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luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

Having some issues with my new Takumar 55 f1.8, I'm a little worried that the aperture is sluggish. There are no signs of oil as far as I can tell, but it takes maybe twice as long to close as another Tak that I have. I tried testing it using the method at http://dpanswers.com/content/tech_stickyap.php and the results are nearly identical to the pristine lens, but don't match their test. The histogram is wider at wider apertures for both lenses which isn't what their tests show.

This video is almost exactly the level of sluggishness I am experiencing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYB2bT0cJac&t=36s

Do I crack it open and try a repair, and are there any decent guides on this? I don't really want it to be a lost cause, as it's a really, really sharp specimen.

edit: I'm also a little confused. I've got it mounted on my Fuji X-E1 with an adapter, and the aperture doesn't open or close at all when I press the shutter. Is that normal? If it is, it seems like a sticky aperture wouldn't even be a problem.

luchadornado fucked around with this message at 02:21 on Jan 29, 2013

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luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

SoundMonkey posted:

Generally purely mechanical adapters (as in, it lets you mount the lens on your camera) provide absolutely no control over focus or aperture.

The camera has no idea the lens is even there, and vice versa, much less able to control it.

Ah, I guess that makes sense. There's really no downside to a slightly sticky aperture on a lens mounted this way then, is there?

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

Shooting medium format ISO 100 slide film on some one-in-a-lifetime landscape scenes, and I'm getting paranoid about making every shot count. I don't have the luxury of using a narrow aperture since available light will probably be an issue.

Where should I be focusing on a landscape to ensure everything is in focus when shooting rather wide open? I'm playing with some depth of field calculators and getting a little confused. If I mess up these shots, I'll be pissed for a long time.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

quote:

Use a tripod

I will be using a tripod, but my subject is a tornado from 1/2-3/4 mile away. I need to avoid motion blur as much as possible. I can push exposure time a little, but aperture is my problematic constraint here. I've played with similar DoF calculators and I guess what confuses me is - do I want to figure out my hyperfocal distance and focus on that, or focus on the actual subject (tornado)?

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

Saint Fu posted:

Why does it have to be on slide film? I'd be more worried about exposure latitude than focus.

I've been told if I want to drum scan at really large resolutions, I want to go with slide film. Plus, Velvia is just drat sexy. I know I'm intentionally limiting myself with this setup, but I'd like to get a type of image that no one has before. It's funny, but getting close to the tornado is actually the easiest part of this challenge for me.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

Camera wouldn't work at all with an SD card I popped in. Put it in a laptop to see what was going on and I got some CRC errors just navigating the filesystem. Eventually was able to pull the files off and the card seems to work fine after a format, but should I consider it down for the count?

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

All of my peers that are into photography crib heavily from the Mike Hollingshead school of weather photography - get close, shoot wide, crank that saturation/clarity. Oh wow it's another picture from a 60D with a 10-22 and the colors are melting my eyes. I haven't seen that before...

Hopping into the Dorkroom and seeing people shooting b+w landscapes on their GSW690s, or deadpan style, or whatever, is a huge breath of fresh air for me and inspires me to try different things.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

How would you interpret a chart like this from DxO?



The Portra can keep the details in the highlights way past what a digital sensor can do, but has worse SNR up to that point? DxO seems to be rather down on film in the interviews I've been reading.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

In all the situations I've been concerned enough about losing detail where ETTR would have theoretically helped, ETTR would have also blown highlights. If you have crazy dynamic range just bracket exposure with digital. Maybe I'm alone in this, but if my digital camera mis-metered the scene by 1/2 a stop, I nudge a slider in Lightroom and move on without thinking about it too much.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

If I'm going for something artistic or taking pics of my kid or whatever, I'll cull down to just a small handful that are worth keeping. When I get lightning, tornadoes, or something along those lines I don't delete a single one. I never know when I'll want to reference one in a case study, if the NWS wants information about a specific moment, or if my media broker needs a specific scene. I care less about which shots work in these situations, and more about preserving every scrap of documentation I have.

edit: 50k is still a poo poo load of pictures. I don't even keep 1/20th of that.

luchadornado fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Sep 12, 2014

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

Toss all but the last picture - it reminds me of this thread being dragged down.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

I trot this picture out every once in awhile, but I think it's a good one for this topic (FB compression be damned, can't find a better version right now):



gently caress your hurricane - that's a high end EF-3 tornado just down the road. 75 mph measured winds a few car lengths behind me in this shot. My old Canon T2i dealt with situations like that just fine. It's taken direct hits from 2" hail. Even the poo poo bodies can take a lot of abuse.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

Keep in mind the A6000 doesn't have a built in level. Why the gently caress they didn't add that is a mystery, but it makes the A6000 extremely difficult to justify as a landscape camera in my mind.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

SoundMonkey posted:

Isn't that one of RED's marketing gimmicks even?

It's getting there. I still won't give up my camera, but I know a guy using a RED and he's getting some great stuff (stupid compression, not my picture):

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

evil_bunnY posted:

That looks nothing like what comes out of a stills camera.

I'm not saying you should ditch the camera and use RED. I am saying the stills out of a RED that I've seen look rather good in context. Draw whatever conclusions you like, I'm just providing stills to aid the conversation.

Not mine, all using the same tool to compress them for web display (posted by the same person):

1080p HD cam:


RED:


Nikon DSLR:

luchadornado fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Nov 3, 2014

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

This is The Dorkroom, show some creativity: you swapped out your DSLR for a Doryu 2-16, and you insist on keeping it holstered on your hip at all times.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

dakana posted:

How exactly does it affect image quality?

I can't speak for Bayer sensors, but it handles demosiacing of leaves and similar patterns on Fuji X-Trans sensors much better. It's a pain in the rear end to use as opposed to LR.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

mobby_6kl posted:

Ok so if Capture One is so awesome, can someone who used it post a few direct comparisons with Camera RAW output?

http://www.fujivsfuji.com/best-xtrans-raw-converter/

X-trans is kind of a different beast, so it's a weird case. For whatever reason, the demosiacing in LR just doesn't handle things as well as other converters. Skip past the parts whining about the icon/UI/other stupid poo poo.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

KinkyJohn posted:

I don't want to poo poo on C1, I'm all for new software in the photo industry, but I'm just sceptical about the claims some people are making. It really does sound like audiophile bullshit.

Take a Fuji camera, shoot some nature poo poo, and try to make the pictures match in LR and C1. If you still think it's akin to gold plated USB cables or whatever, that's fine. Each program has a shitload of algorithms behind all those easy sliders and C1 has a few that seem to be tweaked better - especially for a goofy sensor like the X-Trans. If you're doing prints, you will notice these things. If you're slapping it up on flickr at 800px long edge, you probably won't.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

It's digital - who gives a poo poo about white balance, just shoot raw and change it in post to whatever brings out the inner cosplayer more.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

8th-snype posted:

You should read The Camera, The Negative, and The Print (three separate books) by the Ansel Adams.

You should read those, but if you're in the mood for lighter reading (those 3 are pretty dense at times) you should also check out Ansel's book "Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs". I'm reading it now and it's fantastic.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

I'm assuming this is fungus? I've never actually seen it on a lens. It reminds me of mycelium - it looks like really thin threads going out in an organic web-like pattern on several lens elements.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

Can you get it for $75 on days besides Black Friday? I forget to pick it up every time it gets that cheap.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

Shameful admission - I've never used a light meter before. Every time I've shot with something that didn't have a meter, I'd just whip out a mirrorless camera and proof the metering with that. That's a lot of unnecessary work and gear to lug around, so I picked up a Gossen Digisix.

How do people in the Dorkroom meter scenes, and when do they meter things differently? I'm especially interested in hearing about high dynamic range scenes, like landscapes at sunset:



edit: a good example, because this auto/evaluative exposure sucks, I know

luchadornado fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Jan 15, 2015

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!


I'm familiar with the Zone System, and my takeaway from reading about it before is that I basically want to identify the darkest area of the image that I want to retain detail, and place it in Zone III. Then everything else kind of falls into place and you deal with it, right?

What I was asking more was how would DR apply that thinking to the image above? If I do incident metering, that would get me in the right ballpark. To adjust that, I'd reflective meter one of the fenceposts? Or reflective meter the darkest part of the clouds?

I'm going to screw up exposures, I'd just like to be a little better prepared since I'm screwing up with 120 film.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

At what point is dust visible? I've got a single chunk of something about twice the width of human hair in a new lens. I don't need the flashlight test or anything, it's plain as day with the naked eye at arm's length. Reading up on dust, it becomes more pronounced near the rear element (yes), on a wide lens (yes, 28mm equiv), at small apertures (yes, I'll mostly be shooting f11 and smaller). Would this warrant something less than an EX from KEH? Would it warrant me just dealing with it and enjoying my new lens without going through a return process and rolling the dice on another lens?

It's bothering me because this is the most expensive lens I've ever purchased, and I just RMAd something else that wasn't up to what I was expecting. I'm starting to think I'm being picky though.

edit: it's medium format film, so it would be a week+ before a test roll could be processed.

luchadornado fucked around with this message at 04:16 on Jan 16, 2015

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

Yeah, I can actually tell where it is on the focusing glass in controlled experiments.

KEH is going to help me pick out a lens and do an exchange so I don't have to do the return shuffle anymore. They seriously rock.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

A 365 is useful from the standpoint that it teaches you just taking pictures for the sake of taking pictures with little thought behind them will - surprise! - produce a lot of boring pictures. It shouldn't take a year to learn this lesson, but whatever. A 52 week challenge, or like a scavenger hunt type thing, might actually be kind of fun.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

Haggins posted:

If my stupid opinions are so terrible and all I'm doing is making GBS threads up this forum, just let me know and I'll go "Big Mean Giraffe" myself out of the dorkroom.

Don't leave - just save the vitriol for photographers that deserve it, like HDR landscapers :colbert:

As a weather photographer, I totally understand the appeal behind trying to perfectly document a rare/unique event and saving the creative stuff for other times.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

S3 is for store/retrieve, Glacier is for store and only retrieve in dire circumstances. The pricing reflects this, so choose only what you need.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

I got tired of browsing Flickr and not being able to easily see the tags, especially the focal length ones, so I whipped up a bookmarklet real quick that other people might find useful:



Just add a new bookmark in your browser, call it 'Flickr Bookmarklet' or whatever you want, and copy/paste the code below into the URL field. Edit the tagLine.style numbers to whatever looks best on your monitor.


code:
javascript:(function() {
var tagLine = document.createElement('div');
document.body.appendChild(tagLine);
tagLine.style.position = 'absolute';
tagLine.style.top = '69px';
tagLine.style.left = '20px';
tagLine.style.width = '330px';
tagLine.style['background-color'] = '#000';
tagLine.style['font-size'] = '12px';
tagLine.style.color = '#CCC';
tagLine.style.opacity = 0.5;
tagLine.style.zIndex = 10000;
setInterval(function() {
	var tags = document.querySelectorAll('li.tag');
	tagLine.innerHTML = '';
	Array.prototype.forEach.call(tags, function(tag) {
		var links = tag.querySelectorAll('a');
		if (links[1]) {
			var tagText = links[1].innerText;
			if (tagText.indexOf('mm') > 0) {
				tagText = '<strong>' + tagText + '</strong>';
			}
			tagLine.innerHTML = tagLine.innerHTML.length ? tagLine.innerHTML + ', ' + tagText : tagText;
		}
	});
}, 500);
})();

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

If you want cheap, fun, and novel - get a mirrorless body like a Sony A6000 (or wait a few months for whatever the successor is) and adapt old manual lenses. Get a few AF lenses for those candid and quick shots, and whatever else you want for other stuff. For ~$300 you can grab a Contax Zeiss 28, the Tokina 90, all sorts of legendary glass. I just gave away 8 Takumar 55mm lenses at work and people are buying $20 adapters and having a blast with them. I picked up each one for $5-$20.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

Huxley posted:

The secret to happiness is find a thing you love, then never let anybody pay you for it.

This is perfect - I used to sell weather video and photos, and I let that process suck the fun out of my passion for several years until I stopped doing it.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

The comments on that Another Angle link are awesome:

quote:

Never heard about asian size? Never saw asians?

Ken Rockwell: He's Seen Asians

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

Diffraction won't limit your sharpness as much as shooting wide open will, but your lens's sharpest spot is most likely going to be in the f8 to f11 range. Check out the MTFs for whatever you're shooting with.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

xzzy posted:

If you want some peace and quiet at Yellowstone (because it's hard, that park is insanely crowded in the summer) try the Blacktail Plateau drive, in the northern part of the park. Easily doable with a city car but only a handful of people will be up there.

Won't have any of the fancy geysers or pools or anything but it is quite pretty.

I've thought of touring some of the parks and lugging around my Speed Graphic, but really don't want to deal with the crowds. If you go when kids aren't on summer vacation is it a lot more quiet? Are there other times of the year that are decent weather but also quiet?

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

tau posted:

Yo, not sure where to post this but Yahoo had a breach. 500 million accounts likely affected.

So, uh, update your flickr stuff?

http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/22/technology/yahoo-data-breach/index.html

It happened in 2014 - anything bad likely already happened. This is why you never re-use passwords amongst sites/accounts.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

Also, if anyone is curious - this is Portra 400 developed with E6. I'm just happy the lab f up happened on some test shots that I didn't really care about. It was exposed correctly.

luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

Family is asking what I want for Christmas, and some landscape photography books would be rad. I have a ton of Ansel Adams and Michael Kenna - is there anything else I might be interested in? Bonus points if medium/large format film.

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luchadornado
Oct 7, 2004

A boombox is not a toy!

ansel autisms posted:

Beyond just "landscape" is there anything in particular you're searching for?

Inspiration, primarily, so it doesn't have to be too specific. Beyond maybe Adams, Kenna, Brandt, Rowell , I haven't been exposed to much. I really enjoyed Adams's "Examples" - I thought it was fantastic insight into the creative and technical process behind the pictures.

Landscapes that tell a story with traditionally banal subject matter? We don't all have easy access to Half-Dome.

luchadornado fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Dec 2, 2016

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