Showing posts with label Lens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lens. Show all posts

Fishy eyed...

Posted: Thursday, February 24, 2011 by Stained in Labels: , , , , , ,
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The widest lens I’ve been shooting with lately after losing my Ultra wide angle (UWA) (i.e. Canon EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5) has been the Canon EF 16-35mm f2.8 L. Even though that is UWA territory even for a crop sensor camera like the Canon EOS 7D; it just isn’t wide enough for quite a few situations (read: corporate group shots, interiors, branding etc). Furthermore this lens belongs to SJ and therefore isn’t at my disposal every single time. Keeping this in mind, somewhere down the line I’d decided to buy myself a decent zoom lens that was wide enough for most jobs. Now I do own an Sigma 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 OS but honestly it’s ineffective on my camera as it’s unable to resolve the high megapixel count the camera sports. The widest lens after that was either the Sigma 50mm f2.8 macro or the Canon EF 50mm f1.8. Neither of them good enough because they’re just too long on a crop sensor (80mm to be exact) and you don’t have the ability to zoom. So there was a need for a lens and that’s where the problems began.

Canon makes a normal zoom lens for crop sensors in the form of an EF-S 17-55mm f2.8 IS. Perfect aperture but not enough zoom cause by then I’d gotten used to a Canon EF 24-105mm f4 IS L (borrowed from SJ) which seemed like the perfect lens with plenty of zoom though a little short on the wider side. Priced at around a thousand dollars, it was cheaper than the 17-55mm and was full frame compatible. It made total sense but then I tried the Canon EF 24-70mm f2.8 L(borrowed) and loved it. Priced beyond my budget, I was settling down for the 24-105mm. But then I did this...

I seemed to have then eliminated the need for a zoom because I could borrow a zoom lens from SJ for events and use my prime lenses for anything else. It made perfect sense. I was still lacking a UWA and a second hand 10-22mm on the market for around five hundred dollars was tempting. Instead I bought this...
A Samyang 8mm f3.5 fisheye manual lens (manual focus and aperture). I’d heard good things about the lens from local forum members and international review sites (photozone.de). At last I have a UWA and even though it produces too much distortion for professional work it’s going to be fun and for the price it’s a no brainer.

I still would need a zoom lens sooner or later, but for now I’m content except that I’m eyeing a Canon EF 400mm f5.6... ^_^

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Lens Tyre Jo

Posted: Thursday, January 06, 2011 by Stained in Labels: , , , , , , , , ,
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I’ve become a bit of a sucker for prime lens. My dream collection would be a 35mm f1.4, 50mm f1.8, 85mm f1.8, 135mm f2, 200mm f2.8 and 400mm f5.6. I already own the 50 and 85 while I’ve been eyeing the Sigma variant of the 35mm (more like the 30mm f1.4) for some time. Instead I’ve landed up with a Sigma 24mm f1.8 for AED1,000, second hand. SJ picked it up for me a few hours back so I still haven’t used it but I’m excited. Next is to bribe myself with the dreamy 135mm… ^_^

Four months and around 10,000 kilometers after my suicidal intention blog post, today I managed to change the faulty tyre. Why it took me so long is completely because the tyres my car rides on (Pirelli P Zero Rosso 235/40ZR 18 95Y) are never in stock. I chose not to go for any other branded tyre cause I didn’t want to change all my tyres due to the cost (eg. Pirelli cost AED1,200 per tyre) and I didn’t want to change just one tyre due to different tread design and performance. In the end I decided to change just one tyre (bought a Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 for AED1,350) cause the faulty one was falling apart and I still couldn't afford to change them all. As the Michelin goes in the rear, I should be fine for now as there is no noticeable change in driving ergonomics. I do plan to change the other 3 tyres in another 10,000 kilometers to Michelin (hopefully the Pilot Sport 3) as a quick google search claims they are a lot better then the Pirelli tyres..

I photographed Jo while assisting Bobby Lane in a portraiture workshop in Abu Dhabi in November. While looking for some other image, I came across this one which was screaming to be processed into monochrome. Simple Adobe Lightroom split tone processing with plenty of contrast and clarity to make the blacks darker and the whites brighter. Also increased exposure for the eyes to make them pop.

Camera Model : Canon 7D
Shooting Date/Time : 11/09/2010 17:36:02 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/160
Av(Aperture Value) : f4
Metering Mode : Center weighted average
ISO Speed : 100
Lens : Sigma 105mm Macro
Focal Length : 105mm

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