First off, thank you for the lovely emails and Instagram messages and post comments I received from people who really resonated with this positive reframing of the question ‘What if I…’!
It is encouraging and soothing to know that you feel the same way too!

As mentioned in the launch post about this new blog series, I mentioned that I will share a challenge every Wednesday. So today being the aforementioned day of choice, here is the first challenge!

 

 

“WHAT IF I TRIED MY OLD VINTAGE LENSES ON MY FUJIFILM X-T3?”

 

My gorgeous vintage lenses have either been sitting on this chest of studio drawers or in the drawers themselves! Gathering dust yet still purely functional.

So I dusted them off, gave them a good clean (I’m not sure if there is anything as satisfying as cleaning up your dirty lenses!), grabbed my M42 lens adapter, my camera and the two lenses.

First cab off the rank was the Helios 44-2 USSR lens F2 / 58 mm M42 mount

 

Helios 44-2 USSR lens F2 / 58 mm M42 mount

FULL DISCLOSURE!: This will not be a super technical review because I just want to talk about the dreaminess of how well this little Russian tank of a lens works with the Fujifilm beast that is the X-T3. Let’s be honest here, when you first attach the adapter to the lens and then both to the camera, its a considerable amount of weight for a little lens. But boy oh boy, do they work super well!

It has been ages since I used this bokeh dream and it didn’t take long before I was fully embracing full manual yet again. The beauty of using a vintage lens is that it literally forces you to switch out of that auto mode and get back to the basics of testing your eye with manual focusing (which was surprisingly made easier by Fujifilm’s ‘manual focus highlight’ function!), shutter speed and of course, setting the aperture on those lens barrel aperture rings. Not that it is anywhere near important in the creation of a photograph, but the Helios really looked aesthetically at home on the X-T3 body; thanks to the camera’s styling acting as a nostalgic throwback to original SLRs of the past.

 

   

 

It didn’t take too long to remember why I had bought this lens in the first place. The subject isolation you can achieve with the F2 aperture from its dreamy, creamy, swirly bokeh background, makes for quite the heady depth of field shot. I soon forgot about any apprehension I had about doing a shoot; questions such as ‘What am I going to shoot?’ , ‘Will I need my tripod?’ and the stiflingly negative comments such as ‘Why would anyone be interested in these images?’ ‘What makes you think they’re good enough to show people?’

All the fear was blown away; I was having fun.

Granted, the challenge was minute. But it broke the pattern of indecision; make that paralysing indecision. I had literally one focus (pardon the pun!) and that was to concentrate on my manual focusing skills. It made me think about how lazy our eyes must be becoming as photographers when we constantly use autofocus. A bit of food for thought there for you!

 

   

Above left: The Helios-44M 58mm F2 has almost a macro effect with this gorgeous moth! Above right: I’m in love with that gorgeous, dreamy, glossy bokeh. Simply yummy!

I was starting to get back into the groove of the manual focusing; in fact, I was really rather enjoying having full control of the camera’s functions yet again. Giving myself little mini hurdles of “What if I tried to focus in on that baby moth on that stem of blooms?” Rather than scared, I relished the challenge. The tasks were small, but I was re-awakening my old manual photography muscles. The ones that I used to hone with pinpoint accuracy back in the days of film; when you had no choice but to get the setup just right.

Tick! I was getting on a roll of enjoyment.

So I thought I’d extend my challenge a little further…

 

“What if I tried shooting a video with this lens, that has no image stabiliser at all?”

Challenge accepted!

Now I will be the first to admit that I don’t have the most steady of hands, but I felt rather up for the challenge. Plus I was really keen on seeing all that dreamy bokeh at work in video!

 

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Not too bad hey for a handheld  X-T3, with a super heavy Russian beast of a lens on board, hey?

But, if you feel a  wee bit queasy, here is the stabilised version (below) from Premiere Pro!

 

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I didn’t have to go far at all to carry out my first ‘What If I…’ challenge and I think that helps because all I had to do was walk out my front door and I had something to photograph.
In Part 2 of my ‘What if I…’ challenge with my vintage lenses, I’ll test out my Pentax Asahi SMC TAKUMAR 50mm F1.4 M42 mount with the X-T3.

So get out there and try an old lens you have! You might be surprised by what you capture with it now!