Why do they always fall on concrete? Odd lens for sure.
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 11:53 PM, P. J. Alling <[email protected]> wrote: > I haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd just throw out a quick update > about breaking more gear. > > A number of years ago I acquired a strange T mount lens made by Sigma, in as > near as I can tell early to mid 1960's. A semicircular fisheye for 35mm > format, of 12mm focal length. It's an amazing beast, gigantic front > element 4 inches in diameter, fixed focus, three marked f stops 8,11, and > 16, on it's manual ring, but don't expect to use intermediate stops, as they > are waterhouse stops drilled into a semi circular plate that moves as the > ring is moved. > > Of particular note, a couple of decades before Kodak conceived of the APS-C > film format, this lens made makes for a full frame fisheye using those > dimensions. > > I shot a number of frames using it on my *ist-D, with amazing results! > > Chromatic aberration, corner softness, strange color shifts, and exposure > shifts, this lens has them all and then some. > > However I haven't been particularly inspired lately so I decided to find the > lens and see if I could get at least better metering results on the K-5II. > > <sigh> > > I shot a few test shots and managed to dial in an appropriate exposure > compensation for outdoors in cloudy bright conditions, decided that the > resulting images didn't look too bad at web enlargement sizes, and what the > heck, maybe I would find something "artistic" that the lens defects could > actually enhance. > > So I head on out. > > On my first shot in the field, I unscrew the massive lens cap, raise the > camera to my eye, and... > > the front element falls off onto a concrete surface! > > First I'm amazed that the lens element didn't simply shatter into a million > pieces, though it is badly cracked, (photos may follow). > > Second I discover that the front retaining ring that held the lens element > in place came off with the lens cap, (a really tiny set screw that held the > ring in place had loosened up). > > Third when I put the now cracked element back in place tighten the set > screw, the screw on lens hood is so tightly attached to the retaining ring > that it makes a wonderful lens wrench to disassemble the rest of the lens. > > I suppose on the plus side I can examine in detail the mechanical operation > of the waterhouse stop plate and the aperture ring, but it's a really simple > mechanism, so that amusement didn't last long. > > I figure that the lens defects are awful enough that the cracks won't hurt > image quality all that much, except I can't figure out how to get the > tightly bound lens cap off the damned lens. > > At this rate I'll have destroyed all my equipment in another couple of > years, and my photographic endeavors will no longer be viable. > > Now I guess I'll go and find something else I can break. > > -- > America wasn't founded so that we could all be better. > America was founded so we could all be anything we damn well please. > - P.J. O'Rourke > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. -- -- Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still. Dorothea Lange -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
