I had no idea what to shoot this week (as usual) and so decided that this would be a good opportunity to for a macro week. GoGo.
But what lens to use? My first thought was to use the Vivitar 50mm f/1.8, but when I went to the the shelf with all the film cameras (when I moved, I’m pretty sure I put all the lenses back on all the cameras, and removed all the reversing & step down rings) but couldn’t find the Vivitar. So I decided to try something different, all spur-of-the-moment like.
Enter the AUTO mamiya/sekor 50mm f/2.
This lens came off of my mamiya/sekor 1000DTL camera. I’m not sure about the lineage of this camera, but given that Granddad was mostly a Vivitar shooter (from the kit I inherited from him—which included the 250SL and 50mm f/1.8 (both Cosina-made), the 1:2 teleconverter, a Montgomery Ward-branded 28mm f/2.8, a JCPenny-branded Diamatic 135mm f/2.8, plus some filters and empty film canisters, all in a really snappy metal case with hand-cut foam protectors for all the gear—and from the camera(s) he gave to my mom and aunts (Vivitar K1000s, both of them)), I expect it came from my step-dad Hank.
But I digress.
Day 1: a couple of shots of some houseplants (pictures 1 & 2).
Day 4: some weeds out front of the apartment (picture 3).
Day 6: a bouquet that some friends brought last week (pictures 4-7, including some fun rear-curtain flash work with the pop-up flash!).
I got one really good pic this week, and I’m not sharing it here… It deserves its own post, methinks, and I try to offer a limited edition of prints or something. I like it quite a bit. (More on that later.)
As to to the lens… I love it! It’s sharp enough wide open, and shines stopped down slightly (the first pic was wide open, the rest were shot at roughly f/3.5 (the AUTO has detents at 1/2-stop intervals, and the lens was halfway between f/2.8 and f/4.)). And remember that these were all shot with the lens reversed and on a crop-sensor camera… (One day, I’d like to try this with a full-frame film or digital… my interest is leaning towards film at the moment, but we’ll see, and I have so many old film cameras with no batteries, it seems silly to start buying more. Maybe sell the old ones and buy an nice, manual 35mm Nikon… but that’s a ways off methinks.)
First order of business, though, may be to run a roll of film through the old mamiya/sekor camera. If it’s as good as the lens, I’m in for a treat!
D7000. AUTO mamiya/sekor 50mm f/2, reversed. ISO1600, f/2-3.5, AP mode. Minimal processing, mostly +10 to contrast & clarity, +5 to saturation, pretty good for reversed lenses, easily as good as the Zomb-E (though lacking the ability to focus with the zoom ring).
