Another rainy day here in Yerevan and of course that has me excited to get outside. I love it. The rain in courtyards, little areas of green with droplets of rain. Roses, birch trees, small areas of flowers where community owned gardens are maintained. Sitting beneath a sheltered bench and listening to that rainfall as it hits the metallic roof above. The gloom of the low rain clouds passing around the concrete high rises around. It all becomes so very dreamy, so peaceful! What started as a short walk became quite an adventure around the area, walking between new areas and a few still familiar, though with far more rain than the previous day. So much so that an umbrella was needed. And taking pictures was a bit more difficult with the rain hitting the camera and lens. I opted for the Mir 1v today, replacing it over the recent Helios 44-2 usage.
I absolutely love using the Mir 1v, but on a crop sensor it punches in a bit more than its original 37mm focal length. So it has a closer focal range to a 50mm. More a portrait lens than a wide angle, and that also makes focusing it a bit harder. It's a Soviet era manual lens, so putting on the highlight peaking feature in the camera helps show the areas that are peaking and in focus. Compared to the Helios 44-2 and its tighter focal length where you can just see what's in focus a bit easier. Using the Mir 1v like this is a bit more challenging, it makes manual focus result in a few issues here and there. Sometimes images aren't as sharp, especially if it's low light and you have to shoot a lower shutter speed and keep the aperature white open at F2.8. Though I love the softness of the images it produces when nailed right. It still has that Helios 44-2 bokeh, just a bit less evident in many shots. Certain distances still cause the nice swirls!
That softness is what makes me love these vintage lenses. And while it's nice to shoot a less shallow depth of field and capture more detail in the frame, that more textural look is just beautiful. Especially with a more filmic bit of grain added to the final image. It comes out to a similar fashion as some signature primes from Arri. Where highlights and areas around the edge of the frame can be softer, less in focus. I can't wait to use this lens a bit more! Especially with these stronger tones in the environments around. I have been considering getting an FD to M42 adapter so I can even use these lenses on my 35mm film Canon AE-1. But also looking forward to getting the Sony A7 V very soon, adapting it to that! These were taken on the Sony A6000 with the adapter, but again with that crop, not the original 37mm focal length.
