djjohnr13 wrote:
Thanks Mike. By field curvature I meant curvature of the focal plane leading to OOF corners when the plane is close to you.

I prefer the diagonal placement of the lights that you've used as it gives a sense of movement to the them in relation to the stillness of the foreground.

I think you will find that to some degree in all versions of the 28. You may have to find what is acceptable to you. I have enlarged some of the 28 images up to 24x36. Since the main image focus is the lights so having a bit of softness in the corners does not distract from the image. The newer ones designated as aspherical may be what you are looking for.

I was looking for fast and cheap. I would like to get a hold of the 20mm ƒ/2.8 AF-D and do some test shots with it.

Thanks Mihai, Scott and Ben!

Philippe, Mark, Tony, Leighton, Ray, Jose and Scott - thanks for your kind words on the old-town- and playground-images!

Last breeding activities for birds over here:

Mommy, I need food!!!


Sayaca Tanager juvenile begging for food by labecoaves, on Flickr

D3 + PK13 tube + Nikkor 400mm f/5.6 K AI'D ED non IF, ISO 3200, f/11 at 1/320s, tripod.
As this lens has a MFD of 5m I attached a tube to get focus at ~4m.



Here is your food, small glutton!


Sayaca Tanager juvenile being fed by labecoaves, on Flickr

D3 + PK13 tube + Nikkor 400mm f/5.6 K AI'D ED non IF, ISO 3200, f/11 at 1/320s, tripod. Note that the mom closed her eyes to avoid any accident.
No noise reduction applied. I almost forgot how good D3 is for high ISOs.

Great captures Jose, you are the birdman of Brazil!

Speaking of Brazil, I'd love to see some street shots of your city. It's beautiful from your balcony, it must be lovely on the street.

A closer view of the Sayaca Tanager juvenile:


A closer view of Sayaca Tanager juvenile by labecoaves, on Flickr


D3 + PK13 tube + Nikkor 400mm f/5.6 K AI'D ED non IF, ISO 3200, f/8 at 1/400s, tripod. ~20% crop.
As this lens has a MFD of 5m I attached a tube to get focus at 3.5m.

Leighton, I like the B&W-shot of the newborn sheep a lot - great moment and caring expression of your wife, beautiful B&W and just the right DoF. I like the "hidden" image too - that's just real life in color ;-)

Mike, I've never seen an Aurora in nature and I'm really amazed and fascinated by your captures.

Samuel, great macro-work! I like the second shot the most - the light is more natural and the DoF more appealing to my eyes.

Rafael, love the "Telegram"-shot!

Tony, the "Red Stripe"-image is fantastic. Perfect use of a fast lens.

Philippe, great selfie!

Ray, very nice shot of the old mill. Somehow I like the leafless trees surrounding the building. Hope to see the rust-pictures soon ;-)

leighton w wrote:
Great captures Jose, you are the birdman of Brazil!

Speaking of Brazil, I'd love to see some street shots of your city. It's beautiful from your balcony, it must be lovely on the street.


Thanks Leighton.

The problem is that here I can be killed because a pair of shoes, or even because US$10.00, think of an expensive camera...
Besides that I am a very shy guy that do not manage to photograph people very well.

Jose, beautiful set from the "Sayaca Tanager". Amazing, the juvenile bird looks like it's already the size of it's mum. Your bird-pictures are - not just from a technical point of view - spectacular. Thanks for sharing.

georgms wrote:
Leighton, I like the B&W-shot of the newborn sheep a lot - great moment and caring expression of your wife, beautiful B&W and just the right DoF. I like the "hidden" image too - that's just real life in color ;-)



Thanks Georg, now you know why I supplied the link instead.

asiostygius wrote:
leighton w wrote:
Great captures Jose, you are the birdman of Brazil!

Speaking of Brazil, I'd love to see some street shots of your city. It's beautiful from your balcony, it must be lovely on the street.


Thanks Leighton.

The problem is that here I can be killed because a pair of shoes, or even because US$10.00, think of an expensive camera...
Besides that I am a very shy guy that do not manage to photograph people very well.

Wow Jose, I had NO idea. I understand completely.

Some more images taken today. I don't wanna flood this thread, I'm just happy to see some snow and sun after long weeks of rain and deep grey skies;-)


old garden gate - a favorite subject, 85/2.8PC tilted


ivy - there's still life under the snow


Heimat XLIX von georgsfoto auf Flickr
another test of a recently purchased 180/2.8ED - I like this lens so far, but it's aperture mechanism is stiff (shot wide-open)


The 180/2.8ED on a D7000, cropped a wee bit - it's to long for a crop-sensor body, even in the european hockey rinks (broader than the north-american rinks). Maybe I'll try the 135/2 Ais next time...

Thank you Georg. I placed an old, black GE Super Radio in the background. If you look closely, you might be able to make out the grill pattern of the speaker cover! As an aside, the GE Super Radio is an analog AM/FM receiver that utilizes a fairly large ferrite receiving loop, and is known for its excellent sensitivity on the AM broadcast band. The D700's in-camera flash was used for both photos.

Thanks
First shot is cool Z Great shot
Great shot Jose and Georg

Hang on ;-)

Nikkor 135mm f/2 Ai-s by Ronny Olsson, on Flickr

Nikkor 135mm f/2 Ai-s by Ronny Olsson, on Flickr

Jose, Thank you. I've been following the Manual Focus Nikon Glass thread for many months now, and have enjoyed all of the excellent photos that have been posted. I just purchased the 50 mm f1.2, which I plan to also use for lightning photography. I also plan to use a 24 mm f2.0, that I've had for almost 20 years. Autofocus is of no use for lightning and most storm photography. Being able to turn the focus ring to the infinity stop is definitely an advantage.

Peter, Yes they do. They each have their own unique personalities and qualities. Jake was anticipating a treat!

Alan, Scott, Jeff, Peter, Leighton, Thanks for the kind words.

Tony D - Jamaica . mmmm

Rafael, very nice Western Union images. The processing is very appealing as well.

Ronny, I like the lamp picture.

Jose, the juvenile bird feeding pics are just a wonderful extension of your bird pictures. I completely understand your not wanting to shoot pictures of strangers - I don't do it either, partially for safety (sorry to hear about the risks in Sao Paulo) for also because I just want to avoid any tension with strangers. I am somewhat comfortable only when I'm in tourist meccas and everyone expects pictures to be snapped, and even then I exercise a lot of caution and err on the side of not taking pictures.

Leighton, "modern art" is cool. The ewe birth picture link was also interesting. Multiple ewes the same couple of days ..... guess we know where you are if we don't here from you.

and thanks to Georg, Scott, Leighton, Peter for the kind words on my posts.

Georg, I've tried the B&W vignetting on the train based on your suggestion, my skills are where I'm not quite happy with it anything I've produced yet. I'll keep playing around and if I get something satisfactory I'll post it.

Ray

Thanks Ray

3 more from the macro shots I did last week and a shot of the setup I was using (shown here set up to take my entry for this weeks weekly assignment, although both Jeff and Leighton have already entered some amazing MF shots for the theme so good luck to them.).
As you can see my light tent is of the highest quality and standards. It actually cost about $300 for the cardboard box, but it came with a free 180mm and 35-70mm lens. Tissue paper was from a Christmas present my wife received (I don't know what she got, I saw the tissue paper and was busy snaffling it while everyone else went ooh and ah). Double layer in each of the 3 windows (no skimping here). Then some duct tape and 2 sheets of A4 paper (Come on America - adapt to the sensible standard!) and bingo.

The third shot is a crop of the second showing the detail this 55mm makes even without any tubes added. (also the importance of cleaning your watch before photographing it in close detail, sometimes these lenses are too good.)

Kind regards,
Mark.

P.S. Georg - nice set just posted, especially the garden gate, lovely use of the PC lens. I still like to see more hockey shots from your MF lenses (although I know if your there for work the more important job is to get a good shot for the paper.)

Leighton - all the best for the busy period and to the lambs.

As promised, rust.

and apologies to Leighton (and others) for the curvy and slanted lines. The horizon level indicators in my D800 showed that I was level at the time of the capture

All with the D800 and 20mm f3.5 AI.