Canon EF 35-70mm 1:3.5~4.5 A, An AF Only Lens

Digital Moments: Image making with an autofocus-only Canon EF 35-70mm 1:3.5~4.5 A, the second iteration of the standard EF zoom.

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The Canon EF 35-70mm F/3.5-4.5 A, launched in 1988, is a lightweight (230 grams) plastic-bodied full-frame standard zoom lens. The lens, constructed with 9 elements in 8 groups, is the second version of Canon's original EF 35-70mm 1:3.5-4.5 (1987) lens and came without the manual focus ring. The 'A' (not commonly used among Canon lenses) designation signifies the lens as an autofocus-only model. The EF 35-70mm F/3.5-4.5 A has a minimum focusing distance of 0.39 meters.

On the EOS 300D's ASP-C sensor (crop factor 1.6x), the lens will have a focal range equivalent to a 56-112mm zoom on 35mm full-frame cameras. The range is typically designated to that of a short telephoto lens, one of the most versatile and useful lenses you should have. Used mainly for portraits and close-ups, the lens isolates the subject for potentially pleasing bokeh with its shallow depth of field effect. The lens is equally adaptable for candids, street photography, and landscapes,

Canon 300D, EF 35-70mm 1:3.5~4.5 A

The Canon EOS 300D (EOS Digital Rebel in North America, EOS Digital Kiss in Japan), announced in 2003, is a 6.3MP CMOS sensor ASP-C digital SLR camera, is a very well-built polycarbonated body with an EF-S lens mount, a focal-plane shutter with a speed range from 30 - 1/4000 second (0.3 EV steps), a 1.8-inch 118,000 pixels backlit LCD screen, and a pentamirror viewfinder with 7 AF-points. The EF-S lens mount is EF-compatible.

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-S5, Starting Out

The CCD Sensor: Testing out a vintage ultra-compact 16MP CCD Panasonic Lumix DMC-S5, first look.

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My latest acquisition is in the search of an alternative to the ever-rising cost of photography, where film prices and their associated services are ever spiraling rising in film photography, and where digital cameras are getting very sophisticated and may be too complex to be enjoyable for simple point-and-shoot image capture.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-S5 is a 16MP CCD sensor ultra-compact digital camera, not much bigger than my other favorite vintage, the Nokis Asha 300, and comes with a 4x Zoom Leica DC Vario, 6 elements in 5 groups with 3 aspherical elements lens. The specs look great, the cost is about equivalent to only a couple of rolls of film, and the fun looks forthcoming.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-S5

The camera was launched in 2012 and weighs 112 grams with a battery.

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Canon PowerShot Pro1, For Me, A Disappointment

The CCD Sensor: Image-making with the highly regarded 2004 6MP CCD Canon PowerShot Pro1, just couldn't get the hang of it.

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For all the hype, accolades, and promotions on the excellence of the Canon PowerShot Pro1 (a circa 2004 digicam fitted with a 6MP CCD sensor), the camera, to me, is still a disappointment. It could even be my own fault that I acquired a unit with a slight distribution of moss-like fungal infection on the front lens, which makes autofocusing a hit-and-miss, it is the overall sluggishness of the camera appalls me. Took ages for the camera to focus, and longer still to record the images.

The Canon Powershot Pro1, launched by Canon in 2004, comes fitted with the professional 'L' (Luxury) line lens, made for the earlier FD-mount lens series. Canon 'L' lenses are normally identified with a red ring and the letter 'L' engraved on the lens trim. These lenses tend to be more durable, with some incorporating dust and water-resistant rubber seals. On the Pro1, the lens has a zoom range of 7.2 to 50.8mm, equivalent to 28 to 200mm in 35mm full-frame format. The camera has a maximum speed of 1/4,000 second, measures 117.5 x 72 x 90.3mm deep, and weighs 545 grams.

Canon PowerShot Pro1

As posted, I do, however, manage to get a few interesting in-focus shots with the Pro1 on its test run. Images were post-processed on the desktop photo editor, cropped to suit, and tweaked with Tone Cirve, Brightness & Contrast, and Unsharp Mask. While the images were near exhilarating, the lethargicness of autofocusing and image recording remains the sore point, and the tendency to pass this model over to another make and model with faster AF and image recording (from later years production run) is all but there.

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ40, Zoom Extents

The CCD Sensor: Testing the zoom extent of the Leica DC Vario-Elmarit 4.5-108mm 1:2.8~5.3 lens of the 14.1MP CCD Lumix DMC FZ40.

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The ease of having a very long zoom lens instead of using individual prime lenses for each focal length you might want to shoot is, of course, very convenient. For both amateurs and the new enthusiasts, for example, shooting with the 14.1MP CCD Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ40 saves you from having individual 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 105mm, 200mm, 300mm, and 500mm lenses to carry around in your camera bag.

You can instead, with the camera capabilities, use the time to enhance your creativity by studying the different aspects of image framing and exposure control at different focal lengths as offered by the lens, the option of using different metering modes, and of course, the need to move away from shooting only in programmed mode to aperture or shutter priority, or to a fully manual mode.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ40

Having the advantage of a zoom lens means that you can change the angle of view and focal length quickly and without changing lenses, which makes your main subject appear much larger in the frame, and helps to bring foreground and background elements much closer together, at just the correct depth of field.

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