 |
| Fresh Mint |
f/4, 1/100 secs, ISO 800
Showing posts with label Lenses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lenses. Show all posts
Friday, August 2, 2013
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Coffee Break at Cafe Puck
A set of pictures, taken with a D300s and the Nikon 85 1.8G, at f/1.8 and ISO 200, with shutter speeds between 1/50 seconds and 1/1600 seconds.
Location and props courtesy Cafe Puck, München.
Over a cup of coffee, and some useless banter :)
Find it on Google Maps here.
P.N. I make a double appearance in one of the pictures above.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Pink Lily
 |
| Pink Lily |
f/1.8, 1/60 secs, ISO 400
 |
| Pink Lily |
f/1.8, 1/50 secs, ISO 400
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
The Picnic Crasher
 |
| The Picnic Crasher, English Gardens, Munich |
f/5.6, 1/250 secs, ISO 640
This small little gate crasher was captured with the 85 1.8G and the close up lens combination. This post is more about the detail that can be had with this combination, than any purer photographic objective.
To give a sense of how small this fellow was, and how much cropping has gone in to get to the image above, check the original capture below,
And to put the size of the bag into perspective, see the image below where the same bag sits besides a Nikon 1 10-30 VR lens and a Parker roller ball pen.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
85mm 1.8G Macro?
 | ||
| English Gardens, Munich |
f/1.8, 1/500 secs, ISO 200
A tripod, or a steadier hand, would have made a significant difference to the picture above. Nothing extra has been done to the background, the Canon 500D close up and the wide open 85mm ensure you get a smooth OOF background.
The shot below is taken after stopping down. These flowers are very small and scattered all throughout the grass.
 |
| English Gardens, Munich |
f/5.6, 1/60 secs, ISO 200
Another Daisy Close Up
 |
| Daisy close up, English Gardens, Munich |
f/4, 1/250 secs, ISO 200
Here is another daisy, up close and personal. The combination of the 85 1.8G and the close up lens appears to be a great alternative for times when you don't want to carry a dedicated macro lens.
Below is the center portion of the flower, cropped heavily, and this shows that this combination can deliver the goods.
Daisy, close up with the 85mm
 |
| Daisy close up, English Gardens, Munich |
Nikon D300s + Nikon 85mm 1.8G + Canon 500D Close up lens
f/4, 1/1000 secs, ISO 200
This is a close up of a small daisy, using the recently released Nikon 85mm 1.8G combined with a Canon 500D close up lens, on a Nikon D300s. While I do use a 105 VR, the purpose here was to test if this combination could help me get close and sharp if I were to just carry the close up lens along with a 35 and 85 when traveling light. My conclusion is a resounding 'yes, I can'.
The un-cropped version of the image is below.
 |
| Daisy close up, English Gardens, Munich |
f/4, 1/1000 secs, ISO 200
Friday, April 6, 2012
V1, and the new 85 1.8G via FT1 (2)
 |
| Nokia handset (yes, the type with keys!) |
f/1.8, 1/250 secs, ISO 400
This image has not been cropped, it is as-is, just re-sized for web. What you see is the key pad from a Nokia handset (yup ... with keys ... no touch screen, a Nokia 6330 to be precise). These images (this is the second in a series) show that when the 85mm is combined with the Canon 500D close up lens, it becomes a nice macro lens with more than ample control on the depth of field. And when you stick it on a V1, then it becomes even more interesting!
Monday, April 2, 2012
V1 shoots the Great Spotted Woodpecker
 |
| Great Spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocopos major (male) |
f/9, 1/250secs, ISO 160
I shall hunt this fellow till I get a SHARP one of him! 810mm can be challenging ... I guess good practice for when I can get a real big gun :)
Here are some more attempts with this combination (which looks like this) ... Blue Tit #1, Blue Tit #2
Monday, March 26, 2012
Rajma, shot and eaten
 |
| Rajma in the making |
Nikon D300s + 85 1.8G
f/1.8, 1/100 secs, ISO 1600
Just playing around with the new 85 1.8G (AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 G) at home. The beans were shot, and then eaten! The poor lot!
This is one of the initial steps in making a pretty popular Indian dish, called Rajma. A quick google throws up a bunch of recipes on how to go about preparing it, very frequently combined with boiled rice, as 'Rajma Chawal'.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Comparing Nikon Supertelephoto Lenses
Came across this sometime back ... this is a video of Roger Cicala from http://www.lensrentals.com where he compares a bunch of the big guns from Nikon.
On display are (in order) ... Nikkor 80-400mm AF VR f/4.5-5.6D ED, Nikkor AF-S 300mm f/4D IF-ED, Sigma 50-500mm f/4-6.3 EX DG HSM (the Bigma!), Nikkor AF-S 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II, Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM, Nikkor AF-S 200-400mm f/4G ED VR II, Nikkor AF-S 500mm f/4G ED VR and Nikkor AF-S 400mm f/2.8G ED VR.
If you get over the visual fest, then you can head to some of these sites for some reviews and views based on actual usage ...
@ ByThom ... http://www.bythom.com/nikkor-telephoto.htm
@ Natural Art Images ... http://www.naturalart.ca/artist/fieldtests/4waysto400.html
While I dream about some of these lenses all the time, a video like this puts things in perspective ... though it won't stop me from thinking about the 300 f2.8 or the 500 f4 ... hmmm! Nor will it stop me from enjoying such lewd videos ... :)
Also, remember that the Nikon 1 V1 with the FT1 adapter and the Nikon 70-300 VR gets you a light, compact and cheap (though slow) 189mm - 810mm zoom lens with vibration reduction, that you can almost run a race with ... the whole package is smaller than the smallest lens in this video ...
Friday, March 23, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Gear: Cleaning lenses
Clean your lens correctly ... Whatever type of camera you use ... in all probabilities you have a lens sticking out in front of it (pin-hole users, please ignore the post) ... That lens collects its own set of souvenirs as you travel along and put your equipment to use ... in the form of dust, smudges and (hopefully not) scratches.
Here's an article that I had found recently on how one of the more popular lens rental companies clean their lenses ... and note that these guys clean lots and lots of lenses!
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2011/05/the-lensrentals-lens-cleaning-methods
This is possibly too 'hardcore' for most of us, but it gives you more than an idea on how to go about it!
Here's an article that I had found recently on how one of the more popular lens rental companies clean their lenses ... and note that these guys clean lots and lots of lenses!
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2011/05/the-lensrentals-lens-cleaning-methods
This is possibly too 'hardcore' for most of us, but it gives you more than an idea on how to go about it!
Monday, March 19, 2012
V1, and the new 85 1.8G via FT1 (1)
 |
| the table cloth |
f/1.8, 1/50 secs, ISO 400
While playing around with the new 85mm 1.8 G, I realised that I could combine it with the 500D close up lens, and the Nikon V1 via the FT1 adapter ... and took this shot of the table cloth ... I am very happy with the sharpness and control over the depth of field that this combination is capable of ... not an all-weather macro ... but it does seem to have tremendous potential!