Just another day with an amazing lens.
I was just testing out a wireless flash trigger I got and shot what was on my desk. It is essentially my daily carry. Although I rotate watches once in a while.
NEX-7 with Zeiss Sony 24mm F1.8 ZA
Rolex 5513 Spider Dial and Prada Wallet
Long Island is not bad and Rolex 5513
I forgot I went to highschool around here. This was around Oyster Bay, Northport, Centerport, Huntington Bay, etc.
Will post my Costa Rica / Bremont and my Colorado / Tudor pictures when I get around to it this week.
Hope you enjoy!
Ignore the A-850 24mm spec, for some reason the chip EXIF shows that even though it’s really the Zeiss 24mm F2.8 ZF.2 that is Leitax adapted.
Much more pics after the jump below.
Costa Rica Landscape
This is probably the best shot that I took while I was in Costa Rica. It cost me a migraine. I was out in the sun riding ATVs all day and when everyone else went home, I stayed out a bit longer to do some photography. I ran out of water, started driving home and kept seeing wavy lines heat mirages everywhere, got to the house, drank soda, jumped in the pool then the migraine hit.
Somehow during the trip I forgot my Lee Filter holder although I remembered to bring all my 4×6 filters. So I had to hand hold and it didn’t turn out too well. I gave up and ended up just using a Marumi graduated filter. That presented it’s own problems due to vignetting at 24mm on the ZA 24-70mm F2.8 since I was using a 82 to 77mm adapter.
The screw on filter though let me be a lot more flexible in moving the camera around and I’ve started to wonder at myself if the resin square filters make sense for my style of shooting.
If anyone knows of a good lens distortion correction profile for this lens, I would appreciate it.
Sony A850, Zeiss 24-70mm ZA F2.8
Costa Rica Landscape 1
Another Night, Another Few Watches
Shot again with the supremely versatile Zeiss ZA 24-70mm F2.8. With just a B+W MRC Circular polarizer for some of the shots. No magnifier was used. More Pics after the jump.
More pictures after the jump. (more…)
Shooting inside a Bar – Panerai 372 and Panerai Bronzo 382
Some watch photography I did with an unorthodox kit. Sony A850 with a Sony ZA Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 SSM and a couple of flashes. I used just a Marumi Achromatic +5 Close up filter to enhance magnification on the already macro friendly ZA 24-70mm. My simple leather jacket was used as a backdrop and a small metal sheet I fit into my small bag. The important thing is to just modify your light and use RF triggers so you can have off camera flashes.
While a lot of patrons of the bar did not appreciate flashes popping left and right, I’m relatively happy with the results.
More Pics In the Link
Marumi Achromatic +5 Filter on Zeiss ZA 24-70mm F2.8
I picked up a Marumi +5 Achromatic double element close up filter in 77mm to use on my Zeiss ZA 24-70mm F2.8 because I wanted a single lens solution that can handle it all. About 70% of my use of macro lenses is in very small spaces along with a lot of people I also need to photograh. Its really hard to take people pics with my normal SIGMA 105mm F2.8 DG EX Macro because the spaces aren’t too big sometimes. So I picked up the filter to try to make the first lens do double duty. A lot easier and safer to take off a filter in a dark bar then switch lenses. No post editing or even cropping was done here, just white balance set to flash in LR3 on all the photos.
The filter does a great job, it doesn’t add any chromatic aberration as far as I can tell at F8 but it is massive and heavy and makes the whole combo of full frame camera + giant flash + giant lens + giant filter extremely heavy. And while the Zeiss 24-70mm has unusually good .25x magnification anyway, even with the filter it doesn’t come close to the 1:1 mag of the Sigma macro.
This is how big the difference is at their closest possible focus:
Zeiss 24-70 with +5 Filter:
Sigma 105mm F2.8 DG EX Macro:
The following are Sigma macro first then Zeiss 24-70 at 70mm. All were shot at F8 since that is what I always shoot my macros at if I’m not using a tripod. The framing isn’t exact because of the difference in focal lengths a tripod couldn’t be used.
The following two were at F2.8
And now F8 again:
My final thoughts are that there isn’t much lost except magnification by using the Zeiss zoom with close up filter than the Sigma macro for my uses. What you give up is weight, the 24-70 with the big filter is much, much heavier than the Sigma 105mm. The working distance is also much closer which can be an issue if you’re using on camera flash even if you’re bouncing.
In terms of rendition, the Zeiss still has more contrast and deeper colors. This surprised me as I thought the Marumi filter would add a bit of haze to the images but it didn’t too much. Blacks are blacker on the Zeiss and the Sigma has a slight yellowish tinge to it even at the same white balance settings. In terms of fine detail, I really can’t tell the difference between the two, they’re very very close.
The bokeh is about equal, they’re both very smooth, very boring because the working distances are so close.
Overall, I prefer the Zeiss fast SSM focus with easy over ride, cooler color, deeper saturation, and stronger contrast but I prefer the Sigma magnification, size, and weight.
I’m still undecided but I’m leaning towards the Zeiss. I might still have to pack the Sigma occasionally for special occasions of once in a life time pieces I might come across but I would have to be expecting it.
Switzerland and Thoughts on Travel Photography
This is a continuation of a series from here: Iceland Photos
If you found this page via a online forum, I recommend visiting the link above. It has some personal shots you might not have seen in my original post.
The second leg of my journey took me to Zurich. I knew going into Switzerland that it would be very picturesque. What I didn’t know was how delicate the political situation is in Switzerland as well as the somewhat interesting melting pot yet immigrant fearing culture. I was surprised to find out that there is a Canton (sort of like a US State) in Switzerland that didn’t grant women the right to vote in elections until 1988. Astoundingly some political groups founded by women even opposed it!
Zeiss ZA 24-70mm F2.8 vs Contax 35-70mm F3.4
My 24-70mm just came in and I’ll pitting it against my Leitax adapted Contax Zeiss 35-70mm this weekend on my trusty A850.
Plan is to test landscape and mid distance subjects in their overlapping focal lengths at F5.6 and F8. I’ll also be doing a macro test. Any bets on the winner?
Essentially I’ll be doing this testing to see how much performance I lose on the 24-70mm zoom which is a lot more flexible. The 35-70mm zoom is significantly lighter and can focus closer though so it might not be a terrible idea to have both.
Event Coverage with a Zeiss Prime 85mm
Shot an event I took for two friends running the Spartan Race 2011 NYC!
I actually just used the Sony Zeiss ZA 85mm F1.4 prime the whole event even though I brought a zoom with me. Did not bump saturation at all, added some contrast due to the overcast conditions. Shot all in CRAW with standard settings. A zeiss 72mm Circular polarizer was also used.
Missed some key shots because I was simply ignorant of the course. Make sure you find that out if you’re covering something similar. The sweet spot of the ZA 85mm F1.4 is about F2. F2.8 is when it sharpens to a point where it will beat most other lenses at any aperture. At F4 and up, no other 85mm lens rivals the micro contrast and resolution. The lens is slightly tainted by greenish CA bokeh wide open but the situation is much improved by F2.
Contax Zeiss 45mm F2 G on NEX-5N No Post Processed JPG out of camera
First, DO NOT buy the cheap ebay adapters, I’m returning mine to the sketchy seller. I purchased a Photodiox version and while it looks Identical on the exterior to the cheap ebay version, it doesn’t grind and stick. I also have a Metabones adapter on the way.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the Focus Peaking feature is pretty critical if you’re not using a viewfinder. I’ve finally gotten much better at figuring out how to use it. You can’t rely on it for critical focus. You will have to zoom in. But for focusing quickly, it will help you a lot. As you rack the focus you can see how your plane of focus shifts back and forth so this will be very useful in placing that where you want it. For low contrast objects however, it is often hard to see peaking highlights.
These are Out of Camera JPG with Noise on LOW and mode on Standard.
I have NOT POST processed these at all except for slight straightening and import/export out of Lightroom. The included lens hood was used, no polarizers or filters of any kind (more…)
Zeiss ZF.2 21mm F2.8 + Contax Zeiss 35-70mm F3.4 + Zeiss ZF.2 35mm F2 on Sony A850
I almost ended up selling the ZF.2 Leitax’d 35mm F2 distagon but I think the beauty of this… (more…)