Life in Japan - Pictures galore !! Arcades, Temples, Rainy days, etc

Supposed to be some more tonight. :\

 

Can I come and live up there for the week? All its been doing today and yesterday is pissing down rain.

 

Long time no post. Nice work as always guys.

Went up here:



And this is what I saw (taken with the same prime lens):



Chinese food can be wicked awesome in Japan:



Went back up the government towers at night, and snapped this (totally the wrong lens, but hey):

 

Nice. Make sure you put your picture of your food on FB so all the hipsters can say "Yum".

My son loves going up to the Metropolitan building. Haven't taken him in a while. Maybe this weekend.

 

EDIT: Wrong post.

 

Moon & Jupiter by martindesu, on Flickr

 

The Moon totally kicking Jupiter's ass!

Here's some from my 35mm Anamorphic Film camera which unfortunately doesn't exist.


A Smoke on the Phone (Cinematic) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Darius Burst (01) (Cinematic) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Follow That Cab (Cinematic) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Saviour (Cinematic) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Sword of the Far East (02) (Cinematic) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr

 

Paul, just buy a 645D and crop

 

Thought about it... the ISO performance on those things is pretty dire though. Next up is the RX1... still trying to sell lenses to get the dough.

 

[DOUBLE POSTED TURD]

 

I'm tempted by an RX1, but with a mirrorless camera already in my bag, (two actually) I don't think I can justify it to myself.

Yet.

 

What mirrorless cameras are you using, Martin?

 

A Sony (yuck ) NEX-C3 and an NEX-7 (latter for the past 3 months).

Sunset today was lovely to watch with a coffee in hand:


A Winter Sunset by martindesu, on Flickr

 

That's a great sunset shot!

 

Indeed it is.

Don't worry -- NEX7 is pretty revered. Sony is stepping up their camera game. I will shit my pants, but they look like they're trying to contend with Nikon and Canon. I can't speak of the build quality of their bodies, but apparently the NEX-7 is dope. And, they're teamed up with Cosina/Zeiss for lenses, which are at least as good in terms of optics as Canon and Nikon (I will say better, since they have FAR less turds in their line up) an the build quality is superior. All metal - you can feel the quality. Note, I've never messed with any of the Zeiss auto-focus zooms which are Sony only. I can't imagine them being bad though.

 

Zeiss lenses are better than Canon and Nikon, IMO, and are up there with Leica. That's just my opinion, though

The Micro 4/3rd Olympus OM-D is excellent, I love my NEX-7, and no doubt a full-frame mirrorless camera is on the way from Sony, who recently made the world's smallest full-frame digital (RX1). The RX1 is amazing, and if you shoot at 35mm equiv 35mm focal length a lot, it's ideal. Amazing sensor (beats Nikon D800e).

A decent camera is a plus, but I have seen better photos from phones than many images I see from a big DSLR

 

That comes down to the whole craftsman > tools. There are some great P&S only shooters out there. Most are awful though. Haha.

Here's some cab fapping material.


Darius Burst (01) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Darius Burst (02) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Mikado / Fighting Game by gaijin_punch, on Flickr

 

As with anything, most people aren't so great. Also, as with anything, practice should greatly improve us. I learning something new about photography almost everyday.

Anyway, enough yakking.


Moon in Shinjuku by martindesu, on Flickr

 

I tried to take a photo of the moon last night but I just couldn't do it. In manual focus I had the shot set up perfectly yet every time I pressed the shutter the white balance (I'm guessing it was that) just changed it in to a big white ball. Why did this happen when the camera was set to manual focus? Do I also need to set manual white balance and if so what sort of setting are we talking about? I was shooting in 3200 iso by the way if that is any help. Man, the GH2 is a lot harder to work with than the GF2 but I guess that's because there's a lot more manual control over stuff on this camera. Time to search for the English PDF manuals.

By the way, I'm in the market for another lens. I need a good high Aperture lens, say about 1.2 for shooting in low light such as a bar. The Micro Four Third lenses with that sort of aperture are quite expensive so I was wondering if there are any good cheap alternatives out there. Of course I'll probably need to buy an adaptor as well.

 

The "big white ball" is most likely caused by over-exposure. Shutter speeds and small apertures need to be used, to get the moon. My picture further up with Jupiter, was taken with a narrow aperture (f/5.6) and a fast shutter speed (1/160" to reduce blur and to stop over exposure). The camera will auto-meter and try to not have most of the frame in blackness, which it has to be in order to get the shadows of the moon. White balance only alters colour.

I know very little about micro 4/3rds in general, but one thing I will say is, that it's rare to find decent lenses for low prices. Having said that, get your ass down to yodobashi and buy both the Sigma DX 19mm and 30mm. They are both f/2.8 which is quite fast and are super sharp.

If you want anything less than f/2.8 you have to pay the money