FALLING SOMEWHERE AS RAIN

As my love affair with soviet-era lenses continues, it seems that I am not alone in my appreciation of vintage glass and prices of such lenses have recently rocketed, as the practice of attaching old lenses to new cameras becomes more commonplace. Certain Helios models are referred to in eBay listings as having “swirly bokeh” or being “lomo” or a “bokeh monster”. Jupiter lenses are cited as being ideal for ‘street’ work and almost all find favour with enthusiasts looking for the cinema look as used by Denis Villeneuve in Dune and Zac Snyder in some of his films. As the lenses become more hard to find or become too expensive for my meagre pocket, I decided to look sideways, rather than further afield for other soviet lenses which might hold some appeal. Some years ago, I bought an Industar 50 pancake lens, more out of curiosity, as it was cheap and looked suitably antique. It was a L39 fit, as favoured by Leica, a brand slavishly emulated by Russian manufacturers. Although it was a squ...

 As a boy, I always enjoyed making things, or finding new uses for discarded junk. Magnets and magnifying glasses fascinated me and still do to a certain degree. Perhaps this is why after I rediscovered photography as a hobby, I was determined to see what I could do with my camera. Probably one of the first customisations I applied and certainly the most useful, was a viewfinder. As my camera only has a small viewscreen on the back and not a through lens view, it meant I had to hold the camera away from my face when using it and keep my spectacles on, in order to see the display. As I am short sighted, this necessitated flipping my glasses up and down between shots. So, I found an old slide viewer at a car boot sale and fastened it on with a plate of Meccano, and a screw knob or the plate of a tripod. The viewer was similar to another boxed version that I found later, complete with slides. Its interesting to see the dedication on the box, as it was a gift from the British Society o...

 Having become used to the operation of the Samsung NX1000, I began to look at options for customisation. I am never content to just leave something pristine and straight out of the box, so in order to make it my own personal camera, I looked online to see what other accessories might be around. Aside from the usual lens options and a GPS module, there was nothing really exciting, so I looked at analogue lens options and found a universal adaptor with an NX mount on Amazon. Essentially a ring with a set of repositionable screws and a removable inner thread, the metal adaptor has the look of a ships steering wheel. It’s a ‘dumb’ adaptor, so autofocus or any powered elements won’t work, but it will accept almost any standard mount, by virtue of the screws, which grip the mount of the lens and hold it fast. As long as the flange distance is within a set range - i.e the focal distance for the lens meets the sensor cleanly - most lenses can happily work with the camera. On rare occasion...