Kyocera Junk Macro — in Practice

I’m well aware, making lens etc is one thing and actually use it is the other. 

Still, whether any worthwhile photo was created by it or not, is totally

different matter. —– I know, in this world, some of the people is having

a pleasure of possessing something rather than use it = just for a show-off 

(of his, her wealth or So-called Good taste) —– and the manufacturer is

well aware of this phenomenon too. So that they are producing specifically

designed outrageously expensive model for this target, with “Art” or “Opus”

kind of the name.   A camera, recently introduced from Leiz, Leica SL is one of 

the extreme case, = the camera which can takes more or less the same kind of

picture but priced whopping  $7450 for body.   Even if non of the photographer  

would buy it, still 10 of the “Leica Collector” in the world ought to buy = because,  

it was made by Leiz and listed in their catalog.  (Collection has to be complete.)

A Camera lens, I made out of junk

Kyocera-Yashica compact Zoom

Camera has been with me a

while  = waiting to encounter

good subject. ————————

Then, I found a tiny tiny dot on a Fig = it was an egg of the Green Lacewing.

Not very fashionable subject still, it is good for a macro-photography.

So, that’s how the top photo was made. ( x4 Magnification. though, quality

of the lens in comparison to my previous work, was not very impressive

—– shows chromatic aberration etc, hence,  not very sharp.)

—– still, it was a proof that the lens was in operation. 

(= I’m not feeling happy for just possessing the lens.)   🙂

*

    PS :  In order to have a bit more sharpness and the evenness of the image,

I put a hole of Black tape to reduce the effective F-Aperture to half of the

diameter (equivalent of 2 F-stops down) = the image quality was dramatically

improved ! — You might be realized that how the optics behave in simple

manner and lost a faith to worship expensive lens.   😀

(In fact, we are paying for the Brand image, not necessary for the quality, 

otherwise who pay  £3000 to a plastic camera ?)

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How to Save money ?

In the Net, there are hundreds of life’s advice kind of site.

How to maintain good relation or before it, how to start, or where to find the mate.

The advice from a very experienced mature person to a very young person saying

how and why she or he was attracted to what sort of the person etc etc.

(In most of the case, the advice was not more than a good common sense.)  

         An advice which took my eyes was how to save the money, by not to reduce

the spending but simply just stop to buy it altogether.  I guess, the woman who was

advising must be saying it from her hundreds of failed experiences.  In certain sense,

it is a simple commonsense though, when the matter involving was a person’s desire 

or the habit, it’s easy to see, common sense may not necessary works. 

When someone drinks, the person may not counting the number of glasses — but

just want only one more glass.   So, to attempt to save a money by reducing the

consumption could be a hardest to achieve. 

I’m not knowledgeable of this kind though =is there such deal viable to negotiate

with a prostitute if a half of insertion could save her charge half ?   May be not.   🙂

Saving the money is not a matter of economics or a business management but 

it is the very trouble of the MIND. 

That advice in the Net, “Stop to buy it completely” is in fact parallel to the Zen.

Zen works on the base of  All or Nothing because of it is either in Mindful otherwise

it is not exists. — In our mind, if the mind of Drink was there, the Drink is there.

= you can’t have “Half mind of Drink” same as a half of the Drug or a half of the Sex. 

As long as a Receptacle of the Drink, Drug, Sex is in the Mind, we can’t stop to take it. 

But once such mind was removed = ie;  the receptacle was not there, we couldn’t

recognize “What the Drink is”  “What the Drug is”  or an image of a woman

couldn’t be connected to the Sex.

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The secret of this “Mind Engineering” is, how to train our Mind = make the

signal jump over the Emotional region of the brain in the Limbic System

which is dealing with Desire, Greed and Want.   To train the Mind, Zen (in fact,

all the Buddhist sects) has the long, repeating practice which ware-out the

Emotion.  ( The brain started to ignore the repeating signals and start to

process the signal without involving the Emotion. = such as a sign-board on the

street, became almost invisible, while you are passing on front of it everyday)

Once the person mastered this Mind, the Drink, Drug or Sex become non-existent. 

And as the Mind will just pass the signal without triggering any reaction =

“Drink ?  — What’s drink ?”   “Woman ? — Yes, I can see it’s a woman.  So, what ?”

Give-up altogether or stop to buy, is much easier than “Reducing its consumption”

because there is no conflict of “Want” and “Shouldn’t” in the Mind.

(And the most funny things was, once the person mastered this Mind-set, he or she

could pick-up a glass without a hindrance but never take more than a sip, because of

there is no desire or attachment NEITHER the Mind of Prohibition or Restriction.)

And this is the best way to save the money and to have a trouble free life.   🙂

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Shake shake (2)

There was a very similar photo of this, taken by a completely different technique

in this blog. = It is interesting to see an image of the 3D movement (depth) in

that photo was still captured as a 2D spread (shift) of the element.

What ever the technique or accident created its image, the matter is how the image

boggle the mind.    And what ever the origin of the image, some of them stuck and

remained in the depth of the mind very very long time.

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Shake shake (1)

There is nothing special of those photos, no trick, they are just

blared photos because of the camera shake.

Camera shake because of the slow shutter speed = 1/2, 1/4 sec’ kind. — And

to have such slow speed, lowest ISO setting and a dark ND filter was used. 

Make the situation worse, I was in a moving bus.   🙂

So, it’s easy to have un-sharp pictures —– just shake the camera.

(Of course, if you like.)   🙂

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Junk to Macro Lens = Recycle of Kyocera Zoom Lens

You might be misunderstanding that I’m playing with cameras for the

sake of blogging. Far from it, behind the scene I’m disassembling

3 times more lenses or cameras.  I only showing them if I found a fun.

In most of the case, I’m doing it just looking for a spare parts or

particular component such as when I needed to get a mirror for an

ultra-low-angle photo-adapter.     —– I was disassembling a Yashica

compact Zoom camera, looking for a Motor and a Gear mechanism.

— Some old film cameras had auto-wind and rewind mechanism which

I could utilize in the other mechanical design.  So, from Yashica, I got

two motors with each gear mechanism, and not only that, I found an

extending Zoom lens barrel seems to be very useful. 

I had used a same kind of barrel to make a focusing helicoid.

This Kyocera-Yashica 38~115 mm zoom lens seem to have a quite 

fancy design.  Front group convex lens has a Canon like Arc-formed

motor for focusing and having aspherical lens, and rear group is pure

diverging concave lens.   And I found the front group lens works well

as a macro lens (used in reverse) = So, mount the lens into the

extending lens barrel = Here I have a x1~x3 (about) macro lens.

This front group lens had a Shutter-aperture-combined blade which

I removed therefore there is no F-Aperture = always fully open !

—– still, this sample photos showed rather good quality and giving

beautiful out of focus bokeh.

But with further test, lens showed strong curvature of the image =

image is not flat = good for 3D subject but not good for a flat object.

(When lens was designed, the aberrations, inherent to any single lens

were corrected by the combination of the other lens.  Yet, in this case, 

such strong curvature of the image needed to be corrected by the 

strong diverging lens of the rear group.  But, as only front group lens 

was used here, the uncorrected aberration became too apparent.

—– Photo above Left showed x3 image.  Its coloring was caused by the

Chromatic aberration.  Photo Middle (x1 size), the best focus was made

to peripheral.  And the Right, best focus was made to center.   The focus

to the center is 4mm different ! = If the subject was 4mm deep shallow

dish, this lens will make a good focus from center to the corner.)

I need to find a good subject. = Ideally, Halloween Costumed insect.   🙂

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Morning Sun

Toward the winter solstice, the Sun is going down south.  It’s mean, it’s

getting lower and lower in the sky.  So, we can see the sun coming through

side of the tree.   And now, the tree got their golden leaves. 

Unlike Wabi-sabi of typical Japanese, I got bad habit to push even farther. 

So, the Curry got to be very hot etc.   And to see twice as much Gold leaves,

the instant twice-rich-magic was to give a double exposure.   😀

While giving double exposure, even the focus has been changed to make

painting like images. —– When crispy sharp picture can be made even

by Phone-camera, I rather like to push opposite direction.

And for this picture — focus was made for background leaves and

to the foreground flower.  (—– I like this water-color effect too.)

— Have a peaceful nice week, everybody.   🙂

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Not heal by Buddhism ? ! 仏道からの癒し－－－それともコーヒー？

彼岸寺といふ仏教サイトに面白い事が書かれていました。浄土宗の日下と言う僧侶が書いたもの

だそうですが，彼は何故か仏道に癒しが感じられない　－－－むしろ一杯のコーヒーや家族に

癒されるとのこと。浄土宗では教えないのかも知れませんが元々の

釈尊の教えは「無私」ですからそもそもコーヒーを愛でる己れ，家族に愛着した己れどころか

対象としての仏教なるもの自体が存在しない。

－－－という現象を学ぶ為に仏教では延々と続く勤行を繰返し，それを無意識，無感情でする

（無私無心）訓練をする。＝無私無心でちゃんと生活が成り立つ　＝では誰が生きているのか？

＝　それが法　／　ダルマであるのです。

己れにしがみつきながら，どこか彼方から　癒しが得られるのでは，と期待するのは

お門違いでは？？？

* * * *

In one of the Buddhist’s site “Higan-dera” in Japan, a monk called Kenyu Kusaka

wrote a short essay saying that he noticed that he is not feeling the heal from

Buddhism, but from coffee !  He was a Pure-land sect monk, so that expecting him

to have the understanding of what Buddhism IS, might be too much to ask.

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The core of the teachings of

Lord Buddha was, First, there IS no such thing like SELF (Atman) exists. 

And to learn this truth, the followers practiced long repeated practice

until they could do it automatically (= without thinking) and without emotion

(= no-emotion / not having a feeling of SELF = hence realize No Existent of the Self )   

Without knowing this teachings, the monk may still thinking that there IS the

subject called Buddhism and a person who is learning it.

No such things there or anywhere = if only a person doing the practice and the life

without having the SELF, what prevailed there IS the Dharma.

(= if the person IS NOT there, who is living there = That IS very Dharma)

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But a monk like Kusaka, clinging his SELF and attached to his family AND a cup of

COFFEE, Buddhism is too remote, yet wanting to feel a healing ?  What he is asking ?

There is a big irony, —– as long as the person asking, never given, as long as

the person looking for, never find. = The EGO of want push the goal away.

___/\___

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Focus-Shift Flower image

Somebody in the USA contacted me to use one of my old photo which was

taken by a technique of Focus Shift, hence the image has big off-focus

bokeh superimposed on it.  In fact I’ve published such photo many times

like this or this. (though, the gear used or the lens may not be the same)

And even there was such drastic approach.   🙂     But this time, focus ring

was moved manually, and in order to have a slower shutter speed, shooting

took place in the evening, under rather dim light.

And to make off-focus, shift to near or far, or the setting of F-aperture etc,

above all, how far the subject, will make the picture looks quite different.

(still, there is no fixed manner = it’s just case by case.   🙂  )

Funny things of Focus Shift is, first moment, it was focused to the main

subject, then move the focus, generally till completely out of focus though,

why not focused here and there.  = Two subjects will have each clear focus

(and bit of bokeh)  🙂

Camera used here was the Nikon D810 — having had 37Mp image-censor,

there are ample of space to crop the image.

A radio DJ mentioned Xmas —– Oh no, soon it will be the November

—– still, flower patch has few flowers left.    Thanks Goodness.

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Salmon Tofu — simple cooking

Indeed, this was the reason why I bought Tofu. —– I used to invite the people 

to see my work, and in such a case, often I cook and eat the meal together.  

Now, I don’t need to do that since I started to show the photo in my Blog,

even the short viz in the Youtube, = just tell the person “See the blog”.

Anyway, when I cook, Salmon Tofu which I invented was my regular cooking.

—– not because original but above all it is the simplest and easiest cooking.

(no complicated preparation of Dashi etc — just put together and heat)   🙂

Only three ingredients = Tofu, a chunk of Salmon and a fresh Ginger —

well, a drop or two Soy-source. 

When the three were put together, place the bowl into the pan with shallow

water to boil = it’s mean, Tofu in the bowl was steamed. (7~10 minutes boil)

(Or put a cover on the bowl and cook in the microwave cooker for 5 minutes.)

The steam drip down through Ginger to Salmon and to the bottom of bowl

makes beautiful soup as well —– and its taste struck everybody.  (so far)   🙂

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Although this is not a vegetarian, I regard this is the Zen cooking.

= everything was there as it is but nothing else. 

And everything melt together and creates the best by themselves.

No complicated thinking or manipulation = just leave the process to them.

= the nature is having the best in its own.   (Proof of the taste — you try !)

And this nature, we call the Dharma. 

___/\___

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Rice-rice

In comparison to the potato, price difference of the rice is much wider,

especially if we count the price of the Japanese rice in Japan.  There is no

secret that the Japanese eating the best rice in the world, swallowing the most

expensive price comes with it.  (If you are interested in to know how much the

price over there, you can look into the list. (though, they are in Japanese) )

Photo above Left, is one of the most expensive,  among the expensive

Japanese rice,  “Kosihikari” I paid £3 for this 500g bag here in London.  

Still, even in Japan, people expecting to pay for this rice £20~£25 for 10Kg.

To get Japanese rice over here, the price would be doubled = so that, the

Californian rice grower found the market in Japanese residents here and

sell their “Japanese variety rice” 10Kg for £25 price (with huge profit). 

So that, to buy Californian rice was a bit of luxury if not a status symbol.  

While, Japanese food, Sushi etc becoming a fashion, the sale of Sushi-rice

became a competitive market.  Now, even a Californian rice was sold less

than £20 for 10Kg. (photo middle) and even Chinese started to grow

Japanese rice and selling as “Sushi-rice” £15 in Chinese shop (Photo right)

but, I found the quality was pretty low — if not Cadmium contaminated.

(It is a well known story, Chinese don’t eat Chinese rice if they can afford.)

And the Chinese Supermarket does know the situation, so, they are selling

a Spanish grown Japanese rice, or Italian grown one both about £12 for

10Kg.  (Second Photo, middle and right)

—– I found Italian was a bit better even though their naming “Shinode” (got

to be “Hinode”) was too funny.  Still, taste and the texture wasn’t too bad.    🙂

In fact, the Japanese rice grown outside of Japan, they didn’t make so much

difference = the way how it was cooked makes more difference.  So that,

the cheaper the better and find the best way to cook is more important.

(I mean, if not using automatic electric cooker.)

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