Thailand
Shooting for the first time in Thailand provided a wealth of photographic colour and texture.
From the picture postcard islands to the neon night bustle of Bangkok to the jungles and Buddhist temples of the North I was saturated with visual inspiration.
The constant joy of shooting in 'exotic' locations is this heightened photographic stimulus. No amount of art direction, costume and set design ever seems to get you to the same place that the documentary approach yields.
Although all of these images above were shot with a set of cinevised Nikkor AIS primes, I also utilised Canon's Cine-Servo 17-120mm zoom (T2.95-T3.9 PL) for the first time.
This zoom offers the extraordinary focal range of 17-120mm which in the world of PL glass has not really existed in a lightweight option. The lens feels like it shares the heritage of Canon's video zoom lenses, and will I imagine be popular in the broadcast documentary world. But its precisely this heritage that made me dislike the zoom. The focus ring was too accelerated for real focus pulling, the iris stops way too close together for any 1/3 stop increments, and the performance drop off from 90-120 quite noticeable. I suspect I have been spoilt by Angenieux's offerings, but I also found its imaging quality, its 'aesthetic', quite lacking. Although Canon boast an 11 blade iris to deliver a distinctive bokeh, I saw no sign of the distinction. The flare quality I found off-putting and 'streaky' and the stop drop-off to nearly T4 a bit tricky for night work.
The rapid focal change from 17mm to 120mm does however set it apart for certain types of shooting.
Not for me though.