#vintage lenses

[sirfrogsworth]

Let's talk about vintage lenses.

Here is your cool samurai show with modern lenses.

Here is your cool samurai show with vintage lenses.

Hollywood is no stranger to fads.

We are currently in the middle of a "make everything too dark" fad. But that fad is starting to overlap with "let's use really old lenses on ridiculously high resolution cameras."

This is Zack Snyder with a Red Monstro 8K camera.

He is using a "rehoused" vintage 50mm f/0.95 Canon "Dream Lens" which was first manufactured in 1961.

This old lens is put inside a fancy new body that can fit onto modern cameras.

Which means Zack is getting nowhere near 8K worth of detail. These lenses are not even close to being sharp. Which is fine. I think the obsession with detail can get a bit silly and sometimes things can be "too sharp."

But it is a funny juxtaposition.

The dream lens is a cool lens. It has character. It has certain aberrations and defects that can actually be beneficial to making a cool photograph. It's a bit like vinyl records for photography.

[ Peter Thoeny ]

It has vignetting and distortion and a very strange swirly background blur.

[ Gabriel Binder ]

Optical engineers have been spending the last 60 years trying to eliminate these defects. And I sometimes wonder if they are confused by this fad.

"I WORKED 70 HOURS PER WEEK TO GET PERFECT CORNER SHARPNESS!"

And whether you prefer to work with a perfect optic or a vintage one... it is a valid aesthetic decision either way. I think vintage glass can really suit candid natural light photography. You can almost get abstract with these lenses.

[ Peter Theony ]

Personally I like to start with as close to perfect as possible and then add the character in later. That way I can dial in the effect and tweak how much of it I want. But even with modern image editing tools, some of these aberrations are difficult to recreate authentically.

That said, it can be very easy for the "character" of these lenses to become distracting. And just like when someone first finds the lens flares in Photoshop, it can be easy for people to overdo things.

Zack Snyder decided to be his own cameraman and used only vintage glass in his recent movies and it has led to some complaints about the imagery.

I mean, Zack Snyder overdoing something? I can't even imagine it.

Non camera people felt Army of the Dead was blurry and a bit weird but they couldn't quite explain why it felt that way.

The dream lens has a very wide aperture and it lets in a lot of light. But it also has a very very shallow depth of field. Which means it is very difficult to nail focus.

[ Peter Thoeny ]

Her near eye is in focus and her far eye is soft. You literally can't get an entire face in focus.

There is no reason you have to use the dream lens at f/0.95 at all times. But just like those irresistible lens flares, Zack couldn't help himself.

Here is a blueprint that you can't really see.

Extreme close ups of faces without autofocus at f/0.95 is nearly impossible to pull critical focus on.

Looks like Zack nailed the area just above the eyebrow here.

Let's try to find the point of focus in this one.

Ummmm... she is just... blurry. Missed focus completely.

But Zack isn't the only one going vintage. I've been seeing this a lot recently.

Shogun is a beautiful show. And for the most part, I really enjoyed the cinematography. But they went the vintage lens route and it kept going from gorgeous to "I can't not see it" distracting. And perhaps because I am familiar with these lens defects I am more prone to noticing. But I do think it hurt the imagery in a few spots.

Vingetting is a darkening of the corners of the frame.

Light rays in the corners are much harder to control. A lot of modern lenses still have this problem, but they create software corrections to eliminate the issue. Some cameras do it automatically as you are recording the image.

Vintage lenses were built before lens corrections where a thing—before software was a thing. So you either have to live with them, try to remove them with VFX, or crop into your image and lose some resolution.

It's possible this is the aesthetic they wanted. They felt the vignetting added something to the image. But I just found my eyes darting to the corners and not focusing on the composition.

And then you have distortion.

In this case, barrel distortion.

This is mostly prominent in wide angle lenses. In order to get that wider field of view the lens has to accept light from some very steep angles. And that can be quite difficult to correct. So you kind have to sacrifice any straight lines.

And sometimes this was a positive contribution to the image.

I thought the curved lines matched the way they were sitting here.

But most of the time I just felt like I was looking at feudal Japan through a fish's eye.

It's a bit more tolerable as a still, but when all of these verticals are bowing in motion, I start to feel like I am developing tunnel vision.

I love that this is a tool that is available. Rehousing lenses is a really neat process and I'm glad this old glass is getting new life.

This documentary shows how lens rehousing is done and is quite fascinating if you are in to that sort of thing.

But I think we are in a "too much of a good thing" phase when it comes to these lenses. I think a balance between old and new can be found.

And I also think maybe Zack should see what f/2.8 looks like. He might like having more than an eyebrow in focus.

#photography #cinematography #lenses #vintage lenses #shogun #long post

[les-larmes-d-eros]

Take a nap, par Vintage Lenses

#Vintage Lenses #allure #nude portrait #intimité

[mirith]

Bug butt!

So I have a micro four thirds camera, as of last week. And a vintage telephoto zoom lens. And a compatible extension tube. Obviously I stuck them all together and did some macro.

Camera sandwich below the cut:

If it looks silly, but it works, is it actually silly?

This is, surprisingly to me, kind of great for macro. This zoom lens has a stupid long minimum focus distance (usually). Extension tube addresses this, but I've still got an insane macro working distance. The photos above were taken from a couple feet away.

The mft sensor automatically "doubles" the focal length, so I've actually got a 160-400mm macro-ish capable lens right now.

I don't know what the reproduction ratio is, and I don't really care. I've never been a stickler for getting the "true" 1:1 reproduction ratio. But I can frame my subjects and can get some cool photos of small things (as long as they don't move!)

#photography #macro #olympus em10 mkii #rokinon 80-200mm #vintage lenses #bugs #eucalyptus #photoblr #mirith #micro four thirds

[whatlightdoes]

Chrysanthemum Morifolium

Sony a7rii, Takumar 50mm f4 macro Photo: T. Hall

#whatlightdoes #mine #my photography #flower photos #flower photography #mum #chrysanthemum #vintage lenses #vintage glass #sony a7rii #takumar 50 4 macro

[somewhereinjp]

Saturday night photo walk in Saitama City, Japan

#japan #japan photos #japan aesthetic #night photography #vintage lenses #photography

[prey4bokeh]

So this Christmas my girlfriend got me this cool adapter that lets me adapt Canon FD lenses to my Canon EOS R. So basically I can use vintage film lenses on my mirrorless. Honestly I’m in love with vintage glass, I have only a hand full of them, but I never spent more than $50 on any lens and the images that come out are amazing. I had a couple of my photography buddies completely blown away that I’m using vintage lenses. Here are two of my favorites, my 50mm f1.8 and my 135mm f2.5. Both super clean, take amazing photos, the bokeh is butter and you can’t tell if this is a modern lens or a vintage lens. My 50mm is a perfect for not only portraits, but great for street photography. My 135mm is perfect for nature and wildlife photography. Not something I do a lot of, but would definitely love to do more of it, but mainly because I own a 135mm for it. I hope to get a 300mm one day as well. Now there is some cons and pros for using vintage lenses. Pros are, not as expensive as modern lenses, like I said I never spent more than $50 on a lens. There are some great ebay deals out there, there are some very expensive FD lenses, that run in the $1,000’s, but those were for making movies. You’re not buying cheap plastic, all these lenses are well made and made of metal. You don’t have to use Canon name brand lenses, as long as it has the FD mount, there are other brands out there that are nice in price and still have the same image quality. Now for the Cons, all the lenses will have to be manual focus, now that is pretty obvious to a lot of photographers, but this is something a lot of photographers will not like and will miss autofocus. Taking videos, there is no auto stabilization, so you will need a gimbal and you will have to manually focus as recording. It can be done and I’m sure that will not bother others, you can buy an adapter with built in autofocus, but that’s $300 for that. Another thing is shopping for the right lens, now I normally recommend ebay, just make sure you read the description. Since these lenses are old, they can develop dust in the glass and fungus. Also I have read where some actually have mold in them, but message the seller if they’re description is vague on the lens. Another con is these will make your weather sealed or weather proof camera not weather sealed or proof. I definitely learned that the hard way one photoshoot. I got a little moisture on my sensor one day when it was raining, thinking I would he good because I’ve shot before in the rain with my RF lens and was completely fine. Now for the last con, some of these lenses are heavy! My 135mm is super heavy, because they are made a of metal and not the cheap plastic you spend $1,000’s of dollars on. So trying hold focus on hold the lens is a sometimes a struggle. I linked the adapter up top of this post and they sell other adapters for other cameras as well.

#photography #canon photography #flint michigan #street photography #canon eos r #photography by #midwest #50mm #vintage lenses #canon fd

[of-two-lands]

44°58'23.5"N 6°03'54.8"E

youtube/oftwolands

www.oftwolands.com

#video #contax #vintage #lenses #camera gear #bmpcc6k #vintage vs modern #meike #cinema lenses #vintage lenses #zeiss #contax zeiss #film #cinematography #filmmaking #filmmaker #florent piovesan #of two lands

[kenozunaphotography]

Years of Memories

#photography #Cinematography #cinema #beautiful #fujifilm #35mm #cinematic #chicago #vintage lenses #street photography #tumblr photographer #tumblr photography #photographer

[vinayrana]

Unleash the Power of Mythical Vision with Lens Caravan! See the World Through Legendary Lenses.

#Best Eye Specialist near Me #lenses #eyehealth #clearview #healthyvision #visioncare #clearsight #clearvision #eyeglasses #eyehealthtips #camera lenses #circle lenses #contact lenses #chicframes #eyesonpoint #rose colored lenses #vintage lenses #camera

[danerex]

Gray

#BOLEX #ARRIFLEX #16MM FILM #KODAK #MOTION PICTURE FILM #ROCKAWAY BEACH #EDITORIAL VIDEO #EDITORIAL #MOTION #RED KOMODO #CANON FD #VINTAGE LENSES

[aljamaloptics]

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#luxury #glasses #ray ban #sunglasses #vintage lenses #frames #contact lenses #luxury class #best optical shop in qatar #branded eyewear

[photos-by-doug]

Honey. Shot with an SMC Takumar 1:1.4 50mm on an Olympus E-M1. Douglas Douven. Ontario, Canada.

#dogs #dogs of tumblr #photographers on tumblr #photography #original photography #original photographers #photographers #takumar #vintage lens #vintage lenses

[whatlightdoes]

Zinnias, Faces to the Sky

Sonya65, Minolta AF 50 1.4 (focused manually, aperture priority, 1.4)

Photo: T. Hall

#whatlightdoes #my photography #mine #flower photography #sonya65 #Minolta AF 50 1.4 #Vintage Lenses

[karingottschalk]

An Unfinished Local MacMansion As If In A Classical Painting, Photographed With Our Canon EOS 5D Mark II & A Vintage Lens

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#@DxOLabs #Canon EOS 5D Mark II #DxO #Leeming LUT Pro #M42-mount lenses #Panagor PMC 28mm f/2.8 Auto #Paul Leeming #Sir Brian Bell #vintage cameras #vintage lenses

[bluebrightly]

That Vintage Lens

Eight years ago I read about a vintage lens photographers admire for the bright, “dreamy yet sharp” images you can make with it. One reviewer liked the “organic” transition from sharp to blurred. Another mentioned clean contrast, and another praised the color rendition. What interested me most was the “delicious” bokeh. Making photographs with soft, out-of-focus backgrounds was something I…

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#Super Takumar 50mm f1.4 lens #vintage lenses

[thephoblographer]

Why You Should Use Vintage Lenses on New Cameras

Drool 🤤

If you’ve read this site for a while, you know that we’re smitten with vintage lenses. There’s something about the feel of metal lenses that makes everyone on our Reviews Team go head over heels. What’s more, vintage lenses have a look that isn’t too clinical. We’re looking for unique and stunning renders, not the same cookie-cutter photos everything else can give us. And for that, sometimes we…

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#Bokeh #clarity #contrast #pores #portrait #sharpness #vintage #vintage lenses