Photography
This page is intended mainly for my own use, and is biased toward
my Sony DSC F707 (1692330, 2002 Mar),
H5 (4413455, 2006 Dec) and
HX200V (4350513, 2012 Jun) digital cameras.
Some of my photos are on another page.
Resources
Tips
Using macro mode
(Tip based on a thread from the DPR Sony
Talk Forum, 2002 May 7)
Use f/8 if possible to gain depth of field. Leave the 'conversion lens'
setting off even if using close-up lenses.
Start the lens off at full wide-angle. (If you happen to stack close-up
lenses
for more power, make sure you have the higher power lens on the inside
closer to the camera lens. The stacking order should be camera lens -> +3
-> +2 -> +1.) From here, you move in to the distance you want and the
lens should focus in if you have it on auto. If the object isn't big
enough in the frame you then step up on the zoom. Be careful on the
zooming because if you zoom too much you will lose focus as well. So
you can actually over zoom a macro shot.
(Jimmy Chen, 8:12:47 PM, May 07, 2002)
The conversion lens on/off is to be used with a WA conversion lens
made by Sony (VCL-MHG07A).
(Yves P., 8:30:28 PM, May 07, 2002)
ISO setting
Handling
of ISO setting by F707
Flash
- 2002 Dec: covering the flash sensor
fools the flash into working at maximum power
- Seumas MacCombie's instructions for making a flash diffuser and a ring flash
out of plastic containers
- Bob Allen's detailed instructions for making
the flash bracket described (pp. 91-94) in
John Shaw's closeups in nature.
Shaw says (p. 91) that he calls it a ‘butterfly
bracket’ because he often uses it to photograph butterflies,
but it could equally well be called that because it's designed
to hold the flash above the lens, providing ‘butterfly
lighting’, so-called by portrait photographers because,
as Shaw explains (p. 93), ‘it casts a small butterfly-shaped
shadow under the human nose’.
Disassembling an F707
Filters
This is my summary of an opinionated post on the DP Canon Talk
Forum (2002 May 6) by an experienced photographer (Dick S):
- He keeps a protective filter on all the time.
- He can't see the difference among UV, UV Protector, UV Haze or Sky1A/B.
The Sky filters supposedly provide slight warming but he can't see,
uses Tiffen 812 if he wants warming. Apparently someone on the forum
has evidence that a B+W UV filter actually reduces chromatic
aberration on a Canon G1.
- Although he says the above filters have no noticeable effect, he
does advise against stacking numbers of filters.
- He recommends Tiffen, Hoya and B+W, and Heliopan but they're
expensive.
- Glass is good, but resin is presumably good too since the
pro systems from
Cokin, Singh-Ray, Lee and Hitech are all resin.
Gel filters are also good, especially if they can be put in a holder
behind the lens.
- He doesn't see the benefit of multiple coatings (or even of single
coatings?) and says uncoated filters don't scratch as easily.
- He doesn't think filters contribute significantly to flare, and
highly recommends using a lens hood, especially outdoors.
Some subsequent comments (A.D, Yehuda, Yves P., May 19) in the
Sony Talk Forum said that UV filters do cause flare, and that except
for specialized ones (polarizing, neutral-density graduated, B&W and
IR) it's better to avoid filters.
Converters and adapters
Teleconverters
- 2002 Feb:
summary opinion in thread:
TCON-14B - best in image quality, no loss of light at all, but
heavy, half of the F707 zoom range retained without vignetting.
B300 - nice fair image quality for eveyday shot, lighter, but only
work well close to the full tele side without vignetting.
Link to comparison of
VCL-HG1758, B300 & TCON-14B
- 2002 Mar: threads
1,
2,
3. Summary:
- Canon TC 58 supposedly poor with chromatic aberrations (or blooming?),
cheaper; test images have blue fringes on left
- Olympus Tcon 14B supposedly better; EUR 350, $160. 1.4X
- Tiffen 2X ~$80 (55 mm); 'in practice 1.3X'?; single piece of glass
- B300? ~EUR 170 (out of production)
- Digital Optics (aka Sakar Titanium) 2x, ~ $189, really only about 1.35x.
- Raynox 1850 Pro 1.85x, seems to actually be 1.85x; f-stop limitation;
~ $149 + 52-to-58 mm step-up ring for about $10. Said to be not great,
but much better than the older 1800.
- Contax 1.5X, 58mm threads. The images are outstanding; big and heavy.
- Sony 1.7x VCL-HG1758 58mm
(N.B. nice to have threads on both sides)
-
2002 Dec: Canon TC-DC58N & WC-DC58N not good,
Sony VCL-HGDx758 (both TC & WA) almost twice the price but
much better.
- 2002 Dec: long thread, includes comparisons of B300 and TCON 14B.
- Raynox
DCR-2020PRO 2.2X: 2-group/4-element
- 2003 Jan: thread re
combining multiple teleconverters
- 2004 Jun: recommendations (
1,
2) from Lin Evans not to use F828 at all,
but ‘something like a Nikon CP4500 (4 megapixel, 4x zoom)
and a good spotting scope. The spotting scope doesn't have to be an
expensive model, but something like the Meade ETX-90 which can often
be found in the older configuration for around $200. Add a William
Optics DCL-28 (24mm) eyepiece which threads directly to the little
28mm filter threads on the Nikon, use a HarborTronics DigiSnap 2000
remote release and for a little under $1000 you have a beautiful
birding (digiscoping) combination you can shoot from 1200mm to 6000mm
focal length.’. He also mentions using an Xtend-a-View, a 2X
LCD viewer.
Wide-angle adapters
- 2002 Mar: happy with Olympus WCON-08B; someone else
happy with VCLHG0758 (limitations re flash & zoom)
- 2002 Mar:
- Sony VCLHG0758: .7, 3 groups, 3 elements, ~ $259.
- Sony VCL-MHG07: 2 lenses in 2 groups, ~ $95;
needs 58/52 mm ring; works well.
- 2002 Mar: again mention of zoom restriction with Sony WA lens.
Also another mention of flash limitation.
Close-up/macro adapters
- Bob Johnson's
Overview of
close-up lenses
- Canon 250D is +4, 500D is +2;
Olympus MCON 35 is ~ +3;
Nikon 5T & 6T (62 mm) are +1.5 & +3, resp.,
3T & 4T (52 mm) are +1.5 & +3, resp.
All are 2-element.
- Skippy (Australia) on STF says
says Hoya lenses are a good place to start; Nikon lenses are much
better glass but are more than twice the price of a whole
set of Hoya lenses. Another message suggests that the Canon lenses
are similar in quality to the Nikon ones. The Hoya lenses are
apparently single-element.
- R. Polini's
Introduction to close-up photography includes the relevant
equations
- D. Young
(nzmacro):
examples of digital camera used with standard 35-mm lenses
- 2002 Oct
1 &
2:
comparison of Canon 500D and Olympus MCON 35
- 2002 Nov: not very informative thread except for links to earlier threads
Microscope adapters
See ScopeTronix for
digital-camera adapters for astronomy, microscopy, etc.
Thread
that's not very informative except for
this link
Example of photographing sun with Meade telescope and 828; and
recommendation to use Baader film filters.
EXIF tools
See my notes about EXIF tools.
MPO files
The Multi picture object (MPO) file format
contains multiple images and is used for stereo
pairs, panoramas, multiple resolutions, etc.
R. Funnell
Last modified: 2017-08-20 20:09:59
