Photo This

Spent the afternoon with the gang in Saratoga yesterday, first at Ravenous for crêpes, then to visit the Tang for the awesome Fred Tomaselli exhibit (you should see this, nothing does the original pieces justice), and then a quick walk on Broadway before heading home.

We had four DSLRs for six people, which is a bit more than ridiculous. I didn’t really know what to expect so I threw the old Pentax 28mm f/2.8 manual lens on, to travel light. That worked out well enough, I think I finally have the diopter dialed in so I can actually get a proper focus. Shooting a manual lens on a digital body isn’t some kind of magcial experience, with leprechauns riding a pegasus into your camera — you could easily put any modern lens in manual focus and go to town — but it does feel more solid and good examples of these old lenses give nice results. They’re really sharp and produce nice contrast, maybe because they were made at a time when B&W film was still popular.

That’s the bread at Mrs. London’s and S’s Moroccan iced tea at Ravenous. If you want to play with old manual lenses, the easiest way is grabbing a Pentax DSLR. Everything after their screw-mount — meaning all of the old k-mounts — can go straight on any of the new Pentax bodies, no adapter needed. A refurbished K100 goes for around $225, and the K-x is a great camera for $500. I’ve actually considered trying to get one on the cheap for this very reason; there are plenty of great lenses for under $100 on eBay. The 50mm f/2 was the “kit lens” of its day and is everywhere for under $20. There’s a f/1.4 that’s great too. There are also good options in 28mm and 135mm, the f/2.8’s are great but the secret is the f/3.5 versions of both are even better. But putting these on the Rebels is pretty easy too, an adapter costs about $15 and because the rear focal distance of the k-mount is greater than the EF/EF-S mount, you don’t lose infinity focus. Just be careful, if you use one of these on a full frame body, you have to physically remove the bayonet on the lens or your mirror will hit it.

And I see everyone’s eyes glazing over, so here’s another picture:

We also had a small impromptu movie night a few days ago and I made a chocolate mousse for dessert. And salsa that took two hours to put together, and in the end was closer to a gazpacho really. But I took this one photo of the chocolate, unfortunately none of the rest of the process because you know, melting and double boiling and constant whisking, or maybe you don’t know, but just trust me on that one. This was more practice with the Sunpak 333D flash, and again the Pentax 28mm; I’m loving the ability to light up a room, and manual flash is not really that difficult to dial in. Maybe I’ll take more photos while cooking now.

In unrelated news, this blog will be moving! I have dedicated hosting and just need to wrestle some more with wordpress and PHP. There will be an “update your links” post, hopefully soon.

And, here’s a photo of a girl dressed as a cupcake. Your argument is invalid.