Canon FD 50mm F1.4 in Action - Part II Melaka Street Portrait B&W

Continue from my previous post, some interesting photos to share, please note that i did some cropping in order to get rid of the objects that i do not want :)

A special Auntie with a special hat

Reflection

The beauty of Canon FD 50mm F1.4. The sharp photo with nice bokeh! Keep Quiet! Ok?!?!

The Different between a couple of SHOPPER and a couple of LOVER

See something interesting or yummy ??? Why not stop here?

Silhouette of Busy Shoppers

Canon FD 50mm F1.4 in Action - Part I Melaka Street Portrait B&W

Happened to have chance to go to Melaka, Malaysia on 16/9/2011 after getting some good deal from website (Melaka is entered to become one of the World Heritage site in the world in year 2008, so i think a lot of story to tell in this place). Shoot some street portrait using my Panasonic Lumix G1 and the lovely Canon FD 50mm F1.4 lenses.

Before i proceed to the street portrait talk, i would like to share some of my experience in Canon FD 50mm F1.4 lenses. During the 2days 1nite trip, i forced myself to use this lenses. Even though the lenses is F1.4, due to the equiv. focal range of 100mm (by rules of thumb, the shutter speed has to be reciprocal of focal length which is 1/100sec to prevent the image blur caused by handshake), i found this lenses is quite hard to do photo shooting in low light condition. In low light condition, it's very easy for the shutter speed to be 1/20sec, and the sharpness of the lenses is compromised.

Just to have a quick compare of my Lumix 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 lenses, when i shorten the equiv. focal length to 28mm, a shutter speed of 1/20sec still give me a reasonable sharpness (i think it's because of the Mega O.I.S, light weight of the lenses and the short focal length)

Overall, I think that i face some difficulties in using the canon FD 50mm F1.4 in low light condition because of the lenses heavy weight, long focal length and without Image Stabilizer. Nevertheless, this lenses actually produce very creamy bokeh effect and high resolution which is totally impossible from the lumix 14-42mm lenses. I really enjoy using this FD lenses in bright outdoor shooting, because it gave me the sharpness and the bokeh effect that i like.

My experience in using this lenses in streetphotography :
1. step down the aperture to F2.0, you will get reasonable bokeh effect whilst easy to do focusing. F1.4 will give you very shallow depth of field which will make you very difficult in manual focus especially when you want to capture "decisive moment" which happened in a very short time frame.
2. use ND or circular polariser to help to reduce the shutter speed as sometimes my shutter speed reach 1/4000sec but the whole image still overexpose due to the reason of fast aperture that i am using.
3. Use Viewfinder ! It's very important of using high quality EVF of 1.44 Million dots in my Lumix G1. It's added extra stability and ease the process of manual focus.

(Most of the photo taken here had been cropped for the intended composition, so the quality of the photo may drop somehow, but the bokeh effect still very good.)

(to be continued ...)

First Experience - Street Photography learn from Eric Kim

After reading so many street photography from the famous street photographer - Eric Kim, I'm so exciting to try my first street photography... the location is near Buona Vista area in Singapore. Everyone is so busy "walking" as I think they are rushing back home ... I'm using my 2 years old LX3 to do my first assignment as i think it's small enough to be "stealthy".

Above photo is my first shot, everyone is busy doing their own business ...

Composition is not the best, because i took it in a very short time frame .... Method that i used: set manual focus, F/2.8, 1/60sec, ISO-400, infinity focus. I learned this method from Eric Kim. It remove the shutter lag and focus time for me. .... it's pretty useful. BTW, you may need a lot of train to understand your camera so that you can take the best exposure ....

This is really really a nervous one. Problem: I think i'm not close enough and the focusing not good enough .... I think i need more practice ...

Another method learn from Eric Kim. I took the shot with manual focus: f/2, 1/320sec, ISO-800, focus point: near infinity. I used the method that put the camera on my hip, so it's become more "stealthy".

 Rushing out MRT ...

Wandering LULU: Raising the bar on my Street Photography PART 3

Wandering LULU: Raising the bar on my Street Photography PART 3

A Way to Street Photography - from B&W and Sepia

Read a number of street photography blogs recently, it's enjoyable! I like the B&W and sepia color setting of many street photography that i have seen. It's inspired me to do some similar style of shooting in my recent visit to Rochester Park, Singapore (1/9/2011).

Besides the photos I have taken in the restaurant - Krish. I really have to share some of the experience that i have in the restaurant. They have many good special style indian foods, nice environment and good service which is difficult that seen in S* recently .. please see my photo below.

(Lumix G 14-42mm, 17mm, f/3.9, 1/2sec, center-weighted average metering)

This photo is taken handheld, I'm very satisfied with the Mega O.I.S performance of the lenses. I think it pretty sharp at a shutter speed of 1/2sec. BUT please note that i used the EVF which added some additional stability to the camera. (SO keen to try the new Lumix lenses which adopted Power O.I.S which they claimed the I.S. is 2x more effective than Mega O.I.S)

(Lumix G 14-42mm, 14mm, f/3.5, 1/15sec, multi pattern metering)

A nice photo which contain three countries clock, and comment left by the customers. Most of the comments are giving credits to the restaurant.

(Lumix G 14-42mm lenses, 14mm, f/3.5, 1/20sec, multi pattern metering)

The restaurant feeling is exactly the same as the photos that we can see from the photos here. Another advantages of the B&W and sepia photo is the ISO noise can be neglected at some extend.

(Lumix G 14-42mm lenses, 42mm, f/5.6, 1/4sec, multi pattern metering)

Just to share some of the good free ebook from some of the great street photographer ...

1. http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2011/09/new-street-photography-magazine-radiate-released-issue-1/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EricKimStreetPhotographyBlog+%28Eric+Kim+Street+Photography+Blog%29
2. http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2011/07/download-going-candid-a-free-street-photography-e-book-by-thomas-leuthard/
3. http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2011/08/download-thomas-leuthards-85mm-new-street-photography-book-collecting-souls-what-street-photography-means-to-me-for-free/

Those ebook provides some very good information of street photography to beginner like me ...

Generally, I like the street photographer Eric Kim style. I learnt a lot of street photography shooting style in his blog, maybe can try some in the near future ...

(Lumix G 14-42mm lenses, 14mm, f/3.5, 1/6sec, multi pattern metering)

Generally, as the photo demonstrated here, the Lumix G1 and Lumix G 14-42mm lenses are really good and the Mega O.I.S is performed very well at least to my standard (very little image blur at handheld 1/2 sec at 17mm as demonstrated in the first photo here).

Learning -> Musings on: an absence of sky

Photo taken at Senja garden. 14mm, 1/30sec, f/11, ISO-640. The lens flare show the weakness of Lumix 14-42mm lens

Learn a new stuff today from one of my favorite website as what mentioned by Mike and summarized by Stephen:

The reasons for excluding the sky break down into three primary groups:
a) quality of light (flat, even),
b) tone and texture (autumn colours drawing out shapes), and
c) compositional (sky as constraint – or is it the horizon that’s the constraint?).

Just refer to his picture, i think really worthwhile to try it next time when i have the chance.

28mm, 1/125sec, f/6.3, ISO-320. nice bokeh !

42mm, 1/250sec, f/5.6. never expected to get the "shining bokeh" if shoot to enough bright background. Obvious weakness is the resolution of the lenses hence leading to lose of detail

Canon Hanging on to Mirrors Means Opportunity for Sony, Panasonic Cameras

Read this articles from Bloomberg website today, and also see the quote: "As a result, Canon and Nikon’s combined share of the Japanese market has fallen by 35 percent, while Sony’s share has doubled, according to estimates at research firm BCN Inc.", this tally again with the market data that i posted earlier on. Even though Sony is not using MFT standard for their camera, but they actually engage the mirrorless design in the NEX system, so i guess the NEX system is quite a success in Sony.

A photo Taken in My Sweet Home with Lumix G1 and Canon FD 50mm F1.4 under warmth morning shine

The difficulties that i think Canon and Nikon is facing are :

1. If they adopt a new mirrorless design, are they going to use APS-C sensor or smaller sensor size? (This is going to affect the current lenses design, ain't?)
2. Is their previous range of lenses design to be able to support their new system? As to achieve small in size for the Mirrorless Interchangeable Lenses (MIL) system, normal current practice is contrast detection instead of phase detection. Lesson learn from the recent new products from Olympus and Panasonic is that in order to speed up the focus speed, they improve a lot of their design in the new lenses. If Canon have to roll out a new series of lenses, that means that they have 2 different interchangeable system to support, that is going to add some complexity to the business strategy. Dilemma in strategic planning to continue support legacy products and new products based on different technologies ....

. I think it's time for Canon and Nikon to think a new business strategy to enter into the new Mirrorless Interchangeable Market to prevent any regret in the future.

Lumix G X Vario PZ 45-175mm F4.0-5.6 ASPH Power OIS power zoom

Read my first review of "Lumix G X Vario PZ 45-175mm F4.0-5.6 ASPH Power OIS power zoom" today from clubsnap singapore. Some advantages over the previous version LUMIX G VARIO 45-200mm F4.0-5.6 MEGA O.I.S.:

1. Power OIS vs Mega OIS. Panasonic claim  "With the improved sensitivity of the gyro sensor, the new POWER O.I.S. suppresses large, slow movement 2x more effectively compared to the previous Mega OIS".
2. weight of 210g vs 380g. This should amplify the advantages of using the MFT system.
3. Slightly smaller in diameter and length as compared to the previous version.
4. The lens will not extend out when zoom
5. less 25mm focal length compared to the previous version.
6. There is no information at the moment that the lenses will support all the model of Panasonic MFT camera as the new lenses is using the electric power zoom.
7. By speeding up the aperture control, shutter time lag is also shortened by approx. 20% compared with the LUMIX G VARIO 45-200mm / F4.0-5.6 / MEGA O.I.S

After reading the review, seems like the optical performance is almost the same as the previous one beside the image stabilizer is not tested. To me, i think the weight is another factor which i would factor in as i always like to carry less "weight" in my camera bag. So.... is it justifiable to purchase a pricer new lenses over the previous version?? I'm also thinking, i think i only have the answer when i decided to buy the lenses ...

Istana Singapore Open House

Today (30/8/2011) is my last day of the long weekend and Singapore public holiday, Hari Raya. Just feel like carry my Lumix G1 camera and 14-42mm lenses to try few shots ...  Due to Istana Singapore open house, I have the chance to take few shots in the open house event. Even though the space of Istana is very big, we still feel very crowded because of the open house and the security check is very strict.

Below is the photo i've taken after i go in Istana. I like the punchy yellowish and greenish color of the tree and grass,  just feel comfortable looking at the tree and grass in the photo.

1/250sec, f/6.3, ISO320, 14mm

In the following shot, i used shutter priority to create some movement effect of the bus in contract to static human. I did a handheld shooting on this photo and after a few try, i get the following shot.

1/6sec, f/22, ISO-320, 14mm