The Christmas 2020 Thread

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this is going to be a longer post :-D

This year the Holiday decorations are a welcome attraction to us - since our walks have been constrained to our neighbourhood for a long time now...

I hope people leave those up into January/February... Really helps to "light up" the dull weather and darkness of the season :)

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the house down the road :)
by tilman paulin, on Flickr

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the house down the road :)
by tilman paulin, on Flickr

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by tilman paulin, on Flickr

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by tilman paulin, on Flickr

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Santa's watching you :)
by tilman paulin, on Flickr

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evening walks
by tilman paulin, on Flickr

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from bee to Santa :)
by tilman paulin, on Flickr

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Ho Ho Ho
by tilman paulin, on Flickr

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Ho Ho Ho
by tilman paulin, on Flickr

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Untitled
by tilman paulin, on Flickr
 
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this is going to be a longer post :-D

This year the Holiday decorations are a welcome attraction to us - since our walks have been constrained to our neighbourhood for a long time now...

I hope people leave those up into January/February... Really helps to "light up" the dull weather and darkness of the season :)

View attachment 243194the house down the road :) by tilman paulin, on Flickr

View attachment 243195the house down the road :) by tilman paulin, on Flickr

View attachment 243196Untitled by tilman paulin, on Flickr

View attachment 243197Untitled by tilman paulin, on Flickr

View attachment 243198Untitled by tilman paulin, on Flickr

View attachment 243199Santa's watching you :) by tilman paulin, on Flickr

View attachment 243200evening walks by tilman paulin, on Flickr

View attachment 243201from bee to Santa :) by tilman paulin, on Flickr

View attachment 243202Ho Ho Ho by tilman paulin, on Flickr

View attachment 243203Ho Ho Ho by tilman paulin, on Flickr

View attachment 243204Untitled by tilman paulin, on Flickr
Ya know, there was a well known house in Sydney like that around 15 or so years ago. Everyone drove down from various parts of the city to see it every year. Then it suddenly stopped. Apparently the neighbours complained and the inhabitants could no longer afford the electricity bill😂
 
Ya know, there was a well known house in Sydney like that around 15 or so years ago. Everyone drove down from various parts of the city to see it every year. Then it suddenly stopped. Apparently the neighbours complained and the inhabitants could no longer afford the electricity bill😂
That's one of the two things I wonder about with these extremely elaborate decorations - electricity (todays LED lights might help there) and where do they store it throughout the year? :)

Maybe I should just ask the owner about storage. He's often out there in the garden, chatting with visitors.
From that perspective I get it completely - the decorations bring him joy and help connect with people...
I used to be a bit more cynical about the more over-the-top decorations - but after this year I have to say that there's nothing wrong with it :)
 
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I think the running costs of these extravagantly lit houses will have decreased significantly through the use of LED sources - probably by a factor of ten. Before that some of the extreme examples had to hire in a generator if the house supply couldn't cope.

Some of the houses around here take several weekends to decorate, and you see the owners doing it from mid-November.

I'm not really a fan, but sometimes there's a collection box for charity outside the house, which changes my perception.

-R
 
Santa's landed - a bit late, but anyhow ...

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... my mother put this little guy in a package for me, "a little something real for Christmas" ... it's almost unbearably cliché and quaint - and yet it's one of the most moving gifts I've ever received.. No kiddin' ... Makes it all even harder - however, persevering seems more worthwhile, too.

M.
 
It is. Never do any PP correcting with that lens, I'm happy with way it churns them out, but that's just me. The images are cropped alot though too.
Thanks for confirming this - you know, I've been sort of disenchanted with the 50mm Summicron-M because it just doesn't quite reach the performance levels it's so famed for, at least in my experience - nevertheless, it's a pleasant little lens to shoot, and the images coming from it a still very nice. I just think that overhyping these lenses does them (and us shooters) a disservice ... It may very well be that the same is true for the Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH. as well - I really like what I see from ist, but it's probably not going to win any head-to-head contest with today's superbly corrected glass (I'd bet that even the Nikon Z 35mm f/1.8, itself not the absolute best lens, would probably beat it in purely technical terms). But these small, exceptionally well made and proficient lenses are still worth it! That said, I'm still on the fence about the Summicron-M 50mm f/2 as to whether to keep it - because I do prefer the rendering of the lowly (well, at least less famous) Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f/1.5 (version 1), a lens which I also clearly prefer over its mighty younger sibling, the 50mm f/1.2 Nokton. In fact, I might sell both the more expensive lenses and just keep the Nokton f/1.5 ...

Anyway , this shot comes - from the comparatively totally pedestrian G1X III (even though I carried the M10 with the 50mm f/1.2 as today's main camera ...):

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M.
 
Thanks for confirming this - you know, I've been sort of disenchanted with the 50mm Summicron-M because it just doesn't quite reach the performance levels it's so famed for, at least in my experience - nevertheless, it's a pleasant little lens to shoot, and the images coming from it a still very nice. I just think that overhyping these lenses does them (and us shooters) a disservice ... It may very well be that the same is true for the Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH. as well - I really like what I see from ist, but it's probably not going to win any head-to-head contest with today's superbly corrected glass (I'd bet that even the Nikon Z 35mm f/1.8, itself not the absolute best lens, would probably beat it in purely technical terms). But these small, exceptionally well made and proficient lenses are still worth it! That said, I'm still on the fence about the Summicron-M 50mm f/2 as to whether to keep it - because I do prefer the rendering of the lowly (well, at least less famous) Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f/1.5 (version 1), a lens which I also clearly prefer over its mighty younger sibling, the 50mm f/1.2 Nokton. In fact, I might sell both the more expensive lenses and just keep the Nokton f/1.5 ...

Anyway , this shot comes - from the comparatively totally pedestrian G1X III (even though I carried the M10 with the 50mm f/1.2 as today's main camera ...):

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M.
Yep, for me when it comes to lenses, it’s rendering first, with corner to corner sharpness and correcting quite a bit further down the list. And even then, rendering is a subjective thing down to the eye of the beholder. For example, I don’t own them, but I absolutely love how those Olympus OM 50mm/55mm f1.4/f1.2 lenses render. Not much technical perfection there.
 
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