what photography related item did you buy this week?

[John V.]

Been away from the forum a while. I've gotten a Cayer tripod and Cayer monopod since last posting. Both are great. But this week I received a vintage lens I bought from eBay. Its a Canon FD 28mm f/2. Seems like the f/2 is not as common as the f/2.8. Goes really well with the Pixco focal reducer.

Pics taken with my other favorite vintage lens, Canon FD 50mm f/1.8.

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[algold]

Well done, I was tempted to sell it when I purchased the 12-100. Do you have any primes in the 12-40 range?

17mm, 25mm, 45mm, f/1.8

 

[melanie.ylang]

Been away from the forum a while. I've gotten a Cayer tripod and Cayer monopod since last posting. Both are great. But this week I received a vintage lens I bought from eBay. Its a Canon FD 28mm f/2. Seems like the f/2 is not as common as the f/2.8. Goes really well with the Pixco focal reducer.

Pics taken with my other favorite vintage lens, Canon FD 50mm f/1.8.

View attachment 773323 View attachment 773324 View attachment 773325

Nice! I look forward to seeing your photos taken with it, particularly as I was thinking about getting a 28mm FD lens to focally reduce.

 

[Steph]

Expensive week ! A brand new Em1 mk 2 ( got it @ 900euros) + a new 17mm f1.2 and a Hoya CPL. Can't wait to play with them.

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[agentlossing]

Bought an old Bower medium orange filter for B&W film. Luckily I already had a step-up ring to adapt the 46mm filter threads to the 55mm filter.

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[Top362nd]

Received last Friday a used black Oly E-P5 body with only 472 clicks on the shutter, in mint condition. With the box and accessories. Looking in the "secret" menus it appears to have been manufactured in early 2017, so must have very late in the production run. $275 plus $10 shipping from the original owner.

 

[Mack]

Bought a Sekonic L-858D-U Speedmaster meter as it appears to be the only meter that can do HSS readings for the Godox AD600 Pro I recently bought for shooting the outdoor wildlife. Can't get my old flashmeters to work right with the HSS flash as it seems to be affected with faster shutter speeds due to the change in the duration/speed of the flash that my other meters do not read right. Otherwise, every HSS setup was a chimping exercise to get it dialed in right.

 

[Leo_B]

An O17f1.8 lens, a P12-32 lens and the O12-40f2.8 lens. And yes, why would you buy the 12-32 when you're buying the 12-40? Easy, 312g less weight and 14x60mm smaller size.

 

[Robert Watcher]

I wanted a couple of specialty lenses for the current work that I am doing, and found them on kijiji.ca close to where we are staying for the next couple of months in Ontario.

For macro work, I purchased a 35mm macro in the four thirds mount for close up detail shots and for copy work in the field. For a longer reach zoom, I received a 75-300mm micro four thirds mount. Both in pristine condition. I used to have the 70-300 lens for my E-3 and E-520’s and really miss having a lens in that range for shooting people surfing at the ocean as well as reaching into the jungle to capture wild animals - so now have a replacement for that. The 40-150 that I have been depending on with my micro 4/3 gear, just doesn’t cut it for reach.

Also ordered in a couple 64GB Sandisk cards and the Anker USB3 card reader as well as a power cable for my MacBook, from Amazon. And I picked up a hardly used iPhone 7 - 128GB yesterday to replace my 16GB iPhone 6. So went on a bit of a spending spree (mind you all for half the price of one new premium Olympus lens) when I returned from El Salvador on Monday and now I am set for a while for my street and travel work when I head back in Nov.

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These lenses weren’t necessary, but should provide a slight edge on taking images such as these that I shot in a jungle atop a volcano in Nicaragua last month.

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———-
Wild to Ontario Canada LOL
A quick go with the 75-300 outside. Focused well even with tree limbs in the way as the nervous squirrel scurried around before disappearing
E-M1 w/75-300 @ 200mm - f8.0 @ 1/160 @ 1600 ISO

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[Petrochemist]

I picked up a copy stand yesterday. Being sold locally on e-bay & I was the only one to bid, so got it for £10.
All I need now is somewhere to keep it, to play with macro.

I found there's an identical model (but without the plugs) currently listed in Coventry for £100 (more than several of the new models).

 

[Alexlotl]

I’m getting the Olympus 30mm f/3.5 macro for my birthday this weekend, so I’ve been investigating the weird and wonderful world of macro flash setups.

I’m an m43 user because I want lightweight, unfussy gear, which isn’t that compatible with all the wacky duct-tape-and-milk-bottle solutions people come up with.

Eventually decided to go with the following for my Pen-F:

- Olympus FL-14 flash - picked up a boxed one for £15 delivered on eBay.
- Generic elastic-mount flash reflector (silver one side, white the other).
- Generic collapsible lens-mounted flash diffuser (like an inverted baby bib) with a little zip up case.
- Miniature bulldog clip to hold them together.

We’ll see how that works! I can see one hell of a learning curve coming up either way. Never had a macro before, so pretty excited.

 

[Robert Watcher]

I’m getting the Olympus 30mm f/3.5 macro for my birthday this weekend, so I’ve been investigating the weird and wonderful world of macro flash setups.

I’m an m43 user because I want lightweight, unfussy gear, which isn’t that compatible with all the wacky duct-tape-and-milk-bottle solutions people come up with.

Eventually decided to go with the following for my Pen-F:

- Olympus FL-14 flash - picked up a boxed one for £15 delivered on eBay.
- Generic elastic-mount flash reflector (silver one side, white the other).
- Generic collapsible lens-mounted flash diffuser (like an inverted baby bib) with a little zip up case.
- Miniature bulldog clip to hold them together.

We’ll see how that works! I can see one hell of a learning curve coming up either way. Never had a macro before, so pretty excited.

I’m looking forward to honing macro skills as well. I’ve never done it and from a quick test last night on a few different objects that were close to me - it ain’t easy. Macro requires a different skill set that I’m determined to master. I used single point AF for these.


https://www.imaging-resource.com/lenses/olympus/35mm-f3.5-zuiko-digital-macro/review/

E-M1 w/35mm macro - f5.0@1/160@3200 ISO

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Ink Dots Visible - text on Amazon Gift Card - uncropped full frame approx 3/4” x 1/2”
Edge to Edge Sharpness
E-M1 w/35mm macro - f5.0@1/10@3200 ISO

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Razor Thin DOF
E-M1 w/35mm macro - f5.6@1/40@3200 ISO

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Microscopic M - the flower head that these petals are part of are around 2-3” across
E-M1 w/35mm macro - f16@1/60@3200 ISO

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[Sleepy Capybara]

Which 35mm Macro lens is it?

Razor Thin DOF
E-M1 w/35mm macro - f5.6@1/40@3200 ISO
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[Robert Watcher]

Which 35mm Macro lens is it?

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Olympus 35mm macro for four thirds - used with MMF-3 adaptor. I picked it up used for cheap.

 

[Sleepy Capybara]

Olympus 35mm macro for four thirds - used with MM4 adaptor. I picked it up used for cheap.

Interesting. I knew of old 4/3 50mm macro but not 35mm. There are some gems from that time.

 

[Robert Watcher]

Interesting. I knew of old 4/3 50mm macro but not 35mm. There are some gems from that time.

I used to own the 50mm f2 macro for four thirds. It was a wonderful lens for image quality. This 35mm was brought out at a lower cost than the 50mm. I never tried it as I didn’t need it. When this one came used recently, I decided to grab it instead of forking out big bucks for a dedicated micro 4/3 macro lens.

The 35mm has a higher magnification than the 50mm - up to 2:1 (2 times life size) on micro 4/3. However to get those magnifications, requires the subject to be almost right up to the front of the lens making light more difficult. You can see that by the shutter speed listed on the different shots where as I got closer, the shutter speed dropped drastically because the end table light was getting blocked.

I am determined though to find a use for the lens and figure out how to best configure it for successful images. There is no doubt that it can produce quality shots - photographer technique will be the most important though.

 

[Sleepy Capybara]

The 35mm has a higher magnification than the 50mm - up to 2:1 on micro 4/3. However to get those magnifications, requires the subject to be almost right up to the front of the lens making light more difficult. You can see that by the shutter speed listed on the different shots where as I got closer, the shutter speed dropped drastically because the end table light was getting blocked.

I am determined though to find a use for the lens and figure out how to best configure it for successful images. There is no doubt that it can produce quality shots - photographer technique will be the most important though.

Agree with this. I recently got into macro and it is a whole new world out there. Apart from superb Oly 60mm, I also bought Mitakon 20mm super macro 1:4.5 ratio lens and has the same problem as what you are facing, in fact more severe. I am planning to build tiny LED ring around the front element of that lens since my FL600R with diffuser isn't working well with it. It is also near impossible to focus without rails, so there's that too. If nothing works, look for my post on B&S forum for Mitakon 20mm super macro soon

 

[mcrosa]

Just ordered from B&H the Backpacker Air Tripod.

 

[archaeopteryx]

35mm has a higher magnification than the 50mm - up to 2:1 (2 times life size) on micro 4/3

Minor aside: the 35 mm is 1:1 and the 50 mm just under 1:2. Olympus just likes to market their 1x (m)43 macros as the equivalent of 2:1 on full frame due to the crop factor. There are a few 2x macros built as conventional lenses, such as the Laowa 60mm and pending Laowa 100mm but, offhand, I think all of them require adaptation to m43 mount.

 

[Robert Watcher]

Minor aside: the 35 mm is 1:1 and the 50 mm just under 1:2. Olympus just likes to market their 1x (m)43 macros as the equivalent of 2:1 on full frame due to the crop factor. There are a few 2x macros built as conventional lenses, such as the Laowa 60mm and pending Laowa 100mm but, offhand, I think all of them require adaptation to m43 mount.

Yes that is true. The 50mm f2 becomes 1:1.