Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Street Portraits in Downtown Calgary

Went for a walk in downtown Calgary with the Leica M6 and 5D Mark II.
After finishing a 36-roll with the M6, I switched to the 5D and take some street portrait shots.

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Sunset at Two Jack Lake

The fiancé and I decided to go for a quick road trip to Banff on a quiet Saturday afternoon, perfect opportunity for me to finally capture some sunset shots as most of the time I shoot sunrises more.
Initially we were planning on heading to Johnson Lake, however the trees were still all green so we decided to try Two Jack and Lake Minnewanka instead. We stopped by some trees, with bright yellow leaves.
Perfect in both color and infrared (faux-IR through LR4.1)

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Rocky Mountains and reflection IMG_8827-5Dii IMG_8854-5Dii

The sunset wasn't as colorful as I was hoping for
Two Jack Lake with Mount Rundle - sunset HDR1-Edit

but hopefully, I will get it next time!

Friday, September 14, 2012

UV filter or not?

There has been lots of debates online discussing whether UV filters affect IQ or not. Some manufacturers also claim that it improves IQ, this may have been true back in the film era when UV filter affects the film, however this is not the case with digital sensors.
DRTV even made an episode about this topic.


So I decided to perform a simple test this morning with a Canon 5D Mark 2 +EF 100-400L and a Tiffen 77mm UV filter to personally see whether it has any effect.
All shots were taken at Av mode, ISO 100 and f/11.
A tripod and Mirror Lockup was also used.

Taken with the UV filter
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Taken without the UV filter
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There's a flare that happens because of the extra layer of glass on the front.
When you zoom in, you will notice that the image looks sharper without the UV filter, both on the center and corners.

Here's a crop of the cap with the UV filter
UV center
and without
no UV center

Needless to say, after this quick test, I will never use a UV filter again.

The only benefits on having one is for protection to your glass as it does create an extra layer of protection on the front from elements.
Also most Canon L lenses need one to be fully weather sealed.
However it's not something that I will always be putting on my lens, especially on primes and I will still keep some special filters with me like ND, CL-Pol and GND, just not UV filters.