Using Manual Lenses With Your DSLR Camera

DSLRs are now flooding the market and photographers and filmmakers alike are finding uses for their old manual lenses. Are you not sure how to use manual lenses, or if your camera body will work with certain lenses? Visit photojojo.com for a great article.

1. Nikon

Nikon cameras work with most vintage Nikon lenses, but they don’t work with most third-party lenses (like Olympus or Pentax).

Here is a good post at nofilmschool.com that is a good look at Nikkor manual lenses.

2. Canon and Olympus

Canon and Olympus cameras don’t work with most vintage Canon lenses, but do work with most third-party lenses.

Here is a link to an article on photonotes.org using manual lenses with Canon bodies.

3. Pentax

Pentax cameras work with nearly all Pentax lenses, and any third-party lens that uses the Pentax mount.

Here is another great resource at theatreofnoise.com for using Pentax manual lenses with Pentax bodies.

4. Sony

Sony cameras work with some Minolta lenses and lenses with “M42″-style mounts.

Here is a link to photo.net's article all about Sony cameras.

Now put those lenses on your shelf to use and go take some great images. Whether you are using it for photography or video you will be surprised at the quality of images you can capture. Now get out there and have some fun.

Future Preview - Dredd 3D (2012)

Most everyone remembers the great Sylvester Stallone in the 1995 film Judge Dredd. About an all powerful judge, appointed the power of; police, judge, jury and executioner. A brief history; Judge Dredd is based on a 2000 AD Comic Serial first published in 1977 and was one of the longest running of all the companies publications, of course the company changed hands a couple of times. Join me for a preview of the movie Dredd 3D coming out Sept. 21st 2012. I am not going to focus on the history or adaptation origins of the movie, but the work of the team involved.


I will start where all movies should start, the story of course! what did you think I was going to say? Writer Alex Garland is famous for the Novel the Beach which the Leonardo DiCaprio film is based on. He wrote the screenplay for 28 Days Later and also wrote the screenplay for one of my favorite Sci-Fi movies, Sunshine. Also involved in the development of the original screenplay for the rumored Halo movie, which has yet to set a date. John Wagner along with artist Carlos Ezquerra co-created the character Judge Dredd and continues to be a leader in British comics. Wagner was born in Pennsylvania, USA, in 1949, and spent his first thirteen years in the States before moving to Scotland. In 1979 Wagoner with another writer attempted to pitch ideas to the Doctor Who TV series, but soon tired of all the re-writes required. The experience turned Wagner off TV writing.


Naturally next is the director. Pete Travis was a social worker before taking a post-graduate course in film-making. His first film, Faith premiered at the London Film Festival on November 11th 1997. He was interviewed and he said, the key to making a good football film was to not have any football in it. Faith is more about the spirit of football than the sport. I don't know if this trend in his directing continued through his career, but I can see evidence of a great director focused on the development of his characters. His other films include; End Game, Vantage Point, and work on the TV miniseries The Jury.


Based on these two elements that make up the production team I can't decide what kind of film I expect it to be, so lets add one more. The editor. Mark Eckersley was the first assistant editor on Billy Elliot. Eckersley and Garland also worked on Sunshine where he was the visual effects editor. His work on The Disappearance of Alice Creed is noteworthy, because it shows he is a good at cutting action and has experience with visual effects.

Now that you have an idea of who is involved and a little about their experience let's take a look at the trailer. Based on what you know now and what you see in the trailer you can decide whether you will see the film. Based on what I have seen I think I'll wait to see this one on DVD. Take a look!

Jonnie Walker - The Man Who Walked Around The World

I came across this video while on youtube and I think this is a great short film. It is simple yet interesting.

Disecting this video there are alot of small elements, the most interesting is the matching of the dialouge and the timing of the vertigo shot (3:54). Before the vertigo shot all of the elements are period correct. They all look vintage and Victorian. The vertigo shot brings us out of the moment and "shifts" us into the present like a worm hole. Then we see the televisions which gives us an object that we can relate to. Then the actor continues to talk about the Walker's family in the present and further emphasizes that they are going even further in the future.

Like I said earlier, very interesting and inspiring.