March 5, 2021

From Gerald R. Lucas

Downtown Macon covid-19: day 347 | US: GA | info | act

I met Giles for a downtown photo stroll this afternoon. I wanted to use the new Zuiko 2.8/24, and today was lovely. I parked near Just Tap’d and walked toward Mulberry Street with the intention of heading west to the Hay House. I have my Nut Sac full of lenses, but the SL wore the Zuiko 24.


The color from this lens is excellent, and it seems pretty perfectly wide. I think the trick is to get close to the subject and the background gets perfectly blurred, as evidenced by these shots.


At the Hay House, I briefly put the Canon 1.4/50 LTM on the SL. I love this lens, too—an excellent purchase. The first three images are with the Canon before I put the 24 back on. These really need to be looked at large; the smaller thumbnails do not do them justice.


A couple more on Coleman Hill, before I started walking south toward Poplar Street.


Even shooting into the sun, this 24 renders beautifully. Yes, I was using the hood on that first shot above. On Poplar, I took a few shots of St. Joseph’s.


Giles and I parted company, and I walked back to Just Tap’d. I was going to get a beer, but the place was getting crowded, so I snapped a final photo before heading out.


I drove up Riverside Drive and decided to take just a couple more photos at the cemetery. I put the Takumar 2.5/135 on the SL and got these.


This lens is no slouch either. It’s the five-element version which one YouTuber called a “paperweight” because of its lack of sharpness. I don’t see it frankly. That said, this lens does not wow me. In fact, I’m not a real fan of telephoto lenses and how they compress everything in the image. The bokeh is nice, but I prefer wider. Still these images are nice and make an excellent contrast to the images from the Zuiko 24.