A palette cleanser; just a series of examples from an old, legacy lens that was much, much better than I expected it to be on a digital camera.

mirror-photo-therapy. A Carl Zeiss Y/C 28mm Distagon f2.8 on a

Sigma fp with accessory loupe.

It's no secret that in the film days Carl Zeiss teamed up with Japanese camera maker, Yashica, to bring out a line of cameras under the Contax brand. Zeiss designed, and for a time actually built a number of the lenses in the line-up in Germany. Most of the later lenses, still designed by Zeiss, were built under license in Japan. 

The cameras were very nice but the lenses, according to reviewers of the day, were aimed to be competitors not for Canon and Nikon but for Leica. I shot with Contax cameras for a while in the late 1980's and early 1990's before moving on to a different system. I can't remember ever being displeased with any of the Carl Zeiss lenses and there are a few that made a big impact on me at the time. 

Even though I rarely reach for wider angle lenses I recall being suitably impressed every time I worked with the 28mm f2.8 lens so when one came on the market recently, at a very comfortable price, I took a break from my heedless pursuit of status signaling cameras and lenses to buy it. If you plan to use a Contax Y/C on a current mirrorless camera you'll need a lens adapter. I planned to use the lens with an L-mount body and as luck would have it I already had the required adapter attached to a Carl Zeiss Y/C 50mm f1.7 Planar; also a very pleasant lens. Since I seem to be attracting more and more of the Carl Zeiss Y/C (Yashica/Contax) lenses I went ahead and ordered a second adapter from a company called Fotasy. The adapter was a bargain at $14.95.

Keep in mind that these are "dumb" adapters that don't transmit any information between lens and camera. You'll either be working manually or in aperture priority mode, and since the lenses were originally built as manual focusing lenses you'll find that no miracles have happened in the ensuing 30 years; they remain manual focusing lenses. 

These lenses were built to a very high standard, mechanically, so you'll find the focusing rings to be smooth and not-too-easy-not-too-hard to turn and focus. The external aperture rings also have a "just right" feeling to them. The 28mm, 50mm and 135mm lenses all have the same 55mm filter diameter and yes, the filter mount is metal. 

Austin has been blanketed by fog all day long and when I woke up and looked out the window my first thought was, "Oh Boy! Everything looks cool on foggy days. Let's get out there."  It seems like any excuse for a good, long walk is a good excuse.

After my long, introspective article on Friday I felt the need just to kick back and not make any big waves today. I just wanted to do basic photo stuff and have fun out there. With that in mind I attached the 28mm lens+adapter to a Sigma fp, put the rear finder loupe onto the fp and headed toward my favorite downtown route. I had two goals in mind: I wanted to get some exercise and I wanted to see how different everything looked in the fog. Another side goal was to see how well I get along with the 28mm focal length. It's been a while since I owned a 28mm prime.

The camera was set to fine Jpeg and aperture preferred exposure. I engaged the auto ISO and set the WB to the cute little icon that means "cloudy." What I quickly re-discovered with the 28mm focal length is that the depth of field is big and wide. Unlike most modern lenses this one includes a depth of field scale actually engraved on the lens barrel. A bit of trial and error showed me that I could depend on a combination of the d-o-f scale and focus peaking for everything but the closest object focusing. 

Since I wanted to see what the lens was capable of through its most used aperture range I shot some images at f2.8, more at f5.6 and a good number at f8.0. Mostly because those are the f-stops I find myself using with wide angle lenses most often. If I were constrained to use just one aperture setting it would be f5.6.

What did I learn? Well, I'll start by saying the lens is more than adequately sharp for the way I used it today. The camera was set for a 7:6 aspect ratio so I wasn't giving the corners any hard lifting. Within the boundaries the camera and I set the lens was pretty much perfect and had very low vignetting. I'm almost certain the corners would not have been as pretty had I been shooting across a whole 3:2 frame. But the other part of that question is: would it even matter/

The color rendering of the lens is accurate and neutral and the contrast of the lens is a bit higher than most of its contemporaries. All in all it's a great lens to shoot with. I also found that the 28mm focal length felt more natural to me than the 35mm focal length. Certainly just a personal opinion but it did feel easier to compose with the 28mm. Of course, you could argue that with the reduced aspect ratio of the frame I probably was shooting the equivalent of a 35mm lens but there we are. I've attached a caption to a few of the images but not to all of them. Remember to click on them if you want to see them bigger. I uploaded them at 3298 pixels on the long side but God only knows what Blogger will do to them in the upload process.

I also bought a used 135mm f2.8 Carl Zeiss Y/C Sonnar but I haven't played with that one yet. I owned a copy back in 1994 which I took with me to make photos at a Paris fashion show. It certainly seemed good enough back then. I guess we'll see in the next few days how this one acquisition stands up in the digital age. 

There is a group of volunteers who maintain raised gardens of flowering plants 

along the sides of the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge. Even in the dead of winter

the flowers are there to make walking across even more pleasant. 

The main focus is on the rose just to the left of center frame. 

Please remember that I was shooting in dense fog...

This giant, communal picnic table is a permanent fixture on the east end of the dog park

just North of Lady Bird Lake, adjacent to the Seaholm Center. 

People often have birthday parties and other celebrations here. 

f8 and be there. The 28mm does a good job with details.

The view across the Butterfly Bridge. Looking into downtown.

Different every time I pass by. 

curved mirror/parking garage studio #8.

Reviewers often mentioned that this lens was not as sharp or contrasty when 

used for close ups. This image was taken about a foot or 13 inches from the closer 

doll. I find it nicely sharp. When I look at 100 percent the doll's eyelashes are

rendered with exquisite sharpness. Maybe reviewers back in the last century 

were much tougher. 

It's so strange. I could have sworn I walked this route within the last week

and the mural just above (and below) did not exist. There had been a big, yellow wall there 

for about a year. Now, all of a sudden, a new mural. The people you see in the frame 

were not added for scale they are actually some of the people who did the painting.

They've come by to see what more needs to be done. 

As you know, I am a fan of mural art and art in public places. 

another ultra close shot with the lens set to f4.0. 

 I learned to shoot reflections in puddles by watching Chris Nichols when 

he and Jordon Drake were doing equipment review videos for The Camera Store.

Everywhere I looked in downtown this morning people were either coming to or 

going home from yoga classes. It's a full on mania.

 I should note that I really like the way files come out of the Sigma fp. Even if they are just Jpegs. 

Staying on message is important. For readers and for writers. Here we write about photography. Let me know if you need me to start a swim blog...

Sigma fp in video snapshot mode.

Equally proficient at taking photographs.

Confession. I was going to go a bit off topic today and write about grandmother Tuck's incredible method for making ham salad. I was going to reminisce about visiting my grandparents in the small town in central Pennsylvania where they lived, and go into detail about their house; even sharing details of their big television set in the living room, with the ceramic sculpture of a black panther sitting on top. The panther had a dial midway down its torso and one used that to change the orientation of the rooftop antenna mounted three stories up on the roof of the house. Using the panther belly mounted control you could fine tune broadcast reception! That one feature made such an impression on me...

Before getting into the secrets of grandmother's ham sandwich I was going to regale readers with fragmented stories about my father and his father sitting in the living room of the house, listening to the radio for the live broadcasts of the Pittsburgh Pirate's baseball games. And then maybe segue into a delightful and nuanced story about my sister sitting at the oh so expansive dining room table making toothpick sculptures, which would lead, of course, into a story about my older brother sitting in a nicely upholstered chair in his bedroom (while visiting) on the third floor of the house, reading the earliest issues of the Marvel Spiderman comic books... 

But instead I'll hew to my new resolve and try to stay, at least obliquely, on the subject of photography ---and by extension --- a bit of video production thrown in for good measure. 

But I don't want to leave you hanging so I'll give you the TL:DR for the ham salad. The secret was peanuts. She added peanuts to her ham salad and that savory addition made for the best ham salad sandwiches I've ever had during my full and happy life. End of story. Oh, and the toothpick sculpture turned out well, the Pirates lost (as usual, which generated salty language) and my brother lost his copy of Spiderman #1 long before they started trading for upwards of $100,000 (in mint condition). 

Which brings us to the Sigma fp, once again. I was happy to find a weird review of the Sigma fp as a cinema camera in an interview with an award-winning cinematographer and underwater camera engineering expert with deep experience in media such as IMAX. The guy is a member of the Australian Cinematographers Society and an inveterate camera and lens tester. The actual interviewer is goofy but Pawel is pretty rock solid and has some amazing things to say about the video capabilities of the tiny camera. See it here. And here is the take-away quote from the cinematographer:  "When I say I like this camera, it's as if it cost $60k, I would have still bought it."

Added: Here's a review by a very smart and talented photographer who I've known since our college days in Austin: Ellis reviews the FP.

I think those of us who took a chance on the Sigma fp have ripped through a lot of words to try and explain what it is about the camera that endears it to us. It's obviously got less gingerbread and comfort features than cameras like the Sony A7iii and the Panasonic Lumix S1, and as far as photography goes there are some drawbacks to use, but across both video and still imaging there are several consistent features that make the camera well worth the "paltry" $1800 price tag for those who appreciate those features in spite of not having the  cupholders, automatic transmissions and heated seats of most current higher end cameras. 

The first is something that can be measured objectively. The Sigma fp has some of the very highest color accuracy of any production camera on the market. In Pawel Achtel's tests the Sigma fp seems to slightly outperform the Sony Venice cine camera ($42,000, body only) in this regard, as well as the Red Ranger Monstro 8K  ($59,950 body only). 

The second point that Mr. Achtel makes in the camera's favor (and here he is making the statement about video output) is that the camera's high ISO is amazingly noise free. He suggests that it is nearly noise free to 10,000 ISO and usable at 25,000, with a bit of noise reduction tossed in.

I'm maybe a bit more conservative when it comes to noise but I'd use the camera at ISO 6400 without much worry for stills; as long as I was careful to get the exposure just right. As for color accuracy, I don't have a way to accurately measure it but I have to say that the files that come out of the camera, both as photographs and also cinema DNG video, are some of the best I've ever seen. 

So, No. It's not a good, all around snapshot camera. It's a horrible, just horrible sports camera. It's not a good camera for shooting active dress rehearsals in the theater (I tried once with lots of sweat and gritted teeth). But when it comes to shooting as one would with a movie camera or with an old Hasselblad it delivers amazing files and a similar workflow. 

Yesterday I put on a wireless mike set-up and gave the camera a video spin as a "snapshot video camera" using 8 bit .Mov files with the camera set to 4K UHD All-I at 29.97 fps. It was great. The audio is fine as long as I pay attention to the meters and never let them clip. (It's one of the few cameras I think I'd prefer to use in a dual sound video set up just because the meters are small and the control interface a bit buried...).  It's a small package and since it doesn't have mechanical image stabilization built in I cheated by using the fluid head on a monopod. 

While there are a lot of great photography and video camera out on the market this Sigma fp really speaks to people who love to tinker with their files and are willing to sacrifice ease of use for more visual perfection. More cowbell...

This morning I saw a video posted on DP Review that showed some footage shot in .Mov with the Sigma fp camera. The "cinematographer" listed as a shortcoming of the fp that there was no flat profile. But that's because it features uncompressed raw files which are much, much, much more color gradable and contrast adjustable than Log profiles (which can be added downstream from a raw file import, in post). The camera just needed to be set up to use the raw DNG files and to write them to an external SSD. (added:) In fairness the writer did say that he missed having the Log profile in the .Mov mode.  I contend that you would know whether or not the camera has a Log profile when you do your research before buying.   He also suggested that the color settings (might be called profiles...) such as 'cinema' 'orange and teal' etc. were too intense or overdone. And I would agree with him if each profile was not widely adjustable. You can decrease the effect of the color settings all the way from a plus 5 to minus 5 with the use of a menu item, for each color setting. You can also adjust the contrast, sharpness and saturation of each look in +/- five steps as well. That makes it perfectly adjustable for just about anything you'd want to do. You can even make .Mov files as flat as a pancake, if you want to by also using the "Tone" control in conjunction with the "Color" control.  The article seemed to short change the fp when much of the problem was a lack of experience with the camera...

So, we're still staying at home but that doesn't mean we can't test, shoot, evaluate and vet our results. 

Sorry, no chat about swimming. It just didn't come up.  

Added note: Richard Butler got in touch with me and we e-mailed back and forth. He directed my attention to the line where he (correctly) went into the color profile sub-menu to change the strength of the profile but was still not able to set a low enough contrast for his uses. I missed that. I apologize. 

I do agree with him to his point that a nice, flat profile like Fuji's Eterna would be a welcome addition for shooting in .Mov.

Signed, The Imperfect Blogger.  KT

The Sigma LCD View Finder, LVF-11, finally showed up. Ordered last year...was it worth it???

Top view of the Sigma fp with the hood/loupe in place.

You are probably aware that the Sigma fp camera has no EVF, no optical finder and its operation depends entirely on your ability to see and engage with the rear screen of the camera. A screen that neither tilts nor swings nor facilitates narcissistic selfies. If you really intend to use this camera in bright sunlight, or you need a magnified view with which to fine focus you'll need to find some sort of magnifying loupe to both block out extraneous light and also to magnify the information on the screen. 

Okay; I get it. I knew about these limitations when I bought the camera, but I wasn't too worried because the demo version I saw had a nice view finder loupe on it and the view looked good. Little did I know that these Sigma LVF-11 hoods, made expressly for this camera, would be completely unattainable in the U.S.A. for the last six months. In the interim I bought several stop gap products, one of which worked well enough and one which was a waste of about $100. 

this "stop gap" loupe was only $59 and has a feature I wish the Sigma loupe shared. The body of the loupe is hinged so I can swing the magnifier lens up and view the rear screen directly. The mounting hardware worked to position the whole apparatus in the right place and the buttons along the back/bottom of the camera were still accessible. But....the finder construction isn't quite strong enough to ensure a tight fit with the back screen and I would get a bit of light coming in from the top where the whole melange tended to gap. If you aren't picky and just need a decent loupe for sunny days this might serve you pretty well.... It's all plastic and I have trepidation about the mounting plate integrity.

The other device was a Hoodman loupe but there was no elegant way to mount it to my Sigma fp so I finally gave up on it. 

The Sigma loupe gets a lot of things right. The mounting plate on the bottom is stout and sturdy and attaches with a tripod socket and a separate positioning pin which means there's none of the dreaded "plate twist" which plagues the cheaper finders. I like the 3/8th inch tripod hole because it makes me feel so -- European... Once the loupe is mounted you'll have to take the whole thing off the camera if you want to view the LCD screen directly. Too bad we don't have a hinged design... On the other hand that probably makes the Sigma LVF-11 sturdier and less flex-y. 

The loupe extends very far back from the camera and it's awkward to carry around; especially with a big, fat, heavy lens mounted on the front of the camera. If you are working on a set it obviously no problem but if you are out doing art or shooting in the street you will have just traded away even the pretense of discretion and low profile photography. 

these buttons are spring-loaded extension buttons that engage the buttons on the camera. 

They worked fine, let the loupe huddle up to the camera better, and didn't give me 

any problems on my long test evaluation.

The finder optics come with a  protective cap that fits snuggly and is tethered 

to the body of the Loupe. It fits TOO snuggly and is a bear to take off if you

push it on too tight.

The actual optics of the loupe are very sharp and clear and the finder magnification is 2.5X. The image through the eyepiece is huge but there is one problem: if you wear glasses there's no way to see the actual edges of the frame. This is not a "high eye point" finder. You'll even be moving your naked eye from edge to edge to get in all the information. I guess the only way around this would have been to either make the finder with less magnification or to have increased the lens-to-screen distance more. The way it exists now might be the most practical compromise between the two. 

The finder optics are adjustable. You can use the ring surrounding the eyepiece to focus the whole system onto the screen. The "diopter" settings are marked but hard to see at first since they sit on the body of the optics, just forward of the large, knurled focusing ring, in a little channel next to the body of the finder. 

If I use this set up for actual work-work I'll invest in about a one inch strip of black gaffer's tape, adjust the eyepiece exactly for my vision and slap the tape on to lock it down. If you wear the camera on a strap and walk around the lake with it the knurled ring will probably contact your clothes and change its setting, if you forgo the tape...

With a hand grip attached to the tripod mount under the camera the whole jumble of gear is quite handhold-able but I don't think it's an optimum way to use the camera. It's just not a run-and-gun piece of video gear. Mostly because its reason for existence, in my mind, is its ability to shoot .dng/raw video. But if you are shooting 10 or 12 bit raw video you'll find that image stabilization --from the camera's electronic set up or the in-lens I.S.---is not available. Once you take I.S. out of the mix you are more or less screwed and consigned to a tripod, gimbal or monopod. I'm steady enough to take good stills without stabilization in most situations but video is a whole different animal. A little shake goes a long way...

So, is this loupe worth $292 and six months of nail biting anticipation. Part of me says, "No fucking way." I think they should have included it in a basic package with the camera. $1900 for a naked brick of a camera is already a big "ask", to add another $300 bucks to make it a workable tool for shooting in exterior lighting seems....presumptuous.

On the other hand, I spent the afternoon shooting various video clips to test not only the finder but also to see how the .mov movie modes worked. I found that shooting 4K in the All-I format at 200 Mb/s was actually really great. And being able to use the rig just like an old Super-8 film camera (at eye level) was a nice throwback. In a week or two I'll probably get over the cost of the accessory as long as I'm really enjoying what I get out of the camera. And I have to say that it's a much better viewing experience than trying to shade the camera screen with one hand while shooting; just to see what I get.

With the loupe mounted in place it's an unusual look for the camera and totally messes up its low profile appearance as a still photography camera. But as a quirky and powerful video tool the loupe is fine. 

After an afternoon messing with the diopter adjuster and just getting used to the handling I was happy/comfortable/at home grabbing a Panasonic S1 and shooting video with solid I.S., a great EVF and instant access to the rear screen. But I like the video files from the Sigma fp just a little bit better. 

It's always this way; a compromise between quality and operational ease...

Today's project, continued. Cowboys. Painting. And more.

We loved the Cowboy Paintings when we moved in.

They seemed just right for a young Texan like two year old Ben.

Today's big assignment was to make an archival documentation of the "primitive" paintings that have graced our back porch for over 23 years. It was long past time to re-paint all the wood and, as we no longer have any children in the house, Belinda decided that now was the time. But before we started the painting process the big, sentimental, nostalgic softie who lives in the house insisted on creating a record of the artworks. (That would be me...). Scrapbook material. Memories.

I found myself well supervised by a lizard who seems to be one of many that has a key to the house. I find them more often that one would imagine, and in all the weirdest places. I check my hiking boots regularly before putting them on...

I used two cameras to document the painted panels you'll see in this post, along with natural light coming through two semi-diffuse, four foot by four foot skylights that help keep the porch lit up all day long. The primary camera was the little Sigma fp with the highly competent 45mm f2.8 lens (used mostly at f8 and occasionally at f16). This combo was used on a Gitzo G 2220 tripod to keep everything nice and sharp. 

The other camera was a Lumix S1R which I used to make a few wider photographs to show more of the wall and also the set up with the Sigma fp. The S1R was paired with the 24-105mm lens and was used for the photo I like most from today, which is the lizard just above...

The Gitzo G 2220 tripod has a built in "side arm" that allows for two things:

You can shoot from straight over the top of things or you can orient 

the side arm so that the tripod can be used super close to the ground.

It's absolutely as solid as a block of lead. But what did you expect from 

an "old school" metal Gitzo?

A stout Manfrotto bullhead held an Arca Swiss plate adapter

and the whole assemblage offered an infinite range of placements for the 

camera. The fp is just the right size and weight for this kind of work. 

No matter how many tripods you own you should always also have a Gitzo.

Gitzo and fp working beauty shot. 

The new color for the porch will be "Baked Clay" which is being sampled in the background.

It's too light in this shot because I increased the exposure in post to get more 

detail in the black camera body.

Belinda tired of the cowboy paintings quickly (years and years ago) but it's credit to her patience and forbearance that she allowed me to keep them around so long. Like many things in life, I will miss them. She, on the other hand, is always delighted by a fresh coat of paint. 

At least I found a good use for the cameras today.