RetroCamera » 35mm

The range of a lens

Mattias — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 05:04:36 +0000

It’s quite fantastic what photos can be done in the artistic range of a lens. My Yashica ML 35mm/2.8 is a nice landscape lens but also very good for closeups, sometimes soft but in the picture below sparkling. In the springtime it nice for catching the flowers without that exaggerated wideangle that is so trendy now.

Similar Posts:

Easter sunrise with Yashica ML 35mm/2.8

Mattias — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:27:51 +0000

In the end of last week I took a bicycleride to the national park here in Garphyttan. On the way I stopped a few times and watched this lightshow in the woods. Some photographs were made with the Yashica ML 35mm/2.8 lens on my Canon-camera. Here is the first, more will come…

Easter sunrise in the woods

Similar Posts:

Church and organ with Yashica ML 35mm/2.8(?)

Mattias — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:08:48 +0000

I’m almost certain this is Yashica ML 35mm/2.8 but I’m not sure since I didn’t take notes. The church is our local Nikolai church in Örebro, dating from 13th century (but this is newer). I’m very interested in history and like to shoot more of this buildings, but often I find photography is not allowed in them.

Church with Yashica 35mm

Similar Posts:

Review of Pentax Super Takumar 35mm/3.5

Mattias — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:55:37 +0000

There’s a lot of talk of Takumars and old Pentax-lenses. Old ones can go for quite a lot of money sometimes. So what’s so special about them? I got a 35mm (maybe not the most famous of the Pentax-lenses, but still…), lets find out how they work.

Pentax Super Takumar 35mm/3.5, an m42 lens.

The purchase
I purchased this lens from a friend on the net for 200 swedish kronor (about 20€). He keeps nagging about these Super Takumars, so I wanted to see what all the fuzz was about ;) He said the lens was worn, but it was just some external colour disappeared, everything else feels very good. Most of the time, the Pentax lenses go for some money both in Sweden and on ebay.

The lens
Pentax Super Takumar 35mm/3.5, has a M42-mount so for my Canon EOS 350D I’ve used an adapter. The build quality is extremely nice, and feel in the focusring is charming. The aperturering clicks in to it’s values, which is a good thing because with this one I think it’s really important to use stop-down metering.

Results
The bokeh is good, one details is that the flares are not round. But otherwise soft, pleasant bokeh. The colours feel very saturated and nice, rich. I had a hood on the lens when I took the images below, not a Pentax hood but a rubber hood in the filtermount. I think you can get sharp images, but some pictures I’ve taken feels soft in a positive way. I should mention that I don’t often work to get sharp images, it’s not often a very important criteria for me (as you might have noticed a lot of my images play with fog, light and such).

I really like some of the images I’ve taken with this lens since I got it, offcourse it’s not all down to the lens but it means something when you got a lens you feel comfortable with. It’s actually my first 35mm prime along with the Yashica ML 35mm f2.8 (which I’m also testing at the moment).

Images

Solros

Bakom station

Parkerad dimma

Svartvit utsikt

Stol i barack

Pros

Great build quality
Can be sharp, can be soft (control with f-stop)
Ok bokeh
Nice, saturated colours
Feels really nice to use, fantastic feeling in the focusring :)

Cons

Not round flares (not round aperture), if you like that sort of thing
Can be a bit hard to find the right focus

Reading
Opinions from the Pentax Forums users.
There’s a lot of links if you search Google. If you have ideas please suggest them in the comments to this post :)

Similar Posts:

First try with Super Takumar 35mm/3.5 and macro-ring

Mattias — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 23:08:29 +0000

I bought a Pentax Super Takumar 35mm/3.5 from a friend on the net, zewrak. It looks and feels very nice! Gave it a couples tries, today with macroring and one of our sunflowers.

Super Takumar 35mm/3.5

Sunflower

Similar Posts:

Yashicas – they are always beautiful

Mattias — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:53:47 +0000

This is my new Yashica, I just have to show it of even if it’s just unpacked and not tested. The camera in it self might not be fantastic in it’s function but the lens is. And they always look soooo damn good! It was made in 1977, when I was 2 years old.

Similar Posts: