Hello, I’m lev29!

lev29

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Hi, I’m a retired Physician living in the greater Boston (MA) area of the U.S.

My initial interest was in Underwater (U/W) photography. I didn’t purchase a [film] SLR till 1995; it was a Minolta Maxxum 400si and I used it, along with a 600si I subsequently bought, for landscape photography and of my family. The lenses I purchased for these two cameras and still own are: Sigma 18-35mm zoom, 50mm Macro, 105mm Macro; Minolta 200mm f/2.8 and its mated 1.4X Teleconverter. Oh, somewhere along the way, I got a few Lensbaby toys. I trust it is not unreasonable for me to list some of my photographic equipment here in case a member reading this is interested in my experience with any item.

I waited till Sony finally debuted their first digital ILC/SLR in 2006, the A100. A year later, I was diagnosed with Parkinson disease, rendering my choice of Minolta 12 years before (as opposed to Canon, Nikon, Pentax, etc.,) wise, in retrospect, given Sony’s built-in Image Stabilization (courtesy of Minolta 😉.) So then after I bought Sony's dSLT A55 in 2010, I had the A-100 converted to "color Infrared"; specifically, the internal hot mirror filter was replaced with a 650 nm long-pass filter. SO began my adventures into Multispectral Photography (MSP).

Following my A55's "premature demise," I bought a used Sony A65 in 2016 and brought it with my converted A100 on my trip to Switzerland later that year. Additional A-mount lenses I had acquired (and still own,) for these APS-C cameras include: Sony 18-70mm zoom, 75-300mm zoom; and later, a Sony 16-50mm f/2.8 zoom & a Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 zoom.

Meanwhile, back in 2014, I bought my first mirrorless camera, the a6000. Believe it or not, I initially felt deceived by Sony, though I doubt few came away with the same impression I did of Sony's advertising. Perhaps I had just made a foolish assumption that since Sony’s A-mount cameras had IS built-in, so too would this E-mount camera. One may recall that at that time, there were no inexpensive telephoto OSS lenses available. Instead of buying the kit lens, the PZ 16-50 mm, I initially opted for two, the 16mm f/2.8 and 35mm f/1.8 OSS lenses.

I continued doing my own landscape photography and after returning to my hometown some 35 years after leaving, I came across some articles touting the advantages of mirrorless (over dSLR/DSLT) cameras for IR photography. So by late fall of 2017, I purchased via one of the leading conversion services in the U.S. another brand new Sony a6000, but converted to Full Spectrum along with another Sony lens that is not on their IR Hotspot Lens list, the 18-55mm OSS. Now that I had an FS camera, I bought a number of external IR filters and practiced with them, primarily on landscapes, friends, and various materials. In the summer of 2018, instead of the cameras I brought along two years before, I instead took with me both of my lighter weight a6000s.

As this introduction is getting rather long, I may write another time about my experiences delving into the fields of both Thermal and Ultraviolet photography, which brings me to MY QUESTION for the Membership: Who else is interested in Multispectral (or just, say, IR or UV,) Photography? 😎
 
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Welcome aboard and that was a great introduction, I hope your condition permits you for many years to come to enjoy the finer details in photography!
 
Welcome aboard, your neck of the woods should be beautiful this time of year, or have all the leaves changed color and dropped off already? I have a sister in law in Andover and I keep meaning to visit when the leaves turn. No idea what that would look like in Multispectral photography though 😅
 
First, thank you both, Andrew and FowlersFreeTime, for responding so quickly!

Andrew, whether you have employed an ISE (my own abbreviation for Internet Search Engine) yet regarding the field of Multispectral Photography (MSP) yet, here's a URL concerning the difference between Multispectral and Hyperspectral:

I hope you, FowlersFreeTime, don't mind if I address you as FFT (which, by the way, in my former profession of Diagnostic Radiology, stands for Fast Fourier Transform 😜.) It's not so much any apparent predilection one might think I have for using initials or acronyms (or as I pejoratively refer to on a general-type forum as an "alphabet soup" when the poster does not define them); rather, I sometimes get long-winded in my endeavor (please pardon my use of American spelling habits,) to both inquire and convey specific information, and it saves me time (especially when typing on teeny-weeny keyboards.)

Please forgive me for the apparent lack of tying together the following paragraphs conceptually at this time; I do so as a prelude for my F/U post. It has been quite rare that I employ a tripod (exceptions to the preceding include the use of my Rokinon 24mm [FF] Tilt/Shift lens*, the dreaded rare selfie photo, and when circumstances permit my simultaneously shlepping two camera/lens units criss-crossing my chest, my portable expandable stool, AND a tripod.

I was going to attempt to post some images here (for the first time, obviously,) and annotate each one separately. As this style has not succeeded for me on other forums (whether dedicated to photography or not,) my expectation for success is low.

* - Because it was the lowest price ever ($998 U.S.) for a new Sony a7ii camera with (and a 28-70mm FF kit lens to boot,) I bought it only 2 months after I purchased the aforementioned FS-converted a6000, despite my not having a specific goal for it in mind at the time. But soon after, I did. I was then able to take advantage of the true wide angle view of the Tilt/Shift lens AND after I had this camera converted to FULL SPECTRUM, employ its built-in Image Stabilization to reduce the effects of my hand tremors when using either of my subsequently acquired Kyoei manual focus UV-compatible lenses.

In closing, here's one attempt to upload a pair of color IR photos taken in July 2018 on the Greek island of Naxos.
IMG_1322.JPG



ADDENDUM - Now that I’ve learned something about editing my posts, I can provide a technique caption for these two photos pictured above, both taken with my Full Spectrum-converted Sony a6000. That on top was done with a Lifepixel SuperBlue (ada NDVI) filter, while that on the bottom employed what is the typical favorite filter of color IR photographers, a 590 nm long-pass filter.
 
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Welcome aboard our fun ship. You sure did not give up studying when you left school. I am not familiar with this photography in the Sony world but see a lot of it in the Leica world but confined to IR in the M8/M8.2 which is quite IR sensitive having no IR filter built into it. For "normal" photography these cameras will give some odd blacks and greens. But to me you are a first in the Sony world. I'm looking forward to your experiments in color photography in that narrow color band. Myself I am an old fuddy-duddy content with the regular colors but sometimes pleasantly surprised by experiments such as yours.

Boston where there are frappes, tonics and "grindahs."
 
That's some pretty interesting photography! Definitely different from your average run-of-the-mill composition!
 
Welcome David and thanks for joining up here and your great introduction! I'm not very experienced with multispectral photography but I'm sure a few others here will be. If you have any questions about this site please don't hesitate to ask!
 
Welcome David and thanks for joining up here and your great introduction! I'm not very experienced with multispectral photography but I'm sure a few others here will be. If you have any questions about this site please don't hesitate to ask!
Thank you, Timothy!

I have two questions:

A. While I know, of course, that my pseudonym is displayed on every post I make; that is expected. But, and I could be wrong, I get the impression that my real name is also displayed as well to everyone. Is that correct?

B. Did you review my response to the person who wanted to inform me that all he "had left was a Sony a9ii for sale"? Assuming so, did he have a legitimate reason to solicit me? Or is it that "cold call" solicitations are permitted on this forum?

Thank you,
lev29
 
Thank you, Timothy!

I have two questions:

A. While I know, of course, that my pseudonym is displayed on every post I make; that is expected. But, and I could be wrong, I get the impression that my real name is also displayed as well to everyone. Is that correct?

B. Did you review my response to the person who wanted to inform me that all he "had left was a Sony a9ii for sale"? Assuming so, did he have a legitimate reason to solicit me? Or is it that "cold call" solicitations are permitted on this forum?

Thank you,
lev29

Since Tim is on a different time zone, let me help you on your first question. Yes, by default your name is displayed on the left side of your posts. You can click on your profile icon at the top right of your screen and then click "Account Details" scroll to your name, delete it if you wish, and then Save. This updates the profile info displayed beside all your posts, past or present.

@Timothy Mayo would have to respond to your second question.
 
Thanks for giving me instructions as to my first question, FFT!
Here's another one: Is there a means to send a Private Message to a member or the Admin such that no one else can read it?

Thank you for your time,
lev29 😎
 
Thanks for giving me instructions as to my first question, FFT!
Here's another one: Is there a means to send a Private Message to a member or the Admin such that no one else can read it?

Thank you for your time,
lev29 😎
No problem!
Private messages: click on the profile of the person you want to message and click "start conversation"
 
Thank you, FFT, but forgive me for thinking in a concrete manner. I do not see the word "profile" anywhere in that box to the left of our texts.

Thus, I ask you, what does the icon for a person's profile look like?

In your "column" situated to the left of our conversation text, I see enabled, from top to bottom, the following:

a. your photo & b. FowlersFreeTime (in an orange font,) both of which take me to a pop-up window with 4 enabled options provided on the bottom row (L to R) Follow, Ignore, Start Conversation (which does not state whether it’s public or prigate,) and View Full Profile;

c. Pro Member (which takes one to a webpage that features three price option);

d. 3 icons on the bottom row, all of which currently function and lead to (from L to R) Inst a gram, YouTube, and your video list on YouTube.

What I do not see either highlighted or enabled is the icon for a person’s head and shoulders, which in my experience is used to denote a "profile".

Perhaps things appear different on your screen than mine. Though I composed and posted my previous messages using my Safari bro on the new Apple MacBook Air M1, im using my iPad (2nd-gen) Air, which I bought brand new in 2019.

I thank you for your help.
lev29
 
Thank you, Timothy!

I have two questions:

A. While I know, of course, that my pseudonym is displayed on every post I make; that is expected. But, and I could be wrong, I get the impression that my real name is also displayed as well to everyone. Is that correct?

B. Did you review my response to the person who wanted to inform me that all he "had left was a Sony a9ii for sale"? Assuming so, did he have a legitimate reason to solicit me? Or is it that "cold call" solicitations are permitted on this forum?

Thank you,
lev29
That "had left" message was meant for me as a response to a question I had asked. I'm not sure how you wound up with the answer that I too received.
 
That "had left" message was meant for me as a response to a question I had asked. I'm not sure how you wound up with the answer that I too received.
Sorry, Jeff A, It is unclear to me, based on what you wrote, what the circumstances are, i.e. what you were asked or what you did ask nor what Timothy Mayo might have related to you. He has yet to respond to my question on this matter, but know that I have not revealed the seller's identity to anyone. Thus, I am confused at this point as to this irony you write about.
 
ADDENDUM (October 12, 2021): In retrospect, what followed was not just a test to see whether I could upload my photos to this site, as not only did I succeed but I also presented a good deal of my methods and abbreviations for various externally-applied lens filters under the section titled LEGEND. THUS, for those who are interested, I suggest you somehow flag or bookmark this particular posting.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The following is just a test to determine if I am able to upload images from my (2nd-gen 2019 edition) iPad Air using iOS 15. One thing is certain: Editing my words on this website using this iPad is a true pain, entailing not only misspelled words, but improper capitalization and deletion of up to every letter in a word save the first.

Here goes nothing:
OMG! It worked! For those interested in my extolling one major virtue of this forum as compared with my previous experience, see below AFTER these photos.

N.B. With respect to my MSP (multispectral photography), the photo collage apps save space (both screen-wise and data-wise,) but at the cost of additional cropping of photos I have already cropped and sometimes rotated so as to facilitate ready comparison. Note also the following as to my methodology (in case anyone cares):
A. All images are SOOC with the exception of cropping and on occasion, adjusting grayscale brightness and/or contrast, BUT NOT any sort of color control employed (e.g. hue or tint,) unless I choose to convert a color image to B&W;
B. The only conceivable color processing that I might do someday (and state so if caption space permits,) is color channel swapping; and
C. Except when I employ my Tilt/Shift lens and foreseeably my Anamorphic lens, virtually all of my MS photographs are done handheld, thus when I do a series of images with different filters (and occasionally lenses,) the actual perspective, focal length, and sensor-subject angle can vary, hence it is seldom that more than two photos are directly superimposable on each other, just like the intestinal tract is not when viewed on superimposed (aka fusion) PET-CT scans.


ALL OF THE FOLLOWING PHOTOS ARE OF ONE GROUP OF BLACK-EYED SUSANS.

LEGEND - This includes my own abbreviations for various filters and types of light. Understand that at this time, I do use one proprietary filter known as IR Chrome (IRch), made by Kolarivision. I do not have any financial interest in any photo equipment company, and unless instructed to the contrary by the Admin, as I have checked this forum’s Community Guidelines.

I will also refer to two other filters that have proprietary names (one employed by another well-known U.S. vendor of IR filters, for a filter I use, which to my knowledge, does not significantly differ in its transmission spectrum from its well-known generic term,) while the other is likely to be proprietary.

One more concept to understand is concerning the terminology that applies to the vast majority of IR filters that I as well as most others use: an LPIR (long-pass IR) filter is characterized by a simple scalar value expressed in nm (nanometers, i.e. the wavelength,) which is not actually a sharp cut-off point of transmission; rather, I have found in my review of several catalogs of IR Filter Manufacturers that the specified value refers to the wavelength at which 50% of the light is passed by the filter and in general, greater transmission of wavelengths higher than that. The reference standard I employ is that of SCHOTT Filters. If one has further interest, please see the following section titled, "Transmission curves of all SCHOTT filters" on the right-hand side of this webpage, https://www.pgo-online.com/intl/schott-filters.html#schott_glass_filter_table.

VZ = Visible light spectrum (range 400 - 700 nm)
UV = Approximately the UV-A portion of the UV spectrum (range ~320 - 400 nm)
B5 = 'BUGU5', as labeled by its creator at UVIROPTICS. It simulates the vision of Bees
and has a wavelength range of ~320 - 520 nm.
370/B5 (my own creation consisting of the B5 filter and a 370 nm long-pass filter.)
Thus, its range is ~370 - 520 nm.
475 = aka Lifepixel's 'Hypercolor', an LPIR filter
550 = LPIR filter class; however, I have found that there is a modest difference in the
appearance of photos taken with "standard" Schott glass vs with Kolarivision's 'K550'
590 = an LPIR filter
IRch = IR Chrome™ - a proprietary color IR filter
SB = NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index)* - aka Lifepixel's SuperBlue'
color IR filter (please note that for this set of images, I employed this filter as a
proxy for an IR-only filter, i.e. >700 nm.


A.1. VZ
37B020E0-757C-4E2D-A742-07DA8CDC49A6.jpeg

A.2. B5


B.1. 370/B5
E9E28ADC-4475-491B-9481-265F4B130399.jpeg

B.2. 475


C.1. 550
B497EA96-63A0-4050-85C9-A3AD3F849D63.jpeg

C.2. 590


D.1. IRch
D5EF2BDA-827D-4ADF-82B0-7C22E00C1986.jpeg

D.2. SB


Well, I’ll be damned! It worked directly taking images from my Apple Photos app, despite its inability to do so from the Apple Photos program on my up-to-date Apple laptop. What’s more, as can be seen above, I can insert multiple lines between each photo, which facilitates the use of captions!

For those of you who might find the differences among the 475, 550, & 590 photos to be subtle, I plan to, IF there is interest, upload more true landscape photos that will demonstrate such to better advantage.

Till next time,
lev29
 
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Oops! I forgot to provide the URL that goes with that boldfaced asterisk.

* -
What is NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index)? - GIS Geography
 
Sorry, Jeff A, It is unclear to me, based on what you wrote, what the circumstances are, i.e. what you were asked or what you did ask nor what Timothy Mayo might have related to you. He has yet to respond to my question on this matter, but know that I have not revealed the seller's identity to anyone. Thus, I am confused at this point as to this irony you write about.
No worries, I had just asked him if he still had the 1.4 Teleconverter For Sale. I failed to notice how old the thread was.
 
A. While I know, of course, that my pseudonym is displayed on every post I make; that is expected. But, and I could be wrong, I get the impression that my real name is also displayed as well to everyone. Is that correct?

B. Did you review my response to the person who wanted to inform me that all he "had left was a Sony a9ii for sale"? Assuming so, did he have a legitimate reason to solicit me? Or is it that "cold call" solicitations are permitted on this forum?

You can add your real name if you wish under your account details. If nothing is entered in the name field then nothing will display.

I'm not sure what response you mean? Did you PM me? Did someone message you directly that they had an a9II for sale? If you could provide further details that would be helpful. Members don't normally send unsolicited messages to other members and this is something I'd look into.

Here's another one: Is there a means to send a Private Message to a member or the Admin such that no one else can read it?

Yes. Just click on a members icon or username and select "start conversation". Only yourself and the member that you message will see this conversation unless someone else is invited to it.

What I do not see either highlighted or enabled is the icon for a person’s head and shoulders, which in my experience is used to denote a "profile".

If a member does not add their own profile image then the default icon/avatar just takes the first letter of their username instead of a head and shoulders.

Please let me know if I've missed anything.
 
You can add your real name if you wish under your account details. If nothing is entered in the name field then nothing will display.

I'm not sure what response you mean? Did you PM me? Did someone message you directly that they had an a9II for sale? If you could provide further details that would be helpful. Members don't normally send unsolicited messages to other members and this is something I'd look into.



Yes. Just click on a members icon or username and select "start conversation". Only yourself and the member that you message will see this conversation unless someone else is invited to it.



If a member does not add their own profile image then the default icon/avatar just takes the first letter of their username instead of a head and shoulders.

Please let me know if I've missed anything.
Oh, NOW I get it! I thought you and FFT were referring to the tiny head & shoulders icon that’s on the same line as when the member joined.

Thank you!
 
No worries, I had just asked him if he still had the 1.4 Teleconverter For Sale. I failed to notice how old the thread was.
Hi again, Jeff A. I have two questions for you, but as I’m unable to ascertain whether our conversation is private or not, I will continue to refer to our "mutual seller" withou revealing his moniker explicitly.

1. Did you ever actually buy anything from him?
2. Who first approached whom about what item(s) were available for sale?

Thank you,
lev29 😎
 
Hi again, Jeff A. I have two questions for you, but as I’m unable to ascertain whether our conversation is private or not, I will continue to refer to our "mutual seller" withou revealing his moniker explicitly.

1. Did you ever actually buy anything from him?
2. Who first approached whom about what item(s) were available for sale?

Thank you,
lev29 😎
This conversation isn't private as it's in the Welcome Posts forum which is public and visible to all members. You would need to click on Jeff's profile image or username then select the "start conversation" option for a private conversation.
 
This may help:
start conversation.jpg


Hover your mouse icon over the picture of the person you want to private message, then in the popup, click "Start Conversation"
 
Hi again, Jeff A. I have two questions for you, but as I’m unable to ascertain whether our conversation is private or not, I will continue to refer to our "mutual seller" withou revealing his moniker explicitly.

1. Did you ever actually buy anything from him?
2. Who first approached whom about what item(s) were available for sale?

Thank you,
lev29 😎
I have never done any business with anyone on the Board. I'm a pretty new guy here and to cameras as well. For number 2, I had seen a post he had made in the Marketplace on this forum. It turns out I had missed the date of his For Sale posting (It was old) but I messaged him throught the forum and he got back to me. And no, this message is not private but there are of course ways to do so.
 
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