Ring Flash / Flash Story

——– (This Ring Flash was made to use with the Fish-eye lens on the

——– Yoshi-handy handmade camera, 36 years ago !  😀 ) 

In some posts ago,  I’ve shown Studio Flash and ring Flash tube.  

May be I should talk a bit more about Electronic Flash-light. — Why It’s called “Electronic

Flash” was, before, Flash-light meant Bulb Flash = the people over 60 might remember,

even if it was not a typical bulb shape, how about Flash-cube / Magicube at the time of

Kodak Instamatic camera, they are still flash bulb, but only small.  🙂

Flash bulb was an “Explosive device” = thin aluminium foil was packed into a glass bulb

with Oxygen and ignited by an electric spark, with a “Bong” noise !  

( I only know from Antic collection though, yet before  Flash bulb, it was an explosive 

magnesium powder = it’s literally explode ! —– hence, all the assistant of a photographer

used to have a lots of spot on their face, burnt by the exploding magnesium powder.  😀)

  []  

Unlike such hot staffs, electronic flash is using a discharge of high voltage electric energy

through a Xenon gas filled tube.  To make this, a capacitor inside of a Flash was slowly

charged-up to high voltage, then discharge it in an instant to produce very intense bright light.  

Like an electric spark, it needs to be high voltage, and the larger the capacitor,  

the light produced from it would be the brighter.  

This is the reason why a camera’s built-in flash, which got only small capacitor inside, was

not bright-enough to reach distance.             In contrast, a studio type big Flash having a bank of

capacitors connected parallel to store huge energy, 

and the big flash tube was made by a quartz to

withstand the heat shock created by a

discharge of huge energy.  

And to charge-up those capacitors, studio type is

using the main electricity and a

portable type, clip-on type are using electronic

voltage converter to rise the battery voltage

to 315 ~ 350 V.  

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As I said, the electric energy is first charged into

the capacitor.  

The capacitor is an electric device, which was

made by insulated two metal plates or foils

to store electric charge.  In order to store as much

as energy, very thin two aluminium foils were

tightly wound together.    And to separate two

metal foils, paper or plastic film ect. which called 

dielectric material was sandwiched between.  

But most of the capacitor used in a flash equipment is a

type called Electrolytic capacitor which is not using common insulator, hence smaller in size.

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It is not well known to the people that those Electrolytic Capacitor has a limited life.  

Especially if the equipment was not used long time (more than a year) they might be dead

and a moment when it was switched on again after long rasp of the time, the capacitor

would be internally short-circuited and gone for ever. —– ?   Why the insulation breaks ?

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If you tested the conductivity of Aluminium, you may know, despite the Aluminium is a

very good conductor,  Anodised surface shows no conductivity.   With the Anodisation,

the surface  of Aluminium was covered with the aluminium oxide which is an insulator.

Instead to use a separate insulator between two Aluminium foil,  Electrolytic Capacitor

is using this oxide coating developed own surface as a dielectric / insulator.  

So that, as long as the capacitor was kept receiving electric current, they maintain

the oxidized coating on the surface of aluminium foil.   But if the equipment was left

unused long time, the insulative coating deteriorate.

—– And a moment when it was switched on again, and the voltage rose high,  the

insulation breaks down and makes two foils short-circuited and start to generates heat,

or the power transistor pumping the high voltage into the capacitor burns-out.  

If the capacitor over heat  it would explode.   (In fact, the situation is always the same

where ever electrolytic capacitor was used — such as even an audio power amp.)

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The remedy to this situation is, the same as to initialise a capacitor in a factory.  

= slowly charge up the capacitor while waiting the insulating coat grows on the

surface of the aluminium foil (in its anode-side, hence it called Anodisation.)

—– To do this, professional people use variable transformer (Rheostat) and sloooowly 

rise the voltage while giving hours of time.  

(If you try, — You need to constantly measure the voltage of the capacitor —– first

second or two of switch-on, when you see the voltage rise to 5~10 V, then switch-off — if

the voltage shows “slowly” dropping, switch on again to see it reach to 15 V —- then

switch-off and wait till it’s drop to 10 V and switch on to 20 V again (like two step

forward, one step back) —— in this way until it reached to more than 300 V then to

the full —– all the process will takes hours !   🙂  or 😦  

 —– But if you see the voltage drops rather quick, and  never rise above

the certain voltage, don’t push it further, and you have to

accept that the capacitor is already dead !  —– Sorry about  😦  

(still better than to see it exploded in messy manner.)

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In another approach, if the capacitor could be disconnected from the charging circuit.  

(But this is only for the experienced person.) —– Use the main AC power.  

Connect a Rectifier to live, and 100 K (may be reduced to 50 K, 10 K on the later stage)

register to neutral.   And use this rectified direct current to charge up the capacitor.  

In the first few seconds, when the capacitor’s voltage  rose to 10 V, then disconnect.  

When voltage was dropped to 5 V then charge it to 15 V (Keep a distance of up and

down proportional  —– repeat this again and again, while time to time having a break

(to have a cup of tea  🙂 and make a capacitor to regain a potential to charge-up to

higher voltage) and slowly bring the voltage to the full.  

From the main voltage in Europe, rectified voltage would be 310 ~ 330 V, about the

same voltage of the working flash.  But in the US  110 V, it’s needs  to use voltage

doubler circuit.   And a fully charged capacitor of 1000 microF, 2000 microF has an

energy to evaporate a tip of screw-driver, if it was short circuited — and hell like Bang!  

= Before you do any  work, always DO NOT FORGET to discharge the capacitor

through 5W 1K register.

(If you couldn’t understand  what I’m talking here straight, DO NOT attempt to try this !

—– to touch AC main, 200, 300 V DC is killingly dangerous for amateur !  

(Accident happens in a completely unexpected moment, in an unexpected situation.)

  []  

Assuming the capacitor is working perfect, the rest of the flash circuit is rather simple.

The thick two cables from capacitor were connected to the both end of a flash tube.  

And an additional cable was attached outside of flash tube = this is the trigger which

receives 3000 V or higher voltage pulse. —– To trigger this very high voltage pulse, a switch

inside of camera shutter-mechanism used to short circuit a small capacitor in the primary

side of trigger coil, then in the  secondary side 3000 ~4000 V pulse will be produced.    

But now-a-day, sophisticated electronic camera can not take such high voltage, —– instead,

a trigger to flash was done by low-voltage signal.  

= (In another word, to connect very old flash to a modern DSLR is highly risky.  

(If you got Test Meter, you can measure how high the trigger voltage of the flash, on the

connector of  Flash extension cable.  If it shows more than 15 V, (it could be as high as 100 V),  

never use it direct to the camera = Use a Slave trigger.)

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Once you understood the structure of flash-light, to modify it, is not very difficult.  

My Ring flash on the photo was made to take the power from Brown F900 power pack

but before it was connected to Kako hummer-head flash.   As long as it receives 300 ~ 350 V,

it will flash and the light-intensity is depend on the size of the capacitor.  

(By the way, Flash-tube’s life is also limited !  = Don’t expect it works for ever.  😀 )

(That Ring Flash Tube can take, up to  200 WS = C x V-square x 1/2 = Wat-Second

such as—–1000 microFarad x 315V x 315V x  1/2 = 50 WS = GN may be about 25~28  though

it’s all depends on the efficiency, size of the reflector, how old the tube is, etc. etc.)

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End of Summer — Snap-shot by 500 mm Lens

If I didn’t tell you, you may not noticed that they were taken by 500 mm lens.

All the photos here except the obvious one were taken by a Tamron 500 mm

Mirror lens.  Photo looks pretty ordinary, and nothing special are they ?

Even with its 500 mm focal length, thanks to its fundamental design (incoming light

was internally reflected back and forward twice)  mirror lens can be less than 1/3rd of

its  focal length = in deed,  this lens got

only  11o mm long and 87 mm diameter

= say, mere one-size larger than my mug-cup.

So, the people on front of the camera may not

noticed that they’ve  been photographed.

= anyway they don’t mind others 10 , 20 m away. 

And of cause, I could easily take picture of a Mulberry, few left high on a branch. 

I found scattered confetti on a ground = it must be left by a wedding photo-do.

So, the summer 2013 has gone. (more or less)  😉

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Reflection on a pond

Those are the simple straight shot of the reflection on a water.  

If only it was not simple, was they were shot by 500 mm lens.

Please see the photos in large size by clicking the photo (and again.  😉 )

Long telephoto lens mean, it was in fact just in a small corner of the water.   😉

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500 mm Macro lens ?

The other day I tested an 800mm Mirror lens of which my friend just obtained.

In fact it was a gift from his Daughter.  Lens was for Canon DSLR though, funnily enough

he got no Canon SLR.  —— that’s why I was asked to test, whether for a sake of that lens,

is it worthwhile to buy a camera body.  🙂     These days, people seeing even a small compact

camera started to have extremely high zoom ratio, such as Panasonic’s  x60 zoom

(equiv’ 20 ~ 1200 mm)  they no longer “fear” long telephoto lens.

—– That lens was (amazingly !) good.     So, he is going to become a bird photographer.  🙂

I hope him to become an expert of  “800 mm” lens and capture a lots of bird photos.

As a matter of fact, I got a Mirror lens too, but not  800 mm, my one is  500 mm.

“Naturally”, not very often used though, it was a Tamron F8 Mirror lens = once dabbed

as the second best mirror lens among the 500 mm mirror lens after the Zeiss.  (mind you,

Zeiss Mirrotar 500 mm carries a price of  5 million yen —– but Tamron was 50,000 yen

—– I got it in second hand for 20,000 yen.  😉 )

Not just sharp, Tamron 500 mm was designed to produce good close-up image as well, 

hence its closest distance comes down to  1.7 m and able to take  x 1/3 close-up !

This is a clopped part of the photo. Depth of the field is so shallow still, not too bad isn’t it,  

considering it was nearly  2 m away.    (Can you imagine to look into the reflecting pattern

of batterfly’s eye from  2 m distance ! ) —– (Only when if we could manage extremely

critical focus under F8  darkness of view-finder ! ) 

( Fish-eye photo was an extra —– just for fun.  😉 )

Another trouble is, because of the angle of view is less than  5 degree = quite difficult

to know  “Where AM I watching ?”  especially, when the image was out of focus.  😀

As out of focus Bokhe become funny ring pattern —– you may hate, or some time

they looks more decorative. —– it’s a character.    It could be a good fun to play with !

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Color of Flash-light

As now, photography is open to anybody and bast majority of the camera user has no

interest to the technical aspects surrounding the photography, while expecting the

manufacturer provide everything what they needs perfect.  

Hence, they don’t even care whether it is DSLR or Phone-camera.  

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So, everybody believing flash-light is the flash-light and all same.   Though, it is not true

—– some are more blue.  Even a professional studio photographer may not noticed but

just believing “As long as they buy reputed studio flash, it is the industrial standard”.  

In certain extent, it is true.   The quality of the flash has been really improved. (and

became very cheap.)  😉

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The photo above, they are the flash-tube, most left came from Bowens. (are they still exists ?) 

Second is Balcar’s  —– (mind you this tube alone costed £200 !)   Third is for ring flash-light.

(This is the Ring-flash I made for the photos which was published in the Zoom Magazine.

= Ring Flash for Fish-eye Lens. —– Since, the subject was over-shadowed by the camera itself,

it was necessary to illuminate !    Still, the lens has 180 degree of view, flash has to be exactly

in the same plain of the lens-front. = If the flash was before the lens, it will be in the picture.  

If it was behind the lens, the shadow of the lens will appear in the picture.  😀 )

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Though, this flash-tube was very blue (about 6500 K) I needed to use a Kodak Color

Compensation Filter inside of flash. — Most of the flash produces  6000 K Color-temperature.

Though, the standard of the Printing Industry is 5500 K,  so that photo above, Bowens tube was

gold color tinted to warm-up the color a bit.  This slight difference makes the skin-tone better.

= So, you may try to tinker the flash-light, such as stick a cello-tape on the flash face and put a

red line of maker-ink (never draw an ink direct) —– it would make

the faces in a party looks more drunk.  😀

 

Slide Duplication / Digitization using Flash-light

They are the samples, which were Digitized on fluorescent light-box = I talked about before. 

But photos above were digitized using a TTL flash-light.

( They are in large size = click to enlarge and see the details (but ignore the dust ) 😉

It’s not too bad in highlight tone. ( in the shadow, some noises due to “Brighten-up” )

If anybody visited here twice, you may noticed that the photos are different from before.

—– I’ve changed them, in fact three times as I was not happy with the color of Dupe. 

What I wrote about [Home-made Light-box] —– as a Slide-viewer, it was correct though,

to use it for Duplication was wrong.   Color was far from ideal = in fact, dreadful. 😀

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I tried to tinker the color temperature etc. still not suticefied, and tried to use LED light

though,  fundamentally fluorescent light and White LED has the same characteristics.  

Whitish color of LED was emitted by the mixture of fluorescent compound, excited by

LED’s near UV light = same as the Fluorescent light tube.  Since it was produced by a mix

of BGR light, its light spectrum has the typical light-spike from its chemical, hence color is

never perfect.  –—- on the end, I came to the conclusion = it’s better to use a flash-light =

its Xenon discharge light which has a continuous light spectrum is much more natural.  

Unlike easily fooled human-eyes, an image sensor in a DSLR pick-up those

peaks and the spikes and produce wrong color which is harder to eliminate.    

 

To use a flash-light for Slide-duplication is not a complicated business.  

Just place a flash under the white perspex (may be 4″ / 10 cm away). —– I cut a 2″ (5 cm)

square hole in the center of 8″ high card-board box then put white perspex on top, and placed

a flash-light inside.  (of cause, flash is aiming to the cut-out hole straight.)

I put some layers of white tissue over the flash face to diffuse and reduce the light.  

I used Canon 430EX-II in the TTL mode but on -1/3 setting. (For High-contrast original, expose -1

and brighten up with after process might be better)  Flash and the Camera was connected by

an “Off camera cable“.  With this set-up, the exposure will be controlled in TTL though, to make

it a bit brighter or darker, it is easier to use a flash with manual setting (with minimum power

setting ) and adjust the exposure by changing F-aperture or ISO setting, as it can be done from

the camera side.  ( To change the setting on the back of flash is more awkward.)

While testing this, what I noticed interesting was that a dupe made by D800 with HDR seemes

not much different from a dupe made by C’ 5D Mk-III with flash-light (only one exposure) of

which the shadow was brighten-up by common photo program. = Canon’s image sensor and

their processing engine seemed to have wider Dynamic Range in the first place than Nikon.

(To see the comparison in this post.)  To be fair, this matter needs to have more critical test.

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Gauzed Image or in a Reflection — My Answer to Elena’s Paintings

When I saw the paintings in a fantastically talented artist Elena Caravera’s blog, of which

a girl’s portrait was overlaid by gauze like white, I found there is somewhat similar psyche

exists in the mind of the painter  = in order to give a psychological depth, intentionally cover

the painting and make the image fuzzier.

[] 

Strangely you may think, I’ve been creating “Not sharp” photos intentionally over 40 years.  

Since I started my photography taking the photos of Nature, and the close-up photography had

become my part-time job when I was in my Uni’,  to make clear sharp image became a norm

and a routine, then I started to go further departing from cosy home of normal photography.    

In our generation, some photographers gone to the rough-grain image such as Moriyama

or the subject the society despised such as Araki, etc.  but I was rather enchanted by the

ghost of the image, which we can’t see, or hidden behind of fuzzy or double images. 

Since then, I tried Soft-focus lens, Improvised, modified lens, Lens from an old folding camera on

a handmade camera etc. to see fuzzy image or the image on a reflective surface —– see through

a distorted glass material etc. —– I got thousand of this kind of photos.

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Photography is a COPY of the subject.  = The more realistic and the closer to the reality of the

subject, it become mere substitute of the real thing.  It’s better to see the real thing if possible.  

But when its reality was lost, its image started to have its own mind.  Whether it is in fact my

own mind or the curse to the image, it start to assert its own voice = the photo became

independent of the subject.  —– or, that’s what I’m thinking.  😉  

Though, I don’t know, what Elena is thinking.  😀

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Slide Dupe by D810 HDR

Since many of my old films came out of boxes, I tried to make some digital dupe of them.

The main reason why I bought canon 5D Mk-III was that it has HDR (High Dynamic Range) built-in. —– (Though, it turned out to be unusable unless it was processed in PC with their DPP program. ( PS : It was the result of first test, hence I’ve given-up to use though, I tested again further and I found that it works in the most of the subjects = so, fair to say it was NOT unusable = some of the lighting condition and a combination of the lens may show unsatisfactory result. )   In contrast, Nikon D810 seems to be a bit subtle but it is quite useful as the camera alone gives processed image on the spot.  (Even hand-held shot, if the exposure difference was within 3 stops, it works reasonably — not perfect though, don’t ask too much = effect is somewhat similar to put a big reflector to brighten-up the shadow.)

———- (Photo Left :  Straight Copy.      Photo Centre :  with HDR.      Photo Right :  HDR and + 1/3

———- Which one to choose would be depending on one’s tastes ? )    ( St. German-de-Pre, in Paris)

So, the sample photos here are the Digital Copy of the Film slide.  The Originals were the Kodachrome ISO 25 film.  (Almost  40 years old.)

Copy Camera was Nikon D810 with Micro Nikkor 50 mm, and using their HDR setting.

What ever a way when Copy was made,  whether by film or Digital means,  the range of the tones would be lost and became higher contrast. 

Photo Left : This was a straight Copy and the Right : was with HDR.

(Original Dynamic Range of the Kodachrome was squeezed into narrower range, hence lost its original sparkle = photo looks dull now) —– Mind you, the  original Kodachrome 25 has the detailed tone in its highlight and in the shadow as well. = Otherwise, where the details on Music Score came from. —– (Camera couldn’t create, if no image was there.)  😀

—– In this extent, the resolution of Digital Camera may surpassed the resolution of such as  Ektachrome film though, the Dynamic Range of the Kodachrome yet. 

= With the use of HDR, they may just come closer to emulate the film.

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(This Dupe was made using Flash-light and Canon 5D Mk-III without HDR, and the photo was brighten-up a bit on after tinkering process.  —– not much difference to above HDR photo.)

[]  There is a funny misunderstanding among the people  —– People has been fooled by a word / technical term such as “Number of BIT” = To express color depth by 8 bit or 12 bit etc. those number is an indicator of “How finely divided” (Say, 2 bit mean Black or White.  8 bit mean, the staircase of darkest Black to brightest White was divided into 256 steps, that all).  

From darkest to the brightest, how many times (in exponential scale) brighter is the Dynamic Range or in old term, Latitude. 

The B/W film was known to have a Latitude of 7 stops  ( = in metaphor, a grey become Black on F 22 but if the aperture was open 7 stops to F 2 the same grey will be captured as white.)  And the Color films and TV Cameras got only 5 stops of Latitude. (That’s why TV needs many lights.)

Even after the digital revolution, the situation hasn’t been changed much, since there is NO such things like a digital sensor = the sensors and the display units are all in analogue. !   All due to the limitation of those electronic components.  

(You know, the darkest black you can see on the screen is the darkness when you switch off your device. —– Is it dark ?  😀 )

(Usable linear part of their character is limited by such as quantum mechanics. ) 

[]The most of ignorant photographer who “worship” Raw File is believing it has more though, it is like a 1′ scale and a 30 cm scale.  Metric scale looks divided finer than inch scale, Raw is a bit finer that’s all.  Lossless JPEG compression wouldn’t make so much difference to Raw.

Raw doesn’t have extended Black outside of  30 cm or White on top.  

The total length is still the same.

[]The wide coverage of  the ISO setting in a DSLR was achieved by the higher amplification of the output from the censor = if the sensor was designed for low-light,  the highest output under bright light was also lower.  = Because, the sensor has almost the same latitude or dynamic range.  I wonder, if any DSLR which has 2 stops more Dynamic Range come to the market ?  

(Of cause with one exposure.   I don’t mind if it got digital signal process built-in for this purpose.  —– Or are they expecting the people resort with after process ? —– ( PS : Some information educated me.  Now such as Panasonic’s Lumix camera and their image processing program is even correcting the aberration of the lens = It is really the electronic company’s answer to the optical problem = not by the optical design but by their own trick = electronics !  )

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Hand-held Photo for 1 second

This photo was taken in a church in Schwetzingen, Germany when I visited and listened  

hundred of Pipe Organ in Europe.

As far as I remember, this photo must be the best usable Hand-held photo (which got an

evidence), in my entire life.  —– how can I say this ?  =  The film was Kodachrome  ISO 25.  

The lighting condition like this = if it was ISO 400,  1/30 or 1/15,  F2.8.  —– just count on

your fingers, it became  1/2 ~ 1 second for ISO 25 Film.  But the lens was Pentax  17 mm F4.  

It was in deed 1 second F4.    Please look into the mirror above the organ key-board. =

The image in the mirror was me holding camera = no tripod.

Still you can read (well more or less) the music score.

Not too bad isn’t it for Hand-held for one second ?

—– (Knack to hold the camera is,   1) Close armpit and put elbow solidly on the chest.

2) Don’t push button with pointing finger alone but do it as if you are squeezing all the

finger inward.    3) Relax, never been tensioned.  Just hold breath and release the shutter.)

(Because of an Organist who is facing the key-board, hence couldn’t see the progress of a 

mass service behind of him, it is necessary to have a mirror there to see the timing.)  

—– Well, it was a long time ago,  when I had a muscle.   😀

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Home-made Light-box

Whether you believe or not, this is my Light-box.   It was made out of a Japanese cookie’s

wooden box.   Into the box, I put  a small fluorescent tube and a mirror board under the tube,

then covered with white perspex = So, it became a Light-box.  (So easy and cheap.  😉 )

In ostentatious principle, the light-box should have a Print organisation’s standard light souse,

5000K etc. though in practice non of the so-called Natural Light fluorescent tube got perfect

color balance anyway.   And all the light-box in the market were too big and heavy.  

I wanted to make it small and easy to carry, since non of my client has got one as they are just a

business office, not like an editorial room of a publisher.  When I deliver the photos of the

assignment and to show the transparency to them,  I needed to bring my own Light-box.

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Of course, a Light-box “was” an essential tool to a “Film” photographer, but not only that, it

is a very useful tool in general.  When I needed to analyse electronic circuit, I used a reverse

print of circuit track and a photo of component side, two prints together on the Light-box to

see through the connection.  😉 —–  And this time, I used it to copy the old transparencies.

Those photos were taken at the Spring Festival in Seville in Spain.  (1974 ! )

On the duped 35 mm Kodachrome ISO 25 (my regular film then) apparently lost some tone

and I may need to refine more though, still it is usable for a net-communication.

—– PS :  (Usable but, since I was not happy with its color, I made another copy using

flash-light instead of this fluorescent light.  😀 —– I’ll write about it soon. )

I can not stop imagining, these young  Guapa Chiquita now must be the good granny.   😀

They must have had a joyful life.  (Good dancer has less worry.  😀 )

———- (This is the Pipe Organ of the St. Michel Church in Hamburg, Germany.  

———- Taken by Pentax 17 mm Fish-eye lens on Nikon FE ) 

For some high contrast image, even a dupe on Home-made cheap Light-box, using 5D Mk-III

with 100 mm EF Macro is not too bad.

 I’m really happy, after almost 40 years Kodachrome retained its original color.  

(you may say “So, What”  😀 )

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