April 11, 2024 - Sony A7, 24mm F 2.8 Tamron
I am adding to the "Con" list: the considerable barrel (outward) distortion of straight lines. The curved lines were cropped out of the second image, which also had a weak flash assist to bring out the details in the chain links.
April 10, 2024 - Sony A7, 24mm F 2.8 Tamron
I bought this lens as a "do it all" for my Sony A7, but never used it until this morning. I am sure there are detailed evaluations on the lens, but my conclusions are much simpler.
The Pros:
It's has autofocus lens for a price that was a little more than what I'd pay for a manually focused lens.
Image Source: Click here/ - There is no external aperture ring, so it took a while to find the appropriate adjustment wheel on the body. For a lark, I left the lens at F 2.8.
- Wide open the lens has considerable vignetting. I made no comparison shots to see if a smaller aperture would improve the situation.
- The lens can focus to 1:2, which, in theory, means it is capable of photographing an area of 48mm X 72mm.
- The lens is more than sharp enough for my purposes.
The Cons:
- The lens is large, almost too large
- Its plastic construction doesn't inspire.
More will certainly follow.
April 1, 2024 - Sony A7, 25mm F 4.0 Snapshot Skopar
I See A Face
Piebald Comes To Mind
March 30, 2024 - Sony A7, 25mm F 4.0 Snapshot Skopar
China Camp State Park
The fill flash was held in my right hand and was aimed directly at the propeller hub, in line with the shaft. There might have been a better shooting angle, but this was as far as I was willing to go.
It's getting harder to find new photos when I'm visiting locations for the third and fourth times. I was playing with flash to try to bring out some additional details in the shadows. In the interior shot, I used two speedlights - one for the wall at camera left, and one for the background right of center. It might have been better if I had gelled both flashes, but alas, a second gel was unavailable.
March 27, 2024 - Fuji X-100S 23mm F. 2.0 lens
March 25, 2024 - Fuji X-E1, 7artisans 12mm F 2.8
Fairy Door, Lower Terrace
March 24, 2024 - Fuji X-E1
Sausalito
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| 7Artisans12mm F 2.8 lens. |
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| 7Artisans12mm F 2.8 lens. Color correction made in post. |
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| 7Artisans12mm F 2.8 lens. |
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| TTArtisan 50mm F 2.0 lens. Wide open, somewhat soft. |
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| Meike 28mm 2.8 lens. Flash enhansed. |
I found myself in Sausalito at 7:00 am on a Sunday morning, just after sunrise but well before the next predicted storm. I had my "go bag" containing an X-E1, 3 manually focused lens, and a small flash. The white balance was set to Cloudy Bright, so the images are noticeably cool.
March 4, 2024 - Sony A7
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| Taking this photo was one of the few times I reshot an image I wasn't happy with. Just yesterday, I made a first draft of the image, which didn't meet my expectations. I returned the next day to find the lighting conditions nearly identical to those from the day before. I changed shooting my position and my lens. Instead of a 35mm, I used a Rokkor 90mm F 4.0 I purchased at Seawood Photo in San Rafael. It was designed for the Leica CL, a cooperative effort between Leica and Minolta that was made in Japan. This shot is so much closer to the composition I had in mind. |
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| Corte Madera Creek, behind Rancho Shazam. 35mm F 1.8 Vivitar lens. The rain never came. |
March 3, 2024 - Sony A7, 7artisans 35mm F 2.0
My morning walk was cut short by a sudden rain shower. Before my untimely retreat, I was enjoying the feeling one gets when the sun appears after the rain subsides. Clear, fresh, and cold.
It never fails. You mount a 35mm lens because you were unhappy with the 28mm lens you used the day before. Now I wished I had used something wider.
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March 2, 2024 - Sony A7, 7artisans 28mm F 5.6
We're in the middle of an epic rain storm in Northern California. Yet, the sun plays hide-and-seek, giving all of us an unfounded sense of hope for a bright and sunny day. I walked out in sunshine this morning, and I retreated when a few drops of rain made its presences known. As I type, the rain is allowing the sun to shine through. That will change..
February 28, 2024 - Sony A7, 7artisans 35mm F 2.0
A small LED light has been placed at the base of this succulent. Found in the early morning hours on the Corbin Stairs.
February 27, 2024 - Sony A7, 7artisans 35mm F 2.0
Some of the residents on Masonic Street have taken to hanging outsized Christmas ornaments from the trees in their yards. A gift to the street throughout the year.
February 22, 2024 - Fuji X-E1, 7artisans 12mm F 2.8
Haven't been walking for a while. Cold, damp, and dreary. I decided to use this particular lens to see it if might replace my 10mm Laowa for my mini-kit. It's too dreary to not think about anything but breakfast. On-camera flash was used, and the saturation was tweaked a bit.
February 14, 2024 - Fuji X-E1, 10mm Laowa Lens
Bridgeway in Sausalito
These two images were taken from a walking path on Bridgeway, Sausalito's main tourist drag. This is the first time I ventured on this short section of Valhalla Way a short section of the waterfront walking path was named after the Valhalla restaurant, a speakeasy and brothel owned by Sally Stanford. The original restaurant appears to have been divided into three private residences.
The images were originally shot in color using my "juiced up" Velvia film simulation. The monochrome renditions are more in keeping with the mood, since after these photos were taken, it began to rain. I really wasn't sure what to expect since the lighting was so flat, and the monochrome renderings really didn't have much character. Also, this is the first time I was unhappy with the vignetting exhibited by this particular lens.
February 6, 2024 - Sony A7, 7artisans 35mm F 2.0
The neighborhood's favorite house when it comes to seasonal decorations.
February 3, 2024 - Sony A7, 7artisans 35mm F 2.0
Marin Arts and Garden Center
My initial impressions of my newly acquired 7artisans 35mm F 2.0 are quite favorable. Since it is designed for use on full-framed mirrorless camera bodies, it does not have the focusing cam needed for use on a Leica M series body. This also allows the designers to extend the focusing helicoid so semi-closeups like the potted flower photo are now possible.
The lens proved sufficiently sharp for so inexpensive a lens. This enlarged section of the flower (below), cropped from the above image, was good enough for me.
For whatever reason, it appears this lens is no longer available through B&H, where I purchased it used. I'm glad I got mine when I did. I suspect that 7aratisans will be pushing the Mark II version, which is very stylish, more expensive, and Leica M compatible. Because of the parallax caused by the off-axis placement of the viewfinder, the Mark II probably won't focus as close as this dedicated Sony mirrorless version.
As a final note, I did a search and found that the lens was back ordered at Midwest Photo, leaving me to guess on whether they will have lenses for sale in the future. You can confirm its availability here.
I will be addressing my affinity for these inexpensive lenses in a future post.
February 2, 2024 - Sony A7, TTArtisans 50mm F 2.0
Rain has been an off-and-on proposition, so I went out for a quick walk while the sun drifted in and out of the cloud cover. I thought this shot would turn out better that it did, and while the lens might not have been the best engineered for lighting this harsh, I primary irritant was the focal length. Many years ago, I read where one photographer considered the 35mm focal length the "true" normal lens, and that the 50mm was actually a short telephoto. Had I installed a wider lens, I could have achieved a better composition, owing to having more "real estate" to work with. This is the monochrome version converted in post production.
Gripe as I may, this lens could produce some reasonably sharp images when stopped down to 5.6. And since it was designed to be used on a digital mirrorless camera, it could designed to accommodate a closer focusing distance than lenses made with the Leica rangefinder compatibility in mind, a lens like this might only achieve a 1 meter minimum focusing distance. The TTartisans lens can focus at half that, which is convenient when one needs to get a bit closer.
January 27, 2024 - Sony A7, Opteka 15mm F 4.0
The Opteka is a stripped down copy of the Laowa 15mm F 4.0 wide angle macro lens, which had two unusual features. First, it was a macro lens capable of maximum magnification of 1:1. Second, it had a shift feature which could be used to correct lens perspective errors when photographing buildings. I've owned two Nikkor shift lenses, and have yet to actually use either one. There was no sense in buying a $500.00 perspective control lens when all I was only wanted was a close focusing lens. I purchased my Opteka on eBay for about $225, a price point low enough to allow this indulgence of my curiosity. My copy had a Nikon SLR mount, so an adapter would be needed for use on my Sony.
This flower shot was taken to get a feel for using this lens at very short distances. Using a manual focus macro lens is not as easy as you might think when photographing low contrast subjects. I never got the sense that I had achieved critical focus.
This was the sort of shot I would make of my boxer Jocko using my Vivitar 28mm F 2.5 lens on a Pentax (film) Spotmatic. I think of him daily, knowing that no dog will ever hold a more honored place in my heart.
I'll play with the lens a little longer, although its weight and relatively slow lens speed make it more of a chore and less of a treat. I will slog on for a while longer.
Post Script: The current price for the Opteka has dropped well below what I paid for it a few years ago. It also weighs 386 grams, significantly lighter than the 570 gram weight of the Peargar 14mm F 2.8, a lens whose price is falling just fast enough to get my attention. The weight alone makes me think that if I bought the Peargear, I would then own two dust catchers.
January 25, 2024 - Sony A7, 35mm F 1.8 Vivitar
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| Police Call Box, Circa 1940 |
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| Shadows And Sunstars |
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| Garden Sculpture, Saturn Street |
I actually like this lens. It's close enough in brightness to the new crop of Chinese-made 35mm F 1.4 lenses, and while the Vivitar may not have the resolution, it does have "the look" of a fast 35mm.
January 19, 2024 - Sony A7, TTArtisans 50mm F 2.0
I returned home from my morning walk just as the sun was rising. I wanted to give the 50mm TTArtisan lens a second chance, and I might deign to say I was mistaken in my earlier criticism. The lens is nice and bright, and with the exception of the vignetting, reasonable sharp. It snapped in and out of focus very precisely. Perhaps I initially disliked the lens because I find the 50mm lens (full frame) more difficult to work with than my preferred wide angles.
January 11, 2024 - Sony A7, 7Artisans 28mm 5.6
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| Hood Reflections With Boosted Reds |
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| Reflection In A Rear Window |
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| Aston Martin Minus Daniel Craig |
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| Odd Juxtaposition Of Leading Lines |
January 6, 2024 - Sony A7, 7Artisans 28mm 5.6
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| Seventeenth Street, San Francisco |
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| Buena Vista Heights, San Francisco |
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| Ashbury Street, San Francisco |
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| Cole Valley, San Francisco |
Both Christmas and New Years are in the rear view mirror, and decorations for either holiday are becoming fewer. I was intrigued by the Santa Sleigh because of the word "oil" that appeared in white letters. I surmised that some craftsman used a salvaged gas station sign for the basis of the carriage, making it odd that the King of Christmas would be an advocate for fossil fuels. I was a little disappointed by how much the cloudy morning light desaturated the reds in the image. White balance adjustments had no effect.
I don't normally record portrait-oriented images, but a brood of three pumpkins and gourds sitting at the base of this tree prompted me to wonder how agriculture would have changed if pumpkins did indeed grow on trees.
January 5, 2024 - Sony A7, 7Artisans 28mm 5.6
Lucky Drive, Kentfield
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| Lucky Drive, Kentfield (Marin County) |
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| Lucky Drive, Kentfield (Marin County) |
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| Lucky Drive, Kentfield (Marin County) |
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| Corte Madera Creek in Kentfield (Marin County) |
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| Lucky Drive, Kentfield (Marin County) |
At the intersection of Lucky Drive and Nellen Avenue, the pavement abruptly ends, as if encountering the edge of the known world. Here on the shores of Corte Madera Creek, one can find all sorts of interesting art, most of it beyond the range of the 28mm lens I chose to use this day.
I was determined to find the Giant Picnic Table as seen from southbound 101 in Marin County. Like many secluded areas in Marin, this artists' enclave hosts an abundance of "public" art, highlighting the creativity of an "artists in residence".
The photo featuring the afternoon sun was included as a demonstration of severe coma smearing, an example of a difficult to correct lens defect or an optical fact of life.
January 3, 2024 - Sony A7, Contax / Yashica Lenses
Fort Baker, San Francisco Bay
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| Cavallo Point Lodge - Former Base Residences |
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| Flags Out - Presidio Yacht Club |
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| Tamalpias Outrigger Canoe Club |
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| Walk By The Bay |
From The Fort Baker Website: "...Fort Baker is the 9th and final "Post-to-Park" conversion in the Golden Gate National Parks, is a 335 acre former 1905 U.S. Army post located immediately north of the Golden Gate Bridge. This hidden gem of a site consists of over 25 historic army buildings clustered around a main parade ground, a sheltered harbor protected by a jetty, a number of historic gun emplacements, and trails and forested areas climbing gently up from San Francisco Bay..."
January 2, 2024 - Fuji X-E1, 10mm Laowa Lens
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| Reflections In A Windshield |
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| Nature Is Patient, And Always Has The Last Word |
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| Crazy Colored Sky |
It will be raining again shortly, so a quick walk to get some tarpaulin-securing hardware was in order. The New Year is a time to re-format my cards, resent the exposure counters to zero, and start shooting all over again. It is also a time to archive the year's images and catalog my backup drive.
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