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2024-09-26

Sekonic Auto-Leader L-188 light meter

After disappointments with software light meters, I decided to use a dedicated light meter. I bought a used Sekonic Auto-Leader L-188:


(compared to a roll of 135 film)

It is a simple battery powered model that has been made for many years. And it is quite small.

The first Auto-Leader model was the L-38 (selenium based). 




The later L-188 Auto-Leader is from 1978. It has a related selenium-based Auto-Lumi L-158:




But I do not recommend to use old selenium-based light meters because of their low accuracy, especially with a time.

The L-188 is powered by an SR44 battery, but an LR44 will also work.




To get exposure data, you should align the guide mark with the pointer by rotating the dial while pressing the switch button.




I also like the nice looking and precise scales. There are many intermediate (and useful!) marks.

The speed scale: 1/2000, 1/1200, 1/1000, 1/800, 1/500, 1/400, 1/250, 1/200, 1/125, 1/100, 1/60, 1/50, 1/40, 1/30, 1/25, 1/15, 1/10, 1/8, 1/5, 1/4, 1/2

The aperture scale:  f/1, f/1.1, f/1.3, f/1.4, f/1.6, f/1.8, f/2, f/2.2, f/2.5, f/2.8, f/3.2, f/3.6, f/4, f/4.6, f/5, f/5.6, f/6.4, f/7.1, f/8, f/9, f/10, f/11, f/13, f/14, f/16, f/18, f/20, f/22, f/25, f/28, f/32, f/36, f/40, f/45, f/50, f/56, f/64

The ISO scale: 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 25, 32, 40, 50, 64, 80, 100, 125, 160, 200, 250, 320, 400, 500, 640, 800, 1000, 1200, 1600, 2000, 2500, 3200, 4000, 5000, 6400, 8000, 10000, 12000.

The disadvantage is that the L-188 doesn't work with incident light, only with reflected light. This is not important for me.




The angle of incoming light is 65°. This corresponds to 28mm (for horizontal angle) or 35 (for diagonal angle).

Posted by malykh в 21:00 0 comments

2024-09-22

Samsung NX 30/2: Samples [1] - APS-C - f/2

Cameras: Samsung NX2000 (1.5x crop factor, 20MP), Samsung NX10 (1.5x crop factor, 14.6MP)
Lens: Samsung NX 30/2 at f/2
The profiled lens (distortion) correction is disabled.

(NX2000)

(NX2000)

(NX10)

(NX2000)

(NX2000)

(NX2000)

(NX10)
Posted by malykh в 18:03 0 comments

2024-09-20

XR Rikenon 50/2 (K): Interesting 50mm lens

This is an underrated 50mm lens with Pentax K mount:



The XR Rikenon 1:2 50mm lens.

Note that this is the pure XR Rikenon version without extra letter (L, S, P). This is one of the standard 50/55mm lenses for Ricoh film SLR SLRs in the late 1970s and early 1980s:

(Ricoh KR-10 specifications)


(Ricoh XR-1s specifications)

The lens is believed to have been made by Tomioka and is sometimes called the "Poor-man's Summicron" (referring to a Leica Summicron 50/2 lens). Other sources claim that the lens was made by Cosina.



The optical design is 6 elements in 5 groups (Ultron-like):




The aperture has 6 blades:




The aperture ring has click stops at f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5,6, f/8, f/11, f/16.

The filter thread is 52x0.75mm.

The minimum focusing distance is about 0.45m. This is a special feature of this XR version, other Rikenon 50/2 versions have a longer focusing distance.




Often people don't like 50/2 lenses, preferring faster (f/1.8-1.4) lenses. But the overall image rendering of a 50/2 lens can be more interesting than a faster aperture.

Posted by malykh в 20:41 0 comments

2024-09-17

Cannondale Cujo 1: Cutting handlebars

After my first experience with the Cannondale Cujo 1 bike, I noticed that the handlebars were too wide compared to my previous GT Avalanche 1.0.

I tried to get used to it over the years, but finally decided to cut the handlebars.

Before cutting I measured the width (with grips):




It is about 765mm.

At first I wanted to use a hacksaw, but then I remembered that I have a tube cutter (from a tool set).




The tube cutter is suitable for the diameter of the handlebars.

Cutting the handlebar with the tube cutter:




The result after cutting and before processing with a file:




Cut-off parts:




The width (with grips) after cutting:




It is about 730mm. I like this width more than the stock one.

Posted by malykh в 21:26 0 comments

2024-09-13

Filter thread: 40.5x0.5 vs 40.5x0.75

There are two main kinds of 40.5mm filter threads.

1. 40.5mm with 0.5mm pitch (40.5x0.5)

This is an old and quite popular thread in the past for rangefinder film camera lenses. I have several lenses with 40.5x0.5 filter threads: the Industar-26M, the Steinheil Quinon 50/2, the Meyer-Optik Helioplan 40/4.5, the Staeble-Lineogon 35/3.5.


2. 40.5mm with 0.75mm pitch (40.5x0.75)

This is a thread of modern compact lenses. My Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 14-42/3.5-5.6 has this filter thread.


However, if you want to buy a modern lens accessory with a 40.5mm filter thread mount, it is quite difficult to determine its thread pitch (0.5 or 0.75) in advance.

For example, there are both versions of 40.5mm-52mm filter step-up adapters. But sellers don't know the exact pitch of the adapter they sell.

These are my two 40.5mm-52mm adapters (Noname, made in China):




The left one is 40.5x0.75, the right one is 40.5x0.5. Both have no pitch information.




The 40.5x0.75 adapter is mounted on the Steinheil Quinon 50/2, only one rotation is possible due to the wrong pitch:




While the 40.5x0.5 adapter fits well on the Steinheil Quinon 50/2:




The good thing is that the 52mm filter thread has a 0.75mm pitch for old and new lenses/accessories. So with these 40.5mm-52mm adapters I can use very old and very new filters.
Posted by malykh в 19:35 0 comments

2024-09-08

Viltrox AF 20/2.8: Samples [1] - FF - f/2.8

Camera: Sony a7c (FF, 24MP)
Lens: Viltrox AF 20/2.8 at f/2.8
The profiled lens (distortion/vignetting) correction is disabled.








Posted by malykh в 11:08 0 comments

2024-09-05

External optical viewfinder (35mm)

A modern external optical viewfinder (35mm FOV):




For mounting in a camera shoe.




It is made in China and quite cheap. Expect it to be all plastic. I think even the optical elements are some kind of plastic.

I tried it a little. Unfortunately, while the image is quite good, the frame limit is not clear, it depends on the position of the eye relative to the viewfinder.

Also, it is difficult to mount the viewfinder in the shoe of some old cameras. It looks like the adapter part of the viewfinder is too wide.



See also related notes:
Image albums:
Posted by malykh в 18:10 0 comments

2024-09-03

Far Manager vs Midnight Commander: Keyboard shortcuts

For many years I used file managers with two-panel (usually text-based) user interfaces. Starting with the classic Norton Commander,  then Volkov Commander, File Commander/2 (for OS/2), and even muCommander (for macOS).

And today I still use Far Manager (for Windows) and Midnight Commander (for Linux).

I have prepared a keyboard shortcut memo for frequently used actions.

Far Manager vs Midnight Commander

Find file (in tree):  Alt-F7 vs Meta-?
Find file (in panel): Alt+... vs Meta-s (or Ctrl-s)
Paste panel path: Ctrl+[ (left) Ctrl+] (right) vs Meta-a (active) Meta+A (inactive)
Paste file name: Ctrl+Enter vs Meta+Enter
Paste file path+name: Ctrl+F vs Ctrl+Shift+Enter
Previous command: Ctrl+E vs Meta-p
Next command: Ctrl+X vs vs Meta-n
Command history: Alt+F8 vs Meta-h
Directory history: Alt+F12 vs Meta+H
File attributes (chmod): Ctrl+A vs Ctrl-x c
Change another panel to the same directory: Alt-F1/F2 and select disk vs Meta-i
Reread/refresh panel: Ctrl+R vs Ctrl+r
Show directory size (short): F3 vs Ctrl+Space
Show directory size (detail): Ctrl-Q vs Ctrl+x i
Hide panels: Ctrl+O vs Ctrl+o


To enter Meta combinations, I prefer to use the Esc key instead of the Alt modifier key. 

Also, Esc followed by a number key ("1", "2"..."9", "0") works as F1-F10 in Linux. This is very useful for those awful modern notebook keyboards.

Posted by malykh в 09:53 0 comments

2024-09-02

Steinheil Quinon 50/2: Samples [2] - FF - f/2

Camera: Sony a7c (FF, 24MP)











See also related notes:
Posted by malykh в 15:10 0 comments

2024-08-31

Viltrox AF 20/2.8 (FE): Ultra wide angle autofocus lens

Without a fisheye lens, the widest lens I own for FF has a focal length of 28mm (the Pentax K 28/3.5). My experience with the Pentax DA 14/2.8 (for APS-C, 21mm equivalent) and the Samsung NX 16/2.4 (for APS-C, 24mm equivalent) has shown that I generally do not need such a wide angle. But sometimes there are tasks where an ultra wide angle lens (24mm or wider) could be useful.

I would prefer an old manual focus 20mm/24mm lens made for film cameras, but they are too expensive and the image quality is usually not very good. So I decided to buy a modern, inexpensive autofocus lens (for Sony FE). This is the Viltrox AF 20/2.8 FE.




It costs me about $110. And it is my second autofocus lens for Sony (after the Samyang AF 25/2.8).

The Viltrox AF 20/2.8 is quite compact (for 20mm) and light. The filter thread is 52mm.

The lens has 10 elements in 8 groups:




The aperture has 7 blades.




The maximum magnification is 0.17x (as mentioned, I didn't check it).

It comes with a removable hood (PL-56).




But in my opinion the hood is impractical and useless. So I removed it from the lens and don't use it at all.

Overall, it is a nice lens. It works well. The image quality is also good (as expected for a modern lens). 

Posted by malykh в 11:26 0 comments

2024-08-30

Kenda 28/29x1.9-2.35 tube

After the tire (and the inner tube) got punctured, I glued the tube and bought a spare inner tube.




This time it is a rather heavy Kenda 28/29x1.9-2.35 tube. It weighs 256 grams by my measurement. While the Kenda 29x1.9/2.3 Super Lite weighs about 178-188 grams.



See also related notes:
Image albums:
Posted by malykh в 17:48 0 comments
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