Zeiss — Who ?

You may noticed that I have some Carl Zeiss lenses.   Some for the late Contax SLR, others for Sony A7, there is even a Nikon mount type as well.  (Old collection of the Hasselblad lenses are all German Zeiss, of course.)  While thinking to get new toys, I’ve checked E’bay listing.   Then, I become aware of the almost chaotic situation.   On the E’bay, many of the quite similar Zeiss lenses were listed-up.  (You can see it by yourself) = Since the Carl Zeiss is a lens manufacturer, no longer a camera maker themselves, they’ve been supplying the lenses for each cameras, such as for the  Contax or Hasselblad.  When there was the production of Contax SLR, the camera was made by the Japanese Yashica and the lenses were originally made in Germany.  (then lens production was moved to Japan — said to be to the Tomioka Optics. —– I’m proud to have my Contax lenses were all made in Germany !) 

Now a days, Zeiss is supplying the lenses to Sony and the Leiz Wetzlar is making the lenses for Panasonic Lumix camera (Leiz is making their own Leica camera while making only hand full number of them by literally hand-carving the aluminium shell and put the Panasonic inside.) (and both Zeiss and Leiz are doing well though they themselves are not making the lens at all = just giving the license. (I’m not sure even the design may not to be by Zeiss, just an agreed common computer program —– So, I wonder how the Zeiss has been survived when there wasn’t much of the Japanese business — such as after Contax business closed, but Sony business yet to be started. ) 

Considering the harsh reality that the virtually all the camera  in the world were made by the Japanese, it’s mean, if there wasn’t a Japanese business, there wasn’t any sale of even just a license. —– So, this was the back ground of Zeiss lenses’ chaos.  The Zeiss was making the lenses for the Nikon, Canon etc mount and selling them as an independent lens manufacturer (like Sigma).  As a results, there are so many almost the same but different types of Zeiss lenses in the market. (If you Google = “Zeiss lens, Ebay” you can see mountain of them.  (Though, even the same Sony E-mount, some may work, others may not and only for manual use.   And many of them were for cropped (APS-c) image size — and is not necessary high quality (made in China or Thailand) — have look the top photo left, even an iris is not symmetric round — still, this lens was sold over £600.)  —– What a hell.  Is Zeiss myth still live and exists ? —– or just a ghost ?    😦

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Onion Business

Some time, I had to buy the onions from a street open stole, which has been wet by the passing shower.   Of course I have a choice to go to super market but I’m not such fussy.  (The same onion could be half of the price on the street — still, it would be only a matter of 10P 20P kind of money.) —– Then what will happen to that wet onion IS a bit different story. = I peel off all the wet skin and made them dry.   With wet skin, onion would get rotten easily = so, why not to make them naked. —– You might say why DO I choose to have so much trouble,  just because I didn’t buy dry onions from a roofed shop while paying 10P more. —– Is that true ?    AM I doing  more with wet onions ?    Whether it is a dry one or wet onion, we need to peel off exactly the same number of the skin = only the difference IS to do it now in advance or later.     Without seeing this, most of the people who saw my naked onion just got shocked.  Very Very funny.   😀    This IS the typical sample of,  how our mind was stacked with a preconception and couldn’t see even a plain truth. —– Open your eyes.   😀

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Remove the reflection

After I published the post “Instamatic Macro” I received a mail asking me how I could manage to eliminate the reflection inside of the shiny Macro Tube.   The man was a reader who read my old post “ Tiny Life ” long time ago and in fact, he made the same Macro adapter using similar aluminium can, but having the trouble from the internal reflection. 

(He said that he splayed the inside with a Mat Black Splay Paint though, even with such paint, the surface was pretty smooth and making rather high reflection which is ruining the image.)  On top of the smooth surface, the inside of the round pipe acting like a converging mirror, making a hot bright-spot in the center of the image.  (Hence, its reflection created the images in the previous Post —– though, those photos were the exaggerated reflection from a shiny metal pipe, not from the real macro tube.   😀 )

There are the several method to eliminate the internal reflection = Applying a good Black Velvet is the one, though to glue-up a soft cloth inside of a small can is a very awkward task.   ( I can guaranty you struggle — I know, as I did it before.   😀  )     Proper design will put the proper light barrier discs, though, to insert the full-size disc need to have a full opening of the pipe-end.   Bend and insert a semi-flexible disc (ring) and make it stand in the position is the other way.   (Still, not easy though.)

—– What I did was, to insert a paper spiral inside.   I made a spiral using a semi-soft (stiffer than drawing paper) = (First, made the 3 paper rings which got 2 mm larger  diameter of the can’s internal diameter— then cut and connect them to make a spiral) Then this spiral was slipped inside of the can.  (It needs a good rotating manoeuvre ! ) (I made a paper tool to catch and move the spiral = Photo left.  And how to use it = Photo right.)  —– when the spiral settled in the good position where all the reflection and the glare was shielded, fix the position using a glue.  = Job done !   (for the clarity sake, in the photos, the edge of the spiral has not been painted black. —– I hope, you can see how to work-out this game.)

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PS : For an educational purpose,  I’ll show you the scene behind. Photo left was the same mosquito but without having a reflection eliminated.      And the photo right was how the spiral inside of the macro tube looks like.

 

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Reflectgraphy

Those images were the products of which I didn’t intend or a by-product occurred in the other process.

You will see what I was doing on the next post.







Half of the Photography said to be made just by chance encounter — may be true.  😀

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Instamatic Macro

Well, as I suggested in the previous post that  25 mm lens of 110 Instamatic camera is suited for macro use = So, I made a lens.

No doubt, this must be the most funny looking lens among my homemade lenses, since the material I used was a water bottle for bicycle.  (No problem, it only costed me £1)   The lens was fixed on the cap in the reversed direction, and with its about 17 cm extension, its makes about x6 magnification of the image.

Photo left was  a dead mosquito I found in the kitchen.    I’m not happy with its bit blurry image (available light with 1/3 sec exposure —– at moment I’m not using my Sony with flash light = no synchro-socket, nor adapter) —– anyhow, I need to go out to see something small insects or a kind.  (Photography is a kind of life live on the leg. = You can’t do it while sitting.)   😀

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Instamatic Camera (and its 25mm lens)

I found a dear old 110 type Kodak Instamatic Camera (together with their 126 type brother as well) in a junk-box of a camera shop.  This camera shoot 12×18 mm size image with its 25 mm lens. = So, it is possible to put this lens onto Sony A7 camera and see small round image though, if it was a case, have a test on the original camera with a film would be more worthwhile. 

But what I was thinking was, try to expand the image by adding a diverging lens on front (make it to a retrofocus type lens).

But, while disassembling this camera, I was amazed how the designer made this camera complicated.  (Due to the camera has to do so many tasks = wind the film, charge the shutter, rotate the Flash-cube, change the shutter speed for bright or cloudy day, together with shutter click then return the mechanism to the first state) —– Once disassembled, never able to put it back again !   (In comparison to today’s “One time use camera” which is doing about the same with much simpler mechanism,  they looks almost like a hell.)

With an added diverging lens, its became about 32 mm lens though, the image circle didn’t come wide enough to cover the full frame.  (I need to find even stronger diverging lens.)  (Lens quality was just usable with such modification.) 

PS : As I said above, I further tested that 25 mm lens with much stronger diverging lens (which has been used for other “Fancy lens” before) = With stronger diverging power, the lens could have much longer back-focus = hence larger image circle which can cover the full frame.  The image quality of the center was usable though the corner became very bad. —– Then I gave a thought, —– for a technical challenge, I found a sort of the answer though, ? ? ?   DO I need to use this lens ?   = On the end it became rather big = While having Very tiny omnifocus “Fun camera lens” etc, why do I need to use such lens ?  —– The reason why I started to use Sony A7 was, that I can go for shooting with my camera and 3~4 lenses all in my pocket ! =  May be this Kodak 25 mm lens suite only for macro use !

So, I tested this Kodak 25 mm lens as a macro lens, while mounting it on the reverse direction —– with 18 cm extension  = The results wasn’t too bad.  😀

(Photo left was a close-up shot (about  x7) of a Butterfly Wing.  Photo right were the screen of the tablet.)

—– Not so much dramatic outcome though, it was still a fun for one afternoon.  😀

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July Moon

I don’t think I got any obligation to follow the moon — still, as I saw it, and I took pictures.  ( but very brief moment.)  I think may be I saw it less than a minuets or two. 

And when I mounted my 500mm lens onto the camera, soon she disappeared behind the clouds and never come out again.) —– ?  so, what’s the problem ? 

Nothing.    (I just missed the photo. —– What’s the problem ?   Nothing )

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Throw a stone

The words here “Throw a stone” is a metaphor or a symbol indicating that there is a meaning behind of such action — in Zen term, a Direct Transmission.  Why Direct Transmission ? — Because the words couldn’t convey the meaning behind or such meaning would be lost if it was expressed in the words. 

After many years, I suddenly realized that Lord Buddha never spoken about the Concept or the Idea conceived in the mind other than in the metaphoric stories.  His teachings were doing or show what or how to do.  And never explained what its action for or meanings of it.  So that, the Disciples were guessing or making their own interpretation if not their own understanding. —– The most of the scriptures were such kind of interpretations or guess-works and very little real teachings of Buddha was recorded because of very few could manage to catch the meaning behind, let alone describe them in the scripture.  (So that, the Buddhism has been surrounded by the mountain of buzz-words created by a superficial capturing such as Selfless, No-thinking, Mushin, Dedication, Self-sacrifice, Detauchment, No-greed, No-emotion, No-fear, Mindfulness, Middle way, — etc etc.)

In deed, Lord Buddha didn’t teach  the meaning or the intention behind of his teachings.  BECAUSE to explain such meaning WILL destroy the teaching itself. (It was recorded in the scripture typically as “Unanswered Questions” =  the abstract, imaginary notions such as an idea of  SELF or theoretical existence like an Infinity, were completely ignored by him.)

—– Do something, JUST do something without do other than DO, = such as to take a bicycle and ride, and go shopping.  When you do such riding, you ARE not thinking how to ride, how to push the feet or take a balance = because, you do it without any conscious “Let alone any conscious of I’m DOING the bicycle ride” = In fact, you ARE doing it without your SELF.  AS this IS the evidence of that the SELF IS not exists, and the idea of the SELF was a creation of your conscious or IMAGINATION.  Since the SELF is not exists, the notion or its word is not exists either (in other words, they were INTENTIONALY created to deal with those notion.) = Therefore, it IS not possible to explain the idea of “There is no SELF” = you can’t explain this without using the notion or the word SELF other than you yourself realize that you ARE riding the bicycle without the conscious of SELF.  Lord Buddha taught his followers to learn it through the action (or a kind of repeating practice — mind you there wasn’t a bicycle then.  😀 ) —– still, how his teachings was successful or succeeded was quite questionable = AND as he was aware of it, he had to leave the very last words “Don’t take the other’s words, learn it by YOURSELF” —– The history of the Buddhism showed nothing but the silly misunderstanding or more precisely the lack of understanding among the followers since then.   (I’ll show it with the most typical sample of “Middle way” in the next post.)

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Save a junk (replace a Prism of Pentax)

In our network, I seems to be a man, the most hopeless junk would end up.  May be because I could find a way to repair or utilize it = not just I got some skills but also I’m keeping many junks which could be used as a spare to repair.  So, people described me a resourceful man —– then I gave a thought or two

—– May be the matter here was not what I got for spare or a skill to use but the way of thinking. = I got very flexible way of thinking, — or more precisely I never trained to follow the standard or regular method, therefore I may conceive totally different approach and able to find a fancy solution.  This is a freedom to be an outsider.  😀

One typical sample is the Tilting Macro Bellows of which I made the orignal nearly 50 years ago.  Only a small cost of lens and camera body caps + straight bracket etc, (and some cut and grue works) = what I got was a device which can make a close-up photo up to 1:1 + tilting adjustment.  Simply the reason to make such adapter was, I needed to have a macro lens though, I didn’t have a money (I was a Uni’ student and my saving had gone to Nikon F body and 50mm F2 already). —– If it was the situation, the answer and the solution was, why not to make one myself !  The requirement for close-up photo was, to hold the lens further away from the body, and how far from the body correspond to the magnification = 50mm extension for 50mm lens would create 1:1 / life-size close-up. —– And what I made, Tilting Macro Bellows, was good enough, and worked exactly what I expected.  In there, there was no jump of thinking = everything was pretty rational and simple —– yet still, as no body ever made like this before indicates, there was a kind of blockage in thinking that the camera device must be very rigid and elaborated. (to be a good salable commodity —– no solution for homemade poor man’s choice can be existed) 

A Pentax film camera brought by somebody got hopelessly heavy black fungi in the center of the finder prism.   In normal sense, the prism may be replaced (by Pentax or somebody keeping a spare parts) but the cost of the repair would be no less than £50 or even more, while the value of such old camera would be less than £50.  It’s no worth to consider. = so, the camera came to me.  —– I was thinking to use its mirror to make a side view adapter etc. 

Then somebody need a film camera for Pinhole photo, I thought this camera can be a good candidate.  For hours of ultra long exposure (use dark ND filter together) view finder has to be blacked-out too. —– but, to frame a direction, finder would be useful. —– To remove the fungi, peel off the paint and coating then clean the glass — is a straight forward procedure though, — wait a moment, the prism of the 35mm film camera must be all same size (as the image size is the same 36×24 mm) the prism doesn’t need to be the same Pentax. = Why not Canon. (as I happen to have a disassembled Canon body, it was easy to get a prism out of its frame.

So, I disassembled the Pentax K1000 body to remove the fungi infested Prism. (It’s alway the case, — I know from the past 40 years experiences — a screw fixing the wind-up lever is the most awkward to Remove.   Some of them were CCW screw and break-off, or using screw lock grue = needed to heat-up and melt) 

Once the top cover was removed, the prism is easily accessible.  Behind the prism (alongside the view finder) mounted CdS are for measuring the exposure. (Photo Right)  Pentax is doing exactly the same since their SP, but later addition of the top (smaller) CdS is to compensate the strong back (sky) light.

(Photo left was Pentax prism.  Photo middle was Canon Prism.  Photo right = Canon prism was happily settled on the Pentax head. )

On the end, the Prism swap operation was a great success.  Leaving an empty Canon junk frame behind,  the Pentax K1000 got new lease of life.     🙂

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Ultra Wide Angle Lens (Sony 12~24mm F4 Zoom)

I had an opportunity to test an ultra wide-angle lens, Sony 12~24mm F4 lens.  With its spec, the lens was amazingly light (in comparison to similar Nikon or Canon lens, it only half of the weight.  And smaller.)  Mounted on Sony A7R body, its handling balance was very comfortable. And function well.

Though, the image itself, the 12mm lens’ 120° view is not so new to the man using 15mm lens or fisheye lens almost like an everyday occurrence for the past 40, 50 years, looks nothing special.

To make the view with a big distortion of perspective or looks more natural is not difficult at all. (in fact, it would be only few degree of the camera angle or move the position few steps away.)

The lens was supposedly a rectilinear, not fisheye though, having rather prominent barrel distortion.  (Both Nikon and Canon seems to have about the same distortion) (All the pictures here showd quite of a vignetting (corners getting darker) because of they were taken with fully open F4 = so, the shutter speed was 1/3000th kind and the water splash became the dot ! )

The lens said to have some measure of dust and water protection though, we better not to trust them.  Simply because, we the user will be the one who suffer with the trouble, and the service charge of the Sony is three times more expensive (Any service start with £90 deposit and another £90 for repair — even for just tighten-up a screw !)

The image which give you the impact or pressure may not necessary be created by the lens, it is simply the matter of subject or the landscape.  (You have to find the “impressive subject” first.   😀 )

But I’m not implying you to feel any impact here.    😀

(You know, it IS a joke = Ultra wide-angle or Fisheye is easy to make a joke as they can twist the view very easily.  In other words, often it is very tricky to show the natural view without any exaggeration.  Such as, that the lens can take a picture of very confined place though, it would give a false impression, as if it was a wide space.)

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