Algae or Moss ? — Water plant

I’m not sure what is those green staff on the river bank of Deptford Creek.

Its green color indicates that they are a plant living on the Photosynthesis.

—– though, I don’t care.   I only thought, its green color is beautiful — and

it’s enough for me to click the camera. ( thanks goodness, this lens shows

only the atmosphere, not the useless details — of so-called Realism.   🙂

= often, surface detail mask the true reality. True reality may lie behind. )

This fuzzy lens I used to take those photos were yet another Two Element

Homemade Lens. (toy camera lens with strong concave lens on front.)

( The lens appeared in this blog

before.)

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Bizarre Lens on Macro shot

It’s the same lens, Pentax AF Zoom 35~70 F2.8 — with that heavy proxer.

So, the magnification ratio was about 0.5 (at 35mm)~1 (at 70mm).

As you may see, I’m not after the scientific details but the optical softness.

Still, when the subject was on the same plain (within the depth of field)

the lens can capture quite a details.   (All the photos here = F2.8)

(Note, in this photo, left bottom, an egg of the Green lacewing.)

Macro photography is the constant supply of the visual fantasy for me.   🙂

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Bizarre Lens – Pentax AF Zoom 35~70 F2.8

Well, the Lens = Pentax AF Zoom 35~70mm F2.8 itself was nothing strange

or I should rather say, Optically superb Lens. — But, the fate of this lens

was rather bizarre.  Originally the Lens was made as a Triangulation AF lens, 

so that the AF motor unit and the battery box were attached to the lens barrel.

It was the early 80s —– and soon, such AF system became obsolete.  

Still, Pentax designed this lens with their full force = Now looks rather modest

35~70 F2.8 Zoom then was an expensive fancy lens carrying £800 (?) price.

And the Zeiss vario-sonnar 35~70 F2.8 for Contax was much more than £1000.

On the market, the Minolta’s new AF camera has appeared then = When I saw

this lens in throwaway price £80 (I think) in the shop  (The quality of this lens

has been well reported.) I bought it and (you may not believe) modified !

( the AF unit was removed and the hole was covered by an aluminium panel) 

After I changed my 35mm camera from Nikon to Contax, the lens I bought  

first hand were 25mm, 85mm and I could use Tamron 90mm Macro and

500mm Mirror as well.  So, I modified this Pentax K mount to Contax mount.  

The Frangeback of Pentax K and Contax are both 55.5 mm but the Pentax

Bayonet is larger, therefore it wouldn’t go into the Contax camera. 

So, I removed the Pentax bayonet and welded Contax bayonet on it. (Photo right)

(Because of the position of a lever, the lens was mounted 90 degree off center.)

This was a test shot of Pentax AF Zoom at 70mm, F2.8 — 1.2 m

And this was a comparison, Canon FE Zoom 24~70 at 70mm, on F2.8 — 1.2 m

And the Pentax AF Zoom at 35mm, on F2.8 — 100m

The Canon EF Zoom 24~70, at 35mm, on F2.8 — 100m

As a lens for general use, this lens is pretty usable even on Canon 5D Mk-III. 

(and this is rather familiar tree.   🙂  )

And familiar landmark in the park.

All those photos were taken at F2.8 (because no auto controle).

—– still, very much usable.  🙂

And this must be a

familiar kind of photo

to the regular readers.

In my view, this is  

a kind of old german 

charactered lens.

(comparable to Zeiss

Planer Lens)

Pentax AF Zoom 35~70 F2.8

at 70mm / F2.8 / 1.2 m

T[]

Dust, Water seal ? — on Canon 5D

As I’ve disassembled and checked the inside of several Canon 5D cameras, I noticed

some peculiar points, the way how those cameras were designed and made. 

There was an almost legendary story, how Canon camera was survived when all

the Nikons has stopped to work under the sand storm in the first Gulf War which

made the press photographers to change their camera like an avalanche.

I heard a first hand witness story from a photographer who was one of my pupil

(who became a staff photographer of Reuters and went to the desert.) — What he

told me was that many other photographer’s Nikon were breaking-down while the

Canon kept working~~~ (in fact, before his camera break, he part-exchanged his to 

Canon. = so, I didn’t actually see how Nikon machine was clogged.) — Since this 

event, camera makers are keen to appeal “the Seal against the Dust and the water”

in their camera design. = So as the 5Ds are no exception = claim to have the Seal.

THOUGH, when I opened their body, I saw very little such measure.

= this photo was a 5D Mk-III inside, as you can see, there was no seal or gasket kind

of material on their jointing edge.  = It’s mean, once the body was dropped in the water

the camera has no resistance to it.  — May be what Canon was saying was, “In the

normal situation”, such as a light rain splash = not soaked into the water which IS

regarded as the user’s fault.

If you closely look at the 5D body, such as the Battery cap. (Photo left)

You can see the gasket on its edge which might be giving you a sort of comfort.  

Though, it was just a show-off window display. = If you are serious, have look 

battery chamber of the memory retaining battery on the right-bottom of the body.

(right under the cable connectors = Photo center and right ) = situating the same

bottom of the camera, this opening has no protection against the water at all. =

When the camera was on the table and if the beer was spilt, it seep deep into the

camera body. —– Still, sound strange to you though, today’s DSLR camera is 

quite resilient to the water which is not because of the special design, but the 

nature of its electronic components. (but the image sensor get smear easily)  

Those components and the Circuit Flex are waterproof, which was designed to 

be washed by a solvent and the shutter switch has closed structure. (photo left)

Seemed to be the weakest-point against water is the Dial on the Grip (photo center)

= But the Dial was in a small chamber, separated from the electronic encoder

therefore the water wouldn’t go into the circuit easily (photo right).

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You may not believe though, on my experience, I saved number of  TVs and

electronic goods, mobile phones, soaked under rain water, dropped into toilet,

and so-on, so that, they were even splash washed under the running water.

After completely drained the water, then dry it with hair-drier. (60 deg’ C Max)

(Don’t put the battery and switch-on before completely dry.)

= the most of the case, they recovered the function. = Same can apply to the  

DSLR.  (Hi-zoom compact camera may be much harder to save because the

mechanism is too small and compacted). — So, if you dropped your DSLR into

a water (cleaner the water, the better chance —– muddy water’s sand particle

reduce the chance) = grip the strap and swing, rotate the camera like a gyro 

in the air (if it was 5D camera, remove the memory battery to open the water 

escape.) = with a centrifugal force the water would be shaken off from inside.

(In an old day’s wisdom, put the wet camera into a pure alcohol = replace the

water by alcohol first —– a bottle of vodka may work as well)  🙂

Then try dry the camera as quick as possible. — place the camera in a box and

blow-in hot-air = otherwise a written-off camera could be saved or last few shots

of the assignment could still be taken.    (Though, if you couldn’t succeed, don’t

blame me = As I don’t presume any responsibility here.) Just Hope Good luck.    🙂

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Internal Structure of Canon 5D

Some days ago, I got an opportunity to disassemble a Canon 5D body as I’ve bought it almost nothing. (still fully functioning) — Then, what I found inside was rather disturbing — hence I made this post.  

As the people who has been using Canon DSLR may know, new 5DS, 5DSR are having not only 30 Mp large image sensor (for 35 mm full-frame) but also mechanically, structurally much improved design = that’s what they said.

—– While planning, designing, developing new camera, Canon must have a lots of tests and analysis to achieve their objective = at least twice better image quality than the predecessor with its big sensor.  

(Photo above is the inside of the 5D Mk-III)

(And this is the 5D Mk-IV = basic design is the same = plastic mirror box was connected to the tripod screw by a stamped panel and few screws.  — Photo from Lens Rental site)

Though my guess was, when they tested new sensor on the temporally adapted 5D Mk-lII body, they must be realized that the crispy sharpness was not there.  Even if the image of the lens alone on the optical test bench was good, it couldn’t  be replicated if the same lens was mounted on the 5D body —– it’s mean, 5D body structure was shaky and giving blur, deteriorating the image quality.  (Which was not so visible on the 22Mp sensor, but showing up on the 30 Mp.)

What Canon boasted about the New 5DS was, not only rethink of the mirror shock damping mechanism, but also much solid tripod fixing. —– But it was too funny to  hear that, when I opened and saw the inside of an old 5D body,  I almost dropped  my jaw, because the design of 5D was the remotest from the solid structure.  

—– I’ve been seeing the inside of cameras more than 40 years thus I know how they were designed and made.   (When Canon developed EOS 1, production team brought a prototype here and asked my advice.  When they asked me which camera was my  favorite, I answered “Contax” a man responded “You can’t have that quality any more” “Why ?” “The man designed the Contax was no longer there.  I am the Man”

= The man, Mr. Morota had been headhunted and came to Canon to develop EOS 1.

—– I guess, he must be pretty annoyed to see the design of 5D series cameras. ) 

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When I changed my 35 mm camera, from Nikon to Contax, it was not only I’ve encountered the  Zeiss 85 mm F1.4 lens but also I found that the structure and the way their camera was made, was such solid therefore reliable.

(Preceding to this, I’ve been utterly annoyed  by the erratic behaviour of the Nikon’s motor-drive = always at the most crucial moment, they stop to work. — but they  worked always perfect on front of the Nikon’s Service Engineer.  😦  and  😀  )  

The photo left here was the inside of 20 years old EOS RT body. = You can see the  metal frame of which all the mechanism was built-in and holding the lens mount.  And the tripod screw was directly fixed to this metal frame.  

In contrast, what I found the inside of 5D (photo center) was = the structure framefor Mirror Box and the Shutter was made by injection mold plastic and even a lens mount base was a plastic.  

The photo right shows the almost the same design of 5D Mk-III.

In all those 5D, a stumped 1 mm thin metal connecting the plastic mirror box to the 1/4″ tripod screw on the bottom of the camera. = I couldn’t believe my eyes, IS this plastic camera priced for £3000 ? ? ?  

(Photo left =Lens Mount base, on the plastic frame.

Photo center = Thin white metal alone connects the Mirror Box to the Tripod screw.

= Almostly, the camera body is floating on the tripod !

Photo right = Plastic frame is soft, hence so easy to cut.
— Plastic could be more resilient to the shock with its flexibility but the same flexibility is the enemy to hold the moving shutter and the lens solidly together.

Think about the situation when you use the camera on a tripod, like the photo left = even if a lens was firmly mounted on the tripod (therefore, the lens mount was solid) still, behind the mirror box, the shutter mechanism and the image sensor could be jumping and dancing, because the mirror-box is not rigid, even if its bottom side was having a metal plate.

Imagine a car, when the main chassis was made by plastic, I wouldn’t be impressed by the buzz-word that the outer shell was made by “magnesium alloy” = it’s a cover-up cosmetic.[]

—– (I remember, EOS RT body was not more than £400. = A camera body which has a film wind-up and rewind mechanism, all together  built onto a metal die-cast, was still £400, £500)    In comparison, just a shutter and a sensor were built into a plastic mirror box (+ a bit more electronics and the Memory) cost £3000 !

—– Oh ! C’mon it’s not fair.  = So, it was obvious, so-called new feature in 5DS, 5DSR = “improved anti-vibration and the solid connection to the Tripod” was not a new achievement but a necessary  patch-up against the old shoddy design.  Though, despite the patch-up work, the test report from Japan saying that 5DS still showing high susceptibility to image blur which would negate the crop use of the photo. 

( As a matter of fact, I haven’t checked the “claimed to be” improved 5DS yet.  And I’m not sure whether I would buy this camera in order to see their fix ! )  Reading the Tech Reports here and there —– I haven’t seen any report showing the superiority of New Canon 5DS or SR over Nikon D810 = even on the chart test 30Mp image didn’t show a difference over 36Mp Nikon image —– I wonder  what’s going on and why ?  = It seems better wait till the matter sorted out.  🙂

********

PS:  Related post “Camera stability test” would be good to read.

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Yoshizen Phenomena

Alongside the peculiar phenomenon found in the Google Search, such as

“Yoshi – Zappa” which lead to my circular fisheye photo on the top page,

or “Tiny Life Egg” which lead to my photo of the Green lacewings’ Egg

( = on top of the 3.4 million items on their list,)

— the search term “Art Figure – St. Lucia” will have this image

on the top page of the 850,000 items in their listing.

 Really ? —- is this an Art ?

 Isn’t any better art work or painting of

 St. Lucia exist in the world such as the 

 Spanish old masters religious paintings ?

 —– I have no idea how the algorithm of google,

 worked-out to select an image of a twisted wire.

 Never the less, this is the Google certified “Art”

 on top of the million items.    😀 😀

 Even more peculiar phenomenon was, the artist

can recognize this as an art in one glance,

while holding the breath.   (If you think otherwise, you are not the artist.  😀 )

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The same question again.    Is this an art or even a sculpture ?    If this was a

sculpture, where IS the sculpted substance ?   We are seeing a mere contour of

something.   Something of What ?

—– to see, it was a frightened woman while she was hit by a blue line (purported

to be a lightning from the God)  🙂    was in fact in the mind of the viewer.

—– otherwise it was just a twisted wire.  —– And in its contour, we are seeing a

woman’s body — are we ?   Where is the body. = it IS just an empty space between 

the wire isn’t it ?  —– You believe this or not, this is the very ZEN Buddhism.

(In the term of the liberated mind and the eyes,  the mind of complete selfless 

Buddhist is very close to the complete open minded artist. — and the children.)

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What you are seeing is the wire and the VOID between.   Seeing the twisted wire and

in the same time, to see it was a figure of the woman in one glance. (Without hear or

read any explanation still capture the meaning instant, by a naked subconscious.)

To know the meanings in one glance while seeing its twisted wire as it is.  = This is 

the clear eyes and the mind.   Indeed, this is what the Buddhism teaches.  We might

be seeing just a contour or shadow, and the substance may there or may not =

Who can see everything anyway ? = and, does it a matter ?

—– as long as we can see its clear face and the meaning, we know what we have to do

and how to live without being bothered by a wrong thinking.

This IS the very enlightenment.   (You may say what is the difference between a wrong

thinking or delusion to the clear mind. = the former was a result of the thinking with  

a lots of desire and the greed kind so on, and the later will come only on the moment, 

without thinking, like as an intuitive, spontaneous reflection.

(= this is the reason why, Zen never give a second thought or negotiation.) =

The interaction of the million factors in the Karma gave very reflection of very moment.

And that was what the Dharma gave the person to pick.  —– this Confidence “To be with

the Dharma” is the core of the Enlightenment, hence no hindrance in the life though,

on the face, it looks the life just as it IS = it’s mean no fancy magic or mysterious

supernatural manifestation = hence it was described as common and ubiquitous

as a Dog Shit. = if anybody was saying something “Special Enlightenment” it is a sign

of that the person haven’t learnt what the Zen Buddhism IS.)

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So, look at the photo again.   What do you think of this. —– do you see, is the VOID

between the wire, still a meaningful existence ?  (or the illusion ? = Did the Google too,

saw the illusion and said that this IS the Art ? ? ?     Ha ha ha ! )

___/\___

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Jessop’s Fun-camera Lens

I found yet another fun-camera (One-time use Camera / Camera with Film)

in an Odds and Ends Box of a Camera shop. (for a couple of pounds)

This time it was a Jessop’s product though, since Jessops disappeared many years 

ago, this product was also pretty old.   Old enough to be rotten deep = supposed be 

an unused battery inside was completely corroded and the chemical has been leaked.

Branded Jessops though, it was a Chinese made = hence cheap battery was rotten.

This was an interesting product.   As a Chinese made, it could be a complete

Copy-cat product though,  the Jessops then was a well known English company 

= they could be an easy target of a lawsuit for a Copyright infringement.

So, they didn’t copy the lens by taking a mold —– instead, they put their own

Two-element Lens for this camera.     When Japanese film company, Konica,

Fuji, invented the disposable camera (one-time use camera), they designed the

omnifocus lens using pretty fancy aspherical design.

And to make the camera able to take photos under different lighting condition

with fixed shutter speed (about 1/60th second) on ISO 100~200 film, the

lens has to be about F4~3.5.  Especially after flash light was incorporated,

to have a reasonable picture for 3m, the lens can’t be smaller. = It’s mean,

pan-focus with smaller F-aperture was not an option, therefore, they had to

design sophisticated aspherical lens which could produce a reasonably well

focused image in any distance with F4 diameter (7~8mm).

—– But, without using aspherical lens, Jessops opted to the simple two lens

design with smaller F8 aperture setting, while taking advantage of the

higher ISO sensitivity of 400.

 The trick here was,

 F4 x2 = F5.6  F5.6 x2 = F8    while

 ISO 100 x2 x2 = ISO 400 (the same)

 —– and F8 can give much deeper

 depth of the field

 (= Pan focus effect using ordinally 

 lens though, F8 is not enough for

 close focus). 

 I tested this lens attached with rather

 heavy concave lens to extend the 

 original 27mm focal-length to 44mm, 

in order to use on the Canon EOS, (Photo left)

(thus, 3.5mm lens diameter, now gives F13 = pretty dark to see the finder image)

 

—– Not only that, the image produced by this lens was utterly rubbish. = when F13

lens could make only trash image while having no fancy fuzziness (F13 couldn’t 

have any chance of nice fuzziness) = there wouldn’t be any point to use this lens.

—– Well, not all the experiment has been a successful one.   😀

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Garden Flowers @ Greenwich Park

Lots of flowers from the Greenwich Park. (They were taken by the Homemade

Two Element Lens and the Homemade Gaudy Lens on Canon 5D Mk-III.)

Don’t see this as a botanical picture.  (If this one was for botanical use, it must be a

nightmare for the photographer = may be even beyond the  Hi Dynamic Range process.)

= So, see this as an abstract painting. —– black petunia kind and the white one.  

After green and the blue Chrysanthemum was created, next by next, rather fancy

colored flower has been appearing in the market.  

Another day, I saw an almost perfect black Tulip —– and started wondering, if the

flower industry managed to crack the genetic-code of black color or found the

chemical to tint the flower.  In either way, it is a very very uncomfortable situation. 

They are extra = I found a huge Tulip Tree in the park. = I may need to visit

again to see its ancient flower !

And realized, in fact there are lots of Chestnut tree = better come again

on October to pick the nuts.  🙂

It was a very hot day —– still some people like to enjoy the sun.

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Cosmos and Hydrangea @ Greenwich Park

While checking the photos I’ve taken this time at Greenwich Park,  I went

back to the post I did last year and found that it was one week earlier, yet still

I did shoot almost identical photo then.  = not only the tree, some of the plant was

perennial and stayed the same patch, keep flowering with the same face.  And the

approach to the same plant is the same = amazingly persistent as the same person.

(It’s mean not much fresh innovation or improvement.)  🙂

Two element homemade lens was the same though, this year I brought

“New” Gordy Lens. (Looks somewhat the same fuzziness, but Gordy Lens

can give close focus. = further background became out of focus ! )

Hydrangea was one week too early and having dry hot weather they looked

a bit withered. = I may come again and change the photos here.

Those heavily fuzzier photos were taken by the Double Density Pinhole.

But those closer images were taken by the Gaudy Lens.

(One more post of Greenwich Flowers would follow.)  🙂

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Riot of Colors @ Greenwich Park

Yesterday I went to the Greenwich Park to take picture of Hydrangea. (Its photos

may come next post, though, for the Hydrangea, it was a week too early.)

So, I start with other flowers photo of which I don’t know the name.  = some

of the readers must be more knowledgeable about them = I just put the images. 

The lens used here was, Homemade Two-element Lens or

Homemade Gaudy Lens on Canon 5D Mk-III.

Be like a fire.  I like it.

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