Following the discovery of the very charming Hamarikyu garden, I ended up all over Tokyo; in more places than I can actually remember. For now, though, I want to put up some shots of Tokyo seen from up high.
Firstly, Tokyo Tower. While it's visible from a fair old distance, I'd never actually been to it, nor even that close to it. We went in the evening while it was drizzling somewhat, so you'll probably see water on the lens here and there.
This was where the Leica Digilux 2 earned its stripes. It's a good example of how limitations force you to really concentrate on what you're doing. You can shoot it up to ISO 400, but at that level it can be incredibly noisy. Your best bet is to stay at 100, and only use 200 if you have to. The nice thing about it is that it's so light that you can handhold it at speeds which would be close to impossible for my Nikon D7000. On top of this, the Leica covers the kind of angles I was intending to use (28 to 90) while I had an 80-200 on the Nikon. Different cameras for different purposes. I'm going to be shooting several boxing matches tomorrow, and that's where the Nikon will come into its own.
Going off at a slight angle, I had several people come up and say nice things about the Digilux 2, probably because of the Leica badge on it. I think they all assumed that because it was sporting a Leica badge, it was incredibly expensive. It was too much effort to explain that it's an 8 year old camera with fewer megapixels than the average cellphone, an ISO range which would be assumed to be a joke if it was out now and an electronic viewfinder which makes you think you've rubbed vaseline into your eyes. These facts notwithstanding, it's a wonderful camera to use, almost silent in operation, and just feels nice. Keep it at its base ISO of 100, and it rewards you with some lovely images.
Anyway. The Tower, lit up, from the outside.
Just to totally contradict myself, that was at the max ISO of 400 and while you can see noise in the grey background, it's hardly a distraction. I think I got lucky on this one, ISO-wise.
Couple of shots from the first observation deck.
As I mentioned, the Digilux 2 is a very light camera. At ISO 100 and on Aperture Priority, the camera gave me a reading of around half a second. By bracing the lens (with hood attached) directly against the window, you can a) avoid any kind of reflection coming back at you and ruining your picture and b) shoot at half a second with no problem at all. I haven't zoomed in that close on this picture, but on my 21 inch iMac it looks perfectly decent.
Again, there's noise in the sky, but not enough to be distracting...to my eyes, anyway. Again, this was at ISO 100, around half a second, and with enough DOF to get buildings in the mid-distance.
On the subject of night shots and Tokyo, I was browsing aimlessly in one of Tokyo's many electronics stores when I came across a night shot taken (for promotional purposes) by the new Nikon D800 with its 36 - that's thirty-six- megapixels. It was shot with Nikon's top of the range 24-70 zoom with an 8 second exposure. It fairly left my jaw on the floor. Beautiful.
The following day (and this entry, along with the previous one, are all over the place, chronologically speaking) I went to Shinjuku to go up the government offices (known locally as "tocho"). It's a kind of H-shaped skyscraper with a free observation platform on the 45th floor. It is said that on a clear day you can see Mt. Fuji, but I've yet to see it. Nevertheless, it provides good views over Tokyo. Again, these were all with the Digilux 2, and it turned out some very nice files.
The "tocho" building itself:
Plus a more moody version
Some views from the top:
The large green space on the left is the location of Meiji Shrine, the most famous Shrine in Tokyo and one of the most famous in the whole country. And the fact that there's the Pfizer building in the same photo as that tall phallic looking thing in the centre is just a lucky coincidence.
The buildings in the foreground are themselves impressively tall, but you can shoot down on them from tocho.
Couldn't resist that sunstar in the middle. Shot closed right down at F11 (which, on a smaller-sensored camera like the Digilux 2 produces huge depth of field) to get the sunstar effect.
Check out the great reflections in the building at the front right.
The same building, shot closer up.
That's it for the high-up shots. The next entry will be for anything not covered this far and will round out the Tokyo pictures.
Thanks for looking and keep checking back now and then for updates!
This is a collection of posts. Some (most) have a particular theme, but some are just collections. I try to only include my best shots in here.
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