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Vibrant Southeast-Asia

Vibrant impressions from Southeast-Asia 2013.
This slideshow including some video snippets shows you enchanting moments of a trip through Singapore, Thailand (Bangkok), Cambodia (Sihanoukville), Vietnam (Saigon/Ho-Chi-Minh-City, Nha Trang, Da Nang, Hoi An, Halong Bay) and Hong Kong. Enjoy!

Best viewed in fullscreen-mode. In the video snippets, please activate the little "HD" symbol on the bottom bar of the player. Alternatively you may open this show in a seperate window.

Camera: Sony NEX-7; lenses: Sony 10-18mm F4 OSS, Zeiss 24mm F1.8, SLR Magic CINE 35mm T0.95, Sony 50mm F1.8

Thanks for watching!

Otus 1.4/85 - ZEISS's new Flagship sailing from Imaginary to the Real World

About one year ago, ZEISS set a new standard for SLR lenses with its first peer of the Otus family (see my review here). Now the line-up is expanded with an even more impressive member, the Otus Apo Planar T* 1.4/85. As pictures speak louder than words,- I decided to start right into a first impression with a few samples of people taking the center stage before we come to a more in-depth analysis and a little comparison to some other portrait lenses.

The following examples were all shot at F1.4, they are available in higher (some in full) resolution, when you click on the images:

Some factual statements
The Otus line was designed with full-frame DSLRs in mind and so you can get them in two versions: ZE model for Canon EF-mount and ZF.2 model for Nikon F-mount. Thinking of all the features supporting precise and comfortable manual focusing on Sony’s mirror less A7R with its exceptional 36 MP sensor, great EVF magnification, focus peaking etc., for me this combination makes even more sense. This is, how the 1.2 kg masterpiece appears adapted to the Sony A7R (with a highly recommended vertical battery grip attached as well):

The 0.95 Shootout - Mitakon / Zhongyi Speedmaster 50/0.95 vs. SLR Magic HyperPrime CINE 50mm T0.95

You may have seen other comparisons of F0.95 or T0.95 lenses on my website already, e.g. the recent "Most adorable 50s, the "Adorable 35s", the "Adorable 25s" and an early "HyperPrime / Noctilux Comparison". Now, as new special lens - the Mitakon / Zhongyi Speedmaster 50mm f/0.95 - entered the arena, it's time for another shootout.

First, what's so magic on these lenses? Is it their weight and bulkiness? Of course, not for most of us. Is it their decreasing sharpness or their increasing aberrations when used wide open? May be, a little. In my opinion, what counts are emotions, character and bokeh! It's about seperation, drawing the viewer's attraction to the important things, making them pop out the image, some kind of medium format look. As pictures can better express what I mean, let me give you some examples (you can click on the images to view them in other sizes):

(Mitakon / Zhongyi Speedmaster 50/0.95 @ f/0.95, Photographer: Merlin Ulrich)

"Maskenzauber" - Venetian Carnival and Maskenball 2013 in Hamburg

Hamburg is not only known as a town with more bridges than Venice, it also celebrates a Venetian carnival since 12 years now. It's an enchanting event for every visitor and a "must see" for every photographer.

This time I decided to catch the magic moments with a SLR Magic HyperPrime CINE 35mm T0.95 mounted to a Sony NEX7 to get that perfect melange of sharpness and bokeh in order to keep that mood of light and poetic noblesse. But pictures speak louder than words...

(Switching to fullscreen mode (rightmost button on the bottom icon bar) is highly recommended)

In order to be able to see the single images (also in full resolution), please follow the link to my Flickr-Album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hhackbarth/sets/72157632617122420/

A Venetian ballroom night was celebrated at the enchanting "Lola Rogge Schule" in even more fascinating historical costumes:

Finally there was also a chance to take some impressive 3D-shots:

You find an album with the 3D images here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hhackbarth/sets/72157632646619067/

Please use red/cyan filterglasses to see the 3D effect. You can download the stereoscopic 3D images in MPO-format for your 3D device here:

MPO-File #1
MPO-File #2

All images copyright by 3D-Kraft.com.

Sony A7S - Queen of the Night - Comparison Review

The new Sony A7S created a lot of buzz with its outstanding low light / high ISO performance. Time for a more in depth analysis and a REAL WORLD comparison to the A7R, which was doing quite well at low light already.

As you might have studied already all kinds of technical specs, at this time I will not bother you with too many details anymore. Just the most relevant facts: Mirrorless E-Mount system camera with full frame sensor, 12 MP "only", ISO 100 ... 102400 (extended: 50...409600), 4K video (requires external recorder), FullHD 1080p with 50 MBit XAVC-S encoding on SDXC memory cards, up to 120 fps at 720p, 8 bit uncompressed output with 4:2:2 subsampling on HDMI, option for completely silent shooting.

Before we look at the video performance, let's start with some ISO samples (click on the images to see higher resolution versions).

ISO 100 (cropped, scaled), lens: SLR Magic HyperPrime CINE 50mm T0.95 @ T0.95: