The Official Head-Case Photography Thread.

[Knuckledragger]

The second shot of the house is awesome, the colours are just right. The IR shot is quite interesting, as I figured the water would absorb the IR from the trees and appear pretty black. Very cool! Did you use a DSLR or film for that one?

Edit: Just saw the info on Flickr - didn't know a G2 could do IR. Also, didn't know a G2 was that freaking sharp!

Thanks. The G2 does not normally do IR. Mine was converted by having its hotmirror replaced with one that lets in IR light but blocks most of the visible spectrum. There are several outfits that do the conversion, LifePixel is the most well known. The reason I use the G2, which is pretty ancient in the world of digicams (4MP, tiny LCD, can't use CF cards bigger than 1GB) is that I got it for less than the cost of an IR conversion. When I get my next DSLR, I hope to convert my 30D to IR. Unfortunately, LifePixel just raised their prices. I can only imagine what they will be when I finally buy a second DSLR.

[Salt Peanuts]

I think you should just convert your D70 to IR now, Reks. Just as Knuckle says, who knows how much more expensive it will be to do so in the future?

[Knuckledragger]

how much IR do you shoot? i'm thinking about converting my D70, but it might make sense to first buy some filters and just deal with the long exposures. i shot some IR in High School (film, obviously), and i really liked it.

I got my first IR G2 just over a year ago (April 1, 2009) but it had a defective lens. It's replacement arrived a few weeks later. Since then I have posted 151 IR landscapes and 38 IR portraits to Flickr. I'd say that's a fair amount.

Personally, I think IR is awesome. I really want an IR-converted DSLR. The D70 is an older model, but it's lightyears ahead of the G2 I use. I imagine you'd have a blast shooting IR with it and the 18-55 kit lens. The only concern I'd have is that the D70 is in good working order. It'd suck if you paid to have it converted and it stopped working soon thereafter.

I think you should just convert your D70 to IR now, Reks. Just as Knuckle says, who knows how much more expensive it will be to do so in the future?

Salty is evil, but he's right.

Shit, the rest of this post is going to have to wait. We've just lost power on MV, and I'm running on battery

[Salt Peanuts]

will you lend me the money to do it?

Only if you lend me money to buy wider lens.

[Knuckledragger]

FWIW the D70 is supposedly the best Nikon DSLR for IR photography - easiest to remove the IR filter and takes decent photos. If you were ever interested in IR photog, it's the body to have, so if you do end up keeping it, it'll do at least one thing the D90 won't!

Nikon D70 Reviewed. Infrared (IR) Performance

LifePixel - Nikon D70 & D70s digital infrared conversion tutorial

Q here FT.

[Iron_Dreamer]

If you aren't already familiar with his site, Reks, Bjorn Rorslett has a pretty extensive rating of the sutability of various Nikon lenses for IR work: NRFOTO Bjrn Rrslett

[penger]

No processing, but shot on the wrong WB... hopefully turned out okay.

[Salt Peanuts]

Nice pic of a dragonfly! I wish we'd get more them around our house- they'd help control the overabundance of mosquitoes.

[swt61]

beautiful!

[Salt Peanuts]

and they are damn good eating all by themselves.

Mosquitoes or dragonflies?

[penger]

both! i am, however, a frog, so take it with a grain of salt. ribbit.

and thanks guys.

[Salt Peanuts]

does anybody else really want a Leica M9 and a 50mm f.95?

Just looked up the price for Leica 50mm f/.95. Jeebus.

[guzziguy]

does anybody else really want a Leica M9 and a 50mm f.95?

If they are giving them away, I'd take one. I love Leica lenses. I hate the price of Leica lenses except in Panasonic cameras.

[penger]

And then there are the Leicas that are really rebranded Panasonics with slightly different feature sets. Leica unveils V-Lux 20 digital compact with built-in GPS: Digital Photography Review

[Salt Peanuts]

And then there are the Leicas that are really rebranded Panasonics with slightly different feature sets. Leica unveils V-Lux 20 digital compact with built-in GPS: Digital Photography Review

...and $300 premium.

[Knuckledragger]

does anybody else really want a Leica M9 and a 50mm f.95?

In a word, no. The Noctilux is insanely expensive, excessively heavy (which sucks on a rangefinder) and of very limited use. The whole point of superfast lenses (besides general purpose prick waving) is for getting the most light in on handheld shots. For subjects that are holding still, shutter speed is a limitation of how steady the user's hands are, and the focal length of the lens. Longer focal lengths are harder to hold stably. Canon and Nikon both make a whole pile of image stabilized lenses and other manufacturers offer in-body image stabilization. Newer Canon IS lenses add up to 4 stops of stability. That is, one should be able to use a shutter speed sixteen times as long with a 4-stop IS lens than a lens of the same focal length without IS. Your mileage will vary hugely on this.

Fast lenses also help with freezing action on fast moving subjects, by allowing for a faster shutter speed. There are few if any action photographers who use rangefinders. They use Canon 1-series digital SLRs with their 45 AF points. There are some pro shooters who use the Nikon D3[x/s] as well.

There is one notable exception here, with astrophotography. Without the use of very expensive and fussy camera rotating equipment, astrophotographers are limited to shutter speeds of 20 seconds or less. Anything longer results in star trails (which are pretty, but not usually the desired effect). There are probably a few well-heeled astrophotographers who use the Noctilux, but I'll wager there aren't many. $10,000 buys a lot of astrophoto gear a lot more useful than a single 50mm lens.

Lecia makes quite a few lenses wider than 50mm, and many come in a "Summilux" (Leicaspeak for F/1.4) model. My favorite is the LEICA SUMMILUX-M 21mm f/1.4 ASPH. It is also eyewateringly expensive, but at least it has a purpose. 21mm is less than half the focal length of 50mm, so one should be able to handhold it at shutter speeds at least twice that of the Noctilux. That means the two lenses are effectively equal in the same lighting conditions. The 21mm also has the advantage of having a much greater depth of field, by being a stop slower and much wider. If I had the cash, I'd love to play with a Leica M7 (film body) and a 21mm F/1.4 and a few rolls of Velvia 50. If 21mm is too wide for you (and it is wide), Leica makes an equally glorious (and expensive) SUMMILUX-M 24mm f/1.4 ASPH.

Of course, if one is using a tripod, all of this becomes moot. Large format photographers cheerfully shoot at F/64 to get the uniform sharpness and DoF they require.

TL;DR: The Notcilux serves no purpose other than acting as a penis extension, for both Leica and those who buy the damn thing.

[voodoochile]

does anybody else really want a Leica M9 and a 50mm f.95?

Want, yes; want to pay, no.

[Knuckledragger]

You're in luck, as Lecia makes a whole range of 50mm lenses. The 50mm F/2 Summicron is light, sharp, and "bargain" at around 2 grand. That plus an M9 on grayscale mode will let you pretend to be Henri Cartier-Bresson all day. I'd rather have a 35mm F/2 Summicron, but that's just me.

[aerius]

TL;DR: The Notcilux serves no purpose other than acting as a penis extension, for both Leica and those who buy the damn thing.

Unless you're one of those weirdos who shoots ASA 25 film, or ASA 100 film with heavy filters (eg. Wratten #29). In the modern digital world it might still make sense if you're shooting b&w with the #29 filter on an M9, but let's face it, who the hell does that?

Personally, if I went the Leica route I'd want the previous generation Summilux 35mm since it's a hell of a lot smaller than the current version without giving up too much in practical performance. Not a big fan of Leicas though, they still have their retarded take half the camera apart just to change the battery and & memory card design, for fuck's sake, use a nice easy to open door like every other rational camera manufacturer.

[aerius]

having to take off the bottom panel is part of the charm, no?

For the Leica faithful, yes, but I'm not a fan of it. The rest of their camera design is nice in terms of ergonomics, shooting quality pictures and so forth, but having to remove the bottom panel just to change the battery is an anachronism I could do without.

[Knuckledragger]

Nice M6 with 50mm F/2 Summicron for your, Reks:

Leica M6 Gold Thailand

[Knuckledragger]

I will say that in skilled hands, the Noctilux can produce some amazing images. Of course, that's true for almost any lens. Flickr user Tommy Oshima has done wonderful things with it. Tommy has one of the older F/1.0 non-aspheric Nocts, which are optically inferior to the newer ASPH model. Like many great photographers, he uses the lens's faults to his own artistic advantage. This is a quick example:

The old non-asph Noct has funky nisen bokeh, huge light falloff and substantial coma. In the picture above, the effects of those those faults look pretty fricken cool.

[Salt Peanuts]

Damn, that is awesome.

[laxx]

That's really awesome, lol.

[Salt Peanuts]

Tried to get some silhouette images. After fiddling around for a bit, here's what I got.