Sony Extension Ring

To prevent the close contact, the postman left a percel from China outside of my door while shouting Your Post = I got an Extension Ring delivered today.

To have an even closer shot, the Extension Ring is a pretty handy device. You may find such ring for Sony (10 mm and 16 mm set) as cheap as £15 on eBay. And depend on the lens used, you may get quite a close-up photo (the shorter the focal length the closer you get —– though, depend on the lens, the closed image might be pretty bad unless you stopped down the F-aperture a lot.

With such a cheap price, I bought 3 or 4 set of Sony Extension Ring. Since, I discovered, not all of them are good. Some loose bayonet make the joint wobbly (only 0.1 mm wider gap of bayonet makes it loose) —– even worse, some of them stack solid (only 0.1 mm longer bayonet claw can block them disengage) = To separate the camera body — Ring — Lens, I needed to hack-saw the ring and with sheer force, I ripped off the Lens ! (Photo above right two = used be the DG-NEX Extension 16 mm ring = the left over after a hack-saw job.) The trouble is, you discover the trouble only when you HAVE engaged the Lens – Ring – Body. = Then you realised that you got the trouble of stacked bayonet. —– Because of the internal mechanism of the bayonet, we can’t see which part was blocking the ring to rotate back.

This IS what made in China meant. On the eBay, you may see many “Sony Extension Ring” with different prices —– Give close looks = The ring came from only few original manufacturer, then, different vender selling it in a different price. = Expensive doesn’t mean good quality. Manufacturer seemed to sold off bad lot for give-away price then, corrupt vender sold them in the net, expecting most of the customer never bothered to complain for £15. —– So, on the end I bought plastic one = Easier to hack-saw and when I needed, easy to brake-off before the lens or the camera body brake. (Sound dreadful isn’t it)

Those potos were taken by the Sony E 3.5 / 30 mm Macro lens with Extension Ring on A7R-4 body (see a photo above, before) Right hand side image was a cloped enlarged part of the original photo left.

So, when you are lucky to have good working Ring you may get quite nice close-up photo —– especially with such A7R-4 / 62MP image sensor, we can clop the image for even higher magnification scale. (Otherwise, such as x5 ~ x10 magnification needs to have quite a hard work — and a specialised expencive Macro Lens.)

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Deteriorating NIKON

This Nikon Z7 is only about one year in my hand. Camera is functioning normal (like other camera such as D850, A7R4 etc) though, this camera started to show its own deterioration. = such as covers of the connecting points expanded and no longer works as a seal cap (Photo above left). Its skin started to fragmenting (Photo middle) and the cover for the memory card chamber started to expand the size (Photo right) = may not work for dust or water seal any more.

I reported this to Nikon asking their help more than 10 days ago through their web site though, no response at all. = it seems the most serious deterioration Nikon is having is their system / communication / customer care.

I don’t know whether their move of the office from the Richmond to Surbiton was for a cost cutting or else, cutting the meagre cost of plastic material couldn’t make much savings, I think. The one thing clear was, like any other camera manufacturer, Nikon’s financial position is very bad too = may be as such bad try to save a penny from the price of plastic.

By the way, don’t forget, I’m not talking about their cheap toy camera, but it is the 3,000 pound made in Japan camera. = I should be treated with a suply of bit higher quality plastic.

The decent quality plastic should last many many years — the plastic cover on D850 or EOS still keep its shape perfect (after 3 years, 5years) —– is the Nikon quality became a myth now ?

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How to deal with Cold,Flu,C-19 Granny’s way

They are the advises made by Dr.Med Seiji Ishigro (by a Ytube Viz) which was told by granny.

• When you caught cold (or Flu, C-19) stay in a bed and keep you warm. (= Body’s immune system needs higher body temperature to work. = When you were cold You get Cold)
• Stay in a bed mean, you have to be laying down to have better condition of blood circulation and the ease of your guts. Because of the body’s immune system / antibody was produced in the intestine.
• Body temperature was rose by the body, not a toxin of the virus = because it needs higher temperature for the antibody to work. Body themselves knows this, hence rose their own temperature. = It’s mean don’t use the medicine to lower the temperature.
• Eat well such as Kiwi, Lemon for the vitamin C. Good Cholesterol (meat, egg, cheese etc) and the mushroom for the vitamin D.
• Don’t panic = You may get well soon when you stay in a bed for few days and get sweat for one night = It’s a cold. Million of years we’ve been with them, still we are here surviving.
• (Though, if it didn’t work, don’t come back here to brame Dr Ishigro, he was told by the local granny, it’s a cetury old granny’s way)

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Daisetsu Suzuki — ZEN

Fortunet to some of you (unfortunet to others) This Viz was in Japanese.

But, he was not a Zen monk — he was a trancelator and he was talking about the difference of the concept between the east and the west. —– So, he speaks, the notion of FREE in the west IS a notion of a relationship = has to start from two subjects. And its meaning IS = the one is free from the other. It is the relation of Subject and the Object. Dominant and Subjected. Such as the God and I. = So, the fundamental ethos / idea of the west starts from here, therefore the social structure too.

In contrast, there is no such God in the east. Instead, the heaven and the nature which we are in its part. Therefore, in the east, we were not created by the God, but we are exists as a part of the universe, nature from the start.

A word which was normally assigned to the word “Free” was 自由（Jiyu) though, the real meaning of this word in the east IS “To be as it is”. —– If it was the case of you = You to be as real you ARE (not the one who you imagined or others defined). (this is close to the meaning of the Zen notion 自在（Jizai）). So, in the Buddhism, You are not exists but the Nature (Dharma which you were a part) IS. So that, the Rinzai Zen try to make you aware who (real) you ARE through dialogue. And the Soto Zen try to disolve you as a part of the nature through practice (sitting and the other daily activities).

So, he was talking something like that.

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Sony vs Nikon

AI Nikkor 50mm F1.2 on Nikon Z7 / Zeiss Sonner FE 55 mm F1.8 / Pentax 110 Auto 24 mm on Sony A7R4

This is rather repeated subject = compalison of Nikon 50 mm and Zeiss 55 mm lens and the Image Sensor of each 46MP and 62MP.

Z55 F1.8 – A7R4 (100cm away)

AI N 50 F1.2 – A7R4 (F1.2) (lens was mounted through NIK – NEX adapter)

P110 24mm – A7R4 (Center of image was quite good)

AI 50 F1.2 – N Z7 (The same Nikon lens on Nikon Z7 body)

AI 50 F1.2 –F1.2 & F2.0 on N Z7 (when the iris was close to F2 its image get very clear)

P110 24 – N Z7

On this test Nikon Z7 ４６MP image sensor performed almost as good as Sony. The Pentax 110 Auto 24 mm lens performed very well on both Nikon and Sony body. (hence this tiny lens is the most well used lens on my gajet)

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Macro shots (2)

On this post, all the shots were made by Pentax 110 Auto 24 mm lens on Sony A7R4. And looks like macro shots were the heavily cloped small part of the original photo’s part enlargement —– can you find where it’s came from ?

So, it is clear, a lens I bought for £5 from a junk box, Pentax 110 Auto 24 mm lens has the quality of the (almost) top lens, and the 60MP image sensor of Sony A7R4 can capture (almost) whole amount of those visual information there. Therefore, a wide angle casual shot of a 24 mm lens was in fact, holding the details of the macro level too.

Pretty Good isn’t it ! So, I like this Pentax 110 Auto lens on the Sony A7R4 camera always in my pocket. 😀

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MP Cherry 2020

Those photos of the Multi-petal Cherry was taken by a homemade lens, NZ-B lens on Nikon Z7

May be in a normal sense, such lens may not serve for a photographical use. Yet still, any image could be an image as long as the author = I wanted. Why not ?

Under the COVID-19 pandemic, our activities and the movement has been restricted, so the picture I am producing may looks one pattern too. (Sorry)

The lens NZ-B seemed to have two glasses of which I re-mounted into a zooming barrel and able to focus from infinity to 1/3 close-up. Still, born to be a simple junk lens the image never be sharp. —— But that was what I wanted. 😀

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How NOT to get COVID-19

This was a tweet which has been Re-tweeted 100.000 times in two days,

[the advise, how NOT to get COVID-19 infected] made by a (Prof) Takayuki Miyazawa（宮沢孝幸准教授） of the Virus study, Kyoto Uni’, Japan

(1) Think, you were a person already infected by the COVID-19.

(2) And Think, try NOT to infect others.

(3) Breath through the Nose. (not by the mouth)

(4) Don’t touch your Nose, Eyes, Mouth while you are out.

(5) While you are eating, just eat, NOT to SPEAK (or Talk)

(of course, those MIND-SET were on top of the ordinary precaution = What to DO, such as [Wash your hand] [Keep a distance to each other] etc ——- may be because of those mind set and the attitude, the number of the infected in Japan is (on 30-03-2020) only 2.700 cases so far.

Stay safe and keep you well.

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A kind of Tree

It seems most of those trees are Oregon Maple in their winter guise.

The lens used was homemade NZ-B lens on the Nikon Z7

Now the street was deserted —– may be because of the spread of the COVID-19, which was said to be 8.000 cases, 400 death in this country, — what can I say.

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Spring Equinox 2020

The photos here were taken by NZ-B lens on Nikon Z-7

But this one was by Pentax 110 24mm lens on Sony A7R-IV

Whether the day was something special or not, when it was dull, photo would be dull. Especially when it was taken by the dullest NZ-B lens. (Still, I think, even if the lens was genuine Nikkor or Pentax 110 lens, the sky like this will be looks like dull —– What else ? )

By NZ-B lens

Whether western people feels it is not so special, Japanese cerebrate both equinox as a national holiday. (春分の日、秋分の日＝since those days were related to the rice growing agricultural calender they are important in the Japanese tradition)

The same sky in the evening, taken by NZ-B lens on Nikon Z7 —– I like this soft tone.

And the same sky, further down in the evening by Pentax 110 24mm on A7R-IV

The sky looks quiet.

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