Lawrence Ripsher's Photo Journal » Akuri

Akuri

Lawrence Ripsher — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 17:57:06 +0000

Still continuing to post my everday images. Here’s a couple of Akuri as we walked around Greenlake Park one day after work.

Panasonic G3 + Voigtlander 25mm f0.95 Nokton

Akuri

Lawrence Ripsher — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 05:51:54 +0000

Haven’t posted a portrait of Akuri for a while. Here’s two.

Fujifilm Neopan 100 Acros in Xtol

Tri-X test roll

Lawrence Ripsher — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:31:53 +0000

A few test shots from my first roll of tri-x 400… developed in DD-X for 8 mins with ilford fixer. 100% scans show very fine grain for a 400 film. Sharpness doesn’t compare to say Fuji Acros (100) but when I got it right, it looked v good. I read that the DDX development is a similar effect to xtol (fine grain effect). I printed the last shot at 19″x13″ tonight (via scanning) and was blown away. I’m constantly amazed at the resolving power of medium format. Makes going back to even 35mm difficult.

Familiar faces (Pentax 67ii edition)

Lawrence Ripsher — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:24:15 +0000

The last images I’ll share from the first two rolls of film I shot with the Pentax 67ii last weekend (and have been posting this week). It turned out to be a great coulpe of rolls – with a usable hit rate of about 80% from just 20 shots. Normally I hover around 3 – 4 shots out of 12 (for 6×6 MF) or 8 – 12 shots for a 35mm roll of 36 shots – so this was substantially higher. Will be interesting to see if I get anything like that this weekend.

Pentax 67ii + Pentax 105mm f/2.4 on Fujifilm Neopan 100 Acros

Oregon Pacific Coast Trip – “Family”

Lawrence Ripsher — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 08:20:37 +0000

Happy New Year everyone.

OK this is the last in the series… Just a few shots of my little family as we made our way down the coast. As I’ve already said a dozen times, it was a wonderful four day trip and I intend to do it several times more over the next 12 months. I’m delighted with the shots I took over the week – only the second time I’ve ever felt strongly (i.e. brave enough) to bring only film equipment with me on a trip… I’ll never stop shooting digital as it offers so many different benefits / advantages, but my recent foray into film has definitely opened my eyes to a new way of shooting, processing and thinking about photography. I certainly expect more interesting film + digital combinations through 2010.

Zeiss Ikon + Zeiss 50mm f/1.5 on Fujifilm Neopan 100 Acros
Lets start off with Akuri, taken on a beach in N.Oregon

Zeiss Ikon + Zeiss 50mm f/1.5 on Fujifilm Neopan 100 Acros
Rio racing by on a gloomy, sandy beach

Olympus OM-4 + Zuiko glass on Fuji Neopan 400
Sora, “looking out” to sea… Seeing Sora (who is blind) play on the beach was a truly wonderful experience. He’s never seen the ocean before in his life (and as he won’t be able to see it in the future, he pretty much has no idea what it is)… but despite this, he quickly adapted to realising it was a place where he could run for miles in one direction and not bump into anything for once :). He got dumped on by a couple of waves at the beginning and then quickly learned to avoid them by sound. A true wonder.

Olympus OM-4 + Zuiko glass on Fujichrome Velvia 100
The wild exposure is a combination of the meter getting thrown and the shallow dynamic range of slide film. Ended up with a pretty interesting effect and an image I’ve found myself coming back to over and over

Zeiss Ikon + Zeiss 50mm f/1.5 on Fujifilm Neopan 100 Acros
Akuri and Rio, taking a seat on the Oregon Dunes

Olympus OM-4 + Zuiko glass on Fujichrome Velvia 100
A final beach shot. This is Ektar – looks a lot like Velvia if you ask me which is kinda cool and a testament to the film.

That’s all folks – hope you enjoyed the series.

Thanksgiving Road Trip – Day 4

Lawrence Ripsher — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:33:21 +0000

Day 4 consisted of waking up early in the morning in Susanville, and simply heading back. Despite being having driven more than 12 hours the previous day, we still had a 9+ hour journey ahead of us and as with much of our short break, we didn’t have too much time for stopping and photography. On the way back we did want to choose one place to stop however and that ended up being a little park in Lassen National forest. After a short break there, and a few photos, it was back to Seattle. These are the last shots from the trip – thanks for hanging int here.

Olympus OM4 + Olympus OM Zuiko 55mm f/1.2, Kodak Ektar 100

River in Lassen Forest. Olympus OM1 + Olympus OM Zuiko 21mm f2, Fujifilm Neopan 100 Acros

Olympus OM1 + Olympus OM Zuiko 21mm f2, Fujifilm Neopan 100 Acros

Pointing upwards again… close focusing with the 21mm. Olympus OM-1 + Olympus OM Zuiko 21mm f/2, Fujifilm Neopan 100 Acros

V nice colours from Ektar. Olympus OM4 + Olympus OM Zuiko 55mm f/1.2, Kodak Ektar 100

Nothing very exciting in this shot but just about worth including. Olympus OM-4, Olympus Zuiko 21mm f/2, Kodak Ektar 100

I screwed this shot up – was a beautiful scene / light but didn’t quite focus right. Still, I like it and am including it anyway. Olympus OM-1 + Olympus OM Zuiko 21mm, Fujifilm Neopan 100 Acros

OK that’s all folks. Thanks for following. Olympus OM4 + Olympus OM Zuiko 55mm f/1.2, Kodak Ektar 100

Olympus OM Zuiko 135mm f/2.8 Lens Review (with Canon EOS)

Lawrence Ripsher — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:27:46 +0000

I recently wrote about an adapter I bought for my 5D which allowed me to mount my old Olympus OM Zuiko lenses on it. In that post, I provided a couple of samples with a normal range 55mm f/1.2. Here’s a quick update with a longer lens – the Olympus OM Zuiko 135mm f/2.8, with a particular emphasis with how it performs with a Canon 5D Mark II.

I’m a big fan of the old Olympus Zuiko lenses which have a few interesting characteristics:

They are very compact
They can be cheap second hand (compared to many other brands e.g. Leica, modern lenses, etc)
They have great out of focus characteristics (with beautiful, creamy Bokeh)
Many have very close minimum focusing distance
Optically, they’ve very impressive

I’ll give a quick overview of each of these characteristics with respect to the 135mm f/2.8

Compact / Size

The 135mm f/2.8 measures a relatively small 3,2″ (80mm) max length x 2.4″ (61mm) max diameter. Given it’s all metal / glass construction it weighs 0.8lbs (360g) which while light, is enough to make it feel solid and hefty for its size. A clever feature is that it contains a built in hood which can slide out / retract easily whenever you need it. The shape of the lens itself is cylindrical and doesn’t enlarge as you move away from the base towards the lens. This makes it very portable – I am often able to carry it in a jacket pocket for example without much fuss.

To provide some perspective, the faster AF Canon L 135mm f2 is approx 112 mm (4.4 inches) max length x 83mm (3.2 inches) max width. Weight is 1.7lbs (750 grams). While these dimensions reflect some of the difference, in the real world, it’s even greater. Pointing the Canon 135mm L at people in the street (particularly when the hood is attached) is an easy way to get noticed. Although not entirely inconspicuous, the Olympus OM Zuiko 135mm f/2.8 is not as obvious.

One downside here is that while the build quality of the lens is superb, on my Zuiko -> EOS mount, it doesn’t feel as rigid or secure as some other lenses. I suspect it’s my adapter at fault here. While it doesn’t affect anything in terms of image quality / safety / performance, it is noticeable. My only other criticism is that when mounted to a 5D, it looks… well, kinda ugly.

Price

I love this – I bought my Olympus OM Zuiko 135mm f/2.8 lens for $99 on ebay for a buy it now. I’d consider the quality to be somewhere between Excellent and Mint. There aren’t hundreds for sale on ebay but wait and a while and it’s pretty easy to pick one up. In contrast, the superb Canon 135mm f/2 L goes for a grand on Amazon (and this is the best value L lens). Alternatively a Canon 135mm f/2.8 with soft focus will still set you back nearly $500.

Bokeh

The bokeh of the Olympus OM Zuiko 135mm f/2.8, like many Zuiko’s, is gorgeous. When there are elements of the image that are very out-of-focus, it takes on that swirly effect – but it’s not as apparent as in some of the shorter focal lengths. Here’s a shot when mounted onto a Olympus OM-1 film camera which illustrates that effect:

Olympus OM-1 + Olympus OM Zuiko 135mm f/2.8 on Fujifilm Neopan 100 Acros

With more typical scenes, it’s what you’d expect from a high quality lens – a beautiful, smooth, drop off in depth of field which gives pleasing subject isolation. It’s not as a dramatic effect as with an F2 at this focal length, but it still looks great. Here’s a shot from this afternoon that illustrates this:

Canon 5D Mark II + Olympus OM Zuiko 135mm f/2.8

Minimum Focusing Distance

A lot of the Zuiko’s have impressive minimum focusing distances. Not so with the 135mm f/2.8 which actually has a fairly long min focusing distance of 1.5m (nearly 5 feet). What does this mean in real terms? Well, head shot portraits are fine but you can’t get a lot closer and you certainly don’t get any macro effect. Here’s an example of what a min focusing distance gets you with a portrait (shot on a Olympus OM-4 film camera):

Olympus OM-4 + Olympus OM Zuiko 135mm f/2.8 on Kodak Ektar 100

Optics

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting that much when I bought this lens originally. I just figured I’d get something cheap, fairly portable and would be useful in a pinch for the film work I’ve been doing. However, after shooting with it for a while, this little telephoto is turning out to be quite a performer with excellent sharpness, great colour and as I mentioned already, wonderful out of focus characteristics. For resolution freaks, here’s a couple of examples with 100% crops which show the resolving power when mounted to a Canon 5D Mark II:

Canon 5D Mark II + Olympus OM Zuiko 135mm f/2.8 (original image)

Canon 5D Mark II + Olympus OM Zuiko 135mm f/2.8 (100% crop)

If you click on the 100% crop, you’ll see what is actually extremely impressive sharpness at the center. I will add that this was shot wide open at f2.8 and I’ve done no photoshop to the original or cropped image – it was already way sharp enough. Pretty cool. You can see a little vignetting but nothing particularly concerning.

Now, if staring at lines one pixel in width doesn’t do it for you – here’s a shot of the same scene but taken at a time and with lighting that actually produces a real image:

This version was taken at 7am on a beautiful morning. Shot with an Olympus OM-4 + Olympus OM Zuiko 135mm f/2.8 on Fujichrome Velvia 100

Coming back to pixel peeping for a moment, here’s another example:

Canon 5D Mark II + Olympus OM Zuiko 135mm f/2.8 (original image)

Canon 5D Mark II + Olympus OM Zuiko 135mm f/2.8 (100% crop)

This one I’ve applied a minor unsharp mask to. It suffers a little from relying on my manual focusing skills which can be subject to minor misses once in a while. Again though – looks v good.

If 100% crops doesn’t get you going, here are a few real images. I shot these this afternoon in the space of an hour or so while wandering around. Again, all when mounted to a Canon 5D Mark II:

Canon 5D Mark II + Olympus OM Zuiko 135mm f/2.8

Verdict

I normally don’t get too excited about a lens with a maximum aperture smaller than f2, but this little old telephoto has definitely impressed me. After all – what’s not to like. Lets summarise… It’s a small compact telephoto that produces ultra sharp images with beautiful out of focus and a max aperture of f/2.8. It can be used on the legendary Olympus OM line or mounted to Canon’s EOS sytem for a cheap adapter available on ebay. An excellent to mint copy costs a hundred bucks (cheaper than the cheapest plastic lens Canon makes or about the same as a month of latte’s).

Again, seriously, what’s not to like.

Thanksgiving Road Trip – Day 3

Lawrence Ripsher — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 06:09:46 +0000

Day 3 was actually the purpose of the trip. Woke up at 5am and drove 20 minutes from the campsite to a place called Badwater. This is the lowest point in the US, and during the summer some of the hottest temperatures of anywhere in the world are experienced. The flats of Badwater stretch for miles. Due to the extreme climate, very little water and / or life is sustained and you can walk unimpaired in pretty much all directions. When rain does fall, it goes through a freeze–thaw and evaporation cycles and as the surface becomes dry again, a funky honeycomb pattern is left with the salt. Standing out there in the morning at sunrise, looking over miles of an alien-like surface at the mountains in the distance, it feels like you’re nowhere else on Earth. Pretty cool experience.

After that, we took off round the park. The other place I really wanted to see (The Racetrack where rocks slide over the surface of the ground), wasn’t really reachable so we hung around for until the afternoon and then started to make the long journey back. We’d basically covered 1,200 miles for a quick walk around a dry lake – it was a surprisingly good deal.

On the drive back, we managed to cover a good deal of ground. We wanted to stay just outside Yosemite and visit there the next morning but the pass was closed. At the West entrance to Yosemite though was another small highlight -a little town called Lee Vining overlooking Mono Lake. Mono Lake is a hypersaline lake (salt concentrations greater than those found in the ocean) which has left the shoreline looking like it harbors mini icebergs of salt. We arrived just after sunset and stopped there for a quick walk… After that we we kept driving until late in the evening, passing through a snowstorm near Tahoe and finally staying the night in another small town called Susanville. Day 3 of 4 was cool. Pictures follow – taken with a Olympus OM-1 / OM-4 combo + Olympus OM Zuiko glass. The black and white images are shot on Fujifilm Neopan 100 Acros while the colour shots are Kodak Ektar 100. All shots scanned with Nikon Coolscan 5000.

Badwater @ sunrise

Entrance to the river bed

Distant tourists provide some scale against the vast landscape

The Badwater honeycome surface

One more with Akuri to provide some perspective

A shot on the top of Ubehebe Crater within Death Valley

The hill above Sammy’s Castle… Still within Death Valley National Park

Mono Lake at twighlight

Mono Lake

And finally a shot of Sora to end on as the light was fading.

Thanksgiving Road Trip – Day 2

Lawrence Ripsher — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:35:00 +0000

Day 2 started by leaving Reno in the morning and driving 8 hours South, stopping off for occasional leg stretching, photoshooting and a rosie lee. At around 6pm we arrived at the top of Death Valley National Park and began the 30 minute decent into the park. Being a man who doesn’t like to overplan these sorts of things, I hadn’t arranged a parking spot at the campground (for which we had no camping gear anyway). After 24 hours of driving over two days, I started to look a little worried when the first two campgrounds were full.Fortunately it turned out my calculations (i.e. random luck) was sufficient and the third / final campground had plenty of spaces.

So we parked up, climbed in the back with the dogs and collapsed – staring up at the stars through the sunroof. Despite the cold, cramped space and general roughin’ it – the night went fine and a few hours later we were on the move again to Badwater (tomorrow’s pics). Here’s a quick photochronical of day 2.Shots from a combination of Olympus OM-1 / OM-4 and Zuiko lenses. Shots on Kodak Ektar 100 and Fujifilm’s Neopan 100 Acros. The first image is post processed – the rest are straight off the scanner (Nikon Coolscan 5000).

Originally shot on Ektar in colour but I couldn’t resist modifying in Photoshop.

Leaving the hotel in Reno

Parking lot, somewhere in Nevada

Akuri and our two dogs. That road in the background leads to Candelaria, an old ghost town (which we didn’t visit)

Akuri and Sora

Miles and miles of desert & straight road. You get used to that view driving through Nevada

Thanksgiving Road Trip – Day 1

Lawrence Ripsher — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:01:56 +0000

Day 1 of our thanksgiving road trip consisted of nearly a thousand miles of driving over 15 or so hours. Starting out from Seattle, we had breakfast in Portland, cut across and reached Bend, OR by the afternoon and finally Reno, NV by 11pm. Focused on covering ground rather than shooting, I actually took only a handful of pictures on the way down – but here are the first day images.

All shots taken with an Olympus OM-4 + Zuiko lenses on Kodak Ektar 100. Scanned with Nikon’s Coolscan 5000.

An amazing morning sunrise somewhere between Seattle and Portland. No photoshop – just a straight scan

Another view

An incredible morning sky

Akuri and Sora

Morning in Portland, OR

Sora – eating breakfast

Crossing the pass

Somewhere in Oregon