Photo rumblings and whispers – Techniques, equipment, approaches, commentaries and more

Notes on OM System OM-1 digital camera (DRAFT)

Pedro J. Aphalo 2022-12-30 2023-01-08Equipment, Photography, Techniques 0

Quite a lot has been already written in the internet about the OM System’s OM-1 camera, but I write down here some notes comparing it to the E-M1 Mk II and highlighting some use cases. I share this notes in case someone else finds them useful, although they are mostly intended for myself. Among the things frequently mentioned is a lack of improvement in image quality between old and new image sensors (e.g., OM system OM-1 vs OM-5 – The 10 Main Differences). This is one example of where my own experience differs drastically from the quick and dirty tests…

Small Fill/Video LED lights revisited

Pedro J. Aphalo 2022-10-15 2022-10-16Photography 0

Four years ago I wrote a post comparing the Sunwayfoto Fill Light FL96 and the Aputure Amaran AL-M9 mini LED light. They are both still available new. Sunwayfoto has released a few variations on the original model, the FL96 C with batteries with increased capacity and faster chargin through USB-C, and in the case of the FL120, slightly higher light output and power-bank function. A few days ago I bought an Elgato Key Light Mini, and decided to run a new and more thorough comparison between these the three commercial LED light sources that I own. In part because I…

Broad band VIS+NIR LEDs

Pedro J. Aphalo 2021-10-25 2021-10-27Equipment, Mehods, Photography 0

Broadbands LED based on a blue LED and “phosphors” have appeared in the market. One example is type SMB1N-BB450 from Roithner LaserTechnik (Vienna, Austria). The primary LED has a peak of emission at 450 nm and the spectrum as a whole covers the range 400 nm to 1000 nm. Except for the prominent blue peak the spectrum is rather flat, making it useful light source for VIS and specially NIR imaging and spectrometry. This LED type seems useful for photography as well as for its intended use is spectrometry. Emission is rather weak and efficiency rather low, emitting 0.3W of…

NIR-pass filters

Pedro J. Aphalo 2021-02-01 2021-02-01Equipment, Photography, Techniques 0

All the near-infrared (NIR) long-pass filters described in this post are absorptive glass filters and sold for special photography effects. All modern photography digital cameras have internal UVIR-cut filters. Use of these filters requires special film, special digital cameras or modified DSLR or DML cameras. Some filters can be used with unmodified digital cameras with very long exposure times. Few normal camera objectives are designed to work well in NIR. Two problems are common: 1) focus shift which needs special attention when focusing is done in visible light (e.g. not using an EVF or live-view from the camera sensor, 2)…

Hemispherical time-lapse under a tree

Pedro J. Aphalo 2020-09-29 2020-09-29Landscape, Plants, Techniques 0

In two earlier posts titled “Lens adapter with filter drawer” and “Lens adapters: flange-to-flange distance” I discussed how crucial it is to achieve the exact effective flange-to-flange distance when dealing with adapted objectives with a very short focal distance. I also described how I shimmed an adapter to achieve this. Recently I had an opportunity to use the Sigma 4.5mm 1:2.8 circular fisheye objective in Nikon AF mount adapted to my Olympus E-M1 Mk II camera to create a time-lapse video. I captured 500 images, with a pause of 1 s between them. Total time was a bit over 10…

Lens adapters: flange-to-flange distance

Pedro J. Aphalo 2020-06-30 2022-12-12Equipment, Photography 0

Today I received a “K&F Canon EOS-M4/3 PRO” adapter (bought from https://www.kentfaith.com/). This is a new design advertised as being of high precision. I was specially interested as this is one of the very few or maybe the only series of relatively low cost adapters with a non-reflective black interior finish. This is is important to prevent reflections that otherwise degrade image contrast or create flare and ghost images. Please see Black anodised aluminium in IR and Commlite products: how I wasted my money.

Lens adapter with filter drawer

Pedro J. Aphalo 2020-06-17 2020-07-11Equipment, Photography, Techniques 0

I here describe my experience with the DEO-TECH OWL EF/MFT lens adapter. The adapter is available mainly through astronomy web stores and seems to be currently distributed by Optolong. It is also available on special order at B&H photo video and possibly other large shops. Development of the adapter was initially funded through Kickstart crowd funding.

UV-cut filters

Pedro J. Aphalo 2020-06-12 2020-06-17Equipment, Photography, Techniques 0

As described in the post UVIR-cut filters both absorptive filters and interference filters are sold as UV-blocking filters. All modern photography digital cameras have internal UVIR-cut filters and most modern objectives transmit little UV-radiation. There are some exceptions, most if not all Olympus cameras are sensitive to long-wave UV-A radiation and a few modern objectives also transmit long UV-A radiation. Many filters sold as UV-filters do not differ from those sold as clear protection filters enough to matter. However, a few UV-filters do absorb in the whole UV-band and even into the visible violet band. Their effect might make a…