Friday, January 8, 2021

Vintage Lenses, Modern Camera

The Falls
I bought an adapter for 15 bucks from Amazon that allows me to put my vintage Minolta Rokkor lenses onto my Canon EOS R5. I'm surprised how well built/machined it is at that price and the lenses and adapter all fit together nicely - not too loose, not too tight. There are no electrical contacts so it is basically a piece of plastic with metal mounts on each end. The camera doesn't even realize there is a lens on so you have to go into the menus and set it to let you fire the shutter without a lens. Then everything works as it would with a manual lens - except for the auto-diaphragm. Basically you set the aperture on the lens, manually focus and set everything else in camera. I don't see why the camera couldn't confirm focus like it does when a regular Canon lens is on the camera in MF mode but it doesn't - so focusing can be a little tricky as it is purely visual. That being said since it is a mirrorless camera you can zoom in. Nothing about this set up is quick - but it is just a fun way to use some of my favorite lenses for hobby work. 


Barry Hoban Bicycle
This is my latest bike build. The lens ihere is the Rokkor 50mm f/1.4 - an early 80s lens.
Barry Hoban Bicycle
The Falls
Cuyahoga Falls - I didn't expect for these lenses to be very sharp for for a shot like this you can't tell - also - this wouldn't be the way to shoot these lenses to get the uniqueness of them - but I was here so.....
The Falls
I switched to the 28mm f/2.8 for this image looking the other way.
The Falls
I swithced over to my favorite lens for the rest of these - a 55mm f/1.7 - it has a really cool "bokeh" - the out-of-focus blur. I could only change the aperture in one direction - if I wanted to go smaller I had to take the lens off the adapter. I think this is because the pin design is different - but there is a possibilty the lens isn't working right. The lens is from the late 1960's and I believe it would have been the kit lens on a Minolta SRT-101.
The Falls
Michael Owen's truck was a pretty good test subject for these images.
The Falls
My favorite application of this lens is environmental portraits - so I will have to set up something to do that soon.
The Falls
The Falls
Barry Hoban Bicycle
Barry Hoban Bicycle
The Falls
The Falls
The Falls
The Falls
Barry Hoban Bicycle
Barry Hoban Bicycle
I'm excited to play around with this new set up some more - I'm sure I will have more insights soon.

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