Today marks the New Year in certain calendars and for many, the most important holiday of the year. I headed down to Chinatown a bit earlier to see the celebrations.
Nikkor-Q·C 135mm f/2.8 pre-ai @f/5.6
I haven’t yet reviewed this old lens produced between 1973 and 1975, but I’ve put up a few photos from it before. It’s by no means perfect, but in conditions like this, it really shines.
Nikkor 35mm f/2 AI @f/2.8
The EXIF on these last 3 photos lies. It says 135mm f/2.8, as the lens, but I was in a rush when I swapped these non-cpu lenses, and didn’t change the camera settings, so it recorded the wrong thing.
Nikkor 35mm f/2 AI @f/5.6
Nikkor 35mm f/2 AI @f/5.6
Our meteorological soothsayers may have erred last weekend when they predicted the snow that then blanketed our friends (and enemies) in DC would do the same to us in New York, but today their snowy prognostications rang true.
Fifty Ninth & Lex — Nikon 24mm f/2 AIS @f/2 ISO3200
Lexington Ave in all her snowy glory. This shot is composed of half a dozen or so images on Nikon’s previous fastest 24mm, wide open. The car wasn’t very happy at me taking pictures in the middle of the street, but it was worth it. The weird blob of light around some of the lights is coma caused by snow on the lens. They’re a bit odd looking, but at least they have more personality than plain old coma that fast lens tend to get.
35mm f/2 AI
The framing could have been slightly better on this shot to not have the walk light get cut off on the right side, but the lighting is great, you can easily make out the direction of the snow, perfectly angled to cover the sign.
35mm f/2 AI
You can’t even see the snow at all in the thumbnail of this, but full size you can see it, though it doesn’t add much.
35mm f/2 AI
Nikon’s just announced it’s widest ever f/1.4 lens, the 24mm f/1.4 AF-S. It’s a full 2 stops faster than their current 24mm AF-D, and 1 stop faster than the previous fastest 24mm, the 24mm f/2 AI-S. Has an aspherical element, and takes 77mm filters (yay!) priced at $2200. Looks great. They also announced a 16–35mm f/4 zoom that doesn’t particularly appeal to me.
Nikon Rumors covers the announcements.
Nikon's 24mm f/1.4 Site
Edit: Please visit filterstorm.com for more information
Since the January 27 announcement of Apple’s iPad, I’ve been devoting as much time as possible to writing my first app. Today I thought I’d give a bit of a preview as to what I have after my first 10 days of programming in my free time.
So here is the first screenshot of my (unnamed) photo editing app. Apple has introduced a new UI element called the popover for iPad as seen in their iWork demos, and it’s very well thought out. Popovers are somewhere between menus and HUDs. They pop up on certain actions and can contain lists like menus, but also more arbitrary controls like HUDs or inspectors. They seem extremely well suited to me as both a screen real-estate saving feature for a smaller screen, and as something easier to use with a finger than it would be with a mouse.
The only toolset I’m showing off today is the Luminance Adjustments popover. All the controls shown are implemented, but I’m not showing all implemented controls. To me, the curves editor is the single most important tool for photo processing, so it’s something I wanted to work on early in development.
Here’s the current layout of my hastily designed toolbar. Each of these opens a popover, but I expect the arrangement and set will change significantly in the coming weeks. You can feel free to guess what each will contain, I’m sure some are more obvious than others.
With the exception of the thoughts on the iPad I just posted, I’ve been silent here for the last couple weeks. Both the cold (-10°C) and a cold have kept me mostly indoors. Today I braved both.
Statue — Nikkor·C 500mm f/8 mirror lens
There are a number of elements I like about this photo. It’s very clearly divided into 3 layers: the out-of-focus foreground, in-focus middle with the man, and the statue in the background. Through both contrast and the fact that he breaks the symmetry of the photo, my eyes are drawn to the man despite the fact that he’s off on the side. More than that, the donut boke gives a nice feeling to the background which seems a bit like a painting. Unfortunately, the man’s expression isn’t very good, but you can’t win all battles. Especially not in this cold.
Squirrel — Nikkor·C 500mm f/8 mirror lens
This is a photo of a squirrel. That is all.
All content © Tai Shimizu unless otherwise indicated.
