Archives for October 2015

A Little Product Photography

October 24, 2015 by

My better half made a bunch of soaps today and asked me whether I have a little time to help her make some photos.

Sitting in front of my desk coding for who knows how many days, I smiled, and pulled out the Canon EOS 5DS R with my beloved Zeiss Apo Sonnar T* 2/135 ZE lens. A tripod, a few sheets of colored paper, a flash to open up the deep shadows created by the afternoon sunlight, and a MacBook Air 11″ to run Kuuvik Capture rounded out the rig.

Roses in Soap

Roses in Soap

The above is my favorite from the shoot. The Zeiss – as always – amazed me with its wonderful, clean, airy drawing. This was shot at f/2.2. Everything in the plane of focus is tack sharp, and the bokeh is lovely. Both in front of and behind the focus plane.

And this is a bit dull sRGB version, at least compared to the original having the usual brilliant colors the Zeiss with the 5DS R can produce.

Filed Under: My Photos Tagged With: , ,

Sneak Peek: Viewfinder 3D Touch Shortcuts

October 16, 2015 by

Earlier this week I have received both the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus – the latter of which is the phone I’m using now. So immediately started working on updating the Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder. I find the 3D Touch feature a great addition, especially home screen shortcuts speed up my everyday life with the phone. And as you can see below, Viewfinder 4.4 will sport a home screen shortcut menu.

3D Touch shortcuts in the upcoming Artist's Viewfinder 4.4

3D Touch shortcuts in the upcoming Artist’s Viewfinder 4.4

The menu includes the three last recently used virtual cameras (and the option to create a new one if there are less than three recently used cameras), and a shortcut to quickly access the album.

I’ve also completed the bench measurements of the two phones plus the iPad mini 4, along with olloclip 4-IN-1 and Moment wide converters on the two phones.

More to come, so stay tuned!

Filed Under: My Apps, Photo Software Tagged With: , , ,

Great Crested Grebe Drying

October 12, 2015 by

Patience pays off in bird photography. I had been sitting at the bottom of the boat in full ghillie for an hour or so that morning, when a grebe surfaced just a few meters from the boat.

Grebe shaking off water and drying

Grebe shaking off water and drying

The bird’s colors accentuated by the golden morning light play very well against the sky’s reflection in the windblown water.

5DS R with the 500mm f/4L II and the 1.4x converter. Slight crop.

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Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder 4.3 Released

October 10, 2015 by

The latest update to my Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder app is now available on the App Store. The highlights of this update are improved iOS 9 compatibility and new wide converter lens support. While the former doesn’t need more explanation, let’s dive into the latter.

vf43widesThis is a screen shot made on my iPhone 6 Plus. You can see that Schneider iPro lenses are now supported, but the bigger news is Moment Wide lens support across the board.

The Moment Wide lens is a high quality 0.65x-class converter. It’s so well corrected that there’s no need for distortion correction in the software. It’s not a surprise that support for this lens was the most often requested feature.

The only thing that prevents it from becoming my favorite is the rather crappy attachment plates. The lens bayonet is simply sub par, and I don’t want to glue anything to my phone. So gaffer tape was used extensively during measurements and testing of this converter. Their case is light years ahead of the plates, but only available for the iPhone 6 at the time of writing.

The Moment Wide lens is now supported on iPhone 4/4s/5/5s/5c/6/6+, iPad Air 1/2 and iPad mini 1/2/3.

The complete release notes is available here, and through the “What’s New in This Release?” menu item from within the app.

Version 4.3 is a free update for existing Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder owners. Users of former Viewfinder Basic/Pro/Cine editions can upgrade for a reduced price.

What about the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus?

Since version 4.1 new devices are supported automatically using iOS provided angle of view data, so you don’t have to wait for us to complete the bench measurements. Sure, measured angle of views provide better precision, but you need to wait for that – as well as for wide converter support.

We have no early access to new hardware and must wait for general availability like everyone else. In our country the new phones just became available yesterday – and I had already ordered both. They are expected to arrive by the end of next week. Olloclip and Moment declared their clips as 6s/6s+ compatible, Schneider promised to say something by mid-October.

So you’ll have to wait for wide converter support on the new phones until the dust settles and we complete all the measurements.

Filed Under: My Apps, Photo Software Tagged With: , , , ,
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