michael_chuang1

<p>In spring there were three young rabbits who frequented our back yard, a tiny fellow and two bigger ones. Then there were a big and little one. This is the little one in July. Last month no rabbits were sighted. Someone has been snacking. (Yesterday a single rabbit made a brief appearance, but it's unclear whether it was one of the original three.)</p><div></div>

<p>Alex, Ashley and Bill: Darn you guys. Now I want a 35-105/3.5 FDn! Great photos.<br> In the meantime I'll keep playing with my 50/1.4 FDn (here on a NEX-6).</p><div></div>

<p>><em>I'm thinking of adding a "blue waste bin" theme to my corpus. Or has the Hypnoken already done that?</em></p> <p>Not enough saturation. Move the slider ALL the way to right please.</p>

<p>Backyard rabbits at dusk by E-M1 / 50-200 f2.8-3.5 / 1.4xTC and MMF-3. ISO 1600.</p><div></div>

<p>No CMC photography again this week, alas. Here's one from last autumn. Exa and CZJ 50/2.8, exposure unrecorded, on Fujicolor 200 print film.</p><div></div>

<p>Peony from the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, Washington DC area (actually in Northern Virginia).</p><div></div>

<p>Chelsea, Michigan (USA) is a city of about 5000 people. The Chelsea Milling Company is a family-owned business that makes Jiffy Mix for muffins. This was taken with an Olympus XA4 on Fujicolor 200 print film.</p><div></div>

<p>Oooh, I have one of those telezooms. Two, actually [hangs head], one is labeled "Ozunon" and the other I can't remember. Might be a Kalimar as well, but I'm not sure. Both in Maxxum/Alpha mount. Both have some internal haze, but here's a (sub-banal, crappy) shot taken wide-open with the Ozunon at full extension. IIRC I was given the Ozunon by the owner of a now-defunct camera store.<br /> <br />Thanks for the interesting and informative post. I didn't know the grips were interchangeable, among not knowing a bunch of other stuff.</p><div></div>

<p>Hah! Thanks for the fun and informative series, Cory. A block away from my home are a few "shacks" like the ones you posted. The economic gradient (or at least housing ostentatiosity gradient) is remarkably steep in my area.... </p>

<p>Liberty Street looking toward State Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Michigan Theater to the left is a landmark that opened in 1928 with an orchestra pit and Barton organ. It was slowly crapified over the years, obscuring the grand theater-type features to suit prole tastes. In the late 1970's there was talk of turning the theater's space into a food court, but thankfully due to concerted efforts by a number of Ann Arbor luminaries and a large public drive the theater was saved and restored. It is a venue for both films and live performances these days. You can read more about it <a href="http://www.michtheater.org/about/history/org-history/">here</a>. The store front that says "... Pump" to the left used to be occupied by the <a href="http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/the-end-of-an-era---the-john-leidy-shop-closes-after-58-years-in-business/">John Leidy Shop</a>, a genteel store which sold porcelain, ceramics, fine table linens and the like. It was a sad day when it finally closed. (Not that the likes of me generally went in there, but it was nice to know that someone sold elegant things, and that there were people who valued them in town.) The Pink Pump which replaced it is apparently some fashionista-ish women's shoe store where you can buy things such as the aptly named Ugg boots. On the end of Liberty where it T's into State Street is the State Theater, which unlike the Michigan was subdivided into multiple small theaterettes; behind that is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burton_Memorial_Tower">Burton Memorial Tower</a> which has a 43-ton grand carillon.</p> <p>I thought it appropriate to post a photograph of Ann Arbor taken with an Argus camera. This used the Argus a-four (44/3.5 Cintar lens, four-speed shutter [1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/200 +bulb], scale focus) which was produced 1953-1956 and cost $39.50. The leather case was extra. The redoubtable JDM has already posted on the a-four <a href="/classic-cameras-forum/00XcIg">here</a>, and there is a link to a prior post by Cliff Manley in the thread. Due to being away from home right now I can't provide a photo of the a-four (not that I could find the damn thing even if I were at home, I suspect, but we'll pretend otherwise), and JDM has already put one up anyway. At the 700-pixel size the photo looks not so horrible to me, but none of the 6-MP original scans were particularly sharp, and I don't think it was a scanning problem. I suspect I was inducing camera movement because I never got used to the shutter-release. Or maybe the lens isn't all that great either. Or the copy I bought (from a Brattleboro, VT antique store for eightfold what JDM paid for his, but I was homesick for Ann Arbor, and the price was still sub-pizza - at least any pizza you'd want to eat*) was knocked around a bit in its past. Or some combination thereof.</p> <p>* best snarky review of a pizza place (Hungry Howie's): "You don't have to be Howie, but you do have to be hungry to eat one of their pizzas." Wouldn't know personally, never had a Hungry Howie's pizza, but I liked the review.</p><div></div>

<p>Mary, absolutely "yes" re katydid! Sorry for the delay, was preparing for a trip and then actually traveling. PM sent. Thanks so much for your kind and generous offer!</p>

<p>Kent, I went with the E-M1 after playing with one (with 12-40/2.8 zoom) at the local camera store's Demo and Sale event, where reps from pretty much every company came with a trunk of their wares. (Bought the camera and lens from the same shop, for those who were wondering.) I'd played with the E-M5 before, but it never felt "right" in my hands without the extra grip. Also, the E-M5 viewfinder was to me adequate, but not spectacular. The VF in the E-M1 is markedly better, IMO than that in the E-M5. I'm not sure about the difference in body size, but since I'd have wanted to use the M5 with the grip anyway, not sure it would have made a difference for me. I have no experience with the M10, and can't compare the 3-axis vs 5-axis stabilization, but I have be very happy with the stabilization in the M1.</p> <p>As to lenses, the 12-40/2.8 is quite nice, and the weatherproofing is a nice feature that has served me well in a few situations. The M1 and /2.8 zoom are easy to carry and feel balanced as a set. One-handed grip is very secure, at least with my not over-large hands. I dislike the zoom-ring direction on the lens and am always zooming the opposite of the way I intended, but that's just me. A rather nice feature is that the lens has good close focus capability, down to 1:3 IIRC. As to the primes, I have the 45/1.8 and think it a touch better than the zoom at portrait-type distances and wider apertures. No experience with the 12/2. Just got a 20/1.7 Panasonic, so can't give much of an opinion on that yet. Though I already like its compactness. IQ seems okay at a glance, but have not pixel-peeped. On the telephoto end I bought the old 4/3 50-200/2.8-3.5 zoom which IMO has good IQ and adequate AF with the MMF-3 converter. (The lens is slow as hell to AF on the Panasonic GF2, my only other m4/3 body, incidentally.) I believe the 50-200 and MMF-3 are also weatherproof to some extent, but have not tried them out in inclement conditions to nearly the same extent as the 12-40/2.8.</p> <p>I'm sure you have this in mind, but given the 2x crop of the m4/3 format, will you miss the WA range with your Leica lenses? What I'm trying to say is, personally I would/did buy into Olympus and m4/3 for its native capabilities, not for using legacy lenses. Actually I did snag a NEX-6 on discount and have been playing with old lenses on that gateway-drug device: now I'm trying to justify to myself getting an A7 for use with old lenses to keep the original perspective....</p> <p>Finally, just for context, buying an expensive-ish new camera is very rare for me, as I tend to buy used or at the end of a product's cycle, so the E-M1 and 12-40 made a VERY positive impression on me. I have absolutely no buyer's remorse. Some have pointed out that the E-M1, 12-40/2.8 and 50-200/2.8-3.5 are not exactly a compact kit, but coming from a pair of D300's, 16-50/2.8, 12-24/4 and 100-300/4 or 300/4 it seems nice and light for me. I think my epiphany was after a trip with the above lenses (but single D300 body) and a Nikon V1 with the kit zooms I realized that something like 80% of shots I took with the V1 set simply because it was light, compact and thus easy to bring everywhere, had great AF, and good enough IQ for most purposes. That sold me on the "small is good" concept.</p>

<p>John, thank you very much for posting these, as I've always wondered how the Aiborg could perform. Clearly the answer is quite well, in good hands of course. In the bridge-camera vein, I must have seen dozens of those Olympus IS-XX "ZLR" cameras for every Aiborg. Last year I found one in nice shape at a California camera show, but wasn't willing to pony up the $50 USD the seller wanted. (I think I blew most of that $50 on some even more useless Pentax 110 stuff, and a 3-pack of APS film, if I recall. Alas.)</p> <p>The styling is ... interesting. Looking at the top deck and rear view, it seems that the Aiborg would fit in nicely in Paul Verhoeven's space Nazi movie, misleadingly called <em>Starship Troopers</em>. Perhaps as a prop used by Neil Patrick Harris' SS, er, Military Intelligence character.</p>

<p>Laura, thanks (again!) for starting, late-ish or not.<br> <br /> Mary: what a lovely and dynamic-looking katydid portrait. I'd seriously pay to have a print of that.<br> <br /> Sigfried: great photograph as usual. I misread the name as "two-barreled flasher" which really amused me, but "two-barred flasher" is a pretty good name in and of itself.<br> <br /> My contribution today is a grab shot of a tom turkey strutting and fretting for the ladies in the Newton (Massachusetts) Cemetery this spring. We were out for an evening walk and were arrested by the spectacle of this fellow. All I had with me was one of those little Panasonic pocket superzoom cameras (a ZS19 that I leave in Program mode, as it happens). EXIF informs me that this was taken at ISO 400 with a 1/25 second shutter speed and f.l. equivalent to 364mm (!). While no great shakes (pun unintended) as an image and in no way comparable to something like Paul De Lay's wonderful turkey portrait from last week, I feel that this is like the dog walking on its hind legs: the wonder is that it can do it (~4-stop OIS) at all. (The blurriness in the tail feathers is mostly due to ol' Tom shaking his behind.)</p><div></div>

<p>First, a sincere "thank you" to Carl for starting this thread/experiment. Personally I agree with the sentiments expressed previously elsewhere, namely that nearly any FD-related traffic is good for the forum at this point, but what the heck, this might be fun. At least no one has shown up to inform us that "You're not having fun right!" yet. And it will be interesting to see if those advocating "purity" actually care enough to contribute here.</p> <p>Anyway, here is nearly the Platonic ideal of a banal photograph, albeit taken on genu-wine Canon equipment: T90 and 50/1.4 FDn. One block off of Elm Street in Manchester, NH, shot at a wide, but unrecorded, aperture on Fujicolor 200 print film.</p><div></div>

<p>Autumn (2013) chrysanthemums at the local farm stand in Hudson, Massachusetts. If about 25 miles qualifies as "local." We make spring and fall treks out there (at a minimum) since their plants are always healthy, not to mention 20 to 65% cheaper than inside the Highway 128 beltway as a rule. Good for flowers, decorative foliage and tomato plants in the spring, 'mums in the fall. Plus a nearby "ice cream place" also serves up a delicious fried-fish sandwich.<br> Oh, camera stuff. Right. Shot with an Exa and Carl Zeiss Jena 50/2.8, aperture unrecorded. I'd purchased the Exa, very clean and working properly, at the end of summer at a used-camera dealer's "garage sale" for $5 because its Teutonic shiny-ness appealed to my magpie side. But due to lack of a lens it sat on the shelf for several weeks. One night while cleaning out a box of junk in a rare burst of inspiration I found a musty old camera case. Inside was a basically unuseable Exakta VX I'd put aside years ago, due to the reflex mirror being almost completely desilvered. I'd forgotten all about it, but mounted to the camera was the CZJ lens. Hurrah!<br> Now I'm kind of interested in finding other lenses to go with the Exa. I have a bad feeling that the "$5 deal" is going to end up an expensive bargain....</p><div></div>

<p>MRJ, thanks for sharing these. Which river was this? (Or I should say what part of the country, since the river name might mean nothing to me!) I quite like "In the Fog" despite the water droplet. Although the T4 is much talked about, for some reason I've not seen many images made with one. Despite more thrift-store crawling than I should admit to I've never found a T4 at any price. (I don't want one badly enough to pay the what I consider exorbitant asking prices these days.) Last year I finally found one, but it clearly had been immersed long enough to defeat the water resistance feature.</p>

<p>This is the same Tokina wide zoom @40mm f/8. The leaves are cropped from less than half the actual image.<br> Oh. ETA: both shot with Fujicolor 200 print film. Developed and scanned at the local lab.</p><div></div>

<p>I've always liked the 24mm (on 135) perspective, and for some reason got it into my head that I really wanted a Tokina 24-40/2.8 AT-X lens, but never badly enough to actually buy one new. Eventually, Craigslist trolling paid off (for values of "paid off") and I became the proud owner of a breech-lock 24-40. This is the lens in question at 24mm f/8 (top panel with white border) and at 40mm f/8 (bottom, black border), shooting from the exact same place. The subject (for values of "subject") is a lattice attached to the side of the local Target department store. In autumn the wild grape plants, ivies and other incidental growth turn lovely colors. We are not quite there yet this year.<br> <br />Not long after I acquired the 24-40 zoom a number of wide-angle breech-lock and FDn primes came my way, so little has been done with the once-coveted 24-40, alas. I was not favorably impressed with the barrel distortion at 24mm, though I am pretty content with the close-up performance at 40mm (following).</p><div></div>

<p>So many great photos this week! Unfortunately this is not one of them. Elephant seal and pup in available dusk at Piedras Blancas in California, January 2014, shot handheld around 8:30 pm with Olympus E-M1 and 50-200/2.8-3.5.</p><div></div>

<p>To continue the nautical theme, this is Rockport (Massachusetts) Harbor. Taken summer 2011 with a Minoltina P on Fujicolor 200 print film.</p><div></div>

<p>To balance out the FD-lens-on-non-FD-body submissions, here's a photo made with a T90 body and Tokina 150-500/5.6 lens. Russell Pond in New Hampshire, USA (just south of the western terminus of the Kancamagus Highway) almost two years ago on a rainy afternoon. Probably shot wide open at 500mm; am I certain? No, "because it was, like 2 years ago, dude!" Fujicolor 200 print film, Noritsu-scanned.</p><div></div>

<p>Grasshopper with thrift-store micro Nikkor 105/2.8 on NEX-6.</p><div></div>

<p>There are three young rabbits who live somewhere in the undergrowth at the back of our yard. This one sat obligingly for his portrait at dusk. Stupid-high ISO on Olympus E-M1 with 50-200/2.8-3.5 non-SWD and 1.4x TC. Hand-held after a a beer or two. Gotta love that 5-axis IBIS.</p><div></div>

<p>The Exa.</p><div></div>