For once, the title says most of it, but if you’re one of of the few lucky enough to already have your hands on a D4 (the only current camera on the market that even takes XQD), you can now pick up a few more 16GB cards and enjoy even more of that delicious 125mbs write-speed goodness, as well as working on your sneer for those poor fools stuck using that antiquatd “compact flash” technology.
Go order yours here: http://robertscamera.com/xqd-h-series-memory-card.html
The following is reposted from LensRentals.com by permission of the original author, Roger Cicala. Visit their site for more article and posts about a variety of photographic subjects, it’s all well-worth the read.
-Roberts
OK. First and foremost this is a fun post. It is not episode 362 of “Should you put a UV filter on your lens”. Some people use them. Some don’t. There’s not enough bandwidth to ever end that argument.
But here at Lensrentals, we have a ton of filters. We have some really good, very expensive filters. We have some OK, middle of the road filters. And because some customers, uhm, happen to return a very cheap filter in place of the one they were sent, we’ve obtained some crappy filters. Brand names aren’t necessary. If it cost $22 in 77mm size, it’s a crappy filter.
Anyway, one of the techs has to clean all those filters, make sure the threads are OK, and test them out. Honestly nobody likes to do it, so it gets put off until we need some filters or there’s just nothing else to do. So the other day Kenny is cleaning filters and testing the threads by mounting them one in front of the other until he made a nice mountain of 50 UV filters.
50 UV filters, cleaned and neatly stacked.
Not being the kind of people to let well enough alone, we decided to mount them to a 5D Mk II and 300 f4 we had handy and take a few pictures.
The well protected lens.
And of course see if the filters affected image quality. See if you can tell which images was shot with the 50 UV filters, and which without:
Shot of the building across the parking lot without filters (above) and with 50 UV filters (below). The one with the filters is actually better than I expected.
Of course there’s a lot of vignetting and haloing on the full size image:
Compared to no filters
Yes, actually I do. Fifty filters stacked is pretty ridiculous. But in that stack of 50 filters, as I said, there are some very good ones and some very bad ones. Lets compare a stack of each, shall we?
First, I had Kenny put the worst filters on the top of the stack (all were nonbrand, or brands we know are cheap and bad) and take a picture of the stack at an angle. All were freshly cleaned and if you look straight through them reasonably clear. Like a filter should be. But if you stack them and try to take an angled picture through several layers of them, the results were ugly.
View through a half dozen cheap filters stacked on top of each other. Try counting the filter rings inside the stack.
Yes, I know they don’t look clean in the image, but every one of those filters was freshly cleaned, and checked under a light. And if you look straight through them they were pretty clear. Looking at an angle tends to show you the weaknesses of a filter much better than looking straight through it. And remember: most of the light rays coming into the lens are coming in at an angle, not heading directly to the sensor in a straight line.
Now lets compare the stack with the expensive, top of the line filters (B&W, Heliopan, etc.) stacked the same way.
Stack of expensive UV filters one atop the other.
Hmmm. I’m starting to think there might be a difference here. But the proof is in the pudding. Lets modify our original experiment to something only slightly ridiculous. Instead of shooting through 50 filters, lets take the shot through 5 top of the line filters and another through 5 bottom of the line filters.
Here’s a 100% crop of a bumper sticker across the parking lot shot first with no filter, second with 5 stacked high end UV filters, and then with 5 stacked low grade UV filters.
100% crops of a bumper sticker shot through no filters, 5 stacked good UV filters, and 5 stacked cheap UV filters.
Now stacking 5 filters doesn’t have a ton of real world implications. Most people rarely stack two. But it is a fun demonstration that there really is a difference between good filters and cheap filters.
The good filters do a remarkable job: 5 stacked filters means 10 air-glass interfaces before the light even gets to the lens. That there’s only a little bit of image quality loss through all those filters is pretty impressive. This crop is from the center of the image, there’s more degradation to the sides, but still, it’s an impressive performance. And certainly lends credit to the idea that a high quality, multicoated UV filter has little effect on image quality.
Five bad filters, though, is another thing entirely. I’m completely aware, for those of you who are going to feel the need to point out the obvious, that nobody shoots with 5 UV filters. And I understand that one cheap UV filter wouldn’t have nearly as bad an effect on image quality as 5 of them. But I don’t think you can disagree that the good (and expensive, I know) filters have much less effect on image quality than the cheap filters.
BTW – before anyone asks, I avoided name brands of cheaper filters for a reason: many filter manufacturers make both pretty good, and pretty bad filters. You can tell the difference by the price or by reading carefully about the number of coatings, etc. A Tihoya $29 “high quality” filter is not the same as a Tihoya $79 “Professional” filter. This wasn’t meant to be a filter review, just a fun demonstration of the obvious.
Roger Cicala
Lensrentals.com
June, 2011
Tenba, having clearly decided that understated, incognito bags just don’t make enough of a statement for some people, has come out with it’s new, boldly colored ‘Vector’ line of bags. Which are also the first bags to feature their new logo, as you can see. While we’re looking at the logo, Roberts Raw would like to be the first to make the following observation:
OK, that out of the way, here’s what Tenba has to say about this new collection:
VECTOR is a unique collection of prosumer bags with a striking monochrome design. Every zipper, clip, D-ring, rain cover, lens cloth and piece of fabric is custom-dyed in three of the latest trend colors (plus black) and made to match. Vector bags are extraordinarily lightweight, and constructed of water-resistant fabrics for protection in wet weather conditions. The materials and hardware used in each bag meet the “Crafted Without Compromise” level that has continued to be Tenba’s signature. All bags are available in Krypton Green, Oxygen Blue, Cadmium Red and Carbon Black.
The system will be made of three pouches, two top-loaders, three shoulder bags, and a daypack, all available in Cadmium Red, Carbon Black, Oxygen Blue, or–our favorite–Krypton Green. Tenba makes good bags, and my Messenger has been doing me quite well since I bought it last summer, so, I’m rather excited to see these vibrant beasties start coming to shelves.
Click To See Full Promotion and Rebates!
For all you loyal Canonistas who’ve been waiting patiently for a hot new lens rebate program, wait no more for it is upon us! The one fly in the ointment this years is they’re all in combination with body purchases, a promotion logic which the current build of our website doesn’t support. So, rather than look liking we’re pulling a fast one when the price isn’t reflected in the cart, we’re asking you to call us at 1-800-726-5544 where our helpful mail-order staff can fully and completely take care of you. You’re looking at savings of up to $280 for your troubles, so, give the promos a look over, then give us a call. We’re waiting.
Why, hello you handsome devils and lady devils. We’d like to take this moment to apologize to you the disarray of this, your beloved Monthly Photo Contest, the past couple months. Not to let the cat out of the bag here, but the problem is we’ve been spending a lot of time working on moving to an entirely different website, and some things have been falling through the cracks.
The good news is, as part of that transition, we’re going to start moving the photo contest entirely over here to Roberts Raw! Over here, you’ll be able to view all the previous contests in that new Polaroid-style viewer we started with August’s contest, and uploading to the current contest will continue to be much, much simpler than it has ever been before. Also, you’ll be able to see the winning pic right on the gallery pages going forward, no more separate sections!
Plus, since you’ll be on the blog anyway, it’ll be easier for us to announce the winners, even if we don’t quite have time to update the pages, and be more certain you’ll see it.
We’ve got last month’s contest and the new one up already, and we’ll be getting the 21 other contests up over the next couple weeks. Please be patient with us as we transition, we haven’t forgotten you, but we really do run this contest on our spare time just because we love seeing all the pictures, and sometimes it takes us a moment to get the time to update things. We’re sorry. Also, August’s winner can’t be announced until our judge gets back from vacation next week. We haven’t forgotten that either.
So, dear photo contest entrants, please bookmark us at http://blog.robertsimaging.com, because this is where it’s going to be at.
The theme for September is “Strength Through Diversity.” September’s a time of transitions, not summer, not fall. There’s hot days, cool nights, green trees and cicada husks. The kids are going back to school, college students roam campuses, and all-in-all it seems like a good time to step back and appreicate how rich and diverse our lives really are. This month, we want you to stop and examine the complexities of your life, and the different influences that affect you, and figure out how they make you a different or better person.
As always whenever we use such a broad theme, we’re looking for the most original and meaningful shots to win. Take some time and really think about how you find strength through diversity, and make us the best image you can from that. This theme has the potential to move us, and we want to be moved.
Submissions will remain open until October 1st. Good luck!
Several of you have been asking, and yes, the Indianapolis Air Show committee did announce and contact all the winners. Congratulations to everyone who entered this year, whether you won or not, for submitting such excellent photos. Hit the link below to see all the winning photos on the Indy Air Show’s official page!
