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The TPU Darkroom - Digital SLR and Photography Club

Thinking of geting the pixel 8 pro - how's the camera for point and shoot? Seems pretty decent?
Pixels have the best point and shoot across all phones imho.
 
Thinking of geting the pixel 8 pro - how's the camera for point and shoot? Seems pretty decent?
I don't have many comparisons as I always used Pixels, but I have no complaints. The low-light performance is ok at best, but I don't know of any phone camera that has better. It has really good image stabilization.
 
Happy new year!

DSC00556.jpg


Minolta Rokkor 20/2.8 + Sony A9, unmodified Jpeg
 
Wow, what a cool photo. Where is that?
The scene is cool, the image not so much. It's soft/moved/shaken. Says exposure time was 5s, it was either handheld or on a flimsy tripod in windy conditions.
Nitpicking aside, the way the fireworks illuminate all those buildings is awesome.

Personally, I would have underexposed and pulled detail in post.
 
The scene is cool, the image not so much. It's soft/moved/shaken. Says exposure time was 5s, it was either handheld or on a flimsy tripod in windy conditions.
Nitpicking aside, the way the fireworks illuminate all those buildings is awesome.

Personally, I would have underexposed and pulled detail in post.
Looks like soft focus, not shaken - to me at least. Hard to focus at night.
 
The scene is cool, the image not so much. It's soft/moved/shaken. Says exposure time was 5s, it was either handheld or on a flimsy tripod in windy conditions.
Nitpicking aside, the way the fireworks illuminate all those buildings is awesome.

Personally, I would have underexposed and pulled detail in post.

Right, I am more interested in the subject matter which is why i asked where the picture was taken.
 
Wow, what a cool photo. Where is that?

Thanks, the place is called Les Crosets, part of the Portes Du Soleil ski/bike resort

Looks like soft focus, not shaken - to me at least. Hard to focus at night.

I checked the focus with max magnification and as you say that's quite tricky at night but I think it's consistent with the results I got from this lens wide open. Definitely not the sharpest tool in the box but to its credits the lens is 50 years old and ultra wides were not easy to manufacture back then

The scene is cool, the image not so much. It's soft/moved/shaken. Says exposure time was 5s, it was either handheld or on a flimsy tripod in windy conditions.
Nitpicking aside, the way the fireworks illuminate all those buildings is awesome.

Personally, I would have underexposed and pulled detail in post.

It was shot on a big video tripod rated for 12kg (which was a pain to move up there btw, I wish I had my snowmobile) and I used the self timer. So ,although it was windy, I'm sure there was no camera shake. This lens is clearly not the sharpest at wide aperture, especially in the corners, but that was the widest FOV I could get with my gear. I still quite like how this one turned out.

Regarding the exposure, it was tricky to guesstimate as the fireworks all have a different light output and I also wanted the stars to be visible. Admitedly they are quite dim on this Jpeg straight out of the camera, but I guess they could pop more after tweaking the raw file. Unfortunately I have no PP program right now, except Windows Photo Editor... Hopefully I'll soon have Capture One on my PC to properly edit my shots. I tried with less exposure but the overall results look worse to me, at least without extensive PP

The pyrotechnic show was quite underwhelming to be honest, the resort keeps charging more and more for lift tickets and then they cheap out on these stuff... But well, stars and groomers can produce cool light shows too. This was shot with the Rokkor MD 24/2.8, hopefully it will look better and less noisy when I have a chance to edit it in a decent software. These peaks are right on the border between Switzerland and France

DSC00635-2.jpg
 
@mouks No worries, some of my favorite photos are technical train wrecks.
Shooting at night, trying to guess when the firework will go off... that's tricky stuff.

As a side note, what throws me completely off is that the only things that are sharp seem to be along that streak/path in the snow, to left of the fireworks-lit buildings. But the buildings themselves are soft.

Edit: Your second image is also a gem. Could have use high-ISO NR tho ;)
 
I checked the focus with max magnification and as you say that's quite tricky at night but I think it's consistent with the results I got from this lens wide open. Definitely not the sharpest tool in the box but to its credits the lens is 50 years old and ultra wides were not easy to manufacture back then
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Seems pretty much consistent with Phillip Reeve's list of MD lenses.

Still like the picture.
 
Fwiw, very, very few lenses give their best wide open. Stop down a couple of notches, you're in business.
i use dxo to figure out which fstop gives the crispiest for my lens.
 
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@mouks No worries, some of my favorite photos are technical train wrecks.
Shooting at night, trying to guess when the firework will go off... that's tricky stuff.

As a side note, what throws me completely off is that the only things that are sharp seem to be along that streak/path in the snow, to left of the fireworks-lit buildings. But the buildings themselves are soft.

Edit: Your second image is also a gem. Could have use high-ISO NR tho ;)

Thanks, what do you mean by high-ISO NR? Are you referring to an in-camera setting? That was Windows' interpretation of the RAW file and it's doing some weird stuff, can't wait to have a legit software to get cleaner results

View attachment 378779

Seems pretty much consistent with Phillip Reeve's list of MD lenses.

Still like the picture.

Thanks for pointing this out, I came across his website a few times but never noticed the " List with ratings and short description". That looks consistent indeed

Fwiw, very, very few lenses give their best wide open. Stop down a couple of notches, you're in business.

I agree, usually the sweet spot is around f/8 for landscape but in low light situations you have to pick your poison between high aperture = not the best sharpness, high ISO = more noise, or buying a top-of-the-line modern lens = losing a a kidney

i use dxo to figure out which fstop gives the crispiest for my lens.

Are you happy with the software for editing? I saw lots of praise on Youtube but most videos are sponsored, still not sure whether to get DXO or Capture One

Just shot this with the Rokkor MD 85/2 it looks noisy like every time I open a .ARW file in Windows photo editor but I still like it

DSC00678-2.jpg
 
Thanks, what do you mean by high-ISO NR? Are you referring to an in-camera setting? That was Windows' interpretation of the RAW file and it's doing some weird stuff, can't wait to have a legit software to get cleaner results
Something like this: https://erkesphoto.com/photography-...aging-a-severely-underexposed-high-iso-image/
Some (all?) cameras have a setting for this, I prefer to do it in post.

PS I also have a yellow cat like that. But I don't have a photo at hand.
 
Thanks, what do you mean by high-ISO NR? Are you referring to an in-camera setting? That was Windows' interpretation of the RAW file and it's doing some weird stuff, can't wait to have a legit software to get cleaner results



Thanks for pointing this out, I came across his website a few times but never noticed the " List with ratings and short description". That looks consistent indeed



I agree, usually the sweet spot is around f/8 for landscape but in low light situations you have to pick your poison between high aperture = not the best sharpness, high ISO = more noise, or buying a top-of-the-line modern lens = losing a a kidney



Are you happy with the software for editing? I saw lots of praise on Youtube but most videos are sponsored, still not sure whether to get DXO or Capture One

Just shot this with the Rokkor MD 85/2 it looks noisy like every time I open a .ARW file in Windows photo editor but I still like it

DSC00678-2.jpg
i use their website only. Lightroom is still the best for for me for post processing. Too old to learn something new
 
@mouks
first thought, CH, but then they dont do fireworks on new year, but independence day in august.
guess times changed, when i was still going their for vacation, it was only zee germans blowing up money :D

do you use IrfanView? at least lets you do the basics and with plug ins better than what win has.
make sure to dl plugins, and set options before use.

IV
 
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I spent so much time skiing/snowboarding/snowskating/sleighing/snowmobiling/freezing/getting stuck/digging/breaking bones/dislocating members/destroying cars on this thing called snow but I never realized how cool it looks up close. Too bad I didn't catch the sensor dust. Minolta MD 100/4 Macro

DSC00736-2.JPG




Something like this: https://erkesphoto.com/photography-...aging-a-severely-underexposed-high-iso-image/
Some (all?) cameras have a setting for this, I prefer to do it in post.

PS I also have a yellow cat like that. But I don't have a photo at hand.

Yeah, that's also my thinking, better to get the RAW file and denoise it in a good software, I will have tons of pics to get back to

i use their website only. Lightroom is still the best for for me for post processing. Too old to learn something new

@mouks
first thought, CH, but then they dont do fireworks on new year, but independence day in august.
guess times changed, when i was still going their for vacation, it was only zee germans blowing up money :D

do you use IrfanView? at least lets you do the basics and with plug ins better than what win has.
make sure to dl plugins, and set options before use.

IV

Back in the day I had the whole CS5 suite on Windows 7, unfortunately this drive doesn't boot anymore. And Adobe only rent their products nowadays so they're forcing me to go elsewhere. I tried Rawtherapee but it was painful to use and kept crashing before I could export anything. I think I will invest in Capture One, it looks like the best alternative
 
I spent so much time skiing/snowboarding/snowskating/sleighing/snowmobiling/freezing/getting stuck/digging/breaking bones/dislocating members/destroying cars on this thing called snow but I never realized how cool it looks up close. Too bad I didn't catch the sensor dust. Minolta MD 100/4 Macro

View attachment 380597
That's just awesome.
Back in the day I had the whole CS5 suite on Windows 7, unfortunately this drive doesn't boot anymore. And Adobe only rent their products nowadays so they're forcing me to go elsewhere. I tried Rawtherapee but it was painful to use and kept crashing before I could export anything. I think I will invest in Capture One, it looks like the best alternative
Using NIkon's suite. Started with that. Tried Lightroom during a free trial, felt like I was getting better results from Nikon's solution for the same effort, so I went back. Obviously, this only works if you're the Nikon camp.
Darktable is also awesome, I'll switch to that once Linux DEs get their act together and (color management is ok, multi-monitor setup is a bit of hit-or-miss, HDR is not there).
 
Just the crows and magpie from this mornings park walk. All on EOSR7, 100-500mm.

Crow 1.jpg


crow 2.jpg


magpup 1.jpg
 
@abysal That's a lot of vignetting. Is that corrected or straight out of the camera? I kinda like it in the first picture, but it seems a bit too much in the next two.
 
@abysal That's a lot of vignetting. Is that corrected or straight out of the camera? I kinda like it in the first picture, but it seems a bit too much in the next two.

That's added vignetting.

Here's another sample without those edits, but same lens.

 
any1 here rockin a Sony Vario Tessar 16-70MM F4 lens on their a6 series cameras?
 
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