Sigma Black Friday Sale on Refurb Lenses

For its Black Friday sale, Sigma is offering a 15% discount on refurbished lenses, including the following:

Sigma 35 1.4 - the sharpest 35mm full frame, bar none, according to DXO.  $679.  Unfortunately, only the Sony mount is available refurbished at this time.
http://www.sigmaphoto.com/product/35mm-f14-dg-hsm-a-refurbished
Previewed here.

Sigma 50 1.4 - the sharpest fast fifty according to DPR, with quite possibly the best bokeh. $379.
http://www.sigmaphoto.com/product/50mm-f14-ex-dg-hsm-refurbished
Reviewed here.

Sigma 17-50 OS - currently the sharpest standard zoom for APS-C, according to DXO. $499.
http://www.sigmaphoto.com/product/17-50mm-f28-ex-dc-os-hsm-refurbished
Haven't tried it personally.


Notes:
1. Sigma's warranty on refurbished products: 90 days, including a 15-day return policy.  http://www.sigmaphoto.com/sigma-outlet/quality-standards-warranty-shipping

2. We're not affiliated with Sigma and receive no compensation from these links.

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Weekend with the LX5; Adorama Black Friday Sale on LX7

Thanksgiving is almost here and with it, that beloved tradition of bargain hunting on Black Friday.  :) One of the more interesting photo-related Black Friday sales I've seen is Adorama's sale of the Panasonic Lumix LX7 for $299 ($100 off).  You may be wondering whether the LX7 would be a good pocket camera.  By serendipity, I took some shots recently with the LX5 (reviewed here), which is practically identical to the LX7, except that the LX7 has a lens that is a full stop faster: the LX5's maximum aperture is f/2.0-3.3 while the LX7's aperture is f/1.4-2.3.  So here are some shots from the LX5.

In the afternoon, I took the kids and their bikes to visit my parents' place.  They live in a community that has beautiful parks and lakes.



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Yongnuo RF-603 + Olympus OM-D: Reloaded

Do you remember my RF-603 modification post? In that post I was able to modify my Canon version of the Yongnuou RF-603 trigger to make it work with my Olympus camera to trigger external flashes.

Now thanks to member Earlack and his post in this dpreview thread, I was able to further modify the camera cable of the triggers so that they can also wirelessly trigger my camera. Full details after the jump.

Below is a typical YN RF-603 kit, except that there is another transceiver. I have bought two kits, so I have four transceivers in total. With these, I can trigger up to three external flashes, and I can even trigger the camera (from one of the other triggers) using the supplied cable, however, this cable has only a Canon connector, and Yongnuo doesn't sell cables with the Olympus USB connector.

This brings us to the modification, thanks to dpreview member mentioned above, I did exactly what he did, and instead of buying a USB connector and connecting it, I bought the cheapest wired trigger for Olympus I could find, the one shown in the opening picture.

Here's the Olympus USB connector, this is what I bought the intervalometer for, to salvage the USB connector (don't feel sad for the intervalometer, I have a much better one, with an on-off switch, not fully-on-until-the-battery-runs-out like this one).

Operation begins by cutting the two ends of the RF-603 cable, and the intervalometer. Thankfully, they both have the same color code.

I connected both whites together, red with yellow and yellow with red, the picture below is not the final one, just roughly made for demonstration.

 

 

 Once done and tested, I insulated each of the wires separately.

 

And because I didn't have a good black sealing tape, I used Gaffer's tape to hold both ends of the cable together. I will be removing the ugly looking tape and using a more elegant solution.

And it works, however not fully as expected, the half-press doesn't do anything, and only a full press initiates the focus and triggers the shutter, but I don't mind since most probably, when remotely triggering the camera as such, I will use fixed focus. In case you're wondering, it doesn't matter if the RF-603 is mounted to the camera hot-shoe or not, and I also tried connecting the reds and yellows together, but when I tested it, the camera had the shutter "half-pressed" all the time.

This modification will give me two important uses:

1. I can trigger the camera wirelessly, useful for group photos, self photos, camera positioned far away (on a pole for example with a fisheye for a unique perspective).
2. I can trigger both the camera and flash together, for example if I'm light painting a large area with flash, I can leave the camera on the tripod, and take the flash with me and point it at different areas of the photo, and every time I trigger the flash, the camera will snap a picture. How cool is that?

Finally, all these pictures were shot handheld with the OM-D and the 12-50 lens in macro mode, ISO 3200, shutter speeds ~ 1/10 to 1/20 seconds, ACR standard noise reduction.


RELATED POSTS

Yongnuo RF-603 + Olympus OM-D

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Soccer

Some shots from our last soccer game of the season.  Shot with the Nikon D7000 and Nikon 28-70 2.8 (42-105 equivalent).

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Quickly Switching Between Shallow and Deep DOF

f/8, 1/320, ISO 100.  Aperture priority.

I love using shallow depth of field, but sometimes I want a deep depth of field.  Here is one way I switch between shallow and deep depth of field quickly in bright conditions without having to rapidly rotate the aperture dial:



In aperture priority mode, I set the aperture for deep depth of field like f/8 or f/11.  In shutter priority mode, I set it to the highest shutter speed available.  I set the ISO to the base ISO but I also activate Auto ISO.

When I want a deep depth of field, I switch to aperture priority.  When I want shallow depth of field, I switch to shutter priority.  With the shutter speed at maximum, the camera will choose the widest available aperture that would not result in overexposure.  If the conditions are not bright enough, the camera will still usually choose the widest aperture and then because of Auto ISO, it will increase ISO as needed to get a proper exposure.  Compared to simply selecting the widest available aperture, you're assured that you're not going to overexpose the shot, and you're automatically selecting the widest possible aperture under the circumstances.

This approach is what I used with the shots here.  Both were taken with a Nikon D600 and Sigma 35 1.4.

f/2.2, 1/4000, ISO 100. Shutter priority.

Take note that this only works in bright conditions.  In darker ambient light, choosing the highest shutter speed is not feasible because you'll end up using an unnecessarily high ISO.  I would either use a lower (though still fast) shutter speed to force the camera to use a wide aperture, or I would have to do it the normal way by rotating the aperture command dial very quickly.

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Change Is The Only Constant

First of all, I would like to apologize for the recent lack of posts, but you know what happens, you start arranging your life, tasks and schedule, and when you think you have it all figured out, something sudden happens and disrupts all of your future plans, which is how life works.

That's why there are courses like "Change Management" to teach people how to adapt to the continuous changes happening in life, and how not to fall behind or feel unsettled, you have to adapt. By the way, change is not usually a bad thing, but people feel scared of the unknown, while most of the time; despite how uncomfortable it might be, change leads to the better. Go to YouTube and watch "Who moved my cheese".

I am in the middle of one of the bigger changes in my life, and it might take some time to settle down and fall to a semi-steady schedule, so I can't promise regular posts, but I will be doing my best. Below are some of the things I would love to tell you about in the coming posts:

- Olympus 45 1.8 review
- Olympus 75 1.8 review
- Bower 7.5mm Fisheye review
- Yongnuo 560II and 560III review and comparison
- Yongnuo RF-603 review
- Cinematic photography & post processing
- Resuming the post processing series

Well, the plan is to have one of these posts ready in the coming week.

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More info about Sony A7 and A7R

Manual available for download:

http://download.sony-asia.com/consumer/IM/4478729112.pdf

 

Frank Doorhof's A7R review:

Part 1: http://www.frankdoorhof.com/site/2013/11/sony-a7r-part-i/

Part 2: http://www.frankdoorhof.com/site/2013/11/sony-a7r-review-part-ii-small-flash-and-more/

 

Steve Huff's A7 and A7R review:

3-part review and wrap-up:  http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2013/10/31/my-1st-look-wrap-up-of-the-sony-a7-and-a7r-cameras/

1st look video review: http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2013/11/01/my-1st-look-video-for-the-sony-a7-and-a7r-is-now-up/

Also check out www.sonyalpharumors.com

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