On Tue, Jul 5, 2011 at 1:02 PM, Darren Addy <pixelsmi...@gmail.com> wrote: > If you will indulge me... > > With all of the emphasis these days on digital and "Image Quality", it > seems that many have forgotten (if they ever even lived at a time when > they could KNOW it) what a satisfyingly tactile experience photography > was. We have been robbed of much of that tactile experience by our > automatic and autofocus digital cameras today. We don't get the > satisfying "pop" of the back when we would load or unload film. We've > lost the satisfying tactile experience of advancing the film lever and > cocking the shutter, or the act of rewinding the 35mm film into it's > canister. > > Now few of us want to "chuck" our plastic-bodied, autofocus lenses and > digital cameras and go back to film - at least on a regular basis. But > we can recapture some of that feeling by putting some vintage glass on > our Pentax DSLRs. In my opinion, a m42 to K-mount adapter (that allows > infinity focus) is one of the truly "must have" accessories. My > personal preference is for the genuine Pentax brands that require no > tools to remove. As most of us know, this opens up the world of m42 > Takumar glass to you and your Pentax DSLR. > > I'm especially thinking of this recently, as I obtained a beautiful > black Spotmatic and had it CLA'd by Eric. It feels so great in my > hands. I just received an equally gorgeous S-M-C Takumar 135mm f2.5 > for it, with caps hood and case. What a beautiful piece of kit that > is! Along with it I got a very nice chrome Spotmatic F (my first F) > with SMC Takumar 50mm f1.4 and S-M-C 35mm f3.5 - all looking as if > they were rarely used. There is a feeling I get when handling this > equipment that is missing when I pick up my plastic-bodied Pentax-F > autofocus lenses and that I have the feeling would be missing even if > I owned the new Pentax Limited lenses. The heft of the lens. The > buttery smoothness of the focusing action. The all-metal screw-in lens > hood with white lettering imprinted around the end. Certainly that > tactile experience has very little to do with producing excellent > images - but that feeling is an aspect of photography that I > originally fell in love with and that I feel again as I handle them > now. > > The closest I can come to that feeling is shooting my DSLR with those > superb Takumar lenses on it, and in keeping a film body along for > those occasions when I want to recapture that feeling in total. The > ability to use this quality glass (easily) is one of the main reasons > that I originally went with Pentax for my first DSLR (even though I > owned no Pentax glass at the time).
As it turns out all of my longest lenses (which are only 200mm) are manual focus. Two of them have no "A" setting, those being the two that are most used for my nature photography. My only macro lens is MF with no "A" setting. So for pretty much all my bird, beaver and bug shots I need to manually expose and focus on my DSLR. Quaint though that might be, I've missed dozens of wonderful shots due to having to set everything up as opposed to just pointing and hitting the shutter release. I'd like to tell you how much more fulfilling it is to shoot "old school", but honestly, that's just bullshit. All it means is that I missed some really good shots because my equipment isn't up to snuff, and that's damned frustrating. All that being said, the aforementioned lenses (Tokina 80-200mm f2.8, Tamron SP 90mm f2.5 macro and Pentax M 200mm f4.0) are all solid, smooth easy-focusing pieces of glass, and I do enjoy using them. However that joy is mitigated somewhat by their technical limitations as compared to today's equipment. I do, however, love film cameras, and yes, a mechanical camera is just ~different~ from today's all-singing all-dancing electronic marvels. I take my Leica CL out once a year and put a roll of film through it, just to "keep it running". Same with my old Yashica Mat. I should take my old Spotties, MX and LXen out, too, but when the hell would I shoot digital? ;-) cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
