This is one situation where the bokeh is aceptable although the backbround isn't all that busy. Again taken wide open and close to MFD I still managed to achieve what I was after. Practice really does make perfect and I shall continue to practice as often as I can.

I took this image to test 2 things. My manual focusing skills and to see how bad bokeh is with this lens. It was taken wide open at f3.5 and is sharp enough for my purposes. Bokeh is another matter, being a little bussier than the Olympus 135mm lens but can, in certain situations, be very good indeed. I find this little problem to be a Pentax characteristc with the manual focus lenses. The faster Pentex lenses may be different but my faster Pentax lens to-date is f2.8.

Now for a few Pentax 135 f3.5 images. For me personally, winter is a time when my photography slows down somewhat. I much prefer all the other seasons to this one mainly because of the bleakness of the landscape and there is a real lack of colour. I may like monchrome images but I tend to see in colour. I'm sure there are people out there that can identify with this.

I really like using the Pentax manual lenses because they really handle well and the construction is tip-top. It is also one of the smallest 135mm lenses available. I'm starting to ask myself if I prefer using these lenses on the Alpha cameras or on the Nex system. Presently I prefer the Nex system but that may change. I still have to get used to these cameras and I'll have to take a few thousand images before I get to know the Alphas well. That is a statement for all new cameras. Anybody that returns a camera after a week or so use and having only taken a few hundred photographs are making a big mistake in my opinion. Having said that, a camera might have a big flaw in it for some people which they know they can't get over. Understandable. The only camera I returned was the Panasonic GX7, not for any major flaw but because the EVF wasn't centered or was faulty. I just couldn't get the EVF sharp from corner to corner. If the center was sharp the corners were not and vice versa. Otherwise it was really a nice camera, small, responsive and it really fitted well in my small hands.

What attracted me to the above image was the moss, being backlit and had a certain glow to it. I think this image is a little small to see but I can assure you, seen at full size it's much more prominent. Contrast is a little low which is something often encountered with these older lenses. The sun was just out of frame at the top of the image.

Last image with the Olympus for now and I'll be posting some images taken with the Pentax 135 f3.5 lens as from tomorrow so you can see the difference in lens signatures. The reason for this image is to emphasize the need for stopping the lens down on these longer lenses, even on full frame cameras. This image (which was taken at f11) has some out of focus parts to it. It just shows I needed to stop down to about f16 for everything to be in focus. The closer you are to the subject, the more you need to stop the lens down for maximum depth of field within the image.

I've included the above image as an example of what's possible when using these longer manual focus lenses. It is sharp with some nice colours with the background out of focus. It is also nice bokeh, smooth even though the background was rather busy. This lens gives nicer out of focus background than my Pentax 135 f3.5, but I prefer using the Pentax.

Compare this image with the one posted a couple of days ago, taken with the Leica Elmarit 90 f2.8. Same place, same leaves, taken a couple of of days apart.

I liked what I saw in the scene above and stopped the lens right down to somewhere near f11 so that I could get all of the scene in focus. I sometimes like the background to go out of focus but in these types of shots all of the scene should be in focus, just my opinion though.

The above image is typical of the type of images I like to take and I can get these with the use of my 135mm lenses. It's how I shoot and how I see the world. Some see the world through a 35mm lens and some through a 50mm. My vision tends to be towards the telescopic end of things. As you can see I've been practicing my focusing with these lenses and it's slowly coming together. However, at the moment my misses average more than my hits, so I'll keep on until I feel I'm confident enough to use these manual lenses in earnest.

I must admit I like my 135mm lenses, especially the f3.5s. Why? Because they are small, light and real fun to get to the details of my subject. These lenses are usually so light you hardly notice the extra weight on the camera and you can carry them around all day. The above image was taken with the Olympus OM 135 f3.5 which is quite a good lens. My other 135mm lenses incluse a Pentax, Nikon, Konica and Minolta. What does spoil it somewhat is the adapter required to use the lens which does add to the overall length of the lens. In some cases it nearly adds 40% to the length, which isn't ideal but is the price you pay for using these lenses on modern digital cameras.

Some of these lenses are easier to use than others and the Olympus is one of the easier ones. If you use these lenses wide open then more care must be taken when focusing. It's even harder with the f2.8 versions which also adds some weight to the whole rig. Of course, the longer the focal length the harder it is to use.  Blurry images is also possible because there is no image stabilisation with these older lenses and the Sony bodies doesn't have IBIS. The Olympus M43 bodies are a diffeent story however, and I must say, I have become a big fan of this great function. The Panasonic GX7 also has IBIS and I take my hat off to Panasonic for implementing this feature in their latest camera.

This is the last image from the Leica Elmarit 90 f2,8 for now befor I post some images made with some very nice 135mm lenses. All of these lenses are legacy manual focus lenses and have an aperture of f3.5. The reason I like these f3.5 lenses is because they are small, light and don't stick out too much. I have a couple of f2.8 135mm lenses and they're quite a bit bigger and heavier. It really amazing how much glass weighs and how much more glass there is in the f2.8 lenses.

Again, I find using these lenses easier on the A7 because the shutter is not as drastic as on the A7R. I will conquer these two cameras as they were purchased for my manual focus lenses. I find it so much more fun using a manual focus lens and saves me a lot of space on the hard drive as I tend not to take as many images. Just pointing the camera, focus with the AF and holding down the shutter is too easily done. Using the manual lenses just slows me down in every aspect of my photography.

Some people might say that there is nothing special with the above image, and they may be right but it's an image that I like so I'm posting it just because I can. I can see exactly where I focused and nailed it too. This is one reason why I like the longer focal length lenses. The longer the lens the less depth of field you have and at this focal length and at an aperture of f2.8, you have very little.