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cult lens fun

  • #141
Thanks Andrew! Haha.
 
  • #142
Devon,

Very cool shot.....

It seems there is a "sweet spot aspect ratio" to get the swrilies....

you can increase the depth of field if you increase the distance to background and get the effect....
Ive read for portrait shots, have the bg about 7-11 feet behind subject and it will have the swirl

ummm sometimes :)

I find that even while using aperture priority mode, I still need to adjust exposure compensation for nearly each individual application. But this seems true with using any vintange and my older Canon XSI
 
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  • #143
I think peat has ordered one as well.... and of course we have Crissy....

(She is the one who deserves the credit for introducing me to them, she can do some amazing stuff with hers)

Keep an eye out for a 28mm vivitar close focus wide angle next, amazing lens....
be sure it says "close focus", there are many variants.... if it doesnt say close focus, pass on it.

CloseFocusfront.jpg

They are more commonly found/cheaper in Canada and UK, not so common in the states.

Then snag a nice Russian Jupiter-9
It has blades out the ying yang, and its another prewar iron curtain zeiss
With those, I think the best are early 1980's manufactured, look for one with serial number staring between 80 and 86. They changed the coatings in 87 and seemed to have lost something in the process.

Some say get the early 1960's silver colored models, but there are some that have wrong mount... and those are just so old imho. I love my 1985 model. I got it old stock, new in unopened box for under 175USD.
 
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  • #144
Thanks for all of the help, Av. Maybe I'll get myself the 28mm lens for Christmas. :-D
 
  • #145
Devon,

Very cool shot.....

It seems there is a "sweet spot aspect ratio" to get the swrilies....

you can increase the depth of field if you increase the distance to background and get the effect....
Ive read for portrait shots, have the bg about 7-11 feet behind subject and it will have the swirl

ummm sometimes :)

I find that even while using aperture priority mode, I still need to adjust exposure compensation for nearly each individual application. But this seems true with using any vintange and my older Canon XSI

Kinda looks like the swirlies come from field curvature. Here. is an example from a microscope. Seems to me that if you have a very small f/N and/or increase this distance like you said, then this effect should be more pronounced.

Disclaimer: I'm not a photographer.

Still makes for a neat effect though!
 
  • #146
Interesting!

Christmas candyydydyy, taken with the helios again.
8259156959_31bff3e03d_b.jpg


8258956829_47caa06e07_c.jpg


The first one was obviously very edited.

I'm even more impressed now with the sharpness of this lens, especially since it was only $30!
 
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  • #147
They are sharp, they have contrast, they have bokeh, they have color saturation.....

Classic Zeiss pre-war lens design
 
  • #148
Beautiful photos everyone! I had no idea the vintage lenses would catch on like they have. I can't take credit. This is something that I stumbled on back when I was researching DSLR cameras. I've even modified my camera with a Katz Eye focusing screen (split prism like SLRs have) to aid with focusing.

The recent posts inspired me to break out my Helios 44-2 yesterday. Here is what I ended up with:

Random tree with vine
tree.jpg


Moss
moss.jpg


Jaxson
jax.jpg


Beau
beau.jpg


I really do love my vintage lenses. The Yashica ML lenses are my absolute favorite along with my Viv 28mm wide angle close focus.

Taken with the Viv 28mm close focus
rotundiflora.jpg


Thanks everyone for showing your photos!
 
  • #149
Lovely pictures! I like the bokeh in the moss picture, and the swirlies in the pic of Jaxson.

I had no idea the vintage lenses would catch on like they have. I can't take credit.

Weeelllll, I think you and Av take all of the credit for inspiring a few people to get a vintage lens. :-O
 
  • #150
Crissy is a bad influence ;-)
That girl has a way of keeping me broke....

(playful tease, old and dear friends... they dont get any better than crissy)
 
  • #151
Thanks Devon! It just takes some practice to get the amount and type of bokeh that you want.

Got me blushing Av :blush:. It all started with my cheapo Kmart brand Viv didn't it? ;) (inside joke).
 
  • #152
@Av8tor1, I really must speak to you sometime about camera lenses, having just purchased a Nikon D3100 and trying to make sense of what I need for macro without paying a fortune.
 
  • #155
@Av8tor1, I really must speak to you sometime about camera lenses, having just purchased a Nikon D3100 and trying to make sense of what I need for macro without paying a fortune.

Carl, how much do you have in your budget?

I dont know much about specific modern nikons.... but entry level would be to simply get some extension tubes and a good 50mm prime lens or use them with the kit lens. You will be surprised at what flexibility this provides
That can be as cheap as under 20 bucks if you dont mind manual control.... chinese made tubes are uber cheap on ebay.

A step up from that might be something vintage, now we are talking somewhere around a hundred probably... a wonderful example here is the 1st generation, Series 1 Vivitar 70-210mm, it is a macro and a zoom, very sweet and very flexible for hmmmm 50-75usd.
(need to know serial number prefix before you buy, many variants. Only one variant shifts the lenses for macro use)

Warren would be a better person to ask about vintage macros, I know he has experience in that area.

Up from that would be a current Nikon offerings, now you would have full auto exposure, etc
Looks like peat and devon are pointing ya in a good direction on those.

The helios 44 is not a macro lens.... its a wonderful lens, but its not a macro.... its a 58mm prime
(but now some have used it with an extension tube and gotten some amazing macros with bokeh)

When dealing with vintage lenses, you have to know exactly what to look for.... some have as many as 20 or more variants. One maybe a great lens while another, one serial number different might be crap.

Warren, please chime in on vintage macro options

what is your budget goal?
lets start there

butch
 
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  • #156
Thanks Devon! It just takes some practice to get the amount and type of bokeh that you want.

Got me blushing Av :blush:. It all started with my cheapo Kmart brand Viv didn't it? ;) (inside joke).

:) yep, it sure did you lil chit you
 
  • #157
Thank for the advise Peatmoss, Devon and Av8tor1 :)
 
  • #158
Screwmount lenses need an adapter with an optical element to obtain focus at infinity - this can degrade the image quality. Not a problem if all you are going to do use the lens for macro. The capabilities of most of the old glass go way beyond macro though.

Your options with the consumer grade (vs pro grade) Nikon DSLRs such as the D3100 and D3200 are limited.

You get no metering with any lens earlier than the AF and AF-D series. This means with manual focus lenses you either have to use a hand-held light meter, guess or do a lot of "chimping" - take a shot, look at the results/histogram, adjust and repeat. The same applies to using bellows and extension tubes without electrical connections, reverse mount rings etc. Using a hand held meter means you have to account for extension exposure factor - this involves using a tape measure and some mathematics - not a problem if you have a programmable calculator handy. Or you can just "chimp" once the hand-held gets you in the ball park. But then a good hand-held meter with flash capability will set you back almost as much as a macro lens so why bother?

Nikon has the most advanced matrix metering systems of any of the companies - why would you want to lose this feature?

Outside of finding a used AF+ Nikkor Micro (Nikon calls their macro lenses "Micro") or a 3rd party lens (Sigma or Tokina) you can get close-up lenses, reverse rings for lens stacking or extension tubes with electrical connections (Kenko).

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/compatibility-lens.htm

If you are willing to accept the limitations of using non-AF+ lenses the Nikkor Micro lenses are all fine as are any of the Pentax MF macro lenses. Pentax K-mount adapters also come with optics however some of them have removable lenses for macro work.

Expect to pay premium prices for used MF lenses in the Nikon and Pentax mounts since they are usable without adapters on some Nikon and Pentax digital camera bodies.
 
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  • #159
Not a Number, thank you for your very comprehensive reply and useful link :)
 
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