Yeah, I’m gonna end this year with a blog entry about more camera pr0n. I tested the Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO Macro for Konica Minolta/Sony mount; the monster was thicker at the zoom ring and had magnification scales on the outermost barrel. It also had a very nice glittery uh… ribbed finish. APO means apochromatic, for lesser chromatic aberrations (but I wasn’t in a place to get that.)

Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO Macro apertures:
70mm onwards F4.0
135mm onwards F4.5
200mm onwards F5.0
230mm onwards F5.6

This is way brighter than the Sony 75-300mm F4.5-5.6 lens on all counts. At 135mm, the Sony’s brightest aperture is already at F5.6!

It also had a macro focus switch, allowing close focus until 1:2 magnification between 200-300mm. It took almost 180 degrees of turning to get from close focus to infinity… which was a joy for manual focus, but a painfully slow auto focus. At this class, about every cheaper zoom lens will be slow (except the Sony 18-200mm, because its turn is only about 30 degrees.)

I got a steady (but not crisp) shot at 1/30s at 300mm. 4 stops! I then got a crisp shot at 1/30s at 200mm. 3.5 stops! (Of course, you must cooperate with the camera and wait for the Super SteadyShot bars in the viewfinder to go down to 1.)

At RM750 in Sg. Wang, it was much more promising than the plasticky Sony lens.

I also found an all-metal monster, the Tokina 80-400mm F4.5-5.6 for the same mount.

Tokina 80-400mm F4.5-5.6 apertures:
80mm onwards F4.5
150mm onwards F5.0
280mm onwards F5.6

It had a big throw (turning from close focus to infinity). It was RM2150 in Sg. Wang. The box was aged. However, seeing both lenses gave me new faith in the Sony Alpha mount.

Anyway, Happy New Year!

Okay, so it’s not 2007 yet, but the streets of Jalan Imbi are rife with sprayed confetti already! Okay, okay, so that was from Christmas.

Remember this?

(From this blog entry dated 7th September 2004.)

I sold it to xen0s. I’ll miss being able to fret one whole octave with one hand! (Thanks to him for taking this picture, too.)

And now, for a random list of camera-related blog entries from 2006 all the way back to 2004:

Albert gets a Fujifilm A202 digital camera
Albert gets a Canon Powershot A400 digital camera
Albert gets a Canon Powershot A520 digital camera
My first ever blogged shots with a friend’s Canon EOS 350D and 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM lens
Albert gets a Olympus OM-2000 film SLR camera
My first ever blogged film shots from Rock The World 7
Albert gets a Sony Alpha 100 digital SLR camera

And now, for some miscellany.

A camera-like poem

And now, here’s some tips!

How to make an infrared-pass filter using developed film negatives
How to make a infrared lamp
How to get rainbow effects on cars using polarizer filters
How to get a cheap fisheye effect on your digital camera
How to make HDR images in Adobe Photoshop 7.0/CS
How to reverse-mount a lens to get super macro!
How to use a lamp to simulate multiple exposures
How to use a strobe flash to simulate multiple exposures (and uh, capture lightning)
How to capture a traffic light with all red, yellow and green lights on
How to use a linear and circular polarizer to get a neutral-density-to-infrared filter effect
How to calculate the aperture range of your eyes
How to get closer than your SLR lens can focus

And now, for the camera hacking attempts:

Albert hacks a brandless webcam to capture infrared
Albert hacks a Fujifilm Digital Q1 to capture infrared
Albert hacks a Nikon Coolpix 2200 to capture infrared (but spoils it)
Albert tries to put glass inside a infrared-modded Fujifilm Digital Q1 to correct its focus (but it fails to make a difference)
Albert hacks a infrared-modded Fujifilm Digital Q1 to use a manual-focus webcam lens
Albert hacks a infrared-modded Fujifilm Digital Q1 to use SLR lenses
Albert hacks a Vivitar 24mm F2.0 Olympus Zuiko-mount lens