[PhotoMike]

Hi,

I have been involved with photography for 56 years now. I have earned several advanced degrees in Physic, Photography , Optics and Astronomy.

When it comes to application photography from the film days to the digital era, I have covered most fields in science, sports, commercial, private functions, and general photography using a very wide range of cameras and lens.
I have operated several small specialized optical design, and manufacturing companies and currently have a full optical testing facility that I use to continue to accurately test every lens available worldwide.
I continue to consult for various agencies and develop new imaging systems for specialized work, too.
My personal lens collections tops the collection shown here, since I own most every Nikon,Olympus, Canon, Leica, Pentax and Carl Zeiss lens made for 35mm format and all the Hasselblad, Mamiya RB67 and 645 lens, Pentax 6X7 and Pentax 645 , and Bronica lens made as well as numerous third party lens . I also own over 100 telescopic systems, specialized one of a kind optical systems, and many unique microscopic systems too.
Note: these are not idle collections, as I use all that I own on a rotational basis. The cameras range from the best Point and Shoot, all the Nikon and Canon DSLR ever made, every mirror-less camera along with a large number of film cameras from the past. Since I have a optical lab, all of my equipment is full working order, both mechanically and optically. Whenever a lens needs a coating or even replaced due to damage, I can service it myself, with the help from my co-workers.
Please feel free to contact me concerning anything about lens, cameras, accessories or just to introduce yourself.

Mike

With all my experience and investments in my life long enjoyment, I always wake up the next day anxious to learn more !

[patrick9]

Hello Mike and welcome to the Forums. great intro.

[PhotoMike]

Thank you, Patrick.

While I have worked for many years to obtain all the lens, cameras and other equipment, etc.., I have always enjoyed every aspect of what I was doing.

I am supposed to be retired, but I love the field too much to stop. Furthermore, I have a lot more time to enjoy my collections now.

Best Regards,

Mike

[Kerrowdown]

Welcome to the forum, you may well become an invaluable source of information for us all with your experience, both for professionals and amateurs alike.

[PhotoMike]

Hi Kerrowdown,

Thank you for the kind welcome.
I do like to share and teach others, as so many of my contracts and clients depended upon good communications that was easy to understand. I can not recommend a solution or sell a product that I do not understand all the important aspects about it. Many times, by teaching my clients , they became more at ease with what I stand for and the results were excellent professional relationships based in the truth. I reject any "hear say"," false test reports",or "hype" that so often accompanies representations that are found in many places. For myself, the facts establish the truth, and I rely upon my advanced testing facility to provide me those facts. Across the many years that I have operated and owned various technically oriented business, I have logged in detailed findings for over 7500 off the shelf lens. This does not include any modifications, new designs or one of a kind optical systems that I have designed and built over that time period.

At the same time, I remind myself that I started at a young age of 6 years old with my first camera that my parents gave me as a gift. When I showed great interest, and became impatient with having to wait a week for the film to be developed at the local store, they built me a darkroom in the basement of our home in upstate New York. Today, I remember all my beginnings and still feel the same enthusiasm as I did many years ago. The professional endeavors that followed were just an extension of my love for the sciences, including photography..

Best Regards, Mike

[Jean Poitiers]

Bonjour from France and welcome to PF ... looking forward to your interaction in the various forums ... and hope to see an image or two soon ... J

[PhotoMike]

Hi Jean,

Thank you for the welcome.
I recently setup a Nikon D7100 with the medium format Pentax 645 120mm F/4 macro lens. This is a very nice setup, since I use the smaller sensor area often to image macro subjects, with a wide range of macros that I have.
This shot was taken at ISO 400, 1/80 second hand held. I do most all my work hand held. Even the many lens that I have that are Image stabilized or Vibration Reduction controlled, I shut these features off as I do much better without that feature engaged. In numerous lab tests, I have found that there are times that these features, like others including auto-focus do not perform well enough to yield what the results that I know can be reached.
Very often I use all my cameras in the manual mode, with the lens used as a manual lens, too. This is not a problem for many lens that are adapted to the electronic cameras because there are no contacts, dependency on battery power, etc. to reduce the results that I know I can achieve by operating all the functions manually.
This shot was taken with a dark overcast present, but that is not the reason for the F/4 setting. I use most of my fine lens wide open, with little exception( like special effects or showing diffraction effects). I have lens that are faster than F/1 and others that start at F/5.6 or F/8, but little (one -two stops) or no stop down is employed. I exercise many techniques to isolate what I want to be in true focus, and do not rely upon the "false focus" introduced by stopping down the lens for more DOF. Furthermore, with few exceptions (like a poor lens, or problem lens ), stopping down a lens = compromising the performance level obtained.

Best Regards, Mike

Attached Images

 

[Jean Poitiers]

Hi Jean,

Thank you for the welcome. ...

Best Regards, Mike

Thanks Mike ... a very nice shot there ... looking forward to more, J

[PhotoMike]

Hi Jean,

I appreciate your comments..

I have lived in Florida for 36 years now, therefore the lizard image. I was born in upstate New York , but years later (after I was married, and still am to the same wonderful woman) we moved to Florida
to raise a family and settle down.

Best Regards, Mike

[PhotoMike]

This lens is the "Holy Grail" for a well executed optical design.
The Leica 280mm F/4 APO reveals superb optical correction and is best used at F/4.
Its design and bulid quality place it at the top of the list for medium telephoto lens for the 35mm format.
This lens has been used as an "optical standard" in my testing laboratory, but being that I own the lab and lens,
it does come home often for various field work applications.

This lunar image was taken hand held, using the Leica 280mm APO at F/4 with a Nikon D7000. The camera
was set to manual, ISO 100 for this 1/400 second exposure.

The image quality exceeds many high end refractive Astronomical telescopes, and is only limited by the display limitations
from this posting and the camera sensor density.

[Jean Poitiers]

This lens is the "Holy Grail" for a well executed optical design. ...

Fantastic capture ... thanks for posting it, J

[PhotoMike]

Hi Jean,

You are welcome. Thank you for your comment.
I have tested every 300mm lens (and other 280mm lens) in the optical laboratory.
The samples from Leica (280 F/2.8 APO R) , the Nikkor 300 F/2.8 EDIF, Nikkor 300 F4 EDIF, Canon 300 F2.8 L , Canon 300 F4 L, Pentax 300 F/2.8 ED, Sigma 300 F/2.8 SD, Olympus 350 f/2.8 and others are all very good
and demonstrate what a good design can accomplish with the special glass employed.
The Leica 280 F4 APO had a higher merit value in several areas tested for image formation. Its overall characteristics places it at the top of a long list of very good lens.
For myself, the truth about a lens originates in a well equiped laboratory, using the highest standards of testing procedures. The fun starts when that lens is properly used in the real world.

Best Regards, Mike

[Mirko]

The moon. 2 Fois bravo for the photo.

[PhotoMike]

HI Mirko,

Thank you for your comments.

Best Regards, Mike

[carrrlangas]

Hi Mike, great intro. Hope to read your opinion on several threads.
Do you have a website we can visit?
Also, from the pentax lenses (135 format) you´ve tested, which ones did you find the best?

Regards,
Francisco