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Cityscape 2024
29 July 2024
Every now and then, the skyline of the city changes. So yesterday we took a walk around the other side of Twin Peaks to see what San Francisco looks like now.
Cityscape. Olympus E-PL1 with Lensbaby Tilt Transformer adapter and Nikkor 43-86mm f3.5 at 100mm equivalent, f8, 1/2000 second and ISO 200. Processed in Adobe Camera Raw. You can see (left to right) the Transamerica Pyramid, City Hall, Bank of America, the Mint, the Salesforce Tower, Bay Bridge and more.
We took along our Olympus E-PL1 but we used a Lenbaby Tilt Transformer adapter to mount our Nikkor 43-86mm f3.5 zoom on it.
It's manual focus and we've always had trouble focusing it with the Olympus EVF so the shots always seem a bit soft to us. But we persist because at 86mm we get the equivalent of a 172mm telephoto reach. Which beats the kit lens maximum of 84mm.
As we lined up this shot, though, we encountered a new difficulty. The lens fell off.
As we lined up this shot, though, we encountered a new difficulty. The lens fell off.
Fortunately we were holding it to focus so we caught it when it came off the adapter. This particular lens doesn't quite lock securely into the adapter and our fidgeting along the barrel to find the focus ring must have loosened it.
There was a crowd around us but they didn't appreciate the juggling act.
So we continued with our composition but this time we addressed our focusing issue. It's not just using the EVF that's a problem. We're also focusing at the aperture we've set on the lens since there's no way for the body to open the aperture for focusing and close it for exposure.
What we usually do to deal with this is rotate the focus ring too far one way and back too far the other before setting it somewhere in the middle.
But not today. Today we got sophisticated and used the magnifying button to significantly enlarge the image in the EVF. Suddenly we could clearly find focus. And it was within a much smaller tolerance than our previous method had led us to believe.
We couldn't tell how well we'd done until we got the images up on the screen. But we were pleased. Finally.
Sometimes it isn't just the skyline that changes.