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09-30-2011, 03:27 PM - 1 Like   #1
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Old lenses as text books --

Some commentators claim old lenses, like old text books, are past history and perhaps not worth the trouble

I disagree. Something better than (95-percent?)of what can be learned from either is still an attribute of the lenses of the '60's - '90's (and textbooks), IF SOMEONE IS WILLING TO THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY'RE DOING!

There's not one thing I can do with modern AF lenses I couldn't accomplish with older MF lenses, -- and sometime I can find the focal point I want better with the non-AF mode.

Newer lenses can be convenient most of the time, I'll give 'em that, and I use 'em when the subject warrants, but I generally shoot MF as a standard practice. (Yeah, modern VF screens aren't as good but that can be worked around -- heck, most of us couldn't afford the alternative screen choices years ago when we didn't know better anyway!

With a little understanding of how/where the matt VF screen lies in the optical path, and a little individual adjustment, I haven't found a focus problem that can't be accommodated to my satisfaction. (a 4x K200D user w/o adjustment hacks).

H2

09-30-2011, 03:34 PM   #2
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Quite so. My trope is that AF lenses (especially zooms) are for taking pictures, and MF lenses (especially primes) are for making pictures -- a bogus over-generalization, but close enough. Yes, when traveling or in otherwise dynamic situations, an AF zoom is very damn convenient. And when I get somewhere and want to look closely, a MF prime is just right. Yes, MF usage does require some thought. Oh bother.
09-30-2011, 05:00 PM   #3
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Old lenses, like old cameras, make great textbooks, because you gotta know what you're doing, and how to use them. That's why the venerable K1000 among others came so highly recommended--and still is today, as far as I know--by teachers for serious beginning photography students. I myself learned everything I know about photography from my K1000, which I still have today and likely would never part with.
09-30-2011, 10:00 PM   #4
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Comes down to marketing does it not? To a lesser extent,who's doing the buying.
Most folks buy with the expectation that engineered technology with take care of focus,apeture,and shutter.
Lets them concentrate on why they bought, not what they bought.

Still very much manual orientated myself.Does seem to be reason why people do
invest in technology rather than investing time and work,in addition to expense involved with manual process.

10-01-2011, 01:52 AM   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by BillM Quote
Still very much manual orientated myself.
Does seem to be reason why people do invest in technology rather than investing time and work,in addition to expense involved with manual process.
Depends on situations. At peopled events, I'd want a fast short AF zoom around the kit.lens range. For many 'scapes, I'd want an MF wide-normal. For grabbing faces, a long-normal to short-tele. For repeatedly wandering the same area many days, use one different MF lens each day. For seeing the world in certain ways, use certain lenses, whether MF or AF. The choice depends on vision, or luck, or whatever.
10-01-2011, 06:18 AM   #6
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If anybody has any 'old textbooks' that they need to get rid of, feel free to send them to me
10-01-2011, 01:09 PM   #7
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It's great that so many of these...Tacs, Pentax "M" and "A" and others can be had at a good price and all you need do is focus!

10-02-2011, 02:23 AM   #8
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I just arrived back home from my photo club's annual exhibit, where people were kind enough to give my photos a very nice reception. The bulk of them were shot with an Auto-Takumar 55/2.....1957's "kit" lens. I would put it, or any of the other Takumars, up against anything anybody else there used for their photos.

Last edited by Mike Cash; 10-02-2011 at 04:27 AM.
10-03-2011, 12:16 PM   #9
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I'd put your Tak shots up, Mike, but I don't know about some of mine.

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10-03-2011, 02:07 PM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by Vampyreguy Quote
If anybody has any 'old textbooks' that they need to get rid of, feel free to send them to me
Believe the army has a book on subject Vamp. Called the "manual of alms"
10-07-2011, 08:25 PM   #11
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This is a really bad analogy, but MF lenses for me are like "speed-bumps"... I have to slow down and really think about what I'm doing, instead of cranking out 6fps and hoping for the best. Less about the physical nature of the lens, more about being mindful of the image you're trying to capture.
10-08-2011, 06:22 AM   #12
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I like the textbook analogy but they are definitely worth the time. I love the feel for thr old tak glass over the newer plastic stuff. Its more like a good old physical book over these new ebooks. I just got a super takumar 150mm and thr feel of it is nothing like my sigma zoom it feels so much better in my hands then the new plastic lenses.
10-08-2011, 06:52 AM   #13
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A good metaphor. Each of my accumulation of lenses is a textbook. Thus my entire accumulation serves as a reference library. Is this a good justification?
10-10-2011, 11:05 AM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by RioRico Quote
A good metaphor. Each of my accumulation of lenses is a textbook. Thus my entire accumulation serves as a reference library. Is this a good justification?
I think so as long as you have room for a library.
10-10-2011, 11:18 AM   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by mattb123 Quote
I think so as long as you have room for a library.
I *live* in a library. Most walls of most rooms here are lined with filled bookshelves. The lenses and cameras occupy about as much shelf space as do the photography books, and less than the music books, and a little bit more than the comix. Lens library? No problem!
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