Lumix TZ220 Lens Hack for a 18mm Ultra-Wide!

I was happy to find out that the new Lumix TZ220 come with a 24 to 360 Eq zoom lens, one mm WIDER than the TZ110 it replaced.

In the TZ110 review, I lamented that ONE mm less at the wide end result in significant loss in coverage. Take a look at the picture below.

To prove to myself the TZ220 indeed came with a WIDER 24mm Eq lens, I took shots of the same scene with the TZ220 at 24mm setting to compare with a shot taken with a 12-32 kit lens, at 12mm setting. (12mm is 24mm Eq). Both files were JPEG, straight from the cameras.

Adobe DNG Converter CROP Your RAW Files!

Before I start my rant, please look at my work flow...

I do casual reviewing for Panasonic New Zealand, I shoot all my test pix in BOTH RAW and JPEG. Since every new camera have a unique RAW file, I usually was able to update my FREE Adobe DNG Converter before I receive the new camera.

After I got all the test shots I wanted, I convert all the Panasonic RW2 files to DNG for easy opening with Adobe Camera Raw in my OLD Photoshop CS5. I also open my JPEG files the same way.

I thrashed all the RW2 after they were converted to DNG.

So far so good, as expected the same JPEG and RAW files LOOK identical.

Right?

LUMIX GX9 RAW & JPEG INTEGRITY

After reviewing Panasonic's Lumix GX9 two weeks ago, it is time I look through the hundreds of image files I shot with this delightful M43 camera, archiving what I need and thrash what I do not.

In the process, I opened a few GX9's RAW (RW2) files with Affinity Photo, my Adobe DNG Converter (10.2) is not able to convert the "new" file yet.

My usual workflow when I review a camera is to shoot BOTH JPEG and RAW files.

The RAW are converted to DNG and open in Adobe Camera Raw, so are the JPEG and both are adjusted in ACR where necessary.

This time round I notice something strange between the JPEG and RAW that I cannot explain and I think it is worth some investigating!

Déjà vu - SEE NO EVIL!

1987, the year of living dangerously!

The Aussies started it all with the coverage of Barlow and Chambers drug trafficking case.

I was working for a local Penang paper; young and reckless, shooting for the paper and moonlighting for the Australian agencies! Money was fast and good.... we never see so many photographers and "green bills" in our life!

The high court in Penang was like a media zoo!...

The important thing about covering a high-pressure-high-court case is a electronic flash with very fast recycling time! In 1987, Quantum battery was the "King "! I decided to built one that is FASTER!

My Street Photography

During the weekend I was browsing and looking at photos that are classified as "Street Photography" and was stunned how popular this type of documentary photography is!

So what is street photography?

According to Wikipedia:"Street photography is a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions, and other settings."

It go on to say about this type of photography...

"Street photography uses the techniques of straight photography in that it shows a pure vision of something, like holding up a mirror to society. Street photography often tends to be ironic and can be distanced from its subject matter, and often concentrates on a single human moment, caught at a decisive or poignant moment."

Straight photography? A quick click of my mouse told me that...

"Straight photography or Pure photography refers to photography that attempts to depict a scene as realistically and objectively as permitted by the medium, renouncing the use of manipulation.

Founded in 1932, Group f/64 who championed purist photography, had this to say:

Pure photography is defined as possessing no qualities of technique, composition or idea, derivative of any other art form."

Hmmm... that prompt me to look at my archived images to see which of my shots can go under this decisive, candid; category :)

One of my favorite!

LUMIX GX85 with MF PRIME LENS

According to Wikipedia... In film and photography, a prime lens is either a photographic lens whose focal length is fixed, as opposed to a zoom lens, or it is the primary lens in a combination lens system.

My manual focus PRIME LENSES hibernating in the cloth closet 

Like most photographers living through the FILM ERA, we accumulated a few manual focussing prime lenses from our SLRs.

You can see from the above picture that I have a few Nikon (Nikkor) and Leica-M prime lenses. Most of the time, these once highly sought after lenses are hibernating in my cloths closet!

I have used my selections of old Nikon and Leica M optics on my Olympus E-P2 and OM-D before, the experiences were not intuitive mainly because it is so bloody hard to get an accurate manual focussing on these digital cameras! Not until I try out my 25 year old 50/2 Leica Summicron-M lens on the GM1!

If you read that review, you will realise I LOVE IT!

Now with the Lumix GX85, it should be even better, right?

Can You Bounce Tiny GM1 Flash?

I dislike using flash in my photography, but most indoor lighting condition are not really bright enough for even illumination.

Direct flash can cause even the most flattering photos to turn out bad, direct flash is harsh and highlight in photos are "burn out" and lack detail.

If you are serious about your photography, the first technique you must learn is how to BOUNCE your flash!

Sadly, virtually all the smaller, so called "point & shoot" cameras came with tiny, fixed flash that you cannot tilt and bounce! Even if it can, the output is just too weak for that purpose.

Is PICCURE + a Good Sharperner?

Capturing a REALLY SHARP digital image depends on the following...

a) A high quality lens with minimum optical aberration and defects.

b) A fast shutter speed to combat camera shake.

c) Able to focus accurately on your intended subject.

However, sometime; you thought that you have fulfilled all those three requirements BUT your picture still look "a little soft". Especially when you view it at 100%!

What breaks?

Let us examine those three conditions again...

a) 99.99% of photographers, including you and me, CANNOT afford a $4,000 lens with minimum optical aberration and defects. Most of us use the kit lens, at less than $300, you get what you pay for ;)

b) Fast shutter speeds? No problem, or we can use a tripod!

c) With modern digital camera, accurate focussing is a given.


To counter condition a), enter PICCURE+

According to them...

"piccure+ is a new software program capable of correcting optical aberrations that cause a lack of sharpness in your images. With piccure+, it is possible to recover much sharper images."

Sound very impressive and being one of the "tester" in the last few months, I find the software impressive too. How come, then, they were getting some negative feed back after last week's launch?

I decided to give piccure+ another go, to find out once and for all if it is a good image sharpener.

My first image...

Can piccure+ Turn Your Kit Lens into "L" Lens?

Some of you might have read my posting about piccure a while back, in my conclusion of that story, I said...

PICCURE  ROCKS!!

From my test I can see PICCURE did an incredible job of removing camera shake induced artifacts and blurriness!

I think those guys at the Intelligent Imaging Solutions might give Photoshop a run for their money in this area.

Like any beta release, there are a few issues to iron out; like it crashed sometimes when the image is a TIFF and more than 70MB.

Instead of just being a PLUG-IN, I personally feel that PICCURE also should include a stand alone application; not everyone have Photoshop!

It has been an interesting test, I look forward to testing the official release!

Well, the "+" version is officially launched today!

According to them, "piccure+ is a new software program capable of correcting optical aberrations that cause a lack of sharpness in your images. With piccure+, it is possible to recover much sharper images."

During my beta testing, I was told that piccure+ can virtually make your $300 lens performing like a $3,000 lens!

Do All 24mm (equivalent) Kit Lens Vignette?

For those that don't know, what is vignette or vignetting?

"In photography and optics, vignetting (/vɪnˈjɛtɪŋ/; French: "vignette") is a reduction of an image's brightness or saturation at the periphery compared to the image center.

Vignetting is often an unintended and undesired effect caused by camera settings or lens limitations. However, it is sometimes deliberately introduced for creative effect, such as to draw attention to the center of the frame."  - Wikipedia

In general, a good lens should not vignette or at least show minimum darkening of the image corners.

Lumix G Vario 12-32mm On OM-D E-M5

By now some of you might realised that I am mighty impressed with this little "kit lens" that came with my GM1, why... I even compared it's performance with a much "larger" Olympus kit and it won!  I even "jump to my conclusion" that the tiny 24-64mm (equivalent) zoom might make a perfect traveling lens on my Olympus OM-D E-M5!

The ultra compact Lumix G Vario 12-32 f3.5/5.6 zoom look really cool on my Olympus OM-D E-M5 body!

Back at work today, my colleague; Nigel does not exactly soak in my excitement on this little jewel... he even STRENGTHEN my untold doubt that the Lumix 12-32 performed better because it was on a Panasonic Lumix camera!

Battle Between Two Kit Lens

A kit lens is a "starter" lens which can be sold with an interchangeable-lens camera such as a single-lens reflex camera. It is generally an inexpensive lens priced at the lowest end of the manufacturer's range so as to not add much to a camera kit's price.

Originally kit lenses were of normal focal length; more recently kit lenses tend to be inexpensive zoom lenses that range from medium wide angle to mid telephoto for added versatility. - Wikipedia

The two kit lens I am comparing here are:

The Olympus Digital M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ED came with my Olympus E-P2, three years ago. The focal length range is equivalent to 28-84mm in full (35mm) terms.

The new LUMIX G VARIO 12-32mm / F3.5-5.6 ASPH / MEGA O.I.S. that come as a kit lens with my ultra-compact Lumix GM1. The focal length range is equivalent to 24-64mm in full (35mm) terms.

The two kits, Panasonic; left and Olympus, right. Both lens are in their "retracted" positions.  The new Pani for the GM1 is a lot smaller than the 3 year old M.Zuiko.

Lumix GM1 With Leica & Nikon Prime Lens

I have used my selections of old Nikon and Leica M optics on my Olympus E-P2 and OM-D before, the experiences were not intuitive mainly because it is so bloody hard to get an accurate manual focussing on these digital cameras!

Most of you have heard of Focus Peaking, which is a tool to assist you while manual focusing.  It highlights the areas that are in focus so you are able to quickly focus the lens on that area.

You would think that most modern digital cameras with an electronic viewfinder will have focus peaking built in?

Nope!

But did I not post an article about the focus peaking feature in OM-D E-M5?

Yes, but the feature in E-M5 is what I call "pseudo focus peaking", it is very clunky and not very user friendly.

I was not expecting any special feature when I try out my 25 year old 50/2 Leica Summicron-M lens on the GM1!

I was wrong!!

The Leica Summicron-M 50/2 attached to the GM1 with a Voigtlander VM adapter.

Lumix GM1 - RAW or JPEG?

My friend was wondering why I was shooting JPEG with the Lumix GM1, they were wrong; I was actually shooting both... the highest quality JPEG and the new RW2 RAW format, which I have a problem opening with my Photoshop CS5.

I know you can do it with the supplied, clunky Silkypix software, but unlike the name, the user interface is anything but silky!

Adobe to the rescue!  Last week Adobe released their latest, free DNG Converter 8.3, which allow me to convert the Lumix RW2 files to DNG format.

The question of whether you should use the Lumix RW2 RAW or the more universal DNG format can be found here.

The ANGST of Shooting Film!!

Before I carry on, I want to make it clear that this is NOT about the eternal argument about whether the film is better than digital; it is about after a hiatus of ten years, I suddenly decided to relive the hassle of shooting film!

I had been shooting film since I was 19, when I bought a second-hand Zeiss Super Ikonta camera from my photo nut classmates, the Ooi twin.

I was shooting a lot of films when I was a student at Oakleigh High School, Victoria; Australia. Entering an inter school photo contest, I even won a set of Minolta SLR for the school, and I was shooting everything on film.

A contest winner at the 1968 inter school contest in Victoria, Australia. Shot with a Pentax SV with a 55mm lens on a reversal ring.

My Ideal Travel Camera

In our younger days, we were all guilty of NOT travelling light. In my younger days, travel usually meant work; as a photographer for a newspaper. I recall fondly the time I was with a fashion team to India, shooting for a Singapore paper; travelling with me were the following photo gear...

2 units Canon EOS1 camera bodies, only one with a drive to save weight.
1 unit Leica M6 camera body with winder.
1 unit Canon 580 Speedlight.

Canon 14/2.8 L
Canon 17-35 2.8L
Canon 28-80 2.8L
Canon 85/1.2 L
Canon 200/1.8L
Canon 1.4 extender
Canon 2x extender

Leica Elmarit-M 21/2.8
Leica Summicron-M 50/2
Leica Summicron-M 90/2
Leica Summilux-M 35/1.4
Leica Elmarit-M 28/2.8

Chargers, batteries; 60 rolls of Kodak Ektapress colour negative film. A Monopod. And a Tenba Pro Pak camera bag.

I was amazed how I managed to lug all those gears around! But then I was much younger...

PICCURE the Final Release

If you have been reading my post on 4th May on Piccure, you will know what it is and what it can do.

In short, it is an easy-to-use plugin for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, piccure will allow you to restore your degraded photos produced by involuntary camera movements.

And from my test, it did the deblurring very well!

Last week, Piccure was released into the wild and you are able to purchase this plug-in here.

Piccure come in for Win7 and OSX, you can either purchase the Photoshop or the Photoshop Element version.

In New Zealand, the Photoshop plugin cost $127.98 NZD and $63.34 if you are using PS Element.

OM-D @ ISO 20,000 in Real World!

I have been using my Olympus OM-D for nearly a year, and I have shot thousands of pictures with it, but how many time did I actually made use of the ISO 20,000 setting for really low light capture?  ONCE!!

This still life test shot was taken in early May last year, while I was testing my newly acquired dream camera. It was shot at ISO 25,600!

Even at that never heard of (a couple of years ago), ultra high ISO for a HALF FRAME sensor, the result was ACCEPTABLE!

PICCURE Rock!!

A day ago I test and wrote about PICCURE, a software that claimed to get rid of blurriness in your picture caused by camera shake. During my test I discovered a few discrepancies, for instance; Photoshop's Smart Sharpen made some of my "blurred" pictures sharper than PICCURE!

After I published my story, I shot off an email to the maker of PICCURE; looking for an answer.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply in less than an hour!!

" Hi CY,

Thanks for trying us out!

You are right: PICCURE may be equally good like other programs for small blurs (that may not be even caused by camera shake). 

However, we beat them on anything that is a little bit bigger than a micro blur - plus: PICCURE really gives an "authentic sharpness" for small blurs.
 
I did attach a few images - feel free to try them out and post them.

Thanks a lot for reporting about us!
 
Cheers

Hmmm... that sounds like a challenge and I never run away from one ;)

PICCURE Beat Photoshop In Deblurring Camera Shake!

A few weeks ago, in a sneak preview; Adobe show off their upcoming Shake Reduction Tool for Photoshop that left us stunned. The tool selects part of the image, and used some complicated calculations to determine how the camera was shaking when the shot was taken, the tool then remove the blur — like MAGIC!!

Watch the demo video below.




But yesterday a SMALL startup company based in Tübingen, Germany; the Intelligent Imaging Solutions announced their new Photoshop plugin call Piccure and literally try to BEAT Adobe to this magical shake reduction launch!