I have made pictures I like at the zoo with quite a variety of old film cameras. In terms of productivity, the champ is my Pentax SP with the Yashica Auto Yashinon Zoom 1:4.5 f=75mm~230mm. I've used the big old zoom for little else, but at the zoo where the subject distance is largely under control of the animals the zoom gets me the tight compositions that I am looking for. The maximum 4.5 aperture provides a slightly dim image in the viewfinder; that, along with the limited depth of field at 230mm, makes focusing on moving targets challenging. However, with proper focus and an adequate shutter speed the resolution of the lens leaves little to complain about.
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| Savannah Dreams |
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| Matilda will be a year old on July 20th. |
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The Wikipedia page on the
Hippo is worth a look:
... After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third-largest land mammal and is the heaviest extant land artiodactyl. Despite their physical resemblance to pigs and other terrestrial even-toed ungulates, the closest living relatives of the Hippopotamidae are cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises, etc.), from which they diverged about 55 million years ago ...
3 comments:
My goodness! That's quite a lens!! How much does it weigh? Do you use a tripod or hand hold?
I've only used the Yashinon lens hand-held. In the zoo setting there are often opportunities to brace the camera against something. Without that, the weight and inertia actually help initially to overcome small tremors. Fast film provides some help with higher shutter speeds and small apertures, but even when opened up the lens gives nice sharpness.
This lens is certainly an old-school zoom. But you have shown that it is optically quite capable. Well done with the challenging lighting. But I'll pass taking this thing on a trip.
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