Been eyeballing some new prime lenses for my camera for quite some time, but just couldn’t pull the trigger for the pricey things. So, I watched and waited, and searched. In doing so, I stumbled on the means to unlock older lens useage on this camera. (why the feature comes locked out by default is beyond me)
Armed with this knowledge, I’ve been watching for someone to offload some of the old lenses. Finally happened last night, and I got myself a set of primes, finally. Sure, they’re 30 years old and only work on full manual mode. I have to shoot in full manual for my low light situations anyway.
The real star of the set, for me, is the 50mm F1.7 lens. Most folks would view this as a portrait lens, and it sure works pretty well in that capacity. (no, there is no flash being used anywhere here)
What it unlocks for ME, however, is a superior ability to take low light photos. The f1.7 makes the viewfinder much brighter and thus easier to focus on the subject (yes, OLD camera I actually have to use the viewfinder, not a live video screen, the horror). Not to mention the lower F stops than my current kit camera allowing this to be shot freehand, no tripod.
The next lens is a 28MM F2.4. This offers a small change from the 50MM at the end of the day. The wider angle allows for some more close up work.
The final lens is one I could pull out next time we go camping. 200MM F3.5. Really not going to be much use to my low light photography, but it sure took some fine pics of the moon even through the hazy sky.
It even works with my doubler, which tends to be picky which lenses it likes.
