(A long way) Out of Africa

Disclaimer: I don't like photographing captive animals very much.  It just feels wrong.  After all the animals are just..well...there!

Still a trip to Longleat with the family meant that I had to take a few snaps with the Carl Zeiss Jena DDR 135mm.  An M42 lens mounted on my trusty Sony a33. Andrew loaned me the lens ages ago and I still haven't used it.  Until now! I immediately started liked it.  Its nice and small and has a cool retro vibe about it.  The focus is nice and smooth and easy to use. Initially I found it a bit strange using a fixed focal length of 135mm as its a bit "here nor there" really! Despite the battle ship grey clouds above I still got some reasonable pics.  I tried to get ones which were a bit different.  Here they are.

(CLICK ON A PIC AND IT WILL GO BIG)

The Lemurs huddled up for just a few seconds

f 1.7 

1/200 second 

ISO 800 (it was really dark!) 

This Lion was quite high up in a tree!

f1.7

1/400 second

ISO 400

Someone was getting a photo with their camera.  It bathed the bat in red, which I quickly took opportunity of! Looks a bit evil!  

Taken in almost total darkness

f.17

1/15 second

ISO 3200

My daughter enjoying PostmanPat

f1.7

1/800 second

ISO 400 

 I didnt really go round the gardens much but these looked quite nice even in the flat light
F1.7

1/400 second

ISO 400

Its just odd. Sea Lions in a lake!

f1.7

1/640 second

ISO 800

Overall, it was great to try something a bit different and I will certainly be attaching it more often (unless Andrew wants it back!)

A blog of experiences with Manual Lenses

Hi

Coming soon, a blog of our experiences with manual lenses. Primarily Takumar with the odd Yashica and Zeiss thrown in. Most pictures will be using a Canon 6D and the occasional 70D. If you're lucky we might slip in a few film pics along the way taken with a Canon EOS1 HSV.

The idea is a site that focuses (get it!!) on the results rather than the means however we will be having a nice geeky section showing what gear we use covering the why's and wherefores etc.

It's an off shoot of our main blog EFRS.uk dealing mostly with birding around the Somerset Levels. We started playing with manual lenses so much we thought we would start a separate one.

Come back soon for the full site but in the meantime this is the sort of thing you'll be seeing..............

CLICK ON A PIC AND IT WILL GO BIG

See you sooooooooon...................