More Samples from Sigma 35 1.4

We had dinner out and I took with me the D600 and Sigma 35 1.4, which is becoming my walkaround combination. So here are a few more samples from the Sigma.



I really like the tantalizing quality of the bokeh.  In my preliminary review, I mentioned that I haven't seen onion bokeh (which can happen when a lens has an aspheric element) in a real world shot.  However, I managed to create a test shot that had one:

The onion pattern is faint enough that I personally don't find it distracting.  And again, I have to emphasize this was a test shot.  I haven't seen it in a real world shot but now I know it's possible.  No big deal.

Anyway, here are a few more shots with the Sigma.

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Think Twice Before Buying Another Apple Product

Last year, I bought an iPad 3 for my wife.  A couple of days ago, the iPad started rebooting every 5 minutes or so, rendering it unusable.  It kept doing that despite my attempts to reset it to factory settings.  I don't know what caused it.  It may or may not have started acting strangely after the most recent iOS update (I'm not sure because my wife is the one who uses it).  Anyway, I brought it to an Apple store and the 'genius' told me that it was just over the 1-year warranty period and there's nothing they can do to fix it.  They did not even bother to try.



Now, literally, yes the warranty is only 1 year.  But we sure as heck did not spend $829 + tax for an iPad thinking it will be totally unusable after 1 year, and I don't think anyone who buys one expects that either.  I mean if I buy a cheap made in China product from eBay and it fails after a few months or a year, I sort of expect that.  That's why they're cheap.  But is Apple saying that their products are in the same category as those disposable products?  Seriously?  Perhaps they should do a better job of publicizing that.

The thing is, we have bought an iPad before (1st gen).  It worked well and continues to work well, that's why we got the iPad 3.  I also have an iPhone 4 that still works.  But after this sour experience, I can't trust Apple's quality anymore for its new products.  Perhaps their factory started producing things a little too fast, or under a little too much time pressure, or with less trained workers, or perhaps with slightly cheaper materials.  Whatever it is, I have lost faith in Apple products.  To me, I see it now as just another electronics company that produces disposable electronics, and therefore does not deserve the price premium that Apple demands for its products.

To Apple's credit, the 'genius' did offer the 'opportunity' to buy another iPad 3 for $299 + tax.  I sure as heck didn't want to buy another one, but what choice did I have?  I either had to take the ~$900 loss or spend the $299 and hope that it would not also fail.  They told me that the replacement was brand new not refurb.  But they just handed me the unit with no box (they did not take it out of the box in front of me).  So I have no way of knowing if they were telling the truth.  And the warranty on the replacement was going to be just 90 days not the 1 year warranty for new units.  So, yes we could be out another $300 eventually.  Who knows.  I do know that I will probably not buy another Apple product again.

Sorry for the rant but I hope you learn from my mistake.

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The Olympus EP-5 Announcement

So, you've already heard about the new pen from Olympus, here's what I think about it as a 6 months old OMD user.

I won't go into details about the camera, you can read Ming Thein and Robin Wong's posts about it here (MT) and here (RW), they are an enjoyable read. Here's what I really like about the new EP-5:

- The looks, that retro "Olympus Pen" logo with the old font looks really cool, and I agree with Ming that the black version is superb looking.

- Improved shutter, up to 1/8000, finally, is it that hard really?

- Lower ISO 100 limit, although it's not native and will be a pull down, but this and the improved shutter speed will finally help me shoot my lenses wide open in daylight, it was/is a pain, I usually had to move my subjects in shadowed places to shoot wide open (where applicable).

- Higher resolution LCD and larger size, it was a downgrade for me to go from the superb 1.1 million pixel LCD on my 5D3 to the 0.6 million pixel unit on the OMD.

- Higher resolution VF-4, a 2 million pixel EVF, the 1 million pixel EVF in the OMD could use the upgrade, it is ok but the text looks a little coarse. It also quite large, larger than the OVF of most full frame cameras.

- Wi-Fi, sometimes I wished to shoot tethered to an iPad or a large screen, but I didn't want to pay money in a wireless SD card with a limited capacity and speed, since I already have 45 and 90 MB/s cards, this will be a good feature to have.

That's about it, I am not excited about the 5 fps continuous focusing speed (CD-AF totally sucks at tracking moving subjects), nor the focus peaking, since I don't use manual focusing lenses on the OMD, and Ming Thein reported it is not very well implemented yet, I have it in my Sony RX100 and used it once or twice just for the novelty of it.

I am not sure the EP-5 has a touch screen, but I'd rather see an improved video mode with focus peaking, touch focus and 14x magnification similar to the stills mode.

So, is it an upgrade from the OMD? If you're buying a new m4/3 body, you have to consider it if the price of the body plus the optional VF-4 is similar to the OMD, or if you're not going to use the EVF at all, at the end of the day, it has the same OMD sensor, same class leading IBIS, and improved everything else, except for the built in EVF and the weather sealing (still not sure about the touch screen though).

On the other hand, if you already have the OMD like me, then there is no pressing reason to switch, on the contrary, this makes me more confident that I will buy the updated OMD whenever it is released, it will feature at least the same updates in the EP-5, plus others, I just hope we see a better movie mode, and better focus tracking.

As a side note, I have ordered the 75mm 1.8 (the silver one, not the newly released black one), I received a nice monetary gift, and it goes towards that lens.

P.S. Excuse any typos, this post is written on my phone through Google's official Blogger app. I got a new Galaxy S4 (the S3 went to the wife), there will be another post about that later, I like what it's camera does in good light.

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Sigma 35 1.4 Preliminary Review

Here is an update on my impressions of the Sigma 35 1.4, which is currently the sharpest lens for Nikon full frame cameras, as measured by DXO.

BACKGROUND
A while back, I tried the Nikon 28 1.8G, and while I liked the sharpness, contrast and the flare resistance, I was disappointed by the autofocus performance of my copy.  Here is that review.

I decided to try instead the Sigma 35 1.4, one of the new lenses from Sigma's revamped Global Vision lineup.  The Sigma 35 1.4 has a reputation for being exceptionally sharp.  In addition, because of the slightly wider aperture and longer focal length, I would get a shallower depth of field.  Here is a comparison between the DOF and perspective of the 28 1.8G and the Sigma 35 1.4.

That was almost two months ago, so here's an update.

SHARPNESS

f/1.4

The Sigma 35 1.4 is indeed as sharp as others have found, both in terms of resolution and acuity.  Even wide open at f/1.4, it reveals every tiny detail.

f/1.4

DEPTH OF FIELD
Another good thing about the Sigma is that on a full frame, using the Sigma wide open is actually feasible.  With my Sigma 50 1.4, the DOF was usually too shallow and I had to stop down to f/2.0 to get a usable DoF.  Not so with the Sigma 35 1.4 which I like using wide open.  At f/1.4, the DoF is just shallow enough to make subjects stand out from the background.

f/1.4

For shots with two or more people, if I really want all subjects to be in focus, then yes I do stop down.  When I do, the Sigma is even sharper, although for web-sized viewing, the increased sharpness is not likely to be noticeable (because it's already sharp at f/1.4).

f/2.0

f/1.4

Speaking of shallow DoF, I found the bokeh to be very smooth.  And even though the Sigma has two aspheric elements, I have not seen any onion bokeh.

f/1.4

CHROMATIC ABERRATION
Hardly any chromatic aberration visible.  Yes there's a little bit of spherochromatism but practically every wide aperture lens has it too (and I personally don't find it distracting).

FLARE RESISTANCE
With respect to flare resistance, I thought the Sigma was pretty good though I was more impressed with the flare resistance of the 28 1.8G.  I don't recall seeing any flare blobs in any of my shots although I know the Sigma is not immune from them (I can occasionally see them when I point the lens at certain angles to the light).   As for the kind of flare that reduces the contrast, it can happen with the Sigma, as in this backlit shot (using the Sigma on a D7000).

AUTOFOCUS
You recall that one of the reasons I got the Sigma instead of the Nikon 28 1.8G is due to autofocus.  First, the easy part - the Sigma focuses very quickly and is totally silent.  As for accuracy, here is my honest opinion: the Sigma is sadly not perfect either.  I definitely got more keepers than my copy of the Nikon 28 1.8G, but I found the accuracy of the autofocus to be somewhat spotty.  Usually the focus is close enough to be usable but only around 50% of my shots are at critical focus (at f/1.4).  That is better than the 28 1.8G I tested which was around 20%.  I don't think it's an issue with my D600 because by comparison, my Nikon 85 1.8G has very reliable autofocus wide open.  I can use the 85 1.8G at f/1.8 all day long without worrying about whether I got the shot in focus.

A shot with less than critical AF

The inaccuracy of the autofocus is also not easy to correct with AF fine-tuning because it appears to be inconsistent.  Sometimes it's accurate, sometimes not at varying distances.  What usually ends up happening is I have to take a two or three shots, and one of them ends up having the correct autofocus.  When I can, I also try to use contrast detection through live view (which avoids any front- or back-focusing errors), in which case I get a significantly higher percentage of shots in focus.

Fortunately, the new Sigma lenses can be customized using the reasonably-priced Sigma USB dock ($59), which will start shipping around May 20.  The USB dock will allow adjustment of front and back focus at different focal lengths and different focusing distances.  I have mine on order and am hoping that with it, I can make my Sigma 35 1.4 focus more accurately.  I'll update this review when I receive the Sigma USB dock.

RELATED POSTS:
More samples from the Sigma 35 1.4

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Add a Tilting LCD to Your DSLR: Aputure Gigtube

In this post, I discuss my preliminary impressions of the Aputure Gigtube, a remote live view accessory that can also function as a tilting LCD.



A few years ago I saw a wedding photograph of a bride surrounded by her bridesmaids, getting into her wedding gown.  What made the shot unique was that the photographer took it with the camera above the bride, facing down at the bride who was smiling at the camera.  The photographer said that it was a lucky shot because he could not see through the camera.  That photo made a strong impression on me and made me want a camera that had a remote live view to allow me to do that without needing as much luck.  When I got an ultrawide lens and discovered how much I liked them and how sensitive they were to tilting, it made me want remote live view even more.

Nikon does have cameras that offer a tilting LCD (the D5xxx series) but they are not in the prosumer category and therefore are missing many of the features that I had gotten used to such as dual command dials, built-in commander flash, direct access to common functions without going through menus, an autofocus motor, and perhaps most crucially, AF fine tuning.

ALTERNATIVES
There are a number of alternatives that to some degree allow remote live view capability.

Tethered Shooting
Tethered shooting, where a DSLR is connected to and controlled by a laptop running tethering software, is ideal for setup shots.  Your computer has a large screen that offers an accurate view of the shot.  The problems are portability and range: once setup, it's hard to move around, and the camera is usually connected to the computer or laptop via a cable so it can only operate within a limited range.

Wireless Control
Some cameras offer wireless capability, either built-in (like the Canon 6D) or with an accessory (like the D600 and D7100).  This is somewhat similar to tethered shooting except that the camera is usually controlled by a tablet or smartphone, and the connection is wireless (usually through an ad hoc Wi-Fi network).  The amount of control available differs depending on the camera and the specific wireless control method.  For example, the Canon 6D's built-in wireless capability allows a smartphone to change focus and exposure.  On the other hand, the D600 and D7100, when using the WU-1b or WU-1a respectively, can only change focus.  If you want to control exposure and other variables, Nikon wants to sell you the WR-1 (~$640).  Another possibility is the CamRanger ($299) which allows as much control as a wired tethered connection, and even has features such as automatic focus stacking.

The issues for me are cost, control and speed.  I like the price of the WU-1a and WU-1b but they have very limited control and more importantly, are very sluggish (takes about 30 seconds to view a shot).  I like the control of the CamRanger but I'm turned off by the price, because I don't expect to use it very often.

Aputure Gigtube Wireless II
A while back I looked into RF-based wireless live view monitors.  I got an Aputure Gigtube Wireless II.  That was almost a year ago and to be honest I've used it only for testing purposes.  The good news is that it does deliver on its promise - you get a wireless live view monitor with decent range, and it has a shutter release that can be half-pressed for autofocusing.  In theory, it would seem to be even better than a tilting LCD because I can use it near or far.

However, in reality, it is not a good substitute for a tilting LCD.  The monitor has to be held separately from the camera.  With only one hand holding the camera, the camera isn't very stable, and it's hard to change the settings (exposure, AF point, etc.).  Yes I can suspend the camera with a pole or stand to gain unusual points of view, but once I leave the camera up there, I can't change any of the settings.  Plus, you have to reestablish a connection every time you turn it off.  It doesn't take too long (unlike the Nikon WU-1a) but it's still a hassle.  So this is one product that I have found far less useful than I imagined.

Aputure Gigtube

Meanwhile I still wanted to have the advantages of a tilting LCD without the compromises in lower-end Nikons.  I started looking into the Aputure Gigtube, the predecessor of the Gigtube Wireless.  On paper, it sounds like a step backward for me.  Why would I need or want a wired live view monitor when I already had a wireless one?

If you look at the Gigtube purely as a live view monitor, then that is somewhat true.  It has to be wired to the camera and therefore has limited range.  However, in my view, the better use for the Gigtube is as a tilting LCD, as we'll see below.

CONTENTS
The Gigtube includes the unit itself, a short AV and remote shutter cable, a 6-foot extension cord, a stand (similar to a speedlight stand), an AC adapter, and the product manual.  In my case, I got the Gigtube on closeout, so the seller included an extra shutter cable that's why you see two of them below.

The battery is built-in and is recharged by plugging in the AC adapter into the mini-USB port on the side of the Gigtube.

GIGTUBE PARTS

The Gigtube has very simple controls.  There is a 2.5-inch tilting LCD.  The LCD can rotate 270 degrees and can flip up to 180 degrees to a horizontal position.  There is a red shutter release button, a Menu button to toggle through the menu options, a Set button to cycle through the parameters of each menu option, and a button to reverse the screen orientation vertically.  There is a small LED indicator above the shutter release to indicate when the shutter release is being pressed.  There is also a small LED beside the mini-USB port that lights up when it is charging.  Below the Gigtube is a coldshoe mount with a locking ring.

CONNECTING THE GIGTUBE

The Gigtube has a minijack in front.  You plug in the included cable in the jack, and the cable splits into an AV jack and a remote shutter jack.  Strictly speaking, if you intend to use the Gigtube as a tilting LCD, you probably will use the camera's shutter release so i's not necessary to connect the remote shutter jack, but I usually connect it anyway, just so there's no dangling cable.

The cable is very short and is designed for using the Gigtube while mounted on the camera's hotshoe.  If you need the hotshoe for your flash, or if want to use the Gigtube as a remote viewfinder, you can connect the extension cable to the minijack and use the Gigtube handheld.

Once the Gigtube is connected, you just turn it on, the Aputure splashscreen shows for a couple seconds, then it will show whatever is shown on the LCD, including Live View if activated.

I should note that the first time I turned on the Gigtube, it would not receive the signal from the camera.  I tried it several times but it didn't work.  I almost returned it.  Finally, I tried turning on the Gigtube before connecting it, turning on the camera's LCD display, then plugging the Gigtube AV cable to the camera.  That seemed to jog something in the Gigtube and it started receiving the AV signal.  Since then it has performed flawlessly regardless of the order in which I connect or turn on the devices.

OPERATION
So, how well does it work in real life?  I found that the Gigtube works very well as a tilting LCD.  I just plug the Gigtube in and when I need to use a tilting LCD, I just switch it on, and it is ready in just a couple of seconds.  No need to search for the right RF channel or anything like that.

The Gigtube is not perfect but it fulfills its function very well.  The screen's display isn't as good as that of the camera's LCD screen -- besides being smaller, more delicate shadows and highlights appear clipped even though they can be seen on the camera's LCD.  However, the Gigtube is more than adequate for composing a shot.  In terms of brightness, the Gigtube is about the same as a camera's LCD screen which means that it's hard to view it in direct sunlight.  Otherwise, the Gigtube performs exactly as I had hoped.  The Gigtube screen's refresh rate is just as fast as that of the camera's LCD and there is no perceptible lag.

So here is an example of how I like to use the Gigtube.  I came upon this small grove of trees and I liked how the sunlight backlit the leaves.  However, the backlighting on the leaves could not be seen unless you viewed the leaves from below.  In this case, the trees were behind a fence, making it difficult to take a shot at a low angle while using the viewfinder.

However, with the Gigtube, I was able to get the camera behind the fence at a low angle, and frame the shot with the Gigtube as a tilting LCD.

BATTERY LIFE
The first time I used the Gigtube, the battery seemed to be depleted after only a few minutes of use.  Since then I've cycled the battery a couple of times and it appears that the battery life got extended to the point where I can use it at least for one afternoon if not the whole day's worth of shooting (taking care to turn it off when not in use).

MODIFYING THE GIGTUBE
To make it faster to use the Gigtube, I thought about leaving the screen facing outward.  However, I was of course concerned that the screen could be damaged.  Initially I thought about getting a GGS protector for it.  Upon further thought I realized that I could instead get a combination shade and protector to protect the screen and provide a shade to make the display easier to see in sunlight.

The pop-up shade I got is from Delkin and comes with a frame that is attached with a sticker to the display.  The frame has a plastic screen protector that offers some protection for the LCD screen.  The popup shade clips on to the frame and can be removed when not needed.  The shade is spring-loaded and pops open quickly.  Folding it closed is not difficult either.

Here is how the Gigtube looks with just the frame attached.

Here it is with the popup shade mounted on the frame.

When I'm not using the Gigtube, I just fold the popup shade down instead of rotating the LCD screen to its closed position.

Although the aspect ratio of the popup shade is not exactly the same as that of the Gigtube, the shade does not block any portion of the Gigtube's display:

Of course with the popup shade attached, the Gigtube can no longer fold flat in the closed position.  But that's a compromise that I'm willing to make in order to get the advantage of being able to use the Gigtube more quickly and having a popup shade.

CONCLUSION
I'm very pleased with the Gigtube, especially when used with a popup shade.  It is almost as good as having a built-in tilting LCD, and I love that it can work with many popular cameras, including the Nikon D7000 and D700 (imagine a full frame camera with tilting LCD!).  I will be taking the Gigtube with me anytime I'm using the D7000, especially when I'm using a wide angle lens.

P.S.  For readers who are using Google Reader, just a reminder that Google Reader will no longer work after June 30, 2013.  You can use another RSS service.  The one I've been using is Feedly, which allows migration of my Google Reader feed painlessly - I just click on a button to authorize Feedly.  I don't even need to put in a password.  The interface takes a little getting used to, but it's close enough for me.

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A Couple of Thoughts

OMD + Panaleica 25 f/1.4, 1/1250, f/1.8, ISO 200

This will be a shortie, I was processing some pictures from a recent outing, and the picture you see above is my favorite from the day, sometimes that Panaleica 25 amazes me with its rendering. There is just enough shallow depth of field, but with a discernible background which gives you the sense of the whereabouts of this picture, and the soft sunset lighting gave it that special touch.

The other thought is how well the OMD sensor accepts shadow pushing, I rarely pushed the shadows beyond +20 or something in lightroom with my Canons, and I was always amazed at how much Mic used to push the shadows on his pictures, but now I understand why, with such tolerance, you can get away with so much shadow pushing without showing noise or banding.

Below is one of the pictures to demonstrate what I mean, here is the shot straight out of camera:

OMD + Olympus 40-150, 1/1250, f/4.4, ISO 200

The picture was taken at 2:30 pm, as you can see from the harsh light and the deep shadows, below is how it looks like after tweaking the sliders a bit:

Highlights: -47, Shadows: +88, Blacks: -26

A dramatic improvement, and with zero noise or banding, I am re-learning post processing with the OMD. However, this comes at a cost, highlights latitude/recovery on the OMD is quite bad, nowhere near as good as the 5D2 or the 5D3.

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Easy and Effective Sensor Cleaning: Firefly + LensPen

I'm back home from the hospital, getting better everyday.  Thanks for all the well wishes.  I wouldn't have recovered as quickly without them.

This is a follow up post to my test of the Firefly DSC-2000 sensor cleaner.  In that post, we saw that the Firefly significantly diminished the spots on the sensor, but many spots remained.  In this post, I show how the Firefly is complemented by the Lenspen SensorKlear.  The combination is very easy to use and is very effective.

TEST 1: NIKON D7000

Here is a baseline shot of the Nikon D7000, a camera with a reputation for being prone to dust spots (some say oil spots, although I'm not convinced that the spots are oil).  This was at f/45.



I then cleaned the sensor with the Firefly:



There is not a lot of difference compared to the baseline shot.  However, please recall that I had just recently cleaned the D7000 with the Firefly (see this post), therefore most of the spots that could have been removed by the Firefly were already gone.  This time, I'd like to show the additional effect of the LensPen.

Looking at the sensor I could not see the spots even with the lighted loupe.  Because the spots were too small to be seen, I just rubbed the Lenspen lightly several times across the sensor surface (actually the AA filter) to try to remove the spots.  I was trying to rely on the friction of the repeated rubbing rather than pressure (I am concerned that using too much pressure can damage the sensor).  Here is the result.



The LensPen was able to remove most of the remaining spots.

TEST 2: FUJI S5 PRO

I did a similar test with the Fuji S5.   Here is how the S5 looked after cleaning with the Firefly (f/45).


You can see there are many tiny spots around the edges of the frame.  I rubbed the LensPen over the sensor several times and here is how it looks now:



Most of the small spots around the corner were removed by the LensPen, although there are new, larger spots, which I think are spots that came from the LensPen bits that came off.  I did another sweep with the LensPen and some more blowing with the Firefly.  Here is the result at f/45.



Almost all of the spots are gone, and the few that remain are small.

TEST 3: NIKON D600

Same test, with the D600 with approximately 10,300 shutter count.  Here is how it looks before cleaning (was cleaned by a blower several times but never wet cleaned).



I used the Firefly first with the mirror down, then with the mirror up (using Mup), then on the sensor surface.  I then used the Lenspen to sweep the remaining dust.  Then again with the Firefly to get rid of debris introduced by the LensPen.  After about 3 attempts at cleaning with the Firefly and LensPen here is how it looks:



OBSERVATIONS

• The Firefly is effective at reducing but not eliminating dust spots.  It is more effective than a blower alone, and is less likely to cause accidental damage to the sensor.
• The LensPen is effective at removing the tiniest spots but sometimes introduces new spots of its own.  These additional spots can be removed through the Firefly.
• The Firefly and Lenspen combination performs very well and is a lot easier to use than the wet cleaning method.  However, if I were on a budget I would choose just the LensPen and a Giottos blower (large).
• The disadvantage of the LensPen is that it requires contact with the sensor, and therefore in theory voids your sensor's warranty.  That's why I haven't used it with my D600 yet.  But when the warranty is over, I know what to use for cleaning it.  UPDATE: D600 results shown.
• For cameras with sensor-based stabilization please check with the manufacturer before using the LensPen or any other contact-based sensor-cleaning method.

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