Tag Archives: Zoom lens

Cameras, Still photography

Using a Computar c-mount lens on the Nikon 1

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These photographs were taken with a Nikon 1 V2 and a Computar f/1.2 12.6-75mm c-mount television camera lens. For improved sharpness, I usually shoot this lens at f/4 as it is soft at f/1.2. I also use a 0.6 ND filter so that I can use the lens wide open.

The lens is used with a c-mount to Nikon 1 mount adapter ring. The lens is primarily useful only at the long end of the lens, otherwise there is vignetting. However, for the used price, this produces a rather excellent, fast telephoto lens for the Nikon 1.

Click on any photo for a larger version.

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Still photography

Spring flowers

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It is that time of the year now. Blossoms and flowers. Click on any photo for larger sizes at Flickr.

Nikon 1 V2, 1 Nikkor 30-110mm lens. Outside the public library building.

Blossoms outside the library

 

 

Nikon 1 V2, Minolta 50mm f/1.4 lens at f/4.0. Outside the public library building.

Spring time blossoms

 

Lumix GH-2, Minolta 50mm f/1.4 lens at f/2.0.  This photo taken during summer of 2014, outside city hall.Flowers at City Hall, Summer 2014

 

Lumix GH-2, Olympus 9-18mm wide angle lens. Photo taken at Zion National Park in April of 2014.Flowers #2, Zion National Park, Utah

Nikon 1 J1, 1 Nikkor 30-110mm lens. Taken March 12, 2015, in my front yard.Close up of spring flowers

Cameras

Panasonic Lumix GH-2 Firmware 1.1 update just released

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Joint update service for Four Thirds lenses | Digital Camera | Digital AV | Consumer Products | Support | Panasonic Global.

Notably, the new firmware adds

  • Improved noise reduction for low light usage
  • Powered zoom lens features to work with the new X-Series lenses
  • 25p mode for PAL cameras
  • 30p mode for NTSC cameras
  • Improvements to auto focus
  • Improvements to burst mode

The better online discussion as to what the new firmware provides is likely to be here.

Noise reduction – I shot a test clip before and after, using 1080/24p video mode at ISO 2500. There is a noticeable improvement but noise is certainly visible – just guessing but it seems it could be as much as 40% to 50% less noise. It is possible that the noise improvement is better at ISO 3200; I believe 2500 is the highest the native image sensor goes to in video mode and 3200 is done through software signal processing. I think. I have not looked at the noise in terms of still images.

HBR – I previously wrote that I wasn’t sure what was happening here. My mistake. On PAL cameras, this is a new 25p mode and on NTSC cameras this is a new 30p mode. My mistake was that I had inadvertently rendered my new 30p video as a 24p mp4 file, which meant some frame blending had occurred. To correct what I wrote previously, the new HBR/1080/30p looks great!

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Cameras, Still photography

Power zoom lenses for DSLR cameras

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Panasonic launches Lumix G X Vario PZ 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 OIS pancake: Digital Photography Review.

The new Lumix “X” series lenses is an important development for shooting video on DSLRs.

DSLRs have had 3 limitations on their use for many types of video photography:

  1. lack of power zooms
  2. lack of audio controls
  3. limits on video recording time

The new lenses feature built-in zoom motors and controls. Panasonic has also announced a firmware update to several of its micro-four thirds cameras that will presumably add more zoom feature support to the cameras.

At this time, the demo video I saw showed a fixed zoom speed. I presume the firmware update will add a speed control to the cameras.  The zoom motor was audible in the camera’s built-in mic. This is yet another reason why we need to remember that audio is half the video experience – and should be using an external mic when sound is important.

Regarding audio, the lack of sound controls on DSLRs still demands use of BeachTek or other external audio mixers to get the sound right.

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