May 2023 Part 1 — This Month Through Your Adapted Lens

An invitation to dust off your precious (or not so precious) glass and head out to make some photographs: the real reason for the existence of all our lenses.

Here are the guidelines:

• Images with a removable adapter between lens and camera
• Images with the lens mount permanently modified to fit a different camera
• Images with the lens held by hand without an adapter (freelensing)
• Including metadata (camera, lens, aperture, shutter speed) is encouraged but not required.

Comments are encouraged, but please keep them friendly and constructive.

Continued from the April 2023 Part 1 thread.

Regards,

Alan

For birders, one of the delights of travel is that common birds elsewhere are often new and interesting to the visitor. A week ago, I was birding in Mexico City with a visiting Canadian, and he was fascinated by the Great-tailed Grackles, which I see every day. This week gone, it was my turn. I was visiting Mérida, Yucatán, for work, and managed to catch some quick birding sessions in the city before breakfast. I found these White-winged Doves to be quite beautiful, despite them being one of the commonest birds in the city.

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 450 mm), f/8, 1/1000 second, and ISO 1250.

Original on Flickr

Noritsu 32 mm f/4 (minilab lens)

Featheral beauty by simple.joy, on Flickr

There‘s a bug going around… by simple.joy, on Flickr

P‘s of mind by simple.joy, on Flickr

You want me to teach you about color? by simple.joy, on Flickr

The first one has more than a touch of the divine.

Regards,

Alan

This is one of my tiny Agfa (probably) prototype lenses, the Agfa M.3421 6/2. I haven't measured focal length or max aperture yet. It seems to be a triplet and it's quite a nice one in my opinion. It can create some of the smoothest bokeh I know:

They open as daisy fit by simple.joy, on Flickr

and then also some strangely harsh bokeh-highlights when direct sunlight is involved:

Signals in a foreign language by simple.joy, on Flickr
(it's exaggerated here through post processing, but still very distinct in the original image)

Light venturing out by simple.joy, on Flickr

The 3 above from the Canon FD 50mm 1.4 SSC
Below are from the Helios 44 M4 58mm F2

Great shots - I like these two in particular. Beautiful composition and tones in the first and spectacular light in the second! Beautiful silhouettes as well - almost looks like a creature that tried to climb the tree but is just falling off (on the right one of the two trees). I'm sure it would look great printed big.

Thanks much. Those 2 are my favs too.

These are great. Love the last one especially.

Here's an image created with a Docter Tevidon 50 mm f/1.8

Pebble to the metal by simple.joy, on Flickr

I love the smooth rendering, but it's pretty much the only shot I've taken with this lens so far. Here's one taken with its "older brother" a 70 mm by Carl Zeiss:

Bokeh maelstrom by simple.joy, on Flickr

A neotropic cormorant resting on one of the old concrete piles in Lago Huetzalin in Xochimilco, México.

Sometimes you just need to get closer, even if it means wandering out on some of the moored boats (trajineras, to be precise). I’m not sure my green clothes worked as camouflage against the yellow, red, and blue woodwork, but the cormorant didn’t seem to be bothered.

The set-up shot is by a fellow birder, Gerardo Cárdenas.

Regards,

Alan

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 308 mm (cropped to 660 mm), f/8, 1/640 second, and ISO 200.

Original on Flickr

Great shot! I'm always impressed by the dedication of people who photograph birds - I would have to practice a lot to get anything even close to okay.

Checking my captures it looks like I've shot with quite a number of different lenses in May:

Meyer Kinon Superior 5 cm f/1.8

Leaning towards chaos by simple.joy, on Flickr

We‘ll leave and try a second time… by simple.joy, on Flickr

Agfa Colostar N 42 mm f/4.5

Fade into the pastel by simple.joy, on Flickr

Unreal beauty by simple.joy, on Flickr

Agfa Colostar XX mm f/4.5 (it has no focal length on it, probably around 45-55 mm though)

Ascant by simple.joy, on Flickr

Leitz Focotar-2 50 mm f/4.5

Twofold unfold by simple.joy, on Flickr

Self coronation by simple.joy, on Flickr

Since I work almost exclusively indoors these days here is a mixed bag of still life images. All are done with A7ii, Vivitar 50mm 2.8 VHE enlarging lens and helicoid extension. The first three show obvious effects of haze and fungus. The last two were made after cleaning and rebuilding the lens. They are clear and crisp but some character disappeared with the haze.

Nice shots and great job on the lighting!

As mentioned in one of your threads, the Vivitar VHEs seem to be re-packaged early Componon-S lenses. (See here for more infos: deltalenses.com/product/vivitar-vhe-50-2-8/) Those are known to be outstanding macro-lenses, however they can show a slightly harsh bokeh in certain conditions. It's possible that the Vivitar version is different in that regard, but I think it mainly shows in direct light, because of the strange inwards aperture shape.

So I guess with your beautiful soft light it won't be a problem anyway. I know what you mean by a lens loosing some of its unique rendering by cleaning or repairing, but I wouldn't have guessed it from the images. Because of the black background the main draw of your shots for me is the nice lighting and the arrangements. I would care a lot more about the rendering, if there was more visible in the background.

Thanks for your comments

The out-of-focus rendering of the Vivitar VHE is rather harsh depending upon the general brightness of the background. It also misbehaves with nasty flare at times. Most of my close up images tend to have soft black or white backgrounds and maybe some rim light.

I have used vintage lenses exclusively since 2016. My year project to use vintage turned into a permanent thing. The idea of a sharp modern lens is a foreign concept at this point. I have a few OM Zuiko primes and a nice 35mm 3.5 Takumar. The rest is just having fun making images.

That's very interesting - I'm happy to hear that! I feel like I'm a similar case... I was just thinking about an image I posted a couple of months ago, where I shot the same flower (a liverleaf) with two different lenses. One was a 90 year old Zeiss repro-lens with very low contrast and some abberations, the other one a significantly more modern scanner lens, optimized for excellent sharpness and corrections. I clearly preferred the look of the old lens, even though I'm not someone, who doesn't care about sharpness usually... I do, but only to an extent, I guess. Here's the shot by that very old and flawed lens:

Hard to be soft in a good way... by simple.joy, on Flickr

I've lots of stories about lenses, which inspired me despite (or in some cases even because of) their flaws...

Together with a friend of mine, I'm trying to document some of those on the deltalenses site I've mentioned. It's a work-in-progress still, but if you want to add a personal review to the Vivitar VHE lens you're using, or any other lens in there, please feel encouraged to do so via the 'Reviews' tab on any product page: deltalenses.com/product/vivitar-vhe-50-2-8/

Given that you've been doing it for a couple of years now, what are some of your vintage lens favorites so far?

Probably we are getting a little off topic for a monthly lens thread. Sorry.
My favorite lens is a 35mm f3.5 Takumar M42 that is just outstanding. I've never had another lens that gave such wonderful images.

Thanks. I think what you say about dedication and practice applies to all of us in our different genres. Certainly, I feel this when I see your images and those of many of our peers here. In our own areas of specialty, some are ahead of me, some are about where I am, and some are ahead of me, sometimes far ahead of me.

I love your image of the ant! Speaking of dedication, how many attempts did you need to get everything coming together with an indifferent subject?

Regards,

Alan

I’d choose these two photos too. If I were religious, I’d say the first was proof that God is simultaneously a superb engineer and sculptor. And the lighting in the second is beautiful.

Regards,

Alan

Please post no new photos. The June thread has just started. Thanks.

Plus one for the good old Asahi Lens Co!

I have an M42 24mm for my crop cameras and it is very nice indeed.

Also have their M42 400mm and a 200mm but I don't use them much ...

Beautiful shots - both of those! Given that there's not too many people contributing here in our small part of the forum yet, I hop that @AlanWF doesn't mind, if a bit of off-topic discussion happens here.

Thank you as well - Asahi is still a big blind spot for me, I guess!

So, now that I have two Asahi fans here, I just have to take the opportunity and ask for your help: I'm still trying to find any proof, that the Durst Neonon enlarging lenses (50, 80 and 105 mm in focal length and all quite good) were made by Asahi/Pentax. There are a couple of threads in different forums to be found online where the possibility is discussed (some including myself), but there still isn't any definitive proof.

I would appreciate it if you could help me find some concrete proof for that, so I can at least say that I own three Asahi lenses right now. 😂