It’s an interesting experience configuring a 35mm lens from 1972 to use on a medium format mirrorless camera from 2018.
This is a cheap lens second hand from E-Bay, probably only used before on a film camera, but the glass is clear and the aperture blades smooth, and at F1.7 it provides a pleasing depth of field on a medium format sensor. These older Minolta lenses were over-engineered and whilst there remains some vignetting at 50mm this is easily corrected. Most importantly these lenses are high quality and comparatively cheap and offer some great opportunities to play around with different focal lengths.
The first image I took with it was whilst passing Dylan in the lounge (main photo above), you can see the vignetting, and it will take some practice to nail focus with precision, as this is a little soft. But, with patience, hopefully it will become a real asset. It also feels great to have a fifty year old lens in my hands, and to know it can still produce some nice looking results.
Consequently, most of this afternoon has been spent wandering around trying to find other subjects to justify my excitement at this discovery.
Still life isn’t really my thing, but given the limitations we have presently it was my only option today, having stretched the limits of family portraiture over the course of this diary.
One other brief highlight today was once again spotting the mouse that lives in our garden, s/he was busy scooting around some rocks looking for fallen bird feed, and kept us amused for awhile. S/he is also fast, and fast isn’t an easy subject when focussing manually, with a new, yet old lens, so this inevitably is a heavy crop.
Yesterday, was a different day and a different lens, here are some snapshots from around the house and the garden, repetitive, but then this experience is all about repetition, so for today, or at least yesterday, I thought I’d embrace it.
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