Pentax Ways

PESO 2011 #50 - Jerusalem etude

2011-12-22T07:56:00.001+02:00

PESO 2011 #49 - Etude

2011-11-26T19:22:00.001+02:00

AF DC-Nikkor 135mm f/2D

2011-11-26T19:07:00.001+02:00

A co-worker of mine recently bought this very special lens to go along with his Nikon D90. Few days ago I had an opportunity to play with it a little.

Obviously, being a rather old lens, a lot can be found about it on the net. So I will put here only my personal impressions.

Operation
Everything just works. AF is quiet, quick and precise. The defocus control ring is conveniently placed and is very to operate. Although somewhat on the heavy side (it is after all a fast f/2.0 optic), it is only ever so slightly front heavy on D90. The viewfinder view is bright, although judging exact degree of defocus is not always so easy. But chimping is easy these days, isn't it?

Image quality
This is where it truly shines. In fact, the whole idea of defocus control, where the degree of defocus is decoupled from the aperture (unlike, e.g. Pentax soft lenses, where the softness is simply set by the aperture) is just brilliant. The three dimensional effect due to play of in focus to out of focus transition can be very pronounced too.

Summary
Highly recommended in all respects. It can be used both as fast medium tele lens and as a very special portrait optic and for great many other purposes.

If I shot Nikon I would definitely get one of those defocus control lenses because I quite like the soft focus effect.

Pentax SMC DA* 16-50/2.8 follow up

2011-11-05T20:13:00.001+02:00

A couple of weeks ago I posted about Pentax SMC DA* 16-50/2.8. Having shot with it about 800 images, I think it may be time for a follow up post.

Handling and build
It's just about perfect. The focus ring does not rotate when AF is working which makes it most convenient. In fact it's my first lens that I can hold any way I want without risking to intervene with gear operation. Zoom ring is smooth and tight.

Image quality
That's where real fun begins. This lens flares more than other Pentax lenses I used. Well, may be FA 28-105/4-5.6 (nee Tamron) flares really badly, but this one does catch flare every now and then.

Also the purple fringing can be a bit of a problem. LightRoom solves almost all of it via lens profile mechanism, but although I don't usually fret about purple fringing sometimes it is hard not to notice.

There is certain degree of sharpness fall off towards the corners of the frame for wider zoom settings. Since I am yet to print a proper enlargement from my shots with this lens, this statement and others in this section have to be taken with a sensible grain of salt.

So, I think that if this lens was submitted to a laboratory testing it would fair not too well. Also I think that if one would take into account its relatively high price (the likes of Sigma 17-50/2.8 or Tamron 17-50/2.8 are significantly cheaper), one would not be so unreasonable to say that the value for the money of this lens is not very high.

The good thing though that when it hits it, it shines. And it hits it like 99% of the time. Sharp wide open, excellent color rendering, smooth tonal gradation, very smooth OOF rendering. Add to that silent SDM AF system and weather resistant construction and you get a clear winner.

On SDM
I don't think SDM has any real advantages over screw driven AF except being silent and allowing for full time manual override. These two are very significant advantages and silent AF can be most useful for shooting in the crowd or during events. It is sufficiently precise although it did miss few times but it might have been my mistake as well as technology limitation in play here. The AF speed is comparable and although some say that SDM is faster, I don't think it is that much faster so as to be a game changer. It well may be that when I return to any of my older lenses, I will change my mind, for I've been shooting with this lens exclusively since I got it.

Summary
There's very little one may dislike about this lens. Although being the flagship of the brand (along with its sister lens DA* 50-135/2.8 that I don't own) it is not perfect and it has its flaws. Yet, it's a wonderful tool that already has served me very well on quite a few occasions.

P.S. Several most recent PESOs were shot with this lens, so have a look at what it can do, don't take my word for it.

PESO 2011 #48 - Into the sun

2011-11-05T19:29:00.003+02:00

PESO 2011 #47 - Untitled

2011-11-05T19:20:00.002+02:00

PESO 2011 #46 - Communicating

2011-11-05T19:15:00.003+02:00

PESO 2011 #45 - Sponge Bob goes fishing

2011-10-29T07:38:00.003+02:00

PESO 2011 #44 - Change of season

2011-10-22T19:39:00.002+02:00

Enter Pentax SMC DA* 16-50/2.8

2011-10-15T19:45:00.000+02:00

Introduction

After extremely prolonged :-) contemplation, I have shelled out for my first SDM DA* zoom lens. I bought it second hand and according to the seller they had no SDM issues with this lens whatsoever. So here is a brief recap.

Handling and build

This lens is big and heavy. In fact, it is roughly as big as Sigma 24-60/2.8 that held the position of standard zoom lens before it. I think Sigma is ever so slightly lighter, but it may be a matter of weight distribution differences between these two lenses. I never care to compare the specs.

It turns out I have gotten quite used to the way Sigma rotates, which is the opposite of Pentax, but no matter. All in all, it handles well and it feels most comfortable in my hands. It has to be mentioned however, that a battery grip would be necessary for proper balance. Without the grip the combo would be badly front heavy.

One minor nit to pick though. The double cam barrel design seems a bit shaky to me. It is not real wobbling, but it seems and feels like certain minimal wobbling may develop over time. I would really have preferred a single cam barrel of Sigma here.

Image quality

This lens is sharp wide open. It is not bitingly sharp, but it is sufficiently sharp for all practical purposes and it is slightly sharper than Sigma which has a tendency to a bit of a soft glow in this situation. Stopped down it becomes very sharp indeed. The color rendering is native Pentax, which is the only very minor gripe I had about Sigma 24-60/2.8. It felt as if Sigma somehow renders the colors a bit different than Pentax. The OOF rendering is excellent too. In fact, sans the well-known aspect of rather serious distortion on the wide end, the lens does not seem to have any optical weaknesses at all.

On SDM

The focusing is indeed absolutely silent. I cannot discern a sound. Initially, I was under impression that it focuses not as fast as regular screw driven lenses, but then it occurred to me that it has to do with the fact that I wasn't hearing the whirr of the AF motor the same moment I half depressed the shutter button. Presently I think that AF speed is at least as good as that of screw driven lenses.

Although in tungsten room light when it is dark outside it may hunt every now and then. Again, no problem for me.

Full time manual focusing override is really handy.

On weather sealing

When I rotate the zoom ring, I can hear a somewhat strange sound as if an air is being sucked or something like that. Likely it has to do with the lens being more air tight than its non weather sealed counterparts. Given that this is the very first such lens in my stable, it may require a bit of getting used to.

Summary

All in all - an excellent lens in all respects if a little big and heavy, but imagine a 24-75/2.8 lens with SDM and weather sealing in full format land - that would definitely be a bigger fish.

PESO 2011 #43 - Ants

2011-10-15T19:17:00.002+02:00

Galia was recently introduced to photo editing with LightRoom. Here is one of her first efforts...

PESO 2011 #42 - Twilight

2011-09-30T09:29:00.001+03:00

On Pentax Q, Nikon CX et al

2011-09-21T07:30:00.002+03:00

Recently Pentax announced their Q system - the smallest interchangeable lens camera system. Today Nikon announced CX system, which is essentially the same - small sensor, electronic viewfinder, interchangeable lens. But why?

I mean, micro four thirds (m43) is well established and is developing very nicely as well - new lenses and camera bodies were introduced just recently both by Panasonic and Olympus who happen to be the main forces behind m43.

Ricoh had an interesting offering with their GXR system. Samsung is developing their own NX system and Sony are doing pretty darn well with their NEX cameras.

All these camera systems have pretty large sensors.

In my personal and humble opinion - big DSLR manufacturers (well, Pentax is not very big, but they do manufacture DSLRs nonetheless) couldn't join forces with any of the above, probably due to business reasons. So they had to work out their own offerings. Now, it couldn't be large sensor compact camera thing, mainly because that would undermine their own DSLR sales. Sony, whom I perceive as Microsoft of electronics probably could sustain selling NEX for a bit of loss, whereas now they're selling faster than hotdogs in Central Park, New York. So, Pentax and Nikon produced a lot of marketing speak and came up with camera systems with rather very small sensors.

Such systems may appeal to their target audiences. Imagine a haute couture model pulling out of her purse a pink Pentax Q with this or that lens, in matching color, naturally, and taking some shots of her fellow models. That would be hip and fun.

At this moment it is my opinion that cameras like Canon S95, Panasonic LX-5 or recently announced S100 are better option for portable high quality (by today's standards) photography.

There is still hope out there, because the rumor mill has it that Ricoh will work with freshly acquired Pentax to produce a large sensor interchangeable lens camera system. Meanwhile, I will keep watching the photographic world go round and around in a bit of a wonder...

Carl Zeiss Jena DDR MC Flektogon 4/50 with Tilt Adapter mini review

2011-09-20T21:10:00.000+03:00

Introduction
Not a long ago I bought the lens mentioned in the post title along with Ukrainian tilt adapter. Having used it for several weeks I think it is time for a mini review.

Handling and build
This lens is big (as in 88mm filter diameter or thereabouts) and heavy (as in 800 g). Yet it is surprisingly easy to handle and shoot hand held with the adapter. One would have to attach a battery grip to their camera for balanced handling.

As a matter of fact, I admit I tried but couldn't detach the lens from the adapter. The fellow from Berlin from whom I bought this lens, sent me instructions, but I am not very good in all things mechanical, so there you go.

Closest to the mount is the tilt ring. The tilt range is from 0 to 8 degrees. When the combo is mounted on the camera, it can be rotated as a whole around the lens axis so as to have precise control on the tilt configuration. This adapter has clicks every 15 degrees or so.

Next is the Flektogon itself. As usual, the aperture ring is followed by the focus ring. The focus ring has almost full circle (may be 300 deg if not more) of focus throw. It is silky smooth and very convenient in use. Aperture ring has markings from F4 to F22 with distinct half stop click marks between all full stops.

With no electronic coupling, aperture ring has immediate effect. This is convenient as you can keep your camera in P-mode (my mode of choice) and as it turns out K-5 meter is reliable and accurate in this mode of operation.

With stock focusing screen F4 is sufficiently bright whereas in daylight even F16 is not too dark. So precision manual focusing is possible and actually it is not too difficult to perform.

Image quality
This is where this lens truly shines. I've read on the net opinions of people who maintain that this lens easily rivals Pentax FA Limited lenses. Since I don't do measurements, I couldn't tell for certain. Yet it is very sharp even wide open and has very pleasing OOF rendering. I should also mention that it renders minute details with great accuracy. I think some would say it has excellent micro-contrast. In my limited experience so far, images shot with this lens lend themselves very nicely to B&W conversion. They have this hard to describe look or presence in them.

Given these excellent image quality characteristics it is indeed a good candidate for tilt photography where smooth tonal gradation and smooth transition to OOF seems to be essential.

Although marked MC (Multi Coated, one might believe) this lens is obviously more prone to flare than Pentax SMC lenses. Huge front element is also a contributing factor. Yet, multi coating does work and certain degree of flare resistance is at photographer's disposal.

As for color representation the jury is still out. Most of the times it is accurate and as good as any other lens out there without any color shifting, etc. However, sometimes it would produce this strange somewhat washed out colors similar to those that I remember from old Soviet negative films. I haven't figured out yet when this happens and by what this is triggered.

Last but not least, I haven't yet noticed any issues related to high contrast areas (purple fringing, later chromatic aberrations, etc). Although I admit I don't really look for them as they rarely bother me.

All in all, the image quality of this lens is as good as any modern optic. Add to that the tilt adapter and you get a very interesting combo to work with.

On focusing with tilt
Presently I first set the tilt value and then do the rest. Specifically, with lens tilted one cannot really rely on focusing by the center and then recomposing the image. Stock focusing screen of K-5 happens to be very good for purpose of precision focusing.

Gotchas

A friend of mine indicated that these lenses are known to have rather weak aperture construction that is prone to disintegration over time. Mine shows no sign of such dreadful behavior.
There is a bit of very fine dust just beneath the front element which as I gather is mostly little pieces of inner surfaces black paint that came off. No ill effects were noticed from this.
Plastic that surrounds the tilt ring is a bit loose. No, it is not going to fall apart, but rather it can go on being rotated past 0 and 8 marks which are tilt range. As a result it could be a good idea to first set the tilt and then take the camera to the eye if shooting hand held.

Summary
Excellent lens that I would certain explore further and highly recommend you get yourself one of these two and start playing with it.

There is more than 1,000 outstanding photos (not mine, of course) shot with this lens after this (flickriver) link.

PESO 2011 #41 - Relic of the recent past

2011-09-20T20:25:00.001+03:00

Not a long ago pay phones were on every street. Now they are very few and rather derelict...

PESO 2011 #40 - Olive tree

2011-09-20T19:47:00.001+03:00

PESO 2011 #39 - A thinker

2011-09-03T19:32:00.001+03:00

PESO 2011 #38 - Graffiti

2011-08-27T14:38:00.003+03:00

More does not necessarily mean better

2011-08-26T20:15:00.003+03:00

Sony has just announced its new generation of APS-C cameras (Sony A77 - the flagship). The main part - brand new sensor that has 24 MPix. That's quite a handful. Well, probably it would be better to put it like this - that's quite a disk-full. I think that for my personal purposes 16 MP sensor (20-25 MB per RAW file) is just enough.

So, here you have it - in my opinion, for my photography 24 MPix is too many, 8 MPix too many to be precise.

Of course, beside the improvement of pixel count and sensor technology, new introductions have other interesting things. It would stand to reason that when other manufacturers including Pentax will show their new models they will have better metering, faster AF, etc. All of this will be available for a proper price, but if I would want a better AF (I still find AF of K-5 to be sub-optimal) I'd have to adopt this sensor with all its mega-pixels.

Suddenly Ricoh's modular systems looks quite brilliant. You want better algorithms - you get a new body. You want some special lens - you get this special lens module. Modular! Flexible!

Well, one can only dream and wish so much...

PESO 2011 #37 - Fresh amber

2011-08-21T20:02:00.001+03:00

PESO 2011 #36 - Etude

2011-08-21T19:52:00.002+03:00

PESO 2011 #35 - Etude

2011-08-21T19:49:00.001+03:00

PESO 2011 #34 - Just before the moon disappeared

2011-08-15T20:32:00.001+03:00

PESO 2011 #33 - Moon sunrise

2011-08-15T20:30:00.000+03:00

Entilted

2011-08-14T19:55:00.006+03:00

No, there is no misprint in the title of this post. It is indeed about the tilt. I've acquired Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 50/4 along with the tilt adapter. It is big and heavy but it is great fun to use and it shows some serious promise. Few points after spending few days shooting with this combo on my Pentax K-5.

Operation is really easy. There is no automation of any kind - aperture is fully manual, so is focus and of course so are tilt and rotation. My K-5 in HyperP mode keeps the shutter speed at no slower than 1/60 sec after which it starts upping the ISO. No issues with metering.
Focusing is tricky because one cannot focus by the center and recompose. If there is a tilt involved, one has to compose first and only then focus carefully. Fortunately K-5 has sufficiently good focusing screen while maximum aperture of f/4.0 helps as well. It would seem that my K-5's focusing screen is slightly out of alignment for precision manual focusing though.
This lens has huge front element and although it is marked MC, it does catch flare, but that is to be expected. Other than that it is sharp with very pleasing OOF rendering and good color rendering as well.

Below are some examples (a bit of vignetting added in post):

All in all, given the lack of native tilt solutions in Pentax land, this one looks like a really good way to get started. More tilted shots to come along...

PESO 2011 #32 - Hills of Galilee

2011-08-08T19:52:00.001+03:00

PESO 2011 #31 - The sun is rising

2011-08-07T20:44:00.001+03:00

PESO 2011 #30 - Hills of Galilee

2011-08-07T20:32:00.002+03:00

PESO 2011 #29 - Nocturne

2011-08-03T19:55:00.002+03:00

PESO 2011 #28 - Sixteen minutes apart

2011-07-30T15:06:00.003+03:00

One of my favorite past times during travel is to wake up as early as I can and go out take pictures... Here is a couple...

Notice: no color modification was done during post processing of these images...

PESO 2011 #27 - Before and after

2011-07-30T15:01:00.001+03:00

Upper Galilee among other things is famous by its wine production...

PESO 2011 #26 - Power lines

2011-07-30T10:27:00.001+03:00

We're back from a brief get away to Upper Galilee region...

More to follow soon...

PESO 2011 #25 - Live Statues Festival

2011-07-09T20:01:00.002+03:00

We had a live statues festival in our town this week. Galia and I went to take some pictures:

The rest of them you can find after this link.

PESO 2011 #24 - Droplets

2011-07-02T18:52:00.002+03:00

Sony A850 compared to Pentax K-7

2011-06-09T20:35:00.009+03:00

Introduction
A good friend of mine and talented photographer Stan Pustylnik, his wife and their elder girl paid us a visit back in December 2010. Beside spending some great time with our friends, I had a chance to actually shoot in real life conditions side by side with Stan. He's a Sony-Minolta shooter and not a long before he came here, he upgraded to full frame Sony A850 camera. Thus, an opportunity presented itself to perform most informal yet in my opinion sensible comparison of these two cameras.

Formalities
Please notice that the photographs below are published with Stan's explicit permission. Also they are marked with focal length, shutter speed and aperture so that the comparison shouldn't be too difficult. Photos were processed by me in LR 3.4, mostly for tonality and a bit of color balance corrections. I did not try to equate the colors because this is something I find especially difficult with my eyesight.

Gear registry
That day we went to southern Israel to explore some of the more interesting locations of Negev desert. Stan took Tamron 17-35/2.8-4.0, Minolta 70-210/4 (a.k.a. beer-can) and Tamron 90/2.8 macro. I mounted Sigma 24-60/2.8 EX DG and on our way we were.

Photos

These two images illustrate how wide is real wide. Obviously, since Sony A850 does not introduce a crop factor, 17 mm lens becomes truly ultra wide. Even on these small web images one can see that there is a bit of vignetting and that the sharpness deteriorates towards the corners. Does it matter? Well, under certain conditions it might, but in my personal humble opinion - it is practically field irrelevant. The shots Stan made came out beautiful despite these technical shortcomings.

Obviously my attempt above is not as wide as Stan's pictures, but it is quite wide nonetheless. The white balance is different and frankly K-7 sometimes produces rather strange white balance. Also Sigma EX coatings are good but they also tend to shift color balance a bit sometimes. With more rigorous post processing this can be taken care of.

Another pair of images that in my view illustrates the difference in dynamic range between the two sensors. Sony A850 wonderful sensor has smoother transition from light to shadow and more shadow detail retention. I cannot say that Pentax K-7 does badly. It is certainly weaker but it does not too bad either.

The last pair of images in this write up. Notice that EFOV of these two photographs is similar - 90mm for mine and 105 mm for that of Stan.

Conclusion
Obviously this comparison is incomplete, informal and some may argue - inconclusive. However I managed to arrive at some rather important conclusion from that wonderful day Stan and I had together.

It goes without argument that Sony A850 is a wonderful camera that exceeds Pentax K-7 in more than one aspect. My only negative remarks about Sony is that it is big and heavy and that its shutter sound is quite loud compared to that of Pentax.

Some of the sensor related issues were addressed by introduction of Pentax K-5, which by the way is based on another Sony sensor. But my main goal was to see how a photographer whom I hold in higher esteem than myself will acquit himself compared to my own shooting. Stan did brilliantly but he really convinced me by example that a full frame camera despite offering some clearly observable advantages is most certainly not the Holy Grail, not the Ultimate Weapon, not the Silver Bullet. It is yet another tool that needs to be studied and mastered. No more and no less.

Gear diary

2011-06-07T19:13:00.002+03:00

In: Pentax SMC D-FA 50/2.8 macro

I've been thinking of this lens for quite some time. Galia tends to like close up shooting while I am thinking that 50 mm could be a useful lens to shoot with for her learning process. Thus this lens was acquired few months ago. Our copy is a good one, no issues whatsoever - accurate focus, good sharpness across the frame. It is just that this lens has dual cam barrel made of plastic which does not inspire confidence. But then again it is light and Galia is making good pictures with it.

Out: Pentax SMC FA 24-90/3.5-4.5 IF AL

It is a good lens, but:

It has weak construction.
Sigma 24-60/2.8 EX DG is faster and sharper.

Out: Tamron SP 28-75/2.8 IF and more letters

It is also a very good lens, but:

Sigma 24-60/2.8 EX DG is wider and has an OOF rendering that is more pleasing to my eye.
As a result Tamron hasn't been seeing as much use to warrant a place on our photo gear shelf.

PESO 2011 #23 - Rowing in the park

2011-05-27T19:20:00.005+03:00

I've taken this picture two years ago. You can see the original here and here. Presently Pentax does not offer a tilt lens for its crowd. There are 3rd party solutions but they are not all that easy to come by. So, enter Topaz Lens Effects. I've downloaded it for a trial. Here is my attempt at tilt/shift post processing...

PESO 2011 #22 - Communicating

2011-05-22T17:33:00.003+03:00

PESO 2011 #21 - After the rain

2011-05-16T19:27:00.002+03:00

We had some serious rain several days ago. This is practically unheard of...

PESO 2011 #20 - Communicating

2011-05-15T06:10:00.001+03:00

PESO 2011 #19 - Etude

2011-05-13T20:11:00.001+03:00

PESO 2011 #18 - We have Bean in Jerusalem

2011-05-13T20:07:00.002+03:00

The title spelling is actually accurate. There is a sculpture on display at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem that looks somewhat like the Chicago Bean

PESO 2011 #17 - Casting the rod

2011-05-10T19:21:00.003+03:00

PESO 2011 #16 - Celebrational

2011-05-10T18:38:00.001+03:00

State of Israel celebrates 63 today. Happy birthday, my country!

PESO 2011 #15 - Untitled

2011-05-06T17:41:00.000+03:00

This photo was taken back in 2005, about half a year after I had my first Pentax DSLR. I couldn't see how it could be processed until now.

PESO 2011 #14 - After the bloom

2011-05-05T20:05:00.004+03:00

The sakura lost its blossoms and the cycle of life goes on...

PESO 2011 #13 - In motion

2011-04-26T19:37:00.002+03:00

Galia seems to have been fascinated with showing motion on her pictures for quite some time now. Recently, she learned how to use multi-exposure feature of her camera. So here is a shot where she practiced on me.

PESO 2011 #12 - Snail trail

2011-04-22T12:34:00.002+03:00

PESO 2011 #11 - Cliche

2011-04-16T19:37:00.002+03:00

PESO 2011 #10 - Reflections and shades

2011-04-16T19:35:00.002+03:00

PESO 2011 #09 - Impressions

2011-04-13T19:45:00.000+03:00

PESO 2011 #08.1 - Have a seat

2011-04-11T10:05:00.003+03:00

Following the suggestions made on PDML regarding the previous post, here is another attempt, reprocessed.

PESO 2011 #08 - Have a seat

2011-04-09T08:06:00.003+03:00

PESO 2011 #07 - My baby pentaxian

2011-04-03T19:18:00.001+03:00

PESO 2011 #06 - Almond orchard

2011-03-07T19:33:00.002+02:00

You can see more photos from Galia and me after this link.

Enter K-5

2011-03-06T19:36:00.010+02:00

I am awfully behind in my blogging effort. One of the things that I don't manage to get to is to produce a blog entry comparing Sony A850 and Pentax K-7. Meanwhile, I finally decided to spring for Pentax K-5, which as it appears offers basically just one but extremely important advantage over its predecessor - the Sony 16 MP sensor.

It all started when Paul Stenquist of PDML published this picture (presented here with Paul's permission) comparing K-5 with K-7 at ISO 6400.

The frame from K-7 is above and that from K-5 is below. It is no wonder that K-7, being at its highest ISO setting cannot match performance of K-5, which still has 3 stops of ISO up its sleeve. But more importantly this picture illustrates the virtue of dynamic range and the way K-5 renders the shades gradually whereas K-7 is pretty abrupt.

Although as we would see if I hopefully produce the A850 vs K-7 writeup the difference between K-7 and A850 is not as dramatic as I initially thought it were, I finally succumbed to the temptation.

Presently I've shot about 1,000 frames with K-5 and the matching between me and this camera is pretty much done. The upgrade from K-7 is seamless and as smooth as it can be. Practically I couldn't really put K-5 to the situation where its sensor and meter would produce a picture that cannot be salvaged from tonality point of view. I did manage once, shooting under the bright sun into the interior of my car. The contrast was way too high even for mighty K-5.

So, in a nutshell, K-5 is K-7 with improved sensor. I don't have SDM lenses so I cannot really appreciate the improvements K-5 offers in AF department. I've noticed significant improvement in AF speed under live view but I need to try this under real life use conditions. Was the upgrade worth it - yes. Was it necessary - no. It certainly did not make my pictures any better. But it made my shooting more convenient and worry free.

More to come, time permitting...

Gabriel Hadar - the story teller

2011-03-06T19:26:00.007+02:00

Back in August 2010 we paid a visit to the Diaspora Museum, Tel Aviv. One of the attractions was the "Hour of the Story" presented by Gabriel Hadar. The kids loved it. In fact, I should say that I loved it too. But I was also with my camera and so I took pictures. After the show Gabriel approached me, gave me his card and asked for the pictures. Fortunately to me, the pictures came out really well. And so I sent them to Gabriel. A short e-mail exchange happened and finally, just a few days ago Gabriel sent me the link to his web site. For those who don't read Hebrew, the little writing beneath Gabriel's pictures says "Photography: Boris Liberman".

Great many thanks, Gabriel! And I should say that I wholeheartedly recommend you this wonderful artist and a man of his word.

The link obviously is going to be added to the friendly sites section of my blog.

PESO 2011 #05 - Sakura

2011-02-26T19:20:00.001+02:00

We caught one of the last days of blooming sakura in Jerusalem Botanical Gardens. Pentax K-5 has arrived few days prior to that so that Galia is shooting with formerly mine K-7.

To be continued...

PESO 2011 #04 - Almonds are blooming

2011-02-19T19:23:00.000+02:00

PESO 2011 #03 - Object formerly known as palm

2011-01-22T18:59:00.001+02:00

PESO 2011 #02 - Boutique hotel entrance

2011-01-15T18:00:00.000+02:00

PESO 2011 #01 - Mask of mystery

2011-01-15T17:58:00.002+02:00

Year 2010, Top Twelve x 2

2011-01-14T19:35:00.002+02:00

This year Galia and I chose each top twelve photographs which I uploaded to Flickr. Well, I did help Galia a little to choose her top twelve, but it is her work nonetheless.

You can see Galia's selection here and mine here.

PESO 2010 #57 Follow up

2011-01-13T09:56:00.004+02:00

A bit of boasting on my part here.

A fellow PDMLer Paul Sorenson whom I met last year in person requested to have the full size file of this shot. Naturally I gave him the file and he printed it for his wife. I am very pleased as you can see.

Paul being a most capable photographer himself can be contacted by e-mail via this address.

PESO 2011 #01 - Fisheye fun

2011-01-01T19:37:00.008+02:00

One of my co-workers recently brought his Nikon D300 and 10.5 mm fisheye Nikkor lens. He generously agreed to let me make few shots.

I did not touch the settings in the camera and applied only minimal processing in LR 3.3. However, I thought I might try automatic correction by lens profiles and here is what came out. I should admit to be very positively surprised by the quality of defishing algorithm. In fact I wonder if camera makers can have a special mechanism by which they would show the boundaries of the corrected (defished) image while shooting with the fish eye lenses. It certainly may prove useful.

On that occasion I'd like to thank everyone who's reading my blog. It seems there are at least two dozen people who do so quite regularly. I am most humbled and inspired by your interest. Let's hope that the next year will prove photographically fruitful to everyone who's having fun taking pictures.

Happy New 2011, everyone!

PESO 2010 #68 - Sandy rain

2010-12-31T07:16:00.004+02:00

When it dried out, everywhere a drop fell, a little pile of sand remained...

I absolutely cannot choose between these two renderings...

PESO 2010 #67 - King David of Jerusalem

2010-12-31T07:11:00.001+02:00

PESO 2010 #66 - Tram ways

2010-12-31T07:07:00.003+02:00

Tram lines are practically ready to start operating in Jerusalem...

PESO 2010 #65 - Friday evening

2010-12-29T19:57:00.001+02:00

PESO 2010 #64 - A man and a landscape

2010-12-17T07:32:00.001+02:00

PESO 2010 #63 - Ein Avdat canyon

2010-12-17T07:31:00.002+02:00

PESO 2010 #62 - Around the bend

2010-12-17T07:28:00.001+02:00

PESO 2010 #61 - Negev landscape

2010-12-17T07:24:00.002+02:00

PESO 2010 #60 - Upwards

2010-12-06T20:36:00.002+02:00

PESO 2010 #59 - Urban perspective

2010-12-06T20:33:00.002+02:00

PESO 2010 #58 - Rokach House

2010-12-02T20:13:00.003+02:00

Rokach House Museum is one of the older buildings in Tel Aviv. Recently it celebrated 120th anniversary.

PESO 2010 #57 - Happy Hannukah

2010-12-02T06:47:00.003+02:00

Happy holidays, everyone!

PESO 2010 #56 - An empty street

2010-11-28T20:14:00.002+02:00

PESO 2010 #55 - Ice cream

2010-11-28T20:12:00.001+02:00

PESO 2010 #54 - Evening walk

2010-11-24T20:00:00.002+02:00

PESO 2010 #53 - Megadrive

2010-11-22T06:54:00.000+02:00

PESO 2010 #52 - Evening walk

2010-11-20T19:34:00.004+02:00

I admit, the low light photography really grows on me...

PESO 2010 #51 - Miserere

2010-11-19T19:26:00.006+02:00

I met Miserere (*) back in May 2010 in Chicago. He's incredibly nice and astoundingly smart guy. Therefore if you hear him decline the above compliment, just don't believe him :-). Here is him doing seemingly his usual two cameras-one guy trick...

(*) Miserere has another web site - right here.

P.S. A bit of techno-babble... The above image was processed with Topaz Noise. Initially I thought it had too much noise which made me hesitate to publish it. As it is now, it seems more or less acceptable...

PESO 2010 #50 - Moshe Aviv Tower

2010-11-19T09:51:00.007+02:00

A co-worker of mine is living on the 59th floor of the tallest building in Israel - the Moshe Aviv Tower. Recently I chanced to pay him a visit and even get up on the roof which is approximately 70 stories above the ground. Unfortunately I did not have my camera gear with me, but I had my cell phone :-).

PESO 2010 #49 - Cormorant

2010-11-07T19:58:00.002+02:00

After all these years I still don't know why, but cormorants are PDML birds... So, in a manner of speaking, Galia has become more PDMLer than before...

PESO 2010 #48 - Pizza

2010-11-06T07:09:00.003+02:00

Among other extracurricular activities, Galia studies cooking. This pizza was really delicious, and I am saying it not because I am Galia's dad, but because it was tasty.

PESO 2010 #47.1

2010-11-05T07:14:00.007+02:00

I have been asked to provide comparison images for my Topaz Cat PESO.

First, completely unprocessed crops:

Then, my attempt to LightRoom 3.2 noise reduction:

Sans the minor difference in brightness between these four and the Topaz Cat images due to my general post processing of the full image for presentation it seems that LightRoom does really good job at noise reduction. I still prefer Topaz but it is of course influenced by the fact that I recently paid money for it.

Finally, as Miserere rightfully requested to show him some prints, all this pixel peeping is of very specific and limited value, but I had to have my portion of "fun", hadn't I?

PESO 2010 #48 - Ralli Museum Caesarea

2010-11-05T06:50:00.004+02:00

Two more from my cell phone photography series. I wholeheartedly recommend you visit Ralli Museum Caesarea if you happen to visit Israel.

PESO 2010 #47 - Topaz Cat

2010-11-04T20:17:00.004+02:00

It seems everyone in Pentax land is getting excited about noise performance of K-5 and K-r - two most recent and most up to date offerings from Pentax. It goes without argument that noise performance of K-5 has improved significantly on K-7. However K-7 is no slouch. At this moment I see no particularly strong reason to shell yet another 4 figures in USD for the new camera. Rather, I bought Topaz Denoise for approximately 1/20th of the price of brand new K-5. Here is a picture I took not long ago and processed it with Topaz Denoise. It was shot at ISO 1600, f/2.5, 1/50 sec with FA 77/1.8 Limited.

Two 100% crops for your inspection:

It seems to me that I can actually shoot safely at ISO 3200 now, although previously I limited auto ISO to ISO 1600. Of course this is not wondrous ISO 25600 or even ISO 51200 of K-5, but it will satisfy my needs quite nicely.

Ten thousand clicks

2010-10-29T07:19:00.009+02:00

Just recently I've hit 10K clicks mark on my K-7. It took me approximately one year and two months. It turns out that many (gear head) ideas crossed my mind, and it would seem interesting to step back and have a bit of an introspect.

Statistics

Here are some interesting data pieces that my LightRoom is telling me:

I have kept 7400 shots. This is too many. I have shot 1400 frames for family album. I have traveled several times, mostly on business and shot 900 frames during my travels. I still have 900 shots that I need to keyword. Finally, I shot 740 frames for Galia's school which is my ongoing project ever since she started going there.

I have shot 2000 frames with A 50/1.2, which is by far my most used and favorite lens. Second most used lens is FA 43/1.9 Limited with 1100 frames. Next is Pentax FA 20/2.8 with 750 frames. In zoom department the title goes to Tamron 28-75/2.8 with 660 frames with recently acquired Sigma 24-60/2.8 not far behind with 500 frames.

Most of my shots are made at ISO 100 and ISO 200 with 2250 and 3100 frames respectively. Exactly 81 frames are shot at ISO above 1600, only one of which is at ISO 6400.

Featurette

K-7 introduced a number of new features over K10D. Here is the brief shopping list based on K-7 review that I wrote last year in this blog.

100% Viewfinder This is by far the most useful improvement offered by K-7. Indeed, I cannot take a shot without looking into viewfinder, so I effectively use it all time :-). Yet, I am aware of the offered coverage and take advantage of this over and over.
Quiet shutter It is really nice to have. Originally I thought of it as a big plus, but now I don't hold this particular feature in such high an esteem. It is useful, but only just.
77 segment matrix metering Another pretty valuable improvement. I cannot say that it is spot on. It is good enough that I can hardly recall times when I had to issue exposure correction. Since K-7 RAW files excel in shadows headroom, I take it from there. It is good though that I don't have to worry about the metering like I used to do on K10D.
Autofocus It is pretty much the same as it was withK10D. I don't feel any significant boost of confidence or the opposite. It is just there and I just use it just like I used it on my previous cameras. Notably the little AF point selection switch is extremely awkward. Nine times out of ten, if I flick it with my thumb without taking the camera away from my eye, it switches to live view mode.
Electronic level This is second most useful addition to K-7. Most valuable is the fact that the level is shown in the viewfinder and it benefits my (lack of) style of shooting greatly.
Live view I used it only once for prolonged period of time. It wasn't too successful. For fine precision focusing I still use Katz Eye split focusing screen. Recent firmware upgrade made CDAF speed barely tolerable but I still don't use it, likely due to its previous abysmal performance.
Video mode I shot about a dozen short clips for my family album and another half dozen clips for the heck of it. Initially I thought it would be a useful feature. Well, it is, but I just don't use as often as I thought I would.
High speed shutter This is third most useful feature of my K-7. I often shoot at very large apertures (f 1.2, f 1.4) in rather bright light, so it comes in handy.

This is it, folks. Whatever else K-7 has to offer I don't use it. Be it fancy sensor movement control system, in camera HDR or fancy cross process filter. In all seriousness, I feel like I paid for a number of development efforts that have no benefit for me whatsoever. I much rather Pentax invested in bettering their P-TTL flash system or dealing with infamous SDM problems than developing yet another art filter in camera firmware.

So, to summarize this section - I actively use 2.5 features out of so many K-7 has to offer. Both are improvements over K10D but they are not deal makers or deal breakers - they are more of a convenience features. Realization of this was a bit of a revelation for me. More on that later.

PESO 2010 #46 - F1.2 Minor

2010-10-22T17:47:00.001+02:00

PESO 2010 #45 - Alma Mater

2010-10-02T19:36:00.003+02:00

Continuing my cell phone photography project... As a matter of fact Weizmann Institute of Science is my Alma Step Mater as I started my higher education in Moscow Oil and Gas Institute.

PESO 2010 #44 - Chairs study

2010-09-30T19:47:00.003+02:00

I thought these plastic chairs in the middle of ancient amphitheater were fascinating...

PESO 2010 #43 - Wave study

2010-09-30T19:44:00.003+02:00

Galia studies the waves...

I did the processing of both shots, but Galia was by my side and she approved of my actions.

PESO 2010 #42 - Two armies

2010-09-30T19:38:00.006+02:00

We spent today's morning in Caesaria. Accidentally Galia and I were shooting the same view unbeknown to another another.

I am hoping that really soon Galia will completely outdo me in all things photography...

From technical stand point, although processed, these photos seem to illustrate the difference between color rendering of K10D with FA 50/1.4 (Galia's shot) versus K-7 with Sigma EX 24-60/2.8 (my shot).

PESO 2010 #41 - Smoking hand

2010-09-25T16:06:00.002+02:00

PESO 2010 #40 - Hot afternoon

2010-09-25T16:02:00.001+02:00

PESO 2010 #39 - Place for meat

2010-09-25T15:57:00.002+02:00

Place for meat is by far our favorite restaurant in Tel Aviv. We keep coming there and these guys never disappoint.

Exciting times (or not?)

2010-09-15T18:06:00.003+02:00

Photokina 2010 is coming up. This year it seems everybody or at least every reasonably big player in this game is making an announcement and introducing new products. Canon 60D, Nikon D7000, Olympus E-5, Sony E-55, Pentax K-r to name a few. I am deliberately not giving any links as the web is full of them and whatever I might give you might not fancy.

The question that I'd like to discuss here is that of comparison. Does it make sense to compare these announcements and if so, how to do it best. So let us get started.

Every manufacturer has their own marketing outlook. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Say, Pentax has rather narrow set of options and they don't offer a full frame(*) camera to compete with likes of Canon 5D Mk2 or Nikon D700, however they seem to be building up on the success of their K-x model that was greatly praised for its high ISO performance and won some acclaim for colorful marketing. Sony made very interesting announcement of the camera with semi-transparent mirror and hence 10fps rapid fire rate. Nikon seems to have outdone everyone so far by offering a camera that has mechanical aperture coupling thereby giving a mid-level camera the compatibility of its higher level siblings. The list goes on.

As you can see, there is no direct comparison between all these points. Everyone is moving in their own direction that they think is the correct one from their technical and marketing perspective.

Here is the idea for you to consider: it makes no sense to compare camera bodies across the brands. Let us consider an example. On paper Olympus E-5 (labeled professional by Olympus themselves) is almost everything that Pentax K-7 has been a year go. Obviously people who are busy making cross-brand comparisons would say that Olympus sky has already fallen. People who for whatever reason choose Olympus system to shoot would have none of this nonsense. I am with the latter.

Unless you are sitting on a fence considering switching systems or starting in photography, it really makes very little sense (in my opinion, of course) to do these comparisons.

(*) Some call it "fool frame", but I digress.

On Dark Frame Subtraction

2010-09-13T10:09:00.001+02:00

Some criticize K-7 and other cameras for Dark Frame Subtraction (DFS) during extremely long exposures (1/2 hour and longer). Effectively, DFS shortens the night by half.

What if it were possible to pre-perform the DFS exposure say by opening the shutter for an hour and saving a special DFS image file every 5 or 10 minutes. Then, during the actual shoot the photographer wouldn't have to wait for DFS, but rather camera will take the ready image from the card. The pre-shoot DFS exposure could be an option from the camera menu that will greatly improve the usability of the camera. The regular DFS can be retained of course.

Such a mechanism may mean somewhat weaker noise reduction performance but it will be the photographer's call to make.