Gm photography lovers! Before one can start shooting amazing photographs, you need some equipment! And today is a very special day for me!
Mom was cleaning grandpa's attic over the weekend and found some old camera lenses. She put them in a box and gave them to me in a very casual way.
"They're old and dusty. I don't know anything about cameras, so you can have them if you want them."
Well I don't know much about cameras either, but I'm sure Grandpa did! so I said yes.
This is what I got.
Would you like to open them with me?
The first one on the left seems to be the slightly newer one out of the bunch. It's a Sigma 28-70mm 1:3.5-4.5 It comes with a Sky 1a (LA +10) M52 filter. This lens is for an MD Mount made for the Minolta SR Bayonet
Daniel*D, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
I found a video made with this lens on a Lumix S5 by YouTuber Natalie Rosella
I'm still trying to find more information about this lens and as soon as I find more, I'll be happy to update this post.
The first of the Carl Zeiss ones is this one. The casing's leather is a little tattered, but it has all its parts, lens covers and all. The lenses screw onto the base so they stay in one place. Ingenious design if you ask me.
This is what the lens looks like. It's a Carl Zeiss Pro-Tessar 1:3.5 f=35mm.
The original 35mm was introduced in 1957 with the launch of the Contaflex III camera with an apperture of F4. It was later improved and remodeled with an apperture of 3.5
I have a modern day Sigma 1.6 f=30mm and I think this focal length is quite useful for portrait photography. I'll have to take a look at this lens.
Next up is another Carl Zeiss, Pro-Tessar 1:4 f=115mm
I've never had this focal length, but I think I might be able to get more photos of people without noticing me. the Sigma 30mm is quite flattering, but it does require that I get a little up close and personal with my subject. Not ideal for street photography of people. Makes you creepy.
Hmmm, this last one looks exactly like the previous one only with a different part number and what looks like an additional polarized lens cover.
These lenses seem to be quite easy to find on eBay for about $160 + shipping and they seem to be quite popular among fans of Lomography. I found a bunch of photos with these lenses on lomography.com So I'm guessing that finding an adapter for my Sonys won't be impossible.
I'm going to start to look for adapters and see if I can use them with my modern a6000 and a6300 cameras. It might not be easy, but I've already seen some roaming about the interwebs, so I know it's not impossible:
I'm very curious how these lenses might look. If you have any advice at all, please leave it in a comment. It will be greatly appreciated.