yoshizen may not be

anything near to sexy.  Yuck ! Ha ha ha 😀

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PS:   Strangely, I lost the Lens cap again, and I had to make yet another one.

—– As I don’t have anymore clock pendulum, instead I used a cap of pickles jar.

And in this time I got nice colored leather for a cover.   (Click the photo to enlarge and

see the hand stitch = it is a simple practice, hence good Buddhist’s practice of Mushin.  😀 )

Cap works, with a hint of vinegar smell, and if I press its center, it makes a click sound.  😀

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