I recently acquired a camera lens that I had no desire to purchase but it came as part of a job lot and so I was stuck with it. It's an odd beast, a 500mm fixed aperture f/8 mirror lens from Tamron, made in the early 80s from what I understand. The fact that it's a mirror lens has certain advantages. First it's waaaaaaay smaller than what you'd expect from a 500mm telephoto lens, short and stubby instead of long and cumbersome. It's also a lightweight lens for such a long focal length. And believe it or not it is reasonably sharp if, and only if, you can steady it for long enough to take a picture. Ideally it should be on a tripod, especially when mounted on a micro four thirds camera as I have done here which effectively turns it into a 1000mm lens. It is crazy long! Look through the viewfinder when hand holding it and no matter how stable you think you are being you will see a world that incessantly bobs and weaves and never stops moving. As I said, tripod required. To give you an idea of how difficult it is to shoot, tonight I downloaded 50 images that I'd taken with the lens and ended up keeping only 4 shots. The rest were unusable because I missed focus one way or another (really easy to do when hand holding a manual focus lens like this). But as often is the case, out of all those stinkers one shot will offer up something special and I found my gem-in-the-muck in this shot of a single flower, alone in a mini-forest of dark greens. This shot was also hand held but I was balancing the camera on the top of my garden gate so managed to just about get it sharp in the frame.

Tags:   flower standing in a world of shadows Olympus OMD EM1 Mk2 Tamron 500mm f/8 mirror lens micro four thirds M43 1000mm full frame equivalent fixed aperture lens manual focus Vintage Lens Vintage lens photography

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I've shot the inside of Kings Cross station so many times that I couldn't begin to count the times. But like a bee to honey every time I'm in the area I am always attracted to it and invariably I'll stroll through the station concourse and see if anything new takes my eye. I don't think I've ever taken this shot before which is looking straight up the intricate support structure in the middle of the building. It's an amazing place for photography.

35mm film photography
Contax 167MT SLR
Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4
Kodak Gold 800 film (salvaged from a Kodak disposable camera)

Tags:   35mm film photography Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 Contax 167MT I shoot film Kodak Gold 800 colour film London analog analogue film shot at ISO 400 converted to B&W in post processing Kings Cross Station

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Interesting the things one finds at the back of a drawer. I recently was rummaging through a drawer where I keep some of my vintage lenses and came across a packet of 4 magnification filters, going from +1 to +4. They screw into the end of your lens and as you would expect, enlarge the view. I screwed the +4 filter into the end of one of my 50mm lenses and took a few shots around the house, including this tulip.

Tags:   tulip Monochrome B&W Black and White Carl Zeiss Pancolar 50mm F1.8 Hoya magnification filters +4 magnification filter Flower indoor photography Sony A7II Sony ILCE-7M2 Vintage lens photography Macro

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Another from my recent visit to Brighton. The old west pier is again in evidence and further away you can just about see the 'new' Brighton Palace pier, built in 1899 and still open and thriving today.

120 film photography
Rolleiflex 2.8E
Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm f2.8
Potsdam 100 B&W film

Tags:   120 film 6x6 B&W Black and White Brighton Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm f2.8 March 2024 Rolleiflex 2.8E Type 3 analog analogue film film is not dead medium format photography old west pier 'new' Brighton Palace Pier (1899) shadow and light keep off the groynes path to the beach

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The West pier at Brighton is surely one of the most photographed subjects in all of the UK. I’ve shot the pier many times before but this was the first time shooting it using a long exposure on a film camera.

120 film photography
Rolleiflex 2.8E
Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm f2.8
Potsdam 100 B&W film

Tags:   120 film 6x6 B&W Black and White Brighton Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm f2.8 March 2024 Rolleiflex 2.8E Type 3 analog analogue film film is not dead medium format photography Potsdam 100 B&W Long Exposure mini tripod 55 seconds exposure time Brighton West Pier 10 stop ND filter I shoot film

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