Canon Angle View Finder

Quite a few times I wished I had screen to tilt or an angle finder for the Canon 5D MKII, but I am not willing to spend 200 U$ on an accessory that I will use only once in the blue moon. Luckily there is some cheap alternative from Seagull, a Chinese company selling a variety of photo equipment (inclusive of a range of large format cameras!). You find the angle view finder with a range of adapters for Canon, Nikon, Sony,.. cameras on ebay for about 50U$. There are different models for 2 to 3x magnification, you can switch from 1x to an alternative magnification factor with a mechanical switch, useful to check focus.

My first impression:

• It works.
• The adapter is a bit flimsy, you cant easily slide in and out the view finder.
• If you dont use an angle view finder permanently you can work with this one.

The items in the box

On a Canon 5D MK II

 I dont know about any shop in Singapore selling it off the shelf.

Canon TS-E 17mm shift and tilt lens

I fancied TS lenses for a long time, even bought a 4x5 to experiment some years back, but thats not exactly the kind of camera you carry around with 2 to 6 exposures. Yes, we can use Photoshop and tilt and warp images, fake miniature scenes, etc. but is not the same as using a TS lens. There are only few in the market and they are all expensive (though you can try a shift adapter for MF lenses on Canon or Nikon DSLR). Finally I got one from DDElectronics in Singapore (almost 400 SGD cheaper than other shops in town !), and just start to enjoy this new lens and learn to create images again in a completely new way. I spare you with technical details, as the web has quite a number of reports, tests and comparisons about this:

• http://guytal.com/wordpress/2011/03/review-canon-ts-e-17mm-f4l/
• http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=371
• http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/cameras/lenses/ts-e_17_f4_l.html
• http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-TS-E-17mm-f-4-L-Tilt-Shift-Lens-Review.aspx
• http://www.ronscheffler.com/blog/?page_id=309

I highly recommend to read Peter Hills' introduction about tilt and shift here:

• http://www.redbubble.com/people/peterh111/journal/5713153-an-introduction-to-tilt-shift-photography

Drop by the TS-E 17mm Flickr group with plenty of real-life sample images:

• http://www.flickr.com/groups/canontse17mmf4l/

My first personal impression:

• Its a fantastic lens, a prime lens worth every cent. 
• Crisp sharp.
• You can shoot handheld, its a myth a shift lens always requires a tripod and a big screen.
• Lot of glass without protection, you will take care of this lens !

A quick comparison to get an idea what it means to shift:

1. Shifted 10mm, camera levelled
2. Not shifted but camera tilted up to capture rooftops
3. Not shifted but camera levelled

Gigapan: View from Pinnacles @ Duxton 2

Another viewpoint.

Gigapan: View from Pinnacles @ Duxton

Gigapan: Pearl Bank Apartments

Seen from Pinnacle@Duxton rooftop garden.

Spontaneous Walkabout

Just quitting some meaningless seminar early today and I was right in the mood to shoot some pictures. Lucky enough the trusty LX3 is always around.

Aljunied Walkabout

Nice to see that some areas are not cleaned up yet and reflect a bit the old at look-and-feel of Singapore shophouses. In times of recession the pace of modernization should reduce hopefully.Walking the streets of Geylang and Aljunied with the LX3 in dynamic BW mode. The Panasonic is my mainly used camera at the moment.

16:9 Walkabout

Occasionally it is my pleasure to go around with a simple (or rather small) camera and enjoy lightweight and tourist-alike snapping away. The Panasonic is a perfect companion if you want to leave your DSLR stuff at home. And the dynamic bw mode with some curve adjustment is just nice to enjoy simple digital photography from time to time.

GIGAPAN Chinese Garden

Another GIGAPAN made with the modified gigapan systems head and the Panasonic Lumix FZ28. 96 images stitched with PTGui to a 14.200 x 17.300 pixel image (245MP). Not sure if it reveals much more details than 4 Canon 1Ds images stitched together. Maybe I will compare for this sake.

See the complete GIGAPAN here (link)

Panorama Tripod a shoestring II

To follow up on the description of the simple mini panorama tripod, here some results:
LX3 @24mm (ISO80), F5, 1/250s (Shot in 16:9 format by mistake), 30 degree between the 7 images covering roughly 180 degree.
Resulting in a 10.300 x 3.600 pixel image. (below smaller jpg version)
LX3 @60mm (ISO80), F5, 1/250s (Shot in 16:9 format by mistake), 20 degree between the 17 images covering roughly 180 degree.
Resulting in a 19.000 x 3.800 pixel image. (below smaller jpg version and 100% crop)

Conclusion:
I am happy with the results for a 270g (tripod only, LX3 comes at another 275g) light tripod that fits into my daily bag.
It needs some finetuning for the nodal point for closer subjects, I used the pre-made holes in the L-shape bracket. All you need is a drilling machine.