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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Let's talk about lenses.

B

Ben Rubinstein

pro member
That zoom looks like a monster on the camera! I had that zoom long time ago on my Canon AE-1. Bringing back memories! :)

The 20mm looks great. Did you get a chance to test it out on the camera with real world stuff or are you still getting a handle of how it works with test images?

I just got my 'dumb' canon EF adaptor, cost me $7 or so, now I've got my lensbaby composer working again! Total of 5 lenses now albeit I only have two here so far.

rani.jpg

Teaching my class beginning studio lighting today. Single strobe in an umbrella box. A7r with Pentax Tak Super @ f4. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that there is almost nothing this lens does not do well! Oh and the A7r is murder for portraiture. 36 megapixels, a sharp lens and girls faces do not a happy teenager make! :D The tonality though far surpasses what I'm used to from my canon's. This file is pretty much straight out of camera. Really not used to that.
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi Ben,

Ben Rubinstein said:
That zoom looks like a monster on the camera! I had that zoom long time ago on my Canon AE-1. Bringing back memories! :)
Click to expand...
It is a monster, isn't it? It looks, feels and weights like a bazooka!

Ben Rubinstein said:
...The 20mm looks great. Did you get a chance to test it out on the camera with real world stuff or are you still getting a handle of how it works with test images?
Click to expand...
I got lucky with the 20mm, it is a current lens and in new condition too. I have paid 60% of the retail price. I took it for a real-life ride at a museum this afternoon. Will post some pictures a bit later. I was pleased to discover that LR has even a lens profile for this lens. Otherwise, the distortion is nasty (moustache) and cannot be fully corrected with barrel/pinchcushion sliders.

Ben Rubinstein said:
...I just got my 'dumb' canon EF adaptor, cost me $7 or so, now I've got my lensbaby composer working again! Total of 5 lenses now albeit I only have two here so far.

rani.jpg

Teaching my class beginning studio lighting today. Single strobe in an umbrella box. A7r with Pentax Tak Super @ f4. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that there is almost nothing this lens does not do well! Oh and the A7r is murder for portraiture. 36 megapixels, a sharp lens and girls faces do not a happy teenager make! :D The tonality though far surpasses what I'm used to from my canon's. This file is pretty much straight out of camera. Really not used to that.
Click to expand...
Ben that looks really lovely. We should agree to not to enthuse each other with all those great lenses. Otherwise, we'll start having the oddest collection ever. :)
 
B

Ben Rubinstein

pro member
I'm just so excited about how versatile this Tak Super lens is. 50+ years old and it just does everything so well! Cost me $80 about 4 years ago. Other than that, the 3 lenses I've bought (one of which is the same tak but in better condition), including 3 novoflex adaptors, cost the same as I'm selling just one of my L lenses. I'm loving that fact as well as the fact I bought the A7r with the money I sold my 5D3 for second hand! I knew the lens was sharp at f8 but these portraits at f4 are scarily sharp! Haven't seen this sharp a rendition for portraits since I played with the 85L II lens. A 3 lens kit plus the lensbaby should suit me fine! For the past 3 years or so shooting professionally I only used 3 lenses, albeit one was a zoom.
 
fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Ben Rubinstein said:
Great choices of tonality!
Click to expand...

Cem_Usakligil said:
@Fahim: excellent pictures, as usual. I am partial to the one from Uskudar, of course. ;)

@Doug: These are really amazing. Especially the hummingbird is really, really good.
Click to expand...


Thanks Ben. I am glad to read about your love affair with the Takumar. I miss them.
And the portrait is really neat. That's a lot of pixels Ben. What HW do you use to process these files?


Cem, I am partial to all of Turkey. Lovely people first and foremost. Where else can one find street, history, landscape, cityscape, and seascape better than here to photograph?

Cem, I am surprised the Sony mount can support the Vivitar, even on a stand !!!

Take care you guys.
 
M

Michael Nagel

Well-known member
Hi Ben,

That's a fine picture.

Cem_Usakligil said:
We should agree to not to enthuse each other with all those great lenses. Otherwise, we'll start having the oddest collection ever. :)
Click to expand...

There is nothing to say against an odd collection - it is not always the big names...
A friend tested Pentax FA Limited lenses on the A7R (the FA 31 and the FA 77)and was pleased with the performance. My guess is that the FA 43 will be in the same ballpark performance-wise. There is just the price tag...

Best regards,
Michael
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi Fahim,

fahim mohammed said:
...Cem, I am partial to all of Turkey. Lovely people first and foremost. Where else can one find street, history, landscape, cityscape, and seascape better than here to photograph?
Click to expand...
You are right of course. Pity that I visit Turkey so seldom. You are probably there more often than I am.


fahim mohammed said:
...Cem, I am surprised the Sony mount can support the Vivitar, even on a stand !!!
Click to expand...
Indeed. I just lift the lens and the camera tags along. :)
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Cem,

That 70-200 might actually give the needed heft to the Sony A7 and stabilize it. Looks like a fine combo to me and you are leveraging on what you already know well! I see no practical issue about the mass of the lens as we always have to adapt!

After all, with any lens one puts on a camera, one anyway has to rework in one's brain to include a pre-computed and accepted "body extension" so that the camera's potential reach is now part of our body's reach to the outside world. So that learning has to go on anyway, and once you do that, it will be seamless, I'm sure!

I realize I have several Pentax lenses to check up on too!

Asher
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Today, it was the turn of the Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm f/3.5 VMC lens to be tested on the Sony A7, using the Kiwi Nikon (G) to Sony Nex adapter. The weather was really bad, rainy and dark so the photos are all shot at high ISO and they are a bit uninspired too. But it should give a good idea about the performance of this lens on the Sony A7. There is some distortion (barrel or pinchcushion depending on the focal length). But I haven't seen any LaCA.

For more pictures, click here.

 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Cem,

So how did the feeling develop in turns of getting used to the heavier and longer lens? I do like that you can now isolate beautifully with your desired plane of focus. Would you like a constant f2.8, perhaps but this is really fine as it is!

Asher
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief

What aperture was used for the focus plane isolating shots of the boy on the bicycle and the railing. The latter is perfectly chosen. The other shots show that the contrast and color are excellent and really the pictures seem orthogonal, unless one stares or has a straight edge to check! As to any distortions in the periphery, in art it hardly, if ever, matters! There's a table for corrections here by Ken rockwell that might be worth looking at.

Asher
 
B

Ben Rubinstein

pro member
You know those days when the light is gorgeous, you wander around for two hours and have a great feeling about what you've shot then come home and find out it's all s**t and you don't have a single decent frame? That was me today.
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Ben Rubinstein said:
You know those days when the light is gorgeous, you wander around for two hours and have a great feeling about what you've shot then come home and find out it's all s**t and you don't have a single decent frame? That was me today.
Click to expand...
Yep, I know that feeling all too well unfortunately. Sorry that you've had one of those. Perhaps you should revisit the images after a couple of weeks. It usually results either in rediscovery of some good ones or in reconfirmation of a day lost.
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Asher Kelman said:
Cem,

So how did the feeling develop in turns of getting used to the heavier and longer lens? I do like that you can now isolate beautifully with your desired plane of focus. Would you like a constant f2.8, perhaps but this is really fine as it is!

Asher
Click to expand...
Since I've been shooting with a D800 and a 24-70 which together weighed a ton until recently, this lens didn't feel extraordinary. But I'd think twice if I were to lug it around for a whole day. The lens is constant f/3.5 anyway so it wouldn't make a huge difference having an f/2.8 instead.
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Asher Kelman said:
...What aperture was used for the focus plane isolating shots of the boy on the bicycle and the railing. The latter is perfectly chosen. The other shots show that the contrast and color are excellent and really the pictures seem orthogonal, unless one stares or has a straight edge to check! As to any distortions in the periphery, in art it hardly, if ever, matters! ...
Click to expand...
Since the lens does not communicate with the camera, there is no exif info about the aperture. One is then dependent on one's memory. In this case I do remember because I was testing the lens. The boy picture was at f/5.6 and the railing was at f/3.5.
 
C

Chris Heilman

New member
This picture owes everything to the qualities of the lens use to take it.

superstition1.jpg

The fact that they are all facing away from me is just our family dynamic.
 
B

Ben Rubinstein

pro member
One of my first pictures with the new Pentax M/85mm f2, just got it this afternoon with a novoflex adaptor. Nice lens, very small, less small with the adaptor. I'm finding it very hard using peaking with this lens. The rendition however is marvellous. Same 'feel' as my Tak Super 50mm but with a drop better contrast and better colour. I like the colour, muted and subtle but pleasing. I think it's going to be a wonderful addition. Was dirt cheap too.

carmelli.jpg

One thing I would advice with this camera is getting lenses which use a single adaptor. I now have 4 lenses, all with their own adaptors. Cost aside and I've invested in novoflex so the cost is there, it does mean that the lens sizes are doubled (when talking about small lenses). My lenses are tiny but in the bag suddenly they're not so tiny any more when each one has an adaptor attached. Small diameter still but the length is that of AF lenses. If you stick to a single mount then the adaptor stays on the camera and the bag isn't quite as full any more.
 
M

Michael Nagel

Well-known member
Hi Ben,

glad that the M85/2 seems to be up to your expectations. I never tried focusing using peaking (I could try just for fun) as I can use the OVF and it works quite well this way.
The M120/2.8 (also a fine lens) is more difficult to focus from my experience...

Best regards,
Michael
 
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