Vintage Lenses – Auto Takumar 50mm F1.4 (8 Element Version)

Auto Takumar 50mm f1.4 – Shot at F5.6 earlier today.

I’ve been shooting on and off with vintage lenses for a couple of years now. I always enjoyed using them but I didn’t really stick with it. I think it’s probably because I was prioritising shooting stock images, which need to be tack sharp. To that end using my modern Fujifilm lenses, with auto focus and coatings that have superb flare and glare control made more sense. There’s more on my drift into using vintage lenses in a previous blog – Vintage lenses and Flickr

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Photography – Vintage Lenses and Flickr

One of the first images taken with a new Auto Takumar 50mm F1.4 – 8 Element version. I went looking for lens flare and bokeh balls and found it in my local woodland.

My digital photography story started back in 2007 when I completed a short Open University course called ‘Welcome to Digital Photography’. Over ten weeks the course covered the photography basics but also introduced me to Flickr.

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Vintage Lenses – My lenses paired with a Canon 5D MK2

Canon 5D MK2 paired with my Pentacon 135mm F2.8 – Superb when I nailed the focus, trouble was, I didn’t most of the time.

I’ve enjoyed using my vintage lenses with my Fujifilm X-T cameras over the last few weeks. It’s been really good to slow down, using manual focusing, and I like the colour rendering and sharp images my Auto Takamar 35mm F2.3 lens has produced (it’s a 50mm lens on my crop sensor Fuji cameras). The other vintage lens I’ve been using is my Pentacon 135mm F2.8 – known as the bokeh monster, with good reason.

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Vintage Lenses – Auto Takumar 35mm F2.3

My Auto Takumar 35mm F2.3 on my Fujifilm X-T2.

I’ve had this Auto Takumar 35mm F2.3 for a couple of years now but I’ve never really used it that much. Having been out and about and used it all day today that will be changing because its a superb lens.

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