All Forum Comments
Comment by whelmed posted on Jessops Experience at 19/05/2010 - 13:06
If you've got the cash, the FA 31 ltd is the lens. I didn't so went with the siggy 30mm f1.4 and absolutely love it. I'm on a K10d so the 2/3 stop between 1.8 and 1.4 is a make or break in a lot of indoor / night shots. In terms of it being soft - pfft. The only softness I can see is in the extreme corners. If you're using this to shoot nature, the top corners will be sky, and the bottom ones may be a touch soft - but everything else is great.
Lets face it though, people buy fast glass for indoor / night / lowlight shooting. In those cases you'll be shooting between 1.4 and 2.0 and you'll have some extreme subject isolation - thus who cares if things in the corners are soft. If you don't want fast glass, go get a pancake lens, DA40, or hell even go with a DA* 16-50mm. The Samsung 35mm f2.0 can be had for a good deal as well if you're willing to give up 1 stop. It's a great lens.
Back to the 30mm Siggy. By corners what people mean when they see a slightly soft picture - they really mean the extreme corners. I made the below in photoshop to try to illustrate what they mean. And it's not like it just starts being soft there, I mean at the edge of the red area it is starting to hint at being soft. In real life pictures you never notice this.
The next pics below are ones captured with the siggy @ f1.4 and ISO 1600 (i.e. good luck with a slower lens). The one of the two people is in a very dim room where the picture actually appears brighter than real life. No flash used on either.
Lets face it though, people buy fast glass for indoor / night / lowlight shooting. In those cases you'll be shooting between 1.4 and 2.0 and you'll have some extreme subject isolation - thus who cares if things in the corners are soft. If you don't want fast glass, go get a pancake lens, DA40, or hell even go with a DA* 16-50mm. The Samsung 35mm f2.0 can be had for a good deal as well if you're willing to give up 1 stop. It's a great lens.
Back to the 30mm Siggy. By corners what people mean when they see a slightly soft picture - they really mean the extreme corners. I made the below in photoshop to try to illustrate what they mean. And it's not like it just starts being soft there, I mean at the edge of the red area it is starting to hint at being soft. In real life pictures you never notice this.
The next pics below are ones captured with the siggy @ f1.4 and ISO 1600 (i.e. good luck with a slower lens). The one of the two people is in a very dim room where the picture actually appears brighter than real life. No flash used on either.
Comment by whelmed posted on What "Normal" lens for K-7 at 19/05/2010 - 12:44
Ah, but even the reasoning behind Truman's nuke decision had it's questions / debaters as it was thought that surrender was still immanent (+/- a few weeks). You could also ask if the Nagasaki bomb was also needed.
Everything is subjective based on the frame of reference. Please note, I'm being a devils advocate here and not proposing things were one way or the other - just offering alternatives.
Everything is subjective based on the frame of reference. Please note, I'm being a devils advocate here and not proposing things were one way or the other - just offering alternatives.
Comment by whelmed posted on I met a policeman one morning. at 18/05/2010 - 16:54
My favourite variant is the Fat man one. It really does trip with the mind - so for those that don't want to click through:
Original - usually people come up with what is right or wrong quickly
Original - usually people come up with what is right or wrong quickly
Quote:
A trolley is running out of control down a track. In its path are 5 people who have been tied to the track by a mad philosopher. Fortunately, you can flip a switch, which will lead the trolley down a different track to safety. Unfortunately, there is a single person tied to that track. Should you flip the switch?
Fat Man Variant - People don't like this as muchA trolley is running out of control down a track. In its path are 5 people who have been tied to the track by a mad philosopher. Fortunately, you can flip a switch, which will lead the trolley down a different track to safety. Unfortunately, there is a single person tied to that track. Should you flip the switch?
Quote:
As before, a trolley is hurtling down a track towards five people. You are on a bridge under which it will pass, and you can stop it by dropping a heavy weight in front of it. As it happens, there is a very fat man next to you - your only way to stop the trolley is to push him over the bridge and onto the track, killing him to save five. Should you proceed?
Organs - Just about no one supports this caseAs before, a trolley is hurtling down a track towards five people. You are on a bridge under which it will pass, and you can stop it by dropping a heavy weight in front of it. As it happens, there is a very fat man next to you - your only way to stop the trolley is to push him over the bridge and onto the track, killing him to save five. Should you proceed?
Quote:
A brilliant transplant surgeon has five patients, each in need of a different organ, each of whom will die without that organ. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any of these five transplant operations. A healthy young traveler, just passing through the city the doctor works in, comes in for a routine checkup. In the course of doing the checkup, the doctor discovers that his organs are compatible with all five of his dying patients. Suppose further that if the young man were to disappear, no one would suspect the doctor.
A brilliant transplant surgeon has five patients, each in need of a different organ, each of whom will die without that organ. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any of these five transplant operations. A healthy young traveler, just passing through the city the doctor works in, comes in for a routine checkup. In the course of doing the checkup, the doctor discovers that his organs are compatible with all five of his dying patients. Suppose further that if the young man were to disappear, no one would suspect the doctor.
Comment by whelmed posted on I met a policeman one morning. at 18/05/2010 - 15:45
You can go into Rawlsian theory / veil of ignorance. However even with that an initial cultural bias still applies. I like the veil of ignorance for most situations.
However I'll agree that my personal belief is that there should be generally a universal 'right' and 'wrong' - it's difficult to peg down. Hell, the trolley problem is an interesting one in of itself.
Wish I could debate this with you further, but unfortunately my knowledge of ethical philosophy is pretty limited. I'm a engineer so I love me mah numbers cause they don't lie! Unless I make them lie
However I'll agree that my personal belief is that there should be generally a universal 'right' and 'wrong' - it's difficult to peg down. Hell, the trolley problem is an interesting one in of itself.
Wish I could debate this with you further, but unfortunately my knowledge of ethical philosophy is pretty limited. I'm a engineer so I love me mah numbers cause they don't lie! Unless I make them lie
Comment by whelmed posted on I met a policeman one morning. at 18/05/2010 - 15:32
Sorry to be academic, can't help myself, but the term that should be batted around regarding this is called Moral Relativism. An interesting read for about 60 seconds if you're keen. The crime-scene photographs seem to fall under normative relativism.
Anyhoo, back to thesis writing.
Anyhoo, back to thesis writing.
Comment by whelmed posted on I met a policeman one morning. at 18/05/2010 - 14:41
Malaysia would tend to think that all pornographic photographs are immoral. Romans made death masks after someone died - essentially capturing the state of death which could be akin to taking a photograph. It was what the wealthy did and there was nothing immoral with it.
Comment by whelmed posted on I met a policeman one morning. at 18/05/2010 - 14:08
Some great prices there, I wouldn't go any lower if I were you. Unfortunately I'm swimming in lenses right now so even though my LBA want's a second f1.2, and my 5 lenses covering 50mm are telling me they need company, I'm going to have to pass for now.
Comment by whelmed posted on Various items for sale at 18/05/2010 - 11:33
Some would say nudity / pr0n was a tasteless use of photography / film. Then what would people use the internet for?
Comment by whelmed posted on I met a policeman one morning. at 17/05/2010 - 19:58
How is 10mm a 180 degree on a fisheye but not on a rectilinear lens? I thought that 10mm is 10mm, isn't it? I must be missing something ...
Comment by whelmed posted on Extreme Wide Angle wanted at 11/05/2010 - 18:06
I asked the gentleman there which one of them was the most sturdy as I'd like as much stability as possible. He seemed confused and after a very awkward pause in conversation finally told me that these weren't for adding stability for pictures. I politely enquired as to what, exactly he meant. He informed me that monopods are for digital video, and that they are almost exclusively used in concerts so that you can film from a higher vantage point.
I tried to follow up on this point, wherein he brought a co-worker who reinforced this idea so much so that I thought I was wrong. After 10 minutes of brow-beating I fired a few shots with and without the monopod using my 500mm lens and it did make a noticeable difference to me. They didn't believe me even after I showed the pictures and continued to look at me oddly.
Just double checking here - it's not abnormal to use a monopod for photography, is it?