Frederik is a photographer, blogger and youtuber living in Denmark in the Copenhagen region. Outdoor photography is the preference, but Frederik can also be found doing architecture, product shoots and stills.
Camera producers know that many consumers look to parameters and arguments that are easy to compare. So a camera with a certain amount of megapixels must be inferior to a camera that has double the megapixels, right? That is at least what the producers want you to think, so you buy a new camera or a new smartphone with better technical specs. But it may not necessarily be so that 24MP is better than 12MP. Let me explain why.
The need for MP
You actually need less MP than you think. Obviously, the more MP and the more resolution on your sensor, the more fine grained the image is and all things equal that must be better, right? Yes and no. Notice what you do when you view an image: instinctively you hold it in a distance so you can take in the entire scene. If you hold it too close, then you feel like you are watching a tennis game: your eyes ping pong all over the place, and it does not feel natural.
You can try this with your TV: If you go very close to it, you can probably spot the individual pixels, but as you move away, it all gels together to lines and curves and colors and shades. So the viewing distance is key to determine how much resolution you need. And the further you move away, the less resolution you actually need! I have not tried this, but the rumors has it that a billboard only has 1-2MP!! So the further away, the less resolution you need!
There are however some situations where lots of resolution can be useful.
Cropping
If you often find that you crop a lot in post processing of your images, then obviously the more MP’s you got, the more you can crop and still have an acceptable number of pixels left for the final image. And the more you have to start with, the more likely it is that the final result has sufficient resolution.
Viewing distance
Sometimes your viewers do not hold a natural viewing distance, simply because they use your image in another way than traditionally. For example I often stand in filled trains with – if not billboards – then large adds, and in those cases I get very close to the ads and hence the resolution needs to be good in order for me not to see a lot of unrelated dots. It can also be an exhibition where the audience find it natural first to view your image from a distance, and then go close to the image to study a detail. Also here the viewing distance is the parameter the necessitates lots of pixels.
Post processing
In some cases when you do post processing of your images, and especially where you use one part of a picture to repair or fill in another part of the image, it can be easier to do if the material is more fine grained when you work zoomed in several hundred percent. Again, it is because your post processing work takes an “unnatural” viewing distance.
How much is enough?
I have with my Nikon D700 (12 MP) printed images in size 70×100 cm and the client was very happy with the result. That is how little you need to print large. So if you just want to print large with a viewing distance, then in most cases 12MP will suffice. Also, if what you primarily do is upload your images to social media, it will undergo a lot of compression etc, so you have no benefit of a higher resolution. But, admitted, it seems like the normal resolution for a good enthusiast camera – both APS-C and FF – is around 24 MP.
Any disadvantage to high MP?
The file size will grow with increasing MPs and your hard disk and computer will feel the weight if you shoot RAW especially. Also, camera shake is more likely, as the fine grained sensors will be super sensitive to even the smallest movements, where there is more forgiveness in a sensor with big and fat pixels. Also, because the light is being hashed up to smaller and smaller units, the exact reading of the amount of light becomes more difficult and precise micro contrast is more difficult to obtain with a high resolution sensor.
Bottom line?
I shoot with anything from 12MP (Nikon D700), 16MP (Nikon D4), 24MP (Nikon Z6ii) to 36MP (Sony A7Rii). And one of my biggest disappointments was to work with the Sony files in LR. I may have had expectations beyond what is reasonable, but I must say that I did not reach the true “nirvana” that I had hoped for.
My experience tells me that it is much more important that you have a great lens that can feed the sensor with the best light possible combined with a sensor able to read the light precisely, than it is to have lots of megapixels. And that is probably why so many photographers in this day and age still hold on the their Nikon D700 coupled with some AI-S glass from back in the days, as it still delivers images with 3D feel and micro contrast far beyond what many more modern and high res sensors can deliver. But it is a complicated message to convey, and not one that makes the marketing headlines easy to make, and hence we will probably continue to see the pixel war continuing for years to come.
There are arguments for and against a fast (or faster lens), and in this short blog I want to go through some of the pro and cons of a fast lens. I will not make a recommendation, as I think the decision is yours as you have to live with the consequences of the choice you make, not me. So I think it is important that the decision stays with the decision maker: you.
Fast versus less fast
One of my favorite lenses: The 135mm DC from Nikkor. Also comes in a 105mm version,
Fast glass is glass that will allow you to go to a small f-stop number i.e. a large aperture. This is also referred to as shooting wide, as the lens’ aperture blades are opening up as wide as they can to make use of all the glass in the lens. When you have fast glass, the glass will allow you to shoot at fast shutter speeds, as the exposure time can be kept down (= fast) because the lens takes in a lot of light.
There is not absolute definition of what fast glass is, but I would say that from around f/2 and wider (say f/1.4 or f/1.2) we are talking very fast glass. And some glass can go down to f/0.95, but when talking Nikon, I believe their fastest glass is the 50mm f/1.2.
One characteristic of fast glass is that the front glass is BIG, and the longer the lens, the bigger it gets. For a short lens like 24mm, you will probably not notice if the glass is f/2.8 or f/2, but the longer the lens gets, the more “crazy” big the front glass gets. You have probably seen bird or wildlife photographers with long, long lenses and crazy big glass at the far end of the lens. They need all the light they can get to freeze a bird in flight with a fast shutter speed.
Weight and size
This brings me to the first point about fast glass: it is heavy, and you will need to be prepared to carry a significant weight if you want to have fast glass. And the longer the lens, the worse it gets. Secondly, the sad observation is that ONLY when you shoot very wide will you benefit from the glass at the edges of the lens – the rest of the time you only use the center part. So if you shoot wide very seldom, you will carry a lot of glass for some very rare occasions. It may not be worth it, if weight is important to you.
Lens design and image quality
I am no expert on lens design, but I have shot with so many different lenses that I can tell that the wider the lens gets, the more difficult it is for lens designers to maintain the good characteristics you see when you are shooting with middle-of-the-road apertures. Lenses wide open often suffer from being soft overall, being extra soft in the corners and if you shoot into the sun or stark contrast, these lenses also tend to suffer from chromatic aberrations to a significant degree. If you are willing to buy an expensive lens, then the lens designers can mitigate these issues, but – as far as I can tell – there is something that makes a fast lens difficult to design with good control of sharpness and aberrations. You can study the MTF chart of the lens to get an idea about how it performs wide open.
Depth of field
Shooting wide gives a wonderful shallow depth of field, and if that is what you are after, then a fast lens can be wonderful. However, be mindful that depth of field is not only a question of aperture, but also distance to the subject. So you can actually get a shallow depth of field if you (zoom out and) move close to your subject. Of course this may not work if you are shooting with a prime, but try it out and see if moving close to your subject will give you the depth of field you seek. Any macro photographer is suffering the opposite issue: even though they are shooting at say f/22, they are so close to the subject that the depth of field is super shallow anyway!
Shooting with a shallow depth of field can give wonderful background blur.
Better sensors
The world moves forward, we get better and better technology, and the image sensors in cameras are no different. Today they can be “starved” with light and still come out with decent results. I think this is both due to the sensors getting better and better, but also because the noise reduction software in the cameras gets more and more advanced and can do computing that is much more advanced than just 10 years ago.
The camera image sensor, here from the Nikon Z50. In a mirrorless camera the sensor is completely exposed when the lens is removed; on a DSLR the sensor is hidden behind a diagonal glass.
I often shoot at ISO 800 with no problem, and I know that I can go higher. So to some extend a modern sensor can compensate for a lens that does not take in much light. And that is why you will see that more and more new lenses are designed with a not-so-impressive maximum aperture. Lens designers prioritize other factors (weight, size, etc) over the speed of the lens.
Price
As you have probably guessed, the price if a fast lens is high, simply because there is more or larger glass involved. You can get fast glass that is not too pricey, but I ask you to study the MTF charts before you invest! You may find that the lens quality wide open is not what you hoped fore. Many lens producers use the speed of the lens as a marketing tool, and hence the engineers are pressured to design a fast lens with the image quality being second to the speed. So learn how to read an MTF diagram, and study it well before you invest.
Psychology
The last thing I want to mention is pure psychology, and maybe not much to do with the images you bring home. But if you can choose between say a f/2.8 lens and a f/4 lens, and you go for the f/4, then every time you come home with an image that suffers from either camera shake or subject blur, you will ask yourself if this was because you did not go with the fastest lens alternative. If you buy the fastest and the best lens of the two, then you have taken out that excuse and know that the issue is due to you and not your gear.
Conclusion
I hope the above was useful. I may just have confused you at a higher level, but I hope you see my point that I really don’t want to make the decision for you. I hope this post has helped you make a (more) informed decision – best of luck!
The Viltrox adapter for Nikon Z-mount enables you to use your Nikon F-mount glass with Nikons mirrorless cameras, such as the Nikon Z6 or the Nikon Z50. It is intended to work exactly like the FTZ adapter from Nikon, making it possible for you to use your F-mount glass on a Nikon Z mirrorless camera body.
You need to study the list of compatible lenses carefully, as Viltrox do not promise to support all lenses. Selected lenses from both Nikon, Tamron and Sigma are supported according to Viltrox, but here I have only tested with Nikon lenses on my Nikon Nikon Z6ii with camera body software version 1.3.
It is my impression that Viltrox has put in an effort to make the adapter work with lenses with built in AF motors (AF-S and G), including image stabilization and obviously EXIF information. I have been shooting with the 70-200mm f/2.8 G lens extensively, and it works like a charm. I have also used it with my wide 16-35mm f/4 G ED and although I felt the AF was a tad slower than with the Nikon adapter, it also worked really well (speed of AF with a wide lens is not critical to me).
The Viltrox NF-Z mount adapter. Notice both the USB-C plug bottom left on the adapter and also the button next to it, reserved for future appliances.
However, my older lenses seem to work less well:
My good old 135mm AF f/2 Defocus Control lens, I could get the on-camera aperture selection to work. It was simply stuck at f/1 and did not move no matter how much I turned the front command dial. The Nikon adaptor worked fine with this lens.
I got the “FE” message when I used my trusty 28-105mm AF zoom lens despite it being locked at the minimum aperture, but a software update from Viltrox set that straight.
So my conclusion is that the adapter from Viltrox does not have the same wide coverage as the Nikon original in terms of lenses it will work with, and that you should consult the list of compatible lenses carefully before investing.
For the AF lenses that are dependent on a AF motor in the camera body, the autofocus will not work with this adapter, as there is no motor built in. This is the same for both both the Nikon and Viltrox adapter, so no difference between original and copy here.
Build quality
Can you tell the difference? Viltrox left, Nikon original right.
The original FTZ adapter from Nikon and the NF-Z adapter from Viltrox are very similar in built quality. The Viltrox is 146 grams and the Nikon is 131 grams. Both of them appear very solid and both of them lack a gasket towards the camera side to keep out moist and dust.
Nikon left, Viltrox right.
One of the big differences in terms of appearance is that the Viltrox adapter has a USB-C connector, which enables you to install new software updates in case Nikon releases new software for their camera bodies or lenses, that the Viltrox software needs to adapt to. Also, the Viltrox adapter has a button prepared for future use – right now I don’t think it has a function. So the Viltrox adapter is pretty well equipped to deal with future changes, provided of course that they will continue to develop the software for the adapter.
Price
As far as I can tell, the Viltrox adapter does not do anything more than the Nikon original adapter. In fact it does a little less, as the range of supported lenses is less. However, where the difference kicks in is the price. I will not quote prices as inflation is crazy this day and age, but he Viltrox is easily 30% cheaper than the Nikon original. And for the lenses supported by the spec sheet most likely does exactly the same as the Nikon original. And to me the build quality seem to be on par with the original Nikon. Add to this the fact that the FTZ mark 1 adapter has been difficult to get from new since the release of the FTZ mark 2, then you start so see why the adapter from Viltrox starts to be interesting.
Conclusion
The Viltrox adapter to me seems to be very close to the original from Nikon. The build quality is very much the same and the adapter seems to work well to provide auto focus, image stabilization and all the modern features that say a G-series lens support. And then the price is significantly lower – 30% or more.
So what not to like? Well, I would recommend that you study the spec sheet to see if the lenses that you plan to use with this adapter is covered. It may not be the case. After all, Viltrox are reverse engineering the software to behave like the Nikon equivalent without Nikon providing an open source or insight to the inner workings of the adapter. So it will probably be so that the lenses and camera bodies supported are less than the original. But then again, if all your lenses are supported, then this may not be important to you and the price differences is worth a serious consideration.
The Weeelite K21 RGB Light Stick is as the name says simply a stick of light. Not much to report here I thought – it is just a stick of light, but it has a few tricks up its sleeve that won me over after working with it for a few hours.
The Weeylite is here hiding behind the dark vase to the right and used to enhance toe shape of the red vase to the left.
The Weeylite K21 gives around 8W of light, and back in the day when we had incandescent lamps, this is equivalent of around 75W of light. So it does give a significant amount of light, but of course it is not enough to light up a large studio or the like. But it will be more than enough if you make Youtube videos and want some light close to your face or want it to light up the background to make it more interesting. I have also used the Weeylite for product shoots, where it is brilliant to backlight a product, as the stick is easy to hide.
Not much, or?
Admitted – it doesn’t look like much! It is just a stick of light approximately 25 centimeters long. But there is more than meets the eye!
When you see the product, it does not look like much – it is just a stick of light, where the light (ends excluded) is approximately 25 centimeters long.
A brilliant little detail: The Weeylite K21 has threads in both ends, so you can mount it on a tripod or the like.
But the first thing I notices when unpacking it was the threads in both ends, making it possible to mount the light on a tripod or the like. And even better, the Weeylite K21 is also magnetic(!) so you can mount it on many surfaces with or made of metal.
The Weelite is magnetic! Here I have put in on my computer screen for demonstration.
That is a brilliant little detail, that I only found out by studying the manual. And the manual is short and sweet, just like I like them. And easy to understand. In fact, it is not a manual, more a large piece of paper.
The manual is short and sweet. You will quickly get familiar with the Weeylite K21.
Interface
The Weeylite K21 chargers via USB-C! Brilliant!
The Weeylite holds a battery, so you don’t need to worry about cables or the like when you shoot. And I was glad to see that it charges via USB-C, the new EU standard – brilliant!
If you don’t want to use the app, there is a small LCD screen with a few buttons to control the light settings. Also notice the USB-C charging port.
The interface is very simple: A small LCD screen and 4 buttons. You can of course control the strength of the light between 100% down to 1%, and the color temperature. The four buttons work well and my only complaint is that it would have been nice had the buttons been backlit, as I often work in the dark when applying the light from the Weeylite.
But here is the thing that really won me over with this little product: the app. It is simply brilliant – and you can of course see all the settings on your smartphone via the app, also in the dark. The app is so good that I hardly ever use the buttons on the Weeylite K21 itself.
The app impressed me! It links to the Weeylite K21by itself during installation, and you can control all aspects of the light via the app!
First, the app connected to the Weeylite K21 without me doing anything but downloading the app! Not sure how that works, but it did. And then you can control several lights is channels and groups, just like you know it if you have worked with wireless flashes – brilliant!
And the app gives you so many options for controlling the light that it is a bit crazy. It has pre-set effects like weld, candlelight, flame, TV, weld etc, and you can also configure the lights Kelvin value, saturation, brightness and individual color channels, just to mention a few. It is very impressive. And of course you can turn on and off the light via the flash.
Conclusion
If you are in the market for a small light that you can use for videos or product shoots, then I think you should really consider the Weeylite K21.
It is compact, gives a lot of light, easy to mount via either threads or magnetism and the app to control it is simply brilliant and gives so many options that I think even the most demanding will find their requirements are met.
When it comes to robots that help out in the garden or in the house, I am a bit skeptical. Some years back I had one of the first robot vacuum cleaners that was mass produced, and to make a long story short, it was not a good experience. Also, I have two different robot lawn movers, and that is also a mixed bag of experiences.
Not all members of your household will be equally happy to bid the Roborock S7 welcome to your household…
So maybe my excitement when it comes to the Roborock S7 is rooted in bad experience with other products. That is hard for me to say. But with that said, the rest of this blog will be one long praise of the Roborock S7, simply because I find that it is a brilliant product at a price point where it delivers value far beyond the retail price of 450 EUR (Denmark, Europe).
What is it?
The promise on the tin is spot on.
The Roborock S7 is a vacuum cleaner robot, that also facilitates light cleaning with a wet cloth for hard surfaces. It is smart in the sense that it can see the surface it is cleaning, and for example when it cleans a carpet, the vacuum motor powers up to give max suction.
Super systematic approach to vacuuming the room.
It is also very systematic. It first walks the perimeter of the room to find the size and direction, and after that starts cleaning both horizontally and vertically. It is not like a lawn mower robot that takes pride in doing a random pattern – the Roborock S7 cleans in vertical and horizontal lines as depicted in the image above, taken from the app. You can also see where it has identified legs on the furniture and how it has walked around these obstacles in a circle, making sure to clean very close to these.
Is installation cumbersome?
Installation is easy. You download an app, and connect your smartphone to the WiFi network the Roborock provides. Then the Roborock uses the information provided by the app to log on to your Wifi (it needs the SSID and password) and after that the Roborock logs on to your WiFi network and you can now control the functions via the app. And you can follow the Roborock working via the app as the image above illustrates.
The water reservoir sits at the rear of the Roborock. You add water (and maybe cleaner) in the hole to the left. When the reservoir is mounted, the Roborock voice confirms that it is now mounted.
Another thing that makes the Roborock easy to work with is that every time you have done some change, like installing the water container at the rear of the Roborock, it will confirm with a computer voice what you have done. In the beginning I found this a bit annoying, but after a little while I started to appreciate the confirmation that the operation was successful.
The dust bin is not big, but if you run the Roborock regularly, then it is not an issue. The filter to the left sits on top of the dust bin and catches all the finer parts of the dust.
The dust bin is accessed via a lid on top of the Roborock. It is easy to pull out and clean, and maybe the only complaint that I have is that it is also relatively small, so it runs full easily. However, after running the Roborock in a room for the first time, the second time picks up very little extra dust. So my take is that if you let the Roborock clean on a regular basis, the small dust bin will not be an issue, simply because there is not much dust to collect.
Does it work in real life?
Yes. First of all, the battery life is good. It can cover a lot of square meters in a single charge. And you can follow the battery percentage left in the app. I did notice that it takes a bit of time for the Roborock to charge, but as it in my case returns to charge when the job is done, this is less of an issue. I have not cleaned areas bigger than 45 square meters at the same time.
If you leave small items on the floor, the Roborock will find it and get it “in the machinery”. This will halt operations. Here it is a small cable that I had forgotten on the floor.
The same rules applies for the Roborock as for normal vacuum cleaning: the less items on the floor, the better the Roborock can get the job done. For large furniture like a bed, the Roborock does an excellent job cleaning around the legs very thoroughly. But of course, if you can remove obstacles and e.g. put dining chairs on the table prior to starting the Roborock, then you will get a better result. Also, as the Roborock is very systematic, it will find and pick-up anything that is left on the floor. In the image above, I forgot at small cable on the floor, and it got caught in the rotating parts of the Roborock. This halted operations, and I was notified via the app.
The Roborock does not take no for an answer, but keeps challenging “the boundaries”. Here it is working on a doorstep.
It also does cleaning edges really well. It does not only run along a wall or an edge, but constantly tries to “attack” the wall by driving slightly into it, meet its master, give up and go a bit out again, only to repeat the “attack” a bit further down the line. It is very convincing and makes sure the cleaning gets as close to the edges as possible. The Roborock has a small bumper so it can “feel” obstacles before it hits them, so no need to worry that these “attacks” will hurt your walls or furniture. It is gentle, but persistent.
The Roborock is low and easily cleans under a bed. Here it is cleaning in the kitchen.
The Roborock is low and easily finds it way under a table, a sofa and a bed. In my kitchen it is too tall to make it all the way under the kitchen cabinets, but it cleans some way under the cabinets (se image above) and does so well.
The little rotating arms at the side of the Roborock finds outside the main cleaning area and “throws” into the middle of the Roborock, that then picks it up there. These arms are prone to be tangled up in hairs and the like, but I find that cleaning them is easy.
Does the cleaning mop work?
Yes, if you don’t expect miracles, i.e. that it looks like you have been scrubbing the surface 100 times with a hard brush. That is not what happens.
The cleaning cloth at the bottom rear of the Roborock. The Roborock can lift and lower the plate with the cleaning cloth subject to the surface it detects.
The Roborock simply drags a wet cloth over the floor to wipe it clean. And it of course detects if the surface is a carpet, and lifts the mop.
The Roborock cleans using the mop also. It is not as good as you cleaning the floor with a mop, but it does add a nice touch to the experience of a clean room.
The water reservoir is intended to keep the cloth wet during cleaning, but I find it works the best if you start with a wet piece of cloth at the outset, so the water reservoir is only used for “topping up” the moist of the cloth.
How long time to clean?
The largest area I have asked the Roborock to clean is 39 square meters. It took the Roborock 72 minutes to complete the work and the battery level dropped to 53%, starting at fully charged.
The less obstacles, the better cleaning.
As you can ask the Roborock to go to work when you are not at home, the time required to clean your home may be less important. You can help the Roborock cleaning better by removing furniture from the floor. i.e. take small tables and chairs away from the floor by lifting them to higher ground, i.e. a sofa or a table. Pretty much like you would if you were to clean yourself. This will also make the Roborock work a bit faster, as it can get the job done in fewer uninterrupted sweeps across the floor.
Can I recommend the product?
Yes. We bought the Roborock 7 for the summer cottage, but we are seriously considering buying one for the home. It is that good. And it is priced very reasonably, so we are tempted. Think you will be as well.
To make a long story short: Can I recommend this product? Yes.
Any downsides? Apart from maybe being a bit expensive, the biggest downside is that it is so interesting to watch what the radar tells you, that you may forget to look forward!
What is it?
The Garmin Varia RTL 516 is a taillight and rearview radar in combination. It hence makes you more visible, and also makes it possible for you to see what is coming from behind, without turning your head. This is particularly useful for triathletes that due to their position on the bike have a hard time looking over their shoulder, but it is also very useful for racing bikes, where the same applies, maybe to a lesser extent.
Garmin promises that it will detect cars as far as 140 meters away. I have not tested this claim, but I have tested the product in real life, and I can say that it works very well. I am actually a bit impressed. Even if I was driving on a bike path with parked cars between the bike path and the road, the radar was still able to “see” though the parked cars and identify cars approaching.
What is in the box?
Left to right: Documentation, the box, charging cable, the unit itself and mount solution.
Other than the unit itself, the box contains a charging cable, documentation and some options for mounting the unit to the saddle post. You’ll quickly find the relevant parts for your size and shape of saddle post.
Left to right: User guide, safety instruction, box, charging cable, the rear light itself, and then a range of options for mounting the unit.
Is installation easy?
Yes. You just need to find the right length of rubber band and the best shape for your saddle post, and then you can mount it on your bike in 30 seconds.
The light mounted on my coffee stomper just to illustrate how it works.The light is locked into position with the twist-and-lock system we know from many other Garmin products. Different options for mounting on more or less aerodynamic saddle posts.
Is pairing easy?
Yes. I used it with my Fenix 5 and just asked my watch to scan for new Bluetooth units nearby. By holding down the on/off button for a few seconds, the radar also starts pairing and 10 seconds later the handshake was complete and the units linked.
Connecting the rear light radar to my Fenix 5 watch was really easy and took no time.The user guide is wonderfully simple to follow. Lots of illustrations. Very little text.
Is the battery life ok?
Yes. Garmin promises 9 hours, and although I have not tested it to the limit, it is my clear impression that there will be plenty of power on a full charge for most cyclists. Only if you cannot charge between rides, I would imagine the battery could run out. On other news, I was a bit disappointed to see that the charging cable – here in 2022 where EU has decided it is the future standard – is not USB-C.
Charging the unit with the supplied cable. Unfortunately it is not USB-C, but just mini USB.
How is it to use?
I tested the unit on a Fenix 5 watch, and the way it works is that a little bar appears to the right in the screen. It is green when no one is approaching and turns amber and red, subject to how fast and how close those approaching are.
The bar to the right is the radars graphical zone. Here it shows that there are no cars or objects approaching and hence it is colored green = no danger.
Cars approaching are illustrated as little dots that move from the bottom of the bar to the top as they approach. Several dots will appear if you’ve got several cars approaching. And it works really well and I am impressed how it is able to distinguish between objects that you just pass (like a parked car) and objects that are approaching. It is so fascinating to watch, that you may forget entirely to look forward! So be cautious when you start using it!
In the best of worlds I would have had a Garmin product to sit on my handlebar so I would be able to see the graphics easily. But I found that when danger really was high, the Fenix 5 watch vibrated just a bit, to draw my attention to the radar. It works really well, but of course can be a bit stressful until you get used to it.
Conclusion
As you probably have guessed by now, I find this to be a great product, and an invention that potentially could save lives in the traffic. It is a bit expensive, but it works really well and considering what damage it potentially can avoid, I really wished that more cyclists would start using this product.
A lens at f/1.4 or f/1.2 I consider to be extremely fast, but when TTArtisan kindly sent me this lens for review, I learned that even faster lenses exist! An maximum aperture at f/0.95 enables you to isolate your subject from the background to an extreme degree! As an example: if you shoot at the minimum focus distance of 50 centimeters on a Sony a6500, the depth of field is less than 0.4 cm!! You really have to look twice to make sure your subject is in focus!
Beautiful bokeh.
No-nonsense
The lens is all back-to-basics and no-nonsense: No autofocus, no vibration reduction and no CPU contacts! It is only metal and glass that in total makes your camera 411 grams heavier. But on the other hand it does not make your wallet that much lighter, as it retails for around 220 USD, which is a very budget friendly lens.
It comes with the Sony e-mount that fits Sony’s mirrorless cameras, both full frame and APS-C. You can mount the lens on a full frame camera as I did for this test, and to my surprise I found that it did cover the entire full frame with only little vignetting, but the sharpness in the corners was so bad, that I quickly set-up my A7Rii to crop the image size down to APS-C. In doing so, the crop factor turns the lens into 75mm FF equivalent.
The TTArtisan lens on the Sony A7R2.
The lens is approximately 6 cm tall and 6 cm in diameter, and hence a few millimeters smaller than the e-mount itself, so I think it will look natural on all e-mount cameras, both full frame and APS-C.
The filter thread size is 58mm and allows you to mount both the metal lens cap that comes with the lens, and whatever filters you may wish. Unfortunately the lens does not have a rubber gasket around the lens mount, and hence you need to be careful to protect your camera from both water and dust.
The TTArtisan lens on the Sony A7R2.The markings are not painted, but engraved into the aluminium. Built to last.
There are 10 slightly rounded aperture blades, and you can stop the lens down to f/16 as the smallest aperture, and at the other end go wild with f/0.95!! In the image above you can also see the green color in the light reflected in the front glass – that is the coating at work to counter flare.
Manual focus is controlled with a nice wide and well dampened focus throw, that turns roughly 100 degrees. I could have wished for a longer throw, especially when shooting wide open, but you’ll get used to it. The focus peaking highlights on my Sony A7Rii is brilliant aid to focus manually. And when I really want to nail focus: the ability to zoom in, in the viewfinder, comes really handy!
The vertical bars that you see on the focus throw above is not painted on the lens, but recess that has been milled out in the aluminum! This underlines the solid built quality of the lens. The distance is shown both in meters and feet, and I even found a DOF scale closest to the camera – not many use those this day and age, but to me it underlines that this lens is back to basics!
The aperture ring is rather narrow and sits just below the red dot you see in the picture above. It is also nicely dampened, but in addition the aperture ring has very soft clicks. It is also possible to position the blades between two clicks if that is to your liking. With my eye in the viewfinder, I found the aperture ring a bit difficult for my fingers to find, but you get used to it. However, a little wider aperture ring would have been nice.
So all in all a very solid built lens – all metal, all glass, and absolutely no electronics!
Sharpness
I am only too aware that many consider an MTF chart as boring as watching paint dry! But you can learn a lot about a lens studying an MTF chart, and it reveals that when wide open (fmax) the resolution is below what I would normally consider acceptable (from 0.6 to 0.7 and upwards).
The MTF chart for the TTArtisan lens.
Now, had this been the corner sharpness, it would have been less of an issue, as most really only care about the center sharpness in real life, but here the lens is soft in the center wide open. It does get better fast when you stop down, but I did find that going faster than f/1.1 made the center of the frame so soft that I started noticing.
Left f/8, right wide open.
In the image above, I have zoomed in 200% with f/8 to the left and wide open to the right. I think you can see the difference in sharpness immediately.
Sometimes a bit of softness is not all that bad, especially if you shoot portraits, but for my style of shooting (landscapes, nature), the softness is an issue, and I did find that due to the softness, I only really used the lens from around f/1.2 and onwards. But mind you that it still is a very fast lens!
Aberrations
If you like me shoot very often in high contrast situations, then aberrations can be a real pain, as it gives colors of green and purple that can ruin an image or at least give more work in post processing.
Chromatic aberrations.
In the image above, both both zoomed in at the center of the frame, you can see that wide open to the right, there is a green tint to the black areas to the right of the mouse. To the left, at f/8, all is grey as it should be. So wide open, this lens suffers from significant amounts of aberrations. You can also see the graphics in front of the mouse has both a green and pink tint in the image to the right. And finally also the color rendition suffers from the aberrations – look at the blue color, it is clearly more “mint” to the right than to the left.
Chromatic aberrations.
In the example above, notice the green line at the top edge of the book to the right. It is significant.
Again, this problem seems to be reduced when stopped down to f/8, but if you plan to use this lens in a high contrast scene, for example sunlight behind a model, you will likely find that high contrast areas has a green tint to it.
Distortion and vignetting
The lens has a bit of distortion, but it is so little that I doubt you will notice unless you have some dominating straight lines in your image.
Wide open the lens does show a bit of vignetting, but it quickly disappears as you stop down.
Distortion corrected in Lightroom.
Just to give you an impression of the distortion and the vignetting, above in Lightroom I have pulled the slides to correct for both, and as you may be able to see, distortion is at +8 and vignetting at +28. Also notice how the sides of the image has white “gaps” as a consequence of the correction. Obviously, this image also needs to be cropped.
It is an easy fix in Lightroom, so I do not normally consider distortion and vignetting a problem in general. Here it is a bit more cumbersome, as the lens has no CPU contacts, and Lightroom does not know which lens it is and cannot help with applying the corrections automatically. But for most scenes and situations, I doubt you will ever notice the vignetting and distortion this lens has.
Flare control
Green dots of flare.
As far as I can tell, this lens as good flare control. In the image above, I have tried to stress the lens with the sharp light from my iPhone, and all the flare I could produce was the small green dots you see towards the bottom right corner.
Flare!
If I really go to extremes and let the light hit the lens almost vertically, then you get the result above, but it is more to see how the lens reacted. If you use a lens hood, then this angle of light will not hit the lens. So if you use a lens hood, I think that you will find that flare is well controlled in this lens.
Focus breathing
This lens suffers from focus breathing and to a significant degree. Actually so much that I think videographers will stay clear of it. As a photographer, I find this to be less of an issue.
Bokeh and sun stars
Bokeh is perhaps a bit into the personal preference territory. Some see “nervous bokeh” and “onion rings” where others just see out of focus areas. And it is probably mainly amongst photographers that bokeh is “a thing”.
Beautiful bokeh.
Shooting with this lens for a few weeks now, I can say that I really like the bokeh it produces, both wide open when the blades are not engaged, and stopped down then the 10 slightly rounded aperture blades start to kick in.
Bokeh balls.
Wide open, as you would expect, nice round shapes.
Bokeh balls stopped down.
Stopped down a bit, you start to notice the shape of the aperture blades if you look carefully, but with 10 rounded blades, the shape still looks nice to me.
Sunstars.
And finally stopped all the way down to f/16, the lens produces sun stars that to me look absolutely ok. It is not as beautiful sun stars as a lens with 100% straight blades can produce, but a very good compromise between quality of the sun stars and the bokeh.
Conclusion
The first thing to notice about this lens is it’s price bracket – 220 USD. And I think the lens performance has to be viewed in that light, and as such I think it is unfair at that price point to expect auto focus or vibration reduction, although I for completeness will list them as cons in the summary below.
I would have loved to see some CPU contract to help me get EXIF information into Lightroom, but it seems to me the TTArtisan philosophy is to stay clear of any electronics, and just produce solid built glass that will last. And when you hold this lens in your hand, you are clearly left with the impression that it will last – a simple construction, all metal, all glass, well built and with no electronics.
There are two areas where I struggle with this lens.
One is the softness and the aberrations wide open. I find that in real life I only use the lens from around f/1.4 and onwards, and the space from f/0.95 to /f1.4 is simply too bad for me to usable. In other words, the super fast lens is for me more on paper and in the specs sheet, than it is in real life. It is a very usable lens stopped down a bit, but not wide open. So if you got attracted to this lens due to its crazy fast aperture, then I caution you to make sure the softness and the aberrations in the wide end is acceptable to you.
The other is the aberrations throughout the aperture range. It is there, and it is noticeable in high contrast scenes. If you don’t shoot much in high contrast, then this may not be an issue for you, but I do, and I find it annoying to spend time in Lightroom, removing purple and green colors where light meets darkness.
If you can live with the above two, then this lens is a steal. A fast “f/1.4 lens” for your APS-C camera that will not break the bank. It is sharp and with good contrast if you stay clear of shooting wide open. So if you can accept that and you don’t mind manual focus, then this lens should definitely be on your short list of nifty-fifty primes for your Sony APS-C camera.
You can find a small sample if images shot with this lens here, if you want to see better resolution samples than what is in this blog.
Pro
– Price / value for money
– Build quality
– Fast lens (f/0.95)
– Bokeh
– Sun stars stopped down
– Sharpness/contrast stopped down
– Vignetting/distortion not too bad
– Flare control
Cons
– Chromatic aberrations
– Lack of CPU contacts (no EXIF info)
– Relatively short focus throw for an all manual lens
– No auto focus (or VR)
– Sharpness and contrast wide open
– Focus breathing
– No weather sealing
The TTArtisan 50mm f/1.2 lens was kindly sent to me by TTArtisan for review. It retails for around 100-110 USD here in May 2022, so it is really a budget friendly lens. It is made for the Nikon Z-mount, and can be used on e.g. the Nikon Z50, which is what I used for the testing. With the crop factor, the FF equivalent is 75mm, and hence a lens that many will find attractive for portraiture photography.
The TTArtisan lens on the Nikon Z50.
The first thing I noticed when unboxing is the weight. The lens is relatively small (6×6 cm) but at 335 grams it feels compact, if not heavy. The reason is simple: it is made of metal and glass altogether. No plastic or lightweight materials here. If feels solid and well built.
The focus throw is well dampened, but relatively short (130 dgs), but I did not find this to be an issue, although I know that some will prefer a longer focus throw to aid the precision in manual focus.
Solid build quality.
The aperture ring sits in the far end of the lens, and it took me some time to get used to – I am used to the aperture ring sitting close to the camera. The ring comes with only 2 jagged “wings” to aid you finding the aperture ring, and I really would have liked a few more of these, but this is not a major point.
There is no electronics in this lens – just metal and glass. If you were hoping to find autofocus or even vibration reduction, then you will be disappointed, but at this price point I think it is not fair to expect such comfort.
CPU contacts
What I find more hard to live without is the CPU contacts – there are none on this lens. So your camera does not know which lens is mounted, and EXIF information is not available. This also means that automatic profile correction in Lightroom is not possible and I found that I had to do correction of distortion and vignetting in LR by pulling sliders manually. With distortion and vignetting at a well controlled level, this is less of an issue, but I do miss the EXIF information as I use it for indexing and organizing my images.
Sharpness and contrast
I am only too aware that studying MTF charts is not very sexy and that seeing picture examples is much more interesting. I have made a collection of images shot with this lens over at flicker and you can follow the link here to get some images in much better resolution than what this blog allows.
MTF chart.
But that said, you can learn a lot about a lens looking and the MTF chart, and what the below tells is very consistent to what my tests shows: stopped down to f/5.6 this is a very sharp lens with good contrast, both center and corners, but wide open it is soft – also in the center. Many don’t mind a lens is soft in the corners wide open, as long as it is tac sharp in the center. Unfortunately this lens is soft wide open, and maybe this is not a problem for you as a portrait photographer, but for me who use the lens for landscape and nature, it is too soft.
Speed
This lens is fast and lets in a lot of light. Normally this is less of an issue, as I enjoy shooting wide open with paper thin depth of field to maximize isolation of the subject. However, my Nikon Z50 “only” shoots at 1/2000th of a second as the fastest shutter speed. Therefore I often had to stop down a bit to avoid over exposing the images. If you plan to use the lens wide open in scenes where there is lots of ambient light, you may need to add a 52mm ND filter to the lens.
Color rendition
I tested this lens and the color rendition compared to the Nikon kit lens (16-50), and as far as I can tell, they render colors very much the same way. When just looking at some colorful images shot with the TTArtisan, my immediate reaction was that red was rendered a bit too saturated, but compared to the Nikon lens, it actually came out a notch more pale. In general I found that the TTArtisan renders colors very close to Nikon, so if you happen to like the way Nikon gets the job done, then you will probably also like the way the TTArtisan renders colors.
Minimum focus distance
Minimum focus distance.
The minimum focus distance is 50 cm according to the specs, and that is precisely what I measured it to be as you can see above. Subject to what you shoot, this may not be an issue, but for me it is a lot! I always want to get closer to my subject. That said, due to the crop factor, the lens is 75mm FF equivalent and has an angle of view of 32 degrees, and hence I found it more easy to fill the frame with my subject than what I have experienced with other and wider lenses.
Focus breathing
This lens suffers from focus breathing and to a significant degree. Actually so much that I think videographers will stay clear of it. As a photographer, I find this to be less of an issue.
Aberrations
Aberrations are not well controlled, unfortunately. You can see the tinfoil below has a purple tint.
Chromatic aberrations.
And when I do my more “brutal” testing using a flash light aimed at a piece of tinfoil, it lights up with green and pink colors that should not be there. And when shooting landscapes in stark contrast, the edges around high contrast areas have a purple line.
If you do not shoot high contrast scenes, this may be less of an issue for you, but for me it is a major issue and strikes right into the heart of my type of photography. This is the biggest drawback I see with using this otherwise fine lens.
Vignetting and distortion
Vignetting and distortion is well controlled with this lens. There is some and you can see it if you shoot a brick wall or the like. But you have to look for it. As there are no CPU contacts, the correction has to be done pulling a few sliders in Lightroom. However, I doubt you will ever notice the distortion if you are a portrait photographer or other “organic” subjects with little straight lines.
Flare
My flare test showed that this lens dampens flare pretty well. You can see a green dot or a green area where the flare would otherwise have been, just like you may know from glasses. But when the light enters from a steep angle, the lens start showing some dramatic flare as the example below shows.
Significant flare.
You may think that a lens hood can save you here, but no: I shot this with the lens hood that TTArtisan kindly provided together with the lens.
I am not fan of what you see above, but we are into personal preference territory, and Stanley Kubrick fans may just absolutely love it!
Bokeh
Bokeh.
With a lens as fast as f/1.2,you’d expect it to deliver a very shallow depth of field and blurred backgrounds, and this lens certainly does.
I am however puzzled by the design of the aperture blades. It is not straight and not round.
Bokeh stopped down.
In the image above, you can see the shape of the blades – it is shaped like a wave as far as I can tell. I think this blade design is chosen as it gives some beautiful sun stars when the lens is stopped down.
Sunstars.
And of course fully open when the blades are not engaged, the bokeh is absolutely round. So I really like the bokeh fully open and stopped down max, whereas in between the wave design of the blades start so show. However, I think it is only photography nerds that will really notice.
Beautiful bokeh.
Conclusion
My list of pro’s and cons below. The third group named “neutral” and “personal preference” is things where I think it is not necessarily a pro or a con, but more observations that may be important to some and irrelevant to others, and hence difficult to categorize as either good or bad.
Pro
– Price / value for money
– Build quality
– Fast lens (f/1.2)
– Bokeh IRL
– Sun stars stopped down
– Sharpness/contrast stopped down
– Vignetting/distortion not too bad
Cons
– Chromatic aberrations
– Lack of CPU contacts (no EXIF info)
– No auto focus (or VR)
– Sharpness and contrast wide open
– Focus breathing
– Minimum focus distance (50 cm)
– No weather sealing
Neutral / personal preference:
– ND filters necessary wide open when bright
– Color rendition (close to what Nikon does)
– Flare control
– Lens weight (335 gr)
The title of this book promises a “definitive” guide to composition. Googling the meaning of definitive, the first definition is “done or reached decisively and with authority” and one of the synonyms listed is “ultimate”. So this is the ultimate guide to composition. This author apparently does nothing to dim his shine!
Mastering composition – the definitive guide for photographers, by Richard Garvey-Williams
Comprehensive
This 175 page book is comprehensive, and covers all aspects of composition though 6 chapters. It is jam packed with illustrations – at least one per page and often 3-4 per page. As such the author walks the talk and shows how the theory presented can be applied in practice. The square format of the book works well to allow pictures and text to blend naturally.
The book covers so much more than the rule of thirds, e.g.: visual weight, framing, leading lines, dynamic tension, depth, color, tone, patterns and even a bit of gestalt theory! I find that it is one of the most comprehensive books I have found on the subject of composition. And then I really like that the author underlines that composition is a means to an end, and not an end in itself.
I did not find this book to be an easy read. At times, it felt like reading a dictionary, but I guess it is the flip side of being so comprehensive. So if you are searching for an entertaining book, you may need to look elsewhere – this one is serious about its subject and stays serious throughout.
Conclusion
If I was to recommend a book about composition for the notorious lonely island, it would be this one. It is not an easy read, and after the first read, I use it more and more to look up certain subjects, than reading it from start to finish all over. It works well also as a dictionary.
Some of the images have stuck with me in the back of my head and unconsciously influenced my photography and give inspiration for new aspirations. And as such, I have become a better photographer, processing and digesting the content of the book. And that is probably the highest praise I can give to any book about photography, and as such this book comes highly recommended.
China based Synco kindly sent me a copy of their product P1L, a wireless microphone to be used with the Apple iPhone. It comes in other variants than this one, but as I have an iPhone 12, this is the version that I asked to have sent for review.
The price on B&H is 89 USD (April 2022), but be aware that taxes and transport costs may apply if you buy online, so make sure to check this before you buy.
If you don’t know why you should be interested in a product like this when you are producing videos, the answer is simple: sound is super important if you want people to watch your videos. It may sound counter intuitive, but the sound is more important than the visuals. If you don’t believe me, try watching an interview on CNN or the like where they are interviewing someone far away with poor sound – I bet that you will have trouble maintaining focus on what is being said. Good sound is vital.
And another point – good sound is often equal to almost no distance between microphone and sound source. The more distance – the more difficult it is to produce great sound. And this is why it makes a lot of sense to have a wireless transmission from your microphone to the receiver, so you can get the microphone as close to your mouth (or the sound source) as possible.
Light and simple
The microphone comes in a small box wrapped in thin plastic, so you know you are the first one to touch the product since it left the factory.
In the box you will find a USB to USB-C cable, a small cable to hook up a headphone to the receiving side and a power bank that both holds and charges the sender and the receiver.
When you open the power bank, you will find the sender (tx) and the receiver (rx) sitting in the drawer.
When you take the transmitter (tx) out of the cradle, it will automatically start up. The receiver (rx, to the left above) switches on as soon as it is inserted into your iPhone. The two combined, i.e. as shown in the picture above, is only 17 grams in total! This must be the lightest sound option out there available!
Above the receiver is inserted to the bottom of the iPhone. It is very important that the connectors on the iPhone a free from dust and dirt, as the receiver obviously needs good connection to the iPhone to work properly. The sender and receiver are paired from the factory side, and will connect super fast and show that they are connected by switching on the LEDs on both tx and rx in a “rolling” manner. If there is no connection, the LEDs will switch on and off at the same time, so you get a blinking bar instead of a rolling one.
All this worked out of the box and I had not problems making this work. There is no need for installing an app on the iPhone or the like.
If it does not work and you need the tx and rx to re-connect, simply put both of them in the cradle, close it and hold the button at the end of the power bank in for 3 seconds and more, and the re-connection is made in a matter of seconds. You can see the button to push for 3 seconds above, along with the USB-C connection to charge the power bank.
Charging the tx and rx? Happens automatically when you put them in position in the power bank.
The microphone comes with a little spring laden clip that allow you to attach it easily to your clothing. In the image above I have attached it to my iPhone just to illustrate how it works. The microphone sits on top of the sender, i.e. to the rightmost above.
Above you see the transmitter with the hole into the microphone closest to the camera. The clip to attach it to clothing is now at the bottom of the image.
Once you have put the receiver into the iPhone and attached the sender to your clothing – you now have an operational wireless microphone! There is no option for adjusting the sound level, so you will have to do so in post processing if you desire, but I found that it does a good job selecting a good sound level, as long as there is around 15-20 centimeters between the microphone and your mouth.
The sound is really good and pleasing. You can hear very clearly what is being said and I like the result. I did however find that when on the beach or other windy places, I missed the option to mount a “dead cat” to reduce wind noise. Also, it would have been good if there had been a connector to allow me to use an alternative microphone, so I just used the sender/receiver setup, but maybe this is not a fair request for a product at this price point.
Synco promises up to 5 hours of operating time with the microphone on – I must admit that I have not tested this part, as it is much more than what I need. This also applies to the reach – Synco promises that the setup will work with 150 meters (!) between microphone and receiver if line of sight, and 50 meters otherwise. I have tested it and found that it delivers to promise. Just like with the battery, this is MUCH more than I will ever need.
There is an option to listen in to your own recording while recording and that is what the small adapter is for. However, it gives a cabled connection to the receiving side, and hence the whole point with the wireless setup is lost. I think this option is only relevant for studio usage.
Finally I have not tested the voice effect. I think it is a bit of a gimmick for a serious product, so I have simply ignored this feature. I prefer to do my post processing of sound in Premiere Pro and the like, and hence have no need for this feature.
Conclusion
Below my list of pros and cons. I really like this product for its ease of use, being super light, producing great sound and not breaking the bank. If you use your iPhone for video recording, this product could lift the quality of your sound to a new level. And for such use case, I can recommend this product.
Pros:
Price / value
Good sound
Light solution (17 grams)
Long reach (150 meters LOS, 50 meters NLOS)
Easy to use – starts and connects easily
Charging case included
USB-C for charging
Monitoring option (although only for studio use)
Cons:
No option for mounting noise reduction / dead cat
No option for using own microphone
Connection to iPhone seems fragile if dropped accidentally
