When testing new lenses wether they are new new or old but new to me, I go for walks and spot the little details in life that bring me a little bit of joy. To know that I’ve noticed it and then tested my lenses by photographing it.

Lately I’ve gotten two old manual lenses to pair with my Fuji XT1 camera and I’m really enjoying the Helios 44/2 and when I went to the Photography Show the other weekend I saw a 135/2 lens and thought why not, its only £10 I’ll have that. Now I understand why it was only £10 .. the aperture rings on it don’t work and it only shoots wide open at f2!! Plus it needed a really good clean and now my lens cloth needs a wash. Such is a photographers life!

So while its an old and cheap lens with a broken aperture, it still works and does manual focus fine. Its got some colour fringing issues so I won’t be using it as a professional lens but for a bit of fun its quite okay. I’ve started to get what some call a photographers rock, where you shift weight slowly from foot to food to change the distance to figure out where the minimum focus distance is. On this lens it’s a massive 1.7 meters roughly so I was on the edge of pavements trying focus on flowers and bits of trees!! Mmm .. passing traffic was an issue along with making sure I was safe and didn’t disrupt passers-by.

The bokeh (ie. the circular blur in the background) and the creamy blur are pleasing and when the focus is good .. its pretty darn good. Not ‘tack’ sharp as photographers want for professional work but with the little plant growing from the concrete gate post, you can still see the fine threads of the spider web.

I think this is going to be a play lens of mine, fine for when I want something different, to break out a different kind of look with an aptitude for light leaks and flares.  It got me out and in the sunshine for a while and I enjoyed myself on my break from work. Now its back to the design work and secret stuff up my sleeve that’s all hush hush ;)