Category Archives: Photography equipment

Modular Thinking

by in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment, Travel and tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Hi everyone,

As previously mentioned I recently bought a 52mm Kenko Nostaltone filter. My usual filter size is 58mm, I got the 52mm because I didn’t want to wait until April of next year to get a 58mm size from Japan and the 52mm is also a tad cheaper which is never a bad thing 🙂 . This isn’t a problem as the vast majority of my lenses have a filter thread size of 52mm or less.

This got me thinking on adapting four of my most frequently used small, light Micro Four Thirds lenses to this filter thread size. My Lumix 14mm f/2.5, 20mm f/1.7 and 35-100mm f/4-5.6 lenses all have 46mm filter threads as do quite a few of my other lenses and my Lumix 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 lens has a 37mm thread size so I bought four step up rings to step them all up to 52mm.

In order to minimize things I adapted one of my metal screw on 46mm hoods by fitting a 52-46mm step down ring and, to the front of the hood one of my 58mm magnetic adapter rings and lens caps allowing the hood to be used on three out of four of the above lenses. Why carry several lens hoods when one will do?, after all I can only use one lens at a time 🙂 . The exception to the above being the 12-32mm lens to which I fitted 37-52 mm and 52-58mm step up rings plus another of my 58mm magnetic adapter rings and lens caps. No vignetting at 12mm with a 52mm and/or 58mm filter/s fitted.

It all might sound more than a bit complicated but there is method to my madness 🙂 and this arrangement is very versatile as it allows me to shoot with:

  1. No filters fitted with or without a hood.
  2. With a 52mm filter fitted with or without a hood
  3. With a 58mm filter snapped on to the end of the hood.
  4. With both 52mm and 58mm filters and a hood if, not frequently, I so wish.

As an added bonus my TG-5 camera and filter adapter also takes a 52mm filter size for which I have a 52mm CPL filter I bought some while back. Fitting the 52mm CPL to one of my lenses as well as the hood allows me to rotate the filter by rotating the hood which is my preferred way of doing things as it’s quicker, less fiddly and still provides protection from knocks and flaring.

In total, 3×46-52mm step up rings, 1×37-52mm step up ring, 1×52-46mm step down ring, 2x58mm magnetic filter adapters and caps, one 46mm lens hood with 58mm front thread, there you have it 🙂

Kind regards

Leigh

Kenko Nostaltone Orange filter.

by in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment, Travel and tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Hi everyone,

The other day in a post I mentioned I was waiting for delivery of a new filter. This filter is one that I’ve been greatly looking forward to trying out. Kenko make three Nostaltone filters in orange, blue and green. They all have different properties, I chose the orange version to try out as I have a leaning towards warmer, softer, diffused images. The orange has a stronger colour effect and some unusual flare properties as well as a weaker diffusion effect compared with the blue version. The blue version has a weaker colour effect and a stronger diffusion effect and also some interesting flare properties. I’m not sure about the green filter as I’ve not been able to find a lot of information on it. These filters are somewhat hard to get in the UK and mine came by a very bizarre route from Japan to the UK via Spain and France!.

Below are some straight out of camera shots taken with the Nostaltone filter mounted on my Olympus 9-18mm lens at ISO 200 with sunny white balance setting. I wanted to find some Autumnal foliage as I though the filter would work well with the Autumnal colours. It’s been a lovely sunny day, because we’ve had a long, hot, dry summer the foliage is still very green for this time of year, I’ll probably repeat this later in the month. I haven’t done anything in post with these images except for lens corrections and, as the filter softens the image, I’ve left it that way and not applied any sharpening. I edited the last image to make it look more Autumnal. 🙂 With one minor exception I couldn’t get it to exhibit the blue lens flares, even without my lens hood fitted which might be a factor of my lens choice, I’ll be trying it with different lenses.

Kind regards to all,

Leigh

Photography in one’s advancing years.

by in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment, Travel | 2 Comments

Hi everyone,

I found this very interesting video and as I’m inexorably nudging towards 70, I can fully identify with what he’s saying. My own minimalist camera choice closely resembles his. A small camera bag, one camera body, a spare battery, a small filter pouch with an absolute maximum of four small diameter filters, a lens cloth and, in my case, a couple of very small and lightweight zoom lenses which weigh in at a combined lens weight of 288g or approx. 10 oz!.

As someone who doesn’t habitually shoot many shots at telephoto focal lengths if I’m going to carry a “what if” lens, particularly when travelling, it has to be the smallest, lightest, most compact telephoto that I can pack and at 133g with a length of 5.6cms that’s my Lumix 35-100mm (70-200mm equiv.) f/4-5.6 lens which fits in the palm of one’s hand. At this weight I can live with it even if it only gets used very occasionally. It’s small size means that it’s an eminently pocketable lens which is useful. This lens nicely compliments my equally small and lightweight M.Zuiko 9-18mm (18-36mm equiv.) f/4-5.6 lens which I more than often find myself using at or towards the long end.

In the flashy promotional gear videos you always see a young, fit-looking guy bounding up the rocks with the waves crashing effortlessly carrying a backpack full of gear and a tripod with a heavy camera and lens hanging from his neck. Nowadays I couldn’t even climb up the rocks let alone do so with camera gear. 🙂 So at the end of the day it boils down to a simple choice, adapt to one’s physical limitations or give up. In total honesty do I feel slightly aggrieved that I’m not that man in the videos?, absolutely, will it prevent me from pursuing and enjoying my photography?, absolutely not!.

Kind regards

Leigh

The Taylor Swift Look :)

by in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

I recently discovered that Taylor Swift, another Olympus/OM Systems user’s favourite look for her Instagram page is using the Olympus Vintage 1 art filter. As I shoot RAW most of the time and Olympus’ Workspace software allows me to add the art filter in post I thought, for fun, and as I couldn’t find any obliging celebreties, I’d give a few of my recent street shots of Worthing the “Taylor Swift Look”. I never thought I’d have anything in common with Taylor Swift. 🙂 All shots taken with my Lumix 35-100mm f/4-5.6 lens and Pen F camera.

Moving swiftly on, sorry couldn’t resist the pun, I’ve ordered a new filter from Japan, one that I’ve been interested in for some while now. More on that when I’ve received it and had a chance to try it out but, suffice to say, I’m quite excited to see the effect this filter has.

Kind regards

Leigh

Photo walk in Worthing with Lumix 35-100mm f/4-5.6

by in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment, Travel | 2 Comments

HI everyone,

As it’s been a beautiful, sunny, hot day I thought I’d take my 35-100 (70-200) mm lens and my PEN-F camera for a walk around Worthing. This lens is so tiny, light and sharp and it’s a real joy to use. Although street photography isn’t my genre it was fun, I particularly like the shot of the lady dancing to the rap music coming from the boom box. 🙂 I processed these shots with various Teal and Orange LUTs. Below, a few shots:

Best wishes,

Leigh

Thinking ahead (M.Zuiko 9-18mm lens).

by in Photography equipment, Travel | 4 Comments

Hi everyone,

After feeling a bit “down in the dumps” following the enforced cancellation of our trip to Canada my thoughts have turned to our hopeful short city break and what lenses I might take. As it’s a city break and, as always, I want to travel as light as possible, I think that I’ll take my Olympus M.Zuiko 9-18mm lens as a main walkabout lens. This lens has strangely only ever travelled with me once before and, looking back on the trip, I took some of my favourite shots with it. At its widest end it’s a very useful ultra-wide angle 18mm equivalent well suited for architectural, interior and scenic shots and at the 36mm equivalent end a classic street photography focal length. Unlike other wide-angle zooms it doesn’t have a bulbous front element and therefore one can fit filters to it.

It’s not fast, it’s not weather-sealed and it’s plastic fantastic but it does punch well above its weight and I’ve found the image quality to be more than acceptable. I’ll probably pack a couple of other lenses like my Lumix 20mm f/1.7 and 35-100mm f/4-5.6 lenses, all equally small and lightweight as well a small selection of filters and a couple of spare batteries and that’s it. I’m also hoping to get some nice night shots.

Here’s a few shots taken with this lens:

If this lens interests you search YouTube and you’ll find some excellent reviews by well-respected photographers including Peter Forsgard, Robin Wong and Emily from Micro Four Nerds amongst others all of whom rate the lens favourably. Actually Peter and Emily have each done two reviews this lens.

Kind regards

Leigh

Monitor Calibration.

by in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

I’ve been using one of those DataColor Spyder devices and their associated software to calibrate my two large post-processing monitors. I’ve always been somewhat underwhelmed with their software and decided to try the Spyder hardware with the DisplayCAL software. I think this software is more fully featured and does a much better and more thorough job of calibrating the monitors. Once setup it works perfectly with the Spyder sensor. I found this very useful Youtube video which walks you through setting up DisplayCal to work with the Spyder device.

The only additional thing that I did was disable the DisplayCaL system tray applet which loads through Windows Task Scheduler as it doesn’t play nicely with the IrisTech eye-saver software that I use to dim my monitors and change the colour temperature to warm white late in the evenings along with an Alexa routine which also changes the room lighting from 6500°K daylight to 3000°K warm white as the applet causes one of my monitors to periodically change brightness but this isn’t something that very many people would have to do. The IrisTech “Iris” software has colour pausers and colour triggers which can be set to automatically change to a set colour temperature and brightness when a specific program is launched.

On another note I bought ON1’s Photo RAW MAX 2026 software a week ago but unfortunately I’ve been unable to really use it as ON1 have an issue with their payment people FastSpring. The receipt for the software appears on my ON purchases section but not in the product and subscription section of my ON1 account so I cannot complete registering the software and thus using many of its features until this is resolved which is quite frustrating. I’ve been told that ON1 are working with FastSpring to resolve this issue, I hope they get it sorted soon. I’ve not been having much luck with software lately. 🙂

Kind regards

Leigh

I solved my NIK 9 issue.

by in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment | 6 Comments

Hi everyone,

With no meaningful assistance from DxO I solved my NIK 9 problem. Thanks to Sherry for the tip on On1 which looks very good I decided to download a trial version. Just like NIK 9 it would install and then not run. Unlike NIK 9 it was kind enough to give me an error in Windows Application Event Log which pointed to a faulting DLL file. I realised that this was related to Microsoft Visual C++ so I installed the latest version of their Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable. This solved both problems, NIK Collection 9 and ON1 run both as standalone and as plugins. 🙂

I’m not in a hurry to let them know however, I will of course do so in the vague hope that someone there has the sense to add it to their diagnostic advice and help others with the same problem but, based on my experiences, I kind of doubt it. DxO support minus one, me one! 🙂

Thanks to everyone that has tried to help me on this, much appreciated. If I hadn’t installed ON1 I wouldn’t have spotted this, thanks Sherry.

Kind regards

Leigh

NIK Collection woes continue.

by in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment | 10 Comments

Hi everyone,

After nearly two weeks of so-called “support” from DxO I’m no closer to resolving my problems with NIK 9. I’ve requested a refund but they seem more than reticent to do this and keep stringing me along with very intermittent and equally ineffective responses from their NIK developers so it looks like I’m £150 down with nothing to show for it. I found this on the web and I can readily echo these remarks based on my experiences :

“Many users have expressed dissatisfaction with DxO’s customer support. Common complaints include:

Unhelpful Responses

  • Users report receiving vague or irrelevant replies to their inquiries.
  • Some have experienced long delays in receiving any response at all.

Long Wait Times

  • Customers have noted that it can take weeks to get a resolution for their issues.
  • Frustration is common due to the lack of timely assistance.”

Last piece of software that I buy from DxO, we could call it a day and part company amicably but they won’t even acknowledge let alone affect my request for a refund. For every ineffectual “suggestion” from them I’ve tried about twenty of my own and reported back to them with my findings which have largely fallen on deaf ears. I can only conclude that they don’t care about their customers and I’ve been a loyal customer for quite a few years. I can further conclude that Nik Collection 9 is flawed unlike all their previous versions that I’ve owned and they won’t admit it. It is the only piece of software of a great many that won’t run. In thirty-something years of hands-on computing including supporting computing software, personally and professionally, I’ve never had a piece of software like this and seldom encountered such poor “technical” (or lack of) support.

Kind regards

Leigh

Nik Collection 9 stopped working.

by in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

I recently upgrade purchased DXO’s Nik Collection 9 which has been working just fine. All of a sudden it stopped working either standalone or as plugins, it just won’t load. I contacted their support and after repeatedly following their diagnostic suggestions including numerous uninstalls and reinstalls and running their NIK cleanup tool etc. and quite a few of my own including various graphics driver versions, virus and malware scans, removing any more recently installed software which might conflict, disabling antivirus, running SFC, DISM etc. and it still won’t work. Three days ago they told me that they’d escalated it to their developers since when I’ve not received any additional useful information. It’s very frustrating as the Nik Collection has always been one of my favourite pieces, if not my favourite piece of processing software. In addition to their diagnostic suggestions I have literally turned my computer upside down and inside out trying to resolve this and I have a great many years of computing experience.

So far I’m £150 out of pocket, something that I can ill afford and no closer to getting a working piece of software. I have told them politely to either fix it or give me my money back to which I’ve not yet had an answer. I don’t have this problem with any of my software, and I have a lot of software. Previous versions of Nik Collection have always worked just fine. I was thinking of updating my version of their Filmpack product after also recently updating my version of PureRAW but unless they can come up with a speedy solution I’m now more than having my doubts as to whether to buy any more DXO products in the future. This situation has dragged on for nearly a week and my patience is close to being exhausted. I’ve usually resolved issues like this by myself by now but this one is a real PITA and I’m beginning to think that their support people don’t care.

Kind regards

Leigh