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Monday, January 25, 2021

Seagull-610 50mm 1:1.8, Might Just Be OK

Seagull-610 50mm 1:1.8, Vintage Lens Test, Might Just Be OK 01
Seagull-610 50mm 1:1.8, Vintage Lens Test, Might Just Be OK 02
Seagull-610 50mm 1:1.8, Vintage Lens Test, Might Just Be OK 03
Seagull-610 50mm 1:1.8, Vintage Lens Test, Might Just Be OK 04
Seagull-610 50mm 1:1.8, Vintage Lens Test, Might Just Be OK 05
Vintage Lens Test: Testing a Seagull-610 50mm 1:1.8, a Minolta MD-mount manual focus prime, OK images.
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My first thought was that this could be an interesting find, the lens caught my attention as I was browsing the big bay for other odds and ends to feed my interest in vintage and pre-digital manual focus prime lenses to add to my small selection of vintage lenses preview and try a few shots with. The Seagull-610 could very well be the kit lens for the Seagull DF-300M 35mm SLR film camera, a licensed copy of Minolta's X-300 produced at one time by the Shanghai General Camera Factory.

The lens itself, on arrival, was rather a disappointment. The all-plastic helicoid gear is all but stuck with gunk and turning it by force snaps and breaks the focus ring trim. The focusing ring, now held together with a rubber band, gets to smoothen out after a few twists and turns but one end of the focus decides to stay stiff and very bothersome to focus with.

Olympus E-P5, Seagull-610 50mm F1.9
Olympus E-P5, Seagull-610 50mm F1.9

The lens mount to my adapter front was also a bit fiddly and I ended up moving the camera back and forth instead for subjects that were close to the shortest focusing end. Shot wide open, images are surprisingly soft and pleasant, with good bokeh, but fall rather short of excellent. These are about the best shots after the early morning session. Looks like the lens may go into storage or be put up for sale sooner than I thought.



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Monday, January 18, 2021

Nokia Asha 300, Celebrating Dawn

Nokia Asha 300, Mobile Photography, Celebrating Dawn 01
Nokia Asha 300, Mobile Photography, Celebrating Dawn 02
Nokia Asha 300, Mobile Photography, Celebrating Dawn 03
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Nokia Asha 300, Mobile Photography, Celebrating Dawn 05
Mobile Photography: Image making with a vintage candy-bar Nokia Asha 300, celebrating dawn with a camera that came back to life.
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Wow, what a relief. For no apparent reason, aside from the fact that I plugged the charger incorrectly on a few previous occasions, my favorite candy-bar Nokia Asha 300 decided to come back to life. That was a joyous moment indeed, and as soon as the camera's battery was fully charged, took it out to the porch for these celebration shots.

The 2011 vintage candy bar, which came with only a 5mmp rear camera, has been one of my favorites for quite a while now. It has always been my constant companion any time I was outdoors since I dug it out of storage almost a couple of years back. The camera served me well, a constant with sharp and beautifully rendered images that never failed to deliver.

Nokia Asha 300
Nokia Asha 300

Am really looking forward to now, here's hoping that the camera will give me a few more great shots, even only for a while before age takes its final toll again.



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Monday, January 11, 2021

Jupiter-8 50mm 1:2, An Astute Choice

Jupiter-8 50mm 1:2, Vintage Lens Test, An Astute Choice 01
Jupiter-8 50mm 1:2, Vintage Lens Test, An Astute Choice 02
Jupiter-8 50mm 1:2, Vintage Lens Test, An Astute Choice 03
Jupiter-8 50mm 1:2, Vintage Lens Test, An Astute Choice 04
Jupiter-8 50mm 1:2, Vintage Lens Test, An Astute Choice 05
Vintage Lens Test: Image making with a Jupiter-8 50mm 1:2, an excellent LTM / M39 lens from the '50s.
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The year 2021 may see me in a new light, propelled by a burst of fresh energy and newfound enthusiasm, first by getting out of the doldrum of the Covid 19 confinement which has affected almost the entire population of the world, and secondly by expanding my interest into another genre of photography (as seen in my previous post), and finally, as you can see from this post, a new presentation format with images embedded in a wide plain frame, similar in presentation to the 'Photo of the Day series which I am also doing on this blog.

Not the least, though, are these five frames with the 50mm M39 Leica thread mount Jupiter-8 50mm 1:2, a circa 1950s vintage lens produced by various manufacturers in the former Soviet Union. Derived from the Zeiss Sonnar design, the lens is a 5-elements in 3-group construction with a maximum aperture of f/2.0 and a minimum focusing distance of 1.0 meters. The lens is also available with a Contax mount.

Olympus Pen E-P5, Jupiter 8 50mm 1:2 0
Olympus E-P5, Jupiter-8 50mm 1:2

One advantage I have with these L39/M39 rangefinder lenses (including the Jupiter-8) is the ability to get infinity focus when used on mirrorless cameras, a feature not possible on DSLRs due to the difference in flange distance design. That's my take on a great cost-saving opportunity for mirrorless camera users as these lenses are still very low-priced, and easily available, with a few coming across with well-established performances.



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Monday, January 4, 2021

Time Lapse Photography, Rolling Skies

Rolling Skies 01
Rolling Skies 02
Rolling Skies 03

Nokia 3.1

My very first try at time-lapse photography editing.

Did my very first 10-second time-lapse video of the dawn a few days before the new year and posted that video earlier as my welcoming gesture for 2021. After that, I was ready for the next few mornings but dawn did not turn out as expected.

I did, however, manage to capture a 30-second lapse on one of those days and an edit session to concatenate the two videos together with a fast fade worked out to be a pleasant surprise. For a completely fresh novice like me, the edit sessions were like a shot in the arm and a boost of fresh adrenalin (rather than a vaccine for Covid 19), and might as well end as one of the resolves for 2021.

And as you have noticed, the video still has no soundtrack support, the channel that I hope to get on with soon enough.



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Friday, January 1, 2021

Time Lapse Photography, Welcoming 2021

Welcoming 2021.



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