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6 year old camera and 60 year old lens
Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 7:36 am
by sury
Well, I am not sure about the age of the lens but it is quite old, I am told.
A900 with Vivitar 90mm/f2.5 VMC (I believe this is Tokina made), I picked
up on eBay for $60.00. MD mount, used MD/MA adapter with glass. The light
was bright enough that the loss of quality did not impact adversely, I think.
This is a crop.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/uDoSvc]
[url=
https://flic.kr/p/viHDNj]

Re: 6 year old camera and 60 year old lens
Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 11:07 am
by bakubo
Looks like it is working pretty well on your A900.
Yes, I remember the Vivitar Series 1 90mm f2.5. My recollection is that it was from the late 1970s or maybe early 1980s. My first recollection of a Vivitar Series 1 lens was, I think, the first lens they came out with. It was the 70-210mm f3.5 with the push/pull zoom mechanism. Big and heavy. If I still had any of my early to mid 1970s Modern Photography magazines I could check the price in the back.

Re: 6 year old camera and 60 year old lens
Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 4:25 pm
by sury
Thank you Henry. I stand corrected. It is only 40+ years young and not 60 years old.
I bought the lens on eBay in 2007 for about $60.00. This lens came with an 1:1 optical extender.
Got some good pictures without extender and miserable ones with the 1:1 extender. I did not know
what shallow DoF meant and how "thin" it could be for a macro. I posted a photo on one of the
other fora I used to frequent and a fellow member was quizzing me about the lens and complimenting
my shots. During the conversation I found that he had a similar lens that he sold because he could not
get any good shots. To make long story short, it turned out I bought the lens from him.

I told him
had he not obsessed with using 1:1 extender, he could have had a better luck with the lens.
Sury
Re: 6 year old camera and 60 year old lens
Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 11:41 pm
by the_hefay
Great shots and I love the story also.
Re: 6 year old camera and 60 year old lens
Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 4:53 am
by bakubo
sury wrote:This lens came with an 1:1 optical extender.
Got some good pictures without extender and miserable ones with the 1:1 extender. I did not know
what shallow DoF meant and how "thin" it could be for a macro.
Yes, at 1:1 the dof is very shallow. Got to be careful..

Here are a couple of shots I made back in 1974 or 1975 when I was a teenager. No money for a macro lens since just buying an SLR and lens was quite a lot for me. Then you had to constantly feed the darn thing with film which cost even more.

Not like today. Both photos used some Spiratone extension tubes with my 55mm f1.8 attached and both are 1:1. With these sorts of flat subjects looking straight down at them dof is less of a problem.
Scanned Kodachrome X (ASA 64):
Scanned Tri-X (ASA 400):

Re: 6 year old camera and 60 year old lens
Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 12:43 pm
by mikeriach
Love the first one.
Mike
Re: 6 year old camera and 60 year old lens
Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 11:04 am
by bakubo
mikeriach wrote:Love the first one.
That is one of those old pop tops.

I haven't seen one like that for about 40 years, I guess. Maybe time to
Pop a Top:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm-zduI7zcE
Also, a side trip to
Margaritaville is always fun.
I blew out my flip flop,
Stepped on a pop top,
Cut my heel, had to cruise on back home.
But there's booze in the blender,
And soon it will render
That frozen concoction that helps me hang on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUTf5qvS0Lo
And don't worry about the time because
It's Five O' Clock Somewhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPCjC543llU