Focus Shift (A)

Focus shift is a kind of the holy grail to me in the soft image photography

together with the camera vibration.   Since the images of both techniques

were affected by the three dimension or the depth of the subject, it wouldn’t

be replicated by a digital graphical manipulation or a soft filter.

(effect of filter appears everywhere flat, same as a graphical effect —

otherwise it needs to give days of manipulation, pixel by pixel.)

So that, I’ve been working for this quite a while, hence such as the lens

 in the photo appeared here long ago. (Lens was Canon FD 50mm F1.8)

A device I made was not so complicated electronic controller which takes

the signal of the shutter-open from the Flash-hot-shoe then to start the   

AF motor in the lens, hence focus-shift (from the pre-focused point.)

= in the effect, the resulting image has both focused sharp image and

 an off-focused, fuzzy halo around.   The beauty of this technique is,  

it is not rely on the lens’ aberration but the out of focus Bokeh, therefore 

it can be done with any focal length. (as long as I got such modified lens) 

(For another lens = “softness made by the vibration of the lens” = which

can be done with ANY = non modified lens, would become ideal.)

(Click and see enlarged photo — the sharp detail is still there. )

(The field report would be coming soon.)  🙂 

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Wide-converter to Soft Telephoto Lens

It may looks a bit drastic action to deal with camera optics.  🙂 

Though, today’s camera lens made by a plastic was often fixed by a

liquid glue hence impossible to disassemble. = So, it calls drastic action !

—– There was a funny idiosyncratic subconscious = optics has to be handled

with kids-gloves on.   And this apply to a gear obtained for almost nothing.

So, the edge of the Wide-converter (and its Lens Retaining Ring) was cut.  

And the ring was (carefully) lifted-up and removed. (Photo above left)

= Then the converter’s front concave lens was separated from

the converging rear optics. (Photo right, center front. — this concave lens 

looks as strong as minus 15 diopter.) 

Mounting this “rear section” of the converter to a DSLR camera —–

I found this optics works as an (about) 160mm telephoto lens.

And as I expected, the image produced had a lots of aberration = fuzzy images

still, by reducing the original (about) F-4 to F-11 with a hole on a black paper

(Photo above Right) the quality of the images were drastically improved.

(but don’t expect a quality of thousand pound genuine lens)  🙂 —– in fact,

this optics had achieved what  I failed before with the Tamron 300 mm lens.

= Soft Telephoto Lens !

The Photo left was fully open.  ——— And the Photo right was F-11 (?) ! ! !

But to be fare to the expensive lens, they are not just boasting the quality.

(I wouldn’t play ignorant for the sake of fuzzy image.   🙂 )

This photo was taken by the Canon EF 70~200 F2.8 at 200 mm

and a clopped center.

And this photo was by the Tamron Mirror 500mm F8 and a clopped center.

In a closer range, the effect of Iris (full or F11) looks so clear. = It’s mean,

by changing the size of a hole in a black paper (white paper may

increase the halation even more.  🙂 ) we can chose the softness to the

degree what we prefer.

—– So, I had a fun. (and planning the field test)

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Play with Lens

 So far I made quite few lenses to obtain soft-focus or wide-angle pinhole etc,

mostly by utilizing single lens. (still, some of them seemed to be an achromatic

compound lens)  Single lens has inherent aberrations which produces soft image.

Furthermore, I’ve experimented soft images with focus shift or even with camera

shake/vibration using aberration corrected normal lenses. Though, those approaches 

were hardly called technique but more like an opportunist seeking a good luck, since 

the success rate was rather low = lots of try and only few will show the good results. 

That’s because, when the focus ring was rotated while camera’s shutter was open,   

the resulting shake gives devastating effect than a soft nice blur.

= make smooth focus shift while camera was held steadily. = That’s what I need. 

Inside of the Canon G9 compact camera, I found pretty useful mechanism.  

(1) A motor moves the lens.  (2) Small stepping motor shifts a lens for focus.

—– though, those two mechanisms were constructed on the same plastic piece.

(Photo above, left) = I needed to cut and separate its center mechanism out of the

lim with DC motor.  (second photo shows the separated piece = the lim which can

drive a cogged barrel — in the second photo top, the lens was placed in the barrel)  

Photo 3rd and 4th showed the center mechanism — the lens was pushed out most

and pulled inward most by its stepping motor.

The photo above, left is the cogged barrel = when it was rotated by the motor,

the barrel, hence the lens will be extended(= Pushed out) (photo center)  

When motor rotate opposite direction = lens was pulled in. (photo right)

Those function is exactly what I need for a smooth Focus-shift.

 In order to have an experiment to get a soft focus by the focus-shift ( by a normal

lens, not by the aberration) I took the lens unit out of a Canon 50mm FD lens.  

(Photographic equivalent of gouging the eye !)

( a disc shaped mechanism on the right is the Iris — very useful device )

The lens unit which I’ve put inside of the plastic barrel, in the photo before was this

Canon 50mm F1.8 Lens.  —– though, on the test, I found that this Canon 50mm FD

lens can’t give an infinity focus on Canon EOS = only usable closer than few meters.

(otherwise, the EOS’s mirror will hit the lens bottom.  😦  )

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Then, give a thought, what all those hustle for ?

—– Why not just modify a Canon EF 50mm for EOS = 

put an extra electronic connection to override their AF motor !

(Ideally, huck into the Canon camera’s OS and reprogram it to give a focus-shift while

shutter is open = was the best though, not only the risk to destroy the camera but also,

the Canon doesn’t like it at all. ) 

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Daffodil — Lens Test

As the spring has started, I took the lenses (in fact quite few) which I “made” duling 

 the winter hibernation out to the test.  🙂

And those lenses were designed to use with 

 tilting bellows I specially made for Canon 5D.

Photo left, Those three lenses (mounted on the

 Nikon mount adapter) were saved from 

 the broken cameras or lenses.

— Left one came from Canon G9, center one from an old zoom lens and the right one

came from a Wide-adapter and as they are having focal-length about 50mm~60mm

therefore effective F-aperture is about F2 (fully open only ! )   And being used on the

Tilting bellows they are able to give a focus from infinity to more than 1:1 close-up.

(with a bit of difficulty on use.  😀 )

Most of the photos here were taken by the “Center lens” photo before, except

the right photo above, which was taken by the Canon Fisheye lens.

Well, they were just a fraction of test shot —– still, shows some results

which I appreciate a lots.  🙂       ( —– whatever you say.  😀  ) 

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Fun from a broken Camera (2)

It was two weeks ago when I showed this photo of Canon G9.

Among the disassembled component, I found some of them are useable.

Such as the front lens alone (photo above left)  could be used as a 50 mm F2.6 lens

and the second group of the optics (photo above center) is a very strong diverging

(concave) lens = could be used to widen the view of a pinhole camera.

In order to use a lens, it has to be mounted somewhere — to a lens mount or

to a filter ring etc. —– unless it got exact diameter or screw pitch, we need to fill

the gap and glue (epoxy) them.  

I cut a beer can’s thin metal to the needed diameter and fix it with epoxy.

To do this kind of work, I bought M39 to M42 adapter ring and M42 to Nikon F

mount adapter. (Those item’s cost were only few pounds though, it took 2 weeks to 

get them here, and as being as cheap Chinese products, noting is what we expected

= M42 screw was slightly larger and couldn’t fit to the Pentax original mount.  

And the clow of Nikon Mount bayonet was too thin hence it was too loose.  

For M39 to M42 ring, I “re-cut” the M42 screw (Photo left in the center).

 (Photo Left : Nikon to Canon Adapter though,

part of its diameter was 0.5mm too large

= needed to file-down !)

(Such laborious cutting work with file is 

nothing but a good Zen practice.  😀 )

Second group of concave lens aforesaid was

mounted on the center of M42 to Nikon 

mount adapter. (photo above center)  

And the Front lens of G9 was mounted

on to a Nikon mount adapter via M39-M42 ring. (photo right) 

So, what was those hastle for ? —– The photo (right) here was taken by the

front lens of discarded Canon G9 Camera aforesaid.

(Left photo was also taken by a single lens came from another broken zoom lens).

( I’m preparing those lenses for the coming flower season ! )

If you like to see “sharp but ubiquitous” photo, please go to phone-camera.

The photos here, the images were full of aberration and halation still where

the focus lies, it’s sharp.  (Look the enlarged photo) —– they might be

the images what we are actually seeing.

(like impressionist painter had found).  🙂

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Hoben (方便) / Upaya — (2)

Most of the books I refer to, are I brought from Japan and unless I need to find

the English word, I do not look into Wiki kind. —– So, I tell you the truth,

until few days ago, I didn’t know that there a Sanskrit word for Hoben (方便), Upaya

existed.   In Japan Hoben is a widely used word spread out of the Buddhism,

which has an extended meaning of “convenient mean” or “easy alternative” kind,

and the original Buddhist context was masked by those common usage.

Lord Buddha’s witty teachings, which was timely and suit to the occasion, or to

the person speaking to, is a well known stories, hence those witty talk style has

been adapted by the Zen talk, or even by the children’s comic book “Ikkyu-san”.

As its casual use became so common, we almost forgotten it had a Buddhism origin.

—– So that, to find this word, “Upaya” really surprised me, not because of its

meaning but the attitude, the ancient monk did created a dedicated nickname for 

Lord Buddha’s talking style, yet still, they couldn’t find the meaning of

Lord Buddha’s silence.

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Do you talk about the prostitute or prostitution in public ? I don’t think you do.

It’s a dirty talk and officially, it’s not exist in your life.  And if it’s not in the society,

neither a word prostitution exists.   It’s mean, even if anybody asked about it, you

can not understand what it mean nor able to answer.

To Lord Buddha, talking about Atman or Self never happened, because no such things

of the Self exists and to talk about a thing which is not exists was nothing but a 

delusion and it is a dirty talk.   Because of it is not exists and as he doesn’t have, it was 

no use to make a question about the Self or its reincarnation to him, because 

he wouldn’t answer anyway, since even no word, no notion was there.

= This was the reason why, to those questions, there was no answer from

Lord Buddha at all.

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And when the teaching was related to the Self, there was no explanatory words

but to show the practice which would lead to the “Selfless State of the mind” —–

or just to give a smile, otherwise (if you can’t get it), the excommunication.

(This was the reason why no explanation of “No Self” was in the scripture.

—– either it was omitted because of the conflict with the Hinduism or it couldn’t

be written down because, no such things like a Self exists.)

(In Buddhism, especially in Zen, there is nothing between Yes and No.

Yes mean 200% commitment but if it was No, even a word No itself is no longer exist.

= it is not a denial or even an argument but a total erasure = the subject, the matter

is completely disappeared. = hence no psychological conflict.

When no-self, there is even no subject, who is thinking the matter.)

___/\___

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Blinds and Elephant

Among the millions of metaphors human culture has, the one such as

“Moon and Pointing Finger” was known to be associated with Zen Buddhism.

A story of the Blinds and Elephant was too widely known and seemed to have

lost its origin.   But this story/metaphor has Buddhist origin too, and this

metaphor was exactly about the Buddhists themselves, was forgotten.

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There are tens if not hundreds of the descriptions to explain Buddhism.   Such as

Mushin, Void, Mindfulness, Middle way, Clear-eyes, Detachment, Impermanence,

Ichijo, Compassion, Dharma, Karma, Delusion, Contemplation, Enlightenment,

— etc etc.   So that, the people whether believer or the outsider, they think that

there are many aspects, or the elements in the Buddhism which necessitates to

master next by next — though, it is the utter misunderstanding or misguided idea.

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Since those Notion and the Words were used to describe a state of the mind,

people were made to believe that such each state IS exists.  = Just same as

one blind man told while touching its flapping ear saying “The Elephant is a

soft thin disk just like a nan bread” and the other said “Oh, it is a very thick

rubbery hose, like a vacuum car’s hose” etc etc.

—– The trouble to deal with Buddhism was, that the most of its phenomena,

state of the mind are in the subconscious of the person, hence it is invisible to

the people, even to the person himself.   Inevitably, all those descriptions were

nothing but a guess work of the person, mixed with the hearsay. —– It’s mean,

a person who couldn’t even see the own mind speaking about the Buddhism, let

alone whether he himself had reached to the level to know what the Buddhism is.

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Typical sample of it in these days is, the fashion of “Mindfulness” even in a kind of

business lecture !   The most funny things about this word “Mindfulness”, there is

NO Japanese or Chinese word of this notion exists. = It was a western invention or

made-up —– probably, a sham doctor selling miracle portion kind of “Zen monk”

had used the word first, while having a misunderstanding that the Zen is “a kind of

concentration of the mind”.

If you know about the Zen Buddhism a little bit, you may know the word “Mushin =

Mind of no-mind” —– sound somewhat opposite of “Mindfulness” though, as a state

of the mind, those two is in-separable one.  (and nothing like a concentration at all =

Zen is a completely relaxed, open, detached mind = hence No-mind / Void = in fact,

all those different explanations were about the same state —– the person who said,

didn’t know the real situation / state in his real experience — came from hearsay )

= So, it is clear, the person who is using a word “Mindfulness” is a person who is

pretending to know the Zen Buddhism, (and telling “It’s a hose of vacuum-car”) 😀

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—– A funny story in Japan is, one of the big University, Waseda Uni’ has a

student group called “Mindfulness Society” = obviously following a book (or two)

written by the westerner. —– Or, they might have learned that “Mindfulness is no

longer the Buddhism but New religion” = Cool western religion !

— What a hose. 😀

___/\___

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Morning Sky

Well, most of the morning sky in the Autumn, in London are dull gray.

Still, time to time we can see the sky like this.  This was the sky on 

the 17 Oct’ 2014 / 6: 46 (long before actual sunrise over the roof)

The lens used was Canon EF 40 mm F2.8 on 5D Mk-III.

—————————– 7:17 ——————————————- 7:19 —————————————— 7:24

The photo in the middle was by Tri-color Pinhole.

(Otherwise it looked like next — 7:24 photo)

————- Then, I saw the sun over the roof.   8: 08 ————————————- 9:34

In fact, the last one = 9:34 , the sky was just bright, colorless sky.  

I’ve added the color by  Tri-color Pinhole. (Sky, Pink, Orange)

So, this was the cloudy sky this morning,  8:10  colored by the Tri-color Pinhole.

It’s somewhat convincing isn’t it ? —– it may looks like a Turner’s oil painting.  

I like this as a good joke.   🙂 

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Key Mechanism in Zen Buddhists Mind

While you were walking, you never thought how to move the foot for next step and

to read this blog you were not aware that your eyes is following the letters next by next.

This is what we called “Selfless State of the Mind” and you never expect to create the

money out of walking itself (itself mean, not such a thing to find a coin on the street or to

reach the place to do the business = they are the by-product or benefit from the walking.)

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For the people who want to get the Mushin or Selfless state in Zen, this kind of natural

Selflessness seems to be too casual and too far from the Buddhists practice though, it is

a matter of the mind-set which expect “More elaborated fashionable practice”.

But if you were a Prisoner of War and was ordered to walk to a camp 100 miles away —–

the mind-set might make the difference of life or death.

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When a task was given by an order or from a situation in the life, first, it’s needed to

have a “Contemplation” some time interpreted as an acceptance, giving-up (to resist) or

determination to take the task (which ever it was passive or more positive, active way).

—–> And as it was accepted = no way else to go = have to face

the task head-on (this is called “Mindfulness”).

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So, just get on the life (task).    Whether it was walking or small manual practice to do,

JUST DO, regardless whether it looks endless and boring.

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When we do repeated endless task, our brain rise the threshold of the importance of

the signal = and whole process would be categorized as neither flesh nor important.

= Brain start to process the matter without referring the signal to the Emotional 

region of the brain (in the old cortex) and it become as a routine.

In the same time, whole action process would be programmed into the Motor region

and become to an automatic action. —–> Hence, our brain does the task without

Emotion (=Detachment), without needs of thinking (since it was routine and

done in automatic) = = = This is MUSHIN.

And the task was just a repeated insignificant mundane task = no special interest 

could dwell there = nothing to arose EGO or GREED. = = = This is the SELFLESSNESS.

JUST DO IT.

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Once the person get used with “Desensitized perception” even other-things would be

seen detached as well. = No Emotional involvement to the useless matters in the life.

= = = This is the peaceful quiet life to be a Buddhist.   🙂

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And this, neuroscience, brain physiology behind our subconscious was the key

mechanism of the Lord Buddha’s teachings of the Selflessness and the Void.

Also, this was the reason why, despite the mambo-jumbo in the scriptures, the core

of the teachings were kept intact in a tradition of the Practice.

(The Buddhists on the street doesn’t read the scriptures anyway.= They only

taught and know the Buddhism in the Practice. = such as just chanting the title.)

___/\___

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Pear Skin

In this post, I’m talking about completely different several topics. 

To start, all of those are the photos of peeled skin of a pear.  

— peeled and dried skin.     The photo, top photo was taken by

the 4th version of Double-Density Pinhole. (Shutter speed was 1/30th)

And this photo was taken by the Two Elements Homemade Lens.

(Equivalent of  F4.5  and 1/250th)

Then this is the normal kind of photo taken by the Canon EF 40 mm F2.8.  

(at F11 and  1/100th)     Something special was that all those three photos

were taken on the ISO 25,600 setting !  —– Even with such high ISO setting,

the color and the smooth tonal character wasn’t too bad though, very peculiar

point was that the rough grain appeared only on the top (pinhole) photo.

 = a sort of common knowledge,  the rough grain appears on high ISO setting

= if that was the case, why other two photos doesn’t show the grain at all  ? ? ?

The another matter here was,

why drying the fruits peel ?

Well, in order to prevent the fruits Fly

appear, I decided not to make a wet 

garbage in a bin, but first dry them 

spread next to the window.

(Fly doesn’t come to the exposed, half dry skin)

Once, fruits skin, orange peel etc were dried, they never attract fly = it’s mean

there wouldn’t be any conflict.  (may looks a bit messy though, nobody sees it.)

I think this is the Buddhist like solution — remove the cause, resulting no conflict,

fight or killing = What a peaceful solution.  Don’t you agree ?   🙂

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