New Camera and New Lens to Test

Last summer I picked up a Focal 80-200mm with macro function at a garage sale for $15. I've listed it on eBay twice, it being far heavier than I can carry, and no one has bought it. So I decided to test it and see if it's any good. Coincidentally, I had a new M42 body to test, my newly repaired Pentax H3v. In short, I'll be keeping the lens. It's fantastic. I'm ecstatic no one bought it. The camera is also great and I'm pleased to have some great shots to share.

One interesting thing, the macro mode changes the way the images appear. This isn't a macro mode where the user simply keeps turning the focusing ring, no, this is a separate, dedicated third ring. And when the macro mode kicks in, the depth of field shrinks and the background becomes a swirling mass. It's a nice effect that, in portraits, could have a good deal of use.


This photo shows the swirling background effect. People pay stupid amounts of money on eBay for Russian-made lenses that have this same effect.


Even at greater depths of field, this would have been deeper than the f3.5 I used for many exposures because her whole profile is in focus, the background is still suitably blurry.


This was not, I don't think, in macro mode.Just a close-focus.


This one likes having his picture taken, unlike the other. That makes getting test shots much simpler.


Here his muzzle was a bit overexposed, so I grabbed a magic wand sample, pasted the sample as a new layer, dropped the gamma, and then made it about 50% transparent before merging the layers. This yielded some detail in his muzzle.