ZD 7-14mm in China

[tomcat]

These are some pixs taken with the ZD 7-14mm during my China trip...

#1

Bright Summit Peak, Huangshan
@7 mm

#2

Lovers' locks at the Lover's Pine Tree, Huangshan
@14 mm

#3

Lover's Pine Tree, Huangshan
@9 mm

#4

Xihai Hotel, Huangshan
@7 mm

#5

Shangtang Street, Suzhou
@7 mm

[tomcat]

#6

Ou Garden, Suzhou
@9 mm

#7

Hanshan Tample, Suzhou
@7 mm

#8

Hanshan Temple, Suzhou
@8 mm

#9

Hansan Temple, Suzhou
@7 mm

#10

Hanshan Temple, Suzhou
@12 mm

[tomcat]

#11

Giant Stone Pi Xiu at the entrance to the Three Kingdoms at Taihu Lake, Wuxi
@12 mm

#12

Three Kingdoms at Taihu Lake, Wuxi
@7 mm

#13

Three Kingdoms at Taihu Lake, Wuxi
@7 mm

#14

Three Kingdoms at Taihu Lake, Wuxi
@10 mm

#15

Three Kingdoms at Taihu Lake, Wuxi
@10mm

[plastic]

Wow, tomcat, you have shot a good set of images with the 7-14. That is a very difficult lens to use, and you managed to "control the beast" and the pictures shows. Nice stuff. Too bad the weather was not helping. Or else it would have been perfect. Thanks for sharing.

[nightpiper]

good stuff tomcat. any problem lugging the big bulge around?

[Teo]

Tomcat,

Nice wide angle pictures coverage, thanks for sharing.

Pix #2 looks interesting, those lovers just lock the pine tree? for ?
Did you bring along other lenses?


cheers

[tomcat]

Originally Posted by plastic Wow, tomcat, you have shot a good set of images with the 7-14. That is a very difficult lens to use, and you managed to "control the beast" and the pictures shows. Nice stuff. Too bad the weather was not helping. Or else it would have been perfect. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for viewing.
The 7-14mm is indeed a very specialised lens. Turned out that it was less useful than I had expected for wide spanning landscapes like at Huangshan. It was however very good at producing dramatic views under the right conditions because of the inherent perspective distortion and super-close focussing. Even when used at 14mm, the effect can be very different from the 14mm in the other lenses like in the #2 Lover's locks shot.

The weather really sucked during this trip... completely overcast and misty. I shot practically nothing at West Lake, Hangzhou because it was so misty that I could not see anything across the lake.

We were lucky that it didn't rained while we were at Huangshan or the whole trip there and all our suffering we had endured would have been wasted. It rained the day we left though. We learned from the local tour guide that the best time of the year for clear blue skies in this region is in Autumn.

[tomcat]

Originally Posted by nightpiper good stuff tomcat. any problem lugging the big bulge around?

Thanks.
It is actually not that big nor that heavy and unwieldy a lens to carry around or use.

[tomcat]

Originally Posted by Teo Tomcat, Nice wide angle pictures coverage, thanks for sharing. Pix #2 looks interesting, those lovers just lock the pine tree? for ? Did you bring along other lenses? cheers

Thanks for viewing.

Those lover's locks are indeed interesting and a great way to generate some income for the operators of the Huangshan Scenic Areas. This is also found at Mt Emei but is more widespread at Huangshan. Couples can buy brand new brass locks from the consessionaries for 30 RMB each and have their names engraved onto the locks on the spot. Traditionally, they are suppose to get 2 locks and then interlink and lock them around the chains anywhere at Huangshan and throw away the keys to signify their commitment and the permanance of their love for each other. Very romantic . The best and most popular place to do this is at the Lover's Pine Tree (#3)... this is a pine tree that has 2 equally sized trunks growing straight up into the air... something that is very rare for a pine tree to do according to the Huangshan guide.

I also brought along the 50mm macro, 11-22mm and 40-150mm lenses. Never used the 50mm macro at all though. I have posted some of the pixs taken with the other lenses in these 2 threads at the Land/City-scapes and Travel sub-forum...

Mount Huangshan
http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=193335

The Waters of Jiangnan
http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=193524

Still processing some of the other pixs as I have shot all in RAW and would post them when they are ready.

[selamatlzh]

Don't know if it is my eye but I find some photos oversaturated.

[plastic]

Originally Posted by selamatlzh Don't know if it is my eye but I find some photos oversaturated.

I guess considering the lighting condition at the place, tomcat might have pushed the saturation a little too hard to get depth in the images.

[tomcat]

I did not increase the saturation at all during RAW conversion or during subsequent post processing but what plastic said is partially correct. The heavily overcast conditions did seem to cause colours to appear darker and more saturated than they would appear under brightly lit conditions.

Then again, I generally find that Olympus' colours seem to be quite saturated straight out from the camera in the first place and seldom ever needed further saturation enhancement during post processing.

[tomcat]

Here's a few more taken with the ZD 7-14mm.

#11

Lingshan Hill Illusion
@ 7 mm

#12

Soong Ching Ling Memorial Park
@ 7 mm

#13

Shanghai Pudong International Airport
@ 7 mm