My Dolly Adventures: Comparing Camera Lenses (Part II)

Hello everybody! Time for another camera tutorial! This time, I am comparing camera lenses by putting them all at the same distance. So far I had two very thorough lens-related camera tutorials:

So with now, I have an extra comparison. Bad thing is that I left the Minolta 200mm in another bag and completely forgot to take a picture with it, so you will see the others. Basically, this is similar like the one I linked above (second link), but this time I took the photos with all the lenses at 1.3 meters from my doll, so you can see how much focal affects the photo. There are behind the scenes photos as well: I had to use a tripod to ensure everything was still.

Here you have the collage of all pictures, and the large versions are inside:

Fifty-Nifty: Minolta 50mm and 56mm

These two are very similar, but the main difference is that the 56mm has a f1.4 and the 50mm has a f1.7. You will see that the field of view (how much of the background they capture) is more or less similar, but the blurriness of the background is higher on the 56mm. These lenses are prime (fixed focal distance). Let's start with 50mm:

And here you have the 56mm. These lenses can be considered the "base", since this focal distance is the more stable and close-to-reality.

Wide-Angle, 35mm

Now, the following is the Tamron 35mm. This is called a "wide-angle" because basically, you get more of the background. Pay attention at Cookie's head--it looks thinner than in the 50mm. The wide-angle lenses tend to do this. This is a great lens to get a lot of the background in the picture, but not so good for portraits.

Zooming Lens, 35-70mm (fixed aperture)

Okay, this is another Minolta, but it is zooming because it goes from 35mm (like the above) to 70mm. The difference with the above, is that the f-stops are fixed on f3.5--so even if you zoom in, you can still have an f3.5. So, if you compare the 35mm at f3.5 to the above at f2.8, you will notice the background is LESS blurry:

Then, here we have the same lens, but at 70mm! Look how closer it looks! At if you compare it to the others, you see less of the background, and the head is a bit more rounded:

Now, I often use this lens with a macro adapter. These adapters allow you to get *a lot* closer to your target, but basically make the lens stop working at a distance. Why? Well, it is kind of like the lens becomes miope: it only "sees" (e.g., focus) when very close. So, just for the laughs, here is how it looked at 1.3m with the macro adapter:

135mm, prime

Ohh, I love this lens. It is a Pentax 135mm--a terrific lens for portraits, and so dang sharp! The closer you can get to the target with this lens, is 1.3 meters. So basically, I was on the very limit of the lens. Look how "zoomed in" in looks, even if I was so far away. It looks "closer" to the doll than the 50mm! In summary, the larger the focal distance, the farther away you need to go, but the narrower the background, rounder faces, and closer it looks.

Zooming Lens, 100-300mm (variable aperture)

Okay, this is my love. I adore this dang lens, it is purrfect. Anyways, the main difference of this with the 35-70mm of above, is that this one varies. So at 100mm I can put f4.5, but at 300mm the lowest I can go is f5.6. In general, the lower the f-stops the blurry the background (watch my tutorial for that!). BUT, this lens has a focal length to large that the backgrounds are completely blurred.

Let's look at 100mm to see how it looks. It is a bit more "distant/wide" than the 135mm (because the focal length is smaller), and the background is less blurry (the f-stops are higher!):

But now, *insert dramatic music* look at 300mm! SO CLOSE! The focal distance is so large that at 1.3 meters away from a 16cm doll I can barely fit her sitting in the frame. But even if the f-stops are f5.6, the background is completely blurred. In this other post, most of the photos are at 300mm with this very same lens.

In the behind-the-scenes photo you will see that: 1) yes, the lens is huge, and 2) the "longest/pulled out" state is at 300mm. You can actually see the numbers on the lens to get the full configuration.

This is all for today! Since all this lenses (sans the Tamron) are manual and vintage (the 100-300mm is from 1962, honestly), I will be making a post on how to focus with these lenses, and how to adapt them. You should honestly give them a try. You can get a healthy Minolta 50mm for $50 bucks, and it is even better than some of the current lenses. And for dolls, you don't really need automatic focusing. Hope this was useful! :D