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Fun with Light L16

Godfrey

Well-known member
for me it looks very unsharp
"...very unsharp..."? hmm, no.

I see a small amount motion blur everywhere, not unsharpness. The exposure was taken at 1/60 second, by someone who'd never touched the camera before. Hairs on my head and arms, textures of my clothes and the surfaces on the bike all show good detailing, but there's a bit of movement blurring them.

That's what I see.

G
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I should learn to use a tripod for stuff like this. Not super sharp... But I like the photo anyway.


Light L16
ISO 188 @ f/4 @ 1/60 @ 65mm

Light issued another new firmware update yesterday, and a matching update to the Lumen app as well. Some nice new capabilities: shutter and ISO priority exposure modes, histogram in the camera, image adjustment in the camera, and a few other things. All good stuff.

enjoy,
G
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Fascinating camera. Have hidden my credit cards!
LOL! Yes, I know what you mean. :)

To help you: I've been carrying the L16 quite a lot lately, it's extremely handy and light weight for what it can do. Closest I can get to it with my Leica M-D is to fit my Color Skopar 28mm f/3.5 lens ... then it fits in the same bag with less free space, but there is room for another lens too. No 150mm lens, no autofocus, etc. However, it's far far easier to process the Leica raw files.

Trade offs. Both are great cameras!

G
 

scho

Well-known member
Godfrey,

Thanks for the L16 info and images that you have posted in this thread. Very interesting camera that reminds me of an 8 eyed spider (actually beats the spider with 16 lenses). I'm quite impressed with the high resolution file quality and prints at 12x16 up to 18x24 inches from the Light sample raws look very good. Just sold a bunch of gear and instead of investing in more sony lenses I ordered the L16 instead. Hoping that this camera will perform well as a travel cam.

Thanks,
Carl

 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I hope you enjoy the L16 as much as I do, Carl!

I found it takes a while to get into it, understand what its strengths and weaknesses are, and how to use both it and its processing app, Lumen. Lumen is still a beta release; it is the most cumbersome part of the workflow. There are a number of interesting issues that surface when you start playing with the DoF simulation ... In general it works very well, but other times it misses things and produces interestingly "wrong" results.

But as a very small, very light camera with lots of capability that is extremely handy and easy to keep with you, for day to day or travel use, it's a pretty compelling piece. The latest firmware features are really good, the UI is remarkably good, etc.

I don't think it's replacing my Leicas any time soon, but I tend to carry it in preference to most everything else these days. It's particularly nice to have for bicycling and motorcycling since it takes up so little space and is so light weight, and its form factor suits the kind of compact satchel I usually use for those purposes too. :)

G
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I was setting the table as dawn was bursting onto the scene this morning. As I turned to look out the patio door, I saw the sky as the sun was just getting over Mount Hamilton to the southeast. Ran into my office, grabbed the Light, set it to 70mm, opened the patio door and screen, and nabbed this shot:


Light L16
ISO 100 @ f/15 @ 1/640 @ 70mm


Full resolution image: https://farm1.staticflickr.com/799/27501362828_65c5896c5f_o.jpg

Damn, the sky was beautiful!

The full rez image is exactly what Lumen output as a full resolution JPEG.

enjoy,
G
 

scho

Well-known member
The Light L16 arrived this morning and after going through the setup process (including new firmware download) I took a few trial shots. Pouring rain today so confined to shooting indoor stuff (always rains when I get a new camera:(). Below is a countertop fruit bowl shot with the L16 on a tripod and set for 28mm and ISO mode to keep a low ISO (100). Imported from camera using Lumen and exported a DNG to Lightroom. Original DNG was about 80MP and I cropped it down to about a 40 MP image size, which was exported to Flickr. Click image for the full 40 MP jpeg image.

 

scho

Well-known member
One more handheld shot, this time at 70mm, f/"15.2" and used the DOF slider in post in Lumen to blur background to an "f/2" aperture. I made no attempt to use the edge touch up brushes (blend, edge refine, etc.) to clean up.

Original shot at "f/15.2":


Post at "f/2":
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I find that the ability to make the DoF shallow computationally works very nicely on relatively simple subjects/scenes, but needs a lot of cleanup work with more complex subjects with sharp objects at several planes of focus. Here's an example of a classic "do it quick" failure: you can see all the errors more easily in the full rez.


I'll reprocess it one of these days when I feel like mucking about with the tools...
Like with anything else, you quickly recognize what's going to work and what's not, and adjust your shooting to accommodate it. :)

G
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
A busy not-busy day on Sunday. I fitted one of the comfortable Sportour Garda GelFlow saddles like I've had on Sumo to the new Fatboy and did some final trim adjustments to the new Shimano XT handlebar controls. Then went off on a 16 mile ride.

Dang, that Fatboy works well now! All the upgrades are in and properly tuned. It has the right gearing range, the new Shimano XT shifter and derailleur work brilliantly, and the Slate 4T brakes are fantastic. The seat is ultra comfortable, and the new bell rings sweetly. Absolutely delighted with the whole bicycle ...

Here I am about midway through the ride on Guadalupe River Trail, on the section under the various highway overpasses right near Adobe headquarters in downtown San Jose:


Light L16
ISO 100 @ f/15 @ 1/35 @ 28mm

Full rez:
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/877/26620619947_ac9fa98468_o.jpg

And yes: I do think the photo is pretty funny.

onwards!
G
 

scho

Well-known member
Playing with DOF in Lumen. Set to "f/2" to decrease DOF and refocused on white blossom in this shot of some cut flowers.

 

scho

Well-known member
Some Lenten Rose popping up around a frost heaved stack of cinder blocks that supported a sculpture.

 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Playing with DOF in Lumen. Set to "f/2" to decrease DOF and refocused on white blossom in this shot of some cut flowers.

That's nice!

I often find that going all the way down to f/2 gets a little artificial looking, but doing something a little less extreme (f/4 to f/5.6) produces just the right level of blur with little or no cleanup required.

Of course, I'm also so used to thinking in Minox 8x11 terms (fixed f/3.5 with DoF from 6' to infinity) that I often just work with the deep DoF as it is and not worry about any manipulation at all. :)

G
 
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