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FeiyuTech releases new AK2000C gimbal with 2.2kg (5lbs) payload, 7-hour battery life

28 Oct

Hot on the heels of DJI releasing its latest gimbals, Chinese gimbal manufacturer FeiyuTech has released the AK2000C, its latest three-axis handheld gimbal for mid-sized camera systems.

The AK2000C is a lightweight handheld gimbal that can hold just shy of 2.2kg (5lbs) worth of camera gear and run for up to seven hours on a single charge. This payload would be enough to hold recent cameras, such as the Canon EOS R/R5/R6, Fujifilm X-T3, Nikon Z6/7 and Sony a7 III with standard primes and zoom lenses attached.

The frame of the gimbal is constructed of an aluminum alloy and, much like DJI’s gimbals, it features quick-release locks on all three axes for keeping everything secure when packed away. The gimbal comes in at just over 1kg (2.5lbs) and folds up to 69mm (2.7”) x 208mm (8.1”) x 348mm (13.6”).

FeiyuTech says the AK2000C is powered by its W7 algorithm, which includes pre-programmed shooting modes, such as timelapse, 360 pans, selfie mode, vertical shooting and more. Both camera and gimbal settings can be controlled right on the gimbal using its new OLED touchscreen (FeiyuTech doesn’t specify what specific cameras work with the gimbal though).

The AK2000C is currently avaialble to purchase through FeiyuTech’s online store, Amazon and authorized FeiyuTech retailers for $ 229.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Slideshow: Winners of All About Photo’s AAP Magazine #13 Shapes competition

28 Oct

Winners of All About Photo’s AAP Magazine #13 Shapes competition

Earlier this month All About Photo selected 25 photographers from 11 countries as winners of its “Shapes” competition. Winning images appear in the 13th edition of AAP Magazine, which can be purchased here. The subject matter displayed in these works illustrates shapes and patterns found in place settings, architecture, abstractions, and more.

The top 3 winners, who were rewarded a $ 1,000 cash are as follows:

First place winner: JP Terlizzi (United States)
Second place winner: Wendel Wirth (United States)
Third place winner: Klaus Lenzen (Belgium)

The remaining mentions, whose images also appear in print alongside the winners are: Maureen Ruddy Burkhart (United States), Zak van Biljon (Switzerland), Hyun De Grande (Belgium), Hans Wichmann (Germany), Steven Raskin (United States), Fabrizio Spucches (Italy), Deborah Bay (United States), Donell Gumiran (United Arab Emirates), Marcus Trappaud Bjørn (Denmark), Kevin Lyle (United States), Songyuan Ge (China), Nicola Ducati (Italy), Axel Breutigam (Canada), Frank Lynch (Switzerland), Barry Guthertz (United States), Karine Coll (France), Francesco Pace Rizzi (Italy), Abdulla AL-Mushaifri (Qatar), Rosario Civello (Italy), Ursula Reinke (Germany), Golnaz Abdoli (United States) and Don Jacobson (United States).

All About Photo is currently accepting entries for their Solo Competition.

1st Place Winner: ‘Marchesa Camellia with Rhubarb’ by JP Terlizzi (United States)

Artist Statement About the Series: The Good Dishes integrates memory, legacy and metaphor with my response to loss. As I witness an early generation of family members pass, my cousins and I were each faced with the emotional task of cleaning out the family home. Sorting through the heirlooms, we would determine which items to toss, sell or preserve. Without fail, when it came to the family’s fine china, that item was always given to the person that most cherished its memory and sentimental value.

Growing up in a large Italian family, everything was centered around food and the family table. I remember vividly my mother’s vintage marigold stoneware dishes that she bought at the grocery store back in the early 1970s. She used them every day for as long as I could remember, and they had a life of their own. Along with my mother’s everyday dishes she had one set that she kept on display behind glass that only she handled, only she washed, and only she hand-dried; these were deemed ‘the good dishes.’ Whenever I heard, ‘I need to use the good dishes,’ that meant one of two things in our household: the priest was coming over for dinner or it was a very special occasion. Either way, the food presentation, table dress and table manners all changed whenever ‘the good dishes’ came out.

Eating is a physical need, but meals are a social ritual. Utilizing the passed down heirlooms of friends and family, The Good Dishes celebrates the memory of family and togetherness. It borrows the stylized rituals of formal tableware and draws inspiration from classic still life paintings. Background textiles are individually designed and constructed to reflect patterns found in each table setting while presentation, etiquette and formality are disassociated by using food and fine china in unconventional ways as metaphors for the beauty and intimacy that are centered around meal and table.

2nd Place Winner: ‘Wood III’ by Wendel Wirth (United States)

?Artist Statement: In the winter months, the muted horizon parades elemental forms; barns and grain elevators, cow houses, cowsheds, granges as they have been called.

3rd Place Winner: ‘Architecture Minimal I’ by Klaus Lenzen (Germany)

Artist Statement: The photo shows the contours of a cooking plant, seen in Duisburg in the Ruhr area in the western part of Germany.

Merit: ‘Triangle Theorem’ by Deborah Bay (United States)

?Artist Statement: Image from the Traveling Light series exploring the interaction of light and color with optical objects. The series follows in a long lineage of experimental studies that investigate the most elemental components of photographic processes: light and lenses.

Merit: ‘Working Class Virus’ by Fabrizio Spucches (Italy)

Artist Statement: Under the umbrella of Corona Virus, current matters such as integration, global warming, conspiracy theory, ecology are depicted through a series of portraits.

Merit: ‘City Waves’ by Hans Wichmann (Germany)

Artist Statement: Skyscraper in Vienna/Austria photographed upwards with light from the side. Edited with hard contrasts in Photoshop. The sky was photographed separately and then inserted.

Merit: ‘Untitled’ by Hyun De Grande (Belgium)

Artist Statement: Attendre dans l’espace de rien (wait in the space of nothing).

Merit: ‘City Center, Las Vegas, NV’ by Axel Breutigam (Canada)

Artist Statement: Buildings and structures are fascinating to me, in particular, modern and contemporary designs.

Exploring a building from all possible angles of view and finding the parts of the structure which lead to another layer of abstraction is what I am seeking visually. To do so it is often necessary to give space and put things into a reductive perspective.

Merit: ‘Shape of Desert’ by Donell Gumiran (United Arab Emirates)

?Artist Statement: Liwa Desert lies 155 miles Southwest of Abu Dhabi, and about 62 miles south of the Arabian Gulf. It’s at the edge of the Rub’ al-Khali, aka the Empty Quarter – a 255,000 square-mile desert that has more sand in it than the Sahara. The area has an assortment of villages and farms – situated along the top of the T – in the midst of the ‘endless landscape of undulating sand shape dunes.’

Merit: ‘City Shapes’ by Ursula Reinke (Germany)

Artist Statement: N/A

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Sony a7C review: Compact size, big sensor image quality

28 Oct

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Silver Award

87%
Overall score
Jump to conclusion

The Sony a7C is the company’s latest and smallest full-frame interchangeable lens camera. It fits a 24MP full-frame sensor and image stabilization into a body more closely resembling the APS-C sensor a6600.

A lot of work has clearly gone into making this one of the smallest full frame cameras available, whereas a lot of the features and capabilities are familiar. A new retractable kit zoom is being launched along with the a7C to help maintain those size savings.

Out of camera JPEG.
ISO 500 | 1/40 sec | F9 | Sony FE 35mm F1.8
Photo by Carey Rose

Key specifications

  • 24MP BSI CMOS full-frame sensor
  • Bionz X processor (same as in the a7 III)
  • ‘Real-time tracking’ AF system with human head, face, eye, and animal recognition
  • Oversampled 4K video at up to 30p, including 8-bit S-Log and HLG
  • Continuous bursts at up to 10 fps
  • Fully articulating 921K dot touchscreen
  • 2.36M dot EVF with 0.59x mag.
  • Mic and headphone sockets
  • Large ‘Z-type’ battery, rated to 740 shots per charge

The Sony a7C is available at a price of around $ 1799 ($ 2399 CAD) or with the new collapsible 28-60mm F4-5.6 kit zoom for around $ 2099 ($ 2699 CAD).

Review contents

From the camera’s controls to the image and video quality it’s capable of, find out what exactly what you want to know about the a7C right here.

What’s new and how it compares

The a7C fits almost all the capabilities of the a7 III into a body that has more in common with the a6000 series. This means a smaller viewfinder but few other compromises.

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Body and handling

The a7C has three dials, all controlled using your thumb. It still handles pretty well, though, with a solid body and a small but pretty comfortable grip.

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Initial impressions

The a7C’s main strengths are its size and convenience. This could make it a powerful travel or family camera. But there’s a price to be paid, and this isn’t necessarily a budget option.

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Image quality

The a7C produces both Raw and JPEG images that are a match for any of its peers. Dynamic range is excellent but you need to shoot large, uncompressed Raw files to get the full benefit.

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Autofocus and video

The a7C’s main improvement over the a7 III is an autofocus system that integrates all its subject recognition capabilities so you don’t need to mess around changing modes to get the most out of it.

Video is good but its operation can be a little awkward.

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Conclusion

The a7C’s combination of size, image quality, AF performance and battery life make it a superb travel camera, but some awkward aspects of operation, including its small viewfinder, hold it back as a photographer’s choice.

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Sample gallery

We’ve been shooting the a7C with both its kit zoom and the sensibly compact FE 35mm F1.8, to see what the camera offers.

See the gallery

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Researchers create 100 billion FPS 3D camera with lens that mimics human eyes

28 Oct

A study recently published in Nature Communications details the creation of an ultra-fast 3D camera capable of recording at 100 billion frames per second. The development comes from Lihong Wang and his team at Caltech, where the researchers developed this new camera using the same foundational technology found in Wang’s previous 70 trillion frames per second project.

The newly detailed camera produces what the researchers call ‘single-shot stereo-polarimetric compressed ultrafast photography’ (SP-CUP), a technology that records video at insanely fast speeds in three dimensions. This is made possible, in part, by creating the camera to perceive the world in a way similar to how a human sees — with two eyes, or in the case of the camera, with a halved lens that simulates looking at the world with two eyes.

The result is a camera that records video at insanely fast speeds in three dimensions. The technology is able to capture ‘non-repeatable 5D … evolving phenomena at picosecond temporal resolution,’ according to the study, referring to space, time of arrival, and angle of linear polarization. The study goes on to explain:

Disruptively advancing existing CUP techniques in imaging capability, SP-CUP enables simultaneous and efficient ultrafast recording of polarization in three-dimensional space. Compared with available single-shot ultrafast imaging techniques, SP-CUP has prominent advantages in light throughput, sequence depth, as well as spatiotemporal resolution and scalability in high-dimensional imaging.

Wang and his lab first detailed the 70 trillion frames per second camera back in May, explaining that such speeds were capable of capturing the fluorescent decay from molecules and waves of light as they traveled.

That particular camera technology was called compressed ultrafast spectral photography (CUSP), and it followed Wang’s past work on similar technologies, including the phase-sensitive compressed ultrafast photography (pCUP) device, Caltech had explained in a release.

With the newly detailed SP-CUP technology, the camera captures stereo imagery — 10 billion images in the blink of an eye — using a single lens that has been halved in order to capture two different slightly offset channels of the subject. This is similar to how the human eye works, enabling humans to perceive depth. The image data can be processed to create 3D content, which itself exceeds the capabilities of the human eye by including data on the polarization of light.

The sum total of this new photography technology opens the door for various scientific applications, including research in the field of physics. In particular, Wang sees the potential use of this camera in exploring the mystery of sonoluminescence, a phenomenon in which sound waves produce small bubbles in liquids that, when they collapse, produce tiny bursts of light.

Wang explained:

Some people consider this one of the greatest mysteries in physics. When a bubble collapses, its interior reaches such a high temperature that it generates light. The process that makes this happen is very mysterious because it all happens so fast, and we’re wondering if our camera can help us figure it out.

The study titled ‘Single-shot stereo-polarimetric compressed ultrafast photography for light-speed observation of high-dimensional optical transients with picosecond resolution’ is available in Nature Communications.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Ricoh shares the name and specifications of its forthcoming Pentax APS-C DSLR

27 Oct

Ricoh Imaging has officially given its forthcoming flagship APS-C DSLR a name and confirmed a few specifications we can expect from the camera.

In both the above video and on a development update on its website, Ricoh Imaging says its new DSLR will be called the Pentax K-3 Mark III. The camera will feature an entirely redesigned 26-megapixel CMOS sensor, 5-axis in-body image stabilization (CIPA rated for 5.5 stops of compensation), dual SD card slots (no details on whether both or just one is UHS-II), an ISO range of 100–1,600,000 and a maximum burst rate of 12 frames per second.

The viewfinder will have approximately 100% coverage, the rear of the camera will have a 3.2” 1.62M-dot LCD live view display and the autofocus will be powered by the SAFOX 13 sensor with 101 points (25 cross-type points).

Ricoh Imaging says the Pentax K-3 Mark III is scheduled to launch ‘around the period of the CP+ camera exhibition,’ which is set to take place from February 25 to 28 in 2021. No pricing has been decided at this point in time, but the video does note it will retail in the ‘upper 200,000 yen (approximately $ 1,900) range.’

You can find more detailed specifications on the Ricoh Imaging progress report page.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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BCN Retail shows Canon catching Sony in the Japanese full-frame MILC market, Nikon stagnant — for now

27 Oct

BCN Retail, a Japanese analyst firm that collects daily sales data of mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras from online and in-person points of sale in Japan, has published (translated) its latest numbers, showing the breakdown of Japanese domestic market share in the full-frame mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (MILC) market.

BCN Retail starts its report with partially encouraging news, noting the camera market, at least in Japan, has almost entirely recovered from the pandemic drop, with unit sales in the month of September being down just 2% and revenue from those sales down just 10% year-over-year (YoY). Lower numbers YoY is never a good thing, but considering the state of the camera market even pre-pandemic, these drops aren’t terrible.

According to BCN Retail’s latest numbers, Canon and Panasonic have seen a rise in market share over the past few months, while Nikon has more or less stayed even. Meanwhile, both Sony and Sigma have seen their market shares drop over the past few months.

Full-frame mirrorless market share numbers: Brown (Sony), Red (Canon), Yellow (Nikon), Blue (Panasonic), Grey (Sigma). The dark blue and red bars at the bottom show unit sales and revenue (as a percentage of overall interchangeable lens camera (ILC) camera sales), respectively.

BCN Retail says Canon’s rise in market share — now 34.7% — can be attributed to the release of its R5 and R6 mirrorless cameras, while Panasonic’s rise — now 5.8% — is attributed to the launch of its S5. Nikon’s market share saw a small increase in July, which could likely be attributed to the release of its entry-level Z5, but since August its market share has more or less stayed stagnant, sitting at roughly 13%. It’s possible its forthcoming Z6 II and Z7 II mirrorless cameras could give the company a boost, though.

Meanwhile, Sony has seen its market share drop from roughly 60% back in May to now just 43.9%, only 9% ahead of Canon who, at the start of the year, had just 15% of the market share. Sigma, too, has seen its market share drop to just 2.6% after once being ahead of both Nikon and Panasonic back in May when the FP sales were hot.

The Canon EOS R5 was the most popular full-frame mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (MILC) of September, according to BCN Retail.

It’s worth noting these market share numbers are specific to the Japanese market and greatly impacted by new cameras launched within a given month or quarter.

Back in the summer of 2018, Sony effectively had 100% of the full-frame MILC market share, as there were no other competitors. Within six months of both Canon and Nikon introducing their respective full-frame mirrorless cameras, Sony’s market share was effectively halved and since then, it’s been further chipped away at by Canon.

This doesn’t necessarily mean Canon or Nikon were eating into Sony sales at the beginning when the two first entered the market, as you can see unit volume also rose when Canon and Nikon introduced their mirrorless cameras, but now that sales have more or less returned to their pre-pandemic volume and Sony is further dropping in market share, it is possible we’re starting to see Canon starting to pull away some of Sony’s customers a bit.

Canon EOS RP (left), Nikon Z5 (right).

What should be interesting to see is whether Nikon’s new Z6 II and Z7 II take more market share from Canon or Sony or is simply converting more DSLR users and therefore adding to the sales volume rather than taking from elsewhere in the full-frame MILC market. In the past, it seems Canon’s numbers are more affected by the rise and fall of Nikon’s market share, whereas Sony’s are more affected by the rise and fall of Canon’s market share, but even with the charts, it’s difficult to get the full picture without knowing the precise number of units being sold and the price at which they’re selling for—two numbers that prove challenging to extrapolate from BCN Retail’s numbers or even CIPA.

BCN Retail also notes that full-frame sales have hit 10.7% of the overall interchangeable lens camera (ILC) market, marking the first time it’s been in double-digits. Revenue from full-frame MILC, as a percentage of the overall ILC market, also saw a dramatic jump to 25%. These are both the highest-ever numbers for the full-frame market, but BCN Retail does note this is because the average cost of a full-frame MILC tends to be 2.3x as much as a crop sensor ILC —¥230,000 (~$ 2,200) to ¥100,000 ($ 955), respectively.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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NASA uses infrared imaging to discover water on sunlit surface of the Moon

27 Oct

NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has used its onboard Faint Object infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) to discover water molecules on the sunlit surface of the Moon. For the first time, there are indications that water may be distributed across the Moon’s surface, and not limited to just cold, dark areas of the lunar surface.

SOFIA’s infrared camera, used in conjunction with a 106-inch diameter telescope, picked up ‘the specific wavelength unique to water molecules, at 6.1 microns, and discovered a relatively surprising concentration in sunny Clavius Crater.’ This crater is one of the largest craters visible from Earth and is in the Moon’s southern hemisphere.

Casey Honniball is the lead author who published the results as part of her graduate thesis work at the University of Hawaii at M?noa. She is now a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Of the discovery, Honniball says, ‘Prior to the SOFIA observations, we knew there was some kind of hydration. But we didn’t know how much, if any, was actually water molecules – like we drink every day – or something more like drain cleaner. Without a thick atmosphere, water on the sunlit lunar surface should just be lost to space. Yet, somehow we’re seeing it. Something is generating the water, and something must be trapping it there.’ If you’d like to read the full paper, it has been published in Nature Astronomy.

Data gathered using SOFIA’s onboard camera shows water in Clavius Crater in concentrations of 100 to 412 parts per million, ‘roughly equivalent to a 12-ounce bottle of water trapped in a cubic meter of soil spread across the lunar surface.’ Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters says, ‘We had indications that H2O – the familiar water we know – might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon. Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration.’

It’s not a lot of water, about 1% of the water found in the Sahara desert, but it’s a significant discovery. The work of the SOFIA team has uncovered new questions about how water is created and how it persists on the airless Moon. Further, water is a critical resource in deep space exploration. NASA’s Artemis program is keen to learn more about the presence of water on the Moon, and ideally, discover a way to access water in its pursuit of establishing a sustainable human presence on the Moon by 2030.

‘Water is a valuable resource, for both scientific purposes and for use by our explorers,’ said Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.’ Bleacher continues, ‘If we can use the resources at the Moon, then we can carry less water and more equipment to help enable new scientific discoveries.’

As to how the water molecules ended up on the surface remains an unanswered question. One theory is that ‘Micrometeorites raining down on the lunar surface, carrying small amounts of water, could deposit the water on the lunar surface upon impact.’ Another theory involves a two-step process ‘whereby the Sun’s solar wind delivers hydrogen to the lunar surface and causes a chemical reaction with oxygen-baring minerals in the soil to create hydroxyl’ which is then transformed into water by radiation from micrometeorites.

‘This illustration highlights the Moon’s Clavius Crater with an illustration depicting water trapped in the lunar soil there, along with an image of NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) that found sunlit lunar water.’ Image and caption credits: NASA/Daniel Rutter

SOFIA, which is a modified Boeing 747SP jetliner, typically focuses on very distant objects, such as black holes, galaxies and star clusters. In fact, the newly-published results are from SOFIA’s very first mission looking at the Moon. The team was essentially testing the tracking capabilities of its equipment, and this test produced a significant discovery. Additional flights will take a further look at the lunar surface.

SOFIA’s standard observations take place during a 10-hour overnight flight and captures images at mid- and far-infrared wavelengths. You can view some of the images it has captured by clicking here.

This is far from the first time NASA’s camera technology has produced meaningful, significant scientific discovery. Looking to the future, NASA’s Perseverance is currently about halfway to Mars, carrying a rover outfitted with a record-breaking 19 cameras. These cameras will capture incredibly detailed images of the Martian landscape.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Nikon Z 14-24mm F2.8 S sample gallery

26 Oct

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The Nikon Z 14-24mm F2.8 S completes the ‘holy trinity’ of traditional F2.8 zooms for Z-mount. Offering substantial weight and size savings over the previous AF-S 14-24mm F2.8 (and capable of accepting both screw-in and cut gel filters) the new zoom is more practical than its predecessor, but is the higher price reflected in its performance? Take a look at our sample gallery to find out.

See our Nikon Z 14-24mm F2.8
sample gallery

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Report: Zeiss’ full-frame Android-powered ZX1 camera to be released on October 29, cost $6K

26 Oct

Three weeks ago, the long-awaited Zeiss ZX1 camera reappeared for pre-order on B&H Photo after months and months of silence regarding the availability of the Android-powered mirrorless camera. While B&H has since pulled its listing, a new report from Nokishita claims the camera will be available on October 29 with an MSRP of $ 6,000/€6,000 (the same price B&H had it listed for).

When B&H listed the Zeiss ZX1 for pre-order earlier this month, we contacted both B&H and Zeiss on the matter, but both passed on the opportunity to comment on the matter. Sometime between then and now, the pre-order option on B&H was removed with no further information on when we might see more. That is, until Nokishita published the above tweet earlier this morning.

We have contacted Zeiss for confirmation and will update this article accordingly if we receive a response. While we wait to hear more about the camera, you can check out our hands-on with it back at CP+ 2019.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: Weird lens guru turns $20 Carl Zeiss projector lens into a swirly-bokeh camera lens

26 Oct

Weird lens guru Mathieu Stern is back at it with a new video that shows images captured with two $ 20 Carl Zeiss projector lenses he converted into camera lenses.

As with many of Stern’s DIY projector lens projects, both of these lenses — a 120mm F1.9 and a 105mm F1.9 — lack any way to focus and don’t have any adjustable aperture. While the adjustable aperture isn’t quite so easy to address, the video briefly shows how he uses an M65 Helicoid ring adapter to give manual focus abilities to the lens. Although not shown in the video, Stern then uses an M65 to Sony E-mount adapter to use the custom lens to his Sony camera.

The resulting imagery captured with the lenses produces pronounced ‘swirly’ bokeh and gives a very sharp separation between the subject and the background. It’s not going to win any resolution or edge-to-edge sharpness contests, but considering you can pick up similar projector lenses for around $ 20 or so online and a set of adapters for your camera for roughly $ 50 or so, it’s a cheap way to get some unique shots.

Stern has a full list of the components he used in the video’s description on YouTube. You can find more of his work on his YouTube channel and website, which also features his always-growing ‘Weird Lens Museum.’

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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