Saturday 16 November 2013

stratford and cameras

I had the good fortune to be out taking pictures with my friend and my father in what has to have been the best fall day of the year thus far. The three of us all use current generation Olympus m43 cameras and gear - friend has an E-M5 and some lenses (as do I) while my father has an E-M1 and some lenses including the new 12-40mm f2.8. There was plenty of opportunity to swap lenses around and try different things out.

The three of us went to Stratford in Southern Ontario to walk about and take some pictures. It was an excellent time. Not only was the company fantastic, but the city offers many photographic opportunities which we were only just able to touch upon.

Today though, I noticed something strange in two of my photographs that I have never seen before. It cropped up when I was using the OMD E-M5 and the 12-40 f2.8.

Check this out:

An uninspired shot, for sure. But I was taking it mostly to see how the 12-40 would compare against the 12-50 that I currently have now as far as resolution is concerned. This photograph is straight out of the camera with no adjustments being made to it at all. Note the bridge at the opposite side of the river from where I am standing when I took it. There is a repeated vertical pattern in the railing with some faint out of focus tree branches in front of it which has some rather strange artifacting. The artifacting vanishes when the tree branches do. I have never seen this before with my camera using any of the lenses I have at home (45mm 1.8, 75mm 1.8, 12-50 3.5-6.3).
Check out the piece I mentioned above at approximately 300%:

Now granted, I am really zoomed in here, but look at that strange colour artifacting. This is again out of the camera with no adjustments but for cropping. I am puzzled as to why it is doing this. Obviously, the lens/camera combination is displaying some very strange colour fringing. Am I seeing moire? If so, it is a first.
It happened again.

Again, not an inspired shot, and more of a test. The detail is amazing. But look at the apartment building middle left of the picture at the small structure on top.
Here it is at approximately 300%:

The artifacting is more obvious here, and again seems to be on vertical patterns in the side of the building.
I checked the other photographs I took with this lens/camera combination and did not find any more evidence of such artifacting/fringing even in bright vertically patterned areas. A google search of moire patterns suggests to me - again this is a new one for me - that is it likely moire that I am seeing.

Anyhow, on with the pictures.

Here is a brief sampling.

Water levels are down, revealing things best cleaned up... (75mm f1.8)
Dad playing with his E-M1 and 60mm macro. Wouldn't you know it? As soon as he swapped the lens to play with it, the wind came up. Figures :) (75mm f1.8)
Out on walkies. It was, perhaps, a perfect day for walking about. Cool enough to be crisp, but warm enough to be very comfortable. (75mm f1.8)
Lowered river levels in preparation for winter and its snows. It is part of flood control measures. (75mm f1.8)
Across the river... (75mm f1.8)
And this, dear reader, is why I want the 12-40 f2.8. What this lens is resolving here is really quite good. The level of detail is much better than what the 12-50 has been resolving in similar situations. I promise I will borrow this lens from my father and do some side by side tests with the same camera, same settings, and on a tripod. Should be interesting. (12-40 f2.8)
(12-40 f2.8)
(12-40 f2.8)
I looked for moire on these fabric flowers figuring I would find some here for sure. If it is there, it is very faint and very hard for me to see. Good deal. (12-40 f2.8)
(12-40 f2.8)
(45mm f1.8)

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