Test 2

Test

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As a pro photographer, I've enjoyed many amazing opportunities to photograph a variety of subjects and sports, but this past May I got a chance to do something that was even a first for me.

My friend, Gavin Gear over at UltimateReloader.com put together an sporting event called the Rock Chuck Olympics where I got to follow along behind five YouTubers as they particpated in an event that would take each of them out of their comfort zone. They were:

• Erik Cortina - F-Class World Champion and Precision Shooting Parts
• Jim Harmer - Founder of BackFire TV
• Nils Jonasson - Pro USPSA, IPSC, IDPA, 3-Gun and Steel Challenge style matches shooter who has won US Nationals and World Championships
• Pieter Milan - PRS Competitor and Hunter in South Africa
• Adam Weis - Better known as Who Tee Who on YouTube

The Shot - 245 Yards - First Try

When you grow up in a rural town like I did as a boy, shooting (back then) was just like any other sport. I wasn't any good, but I enjoyed it with my friends along with numerous other activities.

However, during 2020 there I was looking for something still open that I could enjoy. What I found was a local range and it became a sanctuary for my son and I to enjoy a sport together. While everything else was closed, the range was open, and surpisingly nobody got sick (or hurt). As such, we had plenty of time to become good at this sport, and thanks to many of the featured YouTubers, we actually got quite good. In fact, my son even was on a National Championship squad two years in a row!

While photographing the Pistol ELR event, I finally got my first chance to participate in the competition. It was tough to watch and miss out on all the fun, so I'm happy to report that for my 1 shot for the entire event, I did ok:

More fun on Instagram

It was fun to get back in the saddle again and be a photojournalist again. While it wasn't like the good old days where there was a large financial reward on the end, I got to have plenty of laughs in an amazing place. I also like to think I have a larger circle of new friends as a result, as well.

On the final evening, we had to take a ride back down from the mountain and I had the pleasure of riding with the man behind the design of my Canik Rival - Nils Jonasson and Backfire TV founder Jim Harmer:

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Unedited Photos*

Here’s a gallery of unedited photos, but I say that with an asterisks. This camera isn’t your traditional camera so post processing does require you to make a final choice on a starting focus point and aperture. Some come straight out of the camera just fine, but others need some tweaking.

NOTE: You can stop the videos and just click around the image to see the focus change. You can also click and drag in circles to see a 3D effect on some images.

If you show the info bar in the slideshow below you’ll see more info about the shot and what I did to it after the fact:

Here’s some others that I’d like to say a few words about:

This one looked great on the LCD but a little soft on the nearby flower on the computer. I was really bummed out as my wife really wanted to print it but that won’t be worthwhile. Nevertheless, it still is a fun online image for changing the focus and it does have a nice 3D effect.

I couldn’t help but enhance the color on this one a little bit more despite the fact that I wasn’t able to position myself in a better spot to get a more interesting shot. I left the aperture at f/2 so you can play with focus shifting, but I’d probably change it to f/11+ and clean up the distractions if it weren’t for the review.

I was frustrated that this image from a bracketed set looks so bad despite its 1/800 sec shutter speed. I tapped the tree and did a bracketed shot, but none from the set came out. I also couldn’t fix the focus after the fact so it was a total fail. Sadly I had about 20 photos like this that were a complete loss.

I took this shot of my ugly feet as a joke but surprisingly it was one of the sharpest foreground images I had. It’s also a great example of focus shifting, so I’m sad I didn’t get someone with better feet for this shot!

As a 3D image, this is probably my favorite thanks to the leaves at the top of the orange flowers. When you shift the image around they appear to jump out of the screen.

This shot suffers from what seems to be a minimum focus distance issue despite me being far enough away to get my desired results with a typical DSLR and a 70-200mm lens. This was a common problem that plagued a bunch of the 300+ photos I took.

This is what happens when you try too hard to get the perfect orange blue histogram when the camera will have none of it. You start with a blurry picture but you can click on something and things come into focus. I could have fixed this before uploading but I included it an a couple other examples to illustrate this issue.

Here’s a 30mm shot that can take in a lot of scenery, but compare that to the 250mm zoom below…

You can get close with a full 250mm zoom, but the lens doesn’t appear to be up to the task as 1/3200 at ISO 100 results in a very soft image

On the rear LCD, I thought I had nailed this shot as a good focus shifting example, but I was sad to see that the foreground flamingo never really gets crisp sharp. At 1/1600 sec, it should have been!

Don’t use Shade White Balance – it’s pretty hideous!

It should be noted that the for the overly yellow forest shots that I was using the Shade white balance – I regretted that. While I could have fixed that in post-processing, I uploaded what I had taken without any modifications – exactly as they came out of the camera unless otherwise noted. These were the first shots I took so my experience with this camera was as good which is why the shots are overall pretty bad.

The only place I could get high ISO shots on my trip was in this church, but even at ISO 640 here there are lots of chromatic aberrations and noise that left me very disappointed in this camera and lens combo

My apologies that the online viewer doesn’t show the EXIF for the images. Sadly it will only allow minimal captions. There’s also no mechanism for rearranging the order so you are out of luck if you make changes as I did. As a result, it’s important for you to do your upload all at once.

Click here to see a full gallery of images that are way better than mine, or visit https://pictures.lytro.com/lyt-45716874648267/albums/178268 for a full gallery of my images in a web browser. If possible, use the advanced viewer for the best experience.

Test

Natasha

A couple days with the Sony A7

Last week Ron posted an inquiry to a message board provided by our mutual employer for an A-mount lens as he had the Sony A7 and the EA-LA4 Adapter for testing, but no A-mount lenses. As it worked out, I was going to be in town, and I always have my A99 body and an array of A-mount lenses with me. I brought my favorite lenses including the new 50mm f/1.4 SSM ZA, the 85mm f/1.4 ZA, and the 135 f/2.8[T4.5] STF.

After doing some basic testing Ron asked me, as a full time Sony user, to carry the Sony A7 around and write about what I liked about it. He gave me the A7 with the LA-EA4 adapter, along with the new E-mount 35mm f/2.8 Prime lens.

I was a bit overwhelmed by the ask.  I mean, this is the A7! This is the new shiny E-mount full frame body everyone is talking about!

Let me tell you, for the most part the A7 did not disappoint. I wish I would have been able to test the Wi-Fi or the Zebra feature a little bit more, though I did try out the Zebra feature long enough to know I needed more than a couple days with it to give it justice.

The Good:

Look and feel.  Regardless if the 35mm prime or my 85mm f/1.4 was adapted on the body, the A7 felt fantastic. It looked fantastic. The metal body felt like it could take a beating and it has a James Bond black metal finish to it. I was a little afraid of the smaller body with bigger lenses. For the most part, those fears were extinguished.

The Menu. The menu system is very similar to the menu in the A99 and A77 with a little better organization. More features means more menu options, however Sony does a good job with the menu. I could see how someone used to a 1DX or D4 could be a little lost, however.

The EVF. The EVF was as good, if not better than the A99 EVF with the latest firmware. Sometimes the EVF on the A99 shows more light than the surroundings have. Here was a shot I took testing the A7 in very low light.

The rear scroll wheel. I like how smooth the rear adjustment wheel is. Much nicer than the clicking wheel on the A99 or A77. However this is also a segue…

The Bad:

No front wheel. There wasn’t a front wheel, at least my hands could find.

No left pinky AF mode adjustment button or knob. The A99 and A77 have a button or knob where your left pinky finger could adjust the AF mode (or whatever you program the button to do). I don’t know if there is enough real estate for it, but I missed it.

File name sequencing. In swapping memory cards from one in the A99, the A7 resumed the file number sequence the A99 had. So when I have two memory cards writing the same file names from two bodies, things get confusing. This isn’t the first time I have had this happen as I have done this before with Sony bodies, but it is annoying nonetheless.

No focus hold button on the 35mm lens. The 35mm f/2.8 lens carries the Zeiss badge. I wish it were like all of my Zeiss-badged lenses with a focus-hold button. Maybe I am spoiled. I had to put the body in Direct Manual Focus to get the same type of focusing effect I am used to with the A-mount Sony Zeiss lenses.

No stabilization. I missed my in-body “Steady Shot” stabilization. Every A-mount body I own has it, and it makes hand-holding shots easy below about 1/50s…

The Ugly

1/60s. The A7 brain has a love affair with 1/60s with the 35mm lens (1/100s with the 85mm lens adapted). I like to shoot Auto ISO from 100-1600 and in Aperture Priority. The body used the minimum ISO possible for 1/60s. I wish there were a menu setting to accelerate the minimum shutter speed the internal A7 computer uses under these conditions. Sounds like a good idea for the next firmware rev! In all seriousness, 1/60s is probably OK for situations where you have a stabilized camera. No stabilization, you almost need to double it. For 85mm, 1/100 is a little bit better, but still slow. At least if you hold the lens right, you have a fighting chance with a still subject.

 

Image comparisons

I had hoped to do a more comprehensive test with the A99 and A7, apples to apples, however the weather in the Pacific Northwest didn’t cooperate, nor did my work schedule. I did manage to attempt to take similar shots with the A99 and A7 while passing to meetings on separate days.

A99 85mm f/1.4

A7 85mm f/1.4 (85mm f/1.4 lens with EA-LA4 adapter)

A99 85mm f/5.6

A7 85mm f/5.6 (85mm f/1.4 lens with EA-LA4 adapter)

 

And in trying to compare color I took these shots with identical light. The lenses are different here, but both bodies are using Auto White Balance and Auto ISO.

A99 50mm f/1.4 (50mm f/1.4)

A7 35mm f/3.5 (35mm f/2.8 lens)

With the EA-LA4 adapter I found the A7 and A99 quality to be negligible. More testing is needed. I would expect similar results with maybe a fractional difference since the EA-LA4 adapter has a similar, but newer generation translucent mirror. I did see the third of a stop difference in metering when the 35mm prime was on versus the 85mm or 50mm primes adapted at similar stops.

Getting Great Color on Projectors

Bad Projector Color vs Better Color*
Outback Print Printer Evaluation Image by Jack Flesher

Are you a photographer who has a day job in addition to your passion for photography? Have you noticed how horrible your photos, PowerPoint slides, Excel charts, etc… look on many business class projectors at work?

Colors like this should look vivid on all devices - including projectors

I’ve noticed and it was driving me crazy! The colors weren’t anything at all what they looked like on my computer, tablet or phone! Instead beautiful flowers like the ones above looked like they had been dead for weeks instead of having the vibrant pop that you should be seeing right now on your personal device.

Introducing Color Brightness

At the beginning of 2013 for CES I read about a measurement for projector color quality called Color Brightness. This was very different from the brightness figures that I had often seen advertised by projector companies because it didn’t measure the traditional white brightness but instead it looked at the brightness of color.

I then ran across this awesome video that finally quantified what I had been seeing in business conference rooms in terms that made logical sense:

To compare projectors or find out the color brightness for a projector you may be interested in purchasing, be sure to check out http://colorlightoutput.com/. All results were independently tested by Intertek and Lumita, so I feel confident in the results – especially since they mirror what I see with my own eyes!

Consider the following 4, XGA resolution business projectors with similar White Brightness:

Notice how if you just paid attention to what you normally see advertised, the "Brightness", which only references White Brightness, then you'd think that the InFocus and BenQ projectors outperform their Epson counterparts. However, if you view these projectors side by side – as I have done – then you are scratching your head as to why the Epson’s color blows away these other projectors which are “better” on paper. However, when the color brightness of these projectors were measured there finally became a figure that quantified what my eyes were seeing – the color brightness of the non-Epson projectors were not in the same league!

My Testing

My testing was very simple – I connected my laptop to four different projectors in a completely black room. The projectors were all placed and set to where they displayed an image of the same exact size on a piece of white foam core board. I then focused and distortion corrected the projectors to where the image seemed properly proportioned to my eyes. I then proceeded to look at a series of test images and made notes about what I thought about each of them. I then switched between the various preset modes and finished with doing a factory reset on each model to make sure I had an accurate understanding of the out of box experience with each model.

To try to keep myself from being influenced in advance, I did not research or know anything about the models that I tested. I was not aware which models had 3LCD or 1-Chip DLP, nor did I know the cost of any of the models other than they were the same resolution with similar White Brightness. My only bias was that the 3LCD group provided the projectors, so I figured they’d probably send me units that performed favorably against the competing models tested.

My Background

Prior to my obsession with photography, I was a home theater junkie. I was the type of guy who owned and used Digital Video Essentials, & Avia to calibrate my displays because I cared so much about color. When I could afford it, I’d also get ISF calibrator to use a Sencore calibration device to make my TV look it’s best. In short, I was obsessed with great color and would lust for the best Runco projector.

Fast forward to today and I’ve been named a member of the X-Rite Coloratti (web site update pending) so I understand color management very well. In fact, I became obsessed with color management during my Printing Series. I captured images using the ColorChecker Passport for accurate capture color, I edited photos using X-Rite calibrated displays from Eizo and NEC, to create prints using the best print technology from Canon and Epson, and I analyzed those results under a GTI light box in a studio with Solux lights.

My obsession with color has been also recognized by NEC.

Overall I feel like my eyes are very well trained to visualize the color accuracy of an image on all possible media types (both electronic and physical).

My Findings

At least with the four models I’ve tested, I have found the Color Brightness measurement to be an accurate reflection of color quality. While comparable models had similar levels of White Brightness, there did appear to be a significant difference in how they rendered color. It was possible for me to make improvements on every model with the user controls that would result in an image that I considered to be "useable", but only so in a completely dark room.  In that completely dark room, my preference was still for the Epson models and their overall color rendition.  In a room with moderate levels of ambient light found in typical office environments the 1-Chip DLP projectors I tested were significantly darker.

It should also be noted that these are all business class projectors, so their performance would be considered inferior to more expensive photography, home theater or medical class projectors. None of the models I tested would be suitable for accurate photo editing or color sensitive design work. However, the Color Brightness measurement could be used as a tool to know that a Epson PowerLite Pro Z8255NL (10,000 Color Lumens) or Sony VPLFX500L (7000 Color Lumens) display significantly better color than the Epson PowerLite 1880 (4000 Color Lumens) that I tested.

In the end it is safe to say that projectors whose Color Brightness most closely matches its White Brightness will outperform those units with a large delta between those two values. This is where 3LCD has a clear advantage over 1-Chip DLP. Click here to see the 3LCD buyers guide which highlights how many common projector models perform.

Epson & Color Brightness

Epson PowerLite 905 Multimedia Projector
Color Brightness: 3000 lumens

Epson has created this color brightness landing page to help consumers understand what they are doing to improve the color brightness of their products. They are also promoting their 3 LCD design over popular DLP projectors with color wheels that break up the color as you can see in this video:

Conclusion

While none of the projectors tested in this article are “photography class” projectors, the reality is that images are displayed on business class projectors every day around the world. While these business class projectors might not make our images look as great as they do on a NEC PA Series or Eizo display, I don’t think it’s necessary for our images to look completely lifeless either!

The goal of this article is to give business people a tool they can use to help quantify to their management the value of a projector with great color brightness over alternative brands that might have previously looked superior on paper. Be sure to check out http://colorlightoutput.com/ when doing research for your next projector, or for making a case to replace your existing unit so that the bean counters don’t force you to compromise color in your conference or class rooms.

My bottom line advice is to get the highest color brightness projector you can afford, and if at all possible try to get one where the Color Brightness is similar to its White Brightness.

* = The image at the top of this article is for illustration purposes only. I wanted an image to reflect the difference level I saw with my own eyes during my testing. This image features distortion, blur, and color clipping that are not 100% representative of any model featured in this article, and these issues were introduced by photographing a projected image.

Where to order

Click here to order a Epson PowerLite projector at B&H, or click here to order on Amazon. Whether you buy Epson or other projectors, don’t forget to check out http://colorlightoutput.com/ to compare color brightness levels of models that you are considering to make an informed decision about the the color quality you’ll get for your investment. Not all models have color brightness values, so you can also research http://www.projectorcentral.com/ listings and its forums for more advice on any given model.

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

• Canon SX-80 Pro Photography Projector (No color brightness value available, but to my eyes it’s outstanding)
• Choosing The Right Display Calibration Device
• NEC PA Series Monitors (NEW- 30" Display Review)
• NEC SpectraSensor Pro (powered by X-Rite)
• Printing Series
• Understanding 10-bit Color by NEC’s Art Marshall
• X-Rite ColorMunki Photo Color Management Solution
• X-Rite ColorChecker Passport
• X-Rite i1Display Pro and ColorMunki Display Colorimeters

Disclosure

I approached Epson (a respected partner of this blog) about this topic after hearing about Color Brightness at CES. Since I knew Epson sold projectors I was hoping that they could help me understand this topic, and it turned out that they had done a lot of work to help promote this new measurement standard. As a result of this conversation, they offered to let me see with my own eyes what this measurement was about by sending me 4 projectors to review (which are being returned to Epson) to prove this wasn’t just marketing hype.

I was not paid to do this review – I chose to do it to help educate my readers who might have been as frustrated as me with the poor quality of color found in many business class projectors.

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

Widget Issues

Bug Video for Auto Widget # 2585

I tried to build an auto widget but after spending lots of time filtering categories it got stuck on this page:

Lame What's in my bag Widget

The following widget needs to get rid of the top level category for Photography and it needs to show my buckets for cameras, lenses, etc... This implementation is unusable for a what's in my bag solution for me and there's no obvious way to get it working properly

Multiple Products Widget

This has promise as a workaround for the issue above, but I don't want the big B&H logo header - I just want to put a title like Cameras and then I'd create these for each of my buckets so I'd have camera, widgets, studio gear, etc... that I could paste into my "what's in my bag" page to work around the issue above. I would like to be able to manual rearrange the items though as the order is currently fixed from what I can see. Realistically sorting to should happen in bucket management so that all widgets would automatically pick up the new sort order without having to manage each widget separately.