2015 | Imagination Works

KMZ Mir-20 – wide angle objective lens for M42x1 mounts

Lets review wide angle objective lens KMZ Mir-20, it was produced by KMZ plant from 1973 year to 1992 year and by other plants, now it can be bought through private ads in conditions from “new” to “with marks of use”. It has 20 mm fixed focus and field of view 96 degrees; 1/3.5 – 1/16 diaphragm; 24 × 36 mm frame size; and minimal focusing distance 0.18 m. Objective lens has 9 lens elements in 8 groups with enlightened optics or with protective and anti-reflective multi-coating, depending on objective lens modification. KMZ Mir-20 is attached to camera via M42×1 mount, using different adapters and converters it can be attached to cameras with different mounts standards. It has no automatic focusing and diaphragm control, so they should be set manually with use of control rings. Because of this it most suitable for experienced photographers, who know which settings to use in different situations. Optical filters can be attached to objective lens from back side with use of M28×0.75 mount. All in all it is very good objective lens, accounting its low lens elements amount and their high quality ( in USSR and in Russia optics production takes its roots in military area and quality of production is very high ), it is far more superior, than zoom objective lenses with similar characteristics; and taking into account its low price ( especially when it is bought through private ads ) it is very competitive with other fixed focus wide angle lenses.

Bicycles ride to Azov hill near Polevskoy

At Sunday 20th September bicycles ride to Azov mountain near Polevskoy was held on. Main group of riders moved to Polevskoy from Yekaterinburg and went on the Polevskoy highway. I met them at the entrance into city; we bought food in nearby supermarket and then navigated to Azov. I know way to it, so I moved ahead and showed road to the rest of group. On the way there was breakage with bicycle of one of participants; we quickly fixed it and moved to Zyuzelka village. Road from it to Azov goes up and often there are winds from West ( they blow in the face ); because of this bikers with big body mass exhausted on it very much. After 3.3 km from Zuzelka village there is ground road, which goes from it to the North and to the hill itself; it is easy to recognize it, because there are posters with information.

Uphill into Azov itself is not hard, most difficult part is boulders, trees roots and puddles with mud. On the way there Small Azov rocks located ( they are smaller than Big Azov rocks, as it follows from their name, but they are also interesting to view on ). At the roots of Big Azov rocks viewing platforms are located, from which great view on the Polevskoy and its surroundings opens : there is even ability to see Poldnevaya village and hills, that are located near it. On one of the rocks of Big Azov there is fenced area, from which magnificent view opens in almost 360 degrees around, for example : in the West direction there is ability to see Shunut mountain on the horizon. We ate some food and talked on different topics for some time at the rocks roots and at around 5 o’clock moved in return trip. Downhill from Azov is breathtaking and with good bicycle fork it is worth it, but there is need to note, that it is better to not repeat such rides without bicycles helmet and experience in cross-country rides, because there are lots of rocks, tree roots and puddles with mud on the way. After downhill we waited for rest of group; most of participants headed their way back to home to Yekaterinburg. I moved in the direction of Big Lavrovka village to explore way to Shunut hill. Approximately after 6 km from Azov hill good asphalt road ends and wet clay road begins; movement on this type of road takes lots of energy and time, so we will move to Shunut mountain at the middle of October, when at night time there will be negative temperatures and clay will freeze, so that there will be ability to move on it on the bicycles. See you on the next bicycles event!

View from the Azov hill in the direction of Poldnevaya village, hills near it and Upper Ufaley

You can see rest of photos here.

M-Audio M-Track Plus – portable audio interface with low power consumption

M-Audio M-Track Plus external sound card

M-Audio released external sound card M-Audio M-Track Plus with low power consumption, that is designed for use with laptops and other mobile devices. Card works with 48 kHz sampling rate ( which is not much for modern semi-professional audio interfaces, which able to work with 96 – 192 kHz sampling rate ) and 24 bits precision. It has large amount of hardware indicators and knobs, which allow to view sound parameters and control them directly without delays of signal sending to computer and its processing. Card has digital coaxial S/PDIF input-output and MIDI input-output; 2 XLR inputs with ability to switch on phantom power +48 V for them, 2 balanced 6.3 mm jack inputs, 2 TRS inserts and main 6.3 mm jack output. Also, there is ability to plug in monitor headphones to it with separate volume level control. Card is powered with 1 USB port, through which data is also transferred. Its body is produced from aluminum, its sizes are : 165 x 119 x 57 mm ( width x depth x height ) and its weight is 0.68 kg. M-Audio M-Track Plus is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7 and newer ( 32 and 64 bits ) and Mac OS X operating systems. Sound card is supplied with DAW AIR Ignite, which allows to record audio, arrange and edit tracks, apply effects, switch musical instruments for MIDI notes and export tracks for use with more advanced DAWs like FL Studio, REAPER, Cackewalk Sonar and others.

Review of extra-wide angle lens Zenitar 2,8/16

Lets review extra-wide angle objective lens ( “fish eye” ) Zenitar 2,8/16, that is produced in Russia. It was developed and now is manufactured by «Krasnogorskiy Plant of S.A. Zverev» for following bayonets : M42×1, Nikon, Pentax and Canon, it also can be used with other mounts via adapters and converters. It has 180 degrees field of view, 16 mm focal length, maximal and minimal apertures : f/2,8 – f/22 ( with 6 diaphragm blades ), frame size : 24 × 36 mm, and minimal focusing distance is 0.3 m. To obtain optimal results, there is need to use full-frame cameras, otherwise field of view will be cut near the edges. It has 11 lens elements in 7 groups, all of them are coated with multilayer protective and anti-reflective coating. Objective lens does not have automatic focusing and image stabilization; they would not work any way with adapters and converters; so, this lens is appropriate for experienced photographers, which know which settings to use for different scenes. It has great picture quality at the center and strong geometrical distortions at the edges ( they are inherent for all objective lens of this type ). Zenitar 2,8/16 has fixed focus and small amount of lens elements, so by image clarity, sharpness and lightness it is far more superior, than standard zoom objective lens of cameras. Wherein it has much smaller price, than other competing extra-wide angle objective lens.

Infrasonic UAX2 – external audio interface with hardware parameters monitoring and control

Lets continue our reviews of semi-professional external sound cards with Infrasonic UAX2. It supports 1 microphone XLR/TRS input with +48 V phantom power for condenser microphones and 1 Hi-Z input ( both are unbalanced ), 2 balanced outputs, 1 linear input-output and 1 MIDI input-output. Card works with 24 bits precision and 96 kHz sampling rate; it is powered from 1 USB 2.0 port, through which data is transfered to computer. Microphone input has pre amplifier with level indicator and gain control. Most of recording sounds parameters can be monitored and controlled via hardware indicators and knobs. Sound card supports following interfaces : ASIO 2.0 and WDM for Windows ( XP/VISTA/Win7 and newer; 32 and 64 bits ) and Core Audio for MAC OS 10.5 and newer, with which it can work with all modern DAWs : FL Studio, REAPER, Cackewalk Sonar and others. Audio card is supplied with Native Instruments KOMPLETE ELEMENTS software, which contains 3 GB of production ready effects and sounds. Package contains : Infrasonic UAX2 sound card itself, DVD disks with drivers and sotware, USB cable and user’s guide.

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR – telephoto zoom objective lens with low-dispersion lens elements

Nikon released new telephoto zoom objective lens Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR. It has Nikon F-Bayonet mount and 200 – 500 mm minimal and maximal focal distances with minimal and maximal apertures of f/5.6 and f/32, accordingly. Its minimal and maximal fields of view for DX and FX sensors are : 8 degrees and 3 degrees 10 minutes and 12 degrees 20 minutes and 5 degrees, accordingly. Minimal focus distance is 2.2 m with automatic, manual and semi-automatic focusing with internal focusing mechanism. It is powered by AF-S ( Silent Wave Motor ). Image stabilization is performed by Vibration Reduction technology. Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR has 19 built-in lens elements in 12 groups, among them 3 are low-dispersion lens elements from ED glass. All lens are coated with protective and anti-reflective Super Integrated Coating. Diaphragm is controlled with use of Electromagnetic Diaphragm Mechanism, there are 9 diaphragm blades in objective lens. There is ability to attach to it 95 mm optical filters of Screw-on standard. Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR objective lens sizes are : 108 x 267.5 mm, and its weight is : 2300 g.

Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 – external semi-professional audio card with 6 channels

Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 external sound card

Lets continue our reviews of sound cards with Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 device. It supports 4 analogue inputs ( 2 are balanced XLR and 2 are balanced TRS ) and 4 analogue outputs ( all 4 are balanced TRS ) and 2 digital channels ( SPDIF and coaxial ). It also has MIDI port for keyboard connection, separate monitor headphones output and USB port for card powering and data transmission. Card can send phantom power 48 V for condenser microphones and active DI boxes, if they require it. Card can work with sound with 44.1, 48, 88.2 and 96 kHz samplin rate and 16 or 24 bits precision. Drivers are released for it for Windows 7, 8 and 10 and for Mac OS X 10.8 and newer operating systems. It supports following audio interfaces : ASIO, Core Audio, DirectSound and WASAPI, with which it can work with different DAWs ( FL Studio, REAPER, Cackewalk Sonar and others ) and with recording and music and sounds playback software. KOMPLETE AUDIO 6 is supplied with following software : KOMPLETE ELEMENTS, TRAKTOR LE and CUBASE LE, and with 25 USD discount for purchasing of any KOMPLETE effects or instruments in Native Instruments online store. Card sizes are : 52 x 159 x 122 mm ( height x width x depth ), and weight is : 850 g.

AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR – new zoom objective lens from Nikon

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR zoom objective lens

Nikon announced new zoom objective lens Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR. As it follows from its name : it has 24 – 70 mm focal distances and Nikon F bayonet mount. It can magnify up to 2.9 times and its maximal and minimal apertures are : f/2.8 и f/22, accordingly; it is developed for large FX ( 35 mm ) sensors. Its maximal and minimal fields of view are : 61 degrees and 22 degrees 50 seconds for DX format sensors and 84 degrees and 34 degrees 20 seconds for FX format sensors, accordingly. It has 20 lens elements in 16 groups; 1 is High Refractive Index lens element ( which works as many usual lens and reduce field curvature and spherical aberrations ), 2 lens elements are produced from ED low disperse glass and 3 are aspherical lens elements, which reduce color aberrations.

All lens are coated with Fluorine Coat, Super Integrated Coating and Nano Crystal Coat anti-reflective and protective coatings. There is ability to attach to it 82 mm optical filters of Screw-on standard. Objective lens supports manual, automatic and semi-automatic focusing with internal focusing functions. It has built-in Vibration Reduction image stabiliztion mechanism and AF-S ( Silent Wave Motor ). Minimal focusing distances are 38 – 41 cm, depending on selected optical zoom level. Objective lens sizes are : 88 x 154.5 mm, and its weight is : 1070 g. Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR will be available in shops from 24th October of this year.

Roland QuadCapture – external sound card, which is able to record 4 audio channels simultaneously

In this article we will review Roland QuadCapture semi-professional external sound card. It can record and play 4 audio channels with 96, 48 and 44.1 kHz frequencies and 2 channels with frequencies up to 192 kHz. Card works with computer with 24 bits precision; digital to analogue conversion and opposite conversion are performed with the same precision; all other calculations are performed with 40 bits precision. It is powered via 1 USB port, through which data is also transmitted, and supports coaxial digital input and output and MIDI input and output. Other connectors include : balanced XLR and TRS inputs and TRS balanced and unbalanced outputs. Card has microphone VS preamplifiers, to which phantom power is connected ( for microphones, which require it ); also : low-cut filter, phase inverters and digital compressors ( which allow sound to not clip during recording ) are connected to them. Roland QuadCapture supports VS Streaming technology for audio recording and playback with low latency; also it supports ASIO 2.0 / WDM for Windows and Core Audio for Mac OS, which allow to use card with all modern DAWs : FL Studio, REAPER, Cakewalk SONAR and others. Card contains low noise power supply, its body is produced from aluminum, and it supports Direct-Box ( DI ) for use on open scenes. Card sizes are : 185 x 134 x 44 mm ( width x depth x height ), and its weight is : 570 g. Package contains : Roland QuadCapture sound card itself, USB cable, CD-ROM disk with drivers and software and user’s guide.

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.8G ED – new wide-angle lens from Nikon

Nikon announced new light-weight wide-angle lens Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.8G ED. Its focal lens is 24 mm with max apperture f/1.8 and minimal apperture f/16, it is attached to cameras with use of Nikon F-Bayonet mount. Angles of view are : 61 and 86 degrees for DX ( 24 x 16 мм ) and FX ( 36 x 24 мм ) sensors accordingly. Minimal focus distance is 23 cm with automatic and manual focusing modes, automatic focusing is provided via AF-S ( Silent Wave Motor ). Optical filters with 72 mm size and Screw-on type can be attached to lens. It contains 12 lens elements in 9 groups; among them : 2 low-disperse lenses, manufactured from ED glass, and 2 aspherical lenses; they reduce light dispersion and other optical distortions. All lenses are coated with Nano Crystal Coat anti-reflective coating and Super Integrated Coating protective coating. Objective lens weight is 355 g, its sizes are : 77.5 x 83 mm. It is suited most for landscapes, towns squares, sportive events and other scenes shooting, which require wide angle of view. Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.8G ED will be available in shops from 17th September.

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