Norm in Fujino
10-25-2005, 11:20 AM
A bit of a spooky story:
Over on the PhotoKB forum I ran into this message about flare problem on certain Canon lenses:
http://www.photokb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/photo-digital-slr/1983/Canon-recalling-their-new-EF-24-105-L-IS-lens-because
This thread was parallel to another one on the DPReview's Canon forum:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1029&message=15515901
These threads jogged my memory about a recent case of unusual flare I experienced with the Olympus ZD 50mm f2.0
I was shooting against evening sun in the forest above my house, and when I looked through the viewfinder I saw nothing unusual; here was one of my first two shots, nothing unusual:
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/P9131755a.jpg
The light is coming from top left to bottom right, and you can see just the first hints of flare on the left edge of the tree at left.
Perhaps because of that, I pointed my lens slight down for the next shot; after taking it, I checked the replay for my histogram, and was surprised to see this strange flare:
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/P9131756a.jpg
I looked through the vf again and saw nothing unusual, but when I clicked the shutter once more, the strange flare appeared again, and in each subsequent shot, even in the last one, when I tilted the camera even more downward in the attempt to avoid the flare:
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/P9131757a.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/P9131758a.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/P9131759a.jpg
That I might get flare against evening sun filtering through trees isn't particularly surprising, I guess. That it should be this harsh while also being invisible through the viewfinder surprised me greatly. I showed my Japanese friends and told them in jest I thought it might a "ghost" or "spirit photograph" since I took it right next to a small, lonely Shinto shrine--and it happens to be located nearby a small community graveyard as well. Again, I wasn't particularly surprised when some of my friends believed me.
Anyway, I feel pretty sure it is a very rare kind of flare likely produced by a similar convergence of light and lens angles that the Canon lens was subject to. Only, I've never heard of anything like it before from other owners of the ZD 50mm f2.0, so I assume it is quite rare . . .
But then. . .
After I had uploaded this original thread to an Olympus forum elsewhere, I went back and checked the photographs; I noticed a slightly unusual image in the upper left corner of the first image (check it out above). I enhanced the contrast and saw this (to left of arrow):
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/P9131755b.jpg
And a 100% crop showed this:
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/P9131755c.jpg
Isn't that just a bit spooky? I showed my wife and she said "It looks like Jizo Bosatsu" (a common Buddhist bodhisattva figure here in Japan)--and that was exactly what I had been thinking.
(Here's a Jizo image):
http://www.onmarkproductions.com/jizo-and-child-hase-dera-kamakura.jpg
Over on the PhotoKB forum I ran into this message about flare problem on certain Canon lenses:
http://www.photokb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/photo-digital-slr/1983/Canon-recalling-their-new-EF-24-105-L-IS-lens-because
This thread was parallel to another one on the DPReview's Canon forum:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1029&message=15515901
These threads jogged my memory about a recent case of unusual flare I experienced with the Olympus ZD 50mm f2.0
I was shooting against evening sun in the forest above my house, and when I looked through the viewfinder I saw nothing unusual; here was one of my first two shots, nothing unusual:
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/P9131755a.jpg
The light is coming from top left to bottom right, and you can see just the first hints of flare on the left edge of the tree at left.
Perhaps because of that, I pointed my lens slight down for the next shot; after taking it, I checked the replay for my histogram, and was surprised to see this strange flare:
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/P9131756a.jpg
I looked through the vf again and saw nothing unusual, but when I clicked the shutter once more, the strange flare appeared again, and in each subsequent shot, even in the last one, when I tilted the camera even more downward in the attempt to avoid the flare:
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/P9131757a.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/P9131758a.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/P9131759a.jpg
That I might get flare against evening sun filtering through trees isn't particularly surprising, I guess. That it should be this harsh while also being invisible through the viewfinder surprised me greatly. I showed my Japanese friends and told them in jest I thought it might a "ghost" or "spirit photograph" since I took it right next to a small, lonely Shinto shrine--and it happens to be located nearby a small community graveyard as well. Again, I wasn't particularly surprised when some of my friends believed me.
Anyway, I feel pretty sure it is a very rare kind of flare likely produced by a similar convergence of light and lens angles that the Canon lens was subject to. Only, I've never heard of anything like it before from other owners of the ZD 50mm f2.0, so I assume it is quite rare . . .
But then. . .
After I had uploaded this original thread to an Olympus forum elsewhere, I went back and checked the photographs; I noticed a slightly unusual image in the upper left corner of the first image (check it out above). I enhanced the contrast and saw this (to left of arrow):
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/P9131755b.jpg
And a 100% crop showed this:
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/P9131755c.jpg
Isn't that just a bit spooky? I showed my wife and she said "It looks like Jizo Bosatsu" (a common Buddhist bodhisattva figure here in Japan)--and that was exactly what I had been thinking.
(Here's a Jizo image):
http://www.onmarkproductions.com/jizo-and-child-hase-dera-kamakura.jpg