For those of us who take pictures on a meager budget, we are always looking for the next trick or hack, to avoid paying the price for a sometimes costly hobby or business. One of those ways is to invest in old glass. No, not an old dirty drinking glass. Old lenses that have gone by the way-side in this digital age.

One of the more popular groups of old lenses are considered M42 mount lenses. They represent a whole slew of glass that was part of a very popular mounting base, sometimes known as a Pentax mount as well. Its a screw-in arrangement since the base is threaded. And for most new dSLR’s you will need an adapter to get it to attach to your particular body.

More lens reviews

Today I’m going to give a brief review of a Hanimex 135mm f.28 lens. Its by far not the “best” glass in old lenses, as it was considered to be one of the many economy or knock-off brands that was popular back in the seventies and eighties. But, surprisingly or maybe not, it produced a unique image that’s worth taking note of.

Hanimex 135mm F2.8 m42

In fact,  a lot of old glass is worth taking note of. Because the quality in some of these old knock-offs actually surpass what you get today in a more premium lens. The build is usually more sturdy, the glass sometimes larger, and the image can be very unique. But, enough about the value of owning old glass lets talk about this particular one.

The build on my copy was very sturdy. All metal construction, clean glass – overall no major problems with the lens itself. The focus was responsive, but a little stiff.

I took it out for a test-drive on a sunny evening in a nearby town. And yes, as usual – it was cold (sigh.) Windy, and cold, when will spring ever arrive? For this test I tested in urban areas, alleys, street corners sidewalks etc. And I was also trying to see how the lens would respond to diminishing light since it was around 4:30 pm when I started my walk.

Here are my impressions:

• Bright lens. The Hanimex responded very well to light. I usually needed to stop down more than expected to keep from blowing out highlights.
• Nice depth-of-field. Most of these shots are taken between 5.6 – 8 stops.
• Bokeh is also pretty nice for this lens.
• The colors produced are often a mix of warm browns with blue deeper tones. Its a bit more of an unusual tone than I’m used to with my other lenses. But, I’m enjoying it.
• Chromatic aberration. Unfortunately this was the one weak area of this lens. You will need to do some post work to remove fringing, but its not the worst I’ve ever seen.
• Detail and sharpness. If you look at the video below you can see a few that have some very nice detail and sharpness. I was impressed with the level it was able to deliver.

So, overall its a nice lens for the price. You can normally find a lens like this on sites like eBay at a very modest price tag. Which is important for broke people like myself.

The next part of the review will deal mainly with adapting it to your camera. And in this case, since I shoot with Pentax, how you attach to that brand.

You will want an Pentax M42 adapter to make this work properly. Please, don’t even bother with one of the many knock-off copies you will easily find floating around the web and on sites like Amazon or eBay. These cheaper versions just don’t hold up.

The first problem you will find with them is that one, they break. And when they do you will need to pry that lens away from your camera body – a scary thought. And two, they don’t allow  you to focus to infinity – kind of ruins the fun doesn’t it? So, do yourself a favor and buy a genuine Pentax adapter, you will be much happier.

Original Pentax m42 adapter.

How the adapter works is you place it into the camera body, much like you would a normal K-mount lens. Turn it, it snaps in place and thats it. Then just screw the lens into the adapter and start taking pictures. You will in most cases loose the ability to get AF to alert when something is in focus, so you will need to do it the old fashioned way, and really pay attention to your view finder.

Next, set your camera  and lens to manual and go take some pictures!

Below is a short video of some of the photos taken with the Hanimex.

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Some details: Freelensing a 50mm Pentax-M 1:2 F2.8

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Another cold night here in North Georgia. Really getting tired of all the cold, rain and ice. You know, I normally hate the heat of summer, but this gloominess is just getting to me. I think its the el nino…its gotta be that.

So, I’ve been wanting to try out this new photography trick called “freelensing.” It appears that a photographer named Luke Roberts came up with the technique. What it basically is, is actually taking the lens loose from you camera while take a picture. Think of it as kind of like a really cheap way of getting a tilt-shift effect, like you might get with a lensbaby.

- Scroll down for the video tutorial -

Here is an example of a shot with my 50mm

A few things you might want to have handy to make this a more enjoyable experience:

• Tripod
• An older manual lens. I use an old 50mm.
• Something to clean your sensor (because it will get dirty).

One note of caution, your sensor will get dirty doing this. So, be prepared to clean it before your next big shoot.

In case you’re stuck at work, or in another spot that makes watching the video sorta difficult I’ll go over a few things to note about trying this out.

First, like in the list above, it seems to be easier to make this work with an older manual lense, something with a large apeture. You also don’t need to move the lens around very much, just slightly will usually give the desired effect. I’ve also found it easier to do with a tripod, though I’ve gotten better with practice and can do some of this now without always needing three hands.

So, on with the show! Watch the tutorial below. And leave me feedback with links to your own experiments with this technique.

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