Partial Pressures
Rain bubbles keep fallin' on my head...
Posted by Spike (Bristol, United Kingdom) on 19 February 2012 in Plant & Nature.
A bit of whimsy... I happened to notice the light glinting in drops on one of my maples, and thought the mirror lens' doughnut blur might make some interesting effects.
Panasonic DMC-G1 1/30 second ISO 320 |
garden | maple | raindrops | catadioptric |
Thanks for stopping to take a look.
@daniela scharnowski: I got mine secondhand a long while ago, although you can get new ones (Samyang, alias Walimex or Prophoto in Europe) for under €200. Be warned: they're practically impossible to use without a tripod, have a fixed aperture (usually f/8 or maybe f/6.3), and a major challenge to focus. But they can be fun.
If you just like the bokeh, try experimenting with a black cardboard circle in the middle of a spare UV or skylight filter. (Or you can get interesting effects by cutting out shapes in the middle of a cardboard disk.)
@daniela scharnowski: Mine's a 500mm f/8 (Tokina, OM mount). I've only seen f/8 and f/6.3. The trade-offs are: brighter image on the 6.3; slightly larger depth-of-focus on the 8; and the 6.3 will be almost 1.5 times larger in diameter than the 8 and thus somewhat heavier. I don't know if it will make a big difference with focus confirmation. I don't think it's designed to work reliably for apertures smaller than f/5.6 or so (and in any event, I'm not that impressed with it anyway on the K-5). One thing to look out for - a long lens hood is a good idea, so if any of the lenses you're looking at come with one, that's probably a good thing. Mine has a screw-on metal tube that's the same length as the lens (and doubles as a cover). Also, check whether it has a fixing point for filters; mine has a small (37.5 mm?) socket at the rear (inside the lens mount) and came with a UV/warming filter