PHOTO ANTHEMS BLOG: Rokinon

Showing posts with label Rokinon. Show all posts

04 December 2014

Another New Paradigm - The Sony A7s

“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.” ― Frank Zappa

Its happened. I've made another major change in my photographic evolution. For the first time in my photographic life, I'm DSLR-less. Or more commonly stated. I've gone Mirrorless. So this makes the third time I've made a metamorphosis like this. It first started when I chose to leave film and jump into the digital world in the fall of 2007. I was already a Canon user and felt no real reason to NOT be Canon just because I no longer used film and darkroom techniques to create my images. That was a hard switch, but I felt the Canon 40D did the job as about as good as I could get in film and stay within a budget. I think I paid about $1500 or so and got some speedlites and umbrellas to put on stands for my lighting gear. That's how I started. I used the Canon ST-E2 Infrared transmitters to trigger my 430EXII Speedlights. I quickly learned its limitations and rented the Canon 5DMarkII full frame system and fell in love with it. I paired it with a 7D and felt unstoppable. I eventually acquired a full line-up of Canon L-Series lenses, to include the 24mm Tilt-Shift (which made me money by simply having the lens ON my camera. It got attention and got me gigs), as well as my favorite the 85mm 1.2. The 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II was by far my sharpest and fastest lens to focus with, but the shallow depth of field of the 85mm 1.2 held my heart.

And so it came, as all things must, the end of my fellowship with Canon. My desire to travel quickly became a priority and my intention was to go medium format. And then Nikon came out with the D800/D800E. I was disappointed in the Canon 5DMarkIII. It just didn't have the resolution and detail I desired for my artwork. A friend of mine showed me what the D800E could do and I quickly noted that what I saw was exactly what went on in my head. Oddly enough I paired it with a Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 image stabilized lens and it served me far better than Nikon's own 24-70. I took it to Guatemala and Belize in 2012 and got exactly what I wanted. Match made in Heaven, right. Well, kinda...

The D800E fit my hands well. The size and weight were great for what I do here in the US...but abroad? Not so much. I thought I could carry fewer lenses by packing the 28-300mm and the 50mm 1.4. The 50mm did work. The 28-300mm did as well, but not quite as well. I began to see extensive Chromatic Aberation problems with the lens when the lighting conditions were higher in contrast such as the bright sun coming through the trees. This meant that I could no longer cut corners and would have to bring out the good stuff and carry more and more costly lenses on my next trip. But this notion did not appeal to me. I backpack. I don't have roller bags when I travel. Carrying all that heavy gear in Guatemala, the D800E and the 2 lenses were already bothersome. I just couldn't imagine carrying even more gear.

So then I got the Fujifilm X-E2 for my next trip to Central America. Right before I left, I picked up the camera kit, which came with the metal barrel 18-55mm f/2.8-4 and aperture ring, along with the 35mm 1.4. Fuji has an excellent line-up of cameras and especially lenses. I came back after almost 3 months in Nicaragua with EXCELLENT work. I even took it on a pro gig in L.A. on my way back to Las Vegas. The Fujifilm X-E2 is the first mirrorless camera that I purchased, but I still worked with my D800E in and around Vegas.

But now, that's all changed since I'm doing more work with low-light, nighttime, and astronomy...particularly with shooting nudes in these settings. This is where Sony has solved this problem. There's not another camera on the planet that have these attributes better than the A7s. Its another learning curve to get used to, but frankly, I like it. As of last week, I made my 3rd evolution and ventured into the little-known world of Mirrorless Interchangeble Lens Cameras as my sole system of choice. I still have the APS-C sensor Fujifilm X-E2, but I no longer have my Nikon D800E. I am 100% Mirrorless. My needs have changed and I had no problem with making the adjustment...again. I needed lighter weight systems and I needed the ability to shoot better in lower light. Usually, all that's necessary is a tripod, a cable-release and some patience. But sometimes the elements in my composition would move, such as the clouds, and I needed much shorter shutter times. And then there are a few other reasons I won't get into at the moment, but suffice to say, I think this is special. The full-frame A7s simply gives me what I need in order to get what's in my head to in front of my eyes. I've had a few people speak negatively on my decisions in this regard, but I'll save that for another post.

For now, I'll have images edited before long and I'll continue to test and learn this new system. I still have another body, another lens, and a couple more things to get to prepare me for my next adventure. I think that'll be the new A7MarkII or a new Fujifilm system. I'm pretty sure, that'll be it. I picked up the 35mm 2.8 yesterday and still need the 55mm 1.8, along with at least 1 Rokinon lens, but maybe two. Over the past few months, you've seen me blog about what I thought were shortcomings in the lack of innovation of Canon and Nikon. Well, now I've put my money with my words and made that change.

26 July 2014

Rokinon 14mm T3.1 Cine Manual Focus Lens Initial Review

I've been getting used to my first manual focus lens this past week and its been a fun process. I picked up the Rokinon 14mm T3.1 Cine Lens and took off into Utah to scout some new locations and play with it a before I head out on my next excursion soon. This was a trip to familiarize myself with the lens prior to putting it to real tasking. Its definitely easier to do this with a wide-angle lens as opposed to something longer than a 50mm lens. There are definitely ways to check your focus with manual focus lenses so that you are tack sharp. I'm still getting used to the lens, but I think I've got it figured out well enough. I had to tweek a little chromatic aberration as well as guard against unwanted vignetting, but not really any more than you see in most wide-angles.

This is not a fish-eye, so there is minimal distortion and practically no barreling when shooting straight on. That's pretty good for a 14. This is a lens that's designed primarily for video work and therefore has knobby aperture and focus rings to better grip the follow focus knobs that may be used when the camera is mounted on a shoulder rig. Since is a cinema lens, it also utilizes T-stops as opposed to the F-stop you might be familiar with, but this is very close to the same thing. F-stops are derived from a calculated equations which is determined based on a given focal length, but T-stops are actually measurements of light used by cinematographers and are actually a bit more accurate than the f-stop, but just by a bit. Overall, this is an inexpensive, VERY well-made, and I might add...ATTRACTIVE lens from the makers of Rokinon.

Here are some of the initial shots I've been playing with. And at the end is an embedded YouTube vid by Matt Granger, who gives an EXCELLENT description on the difference between F&T Stops. He drops some interesting knowledge about the true light transmissions on some of the most expensive lenses by Canon and Nikon compared to, say a Tamron. Check out his YouTube Channel for more video knowledge!

02 June 2014

Fujifilm's X-E2, Better Results Than I Thought

I didn't have much expectations about my Fuji XE-2 in the beginning. I knew it took great pictures, but I was used to working with a huge and heavy 36MP Nikon camera. So no way the results would be similar. So my expectations were low comparatively. I'm telling you now, however that I was amazed with the results.

And now YOU can see too.

I've just now finished all the edits I think I'll do from that trip. I even did a professional shoot on my way back from Nicaragua. I stopped off in LA to help a friend who asked me about shooting for a business working at the Black College Expo. Some of that was doing convention capture, but then later that day it was fashion work for a clothing line. I got to work with about six models who were excellent. Since I don't like doing a pro gig with one camera, I also rented a Fujifilm X100s to give me some wide-angle aspects since all I had was the 35mm which looks like a 50mm due to Fuji's APS-C sensor (Crop factor of 1.5). The X100s has a fixed 23mm f/2 lens, which looks like a 35mm due to its APS-C sensor as well. I had it shipped ahead to the hotel where I was staying.

2014 Black College Expo, Los Angeles,
Even Actor/Comedian Michael Colyar dropped by

I got everything I needed and was able to deliver the goods. The file sizes were still around 33MB in RAW form, so I had plenty of information for editing. I still wish I had my 36MP D800E for fashion work, but this crop-sensor Fuji delivered for the purposes intended. And now that I've completed edits from all my shots in Nicaragua, I've still amassed about 80 edited images out of the 965 I came back with, which is closer than I expected to my normal rate as a 10%'er. Even back in my film days, I was still relatively and consistently editing 10% of all my shots.

Models Left to Right,
Nathan Rachinski, Kevante Wickliffe, Dina Shestacova, Matthew Rice Franklin, Elise Puritz, and Cadwell Samuels

Given all that, I will try my next excursion with the Fujifilm X-T1, which has added weather-sealing. I'm really loving this X-Trans II CMOS sensor. Coupled with the addition of the 23mm f/1.4 and the 56mm f/1.2 to go with my 35, I'll have everything I need. Well, I think I might just indulge myself a bit further. I'm also waiting on the Rokinon 10mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS CS Lens for the Fuji mount to be released. Rok makes some budget lenses but they've been really pulling out the stops on several new additions. So, if I'm gonna try it, its gonna be on one with expected distortion. I just wish I could hurry up and finalize all my travel plans and itinerary!

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