Adjusting One's Vision

I am behind in posting here -- It's been a very busy month, and I was away on a work-related trip to Minnesota.  Between that and catching up, and scanning many, many rolls of film, I have a lot of posts coming up soon.  However, I am switching gears here for a bit to talk about a bit of a revelation I recently had.
Regulars to this blog probably are familiar with my toy camera work, and my love of trying different lenses that are going to give me a different result than the usual sharp and contrasty perfection we all crave.   I have been using a Nikon 1J1 for several years now as part of my photography toolkit, and it's a perfect small mirrorless system camera for taking on trips.  My recent trip to Minnesota was by car, so I took a few cameras, but not my usual gear.  I packed a bag with my Minolta XG-M and lenses, Olympus Trip 35, Yashica A TLR, and the Nikon 1 bag.   Part-way through the 6 days on the road, the Minolta SLR stopped firing its shutter, making me rely on the other cameras to do the job.  Basically, readjusting my shooting to the tools I had.  The Nikon 1 is a good camera for trip shots, and while I did some shooting with the 28mm and 50mm  35mm equivalent lenses, I wanted something less than perfection, and more along what I wanted from a toy camera.  Thus, I put on the 16mm f/1.6 C-mount lens as shown below. (I also used a 25mm c-mount lens with an adjustable aperture, and while both give me very desirable effects, the 16mm gives me the vignetting.  Examples from both lenses are below.)

There is only the one wide-open aperture setting, and the lens focuses from about 2 feet to infinity. I have to use the 1J1 in totally Manual mode, as well.  This combination gives me exactly the kind of dreamy, slightly vignetted images that are sharp at the center and fall off towards the edges.  No software is involved in making the images I like, and straight out of the camera images look like they were done with a cheap toy camera, but better.

I love this combo so much,  that I may just use it like this most of the time.  Obviously it's not great for every subject, but it makes some deliciously soft images that perfectly (to me, at least) provide the emotive reaction I had when shooting the scenes in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.    Sometimes it takes a happy accident to point out a direction one should take, and I might not have shot with the 1J1 nearly as much if the SLR had been working reliably.  Adjusting my vision accordingly, the Nikon 1J1 with the c-mount lens provided me with a creative tool that enable me to come back with some different images than I would have shot with the SLR.

Eagle River, WI

Land O' Lakes, WI

what the sign says

grassy dunes at AuTrain Bay, MI

AuTrain beach

AuTrain bay

Vilas Theater, Eagle River, WI

FINALLY! Ann Arbor Gets a Real Camera Store!

They are still stocking the store, but stop in, anyway.

A few months ago,  I had heard a rumor about someone opening a camera shop in Ann Arbor, but the details were somewhat vague.  Then a few weeks ago, I found out that a store with the name Camera Mall was going to open soon.  A week ago, I walked over to the store on East Washington, less than a block from N. State Street.  A few other fellow crappy camera club folks had already been there.  I walked in, and was greeted by the manager, Desmond Kolean-Burley, and it seemed a bit surreal to be standing in a store with lots of shiny new cameras and gear.  In Ann Arbor.  It has been a few years since we have had that opportunity. I had a great chat with Desmond, and he was busily getting the store stocked and ready for business.  Today, I went back down, and I wasn't the only other person in the store, and the stock was being shelved as quickly as they could do it.  You can bet I had a case of lens lust, seeing so many lovely new lenses in the glass case.  I bought some packs of film (and yes, they will be carrying Impossible Project film), and chatted for a while.  It's obvious that Desmond knows his stuff, and the location is great - close to campus, close to the heart of downtown, and parking is nearby.  I can only hope that folks go and buy their stuff their and support Camera Mall's effort!

Camera Mall is located at 518 East Washington Street, Ann Arbor.  You can reach the store at  734-997-5031.  Desmond indicated that the stock is still coming in, and I suspect that by the end of April everything will be in place.  However, you can certainly buy lenses, bodies, film, used film cameras, digital cameras, etc. right now.  I think the store will also be operating a photo lab.

To Desmond and the other Camera Mall folks (out of Muskegon, MI) -- Welcome to Ann Arbor, and thanks for taking a chance on us!

Super Macro for less than $100.

I've been doing macrophotography for quite a while. From 35mm to medium format, and in between, digital. The beauty of macro is that one can photograph almost anything and make it look interesting. The downside of macro is that for most people, it means more money for adapters, lenses, cameras, etc. I won't deny that I have some expensive macro equipment. My Nikon 70-180 Micro-Nikkor is a lens that Nikon doesn't offer anymore, and you can't find one used. I have used it for years and love the results. However, I am not telling you to go and buy the latest macro gear for your DSLR. Instead, we are doing this on the cheap.

I recently bought a factory-refurbished Fuji Finepix S700 online from eCost.com for about $90. I used to own a Fuji S7000 EVF camera and loved it. When I bought a Nikon D70s, I sold the Fuji. I'd been keeping my eye on the S700 for a while, because it is compact, and best of all, besides the 10x optical zoom, the 46mm filter ring in front of the lens offers a way add filters and adapters. That is something that the retractable lens P&S cameras do not have, and after I opened up the S700 box, I knew my Canon Powershot A570 was going to Adrienne.

So, how does one get super macro from the S700? First of all, most P&S cameras that have a "Macro" feature are not really shooting macro. They are allowing you to focus very closely at the shortest possible focal length. That's a trick of wide-angle lenses being able to close-focus. True macro is defined as being able to achieve a 1:1 reproduction ratio. If the object is 5mm long, then the resulting image on the sensor (or film) is the same size. Now, with the small sensors of point and shoot cameras, that's obviously an issue.

So, how do you get true macro from the S700? Simple. First, you need a 46mm to 52mm step-up ring. That allows you to use any 52mm diameter filter on the front of the S700. Very useful if you want to do fun things.

Second, you buy a 52mm reversing ring -- really just an adapter with male threads on both sides.

Third, you screw any 50mm (called a normal lens) manual focus lens on the front of the S700 using the reversing ring (if it has a different diameter than 52mm, find an appropriate adapter).


Here is the S700, the 46-52mm adapter, the reversing ring, and a Vivitar 50mm 1.7 lens.

Set the S700 to maximum optical zoom, and make sure that the 50mm lens is set to its widest aperture (fully open). Do not use the "macro" setting on the camera. Be prepared to go wow.


A yellowjacket at full magnification.

If you use a macro setup like this one, which utilizes a steady base and good lighting, you'll get much better results. Be careful of that exposed rear element of the 50mm lens.



what the camera saw....

If you reduce the zoom, you will get some vignetting from the attached 50mm, but you'll also get crisper results.

At maximum magnification, the field of view is about 5mm wide! You can go crazy with exploring the tiny world in your backyard.

These are the fruiting bodies of lichen in my backyard. The beauty of this outfit is the compactness and versatility that you get from the S700, and the inexpensive nature of the gear that gives you some pretty good results.