Ensign Lens Portraits

At WW gathering in Greenwich, while testing Ensign’s Anastigmat

lens on Gordon’s 8mm cine camera, I did some portraits shots

of the people there.

100-year-old lens was stuck on a bellows, on Canon 5D Mk-III.

(150mm F7.7 lens, focusing on a bellows wasn’t very easy)

— still, the camera like this makes the people smile.

Mike and John

James, Gordon and Paul

Mike, Albert and Roman

The hands (what else ?) 

Those pictures were the clopped cemter image of the 3″x4″ of

the image size, the quality was good. (Just like most of the lens)

(But as the image of this lens was too ordinary, it has no point to

chose this lens while an ordinary lens gives full auto and F2.8. 

😀 )

.

It’s the Gaudy Lens

I developped 10s of devices/lenses to obtain painting like fuzzy effect

— and so far this gaudy lens seemed to be the best device for the job.

No filter or attachment available on the market  nor digital

manipuration can make the same effect.

(simplly nobody else needed => no manifacturer wanted to make)

So, I’m enjoying a dance alone in the middle of nowhere.   😀

The best things of this gaudy lens is, its balance of fuzzyness

and the ability to retain a certain details of the image.

(In fact, I can controle it by the size of paper hole/iris and

the amount of over-exposure/halation = so, it is not

like a wild animal of DD-Pinhole)  Ha ha ha  😀

.

 

Moving or shaking

To create focus-shift soft image, it is nesessary to

use a slow shutter speed = in consequence, pictures

easily get bluured —– don’t worry, bluured or

shaky picture is still the pictures.  😀

Photo above = I like this painting like effect.

Anyhow, I know, nobody would complain. 

In fact, to anybody, it’s not a matter at all.  

Ha ha ha   😀

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Cherry Cherry – 2016

Those photos were from the several Cherry trees,

probably the last cherry photos of this year.

Lens used was that modified Tokina-Wide-Converter

with bellows on Canon 5D Mk-III.

—– Don’t you agree, £1 junk from an Odds n’ Ends box

of a Camera shop wasn’t too bad.  😀

.

Bizarre Lens on Macro shot

It’s the same lens, Pentax AF Zoom 35~70 F2.8 — with that heavy proxer.

So, the magnification ratio was about 0.5 (at 35mm)~1 (at 70mm).

As you may see, I’m not after the scientific details but the optical softness.

Still, when the subject was on the same plain (within the depth of field)

the lens can capture quite a details.   (All the photos here = F2.8)

(Note, in this photo, left bottom, an egg of the Green lacewing.)

Macro photography is the constant supply of the visual fantasy for me.   🙂

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Internal Structure of Canon 5D

Some days ago, I got an opportunity to disassemble a Canon 5D body as I’ve bought it almost nothing. (still fully functioning) — Then, what I found inside was rather disturbing — hence I made this post.  

As the people who has been using Canon DSLR may know, new 5DS, 5DSR are having not only 30 Mp large image sensor (for 35 mm full-frame) but also mechanically, structurally much improved design = that’s what they said.

—– While planning, designing, developing new camera, Canon must have a lots of tests and analysis to achieve their objective = at least twice better image quality than the predecessor with its big sensor.  

(Photo above is the inside of the 5D Mk-III)

(And this is the 5D Mk-IV = basic design is the same = plastic mirror box was connected to the tripod screw by a stamped panel and few screws.  — Photo from Lens Rental site)

Though my guess was, when they tested new sensor on the temporally adapted 5D Mk-lII body, they must be realized that the crispy sharpness was not there.  Even if the image of the lens alone on the optical test bench was good, it couldn’t  be replicated if the same lens was mounted on the 5D body —– it’s mean, 5D body structure was shaky and giving blur, deteriorating the image quality.  (Which was not so visible on the 22Mp sensor, but showing up on the 30 Mp.)

What Canon boasted about the New 5DS was, not only rethink of the mirror shock damping mechanism, but also much solid tripod fixing. —– But it was too funny to  hear that, when I opened and saw the inside of an old 5D body,  I almost dropped  my jaw, because the design of 5D was the remotest from the solid structure.  

—– I’ve been seeing the inside of cameras more than 40 years thus I know how they were designed and made.   (When Canon developed EOS 1, production team brought a prototype here and asked my advice.  When they asked me which camera was my  favorite, I answered “Contax” a man responded “You can’t have that quality any more” “Why ?” “The man designed the Contax was no longer there.  I am the Man”

= The man, Mr. Morota had been headhunted and came to Canon to develop EOS 1.

—– I guess, he must be pretty annoyed to see the design of 5D series cameras. ) 

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When I changed my 35 mm camera, from Nikon to Contax, it was not only I’ve encountered the  Zeiss 85 mm F1.4 lens but also I found that the structure and the way their camera was made, was such solid therefore reliable.

(Preceding to this, I’ve been utterly annoyed  by the erratic behaviour of the Nikon’s motor-drive = always at the most crucial moment, they stop to work. — but they  worked always perfect on front of the Nikon’s Service Engineer.  😦  and  😀  )  

The photo left here was the inside of 20 years old EOS RT body. = You can see the  metal frame of which all the mechanism was built-in and holding the lens mount.  And the tripod screw was directly fixed to this metal frame.  

In contrast, what I found the inside of 5D (photo center) was = the structure framefor Mirror Box and the Shutter was made by injection mold plastic and even a lens mount base was a plastic.  

The photo right shows the almost the same design of 5D Mk-III.

In all those 5D, a stumped 1 mm thin metal connecting the plastic mirror box to the 1/4″ tripod screw on the bottom of the camera. = I couldn’t believe my eyes, IS this plastic camera priced for £3000 ? ? ?  

(Photo left =Lens Mount base, on the plastic frame.

Photo center = Thin white metal alone connects the Mirror Box to the Tripod screw.

= Almostly, the camera body is floating on the tripod !

Photo right = Plastic frame is soft, hence so easy to cut.
— Plastic could be more resilient to the shock with its flexibility but the same flexibility is the enemy to hold the moving shutter and the lens solidly together.

Think about the situation when you use the camera on a tripod, like the photo left = even if a lens was firmly mounted on the tripod (therefore, the lens mount was solid) still, behind the mirror box, the shutter mechanism and the image sensor could be jumping and dancing, because the mirror-box is not rigid, even if its bottom side was having a metal plate.

Imagine a car, when the main chassis was made by plastic, I wouldn’t be impressed by the buzz-word that the outer shell was made by “magnesium alloy” = it’s a cover-up cosmetic.[]

—– (I remember, EOS RT body was not more than £400. = A camera body which has a film wind-up and rewind mechanism, all together  built onto a metal die-cast, was still £400, £500)    In comparison, just a shutter and a sensor were built into a plastic mirror box (+ a bit more electronics and the Memory) cost £3000 !

—– Oh ! C’mon it’s not fair.  = So, it was obvious, so-called new feature in 5DS, 5DSR = “improved anti-vibration and the solid connection to the Tripod” was not a new achievement but a necessary  patch-up against the old shoddy design.  Though, despite the patch-up work, the test report from Japan saying that 5DS still showing high susceptibility to image blur which would negate the crop use of the photo. 

( As a matter of fact, I haven’t checked the “claimed to be” improved 5DS yet.  And I’m not sure whether I would buy this camera in order to see their fix ! )  Reading the Tech Reports here and there —– I haven’t seen any report showing the superiority of New Canon 5DS or SR over Nikon D810 = even on the chart test 30Mp image didn’t show a difference over 36Mp Nikon image —– I wonder  what’s going on and why ?  = It seems better wait till the matter sorted out.  🙂

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PS:  Related post “Camera stability test” would be good to read.

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Camera Hack — or Lens Hack (by a Hacksaw !)

I’ve been kept saying that the Canon DSLR system is the most versatile, flexible

camera system known to us —– though, there is a funny contradiction within their

own system. — Among their DSLR lenses  there is the EF-S series which was

designed to be used on clopped format camera body such as a cheap EOS Kiss.

 As the EF-S lens’ image circle was smaller, lens could be made smaller, lighter 

 therefore cheaper = in theory, if such lens was used on the full frame body, the

image will be somewhat a rounded smaller image though in practice, it wouldn’t 

be happened because the protruded bottom of the EF-S lens was blocked by the

camera’s mirror box. 

   

Yet still, with an “intention”, I got a discarded EF-S 18~55mm II lens.  

—– My intention was to modify the lens to create “Soft image by Focus-shift” = 

Drive the AF motor during the exposure.  

With a Hacker like hack, it should be hacked into the 5D camera’s OS and hi-jack

the AF motor’s control though, the risk is, completely spoil the £3000 camera

of which the Canon will only laugh at me and refuse to repair the poor camera.

(We can find the code to hack in the camera’s OS in the Net though, the matter is 

not just drive the motor.  There will be a feedback from Encoder, position sensor etc, 

= With a conflict, soon camera tend to stop work with an Error signal.) 

What so ever, I need to mount this lens to my 5D body to test the feasibility.

So, simply, I cut the protruding part of the lens mount. (Photo above)  

Now the lens could be mounted on the 5D body (anyhow, everything is in the

manual mode) = (This is THE most Canon hated kind of the practice ! ) =

the test shot of the EF-S 18~55mm on my 5D body was like those.

= (Photo above Left) On 18mm setting, the bottom of the lens which was 

protruding as well was hit by the mirror and only a top part (in the Camera, 

it was a bottom part) of the image was recorded,  then an Error message 

was appeared and the camera stopped working.  🙂    

Still, somewhere 20mm position, as the lens doesn’t penetrate too deep,

 the captured image was like this. (Photo above Right)  

And on the 24mm (25mm would be better), no cut-off of the corners.

(Photo above Left)  (Photo above Right was at 55mm)

= It’s mean, this lens could work as a 24mm~55mm zoom lens on full frame

body though, what was a point to have such a hassle while not so expensive

proper lens is widely available (not mention secondhand) is a good question. 

Yet still, to test “Focus-shift” experiment, this is the perfect lens for me

 —– which costed almost nothing.  🙂

(Another more expensive lens is using more complexed motor, such as an

Ultrasonic Motor, but this lens’ DC motor is the easiest to modify.)

The circuit is taking a signal of the Shutter Open from the Flash Synchro Socket,

then start the AF motor, hence the “Focus-Shift”.

— So far this analog approach is working —> Make it to a compact package 

and to have a field test would be a next step.  

Then, whether worthwhile picture could be created or not is a different story.

(Never mind, it took 6 years for the photos of my “Yoshi-Handy” were recognized.)

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Winter Cherry for New Year

 

First Post for this New Year, I was thinking to put photo of Sunrise or

yet another New Year’s cooking ? —– but I’ve got bored with Sunrise, seen  

from my window,  and the cooking doesn’t necessary to be for the first day.  

( though, I’m not such keen, travel to a beach just to see sunrise. —– Do you 

know some people travel as far as an island in the south Pacific, just next to

 the International Date Line, to see the earliest sunrise in the World ! —– so,

 the Japanese TV goes there as well.    And Air Companies in Japan operating

handful flights to see the first sunrise above the clouds !

Such as this one. — but what a shoddy video. )  

So, I decided to put sweet images of the (That !) Winter Cherry Flowers.

Beautiful soft Bokeh was created by Zeiss Planar 50mm F1.4 T* with and

without Ultra heavy Proxer out of a TV zoom lens.  (In this instance, instead

of 85mm lens like before, I used 50mm lens, because I wanted to have a bit

wider view though, 50mm lens has not as smooth Bokeh like 85mm lens.)

 

 

Those flowers were the other tree standing next — a bit narrower flower petals,

still flowers in the winter = it’s mean, the gardener in charge with those trees

did intentionally planted those Winter Cherry here.

(so, the tree was not a fleak, but the established winter variety.)

(It seems, the best bloom was about a week ago)

Still, it’s a view to make our mouth shut — it’s mean, either you follow

or you were rejected by them.  (Nothing between.  No argument with the Nature.)

___/\___

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Autumn Cherry 2014

In a normal sens, it must be crazy to see the cherry blossom in November.

But this cherry tree is not an ordinary cherry.

= This is the Autumn Cherry which I’ve been photographing every Autumn to

Winter in a past few years.    ( I even called her Perpetual Cherry, before.    🙂 )

In the Autumn, when the tree started to change the color, this cherry start to have her

flower bud.  Then one or two bleak open.  — On the beginning, I just bumped to this flower,  and

realized,  it was not an accident or fleak,  this tree has a fixed program to have winter flowers.

Since then, I also made my custom to visit this tree when I see the season.  May be, it is

the similar kind of feeling to see an out wedded daughter come home once a year and find that

she is fine and doing well.    (Only a guess as I don’t have any kids.   🙂  )

Those photos were taken by Zeiss 85 mm F1.4 , with and without

“Homemade Ultra heavy Proxer (close-up lens)” on Canon 5D Mk-III.

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Yet more Impressionists Photos (2)-B

With much of annoyance of the regular reader, I put yet another

fuzzy pictures — but with added “academic” ( 🙂 ) interest !

The pinhole which I’ve called 3rd version, used in the previous post

and “Quest for Fuzziness” post etc was the one gone too far, hence the

image has very little informations.  

So, I made the 4th version which gives less halation and a bit sharper image.  

(outer hole is still the same 1 mm though, the inner hole was much smaller.)

So, here is a comparison. (Photo above was by the 4th version)

And this was taken by the 3rd version. = Difference is too clear.

 Those white halation can be reduced by darkening  (shadowing) though,

by doing so, the color contrast also increase = higher color saturation.

This was the reason why the images in the previous post looked like

a copy of old cine-film.  (It is a contradiction, supporsed to be a soft image

end up with strong color.  😦  )

Outer 1 mm hole was made on the thin aluminium panel (from beer can)

though, the inner pinhole was made on the thin plastic (from a cap of yogurt)

therefore it is very easy to make another one in 10 seconds,

and thanks to the DSLR, the effect can be tested at once.  

So, the Pinhole photography suits for a DSLR camera and really a fun.  🙂

(Especially in the case of Canon DSLR —–

Nikon needs to have Non-CPU lens set-up. (See the end of the Post)

—– I haven’t tested with other camera though)

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