POTD 28 November 2014 - City Lights

[Mike Farley]

After the Joe McNally seminar, I came out of Amateur Photographer's offices to find that the Tate Modern was still open. There was still around 30 minutes before it closed, so I nipped up to the Members' Room which has an external viewing area over the Thames. This is not a particularly interesting view during the day, but is more attractive at night. Maybe it would have been even better if I had managed to take the shot just after sunset when there was still some light in the sky. Fortunately, it was a mild evening and I was able to shoot without having to wear gloves, which made life much easier.

I was using a Gorillapod attached to a railing, but did experience some difficulties in getting a shot which was not blurred by camera movement. Somehow, the Gorillapod just did not seem capable of gripping as tightly as I would have wished.

Olympus OM-D E-M10
Leica DG Summilux 25 f/1.4 (50 mm equivalent for 35 mm full frame)
2.5 secs @ f/5.6
ISO 200
Gorillapod, shutter activated on 2 second delay

[Mike Farley]

I had the Sigma DP2M with me, so I took the same view using that to see the comparison. For this scene, there was not much difference in the result. The Sigma was slightly sharper, but there appears to be some moire at the top of Tower 42 which was not there for the shot taken with the Olympus. Exposure was 5secs @ f/5.6, ISO 100