Two months to go. It feels a bit like the last couple of miles in a half marathon - almost there but still needing to push on for that bit further yet. No relaxing too soon!
I must admit, I have been finding it quite hard recently to try and get interesting shots around my home town of Bath. Sometimes no matter the difference in the people in a scene, it feels like I’ve already covered certain angles and views before. But having to try and force myself to find something unique is part of the challenge.
I’ve been away for Christmas and had a two week break from being in town. So I’m hoping I’m coming back with fresher eyes for these last two months of the challenge.
In the meantime (and as it was August I last made a 365 post), here are some of my faves over the past few months. And the full set can be seen here on Flickr.
A big new addition to my lenses...
A couple of months ago I bought myself a 135mm Zuiko lens (see previous post). And since then I've been using it quite a bit - particularly on my OM10, although I need to scan the images from those once I buy a new scanner (more on that in future posts).
However, I knew that for a telephoto I'd still need even longer for the occasional use at race circuits. So I started looking at 200mm lenses - mainly Zuiko, and also some Vivitars. I wanted as fast as possible which is f3.5 or f4. And after casually watching things on eBay and looking at various secondhand sites, I discovered a 200mm f3.5 Mitsuki lens.
Mitsuki? Never heard of them. But it was £15. And nobody else on eBay seemed interested in it. So I did a bit of research. And it appears that it was a rather obscure lens from the late 1970s which was made using the (at that time) state of the art computer system at Tokina. So really... it was made by Tokina. And even more interesting (if you're a geek like me) is that it came out of the Tokina factory at the same time Tokina were making lenses for Vivitar. Which is a good thing!
So, I got it for £15. And I've taken it out and about a bit.
And here are some tests I did with it.
I think it was quite a bargain. Wide open it does have some fringing - on high contrast areas there was a bit of purple but I soon managed to clean it up. And in the last photo you can see a bit of green fringing. But stopping down sorts it out too.
Quite heavy though!
And long. Very long. Even longer with the retractable hood out.
To be honest, it's so long it looks a bit silly on my Olympus.
But hey.... it was only £15 and should work nicely for shots of Fernando Alonso heading in to Stowe corner in August!