Lens baby 3G preview

I'm going to write the full review with more samples over on slo-foto.net, so I'm going to show you a few samples, so you can see what's the catch with this funny little lens. It's not only it's rather interesting appearance that draws attention, the results can be pretty interesting too. I confess, I didn't take enough time to master it, so I won't show you any masterpieces. I was to slow at manual focusing and sweet spot adjusting to make any good portraits, I missed all the interesting expressions, failed to capture the model's mood, energy etc. So what are you going to see below, is a visual presentation of what this lens can do. Pretty much an average test and tests usually include pretty boring pics...


Notice how everything white on the photos above and below gets blown to high heaven (eg blown out or as usually named it has a lot of hot spots). Nikon's JPG dynamic range really sucks. And it doesn't matter if it was taken with its flagship camera (D2Xs).In the lower photo the sweet spot is best represented.



If you look carefully and have a decent DOF knowledge, you'll see how this photo differs from those taken with regular lenses. Sneakers would be in the "DOF line" (90 degrees angle according to the lens, both vertically and horizontally)if it was taken with a normal lens. Here you can see what's in focus, eg where the sweet spot is

Moving up to the next blogging level

I've decided to make step up and move my blog on an independent server in the near future and it's going to be wordpress based. That also means I'm going to buy my own domain name. Why have I made a decision like that, you ask? Because I want my blog to look better, to provide a good user experience in not so many words, to make it more pleasant and professional.

The second reason to do it, is to increase my ad revenues. I've been doing pretty well so far, I've earned enough in the past 8 months to buy me a 30D (which I intend to buy in a month or so). With all the improvements I hope to gain on traffic, which leads to more cliks on the ads, that are displayed on my site, which ofcourse leads to higher revenues. I'll try adding a few ad networks and/or affiliate programs. Because like the Dot com mogul John Chow says, monetizing of a blog is way more than slapping on a couple of google ads. That's just the beginning.

When the migration to a url will be complete, I'll try to automatically redirect visitors to my new site. That way you won't have any trouble finding it, or following the links. And I'll still get traffic from numerous sites that are linking to my blog.

My first Ona Cover by Nikon

D200+85 1.4.

Kesh peechka

BLING, BLING! Euro bills get that special glow in her hands...

What a feeling!

Kesh Peechka's greatest joy...

She can never get enough of it...


And at the end, sponsor gets his reward:D



At the end let me just write, that Špela really got into her role. She was great, she has the passion, energy, that's definitely needed for this kind of sessions. And that's what most models lack - passion!

Another lensbaby snapshot&preview of today's session

I'll post more from today's session tomorrow, I've got to run, because a friend of mine is throwing a bday party...

Lensbaby 3G

I got it yesterday for a 10 day tryout. It's a very nice little lens, with a single glass element and a simple construction. One can be very creative with it. It also takes quite some time to get familiar with the focusing and sweet spot adjusting. I was practising today during coffee time, while I managed to get a few snapshots in focus, most were still OOF. And I thought MF lenses were tricky to use:). I still have a week to go, so I think I'll master the basics during that period and make a few interesting, if not creative, then at least abstract shots.


Both samples are taken at f2. Please overlook the colour imbalance, since it's not important for this samples:


It's sweet to be able to adjust the sweet spot:). But bokeh is awful:



3G is basically a 2G with a focus locking mechanism, which I don't find very useful for people shots. But it sure is useful for still art etc, when you have the time to lock and then fine focus/fine tune the sweet spot. If I was buying it, I'd probably go for the 2G version which is also around 50% cheaper.

Double dilemma

I was just digging through my 1Ds mkII and 5D archive. To see, or perhaps better said, to convince myself that Full frame cameras just have that "must have" advantage for me (yeah I mean DOF and a few minor advantages). I think it's not enough to pay more than 3x the price of Canon 30D+Tamron 17-50 2.8 for Canon 5D+135 f2L+Tamron 28-75 2.8. Ok, that was the first half of dilemma. The other is the photo below. It wasn't good enough for first selection that I already posted on the blog - 1st session with Mina. But now it seems kinda interesting. Especially that look, expression on her face. You know, the kind of women expression, that we men can't seem to resolve sometimes...



And there's one more thing, that I just remember that I was thinking about during and after this session. There's still way too much DOF (at f1.8 ofcourse), when shooting full figure or from waist up. So, to hell with FF and paying over 300% more:).

EDIT 30.7.07 21:50: The photo was slightly altered (crop, sharpening).