Matthew Durr Photography

I’m nearing the home stretch. This coming week is the last week of classes, and the next week consists of one final exam after another. After that? Christmas break! I hope to use this time not just to laze around for three weeks straight: I have all the technical pictures needed for writing the 70-210 f/4 E review, I have been shooting with the 50mm Noktor f/.95 for a while now and hope to thoroughly test it out, and I will post pretty regularly for the duration of the break.

That said, here and now I am still taking photographs, albeit not too many of the “artsy” style I like to capture. Here’s some from this past week I’d like to share. First up, from a Jazz/Percussion concert. Unfortunately, I didn’t see that my 180mm f/2.8 was set to f/4, but the stage was lit well-enough:

Them ‘Bones
180mm, ISO 1600, f/4, 1/100

Marimba
180mm, ISO 1600, f/4, 1/125

Sax Solo
180mm, ISO 1600, f/4, 1/125

Next, a couple shots from a play, entitled “Trust”.

Pleasure
50mm, ISO 400, f/.95, 1/100

Falling
50mm, ISO 400, f/2, 1/60 (cropped)

As noted, field-curvature on the 50mm Noktor f/.95 can be troublesome, even at f/1.4:

Airplanes
50mm, ISO 100, f/1.4, 1/80

Thankfully, stopping down to at least f/2.8 gives much more sharpness up-close (compared to the awful sharpness I have found wide-open):

Late-Fall Butterfly
50mm, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/4000 (click on it for full-size)

Stopped all the way to f/8, the Noktor resolves like any other 50mm, though there still seems to be some lateral color fringes (hard to see in this particular shot, though), which I previously thought were exclusive to wide-angle lenses:

Feeling the Music
50mm, ISO 100, f/8, 5 seconds

Finally, it is December after all. We know what that means…

MetalMan
70mm, ISO 100, f/5.6, 5 seconds

Well that’s all for this post guys and gals, thanks for dropping by. It is very possible that you will not hear much from me, as far as new photos are concerned, for the next couple of weeks. I do have a photograph I may write a “mind’s eye” post on, so we’ll see. Regardless, right now, I need to get back to studying. 🙂