Tehachapi, BC

[superchief]

Gary / Mark,
     Great job guys on Vanrail looks like a lot of fun. Gary the layout looks great, you really have done a great job showing "the hill". Your electronics are over the top. Following your layout with great interest. I hope to get up there some day to see both your layouts!!!!!!
                                                                         Gordon Bliss - Santa Fe-All the Way                           

[railnerd]

The session was great…  looking forward to a future run someday.

-Dave F (aka railnerd)

[GaryHinshaw]

Playing around some more with my new iPhone camera, Helicon Focus, and various storage/compression formats.  Here is an example of an 8-image stack, saved as jpeg and uploaded to the TRW gallery:



and the same image saved as png and uploaded to Google Photos (sadly many of you may not be able to see this - going to try it anyway).  The png is a bit crisper, but it's too large for the Gallery:



There are some obvious stacking artifacts in this image, notably around the cab nose and along the ballast, but this still represents a quantum leap in the capabilities of my photography.   

[GaryHinshaw]

And a going away shot, in a quick 6-image stack.  Despite the obvious artifacts along the ballast, it's a cool angle!

TRW/jpeg:



Google/png:

[DKS]

Excellent shots, Gary, especially considering they were "quickies"!

[Scottl]

Is this from an iPhone 8?  Very nice photo detail and crispness.

[GaryHinshaw]

Thanks DKS (and welcome back)!

This is just an iPhone SE, which is an iPhone 6s in a small case, with a 4" retina display and 12 mp camera.  There was a price drop a few weeks ago, in advance of the upcoming 8 and X.  I wanted a small form factor, so this fit the bill.

[robert3985]

Gary, are you just handholding your iPhone, or do you have something to hold it in place while you select the focus points?....or, do you have three hands???

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[ednadolski]

This is just an iPhone SE, which is an iPhone 6s in a small case, with a 4" retina display and 12 mp camera.  There was a price drop a few weeks ago, in advance of the upcoming 8 and X.  I wanted a small form factor, so this fit the bill.

Are you using the native camera app that it came with?  I've been using one called ProCamera on my 6 plus, which gives me better white balance control.  I don't think it does stacking tho.

I was thinking of getting some kind of macro lens but it looks like what you've got there does a really good job without that.

Ed

[GaryHinshaw]

Bob, just resting it on the layout and holding it in place with one hand while tapping with the other.  The biggest frame to frame variation is actually from the camera itself: the field of view changes slightly as the focus changes (more so than my hand-held pointing errors), but Helicon seems to be able to cope.  BTW I'm finding the best results with Helicon's "Pyramid" algorithm.

Ed, this is just the native camera app, under iOS 11.0.  Do you recommend ProCamera?

[robert3985]

Are you using the native camera app that it came with?  I've been using one called ProCamera on my 6 plus, which gives me better white balance control.  I don't think it does stacking tho.

I was thinking of getting some kind of macro lens but it looks like what you've got there does a really good job without that.

Ed

Ed, because of the small sensor size, cellphone cameras have excellent depth of field inherently.  However, as you can see in Gary's photos, particularly in the second non-png one, that the UP engine and the ballast & track on the right side, which are closest to the camera, are not in focus.  An add-on macro lens would probably cure that problem, but an add-on lens may not allow you to focus at further distances.

My old Samsung Galaxy S5 has a macro mode (called "Magnifier") which will focus pretty well on top of the lens' first element, but I haven't been able to figure out how to use the two-shot stacking "selective focus" feature while in macro/magnifier mode.

However, if you've figured out how to keep the phone in the same place while selecting focus points on the phone's screen, if your camera has a macro mode, you might be able to get by (with much better results) than if you have an add-on macro lens over the camera's prime lens, especially if you're creating a stack to use in HF or Photoshop.

What I really like about model railroad photos taken with cellphone cameras at close distances are the perspective lines the little semi-wide-angle lens gives, which Gary's photos illustrate quite well.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[GaryHinshaw]

Trying out iCloud photo sharing.  Can y'all see this?



Another Helicon stack with a few soft spots, but it's 10 ft to the back wall.  Makin' me want to get onto scenery!

edit: reverting to TRW hosting with jpeg compression.  Slightly grainier than the original. -gfh

[Scottl]

I can see it, and it looks great.  If the fascia gradually rose towards Monolith, it would give an uninterrupted scene to the backdrop in the back. 

[robert3985]

Yup...I can see it.  I like the large size when I zoom too...shows me that it was well worth it to take extra pains to paint every rail retainer and take that extra time to get the ballast just right...very nice indeed!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Cajonpassfan]

Weird, I can't see anything. Using Safari on iPad.
Otto