Well you are barking mad of course we all know that...
The pigeon is so perfectly placed he looks not quite real - like a decoy
almost...
But even though it is you saying so, I'll believe he is realand say
"good grab" :-)
I love 50mm views... Read somewhere once that looking through an SLR 50
mm lens
was the closest to the natural proportions the human eye seeswhen not
looking through
a viewfinder.
ann
On 4/17/2016 1:24 PM, Steve Cottrell wrote:
Sat outside in the back garden on a bright chilly day doing some lens
testing with the Tokina AT-X 90mm 2.5 Macro and a large pigeon landed in
the apple tree about 12 feet from me. Just long enough to swing the
camera up, manually focus using the excellent peaking assist (already
set to f/5.6 and 200 ISO, IS on) and fire 2 shots before he decided he
hadn't surveyed his landing site properly and I was too close for his
comfort. This is the first shot.
<http://www.seeingeye.tv/PESO/peso010.html>
Pen F + Tokina 90/2.5
Minimal crop, slight levels adjust, slight saturation increase.
--------------------------------
I am re-assessing my lens requirements. Boris is absolutely right in
that the Voigtlander Heliar 15/4.5 is far too slow to be a useful
general purpose lens (one to you Boris!) and I think I might sell it.
Thing is, it is a lovely landscape wide angle on APS-C and so I might
just hang onto it in case...
I've snagged an M50/1.4 off eekbay for 60 quid, waiting for that to
arrive. Portrait lens on a half-frame sensor.
When I had Pentax film cameras, I never got into 50mm lenses, finding
the angle of view neither here nor there. I had a 28mm which I loved,
and the other way you were into telephoto territory. Now, with my Pentax
24/2.8 on a half-frame sensor, it gives an image like a 50mm, and am
actually enjoying it.
So the question is, do I replace the 15/4 with something like the Oly
17/2.8? It's pricey, and actually I have always favoured a wider angle
as a general purpose lens. So I might consider the Oly 12/2 (which gives
an angle of view like a 24mm lens on a full-frame camera). But although
it has manual focus override, it's still an electronic lens with no
aperture ring.
Then I came across some reviews for the Samyang 12mm f/2 which point to
a good value for money lens. It's about 250 GBP which is a lot cheaper
than the Voigtlander 10.5mm f/.95 at 900 GBP!! The angle of view on half-
frame means it will act like a 24mm lens - ideal for my idea of a
'general purpose' lens. That is, a lens that I would normally default
to, leaving it on the camera as it is picked up to be used.
I'm seriously tempted by the Samyang. I'm building up a kit that relies
on manual focus and manual aperture. This requires forethought in
setting up for photographing, a good challenge for me! The picture of
the pigeon would be so easy to get with an auto-everything cam/lens
combo, and when I used to have EOS 1D gear with IS lenses and machine-
gun capability I did all that, and it was fun, but now.....
The satisfaction of achieving a similar photograph with a simple and
basic setup (not even a zoom lens) is high. I felt like I'd actually
used skill and judgement in getting a decent image [of the pigeon] and
so in a way the photo is almost a 'reward' for effort. I find this much
more satisfying as I get a little older now.
My son thinks I'm barking mad. But hey.
--
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