Going manual

Having scoured shops and boot sales for the past few years I've built up a small collection of different lenses. With the beauty of the internet and the popularity of photography its possible to mount lenses from different camera systems to your system of choice, very cheaply.

I think in the grand scheme, the adapters to mount these lenses to my Fujifilm X-Pro1, cost more than the lenses themselves and the adapters were perhaps only £5-£10.

Compact system cameras, like the Fuji X system, make these old lenses very usable via the aides; focus peaking & magnification, used in tandem you can focus with an old manual lens quite easily.
My X-Pro 1 is now an old model, so a newer model, oh X-Pro 2 you will be mine!!!!, the focus peaking capability will be even better and so the process even easier.

Because i like to challenge myself to keep things interesting ive mounted different lenses and have carried them around during dog walks, car journeys etc to see what can be done with them.

The 1st lens, not an old lens at all but a manual one, something very different; the Lensbaby Composer. Ive had it for a number of years now, it usually gathers dust in my drawer as i just don't get on with it. But i need to challenge myself, so why not start with my least favourite lens.

I should also mention that its not one of the £5 - £10 lenses either. The prices of these are very high considering what you get.

Being very picky, i like photos to be sharp in focus, i don't like the subject to be soft; the edit or the feel of the image can be soft but the focus needs to sharp; the Lensbaby however is not sharp; in focus at all is usually a small success.

Manual lenses slow you down; fine adjustments of focus, check & check again, then take the shot. With the lensbaby, its a case of focus, tilt the lens, focus again, check, check again, focus, tilt, focus and cross your fingers and hope for something thats remotely decent. Can you tell I'm not a fan?

This is where i hope you all like dogs as the majority of photos coming up are all of my puppy; Doug.

He's a Jug, a cross between a Pug and a Jack Russell, he has the looks and colouring of a pug but he has a longer snout, which i think makes him a far better looking dog. He's my best friend and i take him everywhere, luckily we've trained him well and so he sits and poses for photos regularly.

He makes me laugh.

So this ones surprisingly sharp on the eye closest to the camera.
Easily done if your dog is happy too sit there.

Not a great photo.
What it does show though is the odd qualities of the Lensbaby; the out of focus warping around the edges.

If you go down to the woods today.

I had a quick go on this.

Heavenly

This image is more than a little frustrating for me.
I love the red 'light leak'  on the left side that was present at capture, its not part of the edit.
However, when zooming in on the image there is a pattern that i could only put down to the image sensor that is visible in the image, very odd and very annoying. I'm wondering if this is something to do with using the camera and lens combo whilst shooting into the light?

The 2nd lens used in this blog is the Jupiter 11, an M42 mount 135mm f/4 lens produced since the 1940's. On my X-Pro 1 it has the focal length of 202.5mm (est), very telephoto.

I think I paid a couple of quid for the lens, I'm sure I got an SLR with it too.

Shooting with a 202.5mm (est) focal length with no stabilisation on a rangefinder style body is no mean feat. The slightest bit of wind combined with the focal length can lead to a very wobbly viewfinder. Having no stabilisation means that the shutter speed becomes very important to freeze any possible movement.

To summarise my thoughts on this lens; I like it!

It's sharp!

The low contrast quality of the lens makes for nice 'vintage' portraits.

Teaching Doug to wait. (nice bum bag Laura)

Living in near the coast has many opportunities, especially for exploring Pillboxes from WWII.

Im itching to use the Jupiter 11 again, its a great lens.

Keep shooting.