Lens
More New Gear On The Way
Since I began the journey into SLR land i’ve always been keen to get my hands on a good wide-angle lens, as my current, main lens is only as wide as 28mm, which may be fine on a 35mm or Full-frame DSLR, but on a Cropped-Sensor DSLR such as the 400D i have, it’s really only 44mm wide. which gives relatively poor results for taking great landscapes of shooting indoors.
So I set about hunting out a great deal on a good quality lens. I read countless reviews and lens lens tests on all the major players, such as
Canon’s EF-s10-22mm USM
Sigma’s 10-20mm EX-DC HSM
Tamron’s 10-24mm F/3.5-4.5 Di-II
Tokina’s 12-24mm AT-X PRO DX
and also a number of different Canon EF Prime lenses.
The Eyes of EOS, reccomended reading
Yesterday i was loaned a book by a family friend,
“EF Lens Work III, The Eyes of EOS”
it’s a publication by Canon, which details the entire EF lens range as well as a world of information including -Choices of lenses for different types of photography
-Full Technical specifications on the EF and EF-S lenses
-Theory of light including, reflection, refraction, optics and lens theory
-Construction and technical operation of the IS (Image Stabalisation) and AF (AutoFocus) systems.
There is also a downloadable version (in parts) available for those unaware of books!!
It can be found HERE
From what i’ve read so far, it’s a brilliant learning resource combined with an array of Canons marketing material. It is even very beneficial for the non-Canon users out there who would like a little more depth into the how and why’s of lens operation and science.
My Vintage Camera Equipment
Approximately 10 years ago my father was given an old (1950′s I believe) professional quality film SLR, buy his uncle.
We used it on a trip to Bathurst in 1997 and it took some amazing quality shots, for a man and his son, not knowing anything about photography, and also being unsure of the physical condition of the camera itself.
Since taking up photography as a more serious hobby recently, I have begun a process of teaching mself the finer points of using this piece of photographic history, and also shooting with film. somthing i probably haven’t done for 10 years.
The camera itself is an Exakta Varex VX (unsure of what series) built in East Germany, post WWII.
It also has a range of Carl Zeiss Lenses
-35mm F4.5
-50mm F2.8
-135mm F4
as well as Macro extension tubes, light meter, and different (interchangable) prism eyepiece.
Over the next few months, I hope to get my hands on some decent quality film and see what I can do with it.
But for now I’m just running off a few random shots on cheap film to get a feel for the settings and the machine itself.
I’ll keep you posted with the results when I have some that are worth sharing.
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