New eyes and wig for Lizbet, and a new camera for me
Lizbet (Super Dollfie Liz) has a new wig and new glass eyes. Her wig is the Heuchera from Foveo in Sage, which is a complex dark muted green. Her beautiful eyes are made by Lepus and are 14.8mm.
Buying wigs directly from Foveo is very easy (they have an English site) and there are both direct sale and preorder sales available every so often. The quality and colours are both lovely.
Lepus is a glass eye maker from Japan. I was able to buy a few pairs of eyes on Yahoo! Japan Auctions through a proxy service, and they are really pretty. This pair has a gradient, half pink and half blue, so you can get a different effect depending on how you place them in the head.
I also got my hands on a new camera recently, which has been an upgrade in every sense of the word. Previously I was using a Canon 350D from 2005, which has a cropped APS-C sensor and absolutely no modern conveniences. It's definitely a decent camera, and will take better photos than a phone, but I was struggling with battery life (even after replacing the batteries) and focus in mid-to-low light conditions.
My new camera is the Canon R6. If you know anything about cameras then you'll know this is an absolutely massive improvement. Excellent auto-focus and eye/face focus tracking, much better low light shooting, mirrorless, a large (and live) back screen, full frame, 5 million menu options and/or improvements, in-body image stabilisation, plus a ton of other stuff... and bonus: I can finally send images to other devices over Bluetooth or wi-fi, and the battery doesn't die after 2 minutes.
(I must add a disclaimer that I was given this camera by a very, very generous family member who was upgrading their camera body. I am incredibly grateful and very much aware that most people are not just given an expensive camera as a gift. I hope I can pay this forward some day.)
Using the R6 is a joy. These photos are all taken in relatively low light, and are hand-held shots. Shooting hand-held in low light was completely impossible for me with the 350D - honestly, I had trouble getting sharp focus even using a tripod, or I would get shots which were focused on the hair rather than the eyes. This is definitely a combination of factors, some of which is probably user error... you can get great photos with any camera if you know how to use it. But having said that, I'm honestly astonished at how much easier it is to get sharp images quickly.
I'll still use the tripod, of course, but I'm so happy to have more flexibility. Generally, using this camera feels like most of the previous limitations I ran into have been blown away!
I'm using the Canon EF 35mm f/2 lens here with an EF-to-RF adapter. It's a very inexpensive lens and an older model (it first came out in 1990, but I bought it second-hand so I don't know how old mine is) but it's reviewed well, and has a 25cm minimum focus distance, which is great for doll photography.
It's really satisfying to be able to quickly get photos of my dolls. Lizbet hasn't had much attention lately, which is frankly criminal, because she's stunning. I'm embarrassed to admit I started making her a dress in July 2023, over a year ago... I need to pick that up again. Maybe next time I post I'll have some progress to share!