Beautiful Flaws
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 still show sharpness too...
This first photo shows some lens flaring due to the sun in the upper left of the frame... the lens flaring runs diagonally down the frame from the top left to bottom right... and even producing some unique squiggly flaring at the bottom right. This is a very interesting 'feature' of this lens. Even with all this diagonal flaring, the single blade of grass in the center of the frame is crisp and clear... I like it!
I had already posted this image in a previous blog post but felt it was worth posting again here. This image shows lens flaring down the middle of the frame from top to bottom... the flaring in this image ends with a pink/magenta circle and a dot at the bottom of the frame. The sun is causing this lens flaring just like in the image above... this time, however, the sun is just out of the frame at the top center. There is also a distinct atmosphere in this image... something we often saw in film but rarely see in digital. Again, I'm liking these 'features' of this old legacy lens...
I could probably minimize this flaring with a longer lens hood but not when the sun is in the frame or just outside of the frame. This lens flaring is kind of cool and expected in situations like this so... I like it! Modern digital lenses minimize this flaring with high quality coatings on the glass. These older lenses did have some coatings but some coatings weren't as effective and, over time, many coatings tend to wear down due to hundreds or thousands of cleanings.
I'm looking forward to shooting some people photos with this lens. Usually, I shoot people photos using my Zeiss 55mm lens. That 55mm lens is the sharpest lens ever produced with the highest resolution of any lens ever manufactured so... it really isn't fair comparing an old legacy lens to this one. Every other lens seems a bit dull after using this Zeiss lens.
All that being said, I'm looking forward to shooting some people photos with this Konica 40mm lens. I suspect this Konica lens will be nice for black and white people photos... time will tell.
In the meantime, I'm really liking these nature photos with this lens... beautiful flaws and all!
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 still show sharpness too...
This first photo shows some lens flaring due to the sun in the upper left of the frame... the lens flaring runs diagonally down the frame from the top left to bottom right... and even producing some unique squiggly flaring at the bottom right. This is a very interesting 'feature' of this lens. Even with all this diagonal flaring, the single blade of grass in the center of the frame is crisp and clear... I like it!
 |
| This was shot at f1.8 producing a razor thin focus depth which worked well for this single blade of grass. |
I had already posted this image in a previous blog post but felt it was worth posting again here. This image shows lens flaring down the middle of the frame from top to bottom... the flaring in this image ends with a pink/magenta circle and a dot at the bottom of the frame. The sun is causing this lens flaring just like in the image above... this time, however, the sun is just out of the frame at the top center. There is also a distinct atmosphere in this image... something we often saw in film but rarely see in digital. Again, I'm liking these 'features' of this old legacy lens...
 |
| This image was shot at f2.8 which turned out well but I really should have used f4 or f5.6 to get more of the plant in sharp focus. Regardless, I like this image as is. |
I could probably minimize this flaring with a longer lens hood but not when the sun is in the frame or just outside of the frame. This lens flaring is kind of cool and expected in situations like this so... I like it! Modern digital lenses minimize this flaring with high quality coatings on the glass. These older lenses did have some coatings but some coatings weren't as effective and, over time, many coatings tend to wear down due to hundreds or thousands of cleanings.
I'm looking forward to shooting some people photos with this lens. Usually, I shoot people photos using my Zeiss 55mm lens. That 55mm lens is the sharpest lens ever produced with the highest resolution of any lens ever manufactured so... it really isn't fair comparing an old legacy lens to this one. Every other lens seems a bit dull after using this Zeiss lens.
All that being said, I'm looking forward to shooting some people photos with this Konica 40mm lens. I suspect this Konica lens will be nice for black and white people photos... time will tell.
In the meantime, I'm really liking these nature photos with this lens... beautiful flaws and all!
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