What madness is this? Am I really trying to shoot birds in flight with a manual focus 40mm lens?
Yep, as I work on increasing my speed and accuracy with manual focus, I thought this would make a good exercise.
Rules of the exercise:
Sit in a chair, with the camera on my lap.
Focus set to infinity hard stop.
As a Hummer approaches the feeder bring camera up to eye, and focus.
Hard to do, but I got some in focus surprisingly.
But foolishness really, to use this lens this way. Worse is to buy the highest AF performing camera in the World, slap an MF lens on it, and try and shoot BIF.
Shutter speed too slow for this because too much sky in background at 40mm.
1bwana1 wrote:
What madness is this? Am I really trying to shoot birds in flight with a manual focus 40mm lens?
Yep, as I work on increasing my speed and accuracy with manual focus, I thought this would make a good exercise.
Rules of the exercise:
Sit in a chair, with the camera on my lap.
Focus set to infinity hard stop.
As a Hummer approaches the feeder bring camera up to eye, and focus.
Hard to do, but I got some in focus surprisingly.
But foolishness really, to use this lens this way. Worse is to buy the highest AF performing camera in the World, slap an MF lens on it, and try and shoot BIF.
Shutter speed too slow for this because too much sky in background at 40mm.
Hardcore wrote:
Awesome! A hummingbird with a 40mm! Well done.
Few shots from today
great photos. You're able to get such great dynamic range from your background to foreground. Are these all 1 exposure, is there a flash or reflector used?
Beautiful lilies (#6)! What are they called? We have native Turk’s Cap and Carolina lilies that look similar, only orange where yours are pink. Restlessly waiting for ours to bloom...
smpetty wrote:
Beautiful lilies (#6)! What are they called? We have native Turk’s Cap and Carolina lilies that look similar, only orange where yours are pink. Restlessly waiting for ours to bloom...
I stumbled upon them on a forest walk last summer (middle of July). They don't grow naturally here, so I suspect that they "escaped" from someone's garden. Really pretty though! Not sure about the name in English, but it's a variation of Martagon Lily.
aldburg wrote:
great photos. You're able to get such great dynamic range from your background to foreground. Are these all 1 exposure, is there a flash or reflector used?
Thanks. Just natural lighting plus post processing.
Stunning day here today, so my Wife and I went to the beach. The surf was up, and the sun was out. Mostly shot surfing with my 100-400mm gm. But, I did take this shot of the famous grass lifeguard hut here at Wind and Sea surfing beach with my CV 40mm f/1.2.
But foolishness really, to use this lens this way. Worse is to buy the highest AF performing camera in the World, slap an MF lens on it, and try and shoot BIF.
Excellent picture but I agree with your comment above. I love the rendering of this lens but last year when I briefly owned it, I just couldn't get use to manual focusing and always wondered what's the point of amazing eye-AF, when I have to force myself to do all the damn work myself
ajamils wrote:
Excellent picture but I agree with your comment above. I love the rendering of this lens but last year when I briefly owned it, I just couldn't get use to manual focusing and always wondered what's the point of amazing eye-AF, when I have to force myself to do all the damn work myself
That is why I created a bunch of crazy hard focusing exercises for myself. What I found is that after some practice I have become reasonably accurate, and able to focus quickly enough that this lens works for many subjects.
What I also found is that manual focus is a lot like manual exposure. It is not the best choice in many circumstances, but it gives you more control in many other circumstances. This control allows you to create impact, and mood through better management of DOF and rendering. It is a valuable tool to have available.
I started with the CV 15mm which is basically always at infinity. The 40 mm at wide apertures is a bit more challenging, but also pays bigger rewards. Once I have the 40mm to the point that I am more confident, I intend to get a longer, still more challenging CV lens. Most likely with macro capabilities.
A big part of the enjoyment of this hobby for me, is learning and pushing my abilities.
I'm newish to digital (mostly 4x5 and 6x6) and over the years I've found getting AF to work properly to be a PITA on the low end Sony APS-C cameras. I got the A7RIV and thought maybe the AF would finally work right, but once I discovered punching in with peaking for manual focus (and sweet, sweet IBIS), I haven't used AF once.
Admittedly, coming from the simplicity of analog cameras, I feel that the menu system in Sony cameras was created down below by a sadist, so setting up things is...frustrating to say the least. So, it's possible that I never figured out the proper ways to set up AF.
I'm awaiting the Voigtlander 65mm and thinking that the Nokton might the candidate to be my wide angle lens. The images here are convincing....
