PhotoBlog of Random Images
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01/12/13 Manual Focus LensesAfter posting an image of the Panasonic lenses yesterday I thought about what else I have in the drawers about the house so I started sorting things out a little. Today I'm posting an image of the different 135 f3.5 lenses I have. These are relatively small and very useable when mounted on m4/3 or Sony Nex cameras. The smallest and lightest of these is the Minolta and is a beautiful lens to look at. The Konica lens is heavier and I think this is the one I least like to use. It's not in same league as my other 135 f3.5 lenses, or it could be just my copy. The top 2 in this range of manual 135 lenses are the Olympus OM and the Pentax SMC. Very nice build quality and the image rendition is really fantastic. The Pentax is quite heavy and feels quite undestructible. If you want a nice 135 manual focus lens for your Nex or m4/3 camera, look no further.
If you're wondering what lens I used for this image, it's an Olympus OM 28 f2.8 mounted on an Olympus E-PL1. Still a great camera for manual focus lenses. 1261
E-PL1 Focal Length: 0 mm Aperture: f/1.0 Exposure Time: 10/20 sec ISO: 200 11/24/12 Konica 135 f2.5 on Nex-7This is the last image from this lens for now. I just selected this to stress the fact that DOF at this focal length is really paper thin. I know I could have stopped down a stop or two but that would have meant increasing the ISO value. I like using my lenses wide open much of the time and keeping ISO low. If you don't use your lenses wide open or if the lenses aren't that good wide open then what is the point in having them. Either get rid of that lens or try another copy. That is why photographers buy these fast lenses, to use them in low light conditions or for selective focus. 1913
NEX-7 Focal Length: unknown Aperture: f/1.0 Exposure Time: 1/100 sec ISO: 1600 11/23/12 Konica 135 f2.5 on Nex-7To me, this is my best image of the day. I really like how you can see the light hitting this cymbal. Again taken during a little break the band had during the 5 hours they played in total. I'm lucky to get a handful of these keepers during a photo session. On that day I may have gotten 5 that I really liked and that's out of some 1000 images. That doesn't mean that I throw the others away, It's just that these images are a tick better. 1855
NEX-7 Focal Length: unknown Aperture: f/1.0 Exposure Time: 1/1600 sec ISO: 1600 11/22/12 Konica 135 f2.5 on Nex-7I was looking around for some subject during a break and these saxophones were staring me in the eye all the time. Maybe they were too close to me which is why I didn't see them earlier probably. I couldn't get them all in the frame they were that close. I knew that I wanted to crop the image into the square format so I place them in the middle of the image. This is one good thing about the size of the file you get from the Nex-7. Plenty of cropping room. I wish that Sony would come out with a firmware upgrade which allows you to select a square format. I think they're the only manufacture that doesn't have this option nowadays. 3032
NEX-7 Focal Length: unknown Aperture: f/1.0 Exposure Time: 1/200 sec ISO: 1600 11/21/12 Konica 135 f2.5 on Nex-7I cought the lead singer here pretty well in this image. He was lead singer, trumpeter and comedian all in one. Good music and we enjoyed it. I had to try a few frames to get this one though which didn't leave a lot of time to refocus. 2797
NEX-7 Focal Length: unknown Aperture: f/1.0 Exposure Time: 1/400 sec ISO: 1600 11/20/12 Konica 135 f2.5 on Nex-7This is the last band we listened to that day, and it went well into the evening before we headed home (which took a long time due to the crowds present). This sort of lighting makes it really difficult to manual focus, even with the peeking function. I've got my settings set to high and yellow. This is where I changes to red because I couldn't really determine when focus was achieved or not. I had to differentiate between the rather yellow lighting and the peeking fuction. Didn't work too well which is why I changed to red. Worked a lot better. I'm glad I had the 135 on the camera. It was perfect for what I wanted. 2215
NEX-7 Focal Length: unknown Aperture: f/1.0 Exposure Time: 1/400 sec ISO: 1250 11/19/12 Konica 135 f2.5 on Nex-7I not only listened to the bands, I wandered the stalls that were a little off the main section. You could listen to some people doing their own thing here as the one in this image. Althought he 135 was a little long for this type of photography I did my utmost to get some different images during the day. 2073
NEX-7 Focal Length: unknown Aperture: f/1.0 Exposure Time: 1/1000 sec ISO: 200 11/18/12 Konica 135 f2.5 on Nex-7Another one of this band, I've forgot the name (shame on me). I think it was the only band to be playing without a set of drums at the back. Rather refreshing because the music certainly sounded different. I liked it a lot.
I haven't mentioned the Sony Nex-7 at all during these last few posts because there's really not a lot more to say about it. A very capable camera that fits well in the hand and produces very good images. I use my Nex system really for pure manual focus lenses (well 99% of the time anyway) and I really enjoy it. The peeking function really helps my tired eyes with manual focusing. 2134
NEX-7 Focal Length: unknown Aperture: f/1.0 Exposure Time: 1/640 sec ISO: 400 11/17/12 Konica 135 f2.5 on Nex-7This band did a couple of pieces just playing their guitars and excellent pieces they were too. I wish I could have stayed longer to listen to them but my better half wanted to move on. I got a couple of shots in before I left though. 2627
NEX-7 Focal Length: unknown Aperture: f/1.0 Exposure Time: 1/500 sec ISO: 250 11/16/12 Konica 135 f2.5 on Nex-7I would just like to post a few more shots taken with this lens to show you how sharp these can be if you get the focus right. This lady was not part of the band and I think she was getting married shortly after. She just got up on stage and sang a song with the help of the band. She was quite good too. 1943
NEX-7 Focal Length: unknown Aperture: f/1.0 Exposure Time: 1/500 sec ISO: 100 | |