Spaceship Earth ride @ manual focus w/the NEX

[zackiedawg]

This past trip, I continued playing around with dark ride photography trying to get better at manually focusing with legacy lenses - I know there are definitely going to be trips where I don't bring the DSLR, and will only bring my NEX when I need to travel light, and it so happens that my only fast primes for my NEX system are all manual. ; I may still pick up a 35mm F1.8 or something in eMount eventually, but for now, I like the character of some of the manual legacy glass, and the old fashioned feel and style of shooting with them (back to aperture rings and nicely damped focus rings with real mechanical connections!)...and focus peaking does a marvelous job in helping to quickly confirm focus on the fly. ; I had tried out my Konica Hexanon 40mm F1.8 last trip in June and it did well in SSE...this time I wanted to try out the Voigtlander 35mm F1.4 wide open at F1.4, and it did pretty well too - considering how the SSE ride likes to give you those unexpected jolts as you hit track connectors, and I was shooting without stabilization, I was creeping dangerously slow on the shutter even at ISO6400, but still managed to eek out some decent results. ; Here are a few:

 

[MJHurley]

I'm really enjoying your recent series with MF lenses. I recently picked up a couple of Canon FD lenses that work really well with my Nex 6.

 

[zackiedawg]

Thank you MJ - It's really good practice for focusing on these dark rides...and focus peaking really does make it easier. ; You don't get a ton of peaking indicated in some of the very darkest scenes, but enough along the highlighted regions to very quickly know when you've got the focus dialed in. ; I've been surprised at how relatively easy it has been - I never would have dared to manually focus these rides with my DSLR without the peaking, and with the modern focus-by-wire lenses. ; The old, mechanically-linked and nicely damped focus rings are so nice to use again!