Amazing finds of the century at YL Camera, Pudu Plaza! Left is the rare Minolta 80-200mm F2.8G HS APO, right is the Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM, both amazingly fast-focusing lenses! (Bottom-right corner shows the Minolta’s blemished hood; the Sony doesn’t even come with a hood which might explain the price.)

Minolta 80-200mm F2.8G HS APO at 200mm F2.8.

Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM at 150mm F5.6.

I’d have to say it’s a fair tie in image quality. Other factors like practicality start to take precedence – the Minolta is nearly twice the weight of the Sony, and has a poor minimum focus distance of 1.8 meters. The Sony does 1.2 meters close no matter what. Of course, the Minolta can do F2.8 at all focal lengths.

And then I went to Sony Style KLCC to find out if the Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus was affected in image quality by the Sony 2x APO Teleconverter.

Top-left: Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA at 135mm F1.8 1/200s ISO320
Top-right: Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA through a Kenko 2x MC4 teleconverter at 280mm F3.5 1/125s ISO800 (minor swirliness at the bottom, not always obvious)
Bottom-left: Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus at 135mm F2.8 (transmission factor T4.5) 1/125s ISO800
Bottom-right: Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus through a Sony 2x APO Teleconverter at 280mm F5.6 (transmission factor T9.0) 1/80s ISO3200

Yes, the Sony counts 135mm with a 2x TC as 280mm instead of 270mm for some weird reason, but I’ll refer to it as 280mm anyway for the rest of this entry.

So, I could conclude that the Sony 2x APO Teleconverter does not degrade the bokeh of the STF lens.

Does it degrade sharpness? Not by much of a noticeable bit for me. 100% crop of the 280mm T9.0 1/80s ISO3200 shot.

However, it does bring out some chromatic aberration. 100% crop of the 280mm T9.0 1/80s ISO3200 shot.

I shot X-Fine Large JPG which isn’t the best way to bring out the image quality of the A900 but this was a quick snap, all other factors the same.

Left: Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus with a Sony 2x APO Teleconverter
Right: Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA with a Kenko 2x MC4 teleconverter

Height comparison to my Minolta 50mm F1.4 Original.

Physically though, the Sony 2x APO Teleconverter has its front element sticking out further nearer to the mount, while my Kenko 2x MC4 is quite deep inside.

The Sony is fussy – you just cannot physically mount most lenses in front of it because of the front element. On the plus side, it’s optically better because of this.

It fits all the non-black Sony lenses, with the exception being the STF. So that means the white Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM, Sony 300mm F2.8G SSM, Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6G SSM and Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus.

My Kenko, meanwhile, accepts any lens or teleconverter. So I could stack it!

So does that mean I can stack the teleconverters? Of course, though only in a certain order.

So here’s the result, 560mm F18 1/40s ISO1600.

Stacking order: Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus – Sony 2x APO Teleconverter – Kenko 2x MC4 teleconverter – Sony A900

Also at 560mm F18 1/40s ISO1600. The STF gives 1:4x magnification, and putting a 2x teleconverter doubles the magnification. Obviously then, putting two 2x teleconverters quadruples the magnification to give 1:1x life-size magnification!

Okay, so shooting macro with a full-frame isn’t all that great.

However, you might not want to use the STF with a 2x teleconverter, because:

– the STF is manual focus only, without a focus confirmation light (refer to my findings here why it just cannot detect focus)
– the light transmission ends up being T9.0 which is quite dark
– on an APS-C body, 280mm gives the equivalent of 420mm which is long and hard to use. Already the STF without teleconvters is hard to use on APS-C for portraits due to the length.

On a side note, how do you secure your camera from flying paintballs? Using a thick plastic bag!

Left: Put the hood in the corner. Right: Carve out a hole using a knife or a pen.

Finally, tape it to the hood! Here’s my Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 with my Minolta Dynax 7, all inside a Borders plastic bag! Not rain-proof completely as the back is still exposed, but it is covered enough for splashes and paintballs!

Oh come on, cover me with your green blobs of coverage already!

Yes, it’s one of the rare nights that I can connect to Streamyx. The phone line dies completely whenever it rains so I’m glad it didn’t rain in the evening so here I am, online!

Epic fail, is what I think David Kilpatrick really meant to say about the Nikon D5000, when you put it on a tripod here.

Don’t get what he means?

So, I Photoshopped in my own tripod to see what it would look like:

That said, it’s half as exciting as the D90 (12.3 megapixel CMOS, 720p 24 FPS HD video, 11-point-AF, Kelvin WB) and half as handicapped as the D60 (requires AF-S/AF-I, few buttons, low-res screen, pentamirror, lowest viewfinder magnification of 0.78x, no Creative Lighting System support.)

Random samplings from lenses from decades ago – the Super-Takumar 50mm F1.4 in M42 mount!

This is what it looks like on the A700. (All shots with the A700 unless otherwise specified, in case you’re wondering about depth of field and field of view considerations.)

Unitor 200mm F3.5 in M42 mount…

…and a random shot of someone sitting far away at a mamak.

My former Industar 61L/Z 50mm F2.8 in M42 mount got real nice and close!

I’m guessing this was at F11.

The Sigma 14mm F3.5 on the A900!

Goes crazily close, too! (As is the nature of wide-angles, needing only to extend a little to get good magnification.)

A 20mm lens, for example, only needs to extend 20mm from its default position at infinity, to focus at 1:1x magnification.

And here’s one from the Minolta 28mm F2.8 on the A900!

Mmm, lovely Minolta 24mm F2.8. I wish I grabbed it for the A900 then. Still, F2.8 is lacking for what I shoot.

The old classic Minolta Rokkor 50mm F3.5 1:2x Macro (which needs an adapter to achieve 1:1x.) Also seen on it is a Minolta MD to Minolta AF adapter (and my Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX in the background.)

A tiny Tokina 28mm F2.8 in Minolta MD mount.

Another classic, the Minolta Rokkor 50mm F1.4 in MD mount.

Tokina 20-35mm F3.5-4.5, an early ultra-wide angle zoom.

Left is the Vivitar Series 1 100-300mm F4.5-6.7, one heck of a light push-pull, while on the right is my venerable Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan.

Star power! How?

The cheesy star cross filter.

The Minolta 500mm F8 AF Reflex! Special mention to AF in the name because it’s the only reflex lens in the world that can auto-focus. Light and small for its focal length!

The subject of this picture is the orange out-of-focus highlight from the Minolta 85mm F1.4G – compare this to the somewhat bright-lined Nikkor AF-D 85mm F1.8 and this picture will make sense.

The chunky Tamron 28-105mm F2.8 on my Minolta Dynax 7, the way it was meant to be.

A fungused Minolta 28-85mm F3.5-4.5, one early zoom from the first generation of Minolta lenses (at 28mm F3.5 on the A900.)

This is the 85mm F4.5 end.

And finally, one from the pocket rocket, the Minolta 135mm F2.8.

It’s yet another geekout session with Albert, starting with a night in Titiwangsa Lake Garden.

Interestingly, the Eye On Malaysia has shifted to Malacca!

KJ sits on a power box.

I don’t know what he sees.

This Casio Exilim F1 sees at 60 FPS. No, not video – continuous bursts! Unbeatable for capturing sports action, really!

Size comparison, left to right: Minolta X300 with Seagull 50mm F1.8 lens, Olympus E-420 with Zuiko Digital 14-45mm F3.5-5.6 lens.

Though for me I’m not excited about the Four-Thirds system as much as the Micro Four-Thirds system; here’s the mirror-less Panasonic G1!

Then there’s the Olympus Micro Four-Thirds prototype with a possible 20mm F1.7. SWEET!

Sunpak Auto 16R Pro ring macro flash.

The Canon MP-E 65 5x-1x macro lens on a Canon EOS 50D!

Top pictures are the lens at 1:1x magnification; bottom pictures are the lens at 5:1x magnification.

It’s not an easy lens to use – changing the magnification then requires you to change distance, too. It’s basically a 65mm F2.8 on a variable extension tube. Interestingly, the Minolta 3x-1x uses a 50mm F1.7 and has auto-focus…

And now rewind to the plastic Diana F+! Interesting that it has focus control.

Left to right: I’m guessing the icons really represent apertures from F8/F11/F16/F22; the film indicator switch tells you it’s 120 medium format; the internal parts are all plastic.

Here’s another medium format camera, the Pentacon six TL!

Fitted with a Carl Zeiss Biometar 80mm F2.8 lens, which is a normal lens on medium format, similiar to 50mm on full-frame 36x24mm.

Shot with the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan at 70mm F8.

I tried holding the Biometar in front of my A700 and focusing manually.

I then tried to tilt the lens upwards to give a shallower depth of field. Of course, the light leaking in from below would cause this loss of contrast and add flare…

This was a far more challenging shot at 80mm F2.8 – it was tilted downwards. Note what is in focus.

And now, for a gratituous set of pictures of lenses to show relative size comparisons!

Left to right: Minolta 85mm F1.4G, Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5 (D), Minolta 35mm F1.4G, Vivitar Series 1 28-105mm F2.8-3.8, F&N canned drink.

Left to right: Minolta Dynax 7 with Minolta 85mm F1.4G, Nikon D700 with Nikkor AF-D 85mm F1.8.

Left to right: Sony Alpha 200 with Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC, Sony Alpha 300 with Minolta 85mm F1.4G.

Left to right: Minolta 135mm F2.8, Minolta 28-85mm F3.5-4.5.

Left to right: Minolta 28-70mm F2.8G, Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 24-70mm F2.8 SSM ZA.

Left to right: Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 DT, Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 DT ZA. Honestly I expected the Zeiss to be a lot bigger.

Left to right: Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 DT ZA, Sony 16-105mm F3.5-5.6 DT.

Left to right: Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 DC Macro, Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC Macro. Both focus to a crazy close 20cm but the 17-70mm has the advantage of focal length to achieve a magnification of 1:2.3x!

Left to right: Peleng 8mm F3.5 circular fisheye in M42 mount, Minolta 50mm F1.4 (in A-mount), Jupiter-9 85mm F2.0 in M42 mount.

Left to right: Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA, Sony Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85mm F1.4 ZA, Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 24-70mm F2.8 SSM ZA, Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm F2.4 in M42 mount, Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 DT ZA. It was a pity that we could not get the Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 16-35mm F2.8 SSM ZA to join this party!

Albert returns with a chock-ful of photogeeking!

Yes boys and girls, this is my flash triad – from left to right, the Sony HVL-F42AM, Sony HVL-F58AM and the newly bought Sunpak PF20XD!

And here’s a less flashy picture – from left to right, my Nikon SB-28 (dynamite edition), Sony HVL-F42AM, Sony HVL-F58AM and the Sunpak PF20XD in front.

The rear is very simple – A1/A2/A3 is auto exposure, and the sync mode can be set to skip the pre-flash. I’m not sure if it skips the wireless signal from an Alpha pop-up flash simply because I don’t have an Alpha pop-up flash on my A900 to test this with.

Which is why I got this flash in the first place – as a replacement for my missing pop-up flash. This one of course is more powerful, dishing out 20 meters at ISO100.

Here it is mounted on my Minolta X300 – yes, it’s the standard ISO hotshoe mount, with 2 pins just to trigger the flash. So it’s not a Canon-mount or Nikon-mount flash!

It has a built-in diffuser which can be pulled up, which supposedly covers a 24mm focal length on full-frame, but…

…it amazingly reaches to the sides on my Peleng 8mm F3.5 circular fisheye!

I will be bringing this little baby to the clubs where the F42 is simply too big. Bouncing light with the F58 and fisheye is not easy, either! So I might as well go for direct and blend in ambient light. It looks good enough anyway!

Also spotted at the same shop, dSLR in Subang Parade, was this mega-pack! The Olympus E-520 with the ZD 9-18mm F4.0-5.6, ZD 14-42mm F3.5-5.6, ZD 40-150mm F4.0-5.6, ZD 70-300mm F4.0-5.6! Only thing missing was the ZD 25mm F2.8.

And then I headed to Sony Style KLCC to find the Sony A700/A900 remote, the RMT-DSLR1!

The case of the manual-focus only Minolta/Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus (STF) lens

I’ve always wondered why the Minolta/Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus (STF) lens was manual focus only. So, I decided to test this theory by mounting it on my Minolta X300!

First I had to keep the aperture blades open, so I stuck some tape to hold the lever in place. As you can see, inside the lens, the edges are gradually darker due to the apodization filter inside.

Then, I positioned the lens and body together, with an eraser and CF card holder to keep the lens from rolling.

I looked through it, and it confirmed my theory – the upper half and lower half of the split prism would never match due to the gradual darkening coming from opposite ends!

This is due to the apodization filter which darkens the periphery of the lens (giving the beautiful bokeh that the STF possesses.) Obviously, the top half is looking through the right side of the lens while the bottom half is looking through the left side of the lens.

Phase-detect auto-focus works in a very similiar way to a split-prism on a manual-focus viewfinder – it looks at the subject from two opposite ends of the lens and drives the lens to focus so that the two images are aligned.

If you’ve tried a darker lens on a split-prism viewfinder, you might find that one of the two halves will be darker than the other – this just means that your eye is not centered in the viewfinder, so you need to move slightly to your left or right until the brightness matches. However, you would never see a gradient darkening with a non-STF lens!

This is what an out-of-focus picture looks like through a split-prism viewfinder. You need to focus the lens by turning it until the top and bottom halves of the split-prism align.

This will be easiest to focus on vertical lines and almost impossible with horizontal lines!

I then tried to see if the gradient darkening happened with a normal lens by moving the camera left and right of the viewfinder – it didn’t. Instead, one half got uniformly darker than the other.

Of course, on an phase-detect auto-focus system, the ‘eye’ never actually moves left and right, and it’s always aligned on the center.

So how does a regular phase-detect auto-focus system work?

Each AF sensor has two lines of sensors – one line of CCDs that sees the upper half, one line of CCDs that sees the lower half. It can see how ‘far’ each line is from each other, and know immediately where to focus the lens.

So, the lens is driven to the focus point, and then the camera looks at the two halves again and makes micro adjustments.

Cross-type sensors

Cross-type sensors are just a pair of line sensors at 90 degrees from each other, so it is sensitive to both horizontal and vertical detail.

So why doesn’t the STF work with auto-focus?

As you saw earlier, the top and bottom halves have a gradual darkening coming from opposite ends. So, even if the object was in focus, the CCDs will never say it’s a match!

A way that might’ve worked is that the camera knows that the STF is being used, and compensates for the gradual darkening when comparing what the two CCDs see.

My guess is that the gradual darkening differs with focus range and aperture setting, so it might’ve been too complicated for Minolta to program into the bodies when they first released the STF.

So what’s the big deal about the STF anyway?

Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 STF at T4.5. Note how the out-of-focus highlights are circles with gradually darker edges.

Minolta 50mm F1.4 at F1.4 (cropped to give the same angle of view.) Note how the out-of-focus highlights have ugly, distracting borders (especially at the bottom of the picture.) These borders are called bright-line bokeh.

Here is another example also from the 50mm F1.4. The lights on top really should be out of focus and thus not distracting, but they pop out of the background!

Of course, the 50mm F1.4 and Minolta 50mm F1.7 are very poor examples – a lot of old Minolta zooms and primes have much better rendition of out-of-focus highlights.

And in other news…

And now, on to the Olympus E-30! I found out why it’s said to be the poor man’s E-3.

They still had the clunky way of adjusting Kelvin WB in Live View (an immensely useful feature) but it was slightly easier to hold down the EV button while rolling the rear dial now.

How about the DCIM Show that happened recently at Midvalley Megamall?

Disappointing. No, not the Panasonic G1 – the lack of anything really fresh, new or upcoming. The Panasonic GH-1, with honestly the best implementation of video in a digital interchangeable lens system, was not there.

The GH-1 has an external gun mike, a Wind Cut function, fast AF tracking while recording videos (like a proper camcorder) and a lot of other things that make the Canon 500D’s video mode even more of a joke.

Oh, and Canon didn’t have the Canon EOS 500D there, either!

Fortunately, Nikon brought some cool stuff, like the Nikkor 24mm F3.5 tilt-shift!

Then there was the magnificent Nikkor AF-S 200mm F2.0 VR…

…and the diminutive Nikkor AF-S 35mm F1.8 DX.

I then spotted a Minolta 80-200mm F2.8G, in black! This is not the HS version which is white.

People then spotted my Fujifilm Digital Q1 infrared-modded interchangeable-lens camera!

This is what a fish sees when they see a photographer.

The Panasonic FZ-28 has a Kelvin WB setting! SWEET!

(The Canon 500D and Nikon D60 both do not have Kelvin WB settings, sucks to be them…)

Step up for the model shoot challenge!