Throwback 2015: Quiet On The Beach

Quiet On The Beach

'Fleeting moments, in the heat of the day, when all was quiet and still'

While I currently use the E-P5 more often for capturing digital moments with legacy manual focus lenses which I buy off auction sites with the idea of putting them up for sale on my camera gear shopping page, there were also occasions when I had the E-P5 mounted with the M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5~5.6 EZ, for outings of sorts. The EZ is a slimline kit lens, it is only 23mm thick and weighs just about 91grams, a perfect fit for the camera.

This session is way back in 2015 when I was on an outstation trip. Took the opportunity to stop for a breather by this beach. It was high noon, the sun was directly overhead, the sky cloudless, there was little or no wind if any, and the heat was getting rather uncomfortable. Images were shot in monochrome, post-processed on Olympus Viewer 3 (OV3), and print sharpening was done on Google NIK Sharpener Pro 3.

Resource Links:
Olympus M. Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 EZ ED MSC Lens Review
Review: Olympus Pen E-P5 - The Phoblographer

Throwback 2009: Wide-Angle Vignettes

Wide Angle Vignettes

'Vignette fun with the short end of the Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 Zoom mounted on a full frame SLR Film camera'

This was way back in 2009 when I experimented mounting an ASP-C designed lens, the Sony DT 18-70mm (3.9x) f/3.5-5.6 Zoom, on a full frame A-mount Minolta Maxxum AF body. The lens was from a Sony A-200 DSLR kit, and the film camera a Maxxum 7000. I still have the lens, but not the body, so the image shown here, with the Sony DT mounted on a later Minolta Maxxum 70 was just for illustration.

Retro-fitting DSLR lenses on AF SLR film camera bodies, if the mount matches, is a low-cost way to get into film photography, and you are in for a lot of fun here. Lenses, like the Sony DT as shown here, due to their design that comes with smaller diameter lens components, will give you the vignette or port-hole effect at its widest or short end. The vignette effect will dissipate as you zoom in towards the telephoto end of the lens.

Resource Links:
What is Vignetting?
When Should You Use Vignette? - Enlight Leak

Pentax MX: Street Squares

Street Squares

'My first outing with the Pentax MX mounted with a SMC Pentax-M 40mm f/2.8'

Had the Pentax MX mounted with an SMC Pentax-M 40mm f/2.8, spent about an hour scouting this downtown area, with a limit set to half a roll of a 36-shot film canister. I already had my mind set on using the other half roll of film on another camera.

Interestingly, I was very pleased with the images captures and it turns out that I will have enough images for up to three posts on this blog, with each post having a set of 5 frames. The images were originally captured on Kodak ColorPlus 200, and I had them converted to black and white on Olympus Viewer 3 (OV3). For this session, the images were cropped to 1:1 image aspect ratio.

The SMC Pentax-M 40mm f/2.8 is a marvel of a lens actually, a full frame lens that comes in an incredibly compact form factor with a depth of only 18mm.

At 110 grams body weight, the lens is much lighter than other primes of that era. It is well made, metal and glass throughout, with a well-damped focus throw, snappy aperture stops, with a very smooth focus ring.

With a 40mm focal length, the lens is a wider than a standard 50mm prime, and a little bit narrower than the wide-angle 35mm, and to me, is just about right for general-purpose photography and is equally suited for street photography where spaces are sometimes slightly tight and where your surrounding is rather confined.

Reportedly, the lens is not as sharp wide open, with the tendency to show light fall-off and color-fringing towards the corners of the image. For my shoot, however, I was not bothered by the effects as I was on an aperture range between f/5.6 to f/11 on a beautiful bright and sunny day. Converting the images to black-and-white, and the crop to 1:1 image aspect ratio adds to the finesse of the images.

Resource Links:
SMC Pentax M 40mm F/2.8 Pancake Lens Review
Pentax MX: I hardly knew ye

Take Five: Scared Cat

Olympus E-P5, Minolta MD 28mm f/2.8

Scared Cat

'An evening out on the porch with the Minolta MD 28mm f/2.8 adapted to the Olympus Pen E-P5'

I have to admit that it was rather a hilarious evening.

I was out and about on the front porch looking for the opportunity of grabbing a few test shots of the glorious sunset with the Minolta MD 28mm f/2.8 attached to the E-P5 when I glanced back over my shoulder and caught the sight of one of our neighbor's cat perched on the edge of the mansard.

Looking rather stiff and scared, almost immobile, with ears pointed, the cat was actually fixated on the unfolding scene of the sunset which is happening on the rooftop of the houses across the street. Took the opportunity of grabbing these few shots as well, with images that may be at the expense of the excellence of the lens in terms of its sharpness, but not in contrast.

An MD 28mm f/2.8, the Rokkor version, is generally said to be one of the best from Minolta, close to the excellence of the MC W.Rokkor-SI 28mm f/2.5 and the MD Rokkor 28mm f/2.

Subsequent to that is the plain MD's, these are without the ROKKOR (ROKKOR-X for the US) word on the nameplate. These include the 7 elements in 7 group design which can be identified by the serial number which is 80xxxxx, and later again to a simpler 5 element in 5 group design with 70xxxxx serial numbers.

These two can also be differentiated by a different design detailing of the conical plate joining the name ring and the front of the lens. You can learn more about these lenses at Ad Dieleman's Minolta SR mount 28mm Lenses web page.

Built of plastic and glass, with metal mount, and weighing in at about 190gram, the MD 28mm f/2.8 is a lightweight and compact beauty. It fits well with the ergonomics of the E-P5, does not make the camera any much heavier, and handling is effortless.

The focal length equivalent of the MD 28mm on the E-P5 is 56mm, almost equivalent of a standard nifty-fifty on a full frame SLR.

Resource Links:
The 28mm Minolta MD f/2.8 Rediscovered.
MD Rokkor 28mm/2.8 on Sony Alpha 7 | David Tanzer