Thursday, September 28, 2017
My first roll of Acros
Ever since I have owned a 120 film camera, I have only use colour
negative film on it. The Acros has been sleeping in my fridge for some times
now. Finally, I have taken it to the street one day after work.
I exposed the film just like how I would do on the colour
film. However, the result came out generally under exposed. I have no idea
whether it’s my mistake on guessing the exposure or that’s just how the black
and white film behave. I must say, that day the light wasn’t great.
Ming Yao borrowed a screw driver to fix his Nikon F badge from falling out. |
The shop owner have a long chat with us talking from photography industry, worsen economics and the politics. |
Although I
shot most of the photos on tripod, the focusing on the Yashica is not easy. I
have to dealt with the mirrored viewfinder and at the same time fiddling the
angle to make the horizon straight. “Left is right, left is right”, I keep
reminding myself.
I tried so hard to keep the framing straight. |
With the right exposure and focus, I would say the Acros is
quite contrasty. This makes the photograph pop. However, most of my shot were
under exposed. So, I tried to pull back the detail in post and the outcome wasn’t
great. Generally, the photo has a natural orange tint to it. This makes the
photo a little bit Japanese feel – as describe by Ming Yao. Some photo you doesn’t
see the tint because I have edit it in post.
Definitely my best photo from the roll. |
Personally, I prefer to use colour film during my shoot. It’s
not that B&W not yield great result. I just feel with colour, you get an
extra layer of presentation to your photograph. You can make colour photo to
black and white, but not the other way around easily.
The famous longkang siham in Bunga Raya. |
Somewhere nearby there is a sign by the vendor, "NO PHOTO". I guess they were annoyed by us so much. |
Got the focus and exposure right. but not the rest. |
Under the street light with his "F" |
My camera looks better than me, of course. |
In case you wondering, my Yashica only make SQUARE photos, not because I crop it to make it "Instagram" like. Lastly, it doesn’t matter what other people like or dislike.
Just make photograph, the way you want it.
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. |
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 |
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 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. |
Relaxing ride using e-scooter. |
having great family bonding time during the school holiday season. |
Her mom is persuading her to ride on a trishaw. |
Pikachu....... I choose you! |
Some street artist selling their artworks along the corridor. |
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.