Hi there!

Some background on me and my view of the universe:

The scientific method is how we discover the truth - it has nothing to do with politics. This is why we have things like double-blind testing, control groups and peer review to remove expectations and opinion from the process. It's not perfect but its the only tool in the drawer and, thankfully, it's self-correcting.

Politics is another can of worms entirely and I'm not going fishing any time soon so I can do without the worms for now. That said, I'm a centrist politically and a pragmatist when it comes to fiscal issues. So get off my lawn or I'll turn the hose on you. ;)

Conspiracy theories are even more wormy - the more extreme your claim, the more powerful and ubiquitous your proof needs to be. Most conspiracies suffer from more than a modicum of confirmation bias or are obvious attempts at directing people's attention elsewhere.

My background is biology and geology as well as information technology though I've been an amateur astronomer all my life. I did crazy things in college and have photographed, drawn and painted thousands of pictures.

Glad to buy anyone a beer and talk about anything but am not interested in an argument...unless it's the 5-minute-Monty-Python variety. ^_^

Cheers!

The MS Optical 28mm Perar f/4 Super-Triplet

Such a fun little Leica M-mount lens! Here's just a few quick shots from around the house and yard taken with this minuscule marvel on the Leica M240 camera. Even wide open at f/4 this is stunning for color and clarity!

The (extreme) corners are a bit mush but, hey, it's to be expected with a triplet like this. It's actually *very* well corrected for a three-element lens!

Amazed at the build quality as well as the image quality! Lenses with few elements like this have such an unusual "draw" to them...very "liquid" with lots of vibrant color. I'll be using this one quite a bit I think.

One thing to note, on the Leica M240, there was little-to-none of the weird "Italian flag" color shift you sometimes see from third-party wide-angle lenses, making this eminently usable on the M!

The below pictures are all shot at f/4 except the last one which is at f/8. These are all shot with available light. Please click to enlarge them:

This is Mr Sadayasu Miyazaki, head of MS Optical R&D. I can't say enough regarding my respect for this man!

He is the designer, creator and manufacturer of these stunning little MS Optical lenses. It's amazing to see such quality and quirky innovation coming from such a small operation for such limited runs of lenses.

I got my copy of this fabulous lens from Japan Camera Hunter, a great photography blog and resource!

I previously wrote about the MS Optical 35mm Perar triplet here.

Kohala

Leica M240 with 21mm Super-Elmar f/3.4
(Click to enlarge.)

Green

Here and there, there have been some signs...

Leica M240 with 50mm Summicron f/2
(Click to enlarge.)