efix:photography - News. Thoughts. Pictures. » jasmin

Ghost in the machine

efix — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 08:51:38 +0000

My Contax T recently decided to act up, exposing only every other frame properly. The rest of the time the shutter would either not open or not close, yielding overexposed shots or frame not exposed at all. (It needs to be sent in for repair, and I found a small company in Germany who will be able to fix it.)

When I put in a roll of that rather expensive Kodak Ektachrome E100G, sometime late October, I wasn’t yet aware of the problem. Only while shooting it I noticed that the sound the shutter made sometimes wasn’t what I [...]

Out and about with the E-P1 + Cosmicar 25/1.4

efix — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:52:20 +0000

As I already mentioned, I’ve slapped the little Cosmicar/Pentax 25mm f/1.4 C-mount lens onto my E-P1 again — and what can I say, I’m as thrilled again by this lens as I was the first, the second, the third and all consecutive times I used it. On the E-P1, it’s simply magical!

There’s something about the colours the way the lens renders them combined with the way the E-P1 reproduces them that make this special combination so unique. From all the lenses I’ve used on the E-P1, this is the one I enjoy the most — and yes, its [...]

The Film Chronicles | Ilford HP5+ & Provia 100

efix — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:29:20 +0000

Hello everyone, sorry for the slow news recently, but I’m rather occupied at the moment and rarely find the time to work on my blog. Anyways, it’s time to resurrect a long-neglected column, The Film Chronicles!

Yes, I’ve finally acquired a film scanner (Epson Perfection V330, to be precise) and spent the last three evenings scanning two rolls of film I shot in the past months: one roll of Ilford HP5+, a very popular and reputable 400 ISO black-and-white film (which I started to shoot last summer and finished only this spring …), and a roll of [...]

A quick test of Nik Color Efex 3

efix — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:35:05 +0000

Recently, I’ve been searching for a way to give my pictures a Kodachrome 64 look, without much success. I tried different Lightroom presets, but they didn’t bring me the results I had hoped for. So I decided to give Nik Color Efex a try … and so far — apart from running awfully slow for no obvious reason — the results look promising. Here’s just a quick conversion of a picture I took during our winter holidays, just to demonstrate what Color Efex can do.

Leica M8 + Nokton 50/1.5 @ f/2, 1/750 sec, ISO 160

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Zeiss Biogon 28/2.8 ZM first impressions

efix — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:49:02 +0000

Today, I received my new Carl Zeiss Biogon T* 28/2.8 ZM, which I decided to get after I realised how much I liked the ZM line’s rendering on the M8. So I sold my 28/1.9 Ultron, which I had only bought a couple months ago, but with which I never really got friends completely.

After pickung up the Biogon from the post office, I put in on my M8 immediately and started taking a couple of test frames. Initially, I was a bit disappointed as the colour rendering was not how I remembered it from my 35/2 [...]

A day out

efix — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 21:06:23 +0000

Yesterday, we took advantage of the nice (well, nicer) weather (it’s slowly getting warmer) and went for a little trip. Here are some impressions of that day.

"Ice cream" | Leica M8 + Nokton 50/1.5 @ f/1.5, 1/90 sec, ISO 160

"Big little boy, pt. 1" | Leica M8 + Nokton 50/1.5 @ f/1.5, 1/90 sec, ISO 160

"Big little boy, pt. 2" | Leica M8 + Nokton 50/1.5 @ f/1.5, 1/125 sec, ISO 160

"Little police officer" | Leica M8 + Nokton 50/1.5 @ f/2, 1/90 sec, [...]

PAD-Project: Week #1, Picture #6

efix — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 21:22:43 +0000

Today, the weather was fine and we used the opportunity to go on a little trip and have a good time. We also used the opportunity to get our first ice cream of the season!

PAD #5 | "First ice cream" | Leica M8 + Nokton 50/1.5 @ f/1.5, 1/180 sec, ISO 160

I tried to give the picture a bit of an old-fashioned colour slide film look with some grain, but I don’t know if I succeeded. Comments & critique welcome!

A photographic review of 2010

efix — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 11:12:49 +0000

So 2010 is over. And as it is with things past, we tend to forget them through the daily work that occupies us. 2010 was quite a year, though. Many things happened. I’ve learned a lot of stuff. I have so many great and some not so great memories. I can’t do justice to all of them. So, here’s a little photographic review of 2010. One picture for each month — except for April, since I’ve lost all my pictures from April due to a harddisk crash in late 2010. (This is one of the not so great memories [...]

First walk in the new year

efix — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 13:38:31 +0000

"New Year's walk" | Leica M8 + Ultron 28/1.9 @ f/4, 1/1500 sec, ISO 160

Leica M8 + Ultron 28/1.9 @ f/1.9, 1/1500 sec, ISO 160

"Remnants of December 31st" | Leica M8 + Ultron 28/1.9 @ f/1.9, 1/750 sec, ISO 160

Happy new year!

efix — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 12:32:27 +0000

Cheers! Here's to 2011! | Olympus E-P1 + Cosmicar/Pentax 25/1.4 @ f/1.4, 1/8 sec, ISO 200

That’s my wife, not me!

A happy new year to all the visitors of my website! 2010 has been a good year as concerns this blog, I’ve had a lot of fun writing about all sorts of camera related stuff, and sharing my passion for photography with you. I hope to get even more visitors in 2011, to be able to continue my work on this website and to bring you more news, thoughts [...]