Hunting for beauty and balance, camera in hand
A lens I bought recently was destined for the door only moments after I'd unwrapped it. Why? It was a zoom with one of those sliding barrels to adjust the zoom, rather than a rotating one, and worse still it was so sloppy and loose, every time I tilted the lens a few degrees the… Continue reading Deal Breakers – Those Cameras And Lenses Where You Know It’s All Over Before It’s Even Begun
Wanting to both streamline and diversify my lenses at once, I discovered this unusual 55/1.8 M42 from Petri. The yardstick for 55/1.8 lenses in M42 mount has to be the Asahi Takumars. I've had half a dozen, and the one that's endured is a very clean Super-Takumar. In the past I've also had a Fujinon… Continue reading Petri CC Auto 55mm f/1.8 M42 Lens – First Thoughts
Over the last eight years or so I've owned perhaps 100 lenses. Which is a conservative estimate, given when I start to think more I realise I've had at least five Takumar 55mm, five Pentax-M 50s, maybe eight different Pentacon 50/1.8s, and at least a dozen Helios 44s. Too often I've reached a point where… Continue reading Lenses For The Long Term – Not Just To Love And Leave
Being firmly in a DSLR phase currently, I've been using vintage M42 lenses like the Helios 44-2 and Jupiter-37A. But you can't talk about M42 without mentioning the greatest range of lenses ever made in that mount - Asahi Takumars. I've had perhaps 20 Takumars overall, and, foolish as it seems in retrospect, sold on… Continue reading Asahi Pentax 200mm f/5.6 M42 Lens – First Thoughts
Lens Love is an occasional series of posts about the vintage lenses I’ve used and loved most. The dry technical data and 100% corner crops of brick walls can be found elsewhere. What I’m more interested in is what specifically about a lens makes me love using it, and why I believe you should try… Continue reading Lens Love #6 – Jupiter-37A 135mm f/3.5 M42
