April 2023 Part 1 — This Month Through Your Adapted Lens

Agfa M3525 6/3 (~50 mm f/2.8) prototype lens

I love, love, love this unassuming little thing. It's such a joy to use that I always have to convince myself to try other lenses again, afterwards. I still have no idea how Agfa managed to create this lens and not do anything with it...

G R E A T shots simplejoy! And thanks! It was my favorite shot also.

And then some Cadillac bling:

(Z5, Canon FL 55 1.2)

Excellent capture - very impressive detail, good lighting and an interesting setup. I never felt really comfortable with microscope objectives, but I'm sure at some point I'll get around to experiment some more with those.

(Z5, Canon FL 55 1.2 @ f/1.2, ISO 320, 1/60s)

I love love Love this lens..

Eerie figure

Contax G 35/2 wide open on A7Rii

It's like a handheld tilt-shift with a sweet spot in the center.

Great shot and impressive sharpness wide open!

That's an excellent shot and the wonderful rendering of this lens works so well here.

Thank you! Yeah - that sounds like fun.

First tests with a new Pentax-A 35-70/4. I had the A 35-70/3.5-4.5, the push-pull version; the IQ's decent, but the zoom action on both my copies was barely damped and suffered from zoom creep (not to mention I'm not fond of push-pull zooms to start with). So when I saw this one for $15, and it used a zoom ring, figured I'd give it a try.

Not too bad for SOOC at f/4 (I didn't realize until later that I'd left it at f/4 and forgot to change it).

This, however, was not what I was expecting for a test subject... ^^;;

And sadly, 70mm just didn't have the reach for it. :(

Still, this one wasn't too bad.

Mercury..

(Z5, Canon FL 55 1.2 @ f/2?, ISO 400, 1/125s)

American White Pelican

Original on Flickr

Canon M50 Mark II with Canon EF to EF-M adaptor, Kenko TELEPLUS-HD 1.4x DGX extender, and Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM at 350 mm (cropped to 430 mm), f/8, 1/500 second, and ISO 250.

Beautiful reflection and excellent clarity - seems to work really well for a zoom + tele-converter!

Mamiya Enlahead 25 mm f/3.5 (enlarging lens)

Ever heard of a Mamiya enlarging lens? I wasn't aware of their existence as well, until I found Joe McGloin's fascinating page on miniature enlarging lenses.

As you would expect from enlarging lenses for such small formats, they don't have a lot of coverage. However that doesn't take away anything from their ability as macrolenses. On the contrary - some of those lenses are very effective when used as such...

Mir 1b 37mm f/2.8 (M42) on Sony 6300 shot wide open 1/200 ISO-320

Monk Parakeet

I’ve seen these a few times at my favorite birding spot, the Parque Ecológico de Xochimilco in Mexico City, but never had them this close.

Regards,

Alan

Original on Flickr

Fujifilm X-T3 and Nikon f2.8 100mm Series E at f8 plus Kipon adapter.
I have the later version with the better build quality and silver ring.
This lens always surprises me with its clarity and sharpness right into the corners.
And it is small and light, great to take along on my cycling trips in polderland 🚴‍♂️

André

Great capture! Looks really interesting with the green tones in the background. Might be even better with just leaves in the background, but I guess you can't control the bird... 😉

You guessed right. That said, controlling perspective is a vital aspect of wildlife photography. Often this means lying in the dirt, to get to eye-level with a low bird and to push the background further away. However, here I would have needed a ladder.

Regards,

Alan

Got my Leitz Focotar-2 50 mm f/4.5 enlarging lens out again - always a joy to use, even though it could be faster...

and some older shots, which show that it's quite a sharp lens indeed:

You probably won't believe it, but I even tried taking a shot of the nightsky with this lens:

(however that was only the case because someone - who wanted to know about the qualities of that particular lens for astrophotography - asked me to. 😉)