5.30.2011

A few flower closeups from the front yard today

Recovering today from a heavy cold, I decided to take a few minutes outside to "experiment" with my cameras.  These are taken with the Olympus E520 and E620, with 70-300mm and 50mm lenses, a Panasonic LX5 with Raynox DCR-250 closeup lens and a Canon G9.  The panasonic is the most fun to use; it's very light, easy to hold, and focuses much quicker than my dSLRs, as both the 70-300 and 50mm do lots of hunting and frequently need to be manual focused on close subjects.

The first three were taken with the Panasonic



This next image was taken with the Canon G9

The next three were taken with the Olympus E520 and 50mm macro lens.



This final image was taken with the E-620 and 70-300mm zoom


5.21.2011

Found an old Vivitar polarizer in the bottom of my old camera bag. Fits and works nicely on my Panasonci LX5.

The other day I was cleaning out an old camera bag and found a 52mm Vivitar polarizer.  If I bought it, it was at least 35 years ago and probably more like 40 years ago.  It's the same size as the threads on my even older Nikon 50mm F1.4 lens (I wasn't the first owner of this fine legacy lens).

The polarizer was a bit cloudy coming out of the little clear plastic case, but I cleaned it up nicely with a bit of hot breath and the tail of my cotton t-shirt.  Is there any other way to clean glass!?

I frankly don't know how good this filter is.  And are filters for digital sensors different than those made for film? Does it make a difference?  I have no idea.



But regardless, it works nicely on my Panasonic LX5 compact camera, even at the widest setting on the 24mm-90mm (equiv.) zoom.... I should have tried a horizontal shot but I wanted to get the clouds and sky using a vertical shot.  Assuming we have another nice day tomorrow I'll give the landscape orientation a try, and see what I get.

The lens adapter is from an aftermarket ebay supplier but the filter end measures 52mm just like the Panasonic adapter. A perfect fit for 52mm filters.  It's nice too because my only other polarizers measure 67mm and 58mm.  I've used 58mm filters on the LX5 with a 52-to-58 step up ring, but using the right size is always slicker.


Anyway, here's the example I was happy with this afternoon.  Nice day, huh?  After a week of rain it was nice to get a reprieve.  Blue and green are great landscape colors.  I am very happy with Panasonic's metering system and always enjoy the live-view histogram.