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09/20/12 Update–10 groups/14 elements Phase One Schneider 28mm Leaf Shutter Lens–Update

Posted on September 20, 2012 //

Just a quick note, I have heard some new feedback on the this lens.  It seems that it has the exact same number of groups and elements as the older Mamiya 28mm F4.5 lens, 10 groups and 14 elements.

Phase One/Mamiya has done this before i.e. banding a D (digital) brand on an older design and not changing anything on the inner workings of the lens.  The most notable example of this is the 35mm F3.5 D lens.  About 1 year ago, Phase One announced that they were coming out with a “D” version of the older Mamiya 35mm AF lens.  This lens has been a tried and true performer in the medium format stable for Mamiya but is also noted to be not very sharp in the corners even in the F8 to F11 range.  I personally have used this lens since 2008 and worked with several different versions and never really found a good one.  Mine were always sharp in the center, but faded to very soft in the corners and even showed a bit of detail smearing.  However the corner performance of my 35mm Mamiya F3.5 always was better then my example of the Mamiya 28mm F4.5.  (see my earlier post for a bit more feedback on this lens).  These issues are considerable worse with the more modern IQ-160 and IQ-180 especially the later.  I tested my 28mm Mamiya on a IQ-180 and was amazed to see just how bad the sharpness falloff was towards the corners.  With the IQ-160 I was able to recover most of the corners by F16 but I felt that I was starting to lose overall sharpness due to diffraction.  One of my main reasons for moving to a tech camera was the dismal performance of both the Mamiya 35mm F3.5 and Mamiya 28mm F 4.5 on both my Phase P45+ and later my Phase IQ-160.

If Phase One/Mamiya/Schneider only changed out the housing and add a leaf shutter to the existing 28mm Mamiya, then that will be a big disappointment.  There has always been a huge hole in the wide angle lens range from Mamiya since their current 28mm F.4.5 does not have that much performance in the corners especially in the F4.5 to F8 range.  I had assumed that since Schneider was involved that this new version of the 28mm F4.5 would be a total rework.  My first concern was when I noticed that even after the leaf shutter was added, the lens was still an F 4.5 lens.

Only time will tell if this is a total rework or just a new housing/re-badging of an older design. I hope that it’s not and instead this lens will shine! as it has been a real necessity in the Medium Format non Tech camera world.

Filed Under: Photographic Equipment // Tagged: , , , ,

09/17/12 Big Phase One news announced today at Photokina–New DF+ body and Schneider Kreuznach 28mm LS f/4.5 Aspherical lens

Posted on September 17, 2012 //
Phase One DF+ Body

Phase One DF+ Body--Click on image for a larger view

Well it’s a big day for Phase One, as they finally announced a new version of the rather long in the tooth 645DF Medium Format Body.  Based on the reactions I have read to this announcement it seems that most photographers were disappointed with this announcement as they were looking for more from Phase One.

Outwardly the 645DF+ looks just like the older 645DF body, however from reading the announcement it seems that there are some significant improvements over the older DF body.

  1. Phase One has incorporated a new Lithium Ion battery pack in the new body which replaces the older battery clips that took 6 AA batteries.  This same pack is available for the older DF body and has been for about 6 months now.  If you purchase the DF+ it is now included.
  2. AF micro adjustment.  This has been referred to some as being able to shim your digital back to the body.  However I strongly doubt that there is any shimming being done, instead just some form of AF micro tuning just like Nikon and Canon have had for years. This is first for a medium format body that I know of and it the solution works as well as Nikon or Canon it could be significant.
  3. All types of internal improvements.  I love this.  How do you figure out what was “improved” unless you take it apart!.  Some things I could think of that needed improvement are the current AF design, Mirror slap, battery life, Metering to mention a few. But if the body was reworked/hardened to some extent this should be seen as positive.  I have been hard on my DF and it still works as it’s supposed to.
  4. The ability to use the Leaf Shutter lens at up to 1/1600 of a second shutter speed. This is possible with the older DF bodies.  It seems also that Phase/Mamiya did not fix the single biggest issue the internal shutter.  If you use the leaf shutter lenses, you still have to fire the internal shutter and the mirror.  This brings back the same problems as before, mirror slap and vibration when using certain lenses at certain shutter speeds.  This mainly seems to be a problem with the telephoto lenses but many folks were hoping to see a solution that allowed the internal shutter to be left open when using the leaf shutter lenses.

[Read more…]

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Updated 08/10/12 Nikon D800 Left Focus point issues–Much ado about nothing? some more thoughts

Posted on September 17, 2012 //

Due to several readers comments I have added some updates to the bottom of this post.  Depending your shooting style this may be more serious than it is to me.

Since the Nikon D800 and D800E have been announced, one issue that seems to come up over and over is the Left Focus Point on some cameras is not accurate.  The amount of variance seems to vary from a huge amount of difference to just a bit off.  This difference seems to be most often compared to using the center focus point.  The auto focus system on the Nikon D800 is the same that is in the D4, yet it only seems that people using the D800 or D800E have problems.

I have used a D800 now for about 2 months. I was aware of the issue regarding the Left focus point but went ahead and purchased the camera.  I would have been much more concerned if the problem was coming from the center focus points as I tend to use them much more often then the left points or right points.  In fact I can rarely think of a time in my 30 years of landscape shooting where I found that I needed to have the left focus point utilized instead of the center.  I am sure if was working on a very selective scene or a portrait shooter who was working on a off center subject, the left focus point my be important.  However I still don’t see the reason for people to be trying to test it, post pictures of it, write up complaints about it, or feel that for some reason that they were wronged by Nikon.

With my D800, I feel that the center focus point is very accurate enough so that I rarely go back and check focus on the LCD unless I am working a smaller subject like a bird or wildflower.  For landscape wide-angle shooting I am very comfortable with just using the center focus point and then setting up the shot.

There are a few things that people may not be considering before they get upset with the fact that their left focus point is off.

  1. For a lot of my work, still or moving I will use the “auto” AF mode, not the single.  I have found that over time the auto AF setting brings more total focus points in to play and seems to give a more accurate focus.  Note, that when shooting a smaller subject in DX mode, i.e. a bird or animal I will drop back to the center focus point only and take the “auto” setting off.
  2. With a 35mm full frame camera when shooting a landscape there really is not that much difference in subject matter from the center focus point to the left or right.  There is a lot of empty space in the viewfinder that is not covered by any focus point.   So when shooting a traditional landscape at say F8 or F11 where I am working with a hyper focal distance of infinity at 400 feet to 10 feet, the center focus point is a better tool to use.  At this focal range, if you have the center in focus then surely your left and right will also be in focus, or your lens is out of calibration.
  3. If you feel your left focus point is not accurate, and you are concerned that the left side of your composition needs to be in critical focus, then simply move the camera over to the left, place the center focus point on that part of of the image, get your focus and then turn the lens off of AF or use AF lock.  I feel this is actually faster then taking the time to move the active focus point all the way to the left, with the command dial.

[Read more…]

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08/29/12 What to do when your old Klipsch 4.1 system is damaged, Sybesma’s Electronics to the rescue

Posted on August 27, 2012 //

I don’t know when I first purchased my Klipsch 4.1 speakers for my PC, but it’s been over 10 years ago.  They have worked perfectly from day one.  After about 8 years I lost both of the woofers in the amp, but you can replace these with replacements from either Klipsch or any local speaker that fits the opening.  I choose to go with replacements from Klipsch.

But what do you do when you lose either the control pod or the amp?  Now you have a problem.  You can’t go to Klipsch since they have not manufactured either the 4.1 or the 5.1 systems since 2003.  Note, this is too bad and there is no anything I have found on the market today that comes close to a good working Klipsch 4.1 system.  I don’t need a home theater, I want my sound to run as mp3, from itunes, off my PC.  I also use a older Create labs sound blaster live card which to me is still one of the best sound cards around.  That goodness you can still find them on the web used and sometimes new ones show up.

Well there is a alternative when that 4.1 or 5.1 amp fails or the control pod goes out.  In my case it was the control pod that was damaged by a local power surge.  I call Klipsch to try and get parts and they gave me the number of a repair center in Michigan.  These folks are great to deal with and they were able to fix my system in about 1 week from the time they received it.  This is their address: [Read more…]

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08/28/12 When Lightening strikes…….A few thoughts to keep your electronics up and running

Posted on August 26, 2012 //
Lightening over Pinnacle Mountain

Lightening over Pinnacle Mountain, in western Pulaski County

Just a few words to those out there who have a photo business that is totally dependent on Mac’s or PC’s, in regards to the extreme damage that is possible if lightening happens to strike nearby and you are not prepared.

One of the worst things that can happen is to be struck by lightening, and I would have to say the 2nd worst thing would be to have you house struck.  I understand the rules about lightening and most time will give it a wide berth.  An example, when I shot this, I was inside my car with my camera on a tripod outside being trigger by a remote release.  Lightening around electronics always spells disaster always.  I know this, yet I still got burned about 3 weeks ago.  I live on a ridge top and thus am a bit more susceptible  to a direct hit.  I have lived in this house now for over 12 years and in that time, I have never had a direct hit to the house but I have had several close ones.  My rules are that whenever a strong storm is approaching everything of value has to be unplugged from the wall.  What you say, just go get a power stip with surge protection, or a UPS either of these will save you.  Well, I have news, that is far from the truth.  Here are a few things I learned.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Arkansas Outdoors, Photographic Equipment // Tagged: , , , , , , ,

08/26/12 What good friends are for……..Thanks Marshall

Posted on August 26, 2012 //

As many may know, about 2 weeks ago, I took about the worst lightening strike ever. The hit was about 25 yards away from my house/studio, but the damage was really amazing. In the space of a couple of seconds, I lost 2 printers, 1 PC (all of with all of my itunes), 1 LCD, 1 hub, 1 set of Klipsch 5.1 speakers, 1/s of a 2nd PC, my wireless router, DSL modem,  and 4 working terabytes of data on 5 hard drives and the logic boards on my main AC unit. Total cost over 3.5K.

Some of the problems showed up immediately, like I was not able to get to the internet or my printer no longer was able to get a single.  But other things like the fact that I had lost 1/2 of the USB controllers on one PC, half the function of a sound blaster card, or the issue that came up when I tried to get my internet back up since I had given my router enough of a shock to cause it to work some times, but not all the times.

When you get into a situation like this, you also tend to reach out for help.  I have one really good friend Marshall Singer, who has an electronic back ground.  He was able to help me in three different areas.

  1. Marshall was able to tell me immediately just what had happened to AC unit, saving me thousands of dollars as most repair people would have tried to replace the entire unit, when all that was wrong was the logic card and main transistor.
  2. With Marshall’s help, I was able to get my flaky internet back online.  I was not sure where the problem was, DSL line to the house, or modem or router, or a combination of them.  Trying to call AT&T or INDIA was a total waste of time.  One of sad states our county is in that we allow large companies to totally not have any local contacts to help out in a problem like this
  3. Lastly, after I received my Klipsch Amp and controller back (it turned out that only the controller had be hit), I was still not able to get my sound back like it used to be.  Marshall  had a duplicate Creative Lab’s card and he loaned that to me to test with.  Once again this saved me a ton of time and as it turned out 1/2 of the output of card had been fried.

I can only hope I can return the favor to Marshall one of these days.  I am now back up 100% and starting to recover files that were corrupted.  Good friends they are an important part of life,  Thanks Marshall!

One other thing, I finally learned how to spell Klipsch!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Photographic Equipment, Uncategorized // Tagged: , , ,

07/28/12 Screen protection options for Phase One IQ Series Digital backs (IQ140,IQ160, & IQ180)

Posted on July 29, 2012 //

One of the most impressive features of the Phase One IQ Series of Digital backs, (IQ140, 160 and 180), would have to be their LCD screen.  This screen, which has been compared to the quality of the Apple retina displays, is a vast improvement over the LCD screens that were used on the older Phase One backs like the P45+.  With the IQ series, you have a screen that gives the photographer 100% positive feedback during the image capture processes.  The most critical piece of feedback being the ability to quickly zoom in to a 100% view of your image and check for focus.  The LCD size on the Phase One IQ series backs are 3.2 inches.  The screen on the IQ backs is a touch screen and thus allows you to move around the information being displayed without having to hit any physical buttons.

The ability to zoom into 100% to check the image for critical focus is one of the most important features for my work since I use a Tech Camera.  Anyone using a Tech Camera knows that obtaining critical focus is one of the most challenging aspects to their use.  Phase One’s sensor does not work well with “live view” so most people myself included will take the shot based on focus settings they think are close, then view the captured image on the screen and from there fine tune the focus if needed.  The touch screen design of the Phase One IQ back lets a photographer do this in seconds rather then minutes.  If the LCD screen is damaged, scratched, or has had some of the anti-reflective coating rubbed off, this process of zooming to 100% and checking the focus can become much more difficult.

[Read more…]

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07/22/12 A quick look at the Nikon MB-D12, Nikon’s vertical grip–external battery holder for the D800 Series of cameras

Posted on July 21, 2012 //

Click on any of the thumbnails for a larger view of the image.

Since I purchased my Nikon D800, I have added the new Nikon MB-D12 battery grip.  I am planning to write a full review of the grip in use with the D800, but this is a quick view of the grip.  The pictures show the grip installed on a Nikon D800, the various battery holders that come with the grip and the grip and an L bracket.  Overall the grip is nice addition to the D800 and with it installed you gain quite a bit of extra run time by using either another Nikon battery or a series of 8 AA batteries.  It’s a nice feature to be able to use AA batteries as if you are in the field/remote parts of the United States, you can almost always find somewhere to purchase AA batteries.  Also if you used the energizer AA lithium AA batteries, you may be able to last for 3 to 4 days without having to change out the cells.

[Read more…]

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07/20/12 Panther Cloth from Kinetronics is amazing–for photos, cameras, and much more!!

Posted on July 19, 2012 //

I have been a photographic printer now for over 30 years, the first 15 with the traditional photographic paper/chemical process and the last 15 with inkjets and photoshop. One of the biggest problems that you will run into is the handling of a fine photo. If you are working to mount it either dry or wet mount, the cloth you use to help with the process has to be free of any type of material that will scratch a print. This is especially true with a glossy or semi-gloss print as it seem that just the slightest rub will sometimes scratch a perfect print and send it to the trash can. Over the years I have used the static free brushes from Kinetronics for cleaning my print before and after I mount them. I also use these same brushes to clean my printers as a lot of trash seems to build up in and around the platen area of my inkjets. This trash will eventually fall onto the print surface. When this happens, most times the printer will print over the trash and when you wipe the print the trash comes off and then the ink. Another one hits the trash! But even worse, after you get a good print, is finding a cloth that will not scratch the surface of the print when you are mounting it. Enter the Panther cloth from Kinetronics.

Kinetronics Panther cloth in package
Kinetronics Panther cloth in package

The panther cloth is made from  a black, very soft, anti-static material.  I believe it’s about 10″ x 10″ when fully unfolded.  A single cloth from the company is $6.95 and you can purchase a box of (10) for $41.00 which is a very good savings on the single price.  As good as these clothes are I would recommend purchasing the box.  I was able to work with a 25″ x 45″ glossy print for a dry mount and the process was smooth and generated no scratches.  You can actually use these clothes to press down on the print as you lay the print down (I don’t use a dry mount press)  When I dry mount I  use a spray adhesive and then lay the print down, applying pressure as I do this.  During the process you need one hand holding the print and other to apply slight pressure over the print to help keep bubbles from forming.  I tested the Panther cloth in my dry mounting and found no scratches at all. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cameras, Photographic Equipment, Photographic Printing // Tagged: , , , , , , ,

07/08/12 Canon 200-400 F4 coming, but at a price!

Posted on July 8, 2012 //

It seems from reading the posts from “people in the know” that the long talked about Canon 200-400mm F4 lens will soon be a reality. There have been many posts by the the beta testers and other privileged people who have been able to get the lens for testing. Recently Northlight.com  images showed some pictures of the 200-400 F4 in action at Wimbledon. Overall the 200-400 looks like most of Canon’s high end glass, with a off white body and built in L bracket for mounting to a tripod or other holder.

Canon 200-400mm F4 Zoom Lens
The new Canon 200-400mm F4 Zoom Lens

This lens fills a huge need for Canon shooters in that Canon’s only other zoom offering that would come close to this is the tried and true 100-400 F5.6 go F6.3  However that lens is an older style, one that seems to gather dirt and dust quickly, and will not allow AF to work with many Canon bodies if even a 1.4x Teleconverter is used.  I have used the 100-400 for several years and it can produce a very good image, however you can expect the image quality of the new Canon 200-400 to be top notch.  Here are a few of the features:

  1. All new design with Canon IS (which has several different settings depending on the scene and requirements)
  2. A built in Teleconverter which allows you to shift to 1.4x.  This is 1st as far as I am aware and should be welcomed by most Canon shooters.
  3. Overall lighter weight due to materials being used, something that has been the case with all the newer high end Tele-zooms from Canon

[Read more…]

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06/29/12 Alpa finally announces their ability to tilt shift, well sort of !!

Posted on June 29, 2012 //

With this announcement on their newsletter, Alpa of Switzerland has announced that they will now offer a solution for photographers using various Alpa cameras that will let them have tilt/swing on lenses shorter than 70mm.  Here is the link to the Alpa newsletter:

http://www.alpa.ch/en/news/2012/newsletter-june.html?year=&num=

As I understand it, you will be able to get tilt or swing, but not both at the same time, as only Cambo has that ability.  Maximum tilt or swing will be 5 degrees.  Current camera bodies will have to be retrofit for the adapter.  The following lens range will now work:

Schneider:  no wider than 60mm
Rodenstock: no wider than 32mm

This means that the Schneider 28XL, 35XL, 43XL, 47XL, will not work with the adapter and the Rodenstock 28mm and 23mm.  OK, lets look at this a little more.

  1. From my use, the ability to have tilt is more important on a wide than on medium telephoto.
  2. Alpa has left out 4 of the best Schneider wides and 2 of the best Rodenstocks.
  3. If want to use 1 of these 6 wides, you will have to take the tilt/swing adapter off the Alpa camera body, and mount the lens.
  4. From the pictures on Alpa’s site, I can’t see if there are any guides to show you how far you have tilted up or down.  They must have something for this, it just doesn’t show in the pictures.
  5. It appears that if you want to tilt up, you would have to take the adapter out and rotate it 180 degrees and placing the knob at the bottom or turn the whole rig upside down.
  6. The knob to me looks very smallish and depending on where it’s located with a lens attached may be hard to get to.

Overall, in the land of tech cameras, there are 3 real players, Alpa, Arca and Cambo.  When I was looking to make a decision and realized that each of these has their own unique lens mounts I realized that I really needed to make the right decision as there would be no going back or switching brands without a big loss. [Read more…]

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06/24/12 Why I won’t be purchasing a New Macbookpro 15″ with Retina Display==for a while :-)

Posted on June 24, 2012 //

After really looking over the new Apple macbookpro 15″ laptop, with the retina display, I have decided to wait on my purchase.  I have read over 12 reviews of the new machine and they are all very positive, however I am starting to see a pattern of possible issues with the new technology.  I have listed a few of these here.

  1. All or nothing, you have to get what you want when you purchase it, as there are no possible upgrades.  In the past, you were able to upgrade: memory and hard drives after the purchase.  So for a machine of this caliber, I would have to order it with at least a 500GB hard drive and 16GB of ram which takes the price point to over 3K, before sales tax. (note, with Apple, you can’t purchase from the Apple website or local Apple store without paying sales tax)  There are other options like BH photo, but for this class of machine I wanted to purchase it from Apple mainly for support after the sale.
  2. Cost, did I mention this already?  You are looking at $3,400.00 for a machine that will work for a good imaging processor (16GB of ram, 500GB hard drive)
  3. There is no way to have a 2nd hard drive installed now.  In my current 15″ macbookpro which was the last generation, I have a 256 SSD as my boot drive and moved the stock 765GB hard drive to where the optical drive was installed.  I like this as I run both Win7 and Mac OS on this machine. You need a common drive, so you can easily move data between the two environments (BTW this is true even you have Parallels or VM ware running).  I have the 765GB drive formatted as FAT 32 which allows me to move the data easily between the two.
  4. Resolution of the 15″ at 2880 x 1800, is going to cause some issues for my 53 year old eyes.  Plus is seems for some reason that many current applications are not friendly with the highest resolution setting.  This causes scaling and other issues.  Most external monitors like the NEC 3090 30″ or NEC PA271w only support 2560 x 1600 so this high setting will not be used.
  5. I have realized that for my workflow, a 15″ monitor is not enough real estate for me.  The 17″ screen gives me just enough space to get things done, but I still prefer at least a 27″ screen.

[Read more…]

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06/16/12 Popular Photography May have Missed the Key Point in their D800 Review

Posted on June 16, 2012 //

I have always enjoyed reading Popular Photography’s lab reviews on new cameras.  Over the years I have always found their reviews to be very accurate and straight to the point.  In fact many purchasing decisions I have made have been influenced by reading a review of the product in Popular Photography, so I was surprised after reading the reviews of both the Canon 5D MKIII and Nikon D800 in the July 2012 magazine.   I should also preface this by stating that I have been a 100% satisfied Canon shooter since 1999, and have used their Digital solutions since 2003.  However with the release of the Nikon D800, I have begun a long process of moving back to Nikon.

In the review of the Nikon D800, I felt that Popular Photography missed one key point, and this is very key, the Dynamic Range of the sensor.  The D800 scored 95 in the Dxomark tests, which is the highest score of any Digital Camera ever produced, including the highly placed Phase One IQ180.  The fact that you can underexposed the D800 by as much as 4 stops and still pull up the shadows is an amazing feat.  Where as if you try this with a Canon %D MKIII, you will just get an extreme amount of noise in those same shadows.  To me this capability means that you have so much more leeway when shooting,  You can go ahead and expose for your highlights, (which if you blowout will be always gone) and then pull up your shadows for amazing details.   Again try this with the Canon 5D MKIII, I have and the results are terrible.   The Dxomark score of the Canon 5D MKIII is 81, basically the same as the 5D MKII.  This is very telling in regards to the dynamic range you can expect from the 5D MKIII

Popular Photography seems to be more focused on two aspects of the Canon 5D MKIII which are:

[Read more…]

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06/12/12 Apple announces new line up of Macbookpro laptops

Posted on June 12, 2012 //

Well of course right after I purchased a new 15″ macbookpro, Apple has announced a totally new lineup in their laptop brand.  Here are the main points that I can delve from the announcements.

  1. New Macbook Air models that now offer up to 8GB of ram, which was a gross oversight on the recent refresh of the 11″ and 13″ models
  2. Macbookpro 17″ appears to be gone, most interesting
  3. Macbookpro 15″ now has a slimmer design, and you can purchase a Retina display on the 15″ machine
  4. Finally USB3 (2) ports
  5. No more installed Super drive on the Retina models of the 15″, I wonder how bootcamp will install?
  6. No more anti-glare screen on the 15″ inch.

[Read more…]

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06/11/12 Nikon D800 creates a massive sell off of Medium Format Digital Equipment

Posted on June 11, 2012 //

As the Nikon D800 has started to ship in mass, I have noticed that more and more established Medium Format Digital users are selling off most of or all of their equipment and making a permanent move to the Nikon D800.  Many of these users have a Phase One IQ180 and either several of the Schneider leaf shutter lenses or they have a tech camera with Rodenstock or Schneider lenses. I am seeing this mass exodus with many of the landscape shooters that I have maintained contact with over the years.

I have used the D800, and have seen results from the D800e and I will be the first to admit that this the Nikon has definitely allowed the gap between Medium Format Digital to get smaller, but I still feel that the results obtained when shooting a Tech Camera/medium format digital back solution will be superior.   Of course if you are using one of the older digital backs, say over 3 years old, this may not be the case, however if you have a Phase One P65+ or newer, the results should still be be in favor of the Digital Back.  Here are some considerations I have discovered. [Read more…]

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05/26/12 Adding a grip extension to an Arca Swss rm3di

Posted on May 28, 2012 //

 

Since I started using the Arca Swiss rm3di technical camera, one of the problems I run into was how to get a good grip on the camera  There are 3 main tech camera solutions on the market, Alpa, Cambo, and Acra.  I choose Arca for many reasons, but mainly for the control the user has over focus.  If I was to point to a weak spot on the Arca design, it would have to be the handles.  The handles as they come with the camera are smooth plastic resin.  They are a yellow color and make for a nice contrast to the body’s black finish.  This design however is a potential issue for users with larger fingers.  The handles are smooth, without any notches or finger indentations.  Whereas the grips for the Cambo have a great look and feel to them and allow you to have a very secure feel when working with the camera.  This security is important when you consider that you are working with a a solution that includes at a minimum:

[Read more…]

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