Creative Challenge

Before I start this post I have to say that the colored mountain and the black & white for Cassie won. (Click here to see what I'm talking about)

George back once again!

   Every now and then when I want to clear my head I take the camera and go for a walk. Sometimes 20 minutes, sometimes 3 hours. And usually I just take two of my primes, if not then just a zoom. But this time it was different, I wanted to challenge myself to produce images with limited gear (besides the challenge, I got tired of lugging around a lot of gear). I thought about it, and I decided to pull out my 24mm and head out. Take a look at the results:

   I have to admit this was an interesting challenge. I had to keep in mind what I had & what I could do. I didn't have a long lens, so I wasn't shooting birds. I didn't have a very fast lens, so I didn't shoot in the deep shadows. I didn't have a very wide lens, so I wasn't shooting landscapes. I knew what I was going to shoot and brought only what I needed.

   My question for you is this. Do any of you do anything to spring your creative juices back into gear every once in a while? What is it? Leave your comments below.

   Until next time, this is George saying... Adios.

My New Favorite Lens

   Hey guys... Sorry it's been so long since my previous post. I've been busy with multiple things, some in the film world, some not. And you'll get to hear about those events in the posts following. But right now I want to talk about my what I might call... my new favorite lens. My Canon FD 24mm f/2.8.

   Since I shoot on a Crop-Sensored camera, it's harder to get a wider shot. This lens isn't particularly wide on a crop. But at 38.4mm after the crop, it's wider than my new second favorite lens, Canon FD 50mm f/1.4, which equates to about 80mm on a crop. So it is a little bit wider, and that opens up things I could shoot vastly. I can be in tighter quarters and get a more pleasing shot, and since it's a wider lens, it a lot easier to manually focus.



  This shot is amazing. And currently, I could have only gotten it with that lens.

   That's it for now. I'll try to update the blog more often and get you guys more current media to enjoy. This is George saying, ¡Adios!

Lens Adapters Part 1

George Here!

   Just as promised, I'm going to review the adapters I use The Fotodiox FD - EOS Adapter and, next week I'll talk about the Rainbow Imaging AF Confirm M42 Screw Mount Lens to Canon EOS EF Mount adapter.

FD - EOS
When I saw it on the website, it looked very flimsy and I was worried about it breaking. But the pictures do no justice to this adapter. It's reasonably sturdy. I wouldn't drive over it with a car, but it's good enough if you don't drop your camera a lot. The mount is very sturdy, on both the FD and the EOS side. The ring to install as you see here has a VERY nice feel when it comes to locking the lens in. When you want to put your lens in, make sure the red dot on top and the install arrow are aligned perfectly. Then once the lens itself is mounted, twist clockwise (from this angle) until the filled white dot on top is as close as it can get. Then once that is done, you use the lens the same way you would as if it was on a film camera. One quick note, don't slide Aperture wheel until it hits the green "A". It will lock up and it very hard to remove if it's there. You can see from the Images below how it looks, mounts, and the white dots I'm talking about.

   The images taken with this adapter are amazingly sharp, considering that you're adding another piece of glass between the lens and the sensor. Here are some sample images from this adapter & the 100mm Macro.

   I love this adapter a lot. One of the few downsides are that you lose a stop of light when using it. To understand what I mean I set up an equation: x = light. x + adapter = 1/2x. So you need to factor that in when you're using this adapter. Another one is that you have to keep it hilariously clean in order to get results like this. But other than part, I really like this adapter. Would I recommend it? Absolutely!

Next week I'll be reviewing the M42. But that's all for now. ¡Adios!

New Lenses! Part Two

Hey George here!

   There are a lot of things happening over at Tem.Teen Studios right now, and I wasn't able to put up a post earlier in the day. But I'm here now for part two of my new lenses series. If you haven't read part one, you can do that by clicking this sentence. So here is the rest of the review.

   Canon FD 50mm f/1.4

   For starters, 50mm is THE standard lens focal length. I honestly love that I now have a lens that is of a large aperture & a standard focal length. Now since I'm shooting on a crop-sensored camera, it's really about an 80mm. But I'm hoping within the next year or two I'll be shooting Full-Frame or Super 35 (which is only slightly larger than APS-C, but you get what I'm saying):

I LOVE this lens. Super sharp, super crisp, super awesome!

   Canon FD 300mm f/4

   My favorite telephoto lens... HANDS DOWN! Take a look and you'll see why I love it:

   These are amazingly sharp, considering how easy it is to miss manual focus with this lens.

   So looking at these lenses, I have filled out two of the three requirements I wanted from the new glass. Sharpness, and being brighter. The third being autofocus, isn't possible because these are all manual lenses. So I have to control the focus, and aperture on the lens itself like a cine lens before I take a picture or shoot a video. But for free, what can you expect? :-) Now in the future, I hope to get some Rokinon/Sigma or Canon EF lenses to shoot with. But for now, this is what I shoot with. Maybe I'll add some more old lenses to the collection. Who knows...

   When I get the final adapter, I will review it alongside the M42 adapter. But until then, this is George saying, adios.

New Lenses! Part One

George Again!

   I’ve been using just the kit EF-S 18-55mm & EF-S 55-250 kit lenses for photography/videography for quite some time and they have preformed very well (Click Here for Sample Shots). But I kinda hate these lenses for a couple reasons. First, they’re very slow lenses. What that means is that they have a small aperture and intern, you have to crank your ISO up or lower your Shutter Speed. Sometimes this can lead your video/photos into looking like film, but more often than not it makes it WAY harder to color grade certain shots. And at least with the 18-55, it’s not that sharp, it isn’t of the best quality and is a little slow to focus. So with this, I wanted a few things with the new lenses: 

1. Fast autofocus
2. At least a stop or two brighter* 
3. Be sharper

   Now I’ve looked at lenses like the Tamron 24-70 f/2.8, Tamron 17-55 f/2.8, and even the Sigma 18-35 f/1.8. But I don't exactly have $700+ to spend on a lens as of the writing of this post. Now my father used to be into photography back in the days of the Canon F1 (“F” for film) and had a whole host of primes that are now in my possession. Lets take a look at some of the lenses I got.

Canon FD 100mm f/4 Macro

   An unbelievable piece of glass. The ability to focus within a few inches of the subject is really mind boggling. Even at f/4 I get amazingly shallow depth of field. Take a look at some images:



   Nothing but super sharp, crisp images come out of this lens.

M42 135mm f/2.8 & M42 2x Teleconverter

   This lens and teleconverter setup is by far my favorite. It is almost a telephoto lens with a very large aperture for the length. That makes my subject isolated from the background and really focuses your attention onto the in-focus areas. What I also love is how small & light this lens is, almost weighing about as much as a portable hard drive. And at f/2.8, this lens is good enough for most indoor shots. So I can keep this in my camera bag without adding practically any weight. Below is an image that I used the teleconverter, and I just fell in love with:

   Look at how sharp the bird is, I'm just amazed. Even with the Teleconverter, it looks amazing.

Next week, I'll cover the rest of the lenses I got.

   That's it for now, George out!