Dissection 009
Frankenkit.
A return to alternative lenses.
Original post: Prolongation
Glass is the eye through which we capture our images—an important point we all realized the day we first strayed beyond the kit lens of our camera. Glass is field of view and depth of field but, very importantly, it’s also character.
It’s a weird thing, “character”. Hard to define and entirely subjective, the sort of magic we recognize but can never truly define. And sometimes—often, really—it’s also born of flaws.
I purchased my first Lensbaby—the original Muse—way back in my Nikon days. It was a cheap plastic lens with a body made of bellows, which was kind of ingenious. And there were NO controls whatsoever: the lens would bend, but you had to hold it in position manually as you took the shot. And instead of an aperture ring, there were aperture rings: sets of metal ringlets with varying sized holes that you’d insert in front of the glass, held between two rubber washers. The thing even came with its own specialized “tool”, total and absolute DIY. So if you left the house with the f/2 ring...believe me, that was your aperture for the day. Unless you were ok with losing ridiculously small parts in a gutter somewhere.
Still, I loved that lens. It provided my first glance into an alternative way of seeing, one that bore no relationship whatsoever with reality. And f/2, for me, became the standard on it as well: if I was going to blur, I may as well wash the entire scene away.
The line has evolved quite a lot since then and several years ago, I upgraded to the Composer Pro—a much improved version of the system, compatible with the company’s swappable optics. I did this before they offered an X-mount compatible version... hence the Frankenkit you see here. In case you’re wondering, this is a Nikon to Fujifilm Fotodiox adapter. I’ve had this for years, and it works perfectly for what it is: no AF and no aperture info comes through, but metering works fine.
...
I brushed away a thick layer of dust before fitting the Lensbaby to the X-Pro3. Because sometimes gear, however loved, is forgotten. New toys replace old toys and old toys get buried at the bottom of a box or drawer. I was in a rut for most of the holidays, did the yearly clean-up and re-evaluation of my “stuff”, ended up reconfiguring the layout of my workspace. Part of this involved shelves for my equipment...lenses, namely. And there was the Frankenkit, lined up with the rest of them for the first time in years, waiting for a chance to shine once again.
The images in the story were shot across several days, and I’ve added a few unpublished ones for you folks here (below). I used the two optics I own, the Edge 80 and the Sweet 35. But I believe the Sweet 35 may not have been fitted properly: I couldn’t get a focal point, regardless of aperture. Either that or it’s broken. I didn't really mind however... the blur WAS the point. I’ll look into this, though. Truth is, these lenses are a pain in the you-know-what to change, and I’m always afraid of breaking something. Let’s just say it’s a lot of plastic twisting and pulling, clockwise or counterclockwise.
Shots were processed from Classic Negative JPEG files and I used RUBICON as a starting point in Capture One.
New year... old eye? ;)
