Showing posts with label Lenses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lenses. Show all posts
Friday, January 10, 2014
Lensbaby 3G
I picked up a used Lensbaby 3G over the Christmas break from KEH Camera (www.keh.com). I've heard great things about KEH as far as used equipment and they did not disappoint. The lens arrived in the described condition, which was like new, and shipping was pretty fast considering it went FedEx Ground. I've been playing around with it a little bit and I've been getting some great results. You can see examples on my flickr page. I'll give a more detailed post on this later, I've been trying to get ready to start the new semester at Brooks.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Vintage Lenses
I've been purchasing some vintage Nikon lenses on ebay and shopgoodwill.com and I've mentioned a few of them in my previous posts. I wanted to give everyone some heads up before you go out and buy some of these lenses. I know these lenses don't cost a lot of money. Most of them can be had for a fraction of their modern counterparts. You will however be giving up on some modern conveniences when you use these lenses.
For example: most lenses that I've been buying are manual focus only, so if you're not comfortable using your fingers to focus your camera forget about it. I've relied on my manual focus skills for the 27 years. I very seldom put my camera on auto focus unless I'm shooting a sporting event and even then I switch back and forth depending on the sport that I'm shooting.
Another issue with these lenses is metering. On some of the lower grade cameras you will not get any metering at all with the older lenses so you'll have to rely on a handheld meter. You should own one of these any way and you should know how to use it. They come in real handy when your setting up lighting. With the higher end camera's you'll need to set up non-cpu lenses in your menu, I'm not going to tell you how to do this, you'll have to break out your manual and read it. Who knows, while looking for this you might find some other neat things that your camera does that you didn't know about.
The final thing you may run into is setting your aperture. On older lenses before AF D models you'll need to use the aperture ring on the lens, If you set the lens up properly in the non-cpu lens settings it should show you the proper aperture in your view finder and on your lcd screen unless your using a lower end model camera.
Nikon has a page devoted to compatibility issues with your camera and older lenses in your manual. If you can't find it you can also go to the site below and select your camera model. On that page there will be a tab called "Lens Compatibility".
http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/dslr/
Check it out before you go buying that inexpensive Vintage Micro Nikkor Lens on ebay so you know what your getting yourself in for.
I'm also going to put this up in my Links pages on the right over there so you can refer to this from time to time.
For example: most lenses that I've been buying are manual focus only, so if you're not comfortable using your fingers to focus your camera forget about it. I've relied on my manual focus skills for the 27 years. I very seldom put my camera on auto focus unless I'm shooting a sporting event and even then I switch back and forth depending on the sport that I'm shooting.
Another issue with these lenses is metering. On some of the lower grade cameras you will not get any metering at all with the older lenses so you'll have to rely on a handheld meter. You should own one of these any way and you should know how to use it. They come in real handy when your setting up lighting. With the higher end camera's you'll need to set up non-cpu lenses in your menu, I'm not going to tell you how to do this, you'll have to break out your manual and read it. Who knows, while looking for this you might find some other neat things that your camera does that you didn't know about.
The final thing you may run into is setting your aperture. On older lenses before AF D models you'll need to use the aperture ring on the lens, If you set the lens up properly in the non-cpu lens settings it should show you the proper aperture in your view finder and on your lcd screen unless your using a lower end model camera.
Nikon has a page devoted to compatibility issues with your camera and older lenses in your manual. If you can't find it you can also go to the site below and select your camera model. On that page there will be a tab called "Lens Compatibility".
http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/dslr/
Check it out before you go buying that inexpensive Vintage Micro Nikkor Lens on ebay so you know what your getting yourself in for.
I'm also going to put this up in my Links pages on the right over there so you can refer to this from time to time.
Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 AI-s Lens
Finally received my Nikon, Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 AI-s lens from ebay yesterday and am looking forward to using it today. It's going to be my main portrait lens. Did some preliminary tests with it out on the patio and man this thing is sharp. The depth of field fall off is fantastic as well.
I'll be out shooting with a friend of mine today, we're gearing up for a wedding in a couple of weeks. I'll be handling second shooter duties and helping with lights.
It's been a while since we shot together so we're going to pull out all the equipment and do some practicing today. If we get anything good I'll post it up here for everyone to look at. We'll be setting up some lighting ratios inside and trying some different things with ambient and fill light outside. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.
I'll be out shooting with a friend of mine today, we're gearing up for a wedding in a couple of weeks. I'll be handling second shooter duties and helping with lights.
It's been a while since we shot together so we're going to pull out all the equipment and do some practicing today. If we get anything good I'll post it up here for everyone to look at. We'll be setting up some lighting ratios inside and trying some different things with ambient and fill light outside. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Nikon Series E 50mm f/1.8
Went down to the Oregon District in Dayton and did some shooting with my Nikon Series E Lens on my D3S. This lens has surprised the hell out of me. I got it from Goodwill attached to a Nikon FG camera for about $40.00.
For a manual lens this thing is great. I can't believe how sharp it is. I've been shooting with it for about a week now and it has not let me down. I've noticed that I've had to slow down my shooting to make sure that I have my setting right. I usually go out and burn off a hundred or so images but with this thing today I came back home with 36 images, some were duplicates because my settings were off. Out of those I uploaded the best 3 to my flickr account. You can check them out here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rgainor/8629282072/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rgainor/8629282552/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rgainor/8628173615/in/photostream/
Another thing I'd like to point out is, I don't believe in the golden hour for shooting outside. These were shot at 1:00 pm. You can tell by the shadows that it was early afternoon. It's ok to shoot at this hour if you take into account the position of the sun and use it to your advantage.
For a manual lens this thing is great. I can't believe how sharp it is. I've been shooting with it for about a week now and it has not let me down. I've noticed that I've had to slow down my shooting to make sure that I have my setting right. I usually go out and burn off a hundred or so images but with this thing today I came back home with 36 images, some were duplicates because my settings were off. Out of those I uploaded the best 3 to my flickr account. You can check them out here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rgainor/8629282072/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rgainor/8629282552/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rgainor/8628173615/in/photostream/
Another thing I'd like to point out is, I don't believe in the golden hour for shooting outside. These were shot at 1:00 pm. You can tell by the shadows that it was early afternoon. It's ok to shoot at this hour if you take into account the position of the sun and use it to your advantage.
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