Some Miscellaneous Stuff You might Find Interesting

Colonial Williamsburg Virginia scene (click to enlarge)

Sometimes it is tough thinking of things about which to write 3 times a week.  I normally always have something of interest rolling around inside my head, whether it be related to photography, in the field of cosmology, particle physics, geology or archaeology.  I have so many interests in so many things that I don't seem to have the time to consume the material I find so I can continue learning.  But enough of that.  Here are some miscellaneous things about photography that might interest you.  After all, that is why you come to this blog.

Image Stabilization

Debate is still alive as to whether or not you should turn off your in-lens or in-body image stabilization when your camera and lens are mounted on a tripod.  In the old days, the answer was always yes, turn it off.  No question about it.  You could look through the viewfinder and the image was moving all over the place with the mechanism trying to stop movement that didn't exist!  Now, not so sure.  If you listen to your camera manufacturers' advice, some say you don't have to but they still recommend it and others say you no longer have to.  I am told, with very long Nikon or Canon telephoto lenses, there is actually a setting on the IS switch specifically for when the camera and lens is mounted on a tripod. As for me, I always turn mine off.  Old habits.  

Do I need to turn it off with my Fujifilm or Olympus gear?  Not sure.  However, I did discover with my Olympus gear that if I don't turn it off, images that should be identical are not.  There is a subtle shift between images and a slight change in the character of the image in the way of distortion correction or lack thereof.  Don't get me wrong, individually all the images are sharp, but the image stabilization mechanism seems to slightly shift the position of the image between each exposure.  I think the distortion or character change I see is from the algorithms that are built into the software in-camera which tells the editing software what and how to apply vignetting and distortion corrections.  Just my guess at this point, however.

The two images below illustrate this.  The top image is single one of a series I did to test an Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO lens for accurate focus and sharpness.  I accidentally discovered when you layer together more than one of what should be identical shots, they become blurry!  Why?  The image shifts slightly between exposures.  I made the mistake of accidentally leaving the IBIS turned on during the test and when I was quickly moving through the images in Lightroom, I noticed they changed from image to image.  

So, it seems for any one image you are okay to leave the IS on, but if you are going to make some sort of composite image, you might find a slight shift, at least with this camera and this lens.  Not only a shift, mind you, but a slight change in shape of the image through some sort of distortion correction as well.  To make a composite it may not work just to align the slight shift in vertical or horizontal position.  I haven't tried this with my Fujifilm gear as of yet.  If and when I do, I'll let you know my findings.

~100% crop of a brick wall, one original image.  Very sharp. (click to enlarge)
E-M1 Mark II with 40-150mm f/2.8 lens locked down on a very heavy duty tripod, IS is on.

Four identical images from the series above composited showing a shift in the image between exposures (click to enlarge)

Manual Focus Shift

Recently I read a comment by an individual who claimed that when he or she manually focused his Fujifilm lenses, then made several exposures, his focus shifted.  He seemed to indicate that this was somewhat progressive in nature.  The more exposures, the more accumulated shift occurred, to a point.  That intrigued me so I set out the other day to test it.

I tested my Fujifilm X-T2 with both the 16-55mm f/2.8 lens as well as the 35mm f/2 lens. Also, I tested my Olympus E-M1 Mark II with the 12-100 f/4 PRO lens.  All lenses were used at maximum aperture to minimize depth of field so there was little DOF compensation for a slight shift in focus.  In short, I didn't notice any focus shift at all after manually focusing the lens and making several images.  Also, I did a second test by first auto focusing the lens, then switching the camera to manual focus.  The X-T2 stayed in focus, but the Mark II shifted way out of focus.  The amount of focus shift in the Olympus was so obvious that you could not mistake it.  I think the shift from the Olympus has to do with camera settings in that the lens will always go to a certain focus distance, settable by the user, when switching to manual.  For example, you can set the camera so a lens will always be at infinity focus whenever you flip the switch to manual focus.  I haven't messed with this particular setting so I need to follow-up and see if this is so and where it is set so I know for sure.  However, once manually focused, the Olympus camera and lens combination stayed on target, no matter how many subsequent images I made.

Also, remember in a previous test I conducted, when focusing then zooming, the Fujifilm lenses stayed in focus, but the Olympus lenses had to be refocused after the change in focal length.

Tulips, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia (click to enlarge)

Inexpensive Carbon Fiber Travel Tripods

You know those inexpensive carbon fiber travel tripods that you can buy for less than $200 US?  Well, be careful.  I haven't completed my testing yet as I am waiting for a windy day, but preliminarily I found that they don't provide much in the way of sturdiness and eliminate any camera movement.  I'm not ready to cast full judgment yet, but in initial tests, when compared against my large and sturdy Induro 400 series tripod with the Really Right Stuff B55 ball head, the lightweight carbon fiber travel tripod I bought doesn't seem to get the job done well.  Almost any tripod will hold still on a day with no wind, so I thought I would test it with a bit of wind, but nothing you normally wouldn't encounter while out in nature.  I'll also test on a solid surface, such as concrete, as well as on a grassy surface to see if there is any difference there.  I'll report back when I finish.  It won't matter if your tripod is made of fancy lightweight carbon fiber, is very convenient to carry and is reasonable in cost if it doesn't get the job done. If that is the case, I would just leave it at home.

Upcoming Total Solar Eclipse

If you plan to photograph the August 21st total (for some) solar eclipse, I suggest you read (or watch) some tutorials about how to accomplish it properly now.  If you don't, you may not have success.  And, if you are traveling to photograph it, you may just waste your money.  It may be a bit more complicated than you realize.  B and H has a good program on their You Tube site, found here.  Tim Grey, an outstanding photographic educator, has a You Tube video that can be found here.  I'm sure there are more, but the point is do some research long before the 21st as there may be some things you need to buy to achieve success and to keep from going blind!  

Never look directly at the sun during an eclipse! Don't look at the eclipse through your DSLR's optical viewfinder either.  Please!  Not much future enjoyment of your photography if you go blind or have severe visual impairment.  Just sayin'.  However, if you are using a mirrorless camera, you would be looking at a small TV screen.  That shouldn't hurt your eyes, but again, do your research.  There may be an impact on your sensor as it would directly exposed to the sun for considerable periods of time.  Buy the filters you need. Buy the proper ISO certified glasses you need.  Don't wing it.

Olympus and Panasonic and Micro 4/3

First, I think they misnamed the format.  There is no difference in sensor size between 4/3 and micro 4/3.  Same size.  The difference is 4/3 format are DSLR styled camera bodies with a mirror box and pentaprism and the micro 4/3 cameras don't have a mirror box (hence mirrorless) and the lenses and camera bodies can be made smaller.  I'll say it again that I think the format should be renamed to "Mirrorless 4/3."  All the nomenclature and abbreviations remain the same except we substitute the word mirrorless for micro. After all it is more accurate, more descriptive and more appropriate.  There is nothing "micro" about M4/3.  I guess we need a Change.org petition to get this done.  I've been advocating this for 3 years now.

Dogwood in Bloom, Colonial Williasmburg, Virginia
(click to enlarge)

I applaud Olympus and Panasonic working together to develop the M4/3 system.  The lens mounts are identical allowing us to use lenses from either manufacturer on each other's camera bodies.  Both made terrific camera bodies and absolutely first class lenses.  In the past, there have been some developmental differences which now have converged.  Specifically, Olympus chose in-body-image-stabilization (IBIS) and didn't provide IS in their lenses while Panasonic chose to include image stabilization in their lenses.  Now both offer both methods.  The really terrific part about using IS based lenses on IBIS based camera bodies is that the two systems work together to give us over 6 stops of stabilization! That is unbelievably good for us as photographers. But here is my beef.  The collaboration between the two manufacturers didn't go quite far enough as you cannot get the benefits of the combined IS with the other guys' lenses.  I can't put on one of Panasonic's terrific IS based lenses on my Olympus body and take advantage of a dual stabilized system—or vice versa. That is a huge opportunity that was missed and I hope one day that will be rectified. 

I think this is enough to whet your appetite.  Any questions?  Be glad to answer them as best I can.  Always trying to spread 47 1/2 years of photo knowledge around so you can enjoy photography as much as I have.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

All content on this blog is © 2013-2017 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.