Pinhole no. 1

Not Quite Zeiss.

I made a pinhole in a bit of metal cut from a can of coke, stuck it on a body cap and had daughter #1 hold still for 15 seconds. What did this prove?

1. It's hard to get a small pinhole. I used a pin, but I should have used a needle. A smaller hole would have produced a sharper image.

2. Any dirt on the CCD shows up after a 30 second exposure. I had to clean up at least 20 spots in lightroom.

3. The irregular bokeh (especially visible in the white background) means that my hole must be irregular.

Helios 44M gets a repreive

I've never been thrilled with my Helios 44M. Focus isn't smooth, the body creaks... not a patch on my Takumars and Rokkors. I have two copies, one with a 6 blade aperture and one with a 10 blade aperture. I've been considering selling them on eBay.



Then I take a picture like this.

Morning shade, 58mm at F/4, 10 blade version.



Nice Sharpness (note the 10 blade diffraction in the reflection)...Nice Bokeh...

I guess I won't be getting rid of it too soon.

Cleaning time

The new photopictomania family members; "28 Prime" (28mm), "Mini" (35-70mm f/4 mini-beercan), and "Beery" (70-210mm f/4 beercan) are looking a bit, well... gross. The rubber rings are faded (except on Beery), and the lens bodies need a bit of a clean.
Look at Mini:
I read on a flickr discussion that the fading could be reversed:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/sony_alpha/discuss/72157623404240115/
I tried the toothbrush, soap and armorall.
15 minutes later, Mini is looking good:

Macro Monday

It's a holiday today, so I had some leisure time. While testing out the new Minolta Beercan , I took a shot of a purple daisy. I was very surprised to see little blue and yellow star shaped florets. I thought I might brush off the Pentax bellows I bought a few months ago and see of I could get a better image.
This is the original picture that inspired the macro work.

After attaching the bellows and I changed the lenses a few times. I tried a Fujitar 50mm, but could not get a good focus. Next came the Takumar 135. I could focus but the DOF was so narrow it was pointless. Finally I tried a Helios 58mm. The Helios lens would focus consistently. This lens usually disappoints me and this was the first time I have used this lens and enjoyed it!

The other problem was the wind, the flower kept moving, and I had to wait for a lull to get a good photo. I ended up shooting with the bellows extended to about "8X" at f6 and 1/50s.

I've got to say I was very disappointed with the process as it was very very fiddly. The images didn't look very nice either. - Oh well, off to photoshop to see how they develop.

First some sharpening... then cropping...

more cropping...

and still more...

Much better than I had hoped! The Helios have certainly proven themselves. While not a perfect image, I can see a lot of detail.

pictures I like 3

One sunny and windy day down in Sorrento Vic...
Taken with the Osawa 28mm at f11+. A little bit of Photoshop here (to lighten with house) gives this picture an HDR look.

28mm repaired.

I decided that I could not justify the cost of professional cleaning, so I would attempt to repair the lens myself. For cleaning I just undid the 4 external screws that secured the mount and then unscrewed the back lens assembly by hand. I wet a cotton "ear bud" with methylated spirits and cleaned the aperture with a circular motion (following the iris ridges). then ran a dry bud over the aperture to clean. I opened and closed the aperture about 20 times during the process to distribute the metho. I was very careful to keep the iris vertical so that if I did have an accident, nothing could drip onto the lens.
I had to repeat the process three times letting the assembly air dry for about 10 minutes between cleaning. It was important to let the aperture dry before checking the stiffness because the dampness of the metho made the iris stick a little bit.
I should point out that I have opened lots of lenses in the last couple of years (and destroyed a few in the process). This was a simple fix, but if you have never opened a lens before, I recommend you get some practice first.


It worked! Finally the iris movement was like a feather! I reassembled and confirmed everything was working as expected. Here are a few sample shots...

28mm Disaster!!

The new Minolta 28mm f2.8 wasn't metering right... Looking inside the lens, I can see the cause - oil on the aperture. This looks like a big big problem. I will need to decide to if I will attempt the fix the lens myself, pay a pro, or just resell as-is on eBay.
Rats! I have really be looking forward to this lens.