Micro Lighting Setup

Photography ... to draw or write with light. Don't believe me? Look it up...

Centuries ago, a camera obscura was used to display the lit world in a dark chamber (camera obscura) so that artists could draw/sketch outlines on a canvas which later was filled with pigments carrying oil to form marvelous paintings.
What am I trying to say here? A first sketch was taken in a very dark room from a very brightly lit scene. In a later process, mainly based on the observation of the artist, an image was formed, an image that impresses the viewer centuries later.

Speedlight or flash photography is very much the same. I was always fascinated by flash photography, due to the fact that in one frame/negative two images are captured:

1. the bright light source, just as in the camera obscura, which is nowadays provided by a speed-light (flash) and controlled by the aperture setting of the camera
2. the ambient light, as if the artist was filling in pigment by painting, which is controlled by the shutter speed.

Nothing new, I hope, up to here. 

I love my artificial light setup, but... carrying about all those speed-lights was rather a cumbersome thing to do. So, I usually did not do that. As a consequence, usually, I did not use the creative possibilities such a setup provides.

Today, that all changed. I got myself a handful of very small and inexpensive light sources:

a handful of lights

What you see is a Godox iM30 and an Ulanzi SL03. I also bought an Ulanzi SL01, which however does not contribute to this story.

You will notice that the iM30 on the left indicates "S1" and "S2" on its cover. These are slave settings, which were the main trigger for me to actually purchase this device. Of course the manual power setting dial is another great selling point, however, does not play a bigger role in this text.

Lets turn to the star of the show, the SL03 on the right. There are, next to its tininess. two features which stick out: 1) the video light and 2) the tilting flash head (pointing forward in the image).

So, what do we get with the SL03? 

1. a bright light source, which can be pointed either directly on the subject or be pointed upwards 90 degrees away from the subject (I will come to that later in the post)
2. a relatively weak constant light source (the video light) pointing at the subject

In the case of the Ulanzi SL03, the video light and the flash (with power settings) can be operated at the same time. This is the magic of this tiny speed-light.

Single light setup

Here is a scenario:

• run the video light as fill light for a scene
• point the SL03 flash directly on the subject or bounce off the ceiling

This option of being creative with light and camera settings. 

1. the speed-light exposure is controlled by the aperture and freezes motion
2. the ambient light exposure is controlled by the shutter speed and allows for motion blur

In a world of film, all of the above will sound illusional. However, the sensitivity of modern cameras allow shooting at ISO 6400 w/o mention-able penalty.  Hence, a faint touch of flash or constant video light will make a difference. In addition to that, even my Ricoh GR-IV monochrome is provided with image stabilization making longer exposure essentially safe.

Multiple lights

Possible scenario:

• run the video light as fill light for a scene (optionally)
• point the SL03 flash upwards / behind (*)
• use the iM30 as key light and back light (via a reflector)

This is a minimal setup. Imagine using more than a single iM30... endless possibilities, e.g. hair light, back light, color gels... you name it. 

And that goodness fits in the pant's pocket.

(*) I tested inserting the SL03 backwards in the hot shoe of my Ricoh GR and it triggered just fine, the Ricoh GR-IV monochrome did not allow this to happen.

LED light pad

Some shop over here in Europe offers a device adapted for tracing drawings, they call it an "LED light pad". I would call it a light box... But, I am old skool and a photographer.

The device is sold for just under €10. So, how could I resist getting one?

Initial testing displayed a somewhat homogeneous illumination at the center of the device, the periphery is a different story though.
For tracing from some original, this seems all OK.
HOWEVER, I wonder if the device could be used for contact printing in the (more or less) homogeneous middle of the light-box. 

Here comes the kicker, maybe the LEDs can be replaced by UV-LEDs, turning the light-box into a device for anthotype printing. 

Camp Snap Pro - Xenon-flash

CampSnapPhoto did a very good thing, adding a real flash to the Camp Snap Pro. This features allows for "slaves" being triggered enabling elaborate lighting setups. Very very cool in particular since the CS-Pro flash has 2 different settings.
However, there is a (solvable) problem. The flash of the CS-Pro does not produce a homogeneous field of light, something I tested flashing a white ceiling. The photo displayed stripes across the image. A strip of Scotch Magic Tape over the flash unit improved the distribution to some extent; not perfect, good enough however.

My thanks to the CampSnapPhoto-folks for adding the Xenon-flash. Setting up a scene with slaves will erase the problem with the in-homogeneous light-field. Mind you, I already sold photographs taken with the Camp Snap 105. I am pretty sure that I can create professional scenes with the Camp Snap Pro and a decent setup of inexpensive slave speed-lights and cheap light modulators / reflectors.

Camp Snap Pro - a true BW camera now

Life kept me busy/lazy for a while. Finally, my return to the Camp Snap Pro. I sent the company a message about my desire to have the LUT of the CS-105 in the CS-PRO. I guess the market for this kind of weird stuff is pretty small, hence, I have not heard back after the first confirmation, also, their filter-designer-tool seems to create files as before. So, well, no real weird stuff possible as with the 105. (bummer!)

However, now CampSnapPhoto explains how to assign filters to all positions of the mode-dial:

Filters are case-sensitive and must be lowercase.

std.flt, vtg1.flt, vtg2.flt, or bw.flt

(cf https://www.campsnapphoto.com/pages/filters%20)

So, it is what we got. However, here comes the plan, look at your B&W-photo text books on how to use color filters with B&W film. Here is a "random" page, I just picked up by a search engine: https://thedarkroom.com/color-filters-with-bw-film/

With CampSnapPhoto's filter creation page, we can of course design our own filter definitions for the CS-Pro.

My advice is to play with R, G, B first, then with Hue. Now reduce the Saturation to 0 and fine adjust with Brightness, Contrast and Hue.

Is it as good a manipulating the RGB-LUT of the CS-105? Of course it is not. However, once you have fine tuned your filter-files, you can set a specific filter to a specific position of the selector, making the camera a BW-film with 4 filters simulation.

My choice is to have a general purpose black and white setting on the STD position. VTG1 has a soft portrait setting (for women), VTG2 a hard portrait setting (elderly men). The BW position is occupied by a very hard contrast setting having a red filter (landscapes, skylines, dramatic skies, etc).

UPDATE:

While the standard setting can be modified, as shown above, it might be best to just leave this one alone, so there will be a color option at the end. A photo taken with this setting can always be de-saturated. 

My present settings are equivalent to a green and orange and a blue filter.

1. vtg1.flt:
   lum:19
   contrast:0
   rgain:-63
   ggain:100
   bgain:-82
   hue:0
   sat:-100
   
   
2. vtg2.flt:
   lum:29
   contrast:0
   rgain:100
   ggain:-90
   bgain:-92
   hue:0
   sat:-100
   


3. bw.flt:
   lum:150
   contrast:0
   rgain:-90
   ggain:-74
   bgain:100
   hue:0
   sat:-100

The envisaged use of the filters are as follows:

1. low contrast landscapes, smooth portraits - smooths out irregularities in skin
2. dramatic landscapes and cityscapes - increases dynamics in the sky
3. character portraits - emphasizes skin irregularities

Acros and Kodachrome on the Camp Snap

In my last post, I layed out a way on how to getting a film simulation on the Camp Snap (v105).
Today, I want to discuss some of the results. By now, I own 2 Camp Snaps, for the reason of having one equipped with a B&W film simulation and the other one with a colour film simulation. 

The following considerations are along a rather contrasty scene, taken in the late afternoon. Both were taken with cameras side-by-side, overhead to avoid the fence to interfere. Sorry for the tilt, it is what it is, straight out of cameras.

Kodachrome 25 film simulation

Acros 100 film simulation

At first sight, both images look pretty decent in terms of contrast and detail. However, there is a catch...

Let's look at some details.

Crop and resize

I am sorry for not having hit the exact same crop. I think they are close enough for what I want to demonstrate here. 

The Colour image, looks somewhat weird due to the camera's over-sharpening. See the halos about the dark structures? I guess one can noise-filter / smooth those out in post. However, post is not the aim original of the Camp Snap.

Crop and resize

Let's have a closer look at the Acros film simulation. For some reason, at least to me, this looks a lot more natural, i.e. filmish like.

When developing B&W-film, I usually use a semi-stand technique in order to boost edge contrast. Somehow, the over-sharpening of the Camp Snap created this very effect. 

Another feature of the Acros image, the noise! Isn't that lovely film grain? I love it!

Maybe, just maybe, the Camp Snap with a B&W-film simulation is the perfect poor man's Leica monochrome.

Fujifilm Acros 100, Ilford PanF+50 or Kodak Kodachrom 25 on the Camp Snap

None of this is any of my own ideas, I just compiling things which seem to work for me.
I use either Linux or ChromeOS as my main operation systems. The following will be available on Linux, maybe on ChromeOS with the Linux extension (not tested).

In RawTherapee film simulations can be applied to images using look-up-tables know as HaldCLUT. So far so good, we have all been using this once and a while, I guess. I you have not done this before, be aware that you need to point to a HaldCLUT-directory in the RawTherapee settings.

Would it not be nice if the camera can apply such simulations right away? Yes, of course, the Fujifilm range of premium cameras can do this.
What if I told you, the $70 Camp Snap can do that too?

Here is how to do it with the help of Turtle Bard's webpage Camper Snapper.
In essence, just follow the instructions. 

• download the Ramp.png file
• open the Ramp.png file in RawTherapee
• apply the desired film simulations (there are plenty of those in the HaldCLUT)
• save a 8 bit-png with an adequate name
• upload your file to Camper Snapper
• download the flt-file for the Camp Snap

Optionally, you can use Camp Snap's filter webpage to check the effect of the flt-file, without using your camera.

As I mentioned previously, the SD-card of my Camp Snap has a directory for those "filters". On the move, I can use my (cable connected) smartphone to delete the flt-file in the root-directory and copy a desired filter-file from my filter-directory to the root-directory.

Here you have it, a very simple method to get film simulations and Fujifilm Acros, Ilford PanF or Kodachrome on your $70 Camp Snap.

As a tip: you can dive deep into RawTherapee and apply various colour-filters to your BW-conversion as well. Once you got the hang of RawTherapee, there are no limits to creating jpeg-profiles for the Camp Snap camera.

Just remember it is a $70 camera and cannot compete with a Fujifilm X100VI.

Acros simulation with LED-flash --- tree in front of my home

same as above, different part of the tree though

Kodachrome

Kodachrome

Camp Snap flat jpeg profile

In the hope that blogger does not "improve" anything in terms of image quality. Here a test photo and a respective edit.

flat jped as shot

edited with Google Photos

In this edit, I tried to keep as much detail in the foliage on the upper right, while also having detail in the clouds.

The Hype of the Camp Snap - I Get It!

You certainly saw the ads all over social media, the "cheap" camera that does not have a screen and is supposed to replace disposable film cameras. I have seen the ads, I ignored the ads, still, I liked the idea of a non-chimpable camera. Ordering... too much of a huzzle. 
Lately, I was searching for something at MediaMarkt. Just walking along the by now tiny camera section. And there it was, the Camp Snap for €69. So, I grabbed one.

What a surprise this little bugger is! I knew about ability of the camera to use image profiles, however, I was unaware of the extend of popularity of such profiles by now. For those unfamiliar with the product, it feels really cheap and light, fits into pockets. 

There are presently (still) a few different models on the market. Make sure to get the V105. This version is equipped with eyes for a shoulder-strap. While I won't be using a strap with this device, it also switches on by a mechanical switch, rather than the shutter button, which I believe is very beneficial. Also, the V105 comes with the latest firmware, the one that supports those image profiles I mentioned above.

The Camp Snap webpage offers an interface to create your very own profiles, which is excellent! Right away I tested some low-key high-contrast black&white stuff. Looking really good! Of course, this is a tricky profile, since the good looks strongly depend on the lighting situation. 

Some experiments later, the idea popped up to create a very very faded or flat "filter" (as the profiles are called). The thought behind that was to have a decent latitude for post-production, similar to log-profiles in video-recording. In essence, this is the opposite to the gritty B&W profile I mentioned above. 
And here was the surprise. Just using Google-Photos, the adjustability of the images is enormous. A flat profile is of course very forgiving what lighting is concerned. 

For those interested, here is my first version of the faded (flat) profile.

As you can see, I pushed blues a little bit and reduced green. The intention was to create a balance between green and blue. Brightness is slightly up, to avoid underexposed shadows. However, maybe this blows out the highlights more than necessary. Also, contrast could potentially still be a little bit to high.

Next try (untested):

So, one generates these "filters" and put a single one in the root-directory of the cameras µSD-card. Meaning, whatever lurks there will be used until replaced by something else (or deleted).
How can we do that in the field, without a Chromebook (in my case)?
I created a directory on the µSD-card containing all my filter files. In the field, usually I would have my phone with me. The camera can connect to my phone with a USB-C-to-USB-C-cable. In fact, the cable that came with the camera. Once connected, I  delete the filter-file in the root-directory and copy one of the files from the filter-directory into root. => Unmount the camera from the phone. Done!
With the next power-up of the camera, the filter-file is read and used.

In the respect of being able to shoot extremely flat images, this camera is almost as good as one that can shoot raw. And yes, flat images and raw files, both require post-processing...

PS: I just found out that the "very_flat" profile is a good starting point to B&W image creation using Google Photos.

Peaking through the soup

As a regular reader of my irregular blog, you might have noticed that I got myself a Dwarf-II some time ago.

Just lately, I spent some more time with the device, shame on me. 

You may know that I do live in the Netherlands, one of the worlds most light-polluted regions. On top of that, we have pretty murky skies in general. Not the best for astro-stuff.

Having earned my astronomy degree in the field of open stellar clusters, stellar matter was always interesting to me. Most astrophotographers are focused on colorful images of nebulae, which I do appreciate myself too.

Colorful, i.e. full spectrum images, require a pretty clear sky. Again, no such thing in NL. 

Some weeks ago, I ordered 800nm IR pass-band filters. Those arrived lately. Certainly those are not really narrow-band, but that's OK. 

The main idea was to use the filter(s) in front of the Dwarf-II's telescopic lens. 
The Dwarf-II has an option to pass IR to the sensor. This has got some implications:

First of all, IR light can reach the sensor (daaahhhh!). Not so fast, all other smart-telescopes do not let IR trickle their sensor.

Secondly, this enables an almost monochromatic imaging mode when used with an IR band-pass filter. Well, that is exactly what I described above.

Thirdly, IR astronomy still works in murky conditions, somehow at least.

A minor forth point might be that the RGB-filters on the image sensor might not have a great effect on IR radiation, thereby keeping up the resolution of the sensor.

Why am I so enthused about monochromatic imaging? When taking images of full-spectrum radiation sources, such as star and galaxies, one does not need any other "colors". The particular advantage is that all light from a source will be focused at the same place on the sensor, i.e. not chromatic aberration issues. 

The added benefit of IR is of course the reduced influence of the atmosphere. 

However, when collecting images one needs to understand that the portion of light collected is restricted. Therefore, one might consider to experiment with amplification. 

The following images are screen-captures from my table during acquisition. There is no post-processing involved at all. You also see a photo of the sky conditions during the data acquisition.

stack with statistics

spectrogram and curve

conditions during data acquisition

DWARFLAB app on the Amazon fire HD 8 (2022)

The DWARF II Smart Telescope is a very neat device, embraced by many. I use mine usually with a 10" Android tablet, when at home. This tablet is a little bit too large to fit into the DWARF's bag however.
For portable use of the telescope, therefore my Android phone was the only option. As well as the app is, it is tricky for me to operate with cold fingers. Even with warm hands, the small screen on the phone is not really helpful.
Consequently, I felt the need to purchase an inexpensive Android tablet, small enough to fit in said bag, but big enough for easy operations.

Tablets with smaller screens were popular once. Today, there are only a handful models with modern specs available. The 3 brands I am aware of are Amazon, Lenovo and Samsung. This order seems not only alphabetical, it also reflects prices from low to high. 

Here is an overview about the dimensions in mm we have to consider:
device        length  width
DWARF II      204.0   130.0 (height)
A. fire 7     192.0   115.0
A. fire HD 8  201.9   137.34
L. Tab M7     176.3   102.9
L. Tab M8     198.2   122.6
S. GalTab.A8" 206.6   126.7

All things considered, the Amazon fire HD 8 made the race. First of all, the specs of the fire HD 8 are a lot better than those of the fire 7. Further, the fire HD 8 was on clearance sale, decently reduced, so the purchase of another gadget could be justified.

Does it fit in the bag? Perfectly. 

The big question of course is, if the DWARFLAB app can be installed on a device which is, unless hacked, very restricted in its abilities. Of course the DWARFLAB app is not in the Amazon Appstore, not a big surprise here.
However, DWARFLAB has the app as apk-file for download from their webpage. The "Silk Browser" (the browser of Amazon's fire tablets) surprisingly let me download said apk-file. There was a little trick however: one has to hold down on the download-link until the browser offer to download the link. Just tabbing the link did not do anything for me.

The browser than will ask for permission to write file to storage, with the warning that such files could harm your device.

Once the file is on your device, you can install the DWARFLAB app, after confirming security concerns of  Fire OS.
The application runs perfectly fine on the Amazon fire HD 8.

Having a comfortable UI for the DWARF II, I would consider today's exercise a success.

Godox Lux Senior

Well, that might be a first to me, I am actually praising a product. And no, I was not gifted the product. In fact, I had a hard time to purchase it in the first place. All the usual places were out of stock. Actually, one provider reimbursed my prepayment. Finally I was able to procure the device, surprisingly at a very decent discount. 
That made me think that this product fell out of grace somehow.

So, what are we talking about? It is a flash unit, not a speed light. An old style flash unit that you would traditionally feed flash bulbs to, one at the time.... However, there is a modern interpretation of such a device: http://godox.com/product-a/Lux-Senior.html 

When deployed, the circular reflector has a diameter of 11.5cm. In this setting, the flash creates a directed beam of relatively soft light. Not exactly a beauty dish, but not far from it. That's what you see from the interwebs anyway.
However, there is another non-bespoke way of using the flash, namely with the reflector NOT being deployed. Now we are looking at a 180 degrees light source having a tiny portion of a top reflector towards the subject.  Depending on the settings of your reflectors, this opens a ton of opportunities. Not to mention slaves in this scenario.

Using this unit as a slave opens more options that I am willing to describe. 
I hope that Godox will continue this product! This may be the most flexible one ever, in combinations with remote triggers and light modifiers.

Godox, if you read, continue this path (and send me products for testing).

ups... G.A.S.!

 Well, nostalgia of the modern world got the better of me again. So, I spent some of my funds on yet another outdated 2nd hand camera. This time it had to be a Fujifilm X-E3. 

Before the purchase, I did some "research" about the camera and what would suit me. Regular readers (sorry, I am no longer a regular writer, might need to do something about that) will know that I am a big fan of the X-Pro1, the X-M1, the X-100S and the X70. Two of them have a proper viewfinder. 
Lately, my eyesight suffered a bit. Close distance requires reading glasses. Hence, those displays on the back of cameras are no longer doing the job for me, unless I wear those reading glasses.

For the time being, I ignored the X-E series. My focus was on having the optical viewfinder of the X-Pro1 and the X-100S or the compact size of the X-M1 or X70. Certainly for its size, the X70 will remain one of my favorites. However, as a compromise between size and viewfinder, the X-E series all of a sudden became interesting.

It appears that, with some luck, one can purchase an X-E4. However, many reviewers noted that the X-E4 might be stripped down a little too much. Looking at it, I tend to agree. The X-E3, however, is no longer manufactured and only available on the 2nd hand marked. And that's where I go lucky. In fact, the same place is selling a 2nd hand X-E2. My decision was to have Acros film simulation, hence, the decision.

By now, I did basic tests only. The lens used is a TTArtisan 27/2.8 AF, which works very well with the X-E3 and keeps the setup small.

Now it is time to dive into recipes for this sensor, which is new to my collection of gear. I have high hopes to find some amazing ones that reduce the need of processing images on a PC.

What is the incentive of the industry?

Are products popular? Are popular products successful for the market/producer?

Questions I wish to through in the air and see what the responses will be.

As an example, I wish to introduce one of my favorite, the Joby Micro Tripod.
I was surprised I found a seller today: https://fotogrijpink.nl/joby-micro-tripod.html

When I bought mine, I paid a forth of the price mentioned. In fact, when I searched the last time, some year ago, I could not find any. 

Now, Joby post on their webpage: https://joby.com/global/griptight-one-micro-stand-black-jb01492-0ww/

It appears the Joby micro is back, when you accept buying something I don't need.

When it all was fresh, I bought those...

Hopefully Joby (and the world) remembers, how cheerful and useful those things are.

Color Sublimation Prints with Canon's CP400 on Win11

 It has been a while since I posted last, mea culpa. My life, COVID and other things kept my busy. Sorry for that. By the way, I did not do much on my other topics either. So, photography is the first to be revisited.

Folks reading my sermons will know that I love to have prints in my hands. Yes, darkroom stuff I love, have not done much lately though. Anyway, there is an option to get prints a different way, at least postcard sized prints. This could be achieved with the Canon Selphy series of printers. Personally I got a CP400, many years ago. I have not used it much. Now I was a little worried if there were drivers available for Windows 11. 
It turns out that the Windows Vista 64bit drivers still work under Windows 11. Great news in my mind. 
Here is the link to the driver: https://www.usa.canon.com/support/p/selphy-cp400
I have not tried MacOS or Linux yet. Maybe later...

The next worry was is dye cartridges and substrates were still available for this dated printer. It appears that those are still manufactured, not only by Canon but also by 3rd party manufacturers. I ordered some 3rd party kits to test those out and compare the results to the Canon kits. 

Today I am happy to report that I was able to print photos with my CP400 using a Windows 11 laptop. All worked well.
I still have 18 substrates and the equivalent amount of original Canon dye foil in my printer. As soon as those are used up, I will be testing 3rd party products. I intend to print some of the same images with either product for comparison. Not sure if there is a way, other than my writing, to report the results. 

Thrift Store Finds (Yashica T4)

Being successful at thrift store shopping, you should have the habit of visiting such stores on a regular basis. Lately, I got a lot of very interesting photographic equipment from my local store. Today might have just been the best yet. For just €1.95, I got myself a copy of the legendary Yashica T4 in mint condition. The camera is untested up to know. I first will have to shoot the film in yet another thrift store find, so that I can move the battery between the cameras.

Yashica T4 front

Yashica T4, what I paid for

Presently, this is a $500 camera.

In reverse or random order, I might post more of my finds in such stores in the future. Hopefully with images from and taken with said finds. 

I missed somthing, the Huawei P10

The regular reader might remember that I was quite positive about the camera of the Huawei P9, in particular what the monochrome part was concerned. Well, I still stand by that opinion, no questions asked.

Meanwhile I purchased at Huawei P20 pro. The reason being that this was the last phone with a true monochrome camera. And... it did not disappoint.  However, this is a rather large device, so the carrying in a pocket experience was not that good. 

For a reason you don't want to know, I yet bough again a camera, i.e. a Huawei P10. The P10 is again one of this phones having a monochrome camera, the thing I am so keen about.

The Huawei P10 offers a camera that delivers essentially everything one needs. This, while having the size of the Huawei P9. What I am mainly crazed about is the 20MP monochrome images.  The P9 does not provide that resolution while the P20 pro is a lot bigger.

If you are looking for a compact 20MP monochrome camera, the Huawei P10 is your device.

Jsolette Green Sticky Stuff

Some Jsolettes, most actually, suffer from sticky (green) lubricant. This might mainly be a problem with the focus thread but also can affect the shutter at slower shutter speeds.

The fix for the focus thread is pretty simple. You slowly warm the camera up, not hot, just to the touch. This makes the sticky green stuff somewhat softer. Now you want to turn the focus ring back a forth with mild force. If possible, move it all the way to close focus. Now apply some lighter fluid to the threads, this is a solvent that is compatible with optics. I use the one by Zippo with great success. Use gloves if you don’t want temporary white skin. Now move the focus thread in and out, re-apply lighter fluid if needed. Some stickiness will remain, which is a good thing for the focus ring.

If the shutter times are not OK, the process gets a little bit more involved. Now you will have to remove the lens/shutter-assembly from the camera. You will need a lens spanner to remove the retaining ring on the inside of the camera. It is easiest to first fold the camera, loosen the ring (be careful to not damage the bellows). Unfold the camera and remove the retaining ring. The lens assembly will now pop out to the front.

Similar to large format lenses, the lens consists of a front lens group and a back lens group which are screwed into the shutter.

Unscrew both lens groups. The front ground has to a little stop which needs removal first. This provides the chance of giving those groups a good clean (do not use circular motion at all costs!); lighter fluid is a good solvent for that job.

Speaking of lighter fluid, now it is time to give the shutter/iris assembly a good bath in the same. In problem cases, I washed the assembly in hot water first and when still hot, give it a lighter fluid bath. This will remove all lubrication, which is not good either. Once the iris blades and the gears of the shutter are no longer sticky, dry everything as quickly as possible. We don’t want rust to build up. I now tend to apply small portions of petroleum jelly to the gears (not the aperture blades!). Heat is your friend to distribute the petroleum jelly while moving the mechanisms.

When putting it all together, care should be taken to put the front group in the exact same thread as before. The focus worm has 3 threads. Get the wrong one and all photos will be out of focus. I got that wrong once and found myself with 12 out-of-focus negatives once. With an open shutter, a defined short distance to a bright light source and some parchment paper would will be able to find the correct thread should things have gone wrong.

Huawei P20 pro "Aperture mode"

While the P9 was already equipped with an synthetic aperture more, i.e. blurring the background, effectively, I never used it. With the P9 I shot either in RAW or in monochrome, for which the aperture mode is not available.

In the P20 pro, RAW is still RAW, the image information as recorded by the sensor, things have changed for the monochrome camera. Unfortunately, there is still no RAW data available from the monochrome sensor.

However, next the normal and pro modes, which were already known from the P9, Huawei added the aperture and portrait modes to the monochrome camera.
I have yet to experiment with the portrait mode.

The aperture mode provides some nice results in monochrome.

simple solid object

However, since this is all synthetic and merely based on triangulation of the distance, the algorithm does not handle reflections properly.

reflections on water

As you can see in the image above, curtain in the background is totally blurred, i.e. out of focus, while the reflection on the water surface, the curtain is in focus.

Therefore, when using artificial aperture mode, it is advisable to avoid reflective surfaces.

The last of its kind

The first and the last, I got!
you might wonder what I write about...
The first and the last smart phone with a pure and honest monochrome camera.
Some years ago, I purchased the Huawei P9, on which some posts are available here. The P9 was my phone ever since. Some coincidence had me looking into yet a more modern smart phone. Again, my preference was to have a monochrome camera available.
It seems, the Huawei P20 pro and P20 mate are the last generation smartphones employing a true monochrome sensor.
Consequently, I got a Huawei P20 pro (less expensive than the P20 mate).
Up to now, I am not convinced if the P20 pro is superior to the P9. I found some pros and cons on both.
Stay tuned, I will do some testing and comparing both phones in the near future.

China Ball update

The original China Ball illumination is omni-directional, unless used with a black screen. When using a China ball as a somewhat shine-through umbrella replacement, we wish to add some sort of directivity to the light-source.

The frame of the China ball helps a great deal. Aluminum foil can be fixed to the frame to re-direct light to the "front" of the ball.

Simple reflector for the light-source in a China ball