Air Ministry 5 Inch f4 Shoots Distillery District

One of the nice things about working downtown Toronto is that there are lots of interesting places within a few minutes of biking. The Distillery District is one of the more interesting places, which I visit once in a while. I rode my bike there this afternoon during lunch time and had lots of fun shooting with one of my favourite lenses: Air Ministry 5 Inch f4 on the Sony A7. This lens was used on the 5D Mark II a couple of times, but it was such a hassle focusing through the optical viewfinder, and the Live-View wasn't as easy to use as mirrorless cameras so I gave up on the 5D II.

The lens works great on the Sony A7. I simply adore how it renders the pictures. Amazing for a lens that's more than half a century old and without coating on the glass. The pictures look smooth as silk and none of the harshness of most modern lenses. The bokeh is simply delicious and pleasing.

If you find one cheap, take it and you won't regret it.

All pictures below were shot using the Sony A7 and A.M 5 Inch f4:

Air Ministry [Ross Xpress] 5 Inch f4 More Samples - Part II

This is the second part of the sample pictures from the cheap but wonderful Air Ministry (A M) 5 inch f4. All taken with the NEX-6 and the lens mounted on the converted Vivitar 2X Focusing Teleconverter.

Air Ministry [Ross Xpress] 5 Inch f4 More Samples - Part I

I have been shooting with the Air Ministry [Ross Xpress] 5 inch f4 lens for the last few days. I am very taken by the interesting rendering style of this lens. As I said before, wide open the contrast is low, but is very sharp. Pictures taken at any aperture show an amazing amount of details and it's very "malleable" in post processing.  By f8, the lens is extremely sharp with excellent definition. Who would have thought that a lens about 60 years old, and so cheap, can produce such nice results? I am enjoying it immensely. This is part one of the samples. I will post more next time.

One thing I want to stress, if you are going to make this lens useable, is to use a very long lens hood. Without the hood, the lens is very prone to flare and you will get "white out" effect. The hood should be at least 120mm long to be effective. Try it. Take some pictures with and without the hood. You won't believe they come from the same lens.

Birds of a feather - NEX-6 & AM [Ross Xpress] 5 inch f4 @ f4. Click for larger.

Bokeh - NEX-6 & AM [Ross Xpress] 5 inch f4 @ f4. Click for larger.

Ferry - NEX-6 & AM [Ross Xpress] 5 inch f4 @ f8. Click for larger.

Another Bokeh sample - NEX-6 & AM [Ross Xpress] 5 inch f4 @ f4.

The Love of Old Lenses

People who use auto focus lenses exclusively have a hard time understanding our obsession over seemingly useless old lenses. What's the point? My usual answer is "it's fun!"

Yes it's fun, but there is something more fulfilling and tangible - the unique characters that some of these old wonders wove into the images that make them so enticing and attractive to look at. They provide an alternative to the modern, sharp, contrasty, and highly corrected images that look perfect, but lack characters. Many very old lenses are usually full of "faults" of one kind or the other. They vignette badly, they flare like crazy, they have low contrast, they may have horrendous distortion, they have bokeh so horrible that make your skin crawl, and so on. Well, is your partner perfect?  Do you want a partner that looks/acts the same as everyone else? We like our partners because they have characters and traits that stand out from others.

So yes. It's worth the time to make those odd-ball lenses usable on the digital cameras; to endure the disgusted look of some people looking at my ugly Franken Lenses. Because we love our old lenses and the kind of pictures that they can create.

Sailboat - NEX-6 & AM [Ross Xpress] 5 inch f4 @ f5.6.

Your Favourite Photography Place

While reading Thom Hogan's description of his current picture on his bythom.com site, and I can't help but smile.  I think most people have favourite objects/place/person etc to photograph, but don't even know or think about it. I have a few favourite places that I take pictures of whenever I go there. I am sure you see recurring pictures of the same place often in my blog.  One particular place I always seem to have an urge to photograph is the front garden across from my sister-in-law's house. I often have to pickup/drop off her kids for swimming/music lessons, and when I do, I usually bring my camera with me, in case the lighting is good.

The garden is not just wonderful to look at, but  is also harmonious with its environment. The choice of tree, shrubs, flowers, etc, arranged in a way that reflects the beauty of the changing seasons.

I am particularly attracted to the white birch.  The bark, with interesting texture, often peels and curled, creating shapes, when combined with the light, that just makes me get out of the car to photograph it. Next to the tree is an old garage with rusty sheet metal on the outside. From certain angles and lighting conditions, they look so good together. The interesting thing is that it looks different depending lighting and season, so even though I have photographed it many times, I still find that I haven't photographed it enough :)

White Birch - NEX-6 & AM [Ross Xpress] 5 inch f4 @ f4. Click for larger.

Winter Colours - Panasonic G1 & Canon nFD 50mm f1.2 @ f2. Click for larger.

Curled Bark - Sony NEX-5N & Schneider-Kreuznach Componon 50mm f4. click for larger.

Air Ministry [Ross Xpress] 5 Inch f4 Lens - Sample Photos

Today was my vacation day before I start working at the new job tomorrow. So I spent some time and got the Air Ministry (Ross Xpress) 5 Inch f4 mounted on the helicoid and the 5D Mark II. Since the focal length is long at about 120mm, there is no trouble using it on the full frame camera like the Canon 5D Mark II. The rear mount of the lens is just slightly smaller than 55mm, and I was able to JB-Weld the 55mm filter ring to the rear and then mounted it on the helicoid. Very easy to do.

Despite slight haze inside the lens, I didn't have the hazy problem I thought I would, thanks to the very long and effective lens hood I used, which measured at 11cm, almost as long as the focal length of the lens. Like many old classic lenses, this one does not have high contrast at larger apertures, but is very sharp at full aperture. It's definitely usable at f4. I am quite taken by the nice rendering of the pictures, but what makes this lens special is the history behind it.

Lenses like this one were used for aerial reconnaissance in World War II by the British Air Force (Air Ministry). Just imagine for a moment, that this very lens might have been used to photography the enemy and provided intel for the allies, and is very likely part of the significant history as we know it. On the other hand, what history does your auto focus lens have? Not much, I think.

Air Ministry [Ross Xpress] 5 Inch f4 on helicoid. Taken with 5D II & Tamron 90mm f2.8. Click for larger.

The Imperfect Tulip - Canon 5D Mark II & AM [Ross Xpress] 5 inch f4. Click for larger.

Bokeh - Canon 5D Mark II & AM [Ross Xpress] 5 inch f4. Click for larger.

Bokeh 2 - Canon 5D Mark II & AM [Ross Xpress] 5 inch f4. Click for larger.

The silver lining - Canon 5D Mark II & AM [Ross Xpress] 5 inch f4. Shot through windshield.