Petzval Week
Season 3, episode 1: Going to work with the Petzval
One of the main reasons for buying a film camera—really a failed attempt at justifying my G.A.S.—was so I could see how the lenses I have really perform.
With the D7000, I get great images from time to time* and I have a collection of lenses that I’ve grown familiar and comfortable with only through use with the D7000. However, as a crop-sensor camera, the D7000 is only using the center of the lens: since the sensor is roughly half the size of a frame of 35mm film (~16×24 vs. 24×36), and since lenses tend to be best in the center and fall off in the corners, I never get to see what lenses are capable of.
Anyway… so I’ve started the process of testing lenses on full frame by using actual full frames of film. Good times.
So far, it appears that the Petzval performs about as well on film as on digital. It can be a bit difficult to focus, and I think the FG’s meter has a bit of trouble with lenses that lack a usual sort of aperture (with the lever and all), but it’s still a joy to use, and you’ll see more as the week goes on.
Enjoy!
*Rarely. And the ones that I do get are more to do with Allah and the beauty of His creation than with my creativity and/or ability. And any great images that do grace this blog (or rot on some digital storage device somewhere) have more to do with my creative abilities than with the camera or lens. Hence the biggest problem with GAS.
