Photography thread

[Doc Sharptail]

For an old flat field lens like that, not bad at all, considering the wind.
The narrow depth of focus at that level of magnification is a bit trick to work with hand held.
There's a bit of wind induced motion blur on the bee's lower body, but just barely noticeable.
That lens is an old personal favorite, despite it's slightly low speed.
The newer, faster versions give pleasing images as well, with a totally different rendering.
I prefer this one for the way the back-grounds mute out, but that's just a matter of personal taste.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[Doc Sharptail]

A few frames from the new to me Tamron 200mm f3.5 recently acquired:



At minimum focus distance here and wide open (f3.5) at ISO 64.



Wide open again at ISO 200 for the heavy over cast.



Approximately 125% crop of the image above.




Great sharpness here at almost 1200 yards from subject. The sharply defined edges at the top of the cathedral structure are surprising.

A bit more testing to do with this yet. It purple finges a bit on high contrast edges, and may need a hood a bit deeper than the built-in, which looks a bit short.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[5thDragoons]

I really like the composition of your leaf image! SW

[Doc Sharptail]

That is with the long flat sunlight rays of near sunset- what some call "sweet light".
It is a good time for photo's, serious portraiture, and especially wildlife.
I've lately been trying to capture a red tinged sunset without a whole lot of success.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[Doc Sharptail]

Yesterday morning out the back door with the D-810 about 20 min before sunrise. 55mm f3.5 "P" micro-nikkor at ISO 800 (it was that dark) and f 5.6, 1/40 sec.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[5thDragoons]

That looks like what we have here after it snowed all night! SW

[5thDragoons]

Pic from an electronics store in Moscow ca. 1980s. As well as I know, exchange rate for Rubles to dollars was about 30 to 1 at the time.
Lens brands shown are (in no particular order) Jupiter, World, Telear, Kalenar and Zenitar. SW
pic9.jpg

[Doc Sharptail]

Dale Hawerchuk statue at the N.E. entrance to True North Square. Taken with the 28-85mm f3.5-4.5 Nikkor at f5.6, and 28mm IIRC.
This was actually one of the last manual focus zooms that nikon produced, and a good performer at the wide to normal focal lengths.
A bit soft wide open at the 85mm end, it wants f5.6 or f8 to settle down.



As an architectural lens, not too shabby at the 28mm end again. This shot from the west entrance to the same location and f8.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[Phloating Phlasher]

WE got a 2 day total of about 3~ 4" here in the Flatlands of Md.
2 day total.jpg

[Doc Sharptail]

Some knife shots. I was experimenting with the bounce off a single SB-22 flash, and low ISO of 64.



Daily pocket knife. Chinese Gerber with about a 2 1/2" blade. The steel and edge are definitely not the equal of the older U.S. made knives. I use a pocket sharpener to keep it good enough to effortlessly cut 20 lb. braid fishing line. It does not hold an edge that well, and requires sharpening after use over a hardwood cutting board.

At f4 here and ISO 64. The 20+ year old flash still works the way it should.



Columbia River Knife and Tool M-16 with the matte finish stainless blade. Another Chinese made knife with sort of a "Meh" edge. I still haven't used or sharpened it yet. It resides in the day camera bag incase of need. Shot and exposed as above.



Leatherman "Sidekick" multi-tool. The knife blade on it is surgically sharp, like the old Gerber Gator I had with non-serrated edge. That one I miss when I'm field dressing game. The blade shown sliced a slightly over-ripe tomato once, and I haven't used it since. Tool is actually sort of handy, and gets used quite a bit for the pliers and screw driving functions. Pliers jaws are a bit on the soft side.

Shot and exposed as above.



Just as a control subject for this series, Nikkor O.C. 35mm f2 shot at f5.6 and ISO 200.

All were taken with the 50mm f1.4 A/I-s Nikkor manual focus lens on the D-810 camera.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[Doc Sharptail]

Gear Pile

A bit reduced from the last time I did this.



Still not all of it. None of the film folder cameras are here... I only allowed myself an hour to set this frame up. Also missing are the various and sundry 3rd party lenses and flashes in the deep closet, and scattered around here in various buried locations in boxes of clothing etc.

So, just how does one get a photo of all their gear anyways?



It actually worked fairly well. That little point and shoot auto everything camera can be tamed a bit for use as illustrated. I also finally found out how to increase the image quality on this camera, after owning it for I don't know how long. It's been a while anyways.
The SB-22 will fire reliably from the optical slave provided the camera is far back enough from the subject.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[Phloating Phlasher]

I borrow the Mrs Point & shoot Canon!

[Doc Sharptail]

I *think* the last time I did this there were something like 9 SLR bodies not counting digital, and over 50 lenses- which was all a bit much for this tiny apartment we call home.

It all got thinned down through four trips to KEH camera- at a considerable loss. Probably around 40% of the paid value was lost, which was a lot better than expected.

I think I have it down to where I can mange most of it in my head, and almost know where everything is.

Still love gear and looking at it though.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[Doc Sharptail]

Been a bit busy of late~ some new to me glass to show:



Final variant of the 105mm f2.5 nikkor. Beautiful, incredibly sharp and useful lens. I'll get some image samples up a bit later.



A/F nikkor 50mm f1.8-D. My first, and possibly last auto focus interchangeable lens. More on this later as well.



Tokina ATX 28-85mm f3.5-4.5 zoom. Interesting some what earlier lens of this focal range and aperture combination. Reasonably sharp in most situations with contrast a bit low in some brightly lit scenes. More on this later as well.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[Doc Sharptail]

Quick look at samples from the 105mm f2.5 nikkor:

Impressive lens.

All here at f8 which seems to be optimal for this lens:





Crop of upper image. At minimum focus distance.





Sneaky kitty...





And of course the done to death seeding dandelion at minimum focus distance. :P

I really should try this lens on a short extension tube. It may work well with the 12mm tube...

Regards,

Doc Sharptail