A More Compact Super Wide

For a compilation of the morning walk images, click here.

12mm F 2.8 7artisans lens, (left), and the 12mm F 2.8 Zeiss Touit (right)

Since becoming a Community Photographer for the Daily Journal, one thing became apparent: Telephoto lenses were far less useful than moderate wide angles. Working indoors, the camera-to-subject distances tended to be shorter, so you need a wide angle's extra coverage to include both the far left and far right subjects. In full frame, my go-to lens was the 24-70 Nikkor in full frame cameras and the 17-55 when a crop sensor body was deployed. When used wide, both lenses allowed me to include great swaths of background to establish context, with a acceptable level of wide angle "stretch face" distortion in the corners.

Extreme situations required extreme solutions, so my kit included short zoom lenses with minimum focal lengths of 15mm and 12mm for my full frame and crop sensor bodies, respectively. I had to be very careful with these super-wides, since corner distortion could be very distracting if not properly managed. I found that the most egregious distortion could be avoided by keeping my camera level and important details away from the corners.

My original intent was to create a compact collection of lenses that I could carry in a smaller camera bag. This was mostly realized with my adoption of my compact Fuji mirrorless "kit" composed of two bodies and the capability of a super wide, a moderate wide/normal, and a short telephoto, and a compact flash. This included a X100T with its native 23mm lens, a dedicated wide angle lens adapter for an 18mm equivalent, an X-E1 body with a 50mm lens, and a 27mm lens in case my X100 failed and I needed a wider view than the 50.

Order yours here.

With 4 potential focal lengths (18mm, 23mm, 27mm, and 50mm), I should have been content. But greed is a funny thing, and I still wanted a 12mm lens to give me a super-wide view. While I owned a 12mm F 2.8 Zeiss Touit, it proved to be a rather bulky lens, one I never felt comfortable carrying.

Take my word for it; With its smooth clean lines, this lovely lens  is a joy to behold, but its beautifully sculpted lens hood made it absolutely huge. And in spite of its discounted price (it's a refurbished lens), it's far too precious for everyday carry. So if I were to carry an additional lens, it needed to be compact. I decided that it would be used only when I had the time to properly compose and focus my shot, so a manual lens would be in totally in the running. 

Thinking Smaller: I had considered buying an older post-war, screw-thread Leica rangefinder lens. I quickly found that wide angle lenses in my desired focal length range hadn't yet been developed. The only practical solution was to look at the current crop of modern manual lenses marketed to the mirrorless camera crowd looking for cool bokeh, a good price point, and reasonable sharpness. Once again, 7artisans provided an answer, the 12mm F 2.8 lens. At the time of this posting, I've had a chance to use it on several occasions, and subjectively, it appears to be the sharpest of the 7artisan lenses.

At the top of this post, you can see a size comparison of the (manual) 7artisans F 2.8 12mm and the (auto) F 2.8 Zeiss Touit 12mm. I photographed the Zeiss without its bulbous petal lens hood so you could compare the two in their most compact forms. The 7artisans lens has a built-in petal lens hood which provides some protection from errant fingerprints. That said, if I add the filter adapter to the 7artisans lens, it's nearly as bulky as the Touit. 

Now that I own it, I am anxious to see if this 7artisans lens gets used as often as I think. Hopefully, the multiple plagues that beset us will soon become distant views in our collective rear view mirrors. Of course, they'll be be in reverse, visually.


Technique Tuesday, Early: It may not sound like a big thing, but making a photograph showing both of my hands requires some planning. At first glance, one might assume that the ubiquitous self-timer on nearly every camera, film or digital, was used to make the shot. After all, it was designed to trip the shutter (now that's an anachronistic phrase) when the photographer needed to be in the photo. Alas, there is one problem. You see, the camera establishes correct focus the moment the shutter button is pressed, meaning you're running towards your mark after focus has been set without you in the photo. Should you ask, using the Continuous Autofocus setting doesn't solve the problem.

I suggest that you read your instruction manuals or to consult a You Tube post to get the specifics on how to make these essential settings:

• Autofocus: Automatic. This lets the camera decide which focal points are the most important.

• Interval Timer Shooting: On. Next select a sequence of 5 shots, with a 5 second interval between shots. You have the option of delaying the first shot in the series, which I didn't use.

In this sequence of five shots, you can see the first one has a less than ideal framing. After reviewing that first shot, you can look through the viewfinder and refine your composition for the next. The neat part is the camera will re-focus a few moments before each exposure, so repositioning of the subject has no adverse effect on sharpness.

Be forewarned, setting up the interval timer will take a lot of experimenting. Before you start, commit to the number of photos you want to take and the interval between shots. As I used to tell my students: If a technique is too easily mastered, it may not have been worth learning in the first place.