Single In Single in February (SiF) 2023 - discussion

So... question for the mods/ cat herders/ cool cats.

There are a couple times being able to do a diptych will be better than verbiage. If I take a shot pre-organization, and then a shot a day or three later post-organization, can the two dropped on a background and posted as one image the day of the second shot count for this SiF?

edit - I wouldn't be doing this a lot, just once or maybe twice.
 
*Posting* late isn't a problem, ever - but keeping things rolling is very helpful for everyone, especially you (y)

M.
Tell me about it. I knew it would be difficult trying to get a photo a day but boy so far this week work's manic (very usual unfortunately) and having to try and think creatively of when and what to photograph. But then that was one of the reasons for signing up. We shall see how things go, hopefully weekends should be a little easier although I'm working some of this Saturday too as we're inundated with project work at the moment. That said, so far enjoying pushing myself to actually try and get a photo that I'm even remotely happy with. It's been quite a challenge. Going to see if i can actually get out in daylight tomorrow but not holding out that much hope, will see how things pan out.:)
 
So... question for the mods/ cat herders/ cool cats.

There are a couple times being able to do a diptych will be better than verbiage. If I take a shot pre-organization, and then a shot a day or three later post-organization, can the two dropped on a background and posted as one image the day of the second shot count for this SiF?

edit - I wouldn't be doing this a lot, just once or maybe twice.
Gordon, you can always post the diptychs in the current outtakes thread - no restrictions there whatsoever. Even this thread here would be a good place for them.

M.
 
I must say I really quite like the combo I picked - funnily enough, I never got to grips with the lens (7Artisans 35mm f/1.2 II) on the Z 50, but it works very well for me on the Z fc. I know I keep repeating myself, but this shows me again how important overall haptics can be. "Classic" is its own paradigm, as is "modern" - mixing them up can mess things up, at least for me.

I've been following the discussion about the Z fc over in the Nikon forum, and I've had my eye on both the camera and this lens as a possible mate to it. Seems like a fun, compact little rig for travel or EDC. I've owned multiple Df's over the years and love that camera, though the Z fc seems like one I'd want to handle a bit before purchasing (I've never seen one in real life, to date). Looking forward to seeing what you do with it this month.
 
The day started at 05:30am, standing out in the rain, holding an umbrella over my camera and tripod.
I was taking some safety shots behind the house for day two.
I imported them to LR a little later, and did some processing work.
But, at 09:52am the power went out. A tree had fallen on the power lines down the street.
I'm retired, and wife works from home, so we just took a break for most of the day.
Just before 3pm, power returned.
Finished working the not so great safety photo, posted it, and done. Long day. See y'all tomorrow.
 
I've been following the discussion about the Z fc over in the Nikon forum, and I've had my eye on both the camera and this lens as a possible mate to it. Seems like a fun, compact little rig for travel or EDC. I've owned multiple Df's over the years and love that camera, though the Z fc seems like one I'd want to handle a bit before purchasing (I've never seen one in real life, to date). Looking forward to seeing what you do with it this month.
Just a thought: The Voigtländer options are really interesting and give you way better focus control due to advanced electronis; compact though the 7Artisans is, it's quite dense and heavy for its size, so you don't save on that front. Yes, it's fun and surprisingly capable of appealing images, but working with the Voigtländers (the Nokton 23mm f/1.2 is my favourite) is even more rewarding and quicker. However, the Nokton 35mm f/1.2 is considered to be the weakest of the bunch - and I can see why that might be the case: It's based on the enticing, but optically visibly flawed Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 II for M mount (which I also like to shoot with, btw.). Considering how well the cheap little 7Artisans performs, I don't see why I should spend four times the money for the Voigtländer, advantages and charme notwithstanding. However, I think the TTArtisan 35mm f/0.95 may be a serious competitor - but it's bigger.

And yes, handling *anything* you're thinking of buying is very advisable if at all possible. I've been bitten in the b*tt by over-enthusiastic acquisitions that didn't fit me, as good as they may have been objectively. The most interesting such occurence was the very good Z 24-70mm f/4 S, a lens many people really like (and that I found to be an excellent performer): Carrying it on the Z 6, for whatever reason, made my wrist go sore within an hour of having the combo in the hand - in spite of the fact that it's one of the lightest zooms for the FX system. Both the much heavier Z 24-120mm f/4 S and Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S don't cause anything similar - I can carry them for longer, even though I find the resulting setups heavier than I'm generally comfortable with. No sensible explanation available ...

All that said, you carry the Z fc like you would carry any old classic film SLR, or a rangefinder camera; it's pretty light without being flimsy. The 7Artisans is certainly very compact, so you end up with an ever so slightly front-heavy, but completely manageable combo. It's too light to be an issue in any way.

M.
 
I switched back to the Q7 in time for the first shot. The X-S10 is my daily shooter and I like to try something different during these challenges. I bought the Q7 a while back a little after the Q series folded, and it's never gotten a real shakedown.

Though we're only 2 days in now, Steve, I've been following your Q7 adventures with quite a bit of appreciation. Why? you ask. Well, I'm a fellow Q7 owner as well - mine also has the small but surprisingly great little 8.5mm prime lens (roughly the equivalent of a 40mm FOV), and I don't use mine as much as it merits. So seeing you get some mileage out of yours is both fun - and inspiring to me. Plus, it's not just 'cute' - it's also a great small camera. So keep on Q'ing on, please!
 
I am currently sitting with an air head, muscle pain and decent fever, as well as bouts of serious coughing aka most likely the flu, so my participation in the challenge will be somewhat hampered for a few days.
Damn, Jens! I'm truly sorry to hear this, and I hope that whatever necessary combination of rest, medication, more rest, will help you recover and get back on your feet, both literally and metaphorically. None of your individual symptoms sound pleasant, and combined, even less so. Please take care of yourself and don't worry about missing a day or three or whatever. And old-fashioned as it might sound, getting large amounts of sleep can sometimes be an excellent medicine in and of itself.
 
Why! Why did I choose a slightly wide normal lens that doesn't focus very close and then start making very close up photos! The perspective distortion is killing me. The compression inherent with say, the Mitakon 85/1.2 would be much easier.

Now that I've got hands in my head I expect there will more. I expect I'll learn a lot making it work even though a longer lens would be so much easier.

OK, I'm done lamenting my "poor" lens choice.
 
Though we're only 2 days in now, Steve, I've been following your Q7 adventures with quite a bit of appreciation. Why? you ask. Well, I'm a fellow Q7 owner as well - mine also has the small but surprisingly great little 8.5mm prime lens (roughly the equivalent of a 40mm FOV), and I don't use mine as much as it merits. So seeing you get some mileage out of yours is both fun - and inspiring to me. Plus, it's not just 'cute' - it's also a great small camera. So keep on Q'ing on, please!
The charm of the Q series is that they were really niche cameras aimed mainly at the Japanese market (remember the colors?) but were very well designed. I'm surprised how much better the noise is on the Q7 (1/1.7" sensor) vs. the Q (1/2.3).
 
Just a thought: The Voigtländer options are really interesting and give you way better focus control due to advanced electronis; compact though the 7Artisans is, it's quite dense and heavy for its size, so you don't save on that front. Yes, it's fun and surprisingly capable of appealing images, but working with the Voigtländers (the Nokton 23mm f/1.2 is my favourite) is even more rewarding and quicker. However, the Nokton 35mm f/1.2 is considered to be the weakest of the bunch - and I can see why that might be the case: It's based on the enticing, but optically visibly flawed Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 II for M mount (which I also like to shoot with, btw.). Considering how well the cheap little 7Artisans performs, I don't see why I should spend four times the money for the Voigtländer, advantages and charme notwithstanding. However, I think the TTArtisan 35mm f/0.95 may be a serious competitor - but it's bigger.

And yes, handling *anything* you're thinking of buying is very advisable if at all possible. I've been bitten in the b*tt by over-enthusiastic acquisitions that didn't fit me, as good as they may have been objectively. The most interesting such occurence was the very good Z 24-70mm f/4 S, a lens many people really like (and that I found to be an excellent performer): Carrying it on the Z 6, for whatever reason, made my wrist go sore within an hour of having the combo in the hand - in spite of the fact that it's one of the lightest zooms for the FX system. Both the much heavier Z 24-120mm f/4 S and Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S don't cause anything similar - I can carry them for longer, even though I find the resulting setups heavier than I'm generally comfortable with. No sensible explanation available ...

All that said, you carry the Z fc like you would carry any old classic film SLR, or a rangefinder camera; it's pretty light without being flimsy. The 7Artisans is certainly very compact, so you end up with an ever so slightly front-heavy, but completely manageable combo. It's too light to be an issue in any way.

M.
Thanks Matt - interesting. Yes, I really enjoy the Voigtlander M lenses, and I have the VM 35mm f.1.4 MC II, as well. I prefer a 50 to a 35 in general, though, so thought I'd pair a manual 35mm rather than a 23mm to a Z fc. I have noted the CV 35mm f/1.2 Z, as well, though I haven't yet read any reviews of it, so I've been interested in your posts with it. I have the Z Nikkor 28 and 40mm lenses, so I hadn't thought I'd spend the funds for the CV lens for the Z fc - the 7A 35mm is mostly attractive because of the lower price (1/3 the $$ of the CV) and seemingly reasonable performance as a small MF option. I may take a look at the TTA f/0.95, though, too - honestly I hadn't even been aware of that one, thanks! Of course, whenever I buy a Z fc I am confident that a Zf camera will be announced the very next day :rolleyes:

I'm with you on the Z Nikkor zooms - I entered the Z world with the 24-70/4 and found it to be a great optical performer. But I didn't care for the haptics so much. I switched to the 24-120 and like it better, but I find myself using the f/1.8 or compact primes 95% of the time anyway. I may just trade my 24-120 and 35/1.8 (the one Z prime I seldom use) for the 24-70/2.8, largely for the IF which I greatly prefer in a zoom. Not sure, though, that's a couple of GAS battles away ;)
 
I've only had the Nikon Z fc for barely 12 days now, with two kit'ish lenses (it came with the 16-50 and I bought the 28 f/2.8)
I'm sort of not really loving it. Background : shot Nikon film cameras since the 1980's, then Nikon dSLR's (many of them!) and
5 years ago added the lightweight Fuji X system to my arsenal for their form factor.

I got tempted by the retro look of the Z fc but with those two lenses mentioned above I am finding the colour tones too blue
and have a special recipe when importing to Capture One to rectify that, but I'm still not convinced. Also those two lenses
have plenty distortion which needs fixing in post. Grumble grumble :) HOWEVER on the plus side, the video in idiot mode
(ie just flip the switch to video and press the red button) renders very pleasing results indeed.

Anyway, this month's SIF should force me to use it daily and see what outcomes I can achieve
 
Thanks Matt - interesting. Yes, I really enjoy the Voigtlander M lenses, and I have the VM 35mm f.1.4 MC II, as well. I prefer a 50 to a 35 in general, though, so thought I'd pair a manual 35mm rather than a 23mm to a Z fc. I have noted the CV 35mm f/1.2 Z, as well, though I haven't yet read any reviews of it, so I've been interested in your posts with it. I have the Z Nikkor 28 and 40mm lenses, so I hadn't thought I'd spend the funds for the CV lens for the Z fc - the 7A 35mm is mostly attractive because of the lower price (1/3 the $$ of the CV) and seemingly reasonable performance as a small MF option. I may take a look at the TTA f/0.95, though, too - honestly I hadn't even been aware of that one, thanks! Of course, whenever I buy a Z fc I am confident that a Zf camera will be announced the very next day :rolleyes:

I'm with you on the Z Nikkor zooms - I entered the Z world with the 24-70/4 and found it to be a great optical performer. But I didn't care for the haptics so much. I switched to the 24-120 and like it better, but I find myself using the f/1.8 or compact primes 95% of the time anyway. I may just trade my 24-120 and 35/1.8 (the one Z prime I seldom use) for the 24-70/2.8, largely for the IF which I greatly prefer in a zoom. Not sure, though, that's a couple of GAS battles away ;)

Well not on Nikon, but I’m using the TTArtisan 35mm 0.95 for this months challenge.

So far I’m finding it to be a cracking little lens. A little “dreamy” at 0.95, but contrast soon kicks in around 1.2-1.4.

It seems quite sharp across the frame at f8 too in my findings so far.
 
I'm finding that the 7Artisans 12/2.8 is pretty sharp at f/5.6 (I need to try it down at f/4 and f/2.8 to see how it fares).
Today was slightly better than days 1 and 2, and I actually had an idea that I tried but didn't like today's result but I hope to get back to that idea later in the month.

Might actually get outdoors tomorrow....
 
Well not on Nikon, but I’m using the TTArtisan 35mm 0.95 for this months challenge.

So far I’m finding it to be a cracking little lens. A little “dreamy” at 0.95, but contrast soon kicks in around 1.2-1.4.

It seems quite sharp across the frame at f8 too in my findings so far.

Interesting, thanks for commenting, Simon. I'll have a look at that one, too!
 
I’m glad that we are at day 7 and after a slow start I am getting into the swing of things.

The 7Artisans 12mm seems a lot more usable than the Samyang 12/2 that I had a few years ago. I think that this is either because the lens is genuinely more versatile (close focusing for example) or I am more experienced at shooting wide angle than I was back then. As I mentioned today, I have even got to grips with the clickless aperture ring, which I didn’t expect. Another benefit/downside is the 67mm filter thread - I have an adaptor for K&F magnetic filters on it but even one filter will cause vignetting - but I can remove that in post.

Overall, I am very happy with this lens (especially at the price) but I need to try it in a city to see how I fare with architecture to decide if it will stop the itch I have for the Laowa 9/2.8.
 
So far I've been pleasantly surprised at how I've adapeted to using a prime, and a length not really familair to me. It makes me me realise how dependent I had become on the 12 - 1000 f/4, and I'm really glad I chose this neat little "cheapie". It is summer here though, so I probably have more choices than those in a freezing Northern hemisphere :).
 
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