GAS GAS: Please Share your Latest Desires Big and Small

[RichardC]

Oh, go on. Spoil yourself, you know you deserve it. It is such a nice contraption to have in the toolbox

Best regards Enablerman...

Well....I made an email enquiry to establish the condition of a Canon TS-E 90mm f2.8 advertised at £449 with a 12 month warranty. I have the correct adapter for my camera.

According to a number of sources, it's soft at f2.8 whereas the new L version is very sharp wide open. However at f8+ which is where I'll most likely be using it, there's very little discernible difference. Downside is that it's potentially a 30 year old lens - but they are still available as new old stock for about £1150 vs £2200+ for the L.

The guy from the shop phoned me and spent five minutes telling me how good the condition is.

It's arriving on Tuesday.

 

[John King]

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for modern medicine and all that entails. I just cant take the lazy ones that follow the 80/20 rule of treating all the patients the same because 80% won’t follow the guidance given.

Exactly, mate. That's why it's so tremendously important that you have a general practitioner who knows you and understands your conditions.

I have a good friend here who is a few years older than I am. He is in the public health system here (we are privately insured). He's been through what it sounds like you have for years. The big run around ... Different GP every few months. No correct clinical diagnosis. FCOL, I know more about medicine than some of his doctors appear to! While I have a lot of knowledge in this area from my studies in physiological psychology, there is no way that I should ever know more than any doctor ... Unfortunately, that is not the case.

When I was being discharged from Melbourne Private on one occasion, my cardiologist walked in just as the discharge sister was starting to explain my medications. He said "Don't worry about that, John probably knows more about them than you do." My doctors also explicitly instruct that I am to self medicate while in hospital. This is unheard of in Australia.

Glad you are getting the treatment you need.

Thank you, Andrew. We're all going to die, but I have no intention of doing so because I'm too stupid to avoid it.

I wish you and your wife well in finding that all-important GP who can direct you to the Specialist doctors who you need.

 

[John King]

My wife also has an autoimune condition that leaves doctors dumb founded. We have been to the best there is in the US and we get blank stares. We are told that what she is exper is impossible, well, no it’s not, it’s right in front of them. If a condition doesn’t fit inside their nice little box, well, good luck to you. I fully understand your situation. We just have to keep trying to find a resolution.

Bruce, always remember the story (film too) of Lorenzo's Oil.

The parents could not save their son, but their discovery has saved the lives of countless others.

I might add, I fall into that "5%" group of everything. No medications work as advertised, my biochemistry and neurochemistry are patently quite odd. After some 20 years, I can still become unstable on my Warfarin at the drop of a Brussels sprout ...

The Targin I take (Oxycodone/Naloxone mix) should work in 20 minutes. It takes around 2 hours, and lasts for 6-8 hours. Valium does not work as an anti-anxiety medication, but works excellently as as anti-spasmodic; etc, etc. You get the idea. Getting this sort of thing through to doctors can be a nightmare, and is a good touchstone ...

 

[RichardC]

.......there is no way that I should ever know more than any doctor

You would be surprised John. My daughter works in PICU. Junior doctors routinely obtain opinions from nurses because whilst they have the broad qualification they don't have anywhere near the same level of experience.

 

[The Electric Squirrel]

Lately I've found myself daydreaming about the new Sigma 50 f/1.4 DG DN for E-mount much more than I should. I'm really unsure whether it would do anything notably better or differently compared to my Zeiss 55/1.8 Sonnar, other than being considerably heavier. Apparently it is almost as sharp in the corners as it is in the center, which the Zeiss isn't. But other than that, it has the same issues with LoCA that the Zeiss has, it suffers from pincushion distortion which shouldn't be an issue in a 50mm... Still, I keep wondering whether I should trade in the Zeiss for the Sigma...

Oh well, I have time to think. I just imposed a ban on buying any gear or powertools on myself, and asked my spouse to enforce it. No new gear until I've received delivery on my new car I placed an order on in december. But as a boss of mine once said "Just because you're on a diet doesn't mean you can't read the menu. Just don't order any dishes from it."

 

[MoonMind]

Lately I've found myself daydreaming about the new Sigma 50 f/1.4 DG DN for E-mount much more than I should. I'm really unsure whether it would do anything notably better or differently compared to my Zeiss 55/1.8 Sonnar, other than being considerably heavier. Apparently it is almost as sharp in the corners as it is in the center, which the Zeiss isn't. But other than that, it has the same issues with LoCA that the Zeiss has, it suffers from pincushion distortion which shouldn't be an issue in a 50mm... Still, I keep wondering whether I should trade in the Zeiss for the Sigma...

Oh well, I have time to think. I just imposed a ban on buying any gear or powertools on myself, and asked my spouse to enforce it. No new gear until I've received delivery on my new car I placed an order on in december. But as a boss of mine once said "Just because you're on a diet doesn't mean you can't read the menu. Just don't order any dishes from it."

I'd keep on dreaming for a while, save up and opt for the Sony 50mm f/1.2 GM instead; not a lot bigger and heavier, optically way superior ...

The GM is one of the lenses that could make me consider E mount again. That said, I have nothing bad to say about my Z 50mm f/1.2 S - except that it's huge. Thankfully, the Z 50mm f/1.8 S is the size of the Sony 55mm f/1.8. but optically clearly better behaved ... I'm not talking about sharpness, but about aberrations (the Sony has the more interesting rendering, though). So I really have all bases covered. But for its size, the GM is still a stunner ...

M.

 

[The Electric Squirrel]

I'd keep on dreaming for a while, save up and opt for the Sony 50mm f/1.2 GM instead; not a lot bigger and heavier, optically way superior ...

The GM is one of the lenses that could make me consider E mount again. That said, I have nothing bad to say about my Z 50mm f/1.2 S - except that it's huge. Thankfully, the Z 50mm f/1.8 S is the size of the Sony 55mm f/1.8. but optically clearly better behaved ... I'm not talking about sharpness, but about aberrations (the Sony has the more interesting rendering, though). So I really have all bases covered. But for its size, the GM is still a stunner ...

M.

The 50/1.2 GeeMeister is undoubtedly a stunning lens, but far beyond what I can justify paying for a 50mm lens. That new 50/1.4 might - in a pinch - just be within the boundary of imaginable excuses, but the f/1.2 not so much. I'd rather spend that sort of dosh on renovating the house.

I do 99% of what I do seriously - as seriously as a hobby can be that is - with zooms. I mainly use the primes for kids'n'kitties, so finding an excuse to spend over 2000€ for a fifty exceeds my - admittedly very imaginative - abilities to come up with excuses and explanations.

 

[davidzvi]

My wife struggles almost daily with some chronic autoimmune maladies. I would desire nothing more than to have her not having to struggle through each day in pain.

Doctors seem to have nothing more than wanting to throw drugs at it to manage symptoms and very little in terms of preemptive measures to try and counter the flair ups.

I’ve learned many years ago(at least my experience has shone out) when I was first diagnosed with diabetes that modern medicine is all about getting people in and out of the primary care doctors office quickly and there is a cookie cutter approach to just treat symptoms.

It took me taking over my own treatment to get myself off all the drugs that had worse side effects than the disease.

I believe my wife’s situation will be much of the same. Just more difficult as her ailments are more modern in diagnosis and less is known about their root cause than diabetes.

I’m confident we can overcome! The struggle will/is hard and real, but we can get there!

I'm sorry to hear it, and -- you're right. Health care is so often a cookie-cutter approach and there are many maladies which don't respond well to this strategy. Especially autoimmune issues, because these often seem to be inflammation reactions to specific triggers based on personal history. Picking an anti-inflammatory diet, searching for and avoiding triggers, and pushing for general good health in other areas, seem to have the best effects for many people. I have a theory that the western way of living really unsettles the immune system, such that it targets the wrong things in an effort to try and correct the base unhealthiness of our diet and food additives, our sterile living environment, and the chemicals we regularly surround ourselves with.

My Wife also has a number of autoimmune issues. She has RADICALLY changed her diet and it has had a significant impact. It's a difficult process of cutting 95% of what you might normally eat and slowly adding back individual foods. No grains, no dairy, no processed sugars, limited spices, and no nightshades. Not easy, but has made a difference.

 

[agentlossing]

My Wife also has a number of autoimmune issues. She has RADICALLY changed her diet and it has had a significant impact. It's a difficult process of cutting 95% of what you might normally eat and slowly adding back individual foods. No grains, no dairy, no processed sugars, limited spices, and no nightshades. Not easy, but has made a difference.

It seems, from the admittedly limited amount of thinking I have done on the subject, like the body will slowly start to turn on some things, when they are having an unhealthy overall effect on the body (or, at least, the immune system "thinks" that they are). It'll manifest some warning signs, but, at some point if an adjustment isn't made, the immune system will wholesale turn on whatever it is. And then it will either remain something you can't eat/touch/come into contact with, or, maybe, over an extended time, you can only slowly reintroduce.

I try to listen to my body for any telltale signs when it comes to common items like gluten, sugar and dairy. I have no issues with them as of now, but if (for example) I developed an opposition to gluten I'd be very, very sad. Beer and bread? Go ahead and shoot me. That's a little flippant. But anyway, I think moderation is key, so I try to be careful about the amounts I eat, and give my body breaks sometimes. Hopefully this theory works.

 

[Ad Dieleman]

Hello. I hope you know what you need/want and what you are trying to accomplish with this lens.
My experience is from the 24mm TS-E. Its optical quality is excellent. Unless you are shooting tethered with the aid of a bigger screen (iPad), you will find focusing a pain. For normal straightening and perspective correction, Lightroom is good enough. I have a bit of difficulty understanding what line of photography you are in.

To add to that: I used to love working with shift lenses in my film days, notably the PC-Nikkors 4/28 and 2.8/35. When I started working with Sony FE cameras I got myself an Olympus OM Shift 2.8/35, but I sold it a few years later. I still have a Minolta Shift CA 2.8/35 but have an agreement to trade it for a 28mm lens to be added to my collection.

Adobe Lightroom (Classic) has come a long way, also in accommodating for keystone corrections and that made me come to the conclusion that I don't need shift lenses anymore. A good lens without shift and corrected for keystoning in Lightroom delivers adequate image quality compared to a shift lens, which generally loses sharpness when shifted. Also especially the PC-Nikkor 4/28 exhibited a shift to cooler colors away from the center; however, these days it wouldn't be too hard to correct that in post-processing.

Biggest problem for me with shift lenses is geometric distortion; I really hate geometric distortion and I'm quite sensitive to it. I looked into the modern Canon shift lenses but got warned by others that I probably wouldn't be happy with the geometric distortion and inspection of images online seemed to confirm that. In theory it is possible to make correction profiles for images made with shift but it is quite the effort, requiring a.o. careful notes about the direction and amount of shift used. I'm not even sure if it's possible to make correction profiles for Lightroom with the Adobe Lens Profile Creator; I know it's possible in PTLens, an old program that I used in the film days, but making profiles in it was a real pain. On the other hand, making a correction profile for a regular lens with Adobe Lens Profile Creator is fairly easy and the results are excellent, it's something I habitually do for almost every legacy lens I intend to use.

 

[RichardC]

Exactly. What is the point if you still need a profile to correct the TS lens? Why not go digital all the way, then?
Another thing, 90mm is not a usable focal length, at least as far as I can see. But I do not know what the intended target is.

I have plenty of uses for it, but like many things photographic, there is some learning to do.

Many of my ecommerce subjects are small items. The TS-E 90mm focuses quite close. When I'm photographing small objects at an angle, I usually have to stack them.

Trying some test shots of this syringe. f8, no tilt....

Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

...and tilted, also f8.

Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Sure you could focus stack, but would you want to do 25 focus stacks? Ecommerce photography needs to be as simple as possible. The other way could be to use a much smaller aperture, but then there is diffraction to contend with and you could easily run out of strobe power for larger subjects.

Other uses are using the lens the 'wrong' way to isolate your subject and using the shift function to create panoramas without having to rotate the camera and worry about nodal points etc.

Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Haven't quite got the front locking ring in focus above, but like I said, I have to learn to use it properly. Rest assured, I'll get lots of use out of it

 

[Ad Dieleman]

I have plenty of uses for it, but like many things photographic, there is some learning to do.

Many of my ecommerce subjects are small items. The TS-E 90mm focuses quite close. When I'm photographing small objects at an angle, I usually have to stack them.

Trying some test shots of this syringe. f8, no tilt....

View attachment 376466

...and tilted, also f8.

View attachment 376467

Sure you could focus stack, but would you want to do 25 focus stacks? Ecommerce photography needs to be as simple as possible. The other way could be to use a much smaller aperture, but then there is diffraction to contend with and you could easily run out of strobe power for larger subjects.

Other uses are using the lens the 'wrong' way to isolate your subject and using the shift function to create panoramas without having to rotate the camera and worry about nodal points etc.

View attachment 376468

Haven't quite got the front locking ring in focus above, but like I said, I have to learn to use it properly. Rest assured, I'll get lots of use out of it

So you'll mainly use the tilt function, which makes perfect sense of course for close-up shots. I occasionally use the tilt function of my Minolta Auto Bellows Edit IV III for the same purpose.

 

[RichardC]

So you'll mainly use the tilt function, which makes perfect sense of course for close-up shots. I occasionally use the tilt function of my Minolta Auto Bellows IV for the same purpose.

Mostly tilt - although I'll try some panos as well. I imagine that a wide angle would mostly be shifted.

This lens won't tilt and shift on the same axis although you can rotate the whole lens, The syringe shot was tilted with the lens also rotated 45 degrees.

Canon designed this original 90mm to have the option where you can unscrew the lens and turn the front section one quarter so you can tilt and shift in the same direction. I'll see if it's needed. The box housing the tilt assembly on the newest version has the rotation built in - average selling price is 2.5-3x what I paid here.

 

[AndyH44]

That my newly purchased upgrade replacement for my recently sold X-T3 arrives safe & sound and functions as it should.

 

[mnhoj]

The rumored Viltrox 27mm F1.2 PRO for Fuji x-mount.
Call me impressed by the 13 and 75. Design, engineering, manufacturing and marketing.
Could tie both of them in to a strong, value heavy trio.

 

[AndyH44]

That my newly purchased upgrade replacement for my recently sold X-T3 arrives safe & sound and functions as it should.

It did; it does; and hopefully I will keep and use this one from now on. Getting tired of my "buy & try" preoccupation.
Oh..... its a BNIB X-T5 (Black of course)

 

[mnhoj]

Sweet. Love mine.

It did; it does; and hopefully I will keep and use this one from now on. Getting tired of my "buy & try" preoccupation.
Oh..... its a BNIB X-T5 (Black of course)

 

[The Electric Squirrel]

Yesterday got me thinking about a new tripod again. My Genesis BASE C5 has seen a lot of use the past two years, and it's starting to show wear. I don't really mind the end of the bottom sections being completely knackered, but one mid-section has started sticking occasionally. Said section has become a bit loose which mean that the anti-rotation shims at the end of that tube slide out of place every now and then causing the section to stick when trying to extend or collapse the thing. And things not working properly in the field tend to pi$$ me off...

But finding a replacement isn't that easy. The Genesis C5 is quite a tall tripod, yet only around 2 kilograms in weight with my 3 Legged Thing AirHed Pro ballhead. It's about 2 metres tall with the center column extended, so what to replace it with? I've been oogling the Benro Rhino 34C and 2 Legged Thing Winston 2.0, but I've zero idea how durable those are when they've been dragged under the keel a few times and used in freezing weather after that. I'd like a tripod that'll take my abuse for more than two years, thank you very much...

Suggestions are welcome. And if anyone has any experience of either of the aformentioned tripods, l'd be thankful to hear about them.

 

[John King]

ES, I can vouch for the build quality of my Benro A49T monopod. It's excellent. However, I'm never rough with my gear.

 

[will focus]

A few weeks ago we had a major solar event that triggered a dazzling display of Auroras. Best show I've seen since the 70s. I managed to get out and grab a few shots using my Sigma 24-70 2.8. That lens actually worked quite well for it being the first time I ever shot the Aurora.

But I started to wonder. "How much better would it have been if I would have had a lens a little wider and a little faster ?" Well, wondering has gotten me in trouble more than once and this time the curiosity was just too strong. So I ordered a Sony 20mm 1.8 from my local camera shop today. Should have it by Monday, maybe.

It seems most of the time I find myself shooting long tele lengths, so I will have to try and train my eye to see in wide if this purchase will be worth the investment. Since the last Aurora that knocked my socks off was back in the 70s, I figure I'd be about a hundred and 20 years old if I had to wait that long again to use this lens. Yet for some reason I'm still excited about mounting on a camera. You may notice that the birds in my shots over the next few weeks may look really really small.