Acquired this lens about a year and a half or so ago, my first impression after some quick snap shots around the house was not so good for some reason at the time so i shelved the lens and didn’t pay much attention to it since then. Going through my collection with spring here and a beautiful sunny day outside, our little girl is off to grandma for the week ( Spring Break ) its time for us to take a walk and relax with each other without too much worry.

I reached out for the lens and slapped it on my EP3 quietly saying to myself this is all i will be taking out good or bad and lets see what happens. Aperture set to 5.6 to be on the safe side, from my experience with legacy Minolta or Konica lenses many of them shine at this aperture… So off we go with dog in hand. After a few snap shots around the neighborhood, about an hour and a half later back home in Aperture 3 with photos loaded, i was shocked at the overall performance of the lens… See images below.

Conclusion

With good light, the lens performs very well, not too sharp which is the way i love my lenses to render. Just like the rest of the Minolta’s, there is that classic feel to the images when mounted on a digital body such as the Oly Pen straight out JPEG with minimal post processing needed… For a zoom lens, it rivals many of my primes! The 24-50mm F4 is quite rare, they don’t come up often on the used market, if you find one good luck and hold on tight, I will definitely be shooting mine more often going forward. Its a keeper!

Table Spoon

Commes des Garcons 71

Commes des Garcons White

To see each preset, slowly mouse over each image for a tool tip.

For $49 dollars i reckon the software does what it’s supposed to do and does it very well. Highly recommended!

Visit TrueGrain for more information…

How i got to know these wonderful pieces of glass. I purchased the Olympus EP2 more than a year ago shortly after it was released with the 17mm F2.8 Pancake Kit Lens, the Kit Lens itself equates to 35mm on film camera, a decent lens in its own right and i was OK with it. I also had the Panasonic GF1 with its own Pancake Lens, the 20mm F1.7 equivalent to 40mm on a 35mm film camera, it is a faster lens than the Oly 35mm, many preferred it to the Oly for its speed and perceived sharpness, that sharpness part may be true, i am not a lens sharpness buff as i honestly do not believe that makes a photograph, though i did swap them back and forth between the two bodies for the speed and built in stabilization on the EP2, to me the 20mm was well suited for the GF1, while the 35mm Oly worked just as well on the EP2.

A few months back, i took a quick visit to my local photo shop to pick up some stuff, while i was waiting for one of my cool sales guy, i decided to take a peak at their used lenses, my previous experience with any used lens was with 2 Leica Elmarit R lenses a 75mm 2.8 and 90mm 2.8 for my Panasonic L1 or Digilux 3, i was hooked but the Leica’s did not come that cheap either so i wasn’t too keen on buying them easily for this reason. While browsing used lenses at the shop, i spotted a clean Minolta Rokkor MC 35mm 2.8 for $50, i asked my sales guy if i could see it, he pulled it out from the showcase and handed it over, when i held the lens in my hands my first thought was wow, what a chunk of glass, compact, all metal solid feel, the clicks of the aperture ring, the smooth turn of the focus ring, overall build quality and all this for 50 bucks? Now I’m thinking i might take a chance with this even though i knew nothing about MF Minolta glasses, i bought the lens with a discount of $10 end up paying $40 for it. Soon as i got home, i got on my computer, fired up Google for some research on MF Minolta glasses, there’s quite a few most notably Rokkor Files, i started to read all the reviews i could find, by this time i had ordered a cheap Adapter to try this new old lens out on my m43 system cameras.

A few days later, i received the Adapter, installed and mounted the lens first on the GF1, took some shots loaded on my mac computer and i thought wow, this is good but hard to believe the IQ, tried the same set up on my EP2 same process, again, wow! Now i am scratching my head because i either did not want to believe what i was seeing or i have been missing something big time. After a few back and forth mounts and checking between both bodies, the lens somehow felt better or performed better on the Olympus EP2. Within two weeks of more back and forth, i was convinced i had something in my hands, i even tested the lens on my Panasonic L1, that did not pan out too well, somehow it did not focus properly with the Adapter i used plus it just did not feel right. It felt just right on the EP2…

Ever since and as of today, i have collected about 50 Minolta and Konica MF lenses, to me they are that good, you can pick these lenses up for next to nothing, in most cases shipping the lenses cost more than the lenses themselves, unreal… Rather than talk about the technical qualities of the lenses, i am posting photos here on my blog for all to see.

Minolta MD 50mm 1.2

Konica Hexanon AR EE 57mm 1.4

In conclusion, let me just say knowing what i know today, there is no way on earth i would spend money on a new good prime lens from any brand such as Leica, Nikon or Canon, you simply can’t beat these old glasses in any area, not to mention factoring what they cost and this is my opinion.

They are simply Amazing!

I will be posting photos taken with each lens i own on its own page with minimal text, i will not get technical about these lenses as that information can be found online, you  can get to these pages using the Pages Link at the footer of each Page here on my blog. In the meantime you can view some photos already taken with my Minolta and Konica Lenses on Flickr.

Catalogue Minolta Auto Rokkor Page

Thanks for reading!

Cartier-Bresson achieved international recognition for his coverage of Gandhi’s funeral in India in 1948 and the last (1949) stage of the Chinese Civil War. He covered the last six months of the Kuomintang administration and the first six months of the Maoist People’s Republic. He also photographed the last surviving Imperial eunuchs in Beijing, as the city was falling to the communists. From China, he went on to Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), where he documented the gaining of independence from the Dutch.
Photograph of Alberto Giacometti by Henri Cartier-Bresson

In 1952, Cartier-Bresson published his book Images à la sauvette, whose English edition was titled The Decisive Moment. It included a portfolio of 126 of his photos from the East and the West. The book’s cover was drawn by Henri Matisse. For his 4,500-word philosophical preface, Cartier-Bresson took his keynote text from the 17th century Cardinal de Retz: “Il n’y a rien dans ce monde qui n’ait un moment decisif” (”There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment”). Cartier-Bresson applied this to his photographic style. He said: “Photographier: c’est dans un même instant et en une fraction de seconde reconnaître un fait et l’organisation rigoureuse de formes perçues visuellement qui expriment et signifient ce fait” (”Photography is simultaneously and instantaneously the recognition of a fact and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that express and signify that fact”).[citation needed]

Both titles came from publishers. Tériade, the Greek-born French publisher whom Cartier-Bresson idolized,[peacock term] gave the book its French title, Images à la Sauvette, which can loosely be translated as “images on the run” or “stolen images.” Dick Simon of Simon & Schuster came up with the English title The Decisive Moment. Margot Shore, Magnum’s Paris bureau chief, did the English translation of Cartier-Bresson’s French preface.

“Photography is not like painting,” Cartier-Bresson told the Washington Post in 1957. “There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative,” he said. “Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”[7]

Cartier-Bresson held his first exhibition in France at the Pavillon de Marsan in the Louvre in 1955.

I haven’t posted anything on my own blog for a while due to pure laziness, focus on my real work and mostly reading other peoples reviews especially on the latest and greatest thing since slice bread, the Fuji X100… Since acquiring this cool retro looking photo making machine, i sort of feel the need to make time and put down my own thoughts about it…

No doubt that the X100 is one of the hottest cameras to hit the market in a long time. Having being already reviewed by many capable reviewers online, my take on the X100 is not a review, otherwise my own experience having acquired it in the last week, barely enough time to write a review much less a comprehensive one for that matter. I do however think i am capable of writing my own experience and thoughts about the camera.

Street Chess Dupont Circle, Wash DC

First off, let me just say from the many reviews and complaints about the minor flaws of the camera i have read so far, i can honestly say that there have been too much expectations about the capability of the camera out the gate, it seems to me many are expecting a Leica M8/9 or DSLR performance on what i think is completely a different kind of experience. I am sure many of those who have acquired the camera have dumped their old gear ( DSLR’s ) as a replacement, justifiably so in many ways but not quite. If one is solely coming from a DSLR, you may be in for some surprise, one notably, speed. The X100 is not as fast as DSLR’s, i am talking in terms of AF speed, start up times e.t.c… You lose the option of being able to change lenses, you are stuck with a very nice 35mm speedy F2 Fujinon lens and that means no zooming or changing lens to suit specific photo situations. You are forced to live with, zoom with your feet and compose on a fixed 35mm focal length lens, for many a totally different experience altogether.

The X100 with the cool looks of a rangefinder is not a rangefinder camera, it can adapt as one, assuming one is familiar with a rangefinder already. In many ways in my opinion, it actually forces you to think and use the camera as you would a rangefinder, somehow with all the gimmicks of a true digital camera that can be passively bypassed, hence the beauty of the camera. Photogs coming from a rangefinder will easily adapt and find the minor quirks others have complained about to be almost a non-issue. Other users of the m4/3 systems may also find the camera easy to take on and that is assuming one has fully vested time in configuring m4/3 systems such as the Olympus EP2, what that means is using the EP2 with manual glass not the kit glass that comes with the camera, that glass ( 17mm 2.8 ) is fine by the way if your intention is to use it as is with the EP2, at that point you have not fully vested time in manually operating the camera and a serious lens such as the legacy Minolta or Konica’s to boot, why bother just point and shoot the kit lens, a whole other experience.

Others have also complained about softness in the lens at F2, let me just say judging a photo by sharpness  at its widest aperture is total nonsense IMO, photo sharpness itself is well overrated in many cases, ask any pro, its almost a non-issue. To me a lens is like a painters brush, how a lens paints a photo is more important than sharpness, the Fujinon lens on the X100 is a brilliant paint brush, it can be soft, it can be harsh, you the photographer needs to know how to use the paint brush much like a painter, it’s all there, another beauty of the X100, the files have an artistic quality to them if brushed properly using the lens and the camera properly, it will render great results.

So how do i use mine? I keep it simple, I’ve set things up the way i set things up on my EP2, but hey the lens on the X100 is fixed, i know that, i am talking about basic settings, once set up correctly on either camera you are good to go… I shoot at ( A ) Priority mode always on all my cameras, cameras today are good enough to expose properly in this mode, i don’t have to worry about shutter speed, though i am aware of it and respond accordingly should i exceed or go below an exposure, then i Stop Down or use my EV up or down, compose, focus and fire, done. This is done on my EP2 or M… The X100 has a different take in terms of focusing, i won’t want to manually focus using the lens on this camera, hell no! On the X100 i set things up using ( A ) Priority mode, i actually like and use the OVF better than the EVF, much closer to the rangefinder, remember the X100 is not a rangefinder, you can adapt the OVF as a mindset, its clean and bright with the info overlays which i find to be a benefit rather than an inconvenience and some may disagree here that’s OK, it ain’t a deal breaker either way. I keep the focus point dead center, AF, compose and shoot. I focus faster on my M than i do on the X100 believe it or not, i have gotten used to it well enough to say so regardless of what lens i own and mounted on my M at any given time, its become a fluid process. I am not saying i don’t miss shots, heck yeah i do, we all do and the X100 is no different as i have read many complaints about the AF system not being accurate and some folks missing shots, FYI, it does not matter what system you use you will miss shots here and there, move on to the next, a missed shot is gone… ain’t nothing bringing it back, i call it lost and forget moment.

Now here is the kicker, i never expected the X100 to give me quick AF like my Nikon DSLR, that would be foolish on my part, so knowing that, the X100 to me is not a camera for fast shooting or should i say very fast shooting, i don’t think the folks at Fuji intended it to be that way. It is a camera that makes you think before pulling the trigger much like a rangefinder, it is not a camera for everyday shooting though it can be used as such, but for an experienced photographer well versed in the rangefinder philosophy, it is a tool that requires patience, judgement, anticipation of subject matter and proper composition when out on the field, it is about photography at its core and should be approached in my opinion as such.

It must fit a specific shooting style and personality, that means if you like rapid fire quick action photography, don’t part with your DSLR, you may regret it. If you are on the other fence, then for sure IMO, the X100 should be at the very least a back up camera for purposes other than fast action photography.

For me it has a place as my other gear does and will always go with me alongside my M or EP2 as a back up for when i need to use it for it’s intended purpose patience, compose, anticipate and get the shot. For fast action or certain types of situations where appropriate i will use my Nikon gear and machine gun everything in the viewfinder. My main gear of choice is still my EP2 and my vast collection of Minolta and Konica lenses, once in a while I’ll take the M along but these days it barely gets as much work out as the EP2’s though its the best camera i own, got to love that true rangefinder experience, it’s hard to beat!

In conclusion

The X100 might not be the perfect camera for many folks. It is for serious photographers as Fuji said, it is a beast when understood… I love mine very dearly and would purchase a second in a heart beat, to me it’s that sweet, i understand it, having spent a short time with it so far, and even before the camera was released i had a hunch, i predicted it will fit in my workflow, i somehow anticipated the files will be awesome and it is, Raw or JPG are just exquisite, love the B&W jpg when tweaked in camera plus room to fool around if you like to in PP. Is it an M rangefinder, no it is not and should not be compared to one, but it can feel and act/behave similarly as one in the hands of a capable photog having handled a rangefinder. I only wish it came as an interchangeable lens camera or an option to purchase one with a Fujinon 50mm F2 fixed lens, imagine that? My suggestion to those on the fence about going for it is to try one and see if it fits in your flow or style of photography or better yet for those new or looking to get into rangefinder like photography with the X100, get a used rangefinder film camera from eBay, you can find them pretty inexpensive, play with it to see if you like the feel of things, if you do you will instantly understand the X100.

My X100 will be staying in the closet for a while until i can fully protect this investment, still waiting for the lens hood and adapter so i can get a filter on the lens as well as case to wrap this gem

Steve Huff an awesome reviewer has done an extensive review on the X100 as have many others, i am a fan of Steve and love his reviews so check out his review on the X100, no technical mumbo jumbo stuff, just real world down to earth stuff…

Click Here for More X100 Photos

After a few glasses of wine, dancing in the blaring sun takes over. All clearly enjoying the day!

Snapshots ( Set 1 ) from the festival. Windy day, we were expecting to see balloons in the air – didn’t happen for safety reasons, nevertheless it was a nice day out with the family.

Snapshots ( Set 2 ) from the festival.