Review - No Name 25mm f1.2 CCTV Lens

Disclaimer:

I am not a professional photographer, nor am I a professional writer. I'm simply a man who enjoys taking pictures and enjoys the features and flexibility of the Micro Four Thirds format. I am to MFT photography what Rachel Ray is to cooking...except perhaps a little less annoying and a lot less perky.

I am not a fan of photography clichés. Every time you misuse the word bokeh, God pulls the whiskers off of a kitten. Every time you use a phrase like creamy bokeh, God proceeds to kill that kitten. So please, for the sake of the kittens, don't use phrases like that. In place of the word bokeh, I will use the word oblur (OB-luhr), which is my portmanteau for optic blur and sounds a hell of a lot less pretentious. Example: The 25mm CCTV lens has a sweet, dare I say mellifluous oblur in the out-of-focus regions of the image.

Introduction:

Shortly after I purchased my Panasonic G10 camera, I started searching the online black market (eBay) for any and all available Micro Four Thirds lenses. In addition to the usual suspects, I stumbled upon a cute little thing labelled as the "SLR Magic Toy Lens." It was billed as being great for "Lo Fi" photography, fast (f1.4), and relatively inexpensive at $119.

Ooooo...it even comes with its own silly bands. Neat.

This was enough to pique my interest, so I turned to The Google™ for further edification. The first thing that I found was a nice review by Steve Huff, which you can read here. However, once I peeled back a few more layers of the onion, I discovered that these lenses weren't much more than rebranded CCTV lenses with integrated MFT mounts. One could theoretically achieve the same results by getting a C-Mount adapter and buying a C-Mount 25mm lens. So, that's what I did.  Are the results similar?  Read on, fearless reader.

Life is like ordering a lens from a seller in Hong Kong...

You never know what you're gonna get. In my case, I ordered a f1.4 lens that looked like this:

...and was shipped a f1.2 lens that looks like this:

Whoops. That said, I'll take the faster lens any day of the week, provided that the optic quality is comparable.

Just Plain Silly

My four year old son and I refer to this as the "Silly Lens." Why? The G10 just looks so darn silly with this lens attached to it. To give you a sense of how big it is, here's what it looks like when sitting next to a can of delicious Pepsi Max, a beverage with delicious cola taste and zero calories:

Dear PepsiCo: please send me free Pepsi Max

Tiny, right? In spite of the silly looks, this lens will turn pretty much any MTF chassis into a lightweight, ultra-portable camera. It's very convenient for travel, or as you'll see later, a trip to the ballpark.

How Does It Work?


I attached the C-Mount to MFT adapter to my G10, screwed in the lens, made sure that "Shoot W/O Lens" was turned ON on the G10, and set it to Aperture priority mode...that little A button on the dial. Dead simple.  Once that was done, I looked through the viewfinder and started seeing the world through the wacky, distorted eye of a CCTV lens.  A couple things to note:

1. There are no aperture "stops" on this lens.  It adjusts everywhere from wide open to completely shut, but you have to guess where you are at any given point in time.  The adjustments are all manual.  You cannot set them on your camera.
2. This is manual focus only.  On this particular lens, it takes a lot of cranking to get the focus where you want it.  This is a pain if you're shooting at moving targets and need to constantly adjust the focus, but actually pretty nice for shooting stationary subjects, as there's little risk of bumping the focus ring and losing focus.  I have no idea if this is consistent with the other "no name" CCTV lenses out there on the black market.

I immediately started shooting indoor portraits of my two male models (Magoo and Ritchie), under so-so lighting conditions:

ISO 400, 1/400 sec - B&W added in post-production in Picasa

ISO 400, 1/50 sec

ISO 400, 1/60 sec

All of these pictures were shot wide open, f1.2.  The last picture is a nice illustration of the extremely shallow depth of field: the right side of Magoo's face is in focus, while the left side isn't.  In short, I was able to get some very nice, "artsy" style pictures with very little effort under very average lighting conditions.  I like to think of it as an optical version of the Hipstamatic iPhone app, with way more depth of field.

From there, I took the camera (and my son) to Franklin Park Zoo and snapped some more pictures.  There was bright sunlight outdoors, but the indoor lighting was dim.  As you'll see, the latter was no problem for the silly lens.

ISO 100, 1/800 sec

ISO 100, 1/800 sec - some color post-processing done in Picasa

ISO 400, 1/60 sec - indoors

ISO 800, 1/50 sec - indoors; cropped

ISO 250, 1/125 sec - indoors

ISO 200, 1/125 sec - indoors

ISO 400, 1/30 sec - indoors

I particularly like the effect of the radial oblur in the last photo.  Yes, this lens vignettes like crazy, but I personally think that it adds some nice character to each photo.

Here's my well-behaved son at a bowling alley.  Note that this picture has been rotated 180 degrees.

ISO 800, 1/125 sec

...and, for good measure, here are a couple pictures from a recent trip to Fenway Park:

ISO 100, 1/1300 sec - aperture closed to an unknown f-stop

ISO 250, 1/125 sec - aperture closed to an unknown f-stop

How is it for taking videos?


It's a reasonable question to ask.  Since this lens was originally designed for video, wouldn't it make sense to try taking videos with it?  Yep, it would.  Here's a sample video that I took with it.  It was taken in a poorly lit studio, with the aperture wide open:

Notice the extremely shallow depth of field.  It's not perfect for every application, but it's a neat effect.  The speed of the lens made this a vast improvement over my attempts to record video in the studio using the kit lens (14-42, f3.5-5.6).  Notice that there's hardly any vignetting in this 16:9 video.  It would probably appear if you were taking 4:3 video.  I did not test that.  (Who does 4:3 video these days, anyway?)

Conclusions?

1. If you are looking for sharp, accurate pictures, look elsewhere.  You won't get anything close to that with this lens/adapter combination.
2. If you dislike vignetting, steer clear of this lens.  This effect does not appear to be nearly as prominent in the so called "Toy Lens" discussed earlier.
3. If you don't like having to make manual lens adjustments, this isn't the lens for you.  It's all manual with this one.
4. If you are interested in an inexpensive lens that will work well under poor lighting conditions, this is a terrific choice.  I doubt that you could find many (any?) other new f1.2 lenses for under $100.
5. If you are interested in a lens that will instantly give you "artsy" and/or "fartsy" style pictures with minimal effort, this is a terrific choice.
6. If you are interested in a highly portable lens/adapter combination, you've just found it.

Personally, I love my silly lens.  The combination of the lens and adapter set me back about $40 in total, which is a mere pittance for something that allows me to take such unique looking pictures.

Highly recommended.

Alice Chats With Sternest

This is a partial chat transcript between Alice (http://www.pandorabots.com/pandora/talk?botid=f5d922d97e345aa1) and Sternest Meanings (http://www.sternestmeanings.com):

Sternest To an avid, hesitative favour. I'm the brave, moody two-by-four. Darken sodomite.
Alice Who made you the brave moody two by four ?
Sternest Ha Ha! Yummy voodoo bed wetter. Row of b
Alice Do you think a lot about the authorities?
Sternest Okay! Ho Ho! To Tubulidentata. It suit hero.
Alice What does "it" refer to?
Sternest Fat-witted or heroes.
Alice If I have to choose one, I pick Fat witted.
Sternest Ho Ho! Ciao! If poetic envies. Daft, wet kit.
Alice What kind of food do you like?
Sternest Hoodwink futile, odd of Okay.
Alice Sounds delicious.
Sternest Lucid odiousness.
Alice I've been waiting for you.
Sternest View of young inebriate.
Alice Are you very competetive?
Sternest O My! Eat receptive voyeur.
Alice What does it taste like?
Sternest Sweet-talk as the idiot.
Alice Do not ask me any more questions please.
Sternest OK queasiest, moody ornament. As spleen.
Alice That is a very original thought. I am kidding you can ask me anything.

Is it me, or is Sternest sweet-talking Alice?

- Jerfo

Watermelon in Easter Hay

If you haven't already read my last post, read it first. Then, come back here.

Done?

Here's my Xenochronized version of Watermelon in Easter Hay: http://www.jerfo.com/sounds/watermelon2.mp3 . Waddya think?

- Jerfo

Xenochrony for Guitar and Low Budget Backing Band

I've made a lot of progress on the album to date, with most of it coming in late November and early December. So far, I have drafts of guitar solos for Chunga's Revenge, Inca Roads, Black Napkins, Outside Now, Persona Non Grata, The Mammy Anthem, Watermelon in Easter Hay (this one may not make the cut), Drowning Witch, and Zoot Allures. I've just started the rough tracks for Five-Five-Five (which will be in 4/4), and will hopefully get a chance to record Down in De Dew.

Regarding Inca Roads:

I had a heck of a time recording a solo over this simple vamp - C major to D major, over and over again. To combat this, I called upon a technique that Zappa himself pioneered: Xenochrony. While I didn't do it in the way that Frank would usually do it, the idea is similar. Basically, I muted all of the backing tracks, hit the record button on the guitar track, and recorded a solo in G melodic minor with no accompaniment and no click. This is a rough mix of the result: http://www.jerfo.com/sounds/budget1.mp3. The result fits into the backing tracks surprisingly well, with all sorts of accidental polyrhythms. I may try the same technique with Watermelon to see if I can salvage something from it.
For the sake of comparison, here's the second half of the original solo: http://www.jerfo.com/sounds/quiet1.mp3 .

I've done some work on cleaning up these muddy mixes and will post some results soon. In the meantime, let me know what you think!

- Jerfo

Gig! Album!

Yes, that's right! Private Circus has a gig at the Sea Note on Nantasket Beach, MA on November 20th at 5:30 PM. Although this was originally billed as a benefit concert, it's looking more and more like it's just a big ol' party. Please join us and bring presents!

In other news, I'll be busy working on my album during the week after Thanksgiving. It's going to be an album of guitar solos along the lines of Frank Zappa's "Shut Up 'N Play Your Guitar," and will be primarily based upon Zappa tunes and vamps. I will be playing all of the instruments myself. You can check out an early unmixed draft of "Chunga's Revenge" here. Let me know what you think of it so far.

That's all for now. I hope to see you at the Sea Note on the 20th.

- Jerfo

In The Slim Chance That You Cared...

I've installed a little utility that will append the title and artist of the song currently playing on my PC to each of my blog posts. If there is more exciting news in this world, I'm too frightened to be made aware of it.

- Jerfo

[Listening to: Sooner or Later - The Bears - Car Caught Fire (03:00)]

The Return of the Son of Turd Polishing

I made some more progress on drum recording last night. Here are the changes that I made:

1. I swapped the C3 and Pro25 mics. The C3 is now about 9-12 inches behind the kick drum's beaters, while the Pro25 is directly in front of the kick, virtually touching it. Neither mic sounds ideal by itself (the Pro25 sounds *terrible* by itself!), but the combination of the two sounds nice and punchy. My first instinct was to flip the phase on one of the two mics, but the result was too boomy.
2. I replaced the B1 center overhead with an Oktava MK-012. I've known that small diaphragm condenser mics have better transient response than large diaphragm condensers, but this was the first time that I had heard the difference illustrated so dramatically. The attack on the snare drum went from *woof* to *WHAP*.
3. I moved my homemade omni room mic to an interesting position: it's resting directly on some absorbent foam in front of the kit. Its sound is vastly improved. Once my other homemade mic finds its way back to me, I'll try the same trick on the other side of the room and see if it produces a nice stereo image.

Once I re-tune the lowest two toms, I think that the kit will be as nice-sounding as it can get under the circumstances. That leaves me with two words: WOO HOO.

- Jerfo