Lumix G3 f4 1/40s ISO160 50mm Zeiss Tessar f2.8

A couple of days ago I mentioned that I there were no flowers in Western Australia at this time of year at least growing in my little corner of of the state. Well 6 days into autumn a lily appeared, of course in the northern hemisphere this variety of lily would be a spring flower – seasons upside down,down under. We had just a small sprinkle of rain but it was enough to trigger growth and produce a spray of lovely white lilies.

On another note I have been testing some of my old lenses on the Lumix G3 slowly I am working my way through them. This is a was shot on a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f2.8 Tessar originally used on a Practica in the 1960′s It was a solid camera that had a very good specification for its price. The camera is long gone but the lens remains and once above f2.8 it is sharp, at f5.6 it is tack sharp and continues that way up to f16 where a little bit of defraction creeps in. As can be seen in this image the bokeh is smooth and buttery. The colour rendering is very accurate and does not over saturate the way that many modern lenses seem to do. On the Lumix this checks in as a 100mm lens and focuses down to approximately 200mm which makes it quite useful for large flowers. I have seen this lens selling for as little as USD30.00 which makes it something of a bargain. The other camera that I used was the Rollei T for Tessar and I wish I had never sold it. The Yashica Mat was reputed to be a copy of the Rollei T I still have one these and over the weekend I ran off a roll of Fuji acros film. Just need to dev it now…