Wednesday 21 April 2010

111: Mushroom Double

Upon my egg box of corn salad seedlings sprouts a stand of tiny mushrooms. Too curious not to record in an image today, they await an identification which may never happen.
They're certainly pretty close up, resembling a group of very flat jellyfish-like creatures.

Settings: f/8, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Cosinon M42, 17mm extension, 1/4 flash, foil reflector, tripod.

Is 111 a lucky number? Today I recieved a new (old, second hand) DSLR, a Canon EOS D30. I had no illusions about its image quality compared to the K10D, but it's ideal for shooting animation with. Why?
1. They're very cheap!
2. I don't have to wear out my K10D on animation now.
3. It has a DC adapter with its battery charger, an otherwise expensive extra, but essential. Plus, it works with the 10D, 20D etc.
4. The 2168x1440 resolution (small, but still plenty of room for cropping to full 1080p HD.) Also, the small option (1440x960) can be used for 720p.

I shot the same scene on the D30 with the same lens and flash setup, but the framing is different, due to a slight move to get it into minimum focus (because of the lack of 1mm extension by PK adapter) and the different crop factor (1.6x as opposed to 1.52x)
However, it took a while to get the manual flash working, as I didn't realise I needed to tape over the four extra hotshoe contacts - as with the K10D. Consequently, the mushrooms, having grown in a plastic bag and around 100% humidity, had already started to shrivel in the dry air. But no matter, it's also interesting for that reason.

Settings: as before, except 1/200 and 16mm extension.

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