I've been in a photo funk lately and today is overcast and our town is overrun by summer tourists - think of Ocean City NJ before Labor day! (fortunately we can drink here!)
I saw a challenge at digital-photography-school.com to use one lens and to see your garage as a "treasure chest" - mine looks like it's out of American Pickers! These are a couple of shots processed in Silver Efex. All with the ancient 50 f2 Ai
rico wrote:
The average reader of this thread knows more than most any eBay seller! You really have to ignore the text of any listing and inspect the product images carefully (including the serial #). Then, refer to the photosynthesis or Photography in Malaysia sites for exact identification. Some iterations of manual-focus Nikkors require the serial # because there is no outward distinction.
I have learned that pretty quickly. That website link Curtis posted a couple of pages ago is a big help. I just bought a 24mm 2.8 that by serial number was the last version that has the scalloped focus ring but is the first generation of ai lenses. Or it was converted ages ago. Perfect. That means it will work on my 810 as well. Pretty clean and all of $77.
Df and 35 2.8 PC-Nikkor. Most shots in London were with the 28 PC-Nikkor, or the 10.5cm f2.5 Nippon Kogaku lens. What a lively and picturesque city!
No, No, No, No, No
I knew this would happen - now I have even more lust for a Df, perspective control lens and better technique.
I took a very similar bridge image but Samy's one blows mine out of the water for composition and crispness.
Love the sunstar effect and straight buildings. I cannot wait to see more.......
There are probably a few things going on in that image that help give it a sharp look.
First off, my copy of the 180/2.8 ED is plenty sharp. I have a 70-200/2.8 G and prefer shooting the 180/2.8 ED at that focal length.
Also, it was a very clear morning, with the sun in an ideal position behind me. John Hinkey has discussed the importance of good atmospheric conditions to his terrific long-range shots, and he's absolutely right.
Another thing is post-processing, especially sharpening and contrast adjustments. Something that lens engineers have known for a long-time finally sunk into my thick skull; while sharpness can be measured in an absolute sense, the perception of sharpness in an image is very much a relative property. In short, mask out-of-focus areas of an image so sharpening and contrast adjustments are only made to the parts of an image that are in-focus. And in some cases (like the mountain shot) actually reduce sharpening and contrast in out-of-focus areas (the clouds).
This started making sense to me after reading some interesting stuff from Leica engineers talking about how they design their lenses for a rapid fall-off in sharpness and contrast from in-focus to out-of-focus areas of an image. Apparently, this has a lot to do with the so-called "Leica look." The good news is that this approach can be emulated for any lens through the selective use of sharpening and contrast adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop.
Here's another example of where I tried to follow this approach with an image made with the 55/2.8 Micro.
Reagan wrote:
@Colin@ and Samy
were those images hand held?
I couldn't imagine taking such a nice night photo
R
Reagan,
The London bus one in Piccadilly Circus was handheld @ 1/20th second. The best from a couple of frames.
If you look really closely you will see it is a little blurry.
For my really long exposures (10secs +) I needed the use of a tripod. Such as this 2 shot pano from Tower Bridge looking west. Samy declined my offer to share the 'pod and used whatever support he could find. That is what amazes me. His technique and that sensor in the Df are both awesome.
leighton w wrote:
Ok Samy and Colin. We need a portrait of you two.
Leighton,
Your wish is my command.
Just after we started our sojourn I asked a random stranger (with some nice camera kit hanging off his shoulder) to do the honours. Didn't quite nail the manual focus - but better than nothing.
Looking north towards St. Pauls' catherdral from the Tate Modern, London.
5 or 6 frame hand-held, stitched, pano whilst we were waiting for the sun to go down.
DeltaSigma wrote:
Leighton,
Your wish is my command.
Just after we started our sojourn I asked a random stranger (with some nice camera kit hanging off his shoulder) to do the honours. Didn't quite nail the manual focus - but better than nothing.
Colin was an amazing host, very nice few hours spent walking about London with him. 
