[ChristianRock]

SMC Pentax A-70-210

- Port of Tallinn and Tallinn city as seen from on-board Eckerö Line M/S Finlandia.
- A view of Helsinki from on-board Eckerö Line M/S Finlandia.
- A view of expanding Länsisatama (Port) in Helsinki. from on-board Eckerö Line M/S Finlandia.

These are some of the shots from my New Year's Eve trip to Helsinki. All of these photos were taken using tripod. First of all it is very windy on the deck of the moving ship. Another thing to keep in mind is vibration coming from the ship's engines. The light was very dim, so to achieve shutter speeds fast enough I had to raise the ISO. Technically I could have opened the aperture to F4, but at 200 mm, the images taken wide open, are too damn soft. The first shot was the hardest to do as it was very tough to focus the lens accurately because of the gusts of wind and the mist in the air.
Post processing these shots was also damn hard. I deliberately underexposed the first shot by roughly 2 stops, to avoid motion blur. When I fixed this, I ended up with an extremely flat looking image. Besides, the noise combined with the mist in the air further decreased the image quality. I was not able to achieve satisying results with Silkypix DS PRO 7, so I switched to DxO 9. After some fiddling I finally managed to get the results that satisfied me. The last image was hard to process because of the dynamic range of the scene. I exposed for highlights, which resulted in a rather dark image, then in SilkyPix DS 7Pro I fiddled around with tone curve, exposure slider and various tools to brighten the shadows. It took me more than half an hour and 5 or 6 versions to get a more or less realistic looking picture.

You ended up with a good result, so well done!

[paulh]

Trail doggies from November - Cosmicar A35-70/4:

[Stagnant]

You ended up with a good result, so well done!

Thank you @ChristianRock !

[paulh]

Cosmicar A35-70/4

[ZombieArmy]

Took out my m42 Sears 80-200mm f4 Macro for a spin for the first time in a very long while.
The lens isn't particularly sharp at any aperture (but not particularly bad either) as you can see from these pictures (all taken at f8-f9). I will say however that this lens is very easy and fun to use, for the 10 bucks I got for it originally it really wasn't such a bad deal. To me it's usable unlike my Pentax-M 200mm which in my opinion is very difficult to nail focus with. Another thing to mention about this lens is that CA is pretty bad but it's really easy to correct for it.

This thing really does pack an old "filmic" look into every shot, I could see myself taking thing lens out with a purpose. Perhaps as a softer portrait lens.

Anyways enjoy.

[Andrew_Oid]

Howdy.
I just noticed this club and have finished reading all the entries. Very impressive results from lenses that are often overlooked. I only have one manual zoom at the moment a 29-47mm Fujinon-Z f3.5-4.2 (m42) that I haven't used much. It's not a bad lens but hasn't been able to compete with my primes, mostly Takumars, for camera time. I can see that it might have some usefulness when a fixed focal length might be too limiting. Last week, I found myself checking m42 zooms on eBay and ended up buying a Soligor C/D 70-210mm f3.5 lens (made by Tokina) in excellent condition for $55 (+$50 for s&h and customs). It's a two-touch design with a ring for focal length and a ring for focus. The little information I can find about it suggests that it's at least as good as the Vivitar Series 1s. The price tag on the box says it sold for $349 (US) in the seventies. Back then, a 70-210 zoom, or the equivalent, was an essential part of the photographer's kit. I just hope it isn't too heavy or big for hand-held use. I'm not as steady as I used to be.
When it arrives, I'll post some shots.

[ChristianRock]

SMC-A 70-210mm f4 Macro

[wtlwdwgn]

K-1 and A 35-105mm f/3.5 Macro.

[Andrew_Oid]

While waiting for the 70-210 to arrive, I pulled out the Fujinon and took some photos to show its weaknesses and strengths. I used a polarizer on a step-up ring which may cause vignetting in the upper left at the wide end. I reduced the file size on all shots but no PP. The city views are at 29 and 47mm and f8. The fern shots are at 29 and 47mm and wide open. It was somewhat hazy, and there was an intermittent strong breeze. Not a terrible lens IMO, and in the right circumstances it could probably produce a good picture.

[paulh]

Interesting shots here lately!
From last April with the M35-70/2.8-3.5:

[Andrew_Oid]

This is the picture taken at 29mm and f8 but with a little PP and a slight crop.

[Andrew_Oid]

The Soligor C/D 70-210mm f3.5 lens arrived today along with this. This is a photo taken at sunset with the Tokina at about the 50mm f/l and f8. Not a spectacular sunset but the lens produced a faithful rendering of the scene. ISO 200, handheld at 1/30 sec.

[Andrew_Oid]

A few more shots from today with the lens. The picture of the mangoes was taken in close focus mode.

[Andrew_Oid]

One from this morning. The lens has promise. Close focus mode @f16, hand-held (because I'm lazy). "Standing Stones".

[Andrew_Oid]

Testing the Tokina at the 105mm end of the zoom range. The first shot is at f8, the second is cropped at about half the frame size and wide open at f4.3. These lenses are quite cheap. My copy which looks unused was $35 (though UPS shipping to Thailand from Poland and customs doubled its cost). Very solidly made also. I did have to superglue the aperture pin down because this copy (1981?) had no A/M switch.