Scattered Thoughts . . .

I had written previously about an old film-era lens I picked up at an exceptional price but feel it is worth revisiting again today in this blog post.  The lens is an old Konica Hexanon AR 40mm, f1.8... I added a short vented lens hood to this lens which helps reduce flare when the sun is not backlighting my subject (when the sun is in the frame, no lens hood will help). I also needed to add a lens adapter so I could mount this Konica AR mount lens to my Sony full frame camera. This is a small but very solid lens... built exceptionally well... and I'm liking the image quality! This old lens shows some character flaws in certain shooting conditions which you don't often find in today's digital lenses. I went back through the few photos I shot this morning while testing this lens and I found a couple of photos which I'm really liking... showing these flaws... the film-like flare of decades ago can't go unnoticed yet, even with this film-like flare, the images stil

Konica Hexanon 40mm, f1.8 lens As I wrote in a blog entry a few days ago, I found a beautiful old lens for sale after searching for almost a year. I quickly ordered this old but 'like-new' lens as well as a lens hood and a lens mount adapter to allow this lens to work with my particular camera. In total, this beautiful old lens was dirt cheap. I attempted to head outdoors yesterday morning to get some shots but between some very lousy health and very windy conditions, I captured nothing but blurred photos because of shakey hands and everything blowing violently in the wind. This morning, however, was a completely different story... There was no wind this morning... it was cold and crisp   (still below freezing when I headed outdoors)  with no wind whatsoever... my health had stabilized within the past 24 hours so my hands had steadied up to a normal level (which comes in handy when shooting a manual focus lens)... This was the time to put this new lens to the test.

Konica Hexanon 40mm f1.8 lens... 40-something years old and in excellent condition. I've been searching for a low-priced, yet high quality 35mm or 40mm lens on the used market for about a year. (I'm disabled with no income other than my ridiculously small disability insurance pension through Social Security so all my photography gear is acquired used at bargain basement prices.) I have been in no hurry so I just patiently waited until I found the right lens for my needs. Late last week, I found a beautiful 40mm lens that fits the bill and instantly ordered it. I also ordered a lens hood and the appropriate mount adapter so I could mount it on my best camera. Now, I was excited about getting this lens and playing with it! The lens arrived quickly...  delivered by Fedex  only two days later. As I removed it from the box, I immediately noticed that this lens is in excellent condition for a 40-something year old lens. Now I was really excited to get to mount this on my came