Vivitar 135mm f/2.3 Series 1

Originally posted by DingAnSIch strange... but you seem to have better results with animal life as compared to plant. don't know why... maybe you could tell me your possible difficulties with shooting plant macro with that lens.. great squirrel captures i guess what i am trying to say is keep shooting things that grow on a larger timescale(like animals).

Interesting that you say that. First though, this lens is not a macro, it's a close focus providing a 1:4.5 ratio, so plants (flowers) and bugs must be cropped quite a bit. But I have also found the focus to go in and out so fast that it's difficult to hit it spot on. However, the few distance shots I have taken so far prove to be very sharp. Maybe that's part of why the squirrels (first two images) are so good. I've about had it with bugs, bees, and flowers. The world has enough of those type pictures, although I was quite pleased getting that bumblebee coming head on (even if not spot on focus and cropped to a large extent). The Porsche series I took all came out extremely well - again, shot at a distance. I'll look to take more of that kind this weekend. I'll have my Austin-Healey out tomorrow.

Originally posted by teejay Very nice pictures! I was curious of what the lens looked like, this is an interesting read.

Yes, teejay, that was interesting; thank you for posting it. I don't remember when Series 1 lenses caught my attention, but my reading led me to the others mentioned in the article; 200mm f/3 and 90mm f/2.5. The latter is considered one of the sharpest all time lenses. My 90mm is unfortunately an old Minolta mount and I have not yet completed my mount conversion. Finding these in M42 mount is more difficult and definitely more expensive. Any of these three could sell for $200 easily - well above my self imposed limit. I was fortunate to find an excellent 200mm M42 for $100 and another OM mount on Craigslist for free. The 135mm took a bit longer as they appear scarce and there is much bidding competition. I did not want to do another mount conversion. I just recently acquired the 135 in M42. It's ironic that the author in your post talks about the beauty of the lens as mine is an ugly duckling. Chipped paint and missing rubber grip give the appearance of an abused lens, which made the price very right. However, the function and optics are perfect. I'll restore the appearance, but I really don't care as much what it looks like as long as it functions well.

I like the lens a lot.....

I like the Porsche better.

:)

More fun with the Series 1...

Lunch


Incoming


Show of might


Bug hunting


Butterfly?

skm.sa100: I used your method to get these buggers today. They're destroying my crepe myrtle. Oh, just ignore those two in the top left corner. 40-50% crop:

Originally posted by woodrim Just like the 200mm, it requires precise attention to focus. I have not yet gotten the sharpness I expect at close up, but there is evidence that it is indeed sharp when focus and aperture are right.

I have a Samyang MF 85mm lens and my solution to this problem is to do micro focus adjustments and fire off. So when it looks like I'm in focus, I take 10 or more shots a little "before" and "after" focus has been achieved. I usually end up with 2-3 sharp pics. This approach should work well for you, seeing as you're doing static subjects here, more or less.
Is there an expression like "focus bracketing" when someone does what I do?

Thanks for these pics, I just bought Vivitar 135/2.3 for Minolta MD and was wondering how good it will be with NEX :)