helios 40 : He's a juice box hero!

Taken on the H40 85mm f1.5 wide open ISO 800 on the KX

crazy out of focus rendering!

helios 40 : is this the Leica Glow?

I love the light in this shot, Pentax KX  , ISO 800 f2 on the Helios 40 85mm

The *glow* seems to be part of the single coating of the glass perhaps, anyway its irrelevant, I like it !

Helios 40 85mm: Fruit Tray Fantasy

I was at a birthday party today and got some really nice shots, this is the first one that I thought was kind of neat

ISO 800 f1.5 helios 85mm M42 lens on my KX  1/40th of a second exposure, the one benefit of the huge lens is the dampening effect of that weight, it keeps camera shake to a minimum!

full size is here: full size

helios 40 : Soda bottle blues

From the coffee shop archives, a 1/500th of a second f1.5 ISO800 shot of a soda pop bottle using the Helios 85 mm lens on my KX, I think this is the last  of my archives so its time to get back to shooting some photos, flu or not!

super multi coated Takumar 50/1.4 : Bokeh monster

taken at ISO 200 f2.8 and 1/10th of a second handheld!

Super MC Takumar 50/1.4 on my Pentax KX

full size is here  link

Helios 44m-6 : Autumnal leaf at the fall festival

It was october and it was so nice out, we still had fresh dandelions , along with fallen maple leaves, global warming?

 Taken with a Helios 44m-6 58mm f2 wide open, and I was lying on the ground to get a shot with my KX , it drew some looks from the churchgoers......

Pentax Super MC Takumar 50mm/f1.4 : Hottest place in canada!

Taken with a super MC Takumar 50mm f1.4 at f 8 1/4000th of a sec and ISO 200 on my Pentax K-X

It was about 36C out there and no wind at all, very strange for Canada especially in the Bay of fundy

later on we found out we were in the hottest place in Canada on that day!

helios 40 85mm/1.5 : Vintage lens gives vintage colouring

from the coffee shop archives

Helios 40 85mm f1.5 wide open and ISO 800 , this is the top of the coffee press , I love the retro look of the colour saturation

super mc takumar 50/1.4: Monet bokeh

Misssed a shot yesterday, so 2 today

here is a shot from last fall showing the "monet lens effect" the background of this shot is beautifully smooth!

Pentax Takumar 28mm/f3.5 : Twilight, not Vampire related!!

I was out taking shots this summer, and there was a small window of opportunity where it was dark, but the streetlights hadn't activated yet!  Taken with the KX and a 28mm super MC Takumar , the first of the manual lens buying blitz!

Pentax Super MC Takumar 50mm/f1.4 : Flower gal at Wedding

I didnt realise I was going to be a photographer for a pals wedding, luckily I brought my camera!

taken with the super tak 50

helios 40 : crazy bokeh and razor thin DOF

Taken at the local coffee shop, the Helios 40 on my KX , the blurring is exquisite!

Pentax Super MC Takumar 50mm/f1.4 : Windy! -26C windchill

My daughter refrains from wearing gloves and a hat even when its bitterly cold!!

-26C with windchill, Super Muli Coated takumar 50mm stopped down to f2.8 , and it was still a 1/6000th of a sec! very bright day!

full size is here :  http://www.flickr.com/photos/riverviewfoto/5449199963/sizes/o/in/photostream/

I finally cleaned the helios 40!

here is a close up of the massive optic elements in the Helios 40 85mm/1.5 made in 1965

taken wit a modern lens (shudder) FA50/1.4 , but at least its a descendant of the Takumar!

Pentax Super MC Takumar 50mm/f1.4 : Sunrise icicle

After taking a shot of the sunSET icicle at my parents, I thought I'd take one of a sunrise one at my house :)

Super MC Takumar 50/1.4 


full size available here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/riverviewfoto/5446353845/

Helios 44m-6 : great sharpness even with cleaning marks on it

who is this soccer hooligan? My brother thats who, taken with a  Canon Rebel XT ,and  a soviet Helios 44m-6 with a m42>canon EOS adapter.

 I had the lens set at F4, and I wasnt sure it was actually at that setting, butthe adapter I had depresses the pin so it turns it into a manual 44m6, the official pentax m42>k mount one does not do that, hence teh requirement for surgery to fix it!

Redbubble banner added.

Hi all,

 someone asked me if they could get prints somewhere of my photos , now you can! go to the banner under the title and visit redbubble for access to cards, tshirts and prints/posters of my shots

cheers

Pentax Super MC Takumar 50mm/f1.4 : Beautiful Fall evening

Taken with a Super MC Takumar 50mm f1.4 at f4 while we had a beautiful golden sunset , it was 17C in November , which is unheard of!

You can see the sunlight reflected on the lake in the top right corner, it was gorgeous!

One of the few times I shot something without using the lens wide open :)

Pentax Super MC Takumar 50mm/f1.4 : Frozen in time

I took this shot right after sundown of an icicle on my parents home , -9C is a bit cold for manual lens use!

but the Tak 50 comes through with flying colours!

Pentax Takumar 50mm/f1.4 : Beautiful Golden Sunset

Taken with my trusty pentax KX and a trusty Super MC Takumar 50mm f1.4

I missed the amber and pink sunset last night, so i vowed to take my camera to work :)

this was the best shot of the 2 dozen i got of tonights sunset

laterz

Cheating with Photoshop: Vintage Kodak look

Modern lens use alert!! This is my FA50/1.4 ( which is an autofocus descendant of the Takumar 50/1.4 with better multicoating!)  and use of Alienskins plugin exposure 3 , I used the kodakchrome filter to make this shot look like a 60s photograph  :)

Helios44m-6 58mm f2 : brilliant reds and greens!

Quick update as I have a cold or flu starting, this is the type of colour rendering you can expect from a helios 44 m6 and a Pentax KX , this was even shot in JPG mode, so its not as good as it could be!

Helios44m-6 58mm f2 : Stunning bokeh smoothness

This is one of the first photos I took with my Helios 44 that I bought off a Russian guy who lives in Vancouver now , total cost was 48 dollars with caps and a metal lens hood as he said the lens has some scratches on it.

As you can see, the scratches dont seem to bother it at all, and the colours seem nice and vibrant, and the smooth background bokeh is beautiful, very painterly and pleasing to the eye. This is a M42 lens that I had to modify slightly as described earlier , as its an Auto lens only, and no matter what I did, it wouldnt stop down the aperture ( duh! ) as it didnt have anything to push the pin to enable the actuating mechanism inside. Quick fix was some solicone tubing, replace the backing plate and its now a pure Manual H44m-6.

 This shot was taken outdoors ona bright summer morning, and it was just a test to see how the lens rendered backgrounds, and shallow depth of field , the 2 problems were that I was new at using manual settings and it was taken as a JPG not as a RAW file , you can also see I was new at post processing the older lens shots ( OK so thats 3 things)

Laterz

Super thin DoF : Helios 40 85mm/1.5

I took this one last summer when I first got this huge lens, it weighs a ton, ( 0.9 KG I believe!) but it has a few advantages

1: its very hard to get any camera shake when you are holding the equivalent to a bag of sugar on the front of your camera
2: its soft wide open away from the centre ( great for portraits)
3: It has already been converted to the pentax M42 mount, so it slips right onto my KX with the official adapter
4: its 85mm, which on my camera with the crop basically equals 127.5mm, so a telephoto with enough light to be f1.5, sign me up!
5: its definitely a conversation starter :)


This shot was taken wide open and it used the auto white balance of teh camera, and I think it messed it up a bit, but it came out OK and the depth of field is absolutely razor thin, I wish I had taken the photo using RAW instead of JPG, as the colours got a bit too over-saturated once I post processed it :(

The answer is: Alienskins exposure 3 plugin for photoshop

I keep getting the itch to try film again, then i remember how unwieldy and wasteful it was, every shot basically costs 30 cents and you have to wait until you get it developed . Saying that, the quality is perfect if the shot comes out nicely , if it doesnt.........well then too bad :)

 The photo I posted yesterday was edited with a filter pack trial from this  company

http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/index.aspx

they have a few hundred filters that were custommade by various photographer to emulate everything from ilford B+W to Fuji Velvia 50 slide film ( complete with a gran/no grain option!)

here is a quick photo that was taken witha modern lens, a pentax FA50/1.4 autofocus one , it has the exact same optical formula as the Super Takumar 50/1.4 series, that you can see from the out of focus smooth bokeh

1954 Carl zeiss jena Tessar 50/2.8: When is film not film?

 

A quick update/quiz before I go to bed, I found a great shot that I had forgotten to post

its a 1954 Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm /2.8 Tessar (that I got for super cheap as it has a few dings in it,) and I took this nice sunset shot using Fuji Provia , the old film , or is it?

Ill leave this up for a day and see if anyone can figure out the trick :)

The Takumar 28mm f3.5 : Purple Sunset!

I was cleaning out some of my directories as I have a certain *chaotic* workflow style and found a directory called "to do" inside I found some shots taken in the summer! Normally Im not that wistful, but with all this snow and cold weather, a colourful summer sunset sure looks inviting!

 This was taken with my Super MC Takumar 28mm/3.5 at f5.6 I believe and it was a quick snapshot of the sunset as the sun dropped below the horizon and the clouds were still this beautiful purple, a few seconds later  the colours had all gone, so beautiful, yet so temporary :(

 As I read on someone elses blog site, sunsets and sunrises are both beautiful, but sunrises seem to look better , maybe because they signify the beginning of a new day, where as a shot like this is the end of one?

Contax Carl Zeiss T* Planar 50/1,7: the Sharpest 50mm ever?

someone asked me what some of these lenses look like, so here is a shot I took today of the long named:

" Contax Carl Zeiss T* Planar 50mm f1.7 MMJ" phew, say that 9 times fast!

This lens is interesting and also cool for a few reasons

1: A lens built in Japan  ( the J in MMJ) by Kyocera for Contax under license from Carl Zeiss

2: Contax /Yashica mount, named bacause it was used for 2 brands of lenses, the contax one here and also the lesser quality ( some say equal) Yashica lenses that can be bought for about 1/4 the price of these Zeiss ones , but they use the Zeiss technological input

3: Its a 50mm 1.7 lens, and is one of the rare lenses that is sharp at its widest aperture ( 1.7) a lot of lenses are incredibly fast , but when they are wide open youget a lot of chromatic aberration, or fringing , or the lens is just plain soft. This lens is sharp, has a tiny bit of purple fringing if the light hits the lens just so, and for CA I coudlnt see any of note . It is also regarded by some people to be one of the, if not THE sharpest 50mm lens ever made, but that is highly debated all over the net , google it and see

For this shot: ISO 800 and taken with my new 50mm f1.4 FA Pentax lens on my KX, and I already think its not as sharp as my Takumar 50/1.4 , but I need to do some more testing on it. It was placed on a C/Y>EOS adapter and lit by 2 x 100W spotlights inside a homemade lightbox on a piece of black polished slate

Pentax Super MC Takumar 50mm/f1.4 : Thats me in the corner.......

I seem to be enamored by the colour blue, and especially the relationship between blue and orangey/yellow, its either too much CSI:Miami or Michael bay, I havent figured out yet which, maybe the reason they use these tones together is because they work well? http://www.slashfilm.com/orangeblue-contrast-in-movie-posters/

 This was taken in the sushi restaurant and sticks oto the formula of wide open ( f1.4) and indoor ISO ( 800) I moved around a bit to getthe look I wanted , specifically the lantern in focus and the reflection off the window of the blue sign lights outside.

 Once again the Super MC Takumar comes through with flying colours ( literally!) and the out of focus lighting is nice and smooth