A Vintage Lens, A Day At The Zoo, A Lot Of Fun.

I don’t know exactly what made me go up to my office and dig out a vintage Vivitar Canon FD mount 75-205mm lens today, but I am sure glad I did. It was pure joy to shoot with this one-touch focus/zoom lens. I may have been motivated by a photographer I saw taking photos at the zoo the day before. Yeah, I endured the zoo 2 days in a row. The first was just me and my two boys…needless to say, I didn’t have a hand free for a camera. When we decided to go back today, I wanted a little extra zoom to try to get a closer shot of the elephants (who ended up being inside both days).

Before you look at all the images, I have to admit that I bought this lens on ebay for $10 shipped. It has fungus inside the glass and is stuck fully open at f/3.8, but I love the images it produces. They image is soft and the bokeh from these FD lenses through the cheap glass of the adapter is like a painting. I’m not going to ever get a super crisp image, but that’s not always my desired effect. Knowing it’s limitations allows me to have fun creatively with it. Perfection doesn’t have to be the end goal.

I highly recommend taking a look at some of these cheap lenses and an adapter. The images can be very unique and you don’t have to give away our little secret.