{"id":1765,"date":"2011-05-08T23:51:54","date_gmt":"2011-05-08T14:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2011-05-08\/1765"},"modified":"2011-07-19T01:04:18","modified_gmt":"2011-07-18T16:04:18","slug":"more-street-photography-at-300mm-f2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2011-05-08\/1765","title":{"rendered":"More Street Photography at 300mm f\/2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\nNOTE<\/b>: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1600 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nMarried<\/span>\nbut not to each other\n<\/div>\n\n

This is a continuation of “Street Photography\n(Sort of) In Roppongi Hills<\/a>\", about some random street photography I\ndid<\/span> with a 300mm<\/span> f\/2 lens.<\/p>\n\n

It's a huge lens, but not because it has such a great<\/span> amount of “zoom”.\nThe Sigma “Bigma”<\/a> goes\nto 500mm (and with a 2× TC, to 1,000mm<\/a>), but because\nit's “fast”... it has a huge<\/span> front element that just drinks in huge amounts\nof light. It makes<\/span> the Bigma, which I thought<\/span> was big<\/a>, look\nlike a cute<\/span> little infant.<\/p>\n\n

Because of its size, it's a conspicuous lens that attracts copious\namounts of attention, though as it turns out, it's (mostly) in the form of\nunsolicited smiles and friendly conversation. (It also attracts attention\nfrom train-station security guards, but that's another story.)<\/p>\n\n

All photos on this post were shot hand-holding the lens, with manual\nfocus (the lens doesn't support automatic focus). I had a<\/span> monopod with me,\nbut didn't use it except for three photos in the previous post, and some\nnight photos we'll seen in a followup<\/span> post.<\/p>\n\n

I chatted for quite a while with the friendly folks seen above,\nco-workers whose families are friends (their respective kids' were playing\ntogether in the park). It took me<\/span> a while<\/span> to realize that they weren't\nmarried to each other, and they joked that their families had been friends\nso long that it was almost as if they were. The lady is<\/span> the same one seen\nafter fending off\nthe pigeon attack<\/a> in the previous post.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1600 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nModern Stone Lantern<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

After wandering around the park behind Tokyo Midtown<\/i> in Roppongi, I started<\/span> back to the station, pausing to rest on a railing<\/span> by the street. I sat there<\/span> for 10 minutes just snapping anything that looked\ninteresting...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>3200 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nRace<\/span>\n( not really ) <\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

This is a great example of how sharp this lens can be, even in the shaky\ntripod-less hands of a first<\/span>-time user, taking a manual<\/span>-focus picture of a\nmoving<\/span> taxi as it approached...<\/p>\n\n

\nfull-resolution crop\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1600 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 280 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nCurb Flowers<\/span>\nsmall slope across the street from where I sat,<\/span> surrounded by city on all sides\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1600 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 220 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nBasket<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1600 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nVoigtl\u00e4nder Nokton 25mm f\/0.95<\/span>\non a Lumix GF1\n<\/div>\n\n

The guy above was walking by, but had stopped and gone back and forth a\nfew<\/span> times, and when he stopped as if to see whether he knew where he was, I snapped<\/span> this shot of his camera. It turns<\/span> out that he was just working up\nthe nerve to talk to me, so when I said<\/span> “hi”, he asked about the lens\nand we chatted for a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

I see now that his lens must be the Voigtl\u00e4nder Nokton 25mm f\/0.95, the\nonly sub-f\/1 lens I know<\/span> of in current production (though alas, not for my\ncamera). A friend<\/span> has this lens and I played<\/span> with it once, and as a\ntangential<\/span> byproduct, Lightroom 3.4<\/span> can now handle Exif metadata for shots\ntaken with apertures larger than f\/1. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n

Anyway, the shot above is another great example of the sharpness (and of my luck with the focus) of the 300\/2...<\/p>\n\n

\nfull-resolution crop\n<\/div>\n\n

The lens aperture “0.95” seems to be the most sharp, but what I really<\/span>\nnotice is the huge difference in sharpness between the “Panasonic” on the\ncamera body and the “Lumix” on the viewfinder, only an inch or so\ncloser. There's just no margin for focus error.<\/p>\n\n

And that's the real value for this big 300mm f\/2 lens. In the film<\/span> days (the\nlens dates from 1983), the “sucks in light” aspect was important for sports\nphotographers and the like, but the need has diminished considerably in the\nlast few years as digital sensors have become so ridiculously sensitive<\/a>. But a related<\/span> effect is this lens' ability to throw everything in front of\nand behind the plane of focus into increasingly dreamy out-of-focusness.\nThis is easy to see close up with a macro<\/span> lens, such as with my recent\n“Exploring the Edge of Creamy Macro Bokeh with Lily of the\nNile<\/a>”, but it becomes increasingly less-dramatic of an effect the\nfurther away you get. Except, it seems for this lens...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>2000 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nIsolated<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

This next shot, of a shinkansen<\/i> (bullet train) in Tokyo's\nShinagawa Station looks fairly normal in the small version, but has an\nalmost toy-like look when viewed large (which you get by clicking through\nthe image).<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nLittle Toy Train<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>3200 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 1000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nSerendipity at 239.1 km\/h<\/span>\nshot out the window from a bullet train going 150mph\n<\/div>\n\n

A Japanese bullet train can go really fast, but that's nothing compared\nto how fast the scene flies by when you're looking through a 300mm<\/span> lens at\n240kph. There's just no way to react or to purposefully focus on something\nunless it's miles away, so I was<\/span> mostly shooting blind just to see if I got<\/span>\nanything interesting. Every shot ended up being thrown away, except this\none. At the time<\/span>, it didn't register in mind that we has passed a street<\/span> until\nit was well out of frame, and I didn't<\/span> notice the kids at all, so it's pure\nluck. It would<\/span> have been nicer if luck would have left the focus on the kids,\nbut I still<\/span> like the feeling of the result anyway.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1250 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 4000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nPeek<\/span>\ntrain arrives at Kyoto Station\n<\/div>\n\n

This is a great example of a bad shot... the conductor peeking out of\nthe quarter-mile-long train is not in focus, but she's in a lot<\/span> more focus\nthan anything else of interest, so I think<\/span> it's not totally uninteresting.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1250 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 4000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nChecking Email<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I was hanging around the front end of the platform to catch some trains\ncoming and going, and between trains took this picture of this building 200m away...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1250 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 2800 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nTen Minutes to Go<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

You'll realize just how absolutely amazing this shot is if you can\nfigure out how it got its caption. (This shot was not purely hand-held; I'd\nrested the lens on a railing.<\/span>)<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nDeparture<\/span>\nit's pulling away, though the rear is a front<\/span> as well\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n“13”<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 4500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nQuality Time<\/span>\ngirl in a train on the opposite tracks\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nTired<\/span>\nof waiting\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nAnalog<\/span>\nin a sea of digital\n<\/div>\n\n

( Sorry if I made<\/span> you yawn two pictures up )<\/p>\n\n

Continued here...<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a continuation of \"Street Photography (Sort of) In Roppongi Hills\", about some random street photography I did with a 300mm f\/2 lens.<\/p>

It's a huge lens, but not because it has such a great amount of \"zoom\". The Sigma \"Bigma\" goes to 500mm (and with a 2× TC, to 1,000mm), but because it's \"fast\"... it has a huge front element that just drinks in huge amounts of light. It makes the Bigma, which I thought was big, look like a cute little infant.<\/p>

Because of its size, it's a conspicuous lens that attracts copious amounts of attention, though [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,2,26,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1765"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}