Friday, December 30, 2016

Digital miracles and 100mm portrait lens

I imagine what it would be like to travel back in time to the photo club of my youth and demonstrate a modern digital camera. Holy mama. I think I could list at least a dozen major features which I would have given a kidney to have back then. And that's just the major ones. Just the ability to shoot at 3200 ISO in great image quality, and to hand-hold down to 1/8th of a second even with a tele lens. Even after getting used to the progress over years, it still seems miraculous. I remember logging a big tripod around in the nineties just to be sure to get sharp pictures even with a short tele lens in overcast weather. Now, 'it's to laugh'.

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(I had the one below. A wonderful portrait- and all-round lens. Compact and nifty; many of my favorite pictures were taken with it, examples shown. I actually don't remember, though, what originally (in my teens the first time), made me choose a 100mm over the much more popular 135mm, but I don't regret it.)







Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Selecting MFT lenses

An impressive article about choosing lenses in the Micro-Four-Thirds system (my favorite camera system, compact yet top quality).
(If you prefer another system/brand, there are links to similar articles for others.)

Note: I agree with the article that it pays to pay attention to whether the lens or body has Image Stabilisation, it's great to have it. But I have found that it does not harm if they both have it. Also I have not had problems if there was no UV filter built in. And adding one to the front of the lens I don't find "inelegant" but rather a way to assure that the front lens will be pristine even after long use. There are even special filters now which are extra tough, especially made to protect the lens (though they are pricey, see this $115 example from Hoya's new HD3 "hard line").