By David Halgrimson
Being a good boy and staying home, I decided to do some exploring, on the internet. Photography being my hobby I was looking for anything photography and ran across a small and inexpensive lens. It is called a CCTV lens, CCTV meaning Closed-circuit television which is normally used for security systems. OK, this is not real photography…right? Well, maybe!
I found that these lenses, at least some, can be used with still cameras. This is one manufactured by Pixco and available on Amazon. It is 25mm, f/1.4 – f/8, fully manual aperture and focus. I ordered it for my micro four thirds cameras and it came with a C mount adapter.
I was not sure if I should really spend all of $27, but, OK, no candy for a while. I had no idea, looking at pictures on Amazon that it was so small. Here it is with the adapter.
Surprisingly the build is good, all metal body, the aperture and focus rings are smooth but very touchy, little movement, big change.
The affects created by this lens makes it fun to use. Being non-standard and fully manual though, aperture settings are not recorded by the camera, write’m down, I guess.
I found it a little difficult to focus as the focus and aperture rings are in reverse position, focus ring is next to the camera body. Minimum focusing distance is 21 inches making it difficult to focus on small objects, (flowers). Using macro rings and or turning on camera focus peaking will help.
Here are a few images from using this lens.
Pros:
Fun to use
Inexpensive
Great effects, swirl, out of focus, bokeh
Small and light
Good build
Cons:
Not able to get everything in full focus
Distance required for close-up/macro
Focus ring difficult to use
the camera
Very small movement, big change in both aperture and focus
Focus ring only has Near and Far markings
Can’t record aperture settings automatically
In summary, for the money it is well worth the fun and interesting images that can be created.
BTW, I ordered a 35mm version, ooh, no candy for a long time
David Halgrimson is a Photo Guide with Arizona Highways PhotoScapes
fineartamerica.com/artists/david+halgrimson
