St Helens, 25th June -- My Vintage 28mm
I was having no luck adapting my old vintage lens. It is a 28mm made by some obscure company (PMC, I think). I picked it up on a flea market years ago and had it lying around more as a paperweight than something I'd actually use. It's dirty and has some weird lens blobs inside. Only recently did I think I'd try to adapt it to my Nikon, so I tried to clean it with hydrogen peroxide but to no obvious improvement. I also bought the wrong lens adaptor. I thought it was a Pentax K when it turned out to be something even odder, so I sent the adaptor back...
Then I was in Warrington the other day and browsing around Cash Converters. They had a lens like my 28mm in the cabinet. £14. It was made by Cosina but before they were bought by Voigtländer, with all the added prestige that name brings. I had a look. Opened up the aperture and held it up to the light and it was pristine inside. It also had what I now knew to be an actual Pentax K mount, so I bought it and reordered the adaptor I'd only just sent back.
Anyway, the adaptor arrived today, allowing me to fit this old Pentax K 28mm to my Nikon Z mount. I didn’t waste any time before I hopped on my bike and headed into St Helens.
I did, however, pause on the way to lightly concuss myself on a low bridge, which might sound unlikely except the bridge was only about 5 feet high. There’s probably a reason it’s not signposted as a recommended route under the busy road where I always struggle to cross. Yet the chance of using this shortcut was hugely appealing. Thankfully I’d had my bike helmet on but it did leave a good deep dent, which is a sign of how hard I hit it. I used it again going home but managed to do so without another serious crack to my noggin.
Anyway, after I emerged from under the bridge, I paused to swear a bit and see if I could carry on. I probably resembled some Nordic troll.
When I'd recovered, I got out the camera to try out the lens for the first time and I was immediately hopeful. I don’t intend to use it for macro shots with the aperture wide open, but the results were decent. It looks sharp and I liked the soft bokeh.
Also took a picture of the offending bridge...
I was impressed at how well thingds were looking. I decided I’d push on. I really wanted to try the lens doing some street photography.
Once in town, I tried some zone focussing using the hyperfocal distance. If you don’t know, there’s a little infinity symbol on these old manual lenses (not often found on modern autofocus lenses because they claim to be able to do everything for you) and if you line up the infinity symbol with the number of your aperture on the second ring and look on the other size of the barrel to the same aperture number, you can figure out where your focus zone lies.
So, in this example (though I’ve not lined up infinity exactly above the 8), I’ve chosen an aperture of f8, which means that my zone of focus should start from about 6 feet (the lefthand 8 lines up where 6 feet marker would be). So everything from 6 feet in front of me up to infinity should be in focus (or what’s called “acceptably in focus”).
The reality wasn’t quite so simple. I took a few shots using the hyperfocal setting and I wasn’t impressed with the results. I don't believe adapting lenses should change any of the numbers but perhaps it does. I did, however, discover that focusing about 8 feet in front of me put the 5 right on the central focal marker (which is the kind of simplicity I like) gave me a satisfyingly deep and sharp focal zone. I shot the rest of the day with this setting, except when pausing to use manual focus.
I prefer to manually focus when I have time and the scene is static. I zoom my viewfinder right into the scene and make micro-adjustments to get the shot as sharp as I can manage. The rest of the time I’m Winogranding it: trusting the zone as I fumble with my camera, shooting at odd angles, looking like somebody who is just confused, so I don’t look like I’m aggressively directing my camera at the people and scenes I'm finding interesting.
I wasn't out long but I liked the results and I think a couple of these (click on the gallery below) will make my list of all-time favourite photos I've taken, which is quite the achievement. I rarely take photos that get into my ‘Best’ category, though I know what I consider my ‘best’ would be a very subjectively odd selection. However, I like them.
The only question remaining is how this will work on darker days. It was extremely sunny, so I could select an extremely fast shutter (sometimes 1/1000th of a second) and the camera would still give me an ISO of 100-400. When zone-focussing and moving quickly, it ensured that no movement caused blurring. The closer I get to 1/250th, the more problems I have with blurring caused by my own movement, oven weaving around people to get close to them.
Anyway, it’s a work in progress but the first trial with this cheap vintage lens has filled me with enthusiasm to try others when I can afford it. The cheap lenses are (obviously) pretty cheap because they're old but the adaptors are not. I’ve never owned a proper telephoto lens but I’d quite like to try one for some wildlife photography, for the days when I’m not in the mood for the towns or cities.
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