Ryan's Photo Blog

Monthly Archives: October 2013

So You Have Just Brought A New Camera – Health Care For The Undead

On October 31, 2013 - Uncategorized

So you have just brought a new camera, consider it as a wake up call that we are mostly mindless consumers of things that we are made to think we need or should desire to own. With the commercialization of social media the brainwashing is almost complete. This is neither a good or bad thing it’s just the reality as it is now.

So you have your: {first; new; cheap; free; expensive; fantastic;shiny; retro… cell; film; consumer; dslr; rangefinder; pro; (2/3rds, c, full frame) and/or …} camera so what now? Each one of those cameras as sure as you breath is capable of taking a picture that in the right hands could be a masterpiece.

Now that this new camera is in your hands it’s time to stop for at least a short while being a mindless consumer of photography goods and services and instead learn to take better photographs! To that aim if you haven’t already you may want to evaluate or re-evaluate what your own development goals are and alter your current path to a direction that might result in you achieving those goals.

If it turns out that you just want a shiny new toy then that’s OK. But if you don’t use your brain to effect changes in the way you take photographs then you shouldn’t expect any changes in the results.

Son: “Mom, can I have some pudding?”
Mom: “You haven’t eaten your meat yet.”
Son: “But mom!”
Mom: “Son, you know that: ‘If you don’t eat yer meat, you can’t have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat yer meat?”
Son: “Don’t be quoting Pink Floyd on me again…

Hansa 135mm f3.2 Lens

On October 21, 2013 - Uncategorized

I have this Hansa 135mm f3.2 lens. Made in Japan it came with an adapter to fit on my Nikon. I bought it for a few dollars attached to a Nikor closeup bellows. Not a bad little performer. Notice the 2 rings at the top. Those are for “stop down metering”. I suspect one should lock so you can preset aperture and then open up for focusing but doesn’t lock. The lightly coated optics are very clean and clear. With a 16 or 17 rounded aperture blades should mean nice out of focus highlights.

The origin of the lens is veiled in the mists of time. Some say they were made for Hansa Japan rebranded from another still to be determined Japanese lens manufacture maybe Cosina. Others say it might be a house brand for Hansa Foto in Cologne. Another even remoter idea is that it was a Nikkor lens made for Hanson Canon imported into the USA under the Hansa name.

Once you get use to the stop down aperture control it is a nice little performer.