Hin's Photo Corner

I have nothing to do in dinner time when I get fed up with my own cooking. Not that I can't cook, there are times that I want my dinner made by others and be served with some decency after a verrry down day with work. All test shots without PP and straight from K-x in auto-ISO with 100 to 1600 and 3200. No PP on noise.


All along, I love my DA 35 for close up and the DA 21 comes close as second in terms of close up. And I thought 4.0 may be a bit slow for indoor shots. The lighting is not the worse kind but dark enough that the shutter is not appropriate in iso 800. I used ISO 1600 on f/4.0 and ISO 3200 on f/5.6. Corners may be soft -- how the hell I know. I don't pixel peep and I don't test lens with charts. I field test them with what I see. It seems alright in indoor.


What I am getting is that the lens seems to do okay for indoor with K-x. Yes, we won't get outstanding pictures in ISO 3200/1600, but the results are quite good to me. The close up in DA 15 limited makes it an interesting candidate to bring along for food shots. And it can cover the interior shots though a bit slow when compared to other limited. Its minimum focusing distance is 0.18m whereas 21 limited is slightly longer in 0.20m.

My family dined out in Zpizza in Fremont last Friday. This place is a a great alternative to Round Table and Pizza Hut since they offer pizza in lighter toppings with less meat. And their variety of toppings and salad are unusually healthy as compared to other places that my family have visited.

My boys and I really enjoyed our 2nd visit to the Zpizza in Fremont and it will become one of our favorite places to go and they have take out delivery that we are yet to try out. The owner of Zpizza in Fremont allowed me to take as many pictures as I desired and after the meal, I showed them a few pictures with my Pentax K20D and Pentax DA 21mm f/3.2 limited, and they are thrilled with the results they requested me to send to them. I will do that later on. This is a small business franchise and I won't charge them for anything. I hope they link back my page if they ever use my pictures for testimonial.

I used Pentax DA 21mm f/3.2 limited for the shooting. I found few pictures off focus a bit under the tungsten lighting and I learned it from others that AF in tungsten may suffer from accuracy under tungsten lighting condition. I will take it as an important learning experience to observe the distance as well as going for manual focus when results seems off in preview.








Impressions & Notes

• Zpizza is interesting pizza place in Fremont not to be missed. Service is great and the owner are friendly to picture taking. My kids love dining out occasionally and I love food pictures. I highly recommend dinning out in Zpizza and remember to bring your camera with you and ask permission to take fun shots on your boys and the pizza.
  
  
• Always ask for permission first for courtesy as a photographer as picture taking may bother privacy of patrons and the restaurant.
  
  
• Pentax DA 21mm f/3.2 can do reasonably well in close up. Not that it is the best, but its close focusing is surprisingly good.
  
  
• AF seems to hunt a bit and under tungsten lighting, it may be better off to attempt manual focusing. A lightweight tripod may come in handy though it is more likely to bother people along your path of picture taking. Be courteous with a smile. People understand and may enjoy your enthusiasm with food on the table. With my camera, food do taste better as your visual and photo senses can enhance both the tasting and aroma with the pizza
  
  
• I forget one important adjustment in the shooting. I forgot to raise the pizza at an angle on the back to create a better view on the pizza.
  
  
• While DA 21mm is not a close focus lens, it serves the indoor purpose shot on food quite well and the wider view with good bokeh shows interesting background quite well. I leverage the street lighting on the background on some of the pizza shot
  

Related:

• Zpizza in Fremont
• Pizza with Pentax FA 50mm f/1.4
• Pentax DA 21mm f/3.2 limited In Traveling
  
• Sushi wit Pentax FA 50 f/1.4
• Pentax DA 21mm f/3.2 limited
• Cosina 55mm f/1.2 with +4 close up
• Hin's Camera Gear
  

I have tested my copy of Cosina 55mm f/1.2. I am very happy with the lens. This is my 3rd fast 50mm lens after my Pentax FA 50mm f/1.4 and Pentax A 50mm f/1.7.

Is it oustanding? Yes

How is the bokeh? I really like the smooth bokeh and the excellent speed in f/1.2

How is the build? I would call it quite outstanding for the $200 price range.

Can it replace your FA 50 f/1.4 and my A 50 f/1.7? No!

I answer 'no' due to the absence of 'A' and autofocus. I discussed with Mis and Igillian and I explain the reasons and happiness that the lens doesn't have AF and 'A' setting; otherwise, it would be a serious blow to my love of FA 50 f/1.4 and A 50 f/1.7. It is my LBA excuses to keep three similar focal range in 50mm/55mm.

I only do some snapshot testing on the lens



The lens has served me well as the fastest lens in my gear. It has smooth and very good bokeh, color and great DOF with K10D/K20D. But i would not trade in my FA 50 f/1.4 or A 50 f/1.7 for reasons of missing AF and 'A' setting.

I also noted the oval shaped ringed lights in bokeh. My iris is oval shaped instead of circular. It does not bother me as I love my lens to be a bit different than others. I see imperfection as the greatest opportunity for a picture difference.


Impressions & Notes:

• Love the smooth bookeh from this fast lens
• Outstanding color in both daytime and night time
• Oval shaped ringed lights, not sure if it is due to aperture blades design or fast aperture
• Gained speed invaluable for night time shooting. Instead of ISO 400, some shots can be done in f/1.2 in ISO 200. A much welcome addition especially to complement with noise control in high iso setting
• Lens can't replace FA 50 mm f/1.4 or my A 50 f/1.7 due to missing AF and 'A' settings. I see it as a plus as it give me reason to hold on to 3 similar 50/55mm lens

Related:

• Cosina 55mm f/1.2 Purchase
  
• Pentax FA 50mm f/1.4
• Pentax FA 77mm f/1.8
• Pentax A 50mm f/1.7
• Hin's Camera Gear
  

My Pizza lens happens also be my Sushi Lens. It is my beloved Pentax FA 50 f/1.4 and I default to the lens when my family goes out for new places and new dishes. The Strawhat Pizza in my neighborhood replaces our favorite New York Pizza place called SFO Pizza right in Fremont near my home. Darn it! I will miss SFO Pizza as I love the pan pizza fresh in that restaurant. Now, I have to be content with what I can find with Strawhat. The pictures look better than the taste as the previous place with SFO Pizza has the deep pan New York style pizza with Pesto sauce that my boys, and I all crave about. And I forgot to bring camera before and my good memories with SFO pizza are gone without a good picture.







I always count on my fast Pentax FA 50 f/1.4 to take food shots and it works well with taking indoor pictures of a restaurant. It may be wide enough for a good angle but it has excellent speed and clode up for indoor.



Related:

• Pentax FA 50 f/1.4
• Best lens for Sushi
• Hin's Camera Gear

My fridge from KitchenAid was broken after 6 years of service. Defrossing water gushed out every day needing a bucket and a mop for the daily cleanup and the hourly monitor. And the regular compartment of a side by side stainless steel KitchenAid forced us to dine out since last weekend. My buddies craved for the food pictures that I used to like shooting for indoor. I always go to my Pentax FA 50 f/1.4 for the fast lens in my gear that can take food photos up a level of performance when compared to others. And in getting back to my root with dSLR, I brought my Pentax K100D instead of my K10D for the sushi restaurant named Nijo Castle in Fremont of California,

a place that has become my boys' favorite after the first visit. We have dragon sushi in the first visit along with Udon in a nice broth. The special comes with the appetizer in a Spinach Beef wrap.







Notes & Impressions:

• I defaulted to ISO 400 and use mostly f/2.0 and some in f/2.8 as I go for the bokeh while maintaining sharpness and avoid narrow DOF errors from myself
• Quick snapshot in jpg is alright in K100D and I don't worry about post processing in raw files
• I asked for fully cooked sushi and hence no raw stuff from the nicely dressed Kimonos waitress
• Automatic White Balanace in K100D suffer from orange and yellow cast and hence the warm touch in the pictures. Sometime good and sometime totally not the color of the scene. The preset Tungsten helps a bit but it has its own problem with a cold blue tone. Best solution is to use custom white balance but I fall short in time to save my boys from finishing all sushi
• 50mm may be a bit long in restaurant with tight space. I see the DA 35 f/2.8 limited or FA 35 f/2.0 would do just as well
• Sharpness in FA 50 f/1.4 in f/2.0 get the job done for me. That does not mean that I won't use f/1.4 to f/1.8. It is just that I use them not as often and I reserve it for the darker scenes making the fast lens working extremely well in all cases.
  
• A worthy lens to consider if you are into food shots for indoor. And I see no reason to shoot BBQ for the outdoor, the bokeh and color from the 50mm is outstanding. The minimal focusing distance is great with the FA 50, making it an ideal candidate for close up with a close up filter or a 2x macro converter

Related:

• Pentax FA 50 f/1.4
• Cosina 1:1 macro adapter
  
• Kenko 2x macro converter
• Hin's Camera Gear

Letter 'V' gives me the most problems and hence some old photos for the post. My little one has some violent moments while enjoying his pot stickers in a Korean restaurant.

I have been leaving a comment to Mrs. Nesbitt asking the whereabout of WalksFarWoman as I have been missing her in all recent ABC Wednesday events since her 'S' post in late November. Her blog in wordpress.com has been deleted and I can't find her anywhere in BlogCatalog or MyBlogLog, and Technorati profile. She is my best friend in the blogging community and a greatly admired writer that I always look up to for inspiration and insights into life with a positive attitude in her poetic writing. I truly pray that she is well and I dearly miss her tonight in posting my 'V' post. I am asking all who knows about WalksFarWoman to make a sincere prayer for her. Much thanks for sharing my concerns of my dear friend.

Last week ABC Wednesday is on Ultrapod II tripod

My 1st copy has softness issues even at small apertures in daytime shooting and I returned it for an exchange. I love my 2nd copy of FA 50 f/1.4, I have procrastinated on all the front/back focusing tests that I set out to do when I got my 2nd copy.

The formal testing on my 2nd FA 50 f/1.4 may never happen as I already fall in love with my new lens. The more that I use my FA 50 f/1.4, the more I love the lens. I love it not for the sharpness obviously. I love it for the great color, contrast, wonderful 3D look with narrow dof when I get lucky. And it is a funny term that I use, the picture looks creamy and sometime it sure looks better than the actual scene through my eyes. I have many pictures done at home and I always have the messy feeling about my home and the narrow DOF correct that and my home is as pretty as I can dream about :-)

Okay, back to the softness testing, I find it soft until f/2.0+ for me for indoor portraits -- this is not a definite as I no longer pixel peep to continue the formal part of my testing. For shooting on fine print, I would have guessed it to be sharp at f/2.8 and beyond. For portraits, the creamy look, color and contrast offset the softness that I see. Maybe the softness help in disguise. If you do plan to purchase FA 50 f.14, please do test your copy with some pixel peeping especially for daylight pictures at small apertures such as f/4.0. In my 1st copy of FA 50 f/1.4, it has very unusual softness compared to my 2nd copy and hence I returned for an exchange. Few pictures from my 2nd copy that I am pretty proud, all done hand held