Monday, August 28, 2017

Walk around Stadthuys with Nikon 85mm 1.4D

Malaysia is celebrating it's 60th birthday and we all are proud of it.

It's been a month plus after sending my 85 for cleaning service, I have finally got it back! I bought the lens used with moderate dust in the optics very long time ago. The lens have battle scars all over its plastic body but at least the AF works. I never bothered to send it for a lens cleaning until I have taken this photo.
The dark spot is very prominent, shot on Nikon FM.
The dust in the lens somehow introduce some dark spot in the bokeh rendition. So it went for a service.

Few days ago, I get back the lens from the cleaning service. I'm desperate to try it out to make sure the lens works better than before. So, I'm bringing it out for a test drive.
A trishaw vendor cycling pass the street
The lens is not exactly sharp wide open and comes with loads of chromatic aberration. Most of it can be corrected in Lightroom but not very effective in some circumstance. I still can live with it since I'm not pixel peeping by zooming in all the time.

bubble blowing while resting

happy family cross the street

There is always a good time for we-fie.

The tourist sing song together with street performer.

opps....
The focus at 1.4 is kinda hit and miss especially if there is movement involved. So, I shot mostly f/2 or slower to make sure I have enough depth of field to cover and improved contrast. That is, if the lighting condition permits.

the water droplets have purple fringing all over it.

The police officer have a chit chat with the uncle while keeping the flag.

The street full of flag decoration for the coming celebration.
Without VR or vibration reduction, the lens is prone to camera shake. To reduce the blurry image, I have to use shutter speed more than 1/125th seconds for stationary subject. However, in order to do some panning shot, I deliberately reduced the shutter speed to around 1/40th seconds to introduce motion blur in the photo. I managed to get few sharp photos after some trial and error.

Relaxing ride using e-scooter.

having great family bonding time during the school holiday season.
I have a chance to try out Ming Yao's Nikkor 24-70 after the sunset. The lens build like a tank and weighs a tonne. I only manage to get few photos out of the short walk.
Her mom is persuading her to ride on a trishaw.

Pikachu....... I choose you!

Some street artist selling their artworks along the corridor.
After shoot around the area, I think the 85 is ready to serve me in duty. Many thanks to Danny who works hard to clean my lens and my brother to help me transport the lens. More image to come from this legendary work horse. See you soon.

Monday, August 14, 2017

The gem I don't deserve - Nikon 50mm f/1.2 ais


This is the fastest current production Nikon lens in the market and has been around for decades. When I first hold it, I was amaze by its build quality which makes me wonder, why lens nowadays are not like that. My desire to own this lens starts after I got my hands on my Nikon F3, which I do not own any lens that can be use with it. Yes, there are a lot cheaper options, but I want the widest possible aperture to allow me to shoot in low light situation, since the common film speed is around iso400 equivalent. 
9 bladed bokeh monster.
The large front element is rather good looking with its 9 bladed aperture. I stare at it the whole night after I bought it used online. My copy of the lens have smooth focus ring, the aperture clicks firmly and the optics are relatively clean.
I use it to shoot some landscape as well
Besides using the lens on my F3, the lens can be used for my Nikon D600 as well. However, you need to do a setup on non-cpu lens. This is because the lens does not have any electrical contact to transmit lens information such as focal length and maximum aperture to the body. To learn how to setup non-cpu lens on Nikon body, click here to see video from Matt Granger. However, you still need to dial your desired aperture on the lens manually.
Does it keep you going?
Oh, did I tell you this is a manual focus lens ONLY? Who the hell still use manual focus nowadays? At f/1.2, this lens is incredibly hard to focus. At least for me, my successful rate for stationary subject is around 10%, not even considering the amount of time taken. From the camera view finder, it’s very hard to judge if your subject is perfectly in focus. There are possibility the camera body have slightly inaccurate focus confirmation that you normally get away with the smaller aperture lens. Perhaps I have bad eyes.
At 1.2, the contrast is not that good. The bokeh however, is rather creamy.
The sharpness for this lens at 1.2 however is rather poor, the contrast is low, and in combination with the thin depth of field, most of the scene seems not in focus at all. At f/2, I would say it’s sharp enough to my liking. Further down will only increase the sharpness and contrast until eventually the diffraction kicks in.
When is the better time to get it?
The only benefit I could see in this lens is also related to its weakness. With f/1.2, you can get very shallow depth of field with this lens. Since the contrast is low, it may be suitable to create dreamy look portrait shot where you don’t need too much sharpness to emphasize the subject skin complexion. 
My best photo from this lens ever, at f/2 with Nikon F3
The bokeh or quality of blur is smooth, not outline/or edgy to its cheaper counterpart. As a result, the look of the photo can be very pleasant.
The beetle just melted into a pool of bokehness...

I always stop down for better sharpness and hit rate.

Stop down again for sharpness

Shot wide open, the focus off

Another wide open shot, the focus off to the right edge of the glass
This lens is very prone to flare, unless stop down
This is a very good lens if you can justify the cost and know the sweet spot to get great result. Of course, you only have manual focus with this beast. However, I don’t shoot film often and I use my 24-70 on my DSLR most of the time. It just stays in my drybox most of the time. After few months owning it, I have decided to sell it to fund my wide angle. My replacement for it would be a 50mm e-series pancake lens which is significantly cheaper and smaller than this legend. Beside the focal length, they are totally different. That’s all my review with Nikon 50mm 1.2 ais – The gem I don’t deserved.


Friday, August 11, 2017

Shoot to pleased yourself

It’s been a while since I updated my blog. Not that anyone care, but I’m thinking that’s a good start. Making photograph has never been easier, so does making good photograph. You have tons of reference online. So, there is really no excuse for you to make a bad photograph.
A big credit to Ming Yao, who took the photos of my Yashica TLR with his trusty Nikon D750 + nifty fifty. 
All the photos were direct output made with the Fuji X100s. It is smart enough to think about the exposure, how to get the retain highlight while maintaining its contrast level while I’m just responsible to tell it when to do it.
The dilemma to shoot in B&W or color. Color it is.
Why am I doing this?
Often I ask myself, why I spend the effort wandering around the streets, while others just watching dramas or playing online games. There is no good and bad. There are millions way how you can spend or rather utilize the finite moments of your life. 
I have no idea telephone booth still working
It just makes me feel better. In a way it’s sort of training for me, judging the exposure, visualize the composition and executing ideas. Every time I learn something from a walk. It can be technical related such as what settings to leave in, pre-focusing, or what gears are useful for which condition. 
It would be great if I can go up the stairs for another shot.
However, in my walk, I see tourist, beggar, shop owner, deliveryman, or just an aunty buying the famous fried oysters for her family, many thoughts gone through my mind. Should I go for a vacation? What will I be when I’m at their age?  How fortunate I am compare to someone, or how I wish I can be as rich as how they appeared. This is the time I enjoy the most where I don’t have to respond to an email, I don’t have to talk to anyone, or having to do something that anyone expect me to do. FREEDOM.
The famous building in Melacca where people end their life.

I just like texture.



more and more windows...

then there will be a door frame

just simply shoot.

Soon Cheong House

Front view of the "9 Storey" flat.

The famous longkang siham. The owner thought we are media and welcome us to shoot as much as we like.

dunno why thinking to play mahjong after watching this

Mosque

what is filem?

adding motion to still picture

The 3 gentlemen.

Ming Yao told me this is a famous bridge in the past.

an umbrella for a no parking sign.

More and more rotten memories.

Ming Yao says he have the same photograph but I'm taking it anyway.

I like contrasty scene.

more old building

pawn paw?

there is nothing more classic than a b&w photo of a black bicycle.

It’s too early for me to talk about LIFE. That’s what a retired old man sitting in his coffee couch do. What if I never had a chance to make it that far? While I still can, never stop making photograph.