Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Climbing Mt Sinabung
Gunung Sinabung from Danau Lau Kawar. Silly me didn't take a photo of the peak from a far. Photo by ahmad riza h nst. copyleft
Terrain from Google at www.peakware.com. On the basis of the terrain map from peakware, Danau Lau Kawar is at about 1400m, and the peak is at 2450m. The hike/climb was about 1km vertically! We took 3.5 hours to get up and 3.5 hours to come down.
Where we stayed
Wisma Sunrise View
Jl. Kaliaga no.5
Berastagi North Sumatera
Indonesia
Email: romanto_karo2@yahoo.co.id
Earth Quake
Just a side note, as we were leaving Danau Toba to go to Medan, an magnitude 7.2 earth quake shook Northern Sumatra/Aceh Province near Meulaboh at 12.59pm local time. We were in a bus and did not feel the quake at all!
Monday, April 26, 2010
50mm Nikkors Part II
50mm Nikkors Part I
- The AFS 50mm f/1.4G was distinctly soft at f/1.4, improving at f/2 and by f/4 reached excellent performance, improving only slightly at f/5.6 and f/8.
- The AFD 50mm f/1.8 was, surprisingly, quite sharp and with good contrast at f/1.8, and showed the same trend as the AFS 50mm f/1.4G lens.
- Under the test condition, photographs produced by the 2 lenses were virtually indistinguishable.
Friday, April 9, 2010
AF 80-200mm f/2.8D revisited
- Lens not too heavy for prolonged use, maybe not for backpacking or mountaining, but certainly manageable for usual travel use.
- Sharpness in practical use at f/2.8 is good enough, unless there is side-by-side comparison I doubt if it is clear that there is some lost of sharpness.
Checking out VR
I belong to the old school - tug your tummy, practice good handling and shot. I probably have 85% success rate with 1/15s, and 50% at 1/8s. So I never did give VR much or a thought even though I had 2 VR lenses in my bag (AFS 105mm f/2.8G VR and AFS DX 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G VR). In fact I tended to bring along my AFS DX 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G for the slightly faster maximum aperture at 70mm, or put the AFS DX 35mm f/1.8G or AFS 50mm f/1.4G in the bag whenever I envisaged low light photography.
Well, today I had a chance to pick up an AFS DX 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR for slightly better than spare change. Why not? Even though I already have the older AFS DX 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G – the D50 kit lens that I bought second hand for $150.
AFS DX 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR.
So I did a short series of test as I picked up the lens, and while waiting for wify to pick up marketing stuff.
Here goes.
Available light, Nikon D60, ISO400, handheld, aperture priority or shutter priority as indicated.
First of window test, cropped, VR on and off as per indicated, Aperture Priority.
Street Test
All with VR on.
1/15s Sharp.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
My Work
China MOH GB page