The Optikos Bench: Help Give Roger’s New Toy A Name
The Optikos Bench First and foremost, if you aren’t at least a little Geeky, this post is not for you; unless you’re one of those people who thinks “just take some pictures, dammit,” when I write some article about resolution testing. In that case, you might like this article because we’re taking pictures to test lenses-sort of, and using an Optikos Bench to do it. For the last 18 months or so I’ve been on a Holy Quest, trying to find better ways to optically analyze and adjust bad lenses. Why? Partly because we need to. Factory service just can’t
Read moreHow To Test For A Decentered Lens
What is Decentering and What Does it Do? Strictly speaking, decentering would involve one or more of the lens elements being off of the central axis of the lens. This would prevent the curved surfaces of the lens from bending the light properly. In severe cases it could result in halos or ghosting. In most cases it causes softness, especially away from the center of the lens. A decentered lens may be normally sharp in the center, but very soft in the corners. Or it may just be soft and blurry everywhere. Most lenses have one or more elements that are
Read moreLetterpress: The Gentlemen’s Press
Michelle Yu, The Gentlemen’s Press from anotherbeautifulstory on Vimeo. Self described on Etsy as “The Gentlemen are an alliance formed by tired and unhappy men in funny hats. It was formed mainly to facilitate weekly seances and relentless left-wing debates on the impending zombie apocalypse.” {Michelle Yu – The Gentlemen’s Press} Young, impulsive, and stupid – these are also words Michelle Yu uses to describe how her heart lead her to letterpress as a profession, though by now we are sure she understands how fortunate she is to be following her hearts desires in what is basically a logic driven world.
Read morePanasonic HX-A500 4K Action Cam
The Panasonic HX-A500 4K Action Cam is just the latest in what is becoming a long line of mirrorless camera magic from Panasonic. Panasonic has been on a tear making great strides in mobile video cameras in recent years. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 was probably the first hybrid digital camera with HD video recording capability, and is a part of the Micro Four Thirds System. Though commonly referred to as a DSLR style or type of camera, the GH2 had no mirror or optical viewfinder. Instead, the GH2 had both a fold-out LCD screen and an electronic viewfinder, making it one of the earliest “mirrorless”
Read moreA7/A7R: FROM SNAPSHOTS TO GREAT SHOTS
There are few things I’ve found in my life as a photographer of any real lasting value: My older pre-ASPH Leica lenses, an old Domke bag I’ve had forever, my hat, and a small library of books – SONY A7/A7R:FROM SNAPSHOTS TO GREAT SHOTS now being one of those books. The quality hand-crafted into my old Leica lenses is legendary, little point elaborating on those further. My old Domke bag is still the smallest one sold and still the best damn bag ever made for a Leica M. Finding the right hat to keep the sun off of my balding head
Read moreChicken Beauty
Ernest Goh – COCKS, Chicken Beauty Pageants from anotherbeautifulstory on Vimeo. Good stories are found all over the world. Thanks to modern day portable video recording technology to the rapid proliferation of the internet into every country at the household level, many of these stories are finally able to be seen. Most are free to share these stories with the rest of us around the world. Services such as Google’s YouTube and Vimeo make hosting video possible without the worry or bother of our own servers. Subjects as esoteric as chicken beauty now even find an audience. Those of us with
Read moreMagisto: Is Personal Video Poised To Take Off?
Despite the best efforts of the top camera and smartphone manufacturers, personal video hasn’t exploded the way still photos have. However, like still photos, many say that personal video has the potential to break out from its role as “memory clips” and become an even more integral part of consumers’ real-time social sharing habits on Facebook and other social networks. How many of you remember the camcorder? Yea, those now ten year old standard definition camcorders were really something. Remember dealing with the tapes? The ingest process, where you had to bring in the data by playing it back in
Read morePanasonic GH4 Hands-On Field Test
Once again from our favorite Canadian reviewers Chris Nichols and Jordan Drake from TheCameraStore.TV. We have their hands on field test of the new Panasonic GH4. After our own preliminary look at the new GH4 at the WPPI show last week, I would concur with most of their findings. Is this a revolutionary camera? Perhaps. Perhaps not. The strengths of the GH4 are not only in the 4k filming capability, it is also in the tremendous potential it has for near perfect 1080P, absent the “wiggles, jiggles, and jaggies” found to some degree on all of my present camera bodies.
Read morePhotography Education
When I went to school photography education consisted of a brownie box camera, five rolls of 127 B&W film, five pre-paid Kodak processing mailers, and a teacher/advisor who supervised the yearbook student staff. “Go out and get us some great pictures!” was about the extent of both the education part of it as well as managements instructions to the staff. I am probably a better photographer today because of it. Comparing the present with the past, it isn’t hard to tell which people were more concerned about getting a job and earning money rather than studying one of the arts. You
Read moreParabolic Reflectors
Video: Australian photographer Karl Taylor presents Parabolic reflectors vs other professional light shaping tools. As with everything else in photography these days, studio lighting is changing rapidly. So fast, I find it hard to keep up with the various types of lights, light modifiers, light sources, CRI Indexes, and the huge number of new vendors few have even heard of. Ideas like parabolic reflectors are something worth checking. They provide more excellent options in a photographer’s lighting toolbox. We can never have enough lighting options, especially if the light quality is pretty. Parabolic reflectors output pretty light. So every studio should
Read moreThe Sky is Falling and the Light is Leaking: the A7r Anti-Massacree
Editors Note: Today we introduce a gentleman who needs little introduction, the Master of Brevity, the Don Juan of Optical Benches, Master researcher of a7r light leak, the Master Myth Buster of Camera Porn himself, President of LensRentals.Com, Mr. Roger Cicala! BAD-A-BOOM! Roger has agreed to join our growing number of Merry Pranksters to help keep us all informed of the latest goings on in technology as it relates to cameras and our using them to their maximum potential. Roger has some of the finest tools in the world to evaluate cameras, lenses, and is a widely recognized expert in
Read moreWPPI 2014 Report – The Road To Vegas With The A7R
I had never been to WPPI, the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International show in Las Vegas, so when Paul Gero told me he was going I made an on the spot decision to join him. The Sunday afternoon drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas takes a bit over four hours at a legal and sane pace – less if you drive a sports car. I arrived shortly after dark at my WPPI hotel, Hooters; right on the strip and directly across the street from the MGM Grand, the location of the WPPI 2014 show. What luck. I paid
Read moreA7R And Leica 28mm Summicron – MythBusted?
There are some problems reported using a Sony A7R with a Leica 28mm f/2 Summicron ASPH. Smudged “blurry sides and edges” and serious “color smearing” repeated in discussion forums and on the major social networks. Some go so far as to report the 28mm ‘Cron unusable on the A7R, the problems being so serious. Where are the image samples documenting these serious problems? I hear plenty of words, but yet see few actual image examples. So I set out to do some of my own. I own an A7R And Leica 28mm Summicron. I’ve owned this lens for many years,
Read moreFujifilm X-T1 Meets Fujinon XF 23mm 1.4R
The Fujifilm X-T1 combined with the XF 23mm 1.4R prime lens is an amazing combination. This is the sharpest Fuji lens we have seen so far, even beating the very good XF 35mm 1.4. The widest opening of f/1.4 allows lovely background blur. In some cases the maximum shutter speed of the X-T1 (1/4000) is limiting to utilize the maximum aperture in bright light such as winter noon day full sun. What follows are a few image samples from this stunning X-T1 & XF-23mm combination. For more images shot with our new Fujifilm X-T1 with the Fuji XF 23mm 1.4R,
Read moreThe Value of Critique
The easier we accept critique, the more constructive critique we get, the greater our opportunity for growth in our chosen craft. This is true not only in photography, but in filmmaking, writing, painting, music, and every other art form. Craft skills in the arts are learned, and then honed to perfection by the artist over a lifetime. Basic raw talent may be there from birth, but without training almost never develops to the fullest potential. And never without frequent mistakes. Photography can be an intellectual exercise. You read a lot of that type of discussion in most online forums.
Read moreCanon 55mm f/1.2 FD & FL To EOS Conversion
The Canon EOS 650 is a 35 mm single-lens reflex camera. It was introduced on 2 March 1987, Canon’s 50th anniversary, and discontinued in February 1989. It was the first camera in Canon’s new EOS series designed from scratch to support an entirely new line of consumer autofocus lenses. The EOS system featured the new EF lens mount, which used electrical signals for communications between the camera and the lens. Electric motors inside the lens did the focusing and aperture control. The EF mount is still used today on Canon DSLRs, including digital and film models. Just one minor problem, Canon’s
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