Something a little different today. I took a little walk with 2 x Sony Nex-5N bodies, one with the Voigtländer 35 f2.5 Skopar attached and the other mounting the Voigtländer 50 f2.5 Skopar. These lenses are really small and compact and are great on the Nex cameras. I just photographed a few buildings and views from the same standpoint with each camera so that I could campare the images against each other. Both lenses performed very well, but I prefer the images from the 35 f2.5. If you look at the image above (showing my favourite building in Frankfurt), you can see the difference between a 35mm and 50mm lens. Both were set at f5.6, which is just about the optimum aperture for theses lenses on the Nex cameras. I just love the rendition I get from these lenses, and I admit to being a Voigtländer fanboy.
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10/16/13  Voigtländer Lenses I1485
unknown Focal Length: unknown Aperture: unknown Exposure Time: unknown ISO: unknown • Sony • CV • Voigtländer • Voigtlander • Nex-5N • 35 f2.5 • 50 f2.5
10/15/13  1 Nikkor 32 f1.2I'm not sure if you can see what I'm seeing at this size, but this image, to me, has definately a 3D look to it. maybe I should have posted this at a higher resolution than I did. This new 1 Nikkor lens is really nice and I'll be using it down in Spain shortly. It's going to make the perfect portrait lens (35=85) and it will be the first time I'll be using it on a shoot. I'm not a good portrait photographer but I'm hoping to do a little better this time around. I'm the designated photographer for the 10 day period I'll be there and I'm only taking the V1 with a few lenses. Keeping my fingers crossed that everything will turn out ok. It's not something that can be repeated. 1285
NIKON 1 V1 Focal Length: 32 mm Aperture: f/1.2 Exposure Time: 1/4000 sec ISO: 100 10/14/13  1 Nikkor 32 f1.2When you look at this lens the first thing that goes through your mind is how small it is. The second thing that goes through your head,after picking it up, is how heavy it is. The third thing that goes through your mind is did I really pay all that money for this lens, because it's the dearest lens in the 1 Nikon system stable. What if it doesn't perform like I want it to? I must say the performance of this lens is fantastic. Is it worth the money? A definite yes on that question. At the time of these test shots, I didn't have any dark venues to visit, as a matter of fact the light was bright and harsh but with the V1 capable of 1/16000th of a second shutter speed, there was no problem using this lens, even wide open. The focus point was the middle of the handlebars and as you can see, DOF is pretty thin at f1.2, even on this smaller 1" sensor. 1204
NIKON 1 V1 Focal Length: 32 mm Aperture: f/1.2 Exposure Time: 1/800 sec ISO: 100 10/13/13  Panasonic Lumix G X Vario PZ 14-42 f3.6-5.6 Power OISConverted in Nik SFX II. This is what you can expect from this lens, I certainly can't fault it for web use as you can see from the image above. If you're interested in more images from this lens, just mail me, otherwise I'll just leave it at two posts. 1224
DMC-GF1 Focal Length: 19 mm Aperture: f/8.0 Exposure Time: 1/320 sec ISO: 100 • Panasonic • GF1 • PZ 14-42 f3.5-5.6
10/12/13  Panasonic Lumix G X Vario PZ 14-42 f3.6-5.6 Power OISWhere do they get the names for these lenses from? The Marketing Department must be working overtime because nobody in their right mind would create something like this. I'm sure these people think that the longer the title a lens has, the better the lens and more people are going to buy it. Well, this is one case it's quite the opposite in my opinion. I bought this lens because I knew where I was going and I knew I wanted something small that could fit in a small bag. My usual lens the Panasonic 14-45 was a little too large and so my decision to purchase the PZ power zoom. I was a little worried by the posts on some forums stating the lens had shutter shock problems at certain shutter speeds, but I went ahead anyway. After using the lens for almost a week and after many images at different shutter speeds, I personally can't say that I experienced shutter shock with this lens. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, just that I haven't experienced it. At present I own three zoom lenses, the Panasonic PZ 14-42 and the Sony E 16-50. I can tell you now that I'm not a fan of these zoom lenses although the Olympus 12-50 has a better implementation in my opinion. Maybe it has to do with the little rocker switch on the side, I don't know, but I much prefer using the Oly 12-50 because you turn the barrel and your hand stays where it should be, on the lens itself. When using the other two I find I have to readjust my grip again before pressing the shutter and it brings me out of rythm. Your mileage may vary. Image quality seems to be ok, but I wouldn't use the lens if I was going on an important job. It's ok for snaps and for web use but printing is a not an option for me with this lens. Obviously being a very small package it does have it's advantages and I will use it again on the occasions where a small camera and lens is a must, but I will not be using it on a daily basis. For that, there are much better lenses on the market. 1298
DMC-GF1 Focal Length: 42 mm Aperture: f/8.0 Exposure Time: 1/125 sec ISO: 100 • Panasonic • GF1 • PZ 14-42 f3.5-5.6
09/17/13  I Nikkor VR 6.7-13 f3.5-5.6Another image showing how close you can get to your subjects. This was taken with the camera at MFD of 10" and stopped down to f5.6 at 6.7mm. I'm impressed with it, not the compostion itself but with the quality of the image. I think we have come to the point where it really doesn't matter what camera you have in your hand, they all give excellent image quality these days. What does matter, and always has I suppose, is the lens you have mounted. I believe it's taken some time for the manufacturers to catch up because lenses made for film don't always perform when mounted on a digital camera. Note I said digital camera and not a DSLR because I also believe there is a difference here too. These CX lenses for the Nikon 1 system are so small and light with excellent image quality, they must be put forward as a masterpiece in lens engineering. I know of no other system that can match them, including the m4/3 systems, although they also have some excellent small lenses (namely the Olympus 12 f2 lens). If you're wondering why I posted this image for this post, well it's quite simple. Just look at the detail in that old rotting tree trun. It's quite remarkable. 1202
NIKON 1 V1 Focal Length: 6.7 mm Aperture: f/5.6 Exposure Time: 1/500 sec ISO: 100 • Nikon • V1 • 6.7-13 f3.5-5.6
09/16/13  1 Nikkor VR 6.7-13 f3.5-5.6I mentioned in yesterdays post that this lens is very close focusing and the image above shows what I'm talking about. I was literally right up to these steps up to the watch tower shown in an earlier post. As you can see the whole image is sharp with plenty of detail in the wood. Not much PP gone into this image either and the dynamic range from the V1 still had me wondering how they did this from the 1" CX sensor. It's nearly up there with the best of them and keeping the ISO to the minimum required, this system gives you excellent image quality. I do believe I'll be using this lens quite a bit in the coming months, it's that good. 1272
NIKON 1 V1 Focal Length: 8.7 mm Aperture: f/5.6 Exposure Time: 1/400 sec ISO: 100 • Nikon • V1 • 6.7-13 f3.5-5.6
09/15/13  1 Nikkor VR 6.7-13 f3.5-5.6What am amazing little lens Nikon have created. Small and well built, close focusing (down to 10 inches) and very sharp, even wide open. There are a couple of sites on the web who have tried this lens to date and have stated the same as I have done here. The most important points for me about the lens is the MFD of 10 inches and it has VR. With those two this lens will be real fun to shoot with, especially hand held. 1010
NIKON 1 V1 Focal Length: 13 mm Aperture: f/5.6 Exposure Time: 1/400 sec ISO: 100 • Nikon • V1 • 6.7-13 f3.5-5.6
09/10/13  Sony E 55-210 f4.5-6.3 OSSWhen I visited this location I had 3 systems with me; the Sony Nex-7, the Fujifilm X-E1 and the Fujifilm X100S. I wanted to get some test images to see how each system did in the same lighting conditions. I took similar images with all three systems and I'll be posting the results as I get around to processing them. Obviously I couldn't take the same image with the same focal length because they're all different but it does give you an idea of the colour and sharpness of the systems. This is the last of the Sony images and although I don't really like using the lens, it does produce some nice images and if I need a longer lens on the Nex system then I'll grab this lens for certain. Next comes the images from the Fuji X-E1 and the 18-55 f2.8-4 kit lens, which is a very decent lens in my opinion. 1172
NEX-7 Focal Length: 55 mm Aperture: f/8.0 Exposure Time: 1/500 sec ISO: 100 • Sony • Nex-7 • 55-210 f4.5-6.3
09/09/13  Sony E 55-210 f4.5-6.3 OSSAs you can see the image quality is ok. I can't say it's a lens I like using but I can't tell you why. Some lenses I just love using but others just don't get me excited at all. One of the most frustrating thing about this lens is the hood. It has me swearing every time I try to attach it because it just doesn't seem to fit all that well. Maybe it's just my copy but it really does get my gander up. In short, I hate it. Once it's on the camera the lens does produce some nice images. All these images I'm posting from this lens were taken at 55mm, no reason for that, it just happened that I selected images that were taken at that focal length. 1075
NEX-7 Focal Length: 55 mm Aperture: f/8.0 Exposure Time: 1/1600 sec ISO: 100 • Sony • Nex-7 • 55-210 f4.5-6.3
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