Viewing Category: Film and Video
2012 Feb 03
I bought the Sony DT 35mm lens a few weeks ago and it has become my favorite lens. It’s regarded in the Sony/Minolta circles as a no-brainer lens because of the great image quality and excellent value. The lens can be had brand new for $179! The first impression after picking it up is that it feels really light and cheap. It’s very plasticky. Even the lens-mount is polycarbonate, not metal. But just mount it to the camera and the good qualities of this lens make themselves known. First, on the dSLR with a crop factor of 1.5x, the 35mm is roughly equivalent of a normal 50mm on a full-frame or film SLR. This make the images seem very life-like since it is very similar to how the human eye sees things. The old standard 50mm is good, but on the dslr is a bit too long. The 35mm is pretty much the perfect replacement. Like the nifty-fifty, it’s a pretty fast lens, with a max aperture of f/1.8. It’s fairly sharp wide-open, but stop it down to f/2.8 and it is really sharp!
The one minus about the lens is that it is a little loud. I guess it’s just the SAM motor as compared to the silent SSM focusing in the higher-end lenses. But if this had an SSM motor in it, it wouldn’t be so cheap and I most likely wouldn’t have bought it. Actually compared to my old Minolta lenses, it’s fairly quiet!
The best things about the lens in my opinion are the excellent colors and smooth bokeh. I guilty of going overboard on the bokeh in a lot of my shots, and this lens just adds to that. Because it’s a fast lens, you can shoot in pretty poor lighting and still get good results. The color reproduction is very good, and when I switched to my 24-85mm zoom (which has a good reputation in the color department), the colors and contrast seemed so blah and bland. I really am getting spoiled by the 35mm lens!
Another advantage to this lens is the extreme light weight. My A77 is a fairly heavy body, but with the 35mm on it, it feels almost perfect. I really love this lens and I’m so glad I bought it. If you shoot Sony/Minolta, you have to get one!
View more of my photos shot with the 35mm SAL F/1.8 Lens
2012 Jan 03
We went to watch ”The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn” the other night at the Flix Brewhouse. I hadn’t heard of this movie until pretty recently and when I saw the trailer, I thought that I had to go see it. It’s set in a time period that I really like (maybe the 30’s or early 40’s) and is full of adventure in exotic places. It really reminded me of the Indy movies, which isn’t surprising since this is also a Spielberg movie. When they were on the ship, I thought I heard a little bit of Indy music (John Williams!)!
I really enjoyed the animation (it looked amazing!) and the action, but I felt that there was maybe a little too much action. The chase scene where Tintin goes after Sakharine’s bird went on for way too long. I felt that the entire continuous scene was tiresome. There were some cool little puzzles like how the bulletproof glass was shattered, but I wish there were more of those. Instead, there was just more action. I thought the crane duel was actually pretty silly. But I was blown away by the pirate battle. That was really well-done! So for next time, I’m hoping for more evenly-spaced action sequences with a decent amount of “downtime” and clever puzzles.
2011 Aug 22
I’m not a huge fan of the Muppets, but Animal just cracks me up! I’m hoping this movie is good.
2011 Aug 18
Cycles South appeared in my Netflix queue and it looked pretty fun so after the kids went to bed I watched it. It’s a travel movie made in the early 70’s and has the feel of a Bruce Brown film like On Any Sunday. The plot is basically three friends take off from their jobs and ride motorcycles down from the west coast of the US (maybe Northern California?) all the way down to Panama. They complete the journey spending about $60 each. It’s a fun journey and extremely interesting in how it shows how much times change.
From the view of motorcycling, the bikes are small UJM streetbikes. They look like Honda CBs. They ride them like dirtbikes, going off jumps, off pavement, bushwacking, and on railroad tracks. I hardly ever seem them standing on the pegs either! They mainly just bounce along. Kind of cool that they don’t worry about the machine or gear so much (or at all), unlike these days when there is so much focus on the type of equipment and bike you have. I like that kind of “ride what you got” attitude.
Culturally, the movie is funny and potentially disturbing (depending on your lifestyle) when they happen upon an old town/commune and proceed to “recreate” with the locals. There’s quite a bit of free-love and partaking of illegal drugs going on. Then they go out on a psychedelic joyride on their bikes. It’s all pretty amusing, but that joyride scene went on for way too long, and had some really annoying “spacey” sound effects.
I really enjoyed the movie after they traveled south of the border. They camped on the beach and went spearfishing for their food. Kinda strange when they killed and ate a sea turtle, but it just goes to show you how times change. There are a couple really cool scenes where they go surfing and hang out on the beach playing with fireworks. Looks like so much fun.
I’d recommend checking this movie out especially because it’s available for streaming. It’s not as polished or charming as a Bruce Brown classic, but it’s still a fun flick.
2011 Jun 15
I always liked this song! Fukumimi circa 1999.
2011 Jun 09
Cool song by Moumoon.
2011 Jun 03
Even though my Dodgers aren’t very good this year, it’s still baseball season! I love summer.
2011 Apr 30
I’ve had The World’s Fastest Indian in my Netflix queue for a while now and decided it was finally time to watch it. It’s based on the life of Burt Munro, a New Zealander who travels from Invercargill to Utah with his Indian motorcycle. Sir Anthony Hopkins stars in the leading role and he is absolutely perfect in it.. Well, almost perfect since he didn’t have a Kiwi accent. However, one of the greatest actors in the world in this small indie-style film is pretty cool! He’s so good, you just get into the character of Munro and forget about the actor. Munro is old, funny, good-hearted, and determined to live out his dream — to set a land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats. There are a few parts in the movie with a little bit of tension, like when he arrives in Hollywood and is taken advantage of, but it’s all pretty harmless. I’m usually fine with movies where there’s a lot of tension, but the Munro character is so likeable and innocent that I just didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. Thankfully, all of the problems that he encounters in his journey he is able to overcome and the ending of the film is satisfying. I also loved the style of the film, the characters were all interesting, and the recreation of the 1960’s was well done. Of course I love the motorcycling parts too! This film is on Netflix streaming, so go and watch it!
FYI, the trailer above is not a good representation of the mood of the movie. Whereas the trailer might make it seem like an action-packed, rebellious story, it’s really a quiet, introspective study of Burt Munro.
2011 Apr 19
The kids wanted to see a movie on Sunday so I took them to the local theater for the 10am showing of Rango. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but there were several great reviews on Fandango so I was looking forward to it. The other movie choice was Hop, which didn’t look too promising. I think that’s a perfect candidate for Netflix streaming later on.
Rango was a strange movie. It’s hard to describe but I’ll start by saying that both kids and adults will enjoy it. There’s a lot of humor in it that will appeal to grown-ups, plus a fair share of physical comedy that children will enjoy. For animation fans, Rango combines state-of-the-art realistic CG graphics as well as stylized scenes. Some of the images of the desert were straight out of a dream. The action scenes (prarie dogs riding on bats!?) were exciting and the voice acting was superb.
I’ll finish this mini-review by saying that Rango is a definite candidate for Blu-ray ownership in the future!
