A Tale of Lenses and Madness

[@chloeforbesk]

This is such a great story with the best ending!I love how you taught us a lot about different lenses along the way, and the deeper lessons that came from the journey too. Those feel powerful especially with your @home 3 words choice. The music changes you did with the Helios 44-2 made me giggle too. :)

[@ChrisBroganPhotos]

@@chloeforbesk notice those, did you?

[@charliejg]

I have several "vintage" lenses I enjoy using. (Canon Fd28mm f2.8, Canon FD135mm f3.5, Asahi SMC Pentax-M 50mm f1.7, and my most recent purchased yesterday is a Ashai Pentax SMC Takumar 55mm f1.8) That Pentax Takumar 55mm lens is my first m42 mount lens, so I'm waiting for the adapter I purchased to try it out. The most I have paid so far for any of those lenses has be $35.00 US. I got the Pentax Takumar 55mm for $20 US. The thing I love about using vintage lenses is the manual focus and the aperture ring. It's what I also love about my Fuji lenses. BTW, I adapt my vintage lenses on my Fujifilm X-T3. So, it really feels like I'm using an old camera to in some ways. It's just a lot of fun!! I would love to get some wider primes like a Canon FD17mm or 24mm, but they are quite expensive. But, I'm still hunting! That is part of the fun too I think. The hunt! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and story. Have a rockin' day!

[@ChrisBroganPhotos]

@@charliejg the X-T3 is such a great platform. I bet you get so much out of it.

[@charliejg]

@@ChrisBroganPhotos Yes, I really do love it. I often hike with it too. It's been so much fun. Thanks for sharing the Simon's Utak channel BTW. I went there and found a video all about my newest purchase, that Pentax SMC Takumar 55mm f1.8!

[@ChrisBrogan]

@@charliejg - I'm so glad! How fun is that?

[@DarrenRowse]

Love it. If your 44M shows up it’s a great lens too! Among my most used.

[@ChrisBroganPhotos]

@@DarrenRowse oh that's very good to hear the 442 didn't exactly blow me away. But that's okay. I still like it, maybe more because of the weirdness. Any other favorites in the Vintage category for you

[@DarrenRowse]

@ I find with the Helios is really depends on the light angle and the background. A background with lots of speculation highlights can make some crazy swirl. But it depends on the light angle and how far the background is away from the in focus subject. Other lenses I’m playing with…. On the Soviet front I have a Jupiter 37a 135mm which is fun. A Jupiter 9 85mm too. Yesterday I picked up Carl Zeiss Jena Pancola DDR MC 50mm F1.8 which I’m yet to take out but I have heard good things about Also have some old Nikon and a Canon 50mm f1.2. Am sooting mainly on my Sony and also at times on my Leica and have a few modern lenses for those too for my work photography

[@ChrisBroganPhotos]

@DarrenRowse that sounds just delightful. I found that the Sony Works rather nicely to accommodate a lot of different vintage lenses. I haven't tried a whole lot of other platforms to adapt vintage lenses on to, but I also don't see a whole lot of other people using things besides maybe Sony or nikon. I could definitely see a few different lenses doing amazing stuff on a Leica

[@DarrenRowse]

@@ChrisBroganPhotos definitely easier to use on a Sony as it lets you zoom in further to get focus locked in than my M11 lets me - old man eyes!

[@ChrisBroganPhotos]

@DarrenRowse oh boy, how I feel that. My focus is more a shrug than a certainty.

[@NikkianaHenninger]

This making me wonder if there aren't some long forgotten lenses buried somewhere in this house...

[@ChrisBroganPhotos]

@@NikkianaHenninger ooooooo. Go fishing! Even if they're stuck to old cameras.

[@NikkianaHenninger]

@ChrisBroganPhotos I'm going off a vague childhood memory and an assumption that it might still be around because my mom never threw out any other old tech 🤣. We'll see if I find anything...

[@NikkianaHenninger]

Looping back with a novice question... I heard you mention that one of the lenses needed an adapter, is that common with finding vintage lenses? I know absolutely nothing about how standardized/not standardized the connections between the body of the camera and different lenses are and I think I've talked myself out of buying lenses I've seen while thrifting because of fear things won't work.

[@ChrisBroganPhotos]

So pretty much all of the lenses need some kind of adapter to work with your modern digital camera. They run between $15 (USD) and $55 most times. (A few like Nikon have some $250 ones). If you find a vintage lens, it's pretty much guaranteed that someone out there has made an adapter to get it onto your modern camera, IF your modern camera uses interchangeable lenses. Does that help?