Frogs in the pond

This is the froggy mating season, and they have been at it in my garden pond

I don't have a proper macro lens, and the only extension tubes in my possession are M42 screw thread, so my solution is to use an elderly Takumar 135mm f 3.5 lens along with an 11 mm extension tube.

Click for a bigger image.

Not bad for a lens maybe 45 years old! This is the M42 Super Multi Coated version, in production from 1971-1975.

Sony NEX 6

Wildflower seeds September

Rose hips

Rosebay Willowherb

Rosebay Willowherb

Creeping Thistle

I went for a walk this morning - beautiful sunshine here in the North east - and the seeds of wildflowers caught my eye. Rosebay Willowherb and Creeping Thistle are both a complete nuisance in the garden, but, in a more natural environment, they do look rather nice!

Sony Nex 6 Pentax 35mm lens

Warkworth to Amble, Northumberland

We drove north to Amble, under grey skies most of the way. The weather forecast did not lie however, it was cold but bright in this part of Northumberland. Our walk went from Amble to Warkworth and return, along the course of the river Coquet.

I had forgotten the wealth of wildbirds that you see in this part of the world. There were eider duck in the harbour, a heron fishing along the river bank, the cry of a curlew, and oystercatchers above.

Carol spotted a seal catching a fish in the river.

Warkworth Castle

The river Coquet, with a mirror smooth surface

Last of the winter sun for the day at Amble marina

Sony NEX 6 Pentax 28 f3.5 K and 35mm f2 lenses

Fatfield, Washington last of Autumn Colour?

Went for a local walk yesterday. The morning started rather gloomily, but then the sun came out and there was still some colour in the leaves.

Reflections in Mount Pleasant Lake

Woods above the Wear valley on the south, or Penshaw, side

South View Fatfield - Perfect reflection in the river Wear

Sony NEX 6 Pentax 28 and 35 mm lenses

50 mm lenses on Sony Nex 6

Over time I have compared the performance of the Sony 16-50  kit lens supplied with the NEX 6 to that of old manual focus prime lenses that I have in my collection.

Is this a fair comparison, an image stabilised zoom against a manual focus prime? Well the zoom was designed and manufactured in the 21st century and the old primes in the 1960s. Possibly 50 years between them.

Judge for yourself.

The overall view taken at a focal length of 50mm 

Below are 100% crops of the sign to the right of the lion.

Sony 16-50 at  f5.6

Zuiko 50mm f1.8 at  f5.6

Sony 16-50

Zuiko 50mm

Further testing - to investigate the influence of auto focus error on the results of the tests I conducted further experiments with the following parameters. Manual exposure, camera on tripod with 2 sec shutter delay. 3 shots for each situation, best chosen for comparison.

1) Sony at f8 autofocus 

2) Sony at f8 manual focus at f5.6 ( wide open)

3) Zuiko at f8 manual focus at f5.6 ( to match Sony)

Default processing in LR and PS. No adjustments made. Actual pixel crops from top left hand corner of image.

Sony f8 - manual focus (137kb)

Sony f8 Autofocus (137 kb)

Zuiko f8 (196 kb)

The manually focused Sony result is slightly better than that achieved by autofocus, but the Zuiko is clearly superior, both in terms of the JPG size, but also visually. Actually you don't need to do any of this testing as the Zuiko looks far better in the EVF!

More comparisons, Sony 16-50, Canon 24-105 and Pentax 50mm f1.7. Default conversions in LR and PS, no adjustments. Forget the colour temperatures, they can be adjusted easily enough, this is a test of sharpness and contrast.

Overall view ( Canon 24-105 on 5DII)

Actual pixel crops of top left corner. (Click for full size)

Pentax 50mm on NEX  (JPG size 187 KB)

Sony 16-50 on NEX (JPG size 142 KB)

Canon 24-105 on 5DII (JPG size 179 KB)

My pecking order would be Pentax 50mm f1,7, followed by Canon 24-105 with the Sony a poor third, but judge for yourself.

This test demonstrates quite nicely why I prefer to carry a lightweight Sony NEX 6 rather than have the Albatross of a Canon 5D11 around my neck!

Sunderland Steam Spectacular

Billed as Sunderland Steam Spectular, this event is taking place in Herrington Country Park, just over the road from Penshaw Monument. The photo below is a stiched panorama taken from the monument. Click for an enlarged view.

I can count five full sized steam vehicles, not what I would call Spectacular, but I guess that they have to start somewhere. This was taken at the start of play on Sunday morning, so it is possible that more steamers arrived during the day. 

Having peered in from above I elected not to spend the £6 entrance fee, or £15 for a family. I suspect, but don't know for sure, that the various fairground rides would incur a further charge, so a pretty expensive outing for a family for what is a fairly limited display.

Beamish steam weekend, by contrast, is on a far greater scale and easily worth the annual membership.

I can only hope that, if they do this again, it will be more truly "spectacular".

Sony NEX 6 Pentax 200mm f4

Steam Train Specials

Why is it that there are very rarely any special steam trains running in the north east, but when they do arrive, like buses, there are two of them?  Yesterday saw "The Wansbeck" topped and tailed by two locos, 62005 and 61264, and "The Hadrian" hauled by 46115 Scots Guardsman.

The weather was horrible, totally unsuitable for photography, with mist, dullness, mizzle and not at all very warm. I stood for an age perched precariously on a wall in Chester-le-Street to capture the Wansbeck crossing the viaduct, and it arrived 30 mins late. By that time I had just about lost the feeling in my fingers, but managed to press the shutter. Having got the excuses out of the way, here are a couple of shots.

K1 2-6-0 62005 heads the train

B1 4-6-0 61264 brings up the rear

And so to Hexham to catch the Hadrian. The light was very slightly better and the train arrived a bit early, which meant that it was stopped in Hexham station to allow a local passenger service to get through. Unfortunately this meant that power was cut off before the station so my vision of a dramatic exhaust filled sky shot evaporated with the steam. However...

(Zuiko 50mm f1.8)

Royal Scot class 4-6-0 46115 Scots Guardsman

I enjoyed watching this powerful loco accelerate its heavy train away from the platform, sure footed without a trace of wheelspin,  from the viewpoint of the footbridge.  

Sony NEX 6 Pentax 28mm K f3.5 and Zuiko 50mm f1.8

Feeding Swans - Herrington Country Park

I need to get out of the house and walk or cycle to keep fit, and my regular walk involves crossing the river Wear, climbing Penshaw hill, visiting the monument, and then maybe walking through Herrington Country Park.

The park is a great facility, situated on land reclaimed from the site of Herrington pit, it provides an  informal landscape with lakes, grassed areas,  an amphitheatre and various sculptures. There are always people there, walking dogs, sailing boats or feeding the birds, while the park is used for sporting and other outdoor events.

The cycling charity Sustrans is opening a Bike Hub this year, enabling novice or uncertain cyclists to practice in a safe environment.

This day the weather was pretty grim, but a brisk walk up to Penshaw soon warmed me up, and then, while strolling across the park, I saw a flight of four swans cross overhead before landing in the largest lake.

This gentleman was feeding the swans. I've seen people do that plenty times, but I've not see a wild swan take food from a person's hand before.

I also saw a man riding a bike and towing a child's trailer in which was seated a large dog; he had another dog running alongside. He was later seen sharing a scone from the park's cafe with his two pets. 

Sony NEX 6 Pentax K 28mm f3,5

Helm Crag near Grasmere

We try to get across to the Lake District whenever we can spare the time and there is the chance of decent weather over there. It's been difficult of late, with rain coming in from the Atlantic keeping the west side of the country dull and plenty wet. However today's forecast was for sun.

Helm crag is a popular walk from Grasmere, but one that we had never tried. It's not far, about 2 miles, but there's a fair climb with a little bit of scrambling, particularly if you elect to climb the Lion rock.

Not for cars?

 

Climbing the crag you get a good view over towards Easedale where the stream was running full and could be clearly heard  from a distance. Easedale tarn is visible from the top of the Lion rock.

So much for the sunshine - Grasmere town and

lake from the crag

The Lion and Lamb rocks. Not the best view and no sense of scale. Best seen from the north I think when you can see the body of the "lion", and they are much larger than this image suggests.

View from the top of the Lion rock.

Sony NEX 6 - Pentax 28mm f3.5 K, Samsung 35mm f2, and Zuiko 50mm f1.4

Pentax A 35-70 mm f4 zoom on NEX 6

This one has dwelt in my drawer for some time, and it wasn't until I read that it had a macro function that I decided to give it a try. In fact it will focus down to 0.25 m at a focal length of 70mm ( or 105 mm on the NEX). Here's the result, click for a larger image -

A pair of sweet pea pods about to release their seeds

An actual pixels crop

OK it's not going to replace your dedicated macro lens, nor even maybe your favourite prime on extension tubes, but it's not at all bad and the zoom does make framing easier.

Following this, I was encouraged to try the 35-70 against a collection of 50 mm primes at f8, and, while it didn't come top of the class, it wasn't at the bottom either! It's quite usable.

I also tested my Pentax 35-80 budget auto focus zoom, and that was dreadful!

Sony 55-210 Versus Pentax 75-150 and 200

Pentax 75-150 mm M f4 versus Sony 55-210 at f8

Right

Centre

Top left

Pentax 200 mm M f4  versus Sony 55-210 

Centre 

Top left 

Top right

The Pentax lenses are sharper in the corners and don't suffer from a warm colour cast, but the Sony provides a similar level of sharpness in the centre of the frame and is less prone to chromatic aberration.

The file sizes of the JPGs produced by PS from TIFFs resulting from a Lightroom raw conversion are as follows: -

150 mm

Pentax 75-150  13913

Sony 55-210     13179

200 mm

Pentax 200     12721

Sony 55-210  12037

Suggesting that both Pentax lenses are collecting more data.        

Edit - since writing this I have discovered that my Pentax 200 mm f4 lens is not focusing to infinity. Once I get this sorted I'll do another comparison. 16-8-2015

Pentax K 28mm f3.5 on NEX 6

 I've been intending to carry out a formal test of the Pentax 28mm f3.5 K lens for some while, with the camera on a tripod, and looking at several shots at each aperture etc. Well that hasn't happened, I've been too busy trying to take snaps that will sell.

In the meantime here's a shot taken in Keswick at the weekend. Camera handheld, probably f8 and the image straightened a bit in PS, so not really ideal

Actual pixel crops top left and bottom right.

There is just a smidgen of CA on the top left crop, but it's hardly noticeable, and, given the position of the crops within the frame, pretty sharp; certainly sharp enough for what I need. Not bad for a lens that cost me around £25!

Click for a bigger image, both of these are reduced quality JPGs, but fit for purpose methinks. The crops have default Lightroom sharpening applied in raw conversion, but have not been sharpened in PS.

Sony NEX 6 Pentax K 28mm f3.5

Pentax K 28mm f3.5 with Sony NEX6

I have been using the Pentax K 28mm f3.5 as my standard lens on the NEX 6 recently and have found it to be superior to the alternatives that I have tried.

First the drawbacks. It is heavier and larger than both the Pentax M and Zuiko f2.8 lenses, while it uses a 52mm filter thread, rather than the standard 49mm of most of my heritage glass. As you might expect, the f3.5 aperture is not quite as bright as the f2.8, but it's quite usable.

I've not done exact comparison shots, but image sharpness/contrast is not a problem, probably similar to the M f2.8 which is pretty good. If we ever see the sun again, I might make a few comparisons.

One of the main advantages of the K lies with its control of CA, it's hardly noticeable on most shots. I don't think that I have had to correct a single image for CA, while this was very much the Achilles heel of both the M and Zuiko lenses.

Another big advantage over the Pentax M is the lack of barrel distortion. I've not measured this scientifically, but I've just not noticed it on shots where it could be a problem. I did photograph a brick wall as a test and I couldn't detect any, so, in practical terms, distortion is not an issue.

Conclusion, the Pentax K f3.5 28mm is the best of the bunch to date!

Update - just taken a look at Ebay and the last Pentax 28mm f3.5 K to sell went for £102 plus postage! I need to look after what has become an appreciating asset......

Further update - As I take more photos using this lens I get to know it better. It's not completely free from chromatic aberration, but it needs a pretty extreme situation for it to be a problem. Much, much better that the f2.8 Pentax M and Zuiko in that respect.

Focusing and using the the Sony NEX 6 with manual focus lenses

I've had the camera for several months now and taken around 6000 shots, mainly using manual focus lenses by Pentax and Olympus.

At first I tried the focus peaking facility, but found that it was either too in yer face, and blotted out parts of the composition, or it would result in false positives. I therefore changed my modus operandi to the 10 x magnification feature, and would focus with the aperture wide open, stopping down to shoot.

I have noted elsewhere that, if you do this, it is important to point the camera at a neutral tone and open the aperture before clicking for a magnified view. If you don't do this the camera may show a greatly overexposed image that is very difficult to assess. I guess that the camera's exposure system fixes a value based upon the 100% view, and uses that for the magnified image.  Opening the aperture after selecting magnify does not change the meter reading, the image will be overexposed.

More recently I have taken another look at focus peaking and have found that it works well if you set it at its minimum value and focus wide open, stopping down to shoot. This is a bit quicker than using 10x magnification and works for many subjects. With intrinsically low contrast scenes it is better to use the 10 x feature.

Another control that I make a great deal of use of is exposure compensation. If I have the time I will review each shot after taking the photo and then dial in some compensation to get a better exposure. Irritatingly, the camera will assume that you wish to move onto a different viewing mode if you are reviewing images, rather than answer to the  helm and adjust the exposure. In the past I would press the button that is used to toggle between reviewing shots and normal operation, but this button is hard to find with the camera to your eye. In fact a light press on the shutter release does the same thing, switching off the review and returning to normal mode. This may seem a trivial thing, but it has transformed my enjoyment of the camera.

Should this be necessary I hear you ask, is the exposure system so bad that you need to adjust every shot? In practice I find it reasonably reliable, no worse than the Canon DSLRs that I also use, but not perfect, and a small adjustment is often needed to optimise exposure. What about the exposure preview histogram then? Well I do use it on occasion, but it only tells a partial story, and the proof of the pudding is in the image recorded on the card.

What about the lenses that I use?

Well the star performer has to be the Zuiko 50mm f1.8. It's very sharp, does not suffer from CA, and provides neutrally coloured images, noticeably colder than the Sony lenses that I have. Unfortunately, with an equivalent angle of view as an 80mm lens on a FF camera, it's not the most useful of focal lengths.

The Samsung/Pentax 35mm f2 is another very good lens, but this is a rather more expensive optic and you might expect it to do well. Mine cost me £175 a few years ago ( it's a Pentax/Samsung auto focus job).

I have tried three heritage 28mm f2.8 lenses. A pentax M, a Zuiko and a Canon FT. I was least impressed with the Canon, maybe I got a bad copy, I took it back and swapped it for the Zuiko. There isn't much to choose between the Pentax and Zuiko lenses, they are both sharper than the standard Sony Zoom, without being exceptional, while they both suffer from CA. My copy of the Pentax is a little better than  the Zuiko, as that exhibits some softness down one edge - again probably something peculiar to the particular lens that I possess. However the Pentax does suffer from some noticeable barrel distortion, fixable but annoying. I find the Pentax 28mm is my most used lens (42 mm FF equivalent), it is my default choice, near to ideal for many of the shots that I like to take. I shall continue my search for a really good, but economical, 28mm optic!

I also possess Pentax f3.5 M and K 28mm lenses, and I am tempted to give them a run out. The older K design always produced excellent results on my film cameras, and surely the CA can't be any worse than the M f2,8! (Update - see later post, the Pentax 28mm f3.5 K is a very good choice).

The Sigma 19mm is OK to Good, not perfect. I tend to use it as an auto focus lens, and, perhaps as a result, get more unacceptably unsharp shots from it than I do with my older manual focus lenses. I like to know what I am focusing on, and auto focus systems always seem to have a mind of their own. Maybe they know they are in the hands of a Luddite and act accordingly.

The Sony 55-210 lens is a reasonably good performer, particularly considering the price, but it's far from perfect. I have had mine back for adjustment, after finding some shots very badly soft down one edge, and it is now a lot better, but I still get some less than crisp edge details. I also find that it produces very warm images, almost as though there was a warming filter attached. It's a personal thing, but I prefer the colder, more realistic, results from my 50mm Zuiko.

Sony 55-210 warm rendering

Zuiko 50mm F1.8 cold rendering

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