Panasonic G1 & Canon FD 28mm - Orchard Christmas Light Up 2011 Part II

Carry on my previous part Orchard Christmas Light Up 2011 photo shooting.. Because of using manual Canon FD 28mm F2.8 lenses, normally i would set the focus point to infinity to reduce the time needed to do manual focusing (unless i found some static object which can let me to speed time to focus and think before the shutter button is pressed). Due to the night shot, majority of the photo taken here have to lower the shutter speed to around 1/60sec, it's very hard for a new photographer like me to handhold it without handshake blur. Maybe i'm still new to the manual focusing, it's take some time for me to really focus the subject, this are the steps i would do normally:

1. compose the image i want.
2. use the Lumix G1 manual focus function and locate the focus "box" on the subject. (of course, thru the superb viewfinder to reduce any handshake hence i can stop down the ISO and increase the shutter speed)
3. Adjust the focus ring on the lenses.

I found that if every scene i have to spend so much time to do all the steps here, i may miss some moment, so i will step down the aperture sometimes and set the focus point to infinity, and of course the trade-off is some photo is not 100% in focus ...

(All the photos shown here are JPEG with Auto WB straight from Panasonic Lumix G1 without any post processing)

Saw 2 of the waiters quarreling, so took their photos immediately. In the time of very busy, people get to angry is very normal...

Slightly out of focus "Hitachi" signboard. (please continue to read, i posted a better in-focus photo at the bottom :-))

 

I like this shot! bokeh-licious of the 28mm F2.8 lenses. I always found that the mix of bokeh effect and background light make them very attractive. if the "ball" quality is better, we can see more "things" on the ball. If you spend sometimes on the background, the bokeh of this lenses is a "round" shape.

Reflection and Bokeh-licious

Harry Porter Portrait, BUT the focus is actually at the background

Another bokeh-licious shot. My girlfriend asked me, "what are you shooting at?" , i told her, "haha ... just don't care, i'm just trying to get the 'effect' i want ".

This is the in-focus "Hitachi" sign board, the "Hitachi" is "sharp" enough and the background is "blur" enough. Even if the aperture is not fast enough, by appropriate composition, we still can get decent background blur effect :-). Bravo Canon FD and Lumix G1!

A girl selling Christmas hair pin.

Going to toilet and prepare to wrap up my stuff and go back, but saw this special statue and took out my camera to take the last shot! The statue is inside a glass enclosure, the incomplete body make it a special attractive artwork, BUT it seems that nobody bother to look at it!

Overall, the Canon FD 28mm F2.8 lenses is an easy to use lenses. This may not give the best bokeh effect like the Canon FD 50mm F1.4, BUT due to the shorter equivalent focal length and lighter, make it less prone to handshake. If the focusing is done properly, you will be able to get a sharp image.

Pros:

1. Shorter focal length than Canon 50mm F1.4, less handshake blur. theorectically, as long as shutter speed> 1/50 sec, the blur effect should be minimum.
2. 170g , lighter than Canon 50mm F1.4 which is 235g. (For detail spec of 
   Canon FD 28mm: http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/canon/fdresources/fdlenses/28mm.htm; Canon FD 50mm: http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/canon/fdresources/fdlenses/50mm.htm)
3. sharp image from my perpective, if focusing is done properly.
4. low price (i bought at around SGD110). for anyone who want to try manual focus lenses, this is a suitable lenses due to the cost.

Cons:
1. Bokeh effect is not as good as Canon FD 50mm F1.4.