bokeh – Page 8 – tim dobbs photography

Testing the Sigma 35mm f1.4 DG…………..

Last week I rented a lens from Lensfettish.com as I had a 30% discount code so I decided on the Sigma 35mm f1.4DG as I had read reviews about it and wanted to see if it was as good as I had heard.

On opening the box I was surprised at the size and weight of the lens compared with my DX Nikon 35mm 1.8 and my Sigma 30mm 1.4, it was a bit of a beast.

The first shot I took in the kitchen (above) was wide open at f1.4 and I was blown away even looking at the camera screen. The lens was razor sharp 🙂

I proceeded to shoot loads of random stuff around the house before popping out for a quick walk.

The sharpness and contrast of this lens was astounding even wide open the point of focus was so sharp and at f8 the detail was stunning.

The following day we popped to Cardiff and I did a little street shooting mainly between f2.8 and f4 and again the lens performed great.

On the Sunday (my last day before returning the lens) we went along to the Bridgend Show where I gave it one last run out and again the resultant images were so pleasing.

I must admit that if I had a spare £699 in my pocket I would buy this lens in a shot, the 35mm focal length was very nice as a walk around lens just a bit more versatile than my Nikon 50mm f1.4 afs which is my usual goto lens.

I also tried it on my Nikon F80 and shot a couple of frames but am yet to finish the roll to see how it performed ( I bet is good 🙂 )

Thanks for looking

Click on an image to view larger……………

Ricoh XRX comes home…………..

Years ago after my 1st couple of cheaper slr’s I was lucky enough to have been given some Pentax mx and a few cracking lenses.

After using the Pentax mx for a while I decided to upgrade but instead of getting another Pentax the new camera out at the time was the Ricoh XRX which was all singing and dancing and also had the Pentax K mount so I didn’t have to change my lenses.Last week I came across one on ebay with the starting price of 99p so as I have still got a few Pentax k mount lenses I decided to bid and see how it went.

To my amazement I was the only bidder and got it for the starting price (postage was £6 though).

Eager to be reunited with an old friend I loaded it up with some Fuji Superia 400 and using the 50mm f1.7 and 70-210 f4 went for a walk.

I was really nice to use and to be honest all the modes the camera possessd were really not needed as I have always shot Aperture Priority or Manual.

The lenses performed really well and as my C-41 chemicals were shot I tempted fate and took the film to Tescos but for a change the negs were pretty good no scratches for a change (mind you it was not the Bridgend store it was the Talbot Green one).

I am not sure how often I will be using this camera but it is really nice to have one again after all these years.

Click on an image to view larger…………

Thanks for looking 🙂

Another camera added to my collection……..

You can never have to many cameras, well thats what I believe anyway.

I picked up a lovely Kiev 4 this week from my favorite camera dealers West Yorkshire Cameras.

It came with a 135mm f4 and a Jupiter 8, 50mm f2 lens which surprisingly is reasonable sharp wide open, both the shots above were taken at F2 using ilford HP5.

The only problem I had when first using it was the arrangement of the rangefinder window as it is where my hand goes to fire the shutter instead of over the lens like other rangefinders I have tried.I popped out for a walk to give the camera a run out.

It has a selenium meter but after a quick glance at the manual to try to understand how it works I got a bit lost so I used my Zeiss Ikon Ikophot lightmeter instead.

The camera was a joy to use as long as I remembered not to put my finger over the rangefinder window, the focussing was very quick and easy due to the really bright viewfinder.

I tried most of the shots at f4 to f8 as it was rather bright and the shutter only went to 1/1000 sec.I was extremely impressed with the sharpness and contrast from the lens from f4 and up. And even at f2.8 the look I got was really nice, I am so pleased with this camera.

I love my Zorki 4k but this really puts that in the shade especially when trying to focus in low light.

I cannot use the 135mm yet as I need an external viewfinder but the 50mm is so good I am not in a rush to get one yet.Thanks for looking

Click on an image to view larger………

Mountain walk with FP4 instead of my beloved HP5………

I bought 20 rolls of Ilford FP4 the other week with the intention of shooting some still life and portraits but popped a roll into my Nikon F4 and went out to shoot some landscapes first.

I developed the roll using Ilfotec HC hoping to get a bit of punchy contrast in the images and I was not disappointed.FP4 does not give me the feel that I like in my images but it is still very nice, the still life stuff I shot on the walk were very nice, plenty of detail and great highlight and shadow tones.Since trying shooting some still life with HP5 I am a little torn between the 2 films for that subject. I love the contrast and grain of HP5 but the smooth tones and detail of FP4 are great.

I am going to try pushing the film next time just to see what I get grain and contrast wise and will post the results.

Landscapes do look good though I must admit and I am well happy that I have another 19 rolls in the fridge waiting to be shot 🙂 Thanks for looking

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A Digital day……for a change……………..

I decided to shoot digital this weekend for a change, I have a friends wedding coming up in a few weeks and apart from shooting my Rugby I am not using my DSLR’s all that much so I thought I would give them a runout using my Sigma 30mm f1.4.

I really love the look I get from the Sigma wide open, it really pulls the object in focus out of the frame, it does vignette a little at f1.4 but all these photos were processed in Lightroom and the lens profiles do a really good job.

I must admit that I felt like a bit of a cheat shooting digital and looking at the back of the camera checking shots, I seemed to shoot far more than I actually needed to when checking the results in Lightroom.

I would recommend the Sigma highly, it’s very sharp especially when stopped down a bit and even at f1.4 as long as you nail the point of focus the image pops.

The shot at the top of my better half was shot at iso 3200 @f1.4 focussing on the eye and with a little noise reduction in Lightroom the results were great considering it was a quick test snapshot.

Anyway after the rugby on Saturday I am back to film again until the “Digital” wedding that is but I will also shoot plenty of film there too.

Thanks for looking………..

Also please check out my Film only blog over at …..

http://usingfilm.wordpress.com/

Rainy day and HP5…………..

Dark, dreary and wet day here in the valleys today and the forecast isn’t that good all weekend so how can I shoot my weekly roll of film?

I decided to try my Sigma 105mm f2.8 on my F4 using some Ilford HP5 @400 just to see how the autofocus coped with the really short DOF.

It seemed to manage pretty well, I only shot 2 or 3 shots on manual focus because it would not snap to the spot I wanted.

The viewfinder is so bright on the F4 it was very easy to shoot really close up.

I wandered around the house for about an hour trying to capture something remotely interesting that may benefit from the B&W film look.

My magazine arrived as I was shooting so as it was B&W photography it felt appropriate to shoot it along with my growing collection of Canon FD glass.

I love the look of HP5 anyway but I wasn’t expecting it to look so good for still life subjects.

As my guitar is black the tones HP5 produce are lovely, I processed the film using Ilfotec HC which gave really nice grain very complimentary to the subject matter.

I shot the last 3 frames with my 50mm f1.8 and managed to candidly capture my better half handheld 1/15 @f1.8

Thanks for looking

Click on an image to view larger………..

I have another blog just dedicated to my film photography if you are interested pop over and leave me a comment.

http://usingfilm.wordpress.com/

Canon 50mm f1.4 and Ilford XP2……..

I had 2 deliveries on Friday.

A Canon 50mm f1.4 FD from West Yorkshire Cameras which was such a bargain compared to the equivalent Nikon offering as I can use it on both my Film Canon SLR’s and also my Olympus EPL-1.

And another package was from Ilford customer services with a load of different Ilford films free of charge as they will be using 2 of my film images on their website in the near future to showcase HP5+.

Firstly I must say how over the moon I am with the lens, its twice the weight and build of my 50mm f1.8 which I was pleased with but the f1.4 is so damn sharp it hurts especially on the Olympus.

The DOF and Bokeh is lovely and on my Canon T90 the viewfinder is extremely bright and easy to focus.

I am so glad I bought this, I wasn’t sure if it would be this much better than the f1.8 version as it actually is.

I have never shot Ilford XP2 before so I wasn’t sure what to expect, sadly my C-41 chemistry is shot so the results were a bit mixed but I managed to get a few shots I was pleased with.

The negatives are very easy to scan and have a very smooth tone that suits the type of images I was shooting with shallow DOF but is also nice and contrasty when stopped down a bit.I also had some SFX200 and PanF 50 which I have not shot before either so I am looking forward to see what comes out.

Thanks for looking

Click on an image to view larger…………..

Zorki 4k with Cheap Agfa 200 film……..

I saw that my local pound shop were selling new rolls of Agfa 200 iso film at £1 a roll (obviously) and picked up a load just to use when testing any old camera I pick up.

I loaded up the Zorki 4k and went out looking for anything slightly colourful on a really drab day here in the South Wales Valleys.

After developing the film and scanning it in I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Agfa film performed, there was a slight magenta look to the images but apart from that I was pretty pleased with the overall look.

I am getting used to using the Zorki’s viewfinder and managed to not cut off anything and also getting the focus spot on even at f2.8.

I think another visit to the pound shop is in order and stock up on a few more rolls is in order this weekend 🙂

Thanks for looking………….

A new lease of life………..

Since buying my Fuji X10 as my walk about digital camera I was going to sell my Olympus EPL-1 as I didn’t think I would use it anymore but after reading on the internet that you can get micro 4/3 lens adapters that allow you to use all manner of older lenses depending on which adapter you purchase.

As I have got back into film photography and even though I shoot Nikon primarily and have quite a big collection of lenses I also have a few Canon FD mount lenses and decided to buy a Canon adaptor just to try it out for myself.

The adaptor just cost £10 on eBay and I didn’t really expect much from it when it arrived.

After fitting the mount to the camera I attached my 28mm f2.8 which equated to approximately 56mm in 35mm format and played about for a while.

The lens metered automatically but obviously it was manual focus which on the EPL-1 was very easy to use as you can press the magnify button and get a live view close up of your subject for accurate focussing.

Shooting at f2.8 was a utter joy and the close focus was great with the 28mm, stopped down to f4.0 and over and it was sharp as a tack over all the frame.This has given my Olympus a new lease of life and I will not be selling it in the near future.

I would recommend anyone using a micro 4/3 camera to have a look at one of these adapters especially a Canon FD mount as these prime lenses are going for a song and are very good quality.

Thanks for looking…………..

1st roll of film in 4 weeks…………

For the last 4 weeks I have been really neglecting my blog due to a really persistant chest infection which not only laid me very low but it stopped me doing what I love…. shooting film.

So this weekend as I am feeling much better I was determined to shoot at least one roll of film so I loaded up the Bronica with some Ilford Delta 400 and set it to shoot at 800 as I was visiting my parents and knew that the light indoors would not be the brightest.

My dad is getting used to me pursuing him around the house with my camera so gave up and posed for me for once 🙂

Mum doesn’t really like having her photograph taken so I had to be a bit sneaky and managed one or two frames.

The same goes for my wife so most of the shots of her are candids not really portraits 🙂

I found that shooting at iso 800 in 6×6 format on Delta doesn’t really increase the grain much when processed in infosol 3 and really helps when trying to hand hold in poor light.

I think I will most probably shoot at 800 most of the time as the benefits out weigh the little extra grain you get ( I love film grain anyway ).

Thanks for looking and I am hoping to post a lot more frequently this year.

Comments most welcome 🙂