24mm | Olympus/Zuiko

November 15, 2007

Old Farmhouse on Sullivan Road

Posted by ajoy muralidhar under Zuiko, Vivitar, Places, 3rd Party Lens, 35mm SLR, Lighting, Color, Filters, OM-1, OM-2, Exposure, Composition, Nature, Driveby, Photography, Manual Cameras, Photo Opportunism, Olympus, Landscape, Snowscape, Lenses, Film, Wide Angle, Hand Held, Winter, 50mm, Zoom, Ricoh 500G, Skyscape, Sunny f/16 Rule, SLR, Sigma | Tags: 24mm, 35-105mm, 50mm, Carroll County, Clouds, Farm, Ricoh 500G, Sigma, Snow, Zuiko |
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This old farmhouse and barn sits just outside of Westminster, a couple of miles north of the town. I usually drive that route when I want to take a more scenic way into the town, instead of taking MD Rte 97 south from work. This is a very accessible site, just off the road, with easy parking… there aren’t many vehicles around that road (except on Mondays, when a nearby auction house is holding their occasional outdoor and barn auction). I’ve photographed this barn many times over the past year. The pond, well and barn always stop me dead in my tracks., and I pull over for a couple of minutes just savoring the view.

OM-2, Vivitar 24mm 1/500 at f/16, Fuji 400

OM-2, Vivitar 24mm, 1/500 at f/16, Fuji 400

OM-2, Sigma 35-105mm f/1.8, 35mm 1/500 at f/16, Fuji 400

OM-2, Zuiko 50mm, 1/500 at f/16, Fuji 400

OM-1, 50mm f/1.8, Fuji 200

Ricoh 500G, 1/250 at f/16 Fuji 200

Ricoh 500G, 1/250 at f/16, Fuji 200

Photographed with an OM-2, (Vivitar 24mm, Sigma 35-105mm, Zuiko 50mm f/1.8) OM-1 (50mm f/1.8) and Ricoh 500G

September 5, 2007

Does a 50mm normal lens really see what the eye sees?

Posted by ajoy muralidhar under 35mm SLR, 50mm, Photo Technique, Photography | Tags: 24mm |
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The 35mm film format has a image (or frame) size of 24 x 36mm with a diagonal of 43.267mm. This has been the standard since Oskar Barnack created the first Leica prototype using cheap 35mm movie film running lengthwise in the camera body. Although the film strip is 35mm wide, 11 mm is used up by the sprocket holes on either side, which are needed for the film transport mechanism.

Technically speaking, although most manufacturers market the 50mm lens as the normal lens, the correct “normal” lens for a 35mm camera should be as close to 43mm as possible. A lot of rangefinders and other fixed lens cameras were made with 40mm or 42mm lens back in the 60’s and 70’s, and for a very good reason. They were trying to stick to the “true” normal focal length. This focal length is extremely good for people and general photography. Try one and see the difference for yourself.

The 50mm focal length probably became the de facto standard because a lens with that focal length sees the world like the human eye sees it – with no PERSPECTIVE distortion. However, the human field of vision is a lot more than the 46 degrees afforded by a 50mm lens – it’s probably closer to what a 28mm lens sees (72 degrees) or even the 24mm lens (84 degrees). The 28 and 24mm lenses have edge-barrel distortion, however – something that our brain compensates for when looking at objects at the edge of our field of view (in our peripheral vision).

The 35mm focal length lens with a viewing angle of 63 degrees is a good compromise, and that’s why some professional photographers use the 35mm f/1.4 or f/2.8 as their standard ‘normal’ lens

An interesting side note – for the 50mm to be really “normal”, the image area or frame size would have to be 35mm x 36mm, instead of 24mm x 36mm. This would be the case if the 35mm film strip was completely utilized, including the area currently used up by the sprocket holes.

August 23, 2007

Davidson Mesa

Posted by ajoy muralidhar under 3rd Party Lens, Autofocus, Bower Adapter, Cheap Awesome Lens, Color, Driveby, Dynax 800si, Exposure, Film, Filters, Hand Held, Landscape, Lenses, Long Focus, Manual Lenses, Maxxum, Minolta, Mountains, Photo Opportunism, Photography, Places, Summer, Tamron, Vivitar, Wide Angle, Zoom | Tags: 24mm, Polarizer |
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I was in Boulder CO earlier this month (a work related visit), but I stayed in a hotel in Louisville CO, since it was much cheaper (and easier) to get a room, and besides, it’s only 10 minutes from Boulder. Louisville is a nice place, lots of places to get a decent meal.

I was exploring one evening and just driving along north from my hotel, when I stumbled upon this little gem of a recreation area. Davidson Mesa is an “open space” with minimal impact trails, and it’s the one place to get a clear view of the Front Range without any buildings and traffic getting in the way. It’s one heck of a resource for the good citizens of Louisville and surrounding areas.

For this trip, I had lugged my big Minolta Dynax 800si along with the Tamron 70-300mm and Phoenix 35-105mm, and for good measure, an old Vivitar 24mm f/2.8 (OM-Mount) with a OM-Maxxum adapter. The film was 400 and 200 speed Fuji film.

I’d have liked to have used higher resolution 100 speed film, but I had 2 zooms with me, and besides, the light in the foothills changes rapidly, and I wanted to have the additional latitude. On my last trip to Colorado last year, I had some 50speed slide film with me, and I was limited to using my 50mm f/1.7 since none of my other lenses were fast enough to handle the extra slow film.

I had the Tamron lens on the camera that evening and the Vivitar 24mm f/2.8 OM mount lens with a Bower adapter to fit it on the Minolta. I had included the zoom in my camera kit at the last minute, just in case I wanted to photograph some of the hard to access rocky crags along Boulder Creek. Normally one would not associate a long zoom with landscape photography, but the distance was just right to encompass the open space.

With ISO/ASA 400 film, the Tamron 70-300mm is great for portraits as well – just set to about 100mm and open to f/4 and you’ll get a couple of feet of depth of field, just enough for a person, throwing everything else pleasantly out of focus. I took a couple of pictures with the Vivitar 24mm as well, the Bower mount works like a charm. I just set the camera on manual and exposed at 1/500 sec at f/11.

I also wanted to get a soft and fuzzy view of the distant mountains, and emphasize the foreground and trail… there was also an interesting fence going off into the distance that I wanted to work into the composition somehow. For the soft shots, I used the camera on Portrait mode, hunkered down to minimize camera shake, picked the foreground subjects (rocks and grass) and shot.

There was a storm in the mountains that day, so the lighting near the Mesa was spectacular. The grass simply seemed to glow… modern film emulsions do a great job in capturing subtle colors, but some things are just too ethereal to capture. I did my best.

Here are the pictures from Davidson Mesa. The second picture is from another park right across the road from the Mesa parking area. It’s called Harper Lake.

Davidson Mesa