Using different more creative lenses can be a real addition to your Arsenal of looks.
Personally I love #lensbaby lenses and also use a lot of old vintage glass that are really sensitive to flares.
What’s your favorite different lens?
This image was shot against our new #clickpropbackdrops during a recent workshop and here I’m using the lensbaby tilt solution in the form of a composer 2 with 35mm.
Love that combo.
At the moment I’m testing some vintage lenses with the Techart module on the Sony A7RIII, there were several updates and I have to be honest I’m beginning to like working with those vintage lenses more and more. You might wonder why?
Well first of all they look cool of course, but that’s not it.
Working with a vintage lens, means you’re thinking more about the process, instead of just pressing the shutter you have to think about setting the aperture correctly, manual focusing (or AF with the Techart) and the whole process is just slower, but also a lot of fun, and that’s I think the most important thing, you’re having loads of fun. Plus it sometimes makes great conversation pieces with people on the street, which makes it easier to photograph them.
In this blogpost some quick shots I took on Urk with the Helios 44-2.
Now the Helios 44-2 is a very special lens, it’s a russian “version” of the Carl Zeiss Biotar which has a really cool swirly bokeh (the out of focus areas look very funky and swirly). The cool thing about this lens is that it’s literally razor sharp, build like a tank and has not chromatic aberration, one could say that if you buy it now new for app $400.00 you actually get what you pay for. Seeing these lenses can sometimes be bought online for less than $50.00 it’s an amazing value for money. In fact it’s one of my favorite lenses at the moment.
The only thing some first time users will run into is the confusing aperture.
The lens has two rings.
One is a preset ring that is pretty stiff, this is where you set the smallest aperture you want to use. The other aperture ring is very smooth and is step-less (great for video), this is used to turn the aperture wide open for focusing and composition and as soon as you have focus you just turn it all the way to the end (preset on the aperture you wanted to use) and press the shutter (or release the shutter with AF). Do remember that AF on a lens works best with the maximum amount of light hitting the sensor so working with a so called preset lens is absolutely awesome.
A modern lens will always focus on wide open aperture and will close down as soon as you press the shutter, vintage lenses will mostly be set to an aperture (for example f8) and you have to focus with f8 which for some cameras can be a real task and will result in hunting in most cases or very slow AF, when you focus wide open it’s actually very fast, it will surprise you have fast the Techart for example nails the focus on the a7RIII when you shoot a lens wide open. Loads of negative reviews online are I believe due to people shooting these lenses on f16 or f11 and wondering why the focus is slow… well try to focus a modern lens with a 5 stop ND filter and see how fast/slow your lens performs.
Anyway long story short, the Helios is a real must buy if you’re into vintage lenses.
So let’s take a look at some of the shots. This was a very short visit so don’t expect anything spectacular but I did wanted to show them in connection to the Helios story.
All tinting was done with one of the vintage presets from my brand new (released yesterday) Lightroom preset pack, you can get it here www.frankdoorhof.com/presets
It’s no secret that I love old cameras and vintage lenses.
So what do you think about a market spanning several streets with just cameras, lenses, accessories, books, prints, wetplate portrait takers, buying, selling….. it’s insane…. well enter the fotografica market in Doesburg.
This has been the second time we visited and in all honesty it’s really something we plan our holiday around, unless we really don’t have another option we are there. The cool thing is that you can literally find anything. For a few weeks I’ve been looking for a rubber eye piece for my leica R7 and although you can find them online the prices are often insane also due to the added shipping costs. On the fotografica it took me not more than 15 minutes and a sales person from Germany just opened up a box…. and voila how many do you want….. bingo.
Now I can spend a lot of letters on it, but I always believe that images speak much clearer… do beware…. I have a lot, for the simple reason it’s impossible to just capture this with 3-4 images, it’s not even possible with the amount I shot but I picked some things out that I really liked to share with you guys. So take some popcorn, grab a soda and join me for the Fotografica 2018 Doesburg.
All images were shot with the Huawei P20 Pro and edited in Lightroom, I’ve mentioned it before but this phone is just amazing when you use it in the pro mode on 40MP RAW. It’s the first phone that I call my camera that can make calls….. normally I would have brought my Sony A7RIII but sometimes shooting on a market just works better with a phone.
As mentioned it was not only cameras, there really is a mix of very old cameras but also prints, like these.
I Always call these the magic lanterns, and they are so cool to look at.
Maybe one day I’ll get one 😀
I didn’t by any film, because somehow…. I don’t really trust this kind of display in the bright sun, but to be honest 1 euro each is not that bad, and maybe you get some funky results.
Don’t you just LOVE these colors.
Of course we all need some energy to shoot…..
Yes the P20Pro can even shoot with a reasonable DOF. (this was not done after the fact, it’s really the way the camera shoots.
Oh… and I love the front camera in the picture.
I dare you to take time and not find what you’re looking for.
Not all cameras are serious thought, isn’t this cute as heck.
One of MANY booths… Annewiek finally admitted that I don’t have a lot of cameras…. although the way she said it… doesn’t really comforted me….mmmmm
Also loads of darkroom material… although in all honesty I don’t really knew this one. It’s an automatic Dial camera????
Oempf….. a dream next to each other…. Voightlander, Rolleiflex and Leica…..
Some light reading for the evenings….. 😀
And all in such fine condition…. and I’m not talking about the legs… which I actually just saw now while typing this.
Colorfilm timer… I still remember my grandfather using one of these, or similar (it’s a long time ago)
Still best camera ever build in my honest opinion. I own one and it will be the last one I ever sell if I ever stop shooting.
No it’s not a portable crematorium or heater…. it’s a very predated projector (I call them magic lanterns, and I actually believe it’s the real name)
This guy actually did good business LOL
Doesn’t this just move you?
This is such awesome stuff.
Realize that in the old days this for people was PURE magic and could transport you to a totally different world….. the times we still had imagination.
LIGHTMETERS………………………!!!
LIGHTMETERS………………………!!!
I just don’t know why exactly but Leica has a real draw on me.
I use a R4 and R7 (R4 is for sale actually) and they do render images beautifully and look great (and that viewfinder is awesome) but still I do think there is way too much price expansion on these cameras, it’s almost like it’s gold….. (yeah I know it’s obvious)
Who doesn’t like brownies….
I always tease Annewiek a bit by asking her if she wants a brownie……
Again some really cute bears and cameras.
I actually really liked this idea.
This guy was selling old lenses and cameras with clocks inside….
We had to leave rather early so I didn’t walk back but I would love one… think about making one myself now but with a digital clock.
Also loads of stereo photography stuff.
One of my “idols” Brian May (from Queen) is actually pretty involved in this stereo photography stuff.
I never did it myself… maybe one day.
In that period people really valued photography.
Look at the framing and the interior, isn’t that just awesome
Although in all honesty… it did call up more a memoriam feeling than a wedding, what do you think?
LOVED the girl on the portrait, just amazing. That period of photography was just awesome.
I think a housing for underwater photography.
Extension bellows.
I still remember my very first strobe, I was REALLY young then.
It indeed had little bulbs that only worked once… now a days we would say “what a waste” at that time we just threw them out… unbelievable when you think back about it. My second one was better by the way that one you could rotate.
Now don’t think I’m that old (I’m only 47) but I was brought up in a family of very enthusiastic photographers.
Special editions, in funky and cool colors.
ain
I hope you guys enjoyed this blogpost.
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The final set during the workshop “small spaces” was shot with the Leica 100mm Macro connected to the Techart.
This is a really cool adaptor because in essence it makes every manual focusable lens auto focus, and as you can see here, those old lenses really render light in a beautiful way.
Now a days lenses are almost too perfect 🙂
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