Tag: minolta
Portraiture using Minolta 55mm 1.7
Love that swirly bokeh that encompasses the subject.
An Iranian portrait
Minolta Rokkor 58 f2.0
Ali works for a company that i know of. Like many other Iranians in residing in my country, they just love Malaysia.
The company managed to get Ali a working visa and a contractual job. Although i would reckon that the pay here is not as one would get in the USA or Australia, the lifestyle here is pretty accommodating for Iranians.
For the local companies here that offers I.T services and development, often these Iranians are like a gem of a finding. They are hardworking, speaks english well and talented towards technical stuffs. Compared to the locals here which are facing more and more financial uncertainty due to ever rising of housing cost and fuel subsidies removal, its often futile to get a local staff for I.T that would stay with the company even for 2 years.
I saw Ali asking one of his friend to take a portrait for him and since i have my A7r with the 58 rokkor, i offered to take a shot for him. So we just moved to a corner and i uploaded this for him.
This image is straight from camera to ipad and just a tweak in Snapseed before uploading. I can’t wait to get all my 6 Minolta lens, clean them up and do some sharing sessions with some friends.
Lowlight portraiture with manual lens…a big PLUS
I was celebrating my in-law birthday with his son and father in law. I happened to have the camera with me but the restaurant are those that are very dimly lit.
Thats when i took out the Rokkor 1.4 manual lens and took some shots.
I suddenly….discovered..one more reason why manual lens are really the preferred way to shoot in low light and the reason is..
NO FOCUS ASSIST Light needed.
Yup, as long as you set the iso and aperture big enough, the peak focusing shows the correct lines to make manual focusing works.
I recalled the grippy days when i had to depend on focus assist in some situation or where even the D4 fails to focus.
All images taken with the Rokkor 58mm at f1.4. The candle photos are unedited! You have to love these cheap lens.
Minolta Rokkor as an alternative to 75 1.8 on m43
58mm f1.4
Its official that i moved on from my fav m43. My EP5 and its beautiful assortment of lens are now in the hands on a proud experienced owner who moved from Sony .
This is a classic ironic situation because i am moving from m43 to Sony FF. However it demonstrates that users who love mirrorless won’t have problem moving to any of the systems.
When i listed the gears for sale, the 75 mm 1.8 was the most sought after item in my list. In fact, i still have ppl messaging me for it and my listing can’t be removed.
58mm f1.4
Now, i have an idea and its a strong idea. Instead of buying 75 mm 1.8, why not try the Minolta 58mm 1.4 or even 1.7 on the m43? If you are in Malaysia, KL, and you can get an adapter for the m43, i welcome you to try it with me, i am dead curious in the results.
The 58 will be translated as 116mm at f1.4. Thats crazy good if you ask me, not only you don’t have to stand far from the subject, u are effectively standing nearly 30% nearer to the subject.
I must confess that if you see the prices in ebay is now jacked up i am possibly one of the culprit, well, i personally raked up 6 Rokkors, two are the 50s 1.4 and four are the 50s 1.7.
You might ask why the 1.7, cause there isn’t much 1.4 in good condition that is worth buying in my last check and when i tested at f2.0 it becomes a sweet spot sharp, so i would assume the 1.7 is an unsung hero at this point.
Transportation is expensive though, some costing even more than the Rokkors itself, so do keep this in mind if you r trying your luck on Ebay. I might take apart one of the Rokkors and do really crazy stuffs, such as replacing some of the parts with 3D printed aluminum parts or repainting it with metallic car paint. I reckon that since i have no problem taking it apart to clean and re-assembling it, might as well do some magic.
Let the poison begin!
* visit www.cocoa-dream.com for value asian model stocks photography set and freelancer magazine.
Legacy lens
I had a chat with a friend recently and was shocked to discovered that he accidentally gave away all his legacy lens.
These lens are actually pretty useless up until Fuji, Oly, Pana and Sony (especially Sony) released mirrorless cameras that supports the use of almost all kinds of lens with adapters.
Ironically just recently i acquired 2 legacy lens, the Minolta 35-70 f3.5 and the Minolta Rokkor 58 f1.4. These lens are pretty amazing for value.
In fact i did one of my stocks photos last Sat just using the Minolta 35-70 and it was decently sharp and flexible.
Here are some images i took using the 58 f1.4 rokkor on a family trip.
M changing lives with images. 