A little of this, and a little of that...

Today's post is a bit on the rambling side. I've been playing with a lot of miscellaneous items this past week. I've been doing some of my macro work with the old Kern Macro-Switar 50mm f/1.8 lens adapted to fit my Leica M 240. Some of the equipment shots I did for this blog recently were taken with it. The lens is sharp, but, in keeping with an old lens on a new digital camera, it has a very soft, hazy quality to it that I like. I'm planning to do some more still life work with the combo.

This close-up was taken with the Macro-Switar with a wide open aperture on the Leica M 240. 

A Leica Standard of 1932 taken by the Macro-Switar. There was quite a lot of haze in this backlit shot. Much of it still remains even after I tried the new "Dehaze" effect in Photoshop CC. 

I have fully integrated the Fuji X100T into my workflow. It's the camera I now carry with me the most when I'm just walking around. It has also been affecting the way I shoot lifestyle situations. My sequence of most used lenses always started the 56mm f/1.2 doing about 80% of the work, followed by the 35mm f/1.4, and occasionally the 23mm on the X-T1. For the past few weeks the 56mm has become my least used of the three focal lengths, as the X100T has had me moving in closer with it and the 35mm for more of a candid look that integrates the foreground better with the subject. The other thing I like about the X100T is its ability to take close-ups that have a very unique look.

I found this worn flag on the back of a fire truck parked in the street and took this close-up with the Fuji X100T. The muted color is a result of processing the image as Fuji Classic Chrome in Photoshop. 

Yesterday I received a Zeiss 55mm f/1.4 Otus Distagon lens to try out on some panoramic experiments I've been doing combining multiple images. I want to see how how sharp it is when combined with my Nikon D810.

The Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4 lens is a real monster. It actually weighs more than the camera.