So the Freak Show is not a passing phase.\u00a0 It’s the new normal.\u00a0 Somewhere in the vicinity of 5% of the general population is certifiably nuts and another 10 – 20% is permanently depressed and medicated.\u00a0 And we have been informed that we’re the ones with a warped view of reality.<\/p>\n
So what’s a red-blooded American to do?\u00a0 Well I guess the best thing to do is find like minded folks and lock the crazies out of the club house and have some fun until the zombies chew through the walls.<\/p>\n
And since we’re in the age of social media I plan to spit in the face of Facebook by blogging here at OCF on my favorite things (photography, sf and politics) and attracting like minded folks to join the discussion.\u00a0 Other topic will be added in as we go but I guess the important point is that the other team doesn’t infringe on the non-crazy people having fun.\u00a0 So my plan is to try to let folks enjoy themselves in the comments sections and keep everything fun and low key for the non-political topics.\u00a0 Moderation will be light.\u00a0 But I’ll have a very low threshhold of tolerance for anything left-wing.\u00a0 I guess the best way to measure this will be to imagine you’re communicating with someone time-warped from circa 1957.\u00a0 Hopefully it will go swimmingly, or it will be an unmitigated disaster.\u00a0 Time will tell.<\/p>\n
First thing coming up will be a review of the Zeiss Loxia 21mm f\/2.8.\u00a0 It just arrived today and I’m waiting to test it out.\u00a0 I’m particularly interested in the quality of the corners.\u00a0 This is one of the first native full-frame e-mount lenses.\u00a0 Previous to this the 16-35 f4 zoom was the only fe lens this wide.\u00a0 Because of this Sony users tried adapting various wide lenses, especially rangefinders (for their small size and quality).\u00a0 Almost all of these attempts were disappointing.\u00a0 The light rays reaching the corners of the sensor were so far from perpendicular that they interacted with the cover glass to produce smearing and chromatic aberration.<\/p>\n
Because of these problems it was a great relief when Zeiss announced that the 21mm Loxia lens would be a Distagon design.\u00a0 This design is known to produce perpendicular rays in the corners.\u00a0 So for the last six months I’ve been reading reviews by the few lucky souls who were able to get their hands on this gem.\u00a0 And true to form the reports said the corners were excellent.\u00a0 Only problem from my point of was that the damn thing was always of of stock.\u00a0 I’ll qualify that a little.\u00a0 You could pay three or four hundred dollars above the MSRP of $1,499 and get a gray market copy from Japan or ebay.\u00a0 But with something this pricey I restrict myself to B&H (or direct from Amazon, no third party sellers).\u00a0 Well it finally hit my pre-order on B&H and here it is.\u00a0 It does have one quirk.\u00a0 So much of the lens barrel surface is taken up by the focus and aperture rings that there’s just the thinnest ring of non-rotating surface available to torque the lens on and off the camera.\u00a0 Add this on top of the tightness of the o-ringed connection and you have a tricky fit.\u00a0 This is a little annoying but hardly a deal breaker (unless you’re even nit-pickier than me).\u00a0 I’ll put out the review in the next week or so.<\/p>\n
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