Lens: Voigtlander color-skopar 35mm f2.5
Camera: NEX-7, ISO1600, f2.5, 1/30, raw
It was a long day at work, traveling between University and the Company, having meetings everywhere, plus the usual stuff. As usual, afterwards I reached Claudia and Agata at the Auditorium for an aperitif, but I couldn’t stand another shot at that place. When we came back home, I spent a couple of hours disassembling and cleaning Zenit’s lens, the Helium 44 f2. The procedure was both didactic (for me) and functional (for the lens). Looking at it torn to pieces on my desk, I’ve got a couple of ideas for future shots, so I checked their feasibility. Good news is, they seem to work. Bad news is, they could be quite complex to achieve. I am definitely too tired to go for any of them today, but I should find the time to try some at Easter.
So, as whenever I can’t find inspiration or I don’t have the energy to start setting up a studio shot, I left home for the night walk with the dog. Walking the dog is something I have to do anyway, so it’s never a waste of time. And, as I already said the 23rd of March, walking the dog makes me invisible, people do not wonder what I’m doing even if they find me in the most hidden places. They all know it’s the dog that walks out the owner and not the opposite. Most of my night shots in the project were produced this way.
Problem is, I am running out of subjects at walking distance from my home. So, I am starting to adventure a bit further than usual, where I foresee inspiration. Like at the edges of the neighborhood, the “periphery” of Villaggio Olimpico, an area which, for some mysterious reason, seems to be unaffected by the presence of the Auditorium and the whole renewal of the surroundings. That place still scares the shit out of me, and out of my dog too, which never stops facing the direction of home.
Hmm left a comment yesterday but didn't seem to stick, I've been checking and enjoying your blog each day, always something interesting to see! Your English is excellent and an enjoyable read! Keep up the good work!
+1 it all
Hello Erich, thanks for finding the time to leave such a kind comment… and then to do it again because it didn't stick! I have no idea on what could have happened, but sometimes this blogger things seems a bit buggy. I'll do my best to keep the whole experience as enjoyable as possible 🙂
Did you shoot this handheld? What's the highest ISO you've used with acceptable results? I've been shooting with the NEX-7 with Nokton 35mm 1.4, and I've felt that for the web, ISO3200 is ok, but 1600 is probably the limit for prints- then again, I haven't printed anything from the NEX7 yet.
Yes, I shot it handheld. I didn't like the jpegs above 1600ISO, but since I am shooting raw I never tried anything higher either, so I can't actually say much about. I do find, however, that at 1600ISO, if rightly exposed, pics are good to be printed. With my full frame a900 (24mpx, but on a larger surface) I printed till 3200ISO with good results.
I'm impressed with how consistently and pleasingly you can get the camera to meter correctly. I hunt around with exposure lock constantly, trying to get a good in between. Care to share any tricks?
I shoot in aperture priority and use the exposure wheel (the second wheel) to control over and under exposure. The NEX-7 EVF is great to see in realtime how the exposure works on the scene. I never use the exposure lock. The reason is firmware related. With my sony a900 I have the option to use two different AE programs, one for the scene metering and one for the AE-lock, which I set on spot AE. This way I can have automatic scene metering in every shot, but I can quickly set a specific exposure by locking on the proper element of the scene if I need it to. The NEX-7 doesn't have this option (yet, I hope). You can only use the same program for both AE and AE-lock.