Coming Back To What You Know

Recently I've found myself coming back to some older things I'm familiar with. Partly perhaps as a natural reaction to the endless stream of changes made necessary by 15 months and counting in some form of lockdown due to a global pandemic. And perhaps partly just because I really enjoy these things I've returned to.… Continue reading Coming Back To What You Know

Petri CC Auto 55mm f/1.8 M42 Lens – First Thoughts

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

The Best £15 You Can Spend On Your DSLR

My first DSLR was a used 2009 Pentax K-x, in 2014. At this point I'd already been shooting film SLRs a couple of years and had fallen for a number of vintage manual aperture, manual focus lenses, like the peerless Takumars, and the Helios 44 series. In researching DSLRs, I was delighted to discover that… Continue reading The Best £15 You Can Spend On Your DSLR

Lens Love #6 – Jupiter-37A 135mm f/3.5 M42

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

Using Vintage Lenses On Digital Bodies – A Compromise Too Far?

For the last five years I've been experimenting with vintage manual lenses on modern digital cameras. This came about originally from using the lenses on the 35mm film cameras they were intended for, and delighting in their beautiful build quality, smoothness in use, and the fantastic photographs they could produce. Then, in the spring of… Continue reading Using Vintage Lenses On Digital Bodies – A Compromise Too Far?