Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Air Ministry [Ross Xpress] 5 Inch f4 More Samples - Part I

I have been shooting with the Air Ministry [Ross Xpress] 5 inch f4 lens for the last few days. I am very taken by the interesting rendering style of this lens. As I said before, wide open the contrast is low, but is very sharp. Pictures taken at any aperture show an amazing amount of details and it's very "malleable" in post processing.  By f8, the lens is extremely sharp with excellent definition. Who would have thought that a lens about 60 years old, and so cheap, can produce such nice results? I am enjoying it immensely. This is part one of the samples. I will post more next time.

One thing I want to stress, if you are going to make this lens useable, is to use a very long lens hood. Without the hood, the lens is very prone to flare and you will get "white out" effect. The hood should be at least 120mm long to be effective. Try it. Take some pictures with and without the hood. You won't believe they come from the same lens.

Birds of a feather - NEX-6 & AM [Ross Xpress] 5 inch f4 @ f4. Click for larger.

Bokeh - NEX-6 & AM [Ross Xpress] 5 inch f4 @ f4. Click for larger.

Ferry - NEX-6 & AM [Ross Xpress] 5 inch f4 @ f8. Click for larger.

Another Bokeh sample - NEX-6 & AM [Ross Xpress] 5 inch f4 @ f4.

4 comments:

  1. The bokeh is very nice. How did you get the bird pick setup?

    Seeds?

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    1. These sparrows are not afraid of people. I was less than 2 meters away from them and they just stayed put!

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  2. Hi I am looking for a version of this lens but can't be sure it is the right one, can you please show the lens and some details, many thanks

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    1. Hi,

      You can see a picture of this lens in this post:
      http://oldlenses.blogspot.ca/2013/05/air-ministry-ross-xpress-5-inch-f4-lens.html

      and a colour version in this post (on the right):
      http://oldlenses.blogspot.ca/2013/05/air-ministry-lenses.html

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