View allAll Photos Tagged manual_focus
I replaced my heavy Leica 90mm f/2 APO Summicron-M lens with the lighter, less expensive and equally sharp, and eminently more usable Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 Apo Skopar a couple of years ago. The max aperture of f/2.8 is obviously the one thing lacking in this lens, but that is the price to pay for compactness and less weight. Apart from that, this is a world-class lens.
Fortunately, my copy of the CV 90 lens works very well with the rangefinder coupling in my M11 camera. For critical focusing, especially in low light, the EVF certainly helps. But most of the time I can focus with just the rangefinder, which is how I try to use this lens as much as possible.
24-1017 Gen-0019 (Leica M11, CV90F2.8)
Using manual focus to try and catch the little stamen on this flower revealed half a dozen tiny little bugs. Needless to say my attention was diverted to try and catch a shot of one. If anyone knows what they are called, please let me know :)
dug out an old Soligor 135mm for this, wide open at f2.8. Manual focus and aperture.
Soligor 135mm f2.8
Giving the MZ-S's ability to work with older K-Mount lenses a try by trying out five of my favourite lenses from my collection with the MZ-S. They work, not 100% perfect, but they work well enough.
Pentax MZ-S - SMC Pentax-M 1:3.5 135mm - Ilford FP4+ @ ASA-125
Kodak HC-110 (1+31) 9:00 @ 20C
Scanner: Epson V700 + Silverfast 9 SE
Editor: Adobe Photoshop CC
This is my collection of manual focus lenses, most of which I use regularly.
back row: Tair-3 300/4.5, Carl Zeiss 180/2.8, Pentacon 200/4, Vivitar Series 1 70-210/3.5, 3M-5CA 500/8 (mirror), Vivitar Series 1 90/2.5 Bokina (with 1:1 adapter), Hartblei Super Rotator 45/3.5 Tilt Shift.
Middle row: Samyang 85/1.4, Carl Zeiss 135/3.5, Nikon 105/4 micro, Arsat 35/2.8 Shift, Samyang 8/3.5 fisheye, Jupiter-9 85/2.
Front row: Helios 44-3 58/2, Carl Zeiss Flektogon 35/2.4, Helios 44-2 58/2, Nikon 50/1.2, Zenitar 16/2.8 fisheye, Nikon 55/3.5 micro, Vivitar 28/2.8 close focus.
I have collected these lens via eBay, charity shops, etc during the past 18 months. It all started with the Helios 44-2 58/2 which I bought for £15, it is a Russian copy of the Carl Zeiss Biotar 58/2.
Many of these lenses are better than their auto-focus counterparts, they really don't make them like this any more.
All lenses are used on the Canon 7D or Canon 5D Mkll.
Yesterday afternoon, I was at my front yard with my Leica M9 and Leica noctilux 50mm f 0.95 with the aperture setting at f/0.95, when this little hummingbird showed up unexpectedly. I did not have time to change the settings. Just had to manually focus and shoot real fast. I was surprised to be able to get a few shots. This is not the camera I normally use to shoot flying bird.
A few people asked about my 'setup' for water drop shots. It's rather Heath Robinson, but this hopefully illustrates the basic method.
Camera on tripod.
One black roasting dish full of water.
A couple of foil birthday balloons lit with a halogen lamp to provide the colour.
100mm macro lens manually focussed on the water surface - I just dip a teaspoon into the water, focus on that and use that as an aiming point for landing the drops.
No flash used.
One teaspoon to dribble water from.
Burst mode to take a series of shots.
A wireless remote shutter release is handy, but not shown here!
Need to play about with angles to get the best reflections.
High ISO 800-1600 and manual exposure settings - most are f/2.8 at between 1/500th and 1/1000th second
Large bottle of Patience - about 1 in 10 are useable shots!
Have fun if you try this!!!
I was wondering how photographers in the past could manual focus hummingbirds in flight. This was before auto focus became available in camera bodies. So I did an experiment a while back using my Sony mirrorless camera. I read about using pre-focus technique and figured out what my hyperfocal distance was based on the aperture and focal distance markings on my lens. Unfortunately, the camera I was using was not a full frame camera, so I had to take into the account of the 1.5x crop factor. With the focus peaking feature on my camera, I have managed to capture this hummingbird in flight using manual focus. I would say my keepers significantly dropped to about 1 out of 8.
Lens: Canon FD 80-200mm F4
Adatper: Metabones FD to E mount
Not the best focus but I liked it so uploaded it. A day using a vintage manual focus lens. SMC Pentax-A 35-105mm F3.5
As I stood in the early light, watching the cranes wake up, there was about a two minute period when the light from the not yet risen sun reflected off the clouds and made the red on the cranes' faces look an even more intense vibrance than normal.
1/30s at ISO 400 using manual focus.
With this FD adapter I can pick up so many excellent lenses on the "cheap".
I found this 100mm macro (manual focus) for 50 bucks on Ebay and the results so far are stunning
This manual focus Canon FD mount lens is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I have mainly been using for indoor sports, such as taekwondo, for a nice balance of range with lots of light. I wanted to see how the lens would perform around the house on some fading Valentine's flowers. I took these handheld SOOC with natural light wide open and adapted to a Sony a5000.