Another former Soft Machine member, Allan Holdsworth, died on 15 April 2017 at the age of 70 at his home in Vista, California, from heart failure.[47][48][49]

Prime (or fixed) lenses feature a fixed focal length. Available in a range of focal lengths, these lenses are known for delivering high-quality images. They also generally offer much wider apertures than zoom lenses do.

Human eyesfocal length

The current line-up of Soft Machine comprises Etheridge, Travis, Baker and drummer Asaf Sirkis.[56][57] They embarked on a seven-date UK "Spring 2023 Tour" beginning on 3 February 2023 at the New Cross Inn in London and ending on 26 May 2023 at City Varieties in Leeds.[nb 5] The band began touring again in November 2023 with dates booked through November 2024.[58]

Soft Machine Legacy released their fifth album in October 2010: a 58-minute album entitled Live Adventures recorded live in October 2009 in Austria and Germany during a European tour.[35]

After two line-up changes that occurred in 1979–81, the new line-up toured intermittently throughout the 1980s, embarking on four tours during the decade with a total of 25 European concerts, culminating with a gig on 11 May 1988 at the Festival "Jazz sous les pommiers" in Coutances, France.[1]

Focal length

Soft Ware (sometimes SoftWhere) formed in September 1999, featuring Elton Dean, Hugh Hopper, John Marshall (on drums) and longtime friend Keith Tippett. This line-up would remain together only briefly, and played just a single gig (Augustusburg Hunting Lodge, Germany, 4 Sept. 1999). Then in 2002, with Tippett unavailable, another former Soft Machine member, Allan Holdsworth (on guitar), was brought in with the remaining three members of Soft Ware, who renamed themselves Soft Works in June 2002[24] to avoid confusion with Peter Mergener's band Software. As Soft Works, they made their world live debut on 17 August 2002 at the Progman Cometh Festival (at the Moore Theater in Seattle, Washington), released (on 29 July 2003)[26] their only (studio) album, Abracadabra, consisting of all new material recorded at the Eastcote Studios in London on 5–7 June 2002, and toured Japan in August 2003, Italy in January and February 2004, and Mexico in March 2004.[24]

focallength是什么

Soft Machine's music encompasses progressive rock,[2][37][59][60][61] experimental rock,[62][63] jazz rock,[64][65] jazz,[2][66] proto-prog,[67] psychedelic rock[37] and art rock,[68] as well as being a part of the Canterbury scene of progressive rock.[2][61] According to Hugh Hopper, "We weren't consciously playing jazz rock, it was more a case of not wanting to sound like other bands; we certainly didn't want a guitarist."[69]

Lenses with shorter focal lengths provide a much wider angle of view and less magnification. This makes them better suited to landscapes than to product photography.

Focal lengthformula

After differences over the group's musical direction, Wyatt was fired[22] in August 1971 and formed Matching Mole (a pun on "machine molle", French for "soft machine"; also said at the time to have been taken from stage lighting equipment "Matching Mole").[3] He was briefly replaced by Australian drummer Phil Howard. This line-up toured extensively in Europe during late 1971 and began the recording of their next album Fifth, but further musical disagreements led to Howard's dismissal at the beginning of 1972, with the album being completed with his replacement, John Marshall. Fifth was released in 1972, with side one comprising tracks recorded with Howard and side two comprising tracks recorded with Marshall. Later that year, Dean left the band[3] and was replaced by Karl Jenkins, who also played keyboards in addition to saxophone. Both Marshall and Jenkins were former members of Ian Carr's Nucleus. The band's next album was a half-live half-studio double album Six, released in early 1973.

Soft Machine (billed as The Soft Machine up to 1969 or 1970)[7] were formed in mid-1966 by Mike Ratledge (keyboards), Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals), Kevin Ayers (bass, vocals), Daevid Allen (guitar) and Larry Nowlin (guitar). Allen and Wyatt first played together in the Daevid Allen Trio in 1963, occasionally accompanied by Ratledge. In 1964, Wyatt and Ayers were founding members of the Wilde Flowers, though by 1966, they had both left that band and reconnected with Allen to form Mister Head, which also included Nowlin.[8] Mister Head proved short-lived, with the four members soon joining with Ratledge to form Soft Machine.[9] Suggested by Ayers, the name came from William S. Burroughs' 1961 novel The Soft Machine.[10] The band became a quartet when Nowlin departed in September 1966.[11]

On 7 December 2021, Soft Machine issued a press release announcing that Babbington was retiring from the band, to be replaced by Fred Thelonious Baker.[54]

In September and October 2015, it was announced that the band Soft Machine Legacy, comprising drummer John Marshall, guitarist John Etheridge, bassist Roy Babbington and sax, flute and keyboard player Theo Travis, would be performing under the name "Soft Machine" in late 2015 and early 2016: two shows in the Netherlands and Belgium in early December 2015[42][nb 2] and a series of seven UK shows in March–April 2016.[42][44][nb 3] In December 2015, it was confirmed that the band were officially dropping the "Legacy" tag from their name moving forward, thus reactivating Soft Machine for the first time since 1984.[44]

FOV tofocal length

Typically, lens names are formatted like this: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Lens or Nikon AF-S 50mm f/1.8G. Each of these numbers and letters relays essential information, such as focal length, maximum aperture, lens version and focusing motor. Other features specified can include stabilisation, filter diameter and focusing distances.

Soft Heap formed in January 1978, featuring Hugh Hopper and Elton Dean from Soft Machine, and Alan Gowen and Pip Pyle from the band National Health. Heap was the acronym formed by the initials of their first names. The newly formed band toured in the spring and summer of 1978 as Soft Head as Dave Sheen replaced Pip Pyle, due to the latter's commitments with the band National Health.[1] The live album Rogue Element was recorded on that tour and was released in 1978.

Though they achieved little commercial success, Soft Machine are considered by critics to have been influential in rock music.[4][5][6] Dave Lynch at AllMusic called them "one of the most influential underground bands of their era".[2] The group were named after the novel The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs.

After the release of Six, Hopper left the band[3] and was replaced by Roy Babbington, another former Nucleus member. During this period, Jenkins began to take over as bandleader and main composer. After they released Seven in late 1973, the band switched record labels again, this time moving from CBS to Harvest Records, a sub-label of EMI Records. At the end of 1973, another former Nucleus member, Allan Holdsworth, was added to the band, their first guitarist since Andy Summers' brief tenure in 1968. Holdsworth stayed with band long enough to play on the next album, Bundles (1975), before leaving in the spring of 1975. His replacement was John Etheridge, with saxophonist Alan Wakeman (cousin of Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman) also being added at the beginning of 1976.[3] The next album, Softs (1976), was the first without Ratledge, the last remaining original member of the band, who left in March 1976. Other musicians who were members of Soft Machine during the late 1970s were saxophonist Ray Warleigh, violinist Ric Sanders, and bassists Percy Jones (of Brand X) and Steve Cook.[23] During 1977, the band recorded a live album Alive & Well, released early the following year. 1978 saw only one live performance of Soft Machine, at the Sound & Musik Festival in Dortmund, Germany on 8 December, with a line-up of Marshall, Jenkins, Cook and Holdsworth.[24][25] After this show, Soft Machine disbanded.

On 7 September 2018, Soft Machine released Hidden Details on Dyad Records in the UK and Tonefloat Records in the US, their first new studio album since 1981's Land of Cockayne. In Fall and Winter 2018, they toured the world as part of their 50th anniversary celebration and in support of the new album, and the US in January and February 2019.[nb 4]

Throughout this course, we’re referring to six essentials of photography. However, it is important to mention that this could in fact be five! Why? Because images can be recorded without a lens on so-called pinhole cameras (or camera obscuras).

In June 2004, Elton Dean and Hugh Hopper formed the band Soft Bounds along with Sophia Domancich (keyboards) and Simon Goubert (drums), playing at the Festival "Les Tritonales" at Le Triton in Les Lilas, France[1] (a suburb in the northeast of Paris). This concert was partially released as the (unique Soft Bounds) album Live at Le Triton in 2005.

Focal length is usually indicated both on the side of the lens barrel and sometimes on the front of the lens, along with the lens diameter.

The Soft Machine name was resurrected for the 1981 album Land of Cockayne. Soft Machine also briefly reformed for a series of dates at London's Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in the summer of 1984,[nb 1] featuring John Marshall, Karl Jenkins, Ray Warleigh, John Etheridge, bassist Paul Carmichael and pianist Dave MacRae.

Founding Soft Machine bassist Kevin Ayers died in February 2013, aged 68,[36][37] while Daevid Allen died in March 2015 following a short battle with cancer, aged 77.[38][39]

Soft Machine are an English rock and jazz band from Canterbury formed in 1966 by Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen and Larry Nowlin. As a central band of the Canterbury scene, the group became one of the first British psychedelic acts and later moved into progressive and jazz rock, becoming a purely instrumental band in 1971.[2] The band has undergone many line-up changes, with musicians such as Andy Summers, Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean,[3] John Marshall, Karl Jenkins, Roy Babbington and Allan Holdsworth being members during the band's history. The current line-up consists of John Etheridge, Theo Travis, Fred Thelonious Baker and Asaf Sirkis.

Hopper left in 2008 because he was suffering from leukaemia, so the band continued live performances with Fred Thelonious Baker deputising for Hopper. Following Hopper's death in 2009, the band announced that they would continue with Roy Babbington again replacing Hugh Hopper on bass.[34]

These elements serve to direct the light to a single focal point so that it can accurately be recorded by the sensor (9) once the mirror (7) flips up (triggered when you press the shutter button). Mirrorless cameras work the same way, but do not have the mirror or prism.

During a Japanese Soft Works tour in August 2003, Elton Dean (on saxophone) and Hugh Hopper (on bass) formed the band Soft Mountain along with Japanese musicians Hoppy Kamiyama (on keyboards), whom Hopper had met a couple of years earlier, and Yoshida Tatsuya (from the band Ruins) on drums. Indeed, looking for a break from relatively fixed set lists and song forms, Hugh Hopper had contacted Kamiyama with the idea of hitting a studio for a day to see what might happen. Kamiyama brought in Tatsuya, and, with no discussion, the quartet dove right in, playing two 45-minute improvisations. In 2007, a year after Elton Dean unexpectedly died aged 60, the one-time meeting band released their eponymous album Soft Mountain that they had recorded on that 10 August 2003 day in Tokyo, Japan.[27] The two-part "Soft Mountain Suite" extracts the best thirty minutes from each improvisation.[28] Soft Mountain named themselves after Hoppy Kamiyama, whose name translates to "God Mountain" in English.[27]

In October 2004, a new variant of Soft Works, with John Etheridge permanently replacing Holdsworth, took the name of "Soft Machine Legacy" and performed their first two gigs (two Festival shows on 9 October in Turkey and 15 October in Czech Republic), Liam Genockey temporarily replacing John Marshall who had ligament problems (the first Soft Machine Legacy line-up being consequently: Elton Dean, John Etheridge, Hugh Hopper and Liam Genockey).[24] Later on, Soft Machine Legacy released three albums: Live in Zaandam[29] (2005), the studio album Soft Machine Legacy[29] (2006) recorded in September 2005 and featuring fresh material and the album Live at the New Morning[30] (2006). After Elton Dean died in February 2006, the band continued with British saxophonist and flautist Theo Travis, formerly of Gong and the Tangent.

Focal lengthcamera

In December 1968, to fulfil contractual obligations, Wyatt and Ratledge re-formed Soft Machine, with their former road manager Hugh Hopper replacing Ayers on bass. Like Ayers and Wyatt, Hopper had been a founding member of the Wilde Flowers. The band recorded their second album Volume Two in early 1969, which started a transition toward jazz fusion. The album fulfilled the band's contract with Probe and they signed with CBS Records by the beginning of 1970. In May 1969, Soft Machine acted as the uncredited backing band on two tracks of The Madcap Laughs, the debut solo album by Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd. Shortly after the Barrett recording, Hopper's brother Brian Hopper, another Wilde Flowers co-founder, joined the band on saxophone. Around this time, Soft Machine provided the pre-recorded soundtrack to a multi-media show called Spaced, which ran in London for five days during the summer of 1969. The soundtrack was eventually released commercially in 1996 by Cuneiform Records. In October 1969, following Brian Hopper's departure, Soft Machine expanded to a septet, with Wyatt, Ratledge and Hugh Hopper adding a four-piece horn section comprising saxophonists Elton Dean and Lyn Dobson, cornet player Mark Charig and trombonist Nick Evans. After two months, Charig and Evans departed, reducing the band to a quintet.[20]

Some lenses will feature two maximum apertures (shown as 1:4-5.6). This means that, as you zoom, the aperture capability changes. So at the shortest focal length, you may be able to shoot at f4, but once you zoom to the longest focal length, the widest aperture you’ll be able to shoot at will be f5.6. Generally lenses with wider apertures are favourable due to their increased light-capturing capabilities.

focallength中文

The original Soft Heap line-up reconvened in October 1978 to record their eponymous studio album Soft Heap which was released in 1979.

Focaldistance vsfocal length

In December 2006, the new Legacy line-up recorded the album Steam[31][32][33] in Jon Hiseman's studio. Steam was released in August 2007 by Moonjune before a European tour.

Zoom lenses provide a variety of focal lengths. This makes them very versatile and reduces the need for multiple lenses.

In April 1967 they recorded nine demo songs with producer Giorgio Gomelsky in De Lane Lea Studios that remained unreleased for several years in a dispute over studio costs.[13] Polydor later released these demos in 1972 as Jet Propelled Photographs.[14] During 1967, the band began touring in other European countries, becoming especially popular in France.[15] It was on return from a tour of France in August that Allen (an Australian) was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom,[12] so the group continued as a trio, while he returned to Paris to form Gong.[16]

Longer focal lengths offer a narrower angle of view and more magnification, which means they are better suited to sport or wildlife photography than architectural photography.

The quintet continued until March 1970, when Dobson departed. The remaining quartet recorded the double album Third (1970) and its single album follow-up Fourth (1971). Third was mostly instrumental save for Wyatt's "Moon in June", the last Soft Machine song with lyrics. From Fourth onwards, the band became completely instrumental on record, and then on stage following Wyatt's departure soon after the album's release. Third was unusual for its time in having each of the four sides feature one suite.[3] Over time, it has become Soft Machine's biggest selling album. During this period, the band received unprecedented acclaim across Europe, and they made history by becoming the first rock band invited to play at London's Proms in August 1970, with the show being broadcast live on national TV.[21]

During late 1966/early 1967, Soft Machine became involved in the early UK underground scene. Along with Pink Floyd, they became one of the major resident bands at the UFO Club and played other London clubs like the Speakeasy and Middle Earth. According to Wyatt, the negative reactions the Soft Machine received when playing at venues other than these underground clubs were what led to their penchant for long tracks and segued tunes, since playing continuously left their audiences no chance to boo.[12] In February 1967, the band released their first single, "Love Makes Sweet Music" on Polydor Records.[12]

Lenses focus the light onto the recording medium, which allows an image to be recorded. As you’ll see from the illustration of a DSLR camera below, light enters the lens and passes through the front element (2) before reaching several lens elements (3, 5 & 6).

Aperture refers to the opening in the lens that controls how much light reaches the sensor. This is indicated in the format 1:2.8, for example, with the second set of numbers indicating the maximum aperture.

Sharing the same management as the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Soft Machine supported them on two North American tours during 1968.[17] Now signed to Probe Records, Soft Machine's first album was recorded in New York City in April at the end of the first tour, though it would not be released until December. Back in London, guitarist Andy Summers, later of the Police, joined the group. The new line-up began a tour of the U.S. with some headlining shows, before supporting Hendrix during August and September 1968. By the time the Hendrix tour began, Summers had been fired at the insistence of Ayers.[18] Ayers himself departed amicably after the final tour date at the Hollywood Bowl in September, and Soft Machine disbanded. Wyatt stayed in the U.S. to record solo demos, while Ratledge returned to London and began composing in earnest.[19]

In June 2023, the band released a new studio album, Other Doors. The album was recorded with John Marshall before he retired from music. Marshall died on 16 September 2023.[55]

On 18 March 2013, the Legacy band released a new studio album, titled Burden of Proof.[40] Travis stated that "legally we could actually be called Soft Machine but for various reasons it was decided to be one step removed."[41]

Some lenses feature a fixed aperture. Catadioptric, or mirror lenses, which used to be fairly common, usually feature a longer focal length, such as 500mm at a fixed aperture of f6.3. Most telescopes are catadioptric.

However, recording an image without a lens is far more complex, and doesn’t afford the photographer the same creative freedom. Essentially, without a lens, you're shooting at a very small fixed aperture. Thanks to the variations in magnification they offer, lenses allow us to shoot many different objects, which simply wouldn’t be possible with a camera obscura.

On 20 March 2020, Soft Machine released Live at The Baked Potato, their first original live album since 1978's Alive & Well. It was recorded live on 1 February 2019 at The Baked Potato, Los Angeles, and was initially only available as a twelve-track only-200-numbered-copy limited edition double vinyl LP but it has since been released on CD. The album documents their extensive 2018–2019 world tour.[52][53]