What's your favourite lens?

[photohounds]

Re: What's your favourite lens?

Hi Ian,

Last weekend was probably the start of it. Playing with kids more etc (school hols).
Picked up a Pianola and 40 rolls. NO electronics, pretty amazing things.

This w/e in and next Syd and the next one, planning the boy's birthday bash.

I'll have to take some time out. I missed it last year - too busy

I haven't been to Newcastle for a few years, liked it, though.

Mick's the name

Installing windos in a Virtual machine as well . . . a few things still do not run perfectly under Linux. OOH - a blue screen of Death Don't miss those at all . . .

Hmmm, a fresh install maybe . . .

Hi all

[Ian]

Re: What's your favourite lens?

Hi Ian,

Last weekend was probably the start of it. Playing with kids more etc (school hols).
Picked up a Pianola and 40 rolls. NO electronics, pretty amazing things.

This w/e in and next Syd and the next one, planning the boy's birthday bash.

I'll have to take some time out. I missed it last year - too busy

I haven't been to Newcastle for a few years, liked it, though.

Mick's the name

Installing windos in a Virtual machine as well . . . a few things still do not run perfectly under Linux. OOH - a blue screen of Death Don't miss those at all . . .

Hmmm, a fresh install maybe . . .

Hi all

If you have time, how about contributing an autumn image to the challenge here?:

http://dpnow.com/forum2/showthread.php?t=9937

Ian

[photohounds]

Re: What's your favourite lens?

Will try to, Ian. Thanks for the invite.

If you have time, how about contributing an autumn image to the challenge here?:

http://dpnow.com/forum2/showthread.php?t=9937

Ian

[kennykodak]

Re: What's your favourite lens?

received my canon 70-300l IS last week. i usually stay with fixed aperature lenses but somehow this intrigued me. it's lite, it's smaller, it's quick focusing and holy cow is it sharp. i shot some test in low light hand held to check it's IS. i was hand holding it at a 1/60 sec 300mm (2000 iso) and was able to read print off labels accross the room, on the lcd. looks like a great travel lens. i love the 70-200 f/2.8 L IS but this thing much less tiring to hold.

[mike_j]

Re: What's your favourite lens?

This is rather specific to DSLR users

What is your favourite, or most used, lens? And why do you think you use it the most?

Ian

Well not DSLR but my favourite is my Zeiss Biogon 28mm f2.8 on Leica M8. Superbly sharp, excellent all round performance and quite small. It equates to 35mm on full frame and that was always my favourite focal length on film.

My other much used lens is a 35mm f1.4 Voigtlander Nocton. This is the approximate equivalent of the traditional 50mm. Some people don't like this lens because it has a bit of barrel distortion and focus shift. The former is easily fixed in Lightroom and the latter fault has not caused me any problems. The deficiences are made up by the remarkably small size and general performance.

[ash]

Re: What's your favourite lens?

You have totally lost me here Cap and I probably seem very ignorant but I totally respect the old gear and love the look and build quality, I can only imagine the quality of glass in those beauty's!
Ash.

[ash]

Re: What's your favourite lens?

Most used lens, well Ive had lots in my short spurt of photography mayhem, Im a bit of a lens freak actually, but out of all the lenses Ive had and used, I love my 50mm, on full frame or crop, I find it uncomplicated straight to the point and sharp, without having the option to zooooooooom, more passion can be put into the picture itself and consentrate on more important settings on the camera, also regular shooting with a fixed lens can give your work a style and feeling.
Ash.

[mike_j]

Re: What's your favourite lens?

You have totally lost me here Cap and I probably seem very ignorant but I totally respect the old gear and love the look and build quality, I can only imagine the quality of glass in those beauty's!
Ash.

Don't worry, I get totally lost when people quote Canon and Nikon models at me

The lenses I mentioned are pretty good, but no antiques. Both are current production models. Cosina, who produce both Voigtlander and Zeiss may well be the biggest current manufacturer of Leica fit lenses. One thing the rangefinder world has is a wide choice of superb prime lenses. No zooms though!

Mind you it is a nice feature that the original f2 50mm Summar from my 1934 Leica 111 still fits my 2008 Leica M8 with just a simple screw to bayonet adaptor. The Summar is uncoated and flare can be terrible.



But with the sun behind you the results stand up quite well for a 76 year old lens

[Stephen]

Re: What's your favourite lens?

If I had a lens that created flare like that, it would definitely be relegated to the shelf of photographic oddities. Frankly I struggle to see the attraction of these old Leica fit lenses. I'm even wondering what the real attraction of the M8 is in this age with the current generation of dSLR cameras. Given the money I'd go for the latest Canon 1D or 1Ds models in a heart beat, even though they are physically bigger in size and weight

BTW you really could do with getting that sensor cleaned

[mike_j]

Re: What's your favourite lens?

I like using the old cameras and lenses, it's in the same category as having a vintage car but much less trouble. You learn to use them within their capabilities, the flare picture was a deliberate test. Besides it keeps me out of trouble giving talks to various groups on camera and photographic history.

As to the M8, each to his own. I know it doesn't stack up on test benchmarks and pixel peeping but I am totally comfortable using it and enjoy modest success with it so why not.

I always have the Panasonic G1 to use if I want more modern technology, confusing menus and a host of never used features. It would be nice though if the M8 had automatic sensor cleaning.

[Stephen]

Re: What's your favourite lens?

I like using the old cameras and lenses, it's in the same category as having a vintage car but much less trouble. You learn to use them within their capabilities, the flare picture was a deliberate test. Besides it keeps me out of trouble giving talks to various groups on camera and photographic history.

As to the M8, each to his own. I know it doesn't stack up on test benchmarks and pixel peeping but I am totally comfortable using it and enjoy modest success with it so why not.

I always have the Panasonic G1 to use if I want more modern technology, confusing menus and a host of never used features. It would be nice though if the M8 had automatic sensor cleaning.