Hear, hear ....

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Mike Farley
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Hear, hear ....

Postby Mike Farley » Tue 11 Jun 2019, 09:09

... said the man who has far too many lenses. :?

https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.c ... ubtle.html

FWIW, I have occasionally submitted images taken with mind bogglingly expensive Leica lenses (usually borrowed) into club competitions. To my complete and utter astonishment (not!), never has the judge remarked on the image quality being so good that something very special must have been attached to the camera.

OTOH, I know and that is good enough for me. Besides, there are differences in rendering which are interesting to explore, older lenses especially. That can have an effect on the final result, even though it is might not be evident*. Judges, after all, are commenting on what they see before them and should not be interested in the nuts and bolts of how it was achieved**. Vintage glass often has a more organic rendering, rather than seeking absolute sharpness which is the current vogue. That said, even in Victorian times at the dawn of photography, our forebears already had lens technology down to a fine art.

For anyone interested, it is a worthwhile experiment to buy an inexpensive older manual focus lens and a cheap adapter to have a play. If nothing else, it will slow you down and help achieve a more considered approach. Mirrorless cameras tend to be best for the purpose, but it is also possible to use DSLRs and focus using live view. For technical reasons, only lenses designed for the F mount will focus to infinity on Nikon DSLRs. It is possible to use other lenses, but only with more sophisticated, and therefore expensive, adapters which incorporate additional lenses to correct the optical path.

* The primary exception will be for images with out of focus areas, or bokeh as it is more commonly called, where the lens used can have an obvious effect. Some older lenses, which were not considered particularly good when they were contemporary, now go for hundreds or even thousands of pounds for that reason.

** And are inevitably wrong if they do venture such opinions.
Regards

Mike Farley
(Visit my website and blog - www.mikefarley.net)

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