I’m patiently awaiting for the return of my beloved long zoom. There is never really a good time to be without a favorite lens, but I’ve been making due with an old Vivitar manual lens from 1978. I wrote about taking out this old piece of kit in desperation here.

Today I had a chance to take the relic out in almost perfect conditions. It was a sunny 50 degrees and the birds were dropping in and out of range – on my last post the images had a softness that is not typical of modern glass, they looked almost “film-like”. Today, that old bit of kit was singing. I started shooting some black and white film with it and late in the day I managed to make a few captures.

Today my favorite northern cardinal was not even considering stopping by the feeders. I spotted him in the crepe myrtle bush…

Of course he thew me that Johnny Bravo stare – snob…

I experimented with aperture settings and he looked away…

One thing about focussing manually, I can focus on the bird in spite of the limbs in the way.

Back at the feeders, I got a clear shot of a pine warbler in the late afternoon sun…

One key to using old glass is finding a subject that is going to stick around, and this guy was serious about feeding, not flitting…

Live view does give you the ability to see what the changes in aperture and shutter speed will do, so it’s not exactly like shooting a film camera from the era…

I love how the sun rests on the shoulders of this warbler, he has become a regular visitor and he has even brought his girlfriend to check things out too. I hope they decide to stay.

After shooting this lens on a sunny day, I have decided its a keeper! I wouldn’t choose it over my modern lens in most situations, but shooting it on my modern camera gave me to confidence to try to capture birds with it on a film camera this weekend. It’s a good bit of kit.