Posted: September 5th, 2011 | Author: Linh Pham | No Comments »
Lens lust is a very powerful force that affects many of today’s photographers that want to scratch a particular itch or feels that the lack of a lens property is the reason for less-than-perfect photographs. An example of lens lust can be exhibited in a photographer wanting a faster lens, one that has a larger maximum aperture, than one that he or she already owns.
In my case, I have been had a lust for a tilt/shift lens for landscape and architectural photography. I had thought that getting a Lensbaby Composer for my Nikon D300 would have been enough to cover specific landscape and architectural compositions; but, it only made it worse. The Lensbaby Composer lens allows a photographer to selectively focus on an object by way of the tilt mechanism. Another property of a Lensbaby kit is the ability to choose one of many creative optics to exaggerate the selective focusing or to change the overall composition. For me, the kit does an absolutely fantastic job filling in the niche it was designed to fill, but left me wanting something else for architectural and stitching together landscape shots.
So, after over a year of lusting over a tilt/shift lens, I caved and purchased a Nikon 24mm f/3.5D PC-E lens, which arrived Friday afternoon. The lens is very much a specialty lens that carries a price to match, and it shows in both the build quality and optics. From the factory, the lens is configured so that the tilt mechanism is perpendicular to the shift mechanism; meaning that you can tilt up or down while shifting left or right, or swing left or right while shifting up or down. For landscape use, this may not be optimal, but can be resolved by sending in the lens to Nikon to reconfigure the lens to allow tilt and shift along the same axis. Unfortunately, that service is not a free service and doing this yourself can void the warranty on the lens. I haven’t had the lens for long enough to determine whether the default configuration would be an issue.
Hopefully, I will have some time in the coming weeks to go out, learn the ways of the lens and take some pictures. As with the Lensbaby Composer, there is a relatively steep learning curve and I’m definitely for for the challenge.
Posted: September 29th, 2010 | Author: Linh Pham | No Comments »
In a previous blog post, I mentioned that I was done with buying lenses and will start focusing on the supporting equipment. Well, the all too common feeling of lens lust has taken hold of me and I’m starting to ogle over a lens that is made for taking architectural and landscape photos: a tilt-shift lens.
A tilt-shift lens allows a photographer to not only change the depth of field and focus area, but also correct for converging lines. Instead of trying to mangle the purpose of tilting and shifting, there are two informative articles on the topic (perspective control and depth of field). The tilt-shift lens that I have been thinking about is Nikon’s 24mm f/3.5D PC-E (which has two macro relatives, a 45mm f/2.8D PC-E and an 85mm f/2.8D PC-E). Due to the complex mechanics, specific purpose and low volume, the lens is quite expensive.
Before I decide to pick up the lens, I still need to get a better ball head for my tripod, as well as an L-bracket so that I can mount the camera in either portrait or landscape without having to re-frame. While my tripod isn’t great, it will still provide me with a pretty sturdy platform for framing and (manually) focusing in on to my target. I also have a cable release and a mirror-up function to reduce the amount of camera shake when I’m ready to take a picture.
Posted: June 17th, 2010 | Author: Linh Pham | No Comments »
Posted: February 15th, 2010 | Author: Linh Pham | No Comments »
As mentioned in my last blog post, I have taken a step into the world of manual focus lenses (not only for cost, but also for the capability of both lenses). I have taken it a step further and picked up a Lensbaby Composer for my D300.
I have always been fascinated with macro and architectural photography, even more so by pictures with unique exposures and compositions that focused on only the subject. Of those photos, some were taken with various Lensbaby lenses and optics… so when the opportunity arose, I decided to order the Composer and the Lensbaby Accessory Kit. The Accessory Kit includes a macro kit, a telephoto/wide-angle kit.
I am currently learning how to use the lens and will hopefully have some fruitful pictures that I’ll post online. I will hopefully be able to get the Soft Focus Optic and the Lensbaby Optic Kit, once I am comfortable with the Composer.
Posted: January 30th, 2010 | Author: Linh Pham | No Comments »
When I entered the world of digital photography, I started with a Nikon AF-S 18-200mm DX VR lens and a D300 body. Over the course of a year, I’ve expanded my lens collection to include several more Nikon lenses (AF-S 50mm f/1.4G, AF-S 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro, AF-S 70-300mm VR, AF-S 35mm f/1.8 DX and an AF 85mm f/1.8) and a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8. I also ended up selling the 18-200mm lens, as I decided that I liked the quality, size and simplicity of prime lenses. Read the rest of this entry »
with deployable metal legs. The monopod works quite well with my 
(and that’s the shortened version of its official name) or when I don’t want to lug around my tripod and ballhead. As far as my current tripod and ballhead, I have a 
tripod and a 
ballhead.
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