Shooting Yashinon DX 50mm f1.7 M42 with Olympus OM-D E-M10

This lens was part of a large consignment of old photographic equipment I was given.  It belongs to the father of a coworker who no longer wants them.  As a Canon shooter I already has the Canon 50mm f1.8 so never shot with it.  However, I recently purchased a new Olympus OMD EM10.  With it's focus peaking and 3-axis in body stablisation it is the ideal camera to test it out.  With the lens fitted with an adapter here are some images from an afternoon shooting on the street of London.

Yashinon DX 50mm f1.7 mounted to Olympus OMD EM10

It is possible to get some good bokeh from this lens shooting wide open.  The EVF on the EM10  manual focusing was easy even without peaking.  The main draw back was in fact my camera.  Even  with ISO set to 100, on a bright sunny day, I had to stop down to f2.8 to avoid over exposure.

Of course I have no real reason to shoot with this lens at all.  I own the Olympus 45mm f1.8, a small light weight sharp lens.  How ever, I just like the feel of the Yashinon lens.  The focus ring was smooth, well damped and a joy to use.  Here are a few photos shot with this lens.

After checking the photos closely, I can say it is not as sharp as the Olympus 45mm f1.8.  The Yashinon lens is a fun lens to use and manual focus was a lot easier to use using peaking function.  The focus ring was very smooth and lovely to use and good quality photos can be achieved.  If you can get one at a good price then go for it but it is not up to the level of the native MFT portrait lens.  If auto focus is not important to you, adapted lens can be used to supplement native lenses.

Pentax Super Takumar 135mm f3.5 M42 Lens In Depth Review

This lens can be had for very little money on eBay.  That was where I picked up this lens complete with original screw on hood.  Using a M42 to EOS adapter, I tested this lens on a Canon EOS 6D and EOS 650D.  On the 650D, the angle of view is similar to 216mm.  A 216mm f3.5 lens sounds attractive.

First of all, lets’ talk about the lens itself.  It has an aperture ring and is manual focus only.  It is all metal construction and is well built.  The focus ring is smooth with plenty of rotation required between infinity and minimum focus distance.  The long focus movement is a useful feature to aid focus accuracy.  I did not find it difficult to focusing in good light if the subject is not moving.  If the subject is moving, that is totally different experience.  This lens has an Auto or Manual switch near the base.  This refers to the aperture control.  In Auto, the pin at the back of the lens is pressed and the aperture ring stops down.  When using an adapter, it can only be used in Manual mode when you manually change the aperture.  It does mean the view finder gets darker if you stop down.  So, how does this lens do on a modern digital SLR?  Quite well is my answer.  For the cost it is amazing if you’re happy to focus manually.  You can achieve quite blur background with this lens.  Here are a few photos taken with my EOS 650D at f3.5.  The bokeh blur is quite respectable and a lot better than any kit lens can.  Here are a few photos taken with the lens wide open at f3.5.

f3.5 with Canon EOS 650D

f3.5 with Canon EOS 650D

f3.5 with Canon EOS 650D

This lens is reasonable good in resisting flare.  I shot the image below at f3.5 into the tree with the sun on the corner.  It does not do too badly.  On the same image, you can also see the level of chromatic aberration.  It is an extremely high contrast situation and it shows.  This is likely to be as bad as it can be.  You will need to shoot raw and post process if you want to avoid this.

Flare resistance not too bad

Not too much chromatic aberration for a high contrast situation 

One thing I’ve noticed is when stopped down, the camera over expose the same scene.  Here is an example of what I mean.  The following three images were taken at f3.5, f5.6 and f8.  The metering mode was centre weighted.  The scene is over exposed progressively worse from f3.5 to f8.  I did not try different metering mode, but it may be important to you if you shoot jpeg and will need to dial in exposure compensation if you stop down.  For me, it will not be a big deal as I will most likely to shoot wide open with this lens all the time.

f3.5 Canon EOS 650D

f5.6 Canon EOS 650D

f8 Canon EOS 650D

As a portrait lens it does quite well.  The following photo were taken with Canon EOS 6D, a full frame camera.

f3.5 with Canon EOS 6D

f3.5 with Canon EOS 6D

f3.5 with Canon EOS 6D

Here are a few more photos taken on a bright sunny day in The City of London.  All taken with Canon EOS 6D.  I shot as much as possible at f3.5 unless it was too bright, but I need not keep records of what aperture I shot at.

In summary it is a good lens.  It surpassed my expectation, if you don't mind manual focus.  135mm on a full frame camera is a great focal length for portraits.  There is very little distortion and shallow depth of field can be achieved with smooth bokeh.  Sharpness will not be up to the standard of modern lens but in a lot of cases, composition and content are more important than sharpness.  Sharpness on its own can be over rated.

Bokeh Blur Comparison Sigma 85mm f1.4 Vs Canon 85mm f1.8

This is not a lens head to head test and I will not be doing any details comparison of sharpness at every aperture.  My experience of lens sharpness is it does not make a huge difference unless it is really bad or you're printing "big".  No one has ever told me the photo would be so much better if it is shot with a sharper lens.  This lens comparison came about because of the recent change of direction to taking portraits with my 85mm f1.8 lens wide open.  I wondered what photos would be like with the Canon 85mm f1.2.  Having seen a few reviews of the 85mm f1.2 and knows it is slow to focus and sharpness is not better than the 85mm f1.8 @ f1.8.  I’ve decided it is not an option for me.  I then saw a Sigma 85mm f1.4 on eBay, made a bid and won it.  It is in great condition and I started to shoot with it straight away and love the bokeh it produces.  Now I have two very similar lenses and one has to be sold.  The decision on which lens to keep will be based on bokeh fully open.

Before I start, the Sigma lens is heavy, noticeably heavier than the Canon.  It uses 77mm filter against Canon which has 58mm filter thread.  When mounted on my 6D, I do notice the weight.  Also the focus speed on the Canon 85mm is faster.  The Sigma is fast but the Canon is just faster.  For portrait work, it is no problem.  From tests I’ve seen it is significantly faster than the Canon 85mm f1.2.

Canon 85mm f1.8 Vs Sigma 85mm f1.4

Here are comparison photos of the lovely Viktorija shot with both lenses.  Both lenses vignette.  If you are a jpeg shooter, the Canon may be the better option for you.  Lens illumination is not available for the Sigma lens, but with the Canon lens it can be corrected in camera automatically.  As you can see, the background is smoother with the Sigma lens.  Looking at 100%, sharpness is very similar between them.  There is really nothing between them.  The Canon 85mm f1.8 made a decent job of smooth background, the Sigma is only a little smoother.  Both lenses will do a very decent job of creating background blur.  Both of these photos were processed the same way but the Sigma lens seems to render the image warmer.

Sigma 85mm f1.4 100%

Canon 85mm f1.8 100%

Based on this test, I will be keeping the Sigma lens and will be selling my Canon 85mm f1.8.  It will go some way to offset the cost of purchasing the Sigma lens.  Here are a few more images shot with the Sigma lens all wide open.  These images were processed in Lightroom without any lens correction or retouching.

Model: Esha Arain

Model: Viktorija Dapsyte

Model: Viktorija Dapsyte

Pentax 135mm f3.5 Super Takumar M42 Lens

Recently I am taking more and more photos with the lens wide open.  The lens of choice for me at the moment is the Canon 85mm f1.8 USM.  A lovely lens that can produce very smooth great back ground blur.  So what will happen with a 135mm lens?  This is where the Pentax comes in.  It was purchased on eBay for a very reasonable sum and since I already has a M42 to EOS adapter, I was good to go.

Lens

Hood

Lens and hood

Side by side with Canon 85mm f1.8

So what will happen with a 135mm lens?  This is where the Pentax comes in.  It was purchased on eBay for a very reasonable sum and since I already has a M42 to EOS adapter, I was good to go.

I am not expecting the Pentax 135mm lens to be as sharp as the Canon 85mm.  Can the 135mm f3.5 create lovely out of focus blur?  Here are a couple of test images using the Pentax 135mm lens against the Canon 85mm f1.8.

Canon 85mm f1.8 @ f1.8

Pentax Super Takumar 135mm f3.5 @ f3.5

The Canon 85mm f1.8 can achieve much smoother back ground blur than Pentax135mm f3.5.  Also the minimum focus distance is longer with the Pentax.  I couldn't get a tighter crop with it.

Here are the 100% crop in the centre for both of them.

Canon 85mm f1.8 100% crop

Pentax Super Takumar 135mm f3.5 100% crop

Sharpness is not bad for an old lens, but back ground blur is clearly not as smooth but very useful.  The contrast is higher for the Canon lens as well.  For an old lens, the Pentac did really well.  I am quite impressed.  Of course manual focusing is not for everyone.  This is just a quick look.  A more detailed comparison will follow later on.

Jessica Xavier Collection Shoot

I shot Jessica Xavier's graduation collection recently.  The style of the shoot was to be a little quirky; similar to her collection.  One of my favorite photographer is Tim Walker and wants to emulate his style; without his production budget.  Light was very simple and it consists of a single Godox DE300 head with a 43" octa box with grid on a boom arm.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and I love the results we achieved.  Enough talking, here are the images from the shoot.

All image:
Hair and makeup: Retrocrow
Designer: Jessica Xavier
Styling: Jessica Xavier
Model: Paige Davies, Gabriela Georgieva
Photographer: Yat Tang

Canon 90EX Flash Gun Review

This is a quick review of the Canon 90EX flashgun.  I will not go into too much detail but just what it can do and why I bought it.  I was a long time user of Canon EOS 650D which has built in wireless controller via the inbuilt flash.  I do use it to control 1 x Yongnuo YN568EXII and 2 x Yongnuo YN565EX flash guns off camera.  Recently I bought a Canon EOS 6D which lack a built in flash.  That meant I had to use the Yongnuo YN568EXII as the wireless controller.  This combination becomes much heavier than I like.

90EX on Canon EOS 6D

The 90EX flash gun was intended for the Canon EOS-M camera and it is the smallest Speedlite available.  They are now appearing in the second hand market at very reasonable price.  Mine was purchased used, but was in as new condition.  The reason the 90EX was chosen over 270EX is because of the wireless flash control ability.  The 270EX is much more powerful and it also has a tilting head, but lack wireless flash control.

Speedlite menu in ETTL mode wireless enabled

The power of the 90EX is about the same as the built in flash so it is not very powerful. High speed sync is also available on the 90EX.  Do bare in mind it is not very powerful and HSS will reduce the power even more.   It uses 2 x AAA batteries as power source.  Physically, it only has an on/off button and a lock switch to lock the flash on the hot shoe.

When it is mounted on the 6D, the external Speedlite menu becomes available and wireless control can be enabled.  In combination with EOS 6D it is an ideal small flash for fill flash use and as a wireless controller indoor.  Outdoor, I tend to use my Yongnuo YN622C as it is radio based and is reliable in bright sun light.

Speedlite menu in manual mode wireless enabled

Overall, it is highly recommended for owners of Canon full frame cameras that do not have a built in flash.  It is useful as a small fill flash and wireless flash controller but has limitation due to its small size and low power output.  Other than that, there is no reason why any Canon crop sensor cameras would want to use the 90EX.