Hin's Photo Corner

This lens has grown on usage for my family weekend trips to The Tech Museum of San Jose with Pentax K20D

#1

1/250 sec, f/5.6, 13mm, iso 400, -0.7 Ev, hand-held

#2

1/250 sec, f/5.6, 14mm, iso 400, 0 Ev, hand-held

#3

1/15 sec, f/3.5, 10mm, iso 800, 0 Ev, hand-held

#4

2 sec, f/7.1, 10-14mm, iso 100, 0 Ev, tripod
I zoomed during the long shutter

#5

0.5 sec, f/4.5, 10mm, iso 100, -0.7 Ev, tripod

#6

1/6 sec, f/4.5, 10mm, iso 100, -0.3 Ev, tripod

Impressions & Notes:

• Lens gives a wide perspective that works well in the museum
  
  
• Distortion can be a problem on architecture building but I use it for the fun factor and the wide perspective
  
  
• The auto white balance indoor on my K20D is not so pleasing and I turn most of my shots into black and white

Related:

• Pentax DA 10-17 f/3.5-4.5 fish-eye
• Baseball and Fireworks
• Meteor Night Attempt
• Space Museum
• Xanh in Mountain View
• Hin's Camera Gear

Meteor

After getting Pentax DA 15mm f/4.0 limited and that I have used the new lens quite a bit for the ultra wide angle needs, I question myself if I need Pentax DA 21mm limited and my fisheye lens with Pentax DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5. Before I jump into any conclusion, I try to bring it to good use whenever I find the right scene. I am so glad to bring this lens to a group lunch in Xanh in Mountain View, a very classy Vietnamese restaurant that offer buffet lunch with great style and good taste. I was very much indulged in good food but I tried to find time for pictures. The fisheye lens really came through in the tight corners to have 180 degree view at 10mm and it does well with people shots in 16 and 17mm where the distortion is not as severe.

I was late to the table as I spent the extra few minutes of time in shooting the restaurant interior.





And I was surprised with a drink of salty plum soda and it was surprisingly refreshing and good. This place is a must visit if you ever think of lunch in Mountain View Castro street.




And when I left the restaurant, the narrow doorway leading to exit to the garage parking invites the widest angle to savory the good-bye shots to a wonderful experience in Xanh of Mountain View. I have told my boys and wife that I will bring them to this classy restaurant next time we visit Mountain View.




Related:

• Pentax DA 15mm f/4.0 limited in Traveling
• Mirchi Cafe Fremont with Pentax DA 15mm f/4.0 limited
  
• Pentax DA 21mm f/3.2 limited in Traveling
• Pentax DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Test Shots
• The Tech Museum
• Hin's Camera Gear
  

It is definitely my fun lens to bring my boys to museum and I find it great even in indoor setting, the PF works to advantages in tech museums that purple actually may look cool.


Related:

• The Tech Museum
• Xanh in Mountain View
• Pentax DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 fish-eye fun with kids
• Pentax fish-eye on Meteor Attempt
• Pentax DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 on baseball & fireworks
  
• Hin's Camera Gear
  

I was up early around 2 to 3 am for two nights around the time for Perseid Meteor Night on August 11 and 12 in 2009. I fell really silly to hike up in the Mission Hill of Fremont in two different locations for each night trying to shoot the falling stars with Perseid Meteor. I did see the inactive Meteor happening around 2 to 3 times in an hour but my setting along with gaps between shots fail to catch the Meteor light that went pass me in a split of a second.


My settings:

• Focal length set for 10mm to get the widest angle
  
• Point to North East direction
• Use M mode for metering and MF
• Adjust MF to infinity
  
• Adjust shutter to be maximum at 30 second shutter
• Adjust aperture in f/4.0 and some in f/4.5
• Use sturdy tripod
• Use wireless remote, SR is off in using wireless remote

My mistakes:

• I used jpg due to absence of Lightroom for the post processing
• I have instant display on which results in gaps like 10 to 15 second for instant display of last picture. I should have turned that off completely onec a manual preview ensures good quality of shot
• I attempted Bulb mode but I find it very cumbersome to hold the button release the whole time until the desired shutter time as in 5 minute a bulb shot, there must be a way to use bulb mode without the need to depress the shutter the whole time.
• I have the wrong location where I am not shooting in a hill tall enough to stay away from city lights. As a result, the faint star lights are not as evident unless I darken the background in post processing
• I should have prepared a dark frame, a lighted frame and perhaps other referencing frames so that I can provide the software tool to make a better stacking reference
  

Software for stacking images

Without a copy of photoshop, I look for tools that help in stacking time series pictures of star to show the star trails along with the Meteor traces. I end up trying few tools and I am still in the process of stacking 100 pictures in two nights

• Keith Image Stacker -- this runs in Mac OS-X, for some unknown reason, I can't seem to get any meaningful results in the stacking. It looks very promising and yet it is not intuitive to align the stars from the stacked images
  
  
• Paint.net -- this is a Windows only software that is free to download, I used the Import Layers from the images in a time series of 60 minute of 30 second exposure shots. In the blending mode, I tried 'additive' and leave opacity to half of 0 to 255 -- rougly 125. The results are not great but somewhat recognizable as I can see results of three plane flying paths in layering around 20 images in the series
  
  
• DeepSkyStacker -- this is also another free tool in Windows only, it looks just as promising as the paint.net but so far, I need to fine tune the proper stacking parameters to see the star trails.

Paint.net Layering Attempt

I mainly used import layers from files and I merge the layers with additive blend and a half opacity value of 128 out of the range from 0 to 255. Though not as distinctive as the original pictures, I can see three plane flying paths in the stacked images. I will post question in paint.net forum to seek the right parameters for yet another stacking attempt.



Resources:

Along the process of failed attempts to stack images or to get a good shot of Meteor, the most valuable experience is finding the resources needed for future attempts:

• AstroPhotoInsight
• AstroPhotoInsight in Flickr
• space.com
• How to take Meteor Show from space.com
• Meteor, Meteorite, Meteroroid

Related:

• The Tech Museum
• Xanh in Mountain View
• Pentax DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 in Fireworks
• Perseid Meteor Night Attempt -- Hin's Photo Blog
• Pentax DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fish-eye in Museum
  
• Hin's Camera Gear

I bring my Pentax DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fish-Eye to my first baseball game with my two boys and wife. It was not a game with a lot of actions. It only had one run through to the 8th inning and ends as such. My family urged me to leave half way through the game and I convinced them to stay for the fireworks. It was great fireworks and the the fish-eye lens does quite well on the fireworks. It does have a great amount of CA/PF but all that goes well with the fireworks.

It has been several months after purchase before I have a chance to try out Pentax DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fisheye Lens. My family visited the Chabot Space and Science Museum over the Mother's Day and I have fun shots of my boys with a wide perspective. I have not gotten used to the distortion in the wider side of the focal range. Similar to what other people have mentioned, the 17mm happens to be similar to rectilinear lens that exhibit less the distortion found in fisheye lens.









Impressions & Notes

• An absolute fun lens to use, especially in outing with kids in museum and events
  
• Awesome views in 15mm to 17mm with mild distortion
  
• Versatile zoom lens with a focal range to cover the wide angle need in events and indoor architecture.
  
• With combination of software post processing, I am expecting more valuable use of this lens.
  
• My kids love their shuttle mission in tight corner with all details captured in a single shot
  
• SMC coating working well with flare control
  
• Purple fringing apparent in test shots
  
• Surprisingly fun and handy lens to use for indoor.
  
• Some dark corners noted around corners in shooting wide angle with the built in flash
  
• AF seems quick and responsive even in indoor dark settings
  
• Another great value lens that Pentax delivers

Related:

• The Tech Museum in San Jose
• Xanh in Mountain View
• Fireworks with Pentax DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fish-eye
• Meteor Night Attempt with Pentax DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fisheye
• Pentax DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fish-eye in Museum
• Pentax DA 21mm f/3.2 limited
• Cosina 24mm f/2.8
• Spiratone Plura-Coat 20mm f/2.8
• Hin's Camera Gear