Autumn Lenses

Even in their autumn years some lenses just seem to keep on looking good, the little Pentax 110 are just such lenses. Here is a sample taken with my 24mm f2.8 Pentax 110 lens... (see my page on them)

 

Initially intended for a life on a strange camera system (the Pentax 110 SLR) these little guys just keep on keeping on.

I say "strange" because  back in the late 1970's the 110 film format was really aimed at the quick snap pocket cameras. That a company like Pentax invested such time and effort into that tiny film format was astounding. Clearly they recognised way back then that not everyone wanted a big lumbering camera, but did still want some control over their images.

The 110 camera is actually quite tiny in comparison to my micro 4/3 camera (which sadly now days is thought of as small), and yet the lenses actually cover the same area of film that the 4/3 sensor uses. Meaning that they don't darken at the corners.

This is great because you can get a small lens to it onto your m4/3 camera helping make the camera even more pocket-able.

The image there shows the fifty mm lens and the image above was taken with the 24mm lens. The 24mm is actually a "standard" view lens on the 110 / micro 4/3 cameras. Its even smaller than the 50mm. Here it is mounted on my G1

its quite the tiny thing isn't it. Makes me wonder why such snug lenses can't be made today? I mean after all the entire purpose of micro 4/3 was to make compact cameras ... rather than the big DSLR's which had roamed the earth in the end of the last millennium. Its even more tragic that micro 4/3 seems to be getting bigger in body too ... oh well.

Anyway, the the top image was take today in the autum forest understory here in Finland with the 24mm mounted on my GF-1. Initially bought into Pentax 110 series the because I didn't want to spend hundreds on the Panasonic 20 f1.7 just to get Auto Focus. I questioned if there was any great benefits for me. The Pentax 110 SLR lenses are f2.8 (so not as shallow DoF) but at under 20 bucks ... I reckoned that for the occasional shot where I'd want to emphasize focus (where such a lens as either the Pana 20 or the Pentax 24 really make sence) that I would not really benefit from fast AF as much as interesting look and feel ...

The Pentax 110 and the GF-1 its a sweet combo that fits into my small daypack side pocket and costs a lot less than the Panasonic 20mm f1.8 does. Its a sweet little lens.

Debasement of words devalues their subjects

The modern world seems to be evolving towards faster newer better bigger faster than it ever has. I wonder if that's as much to do with the incredible increase in population as much as it is with the increase communications tools. We strive to give more impact to what we say and do to attract an audience. So greater and greater use of high meaning words is used and it essentially demeans the words themselves.

One such word is love. People are quick to say they "love something" (I love the colour of your shoes) but in their lives there is perhaps no love at all.

Marriages don't last as long, people are having less children, people increasingly don't support their parents, even parents are increasingly wary of their own children.

So in such an environment its hardly surprising that people don't know what love is.

Perhaps in response to an increasing clamor of things to learn about / attract your attention we have debased our values on more long term or permanent things.

The rituals in life are replaced with simply repetition of the mundane, the things we once did that took time also added richness to our lives. Spending 7 hours watching TV does not add richness to your life, nor does several hours on social media.

 Because we are all so busy checking out everything these days we have less time to sit and think and less time to reflect on what has been the progress. A short term view loses perspective of the overall trends.

Sadly people increasingly value convenience over quality. Its part of the 'economic' thinking today. As a result I feel that increasingly people don't even understand love. After all fewer people in western society are married and have family, people are unwilling to work through problems and see dissolution as the solution. As people are increasingly people are isolated from one another such things as permanence seem abstract.

Love and obligation are in some ways related, but of course obligation without love is nothing desirable and so is love without obligation a harmful thing to your spirit.


Once my wife and I were having an argument about a topic (god I can't remember what it was even) and I said something like "I don't want to live my life this way". She interpreted that as a threat to "change or we break up" and later said that aloud. I stopped and said to her something like: No, that's not what I meant at all. I expect that my life with your will be always. I just don't want to always be having conflicts. I want to learn to find a way for us to work things through together so we can be happy together. Not unhappy together.

She saw that I meant what I said (from years of previous working through problems) and that it wasn't a threat but an offer. She wanted us to be together and she saw that was what I wanted too. Importantly she saw that I wanted us to be together and happy ... not just together.


and we were...

Sometimes its important to reaffirm what you believe, to not leave the assumptions unspoken and to follow them trough with what you do. While actions speak louder than words sometimes the words that match the actions go a long way too ... as do some flowers now and then ;-)