Tamron 10-24mm 3.5-4.5

Today I got the long awaited Tamron 10-24mm 3.5-4.5 lens for a test drive. I had it for a few hours now and I can already say, it overtook Sigma on my "wide lens" shopping list.
First impressions were good. Solid build, good plastic, no cheap look and feel like you get on Sigma after a month use. Both focus rings are sliding nicely, not too easy and not too hard. Focus is quite fast, faster then some other Tamrons like 17-50 2.8, but not as fast as Nikon brand SWM lenses. Still, more then enough for this kind of lens imo.

I made some quick test shots. As always, Murphy was present and the weather sucked today, fog and rain, so I'm hoping for better conditions tomorrow.
All shots done on Nikon D300, NEF, exported from Lightoom with default settings as tiff, saved in Photoshop CS3 as JPG, quality setting 10.

10mm @ f3,5


10mm @ f4,5


10mm @ f5,6


10mm @ f8



Some random shots @10mm:



More tomorrow..

Sony Alpha 900

Today I received the new Alpha 900, a 24Mpx full frame beast from Sony. While the specs showed promise and the cam delivered in final resaults, there are things I dislike in this cam.
It starts with the design. Thin(er) and deeper grip (while you might thing this is a good thing, it's not really. You have to work more with your fingertips, then the whole fingers and until you're not used to this, it does make it awkward to have a good grip on the cam), proprietary hot shue, awkward compact flash slot (CF slides out only about 5mm from it's slot. While this might make it a bit more secure, it's also a pain to get it out if you're in a hurry or have gloves on. It's almost impossible.), button layout, two hand start (on/off button is on the left side of the cam, so when you pick it up and hold it with your right hand, you can't turn it on as well, have to use the left hand as well), way to basic top LCD screen, strange preview options for main LCD screen, etc, etc.. Cam with a good lens, something like 24-70 2.8, is heavy, really heavy. Optional grip would help to hold it, but would also add more weight.

There are good sides as well, the viewfinder is big and bright, a joy to work with. The actual speed of the cam, from processing files to focus is impressive. 25Mpx RAW + JPG and it hardly broke a sweat in normal photo conditions. It offers dual memory slot Compact Flash Type I & II + MemoryStick Duo, but sadly no saving options like duplicate or backup.
Images are mostly great straight off cam. It does produce a bit warmer tones, but that can be easily fixed. Same with auto white balance.

Once you get used to the buttons, the menus, have the settings to you liking,.. it's easy and fun cam to use.

Tamron 17-50 vs Nikon 18-70

One of my first lenses was a Nikon 18-70 which I got as a kit lens with my D70s. It was a great lens, especially for that price. But for a long time now, I've been looking for an upgrade, something in f2.8 range. I looked around and while there are lots of options, I didn't really like any of them. Nikon 17-55 was the best one, but the fact it's designed for DX body, didn't make it a sensible purchase. So I turned to the next best candidate, Tamron 17-50.
It got good review almost everywhere I looked, so it made a great candidate to test it out. So I did. Got a copy from the importer yesterday and started with some basic focus and sharpness tests. I think it's safe to say, Tamron is in deed sharper then Nikon and it looks like, I got a good copy as well, it's sharp even totally opened. So all good then, right? Well, not quite.. I found a strange "problem", that I can't really explain. It's about dof (depth of field). Nikon has A LOT more dof at the same settings as Tamron has.
I have to test this a bit more, but it's beginning to bother me. Or not.. In a way, this is good news if you like shallow dof and bokeh is nice as well. But not so good if you want deep dof and lots of sharpness.

Some pics from both, compared in Lightroom.
Don't look at the sharpness in these, all saved using Save For Web function, so compression is quite high.

24mm, f4


35mm, f5.6


50mm, f5.6


50mm, f11
Look at my printer cover, you see texture with Nikon, nothing with Tamron.

Nikon D700 12bit vs 14bit nef fps test

Did some speed tests today, particularly I was interested in 12bit vs 14bit difference. As you'll see, there isn't any.

D700 is a 5fps machine. Larger sensor, larger shutter, same power as D300,.. all make the difference.

Anyhow, some numbers. All done in RAW lossless compression, CH, M mode, 1/500, shooting at my stopwatch till the buffer was full.

12 bit:
starts with 3:48, 3:87, 3:90, 4:09, 4:27, 4:53, 4:70, 4:88, 5:07, 5:24, 5:49, 5:68, 5:87, 6:06, 6:29, 6:48, 6:67, 6:98
Made 18 shots till full buffer and I get 5.2fps

14 bit:
starts with 3:37, 3:56, 3:79, 3:98, 4:17, 4:20, 4:59, 4:78, 4:96, 5:15, 5:39, 5:57, 5:76, 5:95, 6:18, 6:37, 6:56
Made 17 shots till full buffer and I get 5.3fps

So no difference really.
I don't have the grip, so can't check if that makes any difference or not.

More will follow.

Nikon D700 quick ISO test

Here it is, my precious, the Nikon D700 :)
First day since I got the demo model, weather sucks, so I did some ISO tests.

All shots done on a stand, 50mm 1.8 lens at f11, 1/250, flash into umbrella
All done with ISO NR OFF, jpg fine, cropped to 1500x1000px, save with PS CS3 default "save as" option, quality factor 10.

More will follow..

ISO 200


ISO 400


ISO 800


ISO 1600


ISO 3200


ISO 6400


ISO 12800


ISO 25600



Similar to D3, D700 works great in high ISO. Even when the noise is visible, it's really nice and soft. They really did a great job with this. Remember, all this are with NR OFF.

Chapter 27

If you liked John Lennon or the Beatles, are interested in his life (or more accurately, his death) you're gonna like this movie. It's a story about Mark David Chapman, the man who killed John Lennon.

Jared Leto played Mark David Chapman and did a good job in my opinion. Movie shows Chapmans plans, thoughts and feeling while waiting for John.

Before his trial began, Chapman was allowed to plead guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to a prison term of 20 years to life despite being diagnosed as delusional and possibly psychotic. He remains incarcerated at Attica Correctional Facility in New York, having been denied parole four times.

Rest in peace John, we share a birthday and I Remember as well as Imagine!

I want someone to eat cheese with..

What do we really want in life? Money? Power? Material goods? Or really just someone to eat cheese with?
This is a nice one. Easy flow, quite funny, real-life type filming,.. you have to watch it "as is", not comparing it with similar movies or you might be disappointed. There's no "story" really, we follow a guy who has problems with women, work, always says the wrong thing at the wrong time, and substitutes it all with food.
The good thing with movies like this is, you can watch it again and again in the future. I have good memory when it comes to movies, so I usually remember "plots", "stories" and "bad guys" within a few minutes of a movie, if I watched it before, so it's no fun to watch anymore.
Jeff Garlin did ok and I always liked Sarah Silverman anyhow, so there's a plus for me as well.
I want someone to eat cheese with... yeah, who doesn't..
Anyhow, 7/10 for me.