Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
We’ve shown time-lapses of mushroom growing antics before, and they just keep getting better and better. There’s not much more satisfying than a really good timelapse video so we couldn’t resist sharing this one from Jens at Another Perspective.
In this video, he uses just two cameras to create the video, although admittedly it looks like there are far more angles. He’s done a really nice job filming it.
Venus Optics has just announced their new Laowa 85mm f/5.6 2x Ultra Macro APO lens for full-frame mirrorless cameras. They claim that it’s the world’s lightest 2x macro lens for full-frame cameras. Measuring only 53 x 81mm and weighing in at a mere 269g for the Sony E mount version, that might indeed be the case.
The lens is coming to a number of mirrorless mounts, including Canon EF, Sony E, Nikon Z and Leica M – but not Leica L (Update: Scroll down to the bottom). It offers an 85mm focal length with a minimum focus distance of 16.3cm for a fairly decent working distance and the APO design, Laowa says, helps you shoot them with minimal chromatic aberration.
One of my favorite ways to create more interesting photos is to get closer to the subject and fill the frame, eliminating or reducing background distractions. Often, I am unable to get as close as I would like to the subject due to the minimum focusing distance limit of the lens. This is where macro lenses, such as the Fujinon XF 80.. f/2.8 R LM OIS WR with their ability to focus when close to the subject, enter the picture (pardon the pun.)
I mean, yeah, ok, so there’s a global semiconductor shortage, but it always seems to be the same old story these days whenever any manufacturer releases a new lens. “There was higher demand than we expected!” is the usual excuse. Well, it’s Nikon’s turn again. No excuses this time, though. Just the facts.
While the shortage might be partially to blame this time around, Nikon has apologised in advance for delayed shipping of some pre-orders for the recently announced Nikon Nikkor Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S macro lens for Z mount mirrorless cameras. They haven’t explicitly stated a reason for the delay, although there are only really two possible causes.
Nikon has now officially announced two new macro lenses for their Z mount mirrorless system. The “normal” length macro is the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 50mm f/2.8, with a minimum focus distance of 16cm. The other is the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S, offering stabilisation and a 1:1 reproduction ratio with a 29cm minimum focus distance.
The 105mm f/2.8 VR S also features the built-in OLED display found on Nikon’s Z mount pro zooms like the 14-24mm, 24-70mm & 70-200mm f/2.8 S trio, as well as the 50mm f/1.2 S prime lens. This lets you quickly see and adjust various settings including aperture, focus distance and other settings.
Are you looking for an affordable but also electronic macro lens? Or maybe you have an old kit lens, that’s just sitting around, collecting dust since your last upgrade?
Well, then read on, because in this article I am going to share one cool hack that will allow you too transform almost any kit or standard zoom lens into a capable macro lens!
And I am not talking about reversing the lens or mounting it on extension tubes, we’re actually going to convert the lens for good. And it’s incredibly simple.
Sigma has now officially announced the new Sigma 105mm f/2.8 DG DN Macro Art series lens. Designed for full-frame mirrorless cameras, the lens is available for both Sony E and Leica L mounts. The new lens was announced in Sigma’s live stream (which is still happening as I type this).
They say that the lens is partly in response to the number of people stuck indoors this year due to the global pandemic who are obviously shooting macro – an idea backed up by the sales of Sigma’s 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro lens for DSLRs.
A couple of photos of Sigma’s upcoming 105mm f/2.8 DG DN Art series macro lens for Sony E and Leica L mounts. Pictures of the L mount version leaked a week or so ago, but now Nokishita has leaked some new slightly higher quality product images showing it mounted to an actual Sony body. The lens is expected to be officially announced by Sigma later today, but the specs have also already been leaked.
There are a lot of oddball lenses out there these days. And I mean that in the nicest possible way. Look at Laowa’s crazy lookin’ 24mm f/14 2x macro probe lens, for example. I’ve played with that one myself and it’s a lot of fun and pretty awesome. The Yasuhara Nanoha Macro Lens for Sony, though, takes the reach much further, going all the way to 5x. And the best bit? It costs a mere $399.
You might wonder what’s so unusual about it. Well, for a start it’s got a strange removable hood thing that houses several LED lights, powered by USB (yup, it’ snot for firmware updates, just powering LEDs). But that’s not all. This thing… Well, Arthur Reutov’s made a video about it. So, why don’t you have a watch?
Venus Optics has now officially announced their new Laowa 50mm f/2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO lens designed specifically for the Micro Four Thirds system. It’s for use on all of the Panasonic & Olympus cameras as well as more video-oriented systems like the Pocket 4K and various Z-Cam cameras.
While this is a manual focus macro lens, it does contain a chip which communicates with your camera. When you spin the focus ring, your camera’s LCD automatically zooms in, you can set your aperture via the camera body instead of a ring on the lens, and it also means the correct details are stored in the EXIF data of your images.
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