Leica 75mm f/2 APO-Summicron-M for Leica M8/M9/M PERMALINK

I’m working with the Leica 75mm f/2 APO-Summicron-M ASPH on the Leica M9, and I will be adding my report to my review of the Leica M9.

My initial impressions are of a very fine lens, but one that pushes the rangefinder accuracy of the Leica M9 to its limits, an issue I elaborate on in detail in my Leica M9 review in DAP.

The accuracy of a rangefinder is often cited as excellent. But it’s really a crap-shoot, especially when one realizes that the accuracy of the optical system includes the human eye behind the camera, which might not be 20/20, might have astigmatism, might be tired or irritated, might be seeing low contrast or dim light, etc.

To exploit the quality of its lenses, Leica must move to a Live View feature as soon as possible, something not possible with the present CCD sensor in the M9, though perhaps a preview feature could be added, so that at least when using a tripod one could verify critical focus.

On a high resolution DSLR, The world’s finest lenses are still blurry if not perfectly focused. See Focus Accuracy.

Get the Leica 75mm f/2 APO-Summicron-M at .

Reviewed: Zacuto Z-Finder DSLR optical viewfinder PERMALINK

Just posted is my review of the Zacuto Z-Finder.

I liked the Z-Finder a lot. Its optics are top quality, the view is expansive and transparent.

Anyone shooting video with their DSLR should get one of these asap, it’s the missing link for shooting everyday video with a DSLR.

Stills-shooting also is great, I highly recommend this unit to anyone who’s had to deal with a hard-to-see LCD in adverse lighting.

Get the Zacuto Z-Finder at .

Diglloyd mailing list PERMALINK

I’ll be sending the February newsletter out soon, so you might want to join the mailing list.

It’s an opt-in system, use whatever email you want, choose the types of messages to receive (very low volume in any case), and you can unsubscribe any time you like.

The only required field is the email address at which you want to receive email.

One possible point of confusion might be that to change your subscription preferences, you need to first unsubscribe, then re-subscribe with the desired choices.Join the mailing list

Lupine Wilma and Lupine Betty LED upgrades PERMALINK

I’ve upgraded my Lupine Wilma and Lupine Betty headlamps to the latest LED technology, and WOW, Lupine has done it again! See my review of the Lupine Wilma (and notes on Betty).

Lupine’s Betty/Wilma/Tesla lighting system is the best you can buy, end of story. Expect many years of service that will delight you. Use them as bike lights, a headlamp for hiking/backpacking/grilling at night, any dark corner, search and rescue, the Iditarod, and photography. Lupine doesn’t cheat on their lumen or battery life ratings: they easily outperform other lights rated similarly (on paper); beam quality/uniformity, color accuracy and brightness all are critical. I should know, I wasted time and money trying other expensive but inferior brands a few years ago, back when I was riding long distances late at night on my bike.

In the US, visit Gretna Bikes (relationship: satisfied customer). Gretna sells and services Lupine lighting products (sorry no B&H link for Lupine!). Over the years I’ve purchased a large handful of both Lupine Betty and Wilmas; I love ’em. For night-time bike riding, I use three Lupine Betty lampheads, two on the bar, one on the helmet. Cars sometimes back up for me on narrow roads, and I can scream down a hill at 30mph cuz I can see so well with 5100 lumens in front of me.

Lupine’s modestly-priced upgrade kit (relative to the price of a new lamphead) has me very impressed for three compelling reasons. First, virtually no headlamp manufacturer ever offers an upgrade path. Yet Lupine has done so twice now, at about 20% of the original lamphead price, thus preserving my investment and maintaining backward compatibility with all my cables and batteries. That’s serious value if you’ve ever seen your previous investment ignored, as I have, by other lighting vendors.

The Betty user-installable upgrade not only provides 25% higher light output at the same power draw, but the light itself has notably more accurate color balance. Good color balance means better depth perception. Most LED lights are extremely blue; bright, but difficult to see with. Lupine sources only the smallest fraction of the best LEDs available, seven of the Cree XP-G LEDs in the Betty, emitting an honest 1750 lumens with a custom designed lens for perfect illumination.

For photographers, the Lupine Betty is more than just a headlamp to find your way around in the dark, but also a creative tool for night-time photography. Or fill-light, as I noted in some of my Zeiss ZE 100/2 Makro-Planar examples in the forest.

No, those are not the Lupine lights at frame top! But one previous generation Wilma headlamp is on my daughter’s head at bottom, upgraded now to the new LEDs.

 

Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 for Leica M9/M8/M PERMALINK

The Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 always garners gawkers, but in fact it’s a unique lens with unique properties— see my Noctilux 50mm f/0.95 review.

If you’re a Leica M shooter with the cash, the Noctilux-M 50/0.95 is finally back in stock at B&H Photo , after a long absence.

Made with very expensive and exotic optical glasses and two aspheric elements, Leica reportedly can only make 12 of the Noctilux-M per day, and they aren’t made every day.

I shot the Noctilux-M on the Leica M9 (see my full review in DAP), and the biggest problem I found is that it’s too bright: you’ll need a 60mm 3-stop and 6-stop neutral density filters to shoot in sunlight, because the M9 has a top shutter speed of 1/4000 second, and a base ISO of 160 (its ISO 80 setting loses 2/3 stop dynamic range).

Recommended eyepiece for Nikon DSLR PERMALINK

Little things can make a difference, see my Recommended Eyepiece page.

 

Canon image-stabilized binoculars PERMALINK

Just posted to my binoculars pages are my reviews of two Canon image-stabilized (IS) binoculars: the 10X42L IS WP, and the 15X50 IS. I particularly like the 10X42L IS model; image stabilization is a huge advantage when observing small details (no jitter).

Both binoculars provided for evaluation by B&H Photo, see my binoculars list .

 

Canon EOS 1D Mark IV review posted PERMALINK

To DAP, I’ve just published my review of the 16 megapixel Canon EOS 1D Mark IV. See also my Jan 22 notes on how I’d be approaching this camera.

I’m impressed with the Canon 1D Mark IV. Though targeted at sports and action shooters, I see it as applicable to a wide range of other purposes, due to its high image quality, the best yet to come from Canon. I could easily see a landscape or wedding shooter using the 1D Mark IV simply because its image quality is first rate, and the 1.3X crop has advantages in depth of field and the “sweet spot” of popular Canon zooms, like the 24-105 and 16-35.

The Canon 1D Mark IV is available for about $4999 . Thanks to B&H Photo for making this timely review possible by providing the 1D Mark IV for evaluation.

 

Newer Technology eSATA 6G card PERMALINK

Readers of this blog and Mac Performance Guide (PC users can benefit also) know that I’m a big fan of eSATA for performance and fast backups.

NewerTech is now shipping their 2-port MaxPower 6G PCI-Express card for the Mac Pro. It supports eSATA 6, and is backward-compatible with eSATA 3 and eSATA 1.5. At about $60, the price is a no-brainer (and there’s a $10 rebate at OWC when purchased with another qualifying product).

I plan on testing the MaxPower 6G soon, with a report to follow.

The MaxPower 6G needs no driver because it supports AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface). Plug and play, standard cables, same as eSATA 3.

Although eSATA 6 has twice the available bandwidth of eSATA 3, that’s the “size of the pipe”, not to be confused with drive speed of a single hard drive, which generally tops out around 130MB/sec today.

NOTE: this card is an entry-level card, and might not offer top performance for 6G application. Also, this card does not support port multiplication. It’s an ease-of-use and low cost offering.

Time saving tip for saving layered files in Photoshop PERMALINK

Reader Goodloe S from Chapel Hill, NC wrote regarding my consulting help, and in particular one time-saving tip which has really speeded up his workflow. The time-saving referred to is Speed up Opening and Saving Large files.

This is a quick note to thank you again for being a great resource !!! I have been touching up images of insects in PS CS4 for about 4 weeks now - very dirty specimens - each image takes a day or two of work to clean up. Shot with the Hasselblad H3D, the files start out at 225MB and end up between 800MB and 1.2GB depending on how many layers I need along the way.

On my old dual G5, I would have saved my working file every few hours in PSD format, because (a) I didn't know about TIFF vs PSD file I/O speed differences; (b) I didn't know you could save PS layers in a TIFF format; and (c) the saving operation would have taken a minute or two, at least. On my new 4 core MacPro with the SoftRaid-Hitachi drive arrangement, I save my work every few minutes, and the saving operation takes about 2 seconds - a non-event!

Also, using Carbon Cloner and some eSATA Hitachi's running in an enclosure enables me to save my work for the day in about 10 seconds per backup. The CS4 configurations you recommend result in a smooth and robust operation; I use 4 history states to enable quick reversal of clone attempts that don't look quite right, and see no speed difference whatsoever vs. 1 history state. Finally, the Hitachi drives and the Voyager enable me to clone my Master photo file, and other files as well, and ship it to a photo-interested relative in NE for quarterly rotation; this part of my backup plan was missing before I learned about cloning and Hitachi drives from you.

Of all the items above, the large file TIFF I/O speeds standout as the huge win in my daily workflow; perhaps you already knew this from other clients. I am so pleased I just had to tell someone who would appreciate the sheer delight that derives from using a tool that works like it ought to !!!!!!

Thanks again and again for your consulting and confidence building - your advice is far better than golden !

 

Apple iPod Touch credit card tyranny PERMALINK

I like most things Apple does, but one thing has me furious with them. I bought an iPod Touch for two of my daughters (maybe a not-so-smart move, but heck, it was Christmas after a tough year). To pile on the foolishness, I then added them to my me.com accounts (for another $50/year).

They are both minors, and I don’t want them buying anything without my approval; free games are OK, especially educational ones, but I want to know and approve.

So the iPods connect to the Apple Store, and guess what? A credit card is required for an iTunes Store account, even if the goal is just for free apps. So they can’t use their iPod Touch for free games unless I enter a working credit card, whereupon they could buy whatever they want, music, games, videos etc. Ditto if the iPods are stolen. Ugghh.

This has me really upset with Apple. I’ve now sunk $450 into techno-crap ($200 each + $50 me.com), yet they can’t use a single free app unless I fork over a credit card number.

I feel stupid. Isn’t there something really wrong with a system where a device can’t be used for the purpose for which it is advertised?

Update: several helpful readers wrote, offering these suggestions:

1) Turns out after you get their account setup if you go to 'View Account' in iTunes you then have the option of setting the setting the credit card under 'Payment Information' to none, effectively curtailing any kind of crazy shopping spree on their part. Not exactly the most straightforward process, but I think the end result will get you where you want to be.

2) http://specialchildren.about.com/od/familyissues/ss/freeitunes.htm or http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-get-a-Free-Itunes-Account-No-Credit-Card-N/ or http://www.ghacks.net/2009/02/09/create-a-free-us-itunes-account-from-any-country/

3) You do have to fill in your credit card details to download applications,
but for every new download session , you need to provide your Apple ID password. If you keep that password a secret for your kids, they wont be able to download without your approval.

4) Set the kid's iTune accounts with prepaid Itunes gift cards. No credit card is required. When the kids spend the amount in their accounts, they need to save for a new iTunes prepaid Card. [diglloyd: I don't reallly want to spend more money or have them buy stuff]

5) I did the same. Gave my daughter an iPod [for christmas]. And I was too surprised that my 14 year old daughter needed a credit-card. So extremely stupid!

6) I experienced the same problem. However, I found out that after creating the apple store account, you can later logon to the account and delete the credit card. Having done that, I can still logon to the app store and download free apps. When I wish to purchase content, I just enter a card again, then delete it, once the purchase is completed.

7) One possible albeit hokey workaround did occur to me, though: Citibank (and
I'm sure others) allows you to create a "virtual CC number" linked to your
physical account. More importantly you can set it up with a much lower
credit limit. Apparently $0 is not a valid limit but $1 is, at least with
the Citibank cards. I wish Apple will resolve this with a more elegant solution - we can't possibly be the only ones with this dilemma.

8) A slight work around to your problem about the use of a credit card with the ipod account is through the use of a debit card service like entropay (https://www.entropay.com/). It would unfortunately require another outlay, but if you were to place a small amount on a card like this and then use that in itunes, it would allow you to download apps without giving the ability to purchase apps.

 

Can’t make this stuff up PERMALINK

Totally off-topic.

Meet Mikey, 8: U.S. Has Him on Watch List

France's anti-piracy goon squad pirates the font in its logo

OWC enterprise-grade solid state drives (SSD) PERMALINK

Other World Computing (OWC) has begun offering its Mercury Extreme enterprise-grade SSDs suitable for RAID use in 200GB, 100GB and 50GB sizes.

The oddball capacity designations are due to a 28% “set aside” of extra capacity for wear-leveling and performance considerations, just as Intel does in its X25-E offerings. OWC says:

The 28% set aside rates them for high volume data write load with expectation of no data loss or significant performance degradation over a typical 5 year enterprise life deployment. It’s an armored car when it comes to typical consumer use. Essentially it’s to a design spec rated to operate in a database server constantly writing new data 24/7.

OWC calls its new offering (apparently developed in-house), the “fastest and most reliable Solid State Drive on the market today”, with advanced features for wear leveling and ultra-high performance, along with best in class error correction and a 5-year warranty.

Since OWC calls these an “enterprise class” solution, I plan on determining just how resilient they are to serious “abuse”; the Intel and Crucial offerings tend to stumble in write performance (sometimes dramatically), making those brands unsuitable for RAID, or intensive software development where millions of small files are constantly rewritten. In particular note this specification for RAID:

Qualified for Single or Multiple Drive use.
RAID configurations: 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 50, 0+1, 2, 4, 0+3, 3+0, 100, 60

A pair of these drives should arrive early next week, and I plan on a full report in Mac Performance Guide; see my other SSD reviews.

Performance looks to not only be higher than other SSDs on the market today, but also to remain high with extended use due to an advance controller and special provisions for RAID and enterprise use.

New site feature: highlighting PERMALINK

A subtle but effective feature that went in last week or so is the highlighting of subsections on an index page to guide you to the area you chose.

Try it out by clicking this link or this one, etc.

 

Zeiss ZE 100mm f/2 Makro-Planar for Canon EOS released for sale PERMALINK

I just learned from Carl Zeiss USA that the Zeiss ZE 100mm f/2 Makro-Planar for Canon EOS has been released for sale in the US, which means it should show up in the channel this week.

Update Jan 26: the ZE 100/2 is now in stock.

You can order the 100mm f/2 Makro-Planar from B&H Photo , a smart move if you want one soon; I suspect that it will be a popular lens.

The 100mm f/2 Makro-Planar is a standout performer in the ZF/ZE lines. It’s a reference lens whenever I test new cameras or lenses, with corner-to-corners sharpness wide-open at f/2, as well as gorgeous bokeh, a flat field, and high performance close up and at infinity.

There isn’t really anything else like it, nor anything else I’d rather shoot in that focal length range (unless I needed autofocus).

Read my mini review, or get the full scoop on the entire ZF/ZE line in Guide to Zeiss ZF/ZE Lenses. See also my Jan 9 comparison notes.

Canon 1D Mark IV image quality PERMALINK

I’m behind on my review of the Canon 1D Mark IV, mainly because of torrential rains the past week. The creek below was above the boulders in the foreground earlier this week. I measured nearly 11" of rain over the course of 4 days at my home.

Today I shot a confirmation batch of photos to check my image quality findings from earlier this week. I’m now certain that not only does the Canon 1D Mark IV offer the highest image quality of any Canon DSLR yet made, but that sharpness is excellent with top grade optics: it sure looks as if a weak anti-aliasing filter is in use, which is very good news.

I’ll go so far to say that even if I were shooting landscape, I’d want this camera over the 5D Mark II. The image quality improvements more than make up for the 5MP difference. If Canon can scale this sensor to a 27MP full-frame camera with the same quality, Canon landscape shooters will be very happy indeed.

That is not to say that everything is to my satisfaction with the 1D Mark IV, but that will have to wait for my review in DAP. But this is Canon’s best camera yet.

The Zeiss 21/2.8 Distagon performs admirably on the 1D Mark IV, providing a field of view equivalent to a 27mm lens, because of the 1.3X crop sensor (27.9 X 18.6mm). I daresay that Canon 16-35mm users are going to want the ZE 21/2.8 Distagon, because the sensor needs rigorous optical performance, with its 5.7 micron pixels. And focus and depth of field must be nailed.

The Canon 1D Mark IV is on loan courtesy of B&H Photo— get it for about $4999 .

Carl Zeiss Photoscope T* FL 600-1800mm digital camera PERMALINK

Please see my new page on the Carl Zeiss Photoscope 85 T* FL: it’s a 7MP digital camera zoom monocular with a 600/4 to 1800/5.6 equivalent. It even has autofocus. Way cool!

New Apple Mac Pro coming? PERMALINK

I’m hoping that by next Wednesday we’ll see some announcement from Apple of a revised Mac Pro, presumably a six and twelve core offering. See my December blog entry for more thoughts.

Of course, we might have to wait longer, perhaps as long as March, though I’d be very surprised if it takes longer than that. This time around, I hope that memory remains compatible, so that I don’t have to buy memory all over again.

Mac Pro firmware update PERMALINK

Apple has issued a firmware update for the Mac Pro Nehalem (see my review especially for photographers). You can use Software Update to update firmware.

Firmware updates always concern me, but I updated both my 8-core 2.93GHz and 4-core 2.66GHz Mac Pros without a hitch. It takes a few minutes.

Both of my Mac Pros use an SSD boot drive, and the 8-core has 64GB memory. No problems.

Shape Collage Pro for fast and easy digital photo collages PERMALINK

I just tried out Shape Collage Pro version 2.5.1. It’s capable of making collages from your photos in any number of shapes; you can choose a circle, square, text or draw any shape you like. The example below is using a square, nothing fancy.

I’m very impressed with the clean and easy to use interface. Nicely done.

As a huge plus, Shape Collage uses all 16 virtual cores of my Mac Pro Nehalem, which means that the 50 megapixel collage below consisting of 125 jpegs each about 20MB in size took only 10 seconds or so to make! This means you can play around with many different variants very quickly, a huge usability advantage.

I contemplate making a wall-sized poster of a trip or activity that would be a great way to revisit the experience, like having a photo album all on display at once. All I need is wall space, darn it.

I did run into several issues with Shape Collage. First, saving would only show my boot drive.

Second, it claimed to be out of memory when I tried creating a 16000 X 12000 pixel collage (but 10240 X 8192 did work). I have 64GB of memory installed, and Shape Collage is a 64-bit application, so that’s a bug. Both of these issue are apparently due to it being a Java-based program. Disabling multithreading (an option in the menu) works around the memory issue. If you are comfortable using Terminal and a text editor, set the memory limit appropriately by editing /Applications/Shape Collage.app/Contents/Info.plist. Set the memory limit appropriately; here I set my copy to 16GB (16384M). Note that setting too high a value might not work on some machines and/or some versions of Mac OS X.
<string>-Xmx16384m -Dapple.awt.graphics.UseQuartz=true</string>

The resulting collage is not tagged with a color space, and the colors are more saturated than the originals (all my original JPEGs were max quality in Wide Gamut RGB). So I’m not sure what’s happening with color, though the result is perfectly pleasing, if not accurate.

All in all, if you want to make collages, this is a fantastic program, give it a try!

MaxMax.com Nikon D700 “HR” — high resolution mod PERMALINK

I haven’t used a D700HR from MaxMax.com, but anyone looking for extra resolution might want to check it out. The HR (“hot rod”) modification is a upgrade that replaces the stock anti-aliasing (blur) filter over the sensor, with the result that artificial blurring is eliminated.

Update: several readers have written assuming I’m recommending this modification. When I wrote "might want to check it out", this should not be construed as a recommendation. The rest of it is purely informational, and a natural tie-in to previous writings discussing the anti-aliasing filter. I neither endorse nor discourage doing it. I generally avoid recommending anything I haven’t tested myself— and in this case I haven’t. It’s up to you to decide if the modification is something you’d like to do, after doing your own due diligence.

The key concerns I have are white balance after conversion, the cleanliness of the conversion (since cover glass is replaced), loss of the anti-dust feature, and loss of original camera warranty. Since I have not converted a camera for HR, there is nothing I can say about the white balance or cleanliness issues. I have a Canon 5D converted to infrared which I am satisfied with, and a few point and shoots. But no HR conversion.

Nearly every digital camera made today uses an anti-aliasing (blur) filter, which robs the image of detail in order to suppress digital artifacts like moiré. Yet medium format digital backs have long enjoyed the stunning detail achievable without an anti-aliasing filter, see my review of the Mamiya DL28 in DAP. Another notable exception is the full-frame Leica M9, reviewed in depth in DAP (see also the free Leica M lens reviews).

Mouse over the image below to see the D700HR version. The difference is clear, but there are at least three differences to be observed (see below).

There is a clear increase in resolving power, visible with the finest central detail. Can you imagine what a 24 megapixel Nikon D3x would produce with such a modification?

Acutance (edge contrast) is vastly better for the black/white edge details. This contrast difference explains why so much sharpening is needed for digital images made using a camera with an anti-aliasing filter: it smudges all details and all edges; black against white become black-gray-gray-white.

Moiré is visible at center with the HR image. This is what the anti-aliasing filter is designed to prevent. With most subjects, problems with moiré just don’t happen. I never found it an issue with the Leica M9, yet Nikon and Canon continue to degrade the image sharpness by always using an anti-aliasing filter. Perhaps the future will bring a change.

California Eastern Sierra weather reports online PERMALINK

Traveling to the Eastern Sierra? Check out reader Dennis Mattinson’s Eastern Sierra Weather Center.

Season’s biggest storm in CA PERMALINK

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, we’ve been having a multi-day storm, the likes of which I don’t recall for years. Since yesterday, I measured at my home 4.5" (11.4cm) of rain, sometimes just pounding down in massive sheets, then a patch of sky clearing blue with a rainbow, then another deluge. Really cool, I like storms, and best of all I still have power, though it failed for hour two days ago.

RAID 5 for performance and reliability PERMALINK

Looking for high performance and high reliability? RAID 5 (striping + parity) tolerates a drive failure. See my article at MacPeformanceGuide.com: RAID 5 for performance and reliability.

Binoculars update PERMALINK

I’ve posted my review of the Swarovsky EL 10X42 SwaroVision binoculars, along with buying suggestions and a few other updates. Thanks to B&H Photo for loaning all the binoculars for review.

I’m not yet sure if I’ll have any more binoculars coming, but I feel sated: the SwaroVisons are an incredible binocular, albeit a pricey one.

The Nikon EDG models look very promising at a significantly lower price, but I have not had an opportunity to review them as yet.

Canon 1D Mark IV — first impressions PERMALINK

I've just started shooting the new 16.1-megapixel Canon 1D Mark IV, on loan from B&H Photo.

The 1DM4 is a sports shooting camera, with the latest of Canon’s autofocus and other technologies. I’m not a sports shooter, and I won't be evaluating it for that purpose (heck 90% of my shooting is manual focus), nor will I be spending a lot of time on it, other than to look into it as a curiosity that foretells what we might see in a future Canon full-frame ~30 megapixel camera. So I am looking into its image quality, and there I already have some subjective impressions.

Wading through 200 menu choices to figure out how to get Live View working because it‘s set for some video function is damned annoying. I’d much rather see one more button.

The 1DM4 is a 1.3X crop sensor, which means that it has 60% of the area of a full-frame sensor. Crammed into that area are 16 megapixels, which means that it’s equivalent in pixel density to a ~27 megapixel full-frame camera. And of course that means higher noise on a per-pixel basis. The noise appears to be better than previous Canon cameras, but it nonetheless is no match for the Nikon D3s.

Images from the 1DM4 at ISO 3200 are excellent on a relative basis, but the overall “look” at ISO 3200 leaves me uninterested. The Nikon D3s looks to be a better sports camera for low light, both for noise and the beauty of its images. The 1DM4 does not have the D3s secret sauce at high ISO.

However, the 1DM4 produces very fine images and outstanding detail at ISO 100/200, which I’d rate as superior to any previous Canon DSLR. Also, the anti-aliasing (blur) filter looks minimal, allowing excellent sharpness per pixel.

But the 5D Mark II is less than half the price, with 21 megapixels and full-frame. So I see the 1DM4 as interesting mainly for what it was designed for: sports/action. Still, its 16 megapixels and high image quality at low ISO could appeal to landscape or other shooters.

Should Canon be able to maintain the 1D Mark IV image quality at low ISO in a full-frame sensor of ~27-30 MP (same pixel density), then things get more interesting.

In terms of lenses, the Zeiss ZE 50mm f/2 Makro-Planar shows its stuff on the 1D Mark IV, delivering crisp and contrasty images by f/2.8. It makes a very nice portrait lens, a 65mm f/2 in terms of coverage. The 1.3X crop sensor sees only the very best area of the 50/2 Makro Planar (which is outstanding), so it’s a great match.

As an aside, I shot the Canon 35/1.4L on the 1D Mark IV, and the images looked rather dull compared to the Zeiss glass I normally shoot. Then again, I figured that out 2 years go.

The image below shows that at ISO 100, the 1D Mark IV can produce a luscious looking image, probably the best I’ve yet seen from Canon. In particular, the blacks are far cleaner than in any prior Canon camera, an image quality issue critical to visual impact, as I discussed in Pushing the Blacks.

I’ll be posting the usual high-res version of this and other images soon in DAP, just as soon as I’ve had some more shooting time with it.

Top-notch binoculars PERMALINK

My binoculars report is now online. It will be updated for the Swarovski EL 10X42 SwaroVision soon, which are en-route. Thanks to B&H Photo for making these binoculars available for evaluation.

What I’ve found with binoculars is that they’re like shoes— you have to get just the right “fit” for your own needs.

I hope to also review at least one model of the Nikon EDG series.

 

A good value display for your computer PERMALINK

I’m fond of wide gamut high-end displays for photographers.

But sometimes a more basic display is in order for a 2nd monitor (for palettes and “stuff”) and/or just more screen real-estate.

And sometimes it's simply the added cost, which might need to be deferred until better times. At any rate, I keep getting asked “what about a good cheap monitor”.

I’ve been testing the Acer B243HL, and my evaluation is now published in Mac Performance Guide. At about $296 for a 24" display, it’s a very good option for those on a budget, or just those looking for a second monitor for palettes, etc.

Another good application is fixing the ergonomics of a laptop by adding a monitor, keyboard and mouse eg your own “docking station”.

Major site updates — revised and new articles (free) PERMALINK

Out with the old, in with the new! I’ve revamped and updated the free content area, and I’ve added some major new sections as well.

View the articles index page for free content on this site. New or revised areas of note include the following:

• Zeiss ZF/ZE lens pages
• Leica M lens pages
• Filters
• Understanding optics
• Subjective lens qualities
• Photo tips and Ask Lloyd
• Diffraction, focusing issues, depth of field
• Recommended stuff
• More!

Canon rebates expiring Friday PERMALINK

Rebates on Canon lenses expire this Friday.

Check out instant rebates on Canon lenses at B&H Photo. A lot of them also have free shipping.

My top picks are the 200/2.8L IS ($500 off), the 85/1.2L II ($130 off), and the 70-200/4L IS ($40 off).

Looking for a starter kit? The Canon EOS Rebel XS is only $669 with an 18-55mm and 75-300mm lens.

Zeiss ZE 50/2 Makro-Planar in stock at B&H PERMALINK

Just a quick note— the Zeiss ZE 50mm f/2 Makro-Planar for Canon EOS is showing up as in stock at B&H Photo.

See my Jan 6 notes on the ZE 50/2 Makro Planar, as well as my Jan 7 notes on which focal lengths to start with in the ZF/ZF.2/ZE line.

The 50/2 Makro-Planar gets my highest recommendation. It’s wonderful optically, and as versatile a 50mm as you’ll ever find.

Zeiss 100mm f/2 Makro-Planar compared to Nikon AF-S VR 105mm f/2.8G PERMALINK

As promised in my newsletter, I’ve published in my Guide to Zeiss ZF/ZE Lenses a revealing comparison between the Zeiss ZF 100mm f/2 Makro-Planar and the Nikon AF-S VR 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF.

The ZF/ZF.2/ZE lines for Nikon and Canon are optically identical, so the comparison should be of interest to both Nikon and Canon shooters.

In the rarified world of high performance optics, the Zeiss is under-priced, believe it or not. See my handy list of ZE lenses for Canon and list of ZF lenses for Nikon. If you like the best, figure out a way to get one— invest in good optics and they’ll serve you well for a lifetime.

Note that the 100/2 Makro-Planar will be available in February in ZE mount for Canon and ZF.2 mount for Nikon, which I’ll note here in this blog. The existing ZF version remains available for Nikon of course (see notes). Thank you for using the links off this blog page when buying.

Zeiss ZE 35mm f/2 in stock PERMALINK

The Zeiss 35mm f/2 Distagon has been a longtime favorite of mine, and now Canon shooters can enjoy it too.

B&H Photo now has the ZE 35mm f/2 Distagon for Canon EOS in stock, see my previous notes here and here, and this handy list of ZE lenses for Canon and list of ZF lenses for Nikon.

One issue for those buying into the Zeiss lineup is to space the focal lengths according to shooting habits. The 21/50/100 triplet is an excellent choice, but a 21/35/100 or 21/35/50/100 or 21/28/50/100 lineup also makes sense. Shooting style should drive your choice, but thinking it over in advance is a good idea, since I’ve heard from a lot of satisfied owners who buy more focal lengths after the first proves gratifying.

Zeiss ZE 50mm f/2 Makro-Planar examples on Canon 5D Mark II PERMALINK

To my Guide to Zeiss ZE/ZF Lenses, I’ve added 21 new examples of the ZE 50mm f/2 Makro-Planar on the Canon 5D Mark II. I’ve had to return my sample copy, so that’s all for now.

The ZE 50mm f/2 Makro-Planar is available at B&H Photo, and should show up very soon as in stock. The ZF.2 Nikon version is already in stock. The ZE (Canon) and ZF (Nikon) versions are optically identical.

The 50/2 Makro-Planar is an incredibly versatile lens. At f/2, it’s fast enough for just about any type of shooting. It’s a 1:2 macro lens. It’s sharp close up and at infinity. Its symmetric optical design all but eliminates color fringing of any kind, bokeh is gorgeous, and it’s great for portraits too. You can’t go wrong with it; if I had to shoot one lens only, I’d likely choose it, 50mm being neither too long nor too wide for general purpose use.

Add in the jewelry-grade build quality, the deeply recessed front element (flare and damage protection), and the ZE 50/2 Makro-Planar emerges as a winner there can be no reason to regret, unless you must have autofocus. And even there, the Canon “green dot” focus assist works very well.

January newsletter sent to mailing list PERMALINK

I’ve sent the January newsletter out.

I’m unhappy with the service I use, because it broke some of the links I had embedded in the newsletter. Read the newsletter on this site and all links work.Join the mailing list

Canon’s new 70-200mm f/2.8L II PERMALINK

Today Canon announced (months in advance) a new 70-200mm f/2.8L II. According to Canon’s press release, the new optical design improves image quality. Canon describes “a fluorite element and a fifth UD element”. So we can probably count on minimal chromatic aberration and other good qualities. Canon also states that mechanical design and durability are improved.

Worth noting is the close focusing down to a magnification of 1:4.76, which is considerably closer (and more versatile) than the un-versatile 1:8.3 of the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II. It will also be interesting to see if the Canon 70-200 plays the same troublesome focal length shortening tricks as the Nikon 70-200 at close range (documented in my review). With the Nikon design, one must move in much closer than a 200mm lens (more like 135mm).

With 23 elements in 19 groups, the new Canon design is a complex lens. I hope Canon’s quality control is up to the task. I expect to review the new 70-200mm f/2.8L II, but it won’t be available until April , and the price (unspecified) will surely exceed that of its predecessor.

January newsletter PERMALINK

I’ll be sending out another newsletter soon, so sign up if you’re interested. You control what you get, and it’s a low volume offering, so far it has not averaged more than about 3 times per month, total. You can always unsubscribe on your own, each email contains unsubscribe information. The email address you use can be anything you desire, it need not be related to your subscription (if any).

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You can also keep up to date with the RSS feed and/or my Twitter page.

Zeiss ZE 100mm f/2 Makro-Planar examples on Canon 5D Mark II PERMALINK

To my Guide to Zeiss ZE/ZF Lenses, I’ve added twenty new examples of the ZE 100mm f/2 Makro-Planar on the Canon 5D Mark II. I’ve had to return my sample copy, so that’s all for now. The ZE 100mm f/2 Makro-Planar should be available in early February, see yesterday’s notes.

Zeiss ZE 100/2 Makro-Planar aperture series PERMALINK

To my Guide to Zeiss ZE/ZF Lenses, I’ve added a new page showing the performance of the Zeiss ZE 100m f/2 Makro-Planar on the 21MP Canon 5D Mark II with an aperture series from f/2 through f/5.6 on a strongly backlit subject. Regrettably, 21 megapixels is far too low a resolution to explore the limits of the 100/2 Makro-Planar, so patience is in order for a future offering from Canon.

The ZE 100/2 Makro-Planar will be available in early February for Canon (and also in ZF.2 guise for Nikon), I’ll be noting its availability in this blog when it shows up. In the meantime, check out my wish list of ZE Lenses and wish list of ZF/ZF.2 lenses, most of which are in stock. If you’re looking for a very versatile macro lens which is also outstanding at infinity, consider also the Zeiss 50mm f/2 Makro-Planar.

Happy New Year! PERMALINK

Catch up with last year.

Random musings on 2010 PERMALINK

We’re due for a volley in the megapixel wars between Canon and Nikon, which means that we might soon see ~30 megapixels from either or both. But keep in mind that 30 vs 24 megapixels sounds great, but it’s really pretty minor, since it’s a paltry 1.1X linearly. The real value of high megapixel counts lies in downsampling from 30 megapixels to 24 or 20, which cleans up digital nasties. Or the reverse, less upsampling when printing. Which is why 60 megapixels is not only a good idea, but will come, in time. And if that means a 30 megapixel camera which “oversamples” from a 60MP sensor, that sounds great to me. But lenses and technique matter, so pay attention to diffraction, field curvature, depth of field, focus shift and the like, at least for some types of photography. Those links are in DAP.

The quality bar has now been met: the Nikon D3s and D3x are cameras you can live with, for a long time. Canon is way behind, so expect to see something nice from Canon this year. But I do hope that whatever “secret sauce” is found in the lovely D3s makes its way into a D3xs, and I don’t care much whether it’s 24 or 30MP.

Optics are the name of the game with DSLRs going forward, and we’ll see continued emphasis from Nikon and Canon and Zeiss on new and improved designs. But guess what? Some of the “cheapies” are also some of the good ones, with all brands.

Will Apple continue to dumb-down its product line? By that I mean the elimination of the ExpressCard/34 slot from most MacBook Pro models, and the crippled iMac, with its single sluggish Firewire 800 port and no means of adding a second internal hard drive, let alone easily upgrading the only one it has. That’s no offense to iMac lovers, it’s just that one should not have to cough up a bundle for a Mac Pro to get decent expansion capabilities. Such absurdities would not be tolerated in the PC world. It’s bittersweet.

Will the dollar collapse further this year, and will countries race to devalue their currencies this year or next? Will gold hit $2000 or $5000 an ounce as the dollar collapses? Who knows, but gold is insurance, so have 10% of your portfolio in quality gold and silver stocks. You wouldn’t own a house without fire insurance, would you?

Quality goods will increase in price (in dollar terms), so treat yourself and get that lens you always wanted. Oh boy I wish I hadn’t sold my 58mm f/1.2 NOCT-Nikkor, but I needed the money back then. Somewhere down under, the buyer is smirking as he reads this.

New Year’s reader comments PERMALINK

In this hectic world, I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to do something I love doing — teaching, which I greatly enjoy in person, but mainly do in writing here on this site and MacPerformanceGuide.com.

Reader Scott T emailed to share his thoughts below. It’s hard to respond to this other than saying “thank you!”, this is what makes the effort worthwhile.

Thank you for all of your tireless efforts throughout the year. I really appreciate and enjoy the copious amounts of high quality information that you present. I often refer others to your site, either in person or in various forums. I can do so without hesitation or qualifiers - the work you do is top notch IMHO.

I know of no other site where I can reliably obtain so much high quality information on photography and computers (or flashlights). My new Mac Pro is singing along next to me as I write this. I NEVER could or would have bought a Mac Pro and done all the upgrades myself without your thorough tutorials and easy to follow instructions. I never would have installed an SSD boot drive, multiple HDD drives or a Raid-O array without your help. I am also using a Voyager dock with 3 rotating bare drives for
backup - you'd be proud! I was able to configure a state of the art system for $3,700 that would have been $7,400 (with tax) at my local Apple store. The Mac Pro sure is an elegant beast and a pleasure to work with.

I started a mid-life career change at the age of 40. I am now 52 and have completed 4 University degrees with honors including Ph.D work over the last decade. Along the way, I have been fortunate to have had some excellent, world-class instructors. I have learned as much from you as I have from any of them. What else can I say :-)

I've said this before, I joined your site for the Photography content...but feel that the computer content is is just as important.. and maybe you should be charging for it. I would subscribe to it.
—Scott T

Scott goes on to recommend computeraudiophile.com, though I haven’t checked the site out in any detail (looks good). But with three kids and this site and a day job, I hardly ever get to listen to my Wilson Audio Watt Puppies any more, if I can wade around the kids stuff! Sometime the computer/audio connection will be fun to explore.

Reader Ed F finds enjoys the blend of photography and computers:

I have been a a subscriber and blog follower of yours for over a year. I just wanted to thank you for the 'virtual' service that you have provided in assisting me in my journey to become a better photographer and to share those Images via the Web.

In particular, I have saved countless hours and money, by referring to your MAC performance guide. My current Mac Pro setup almost mirrors your recommendations. I don't even flinch or second guess your advice. I'm fairly well versed in computers and know that your advice is the real deal.

When I recently started up my own Web site and needed some serious hardware upgrades, I turned to your web site for resources and answers to my configuration questions...and would not have been able to do it without your specifications for hardware, HDD's, esata card, RAID configurations... etc.

I am a NIKON shooter and always, always take a hard look at and read all
your advice, spec reviews and real work review' before I make any serious
purchases... again because you tell it like it is. You have a wonderful column and here's to continued Best wishes for 2010. A truly grateful reader, Ed F

Reviewed: OWC Elite-AL Pro mini hard drive enclosure PERMALINK

To Mac Performance Guide, I’ve just published my review of the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini external hard drive.

The AL-Pro mini is a robust unit perfect for many uses. It requires no power adapter, a big plus for those on the go, or canyon liking a neat and tidy look for their iMac or similar.

Check out performance with both a hard drive and two brands of solid state drives.

Take a stroll to the December 2009 blog.