Replica Parrott Gun on the Cold Spring waterfront

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This replica of a Parrott gun (named after its inventor Robert Parker Parrott) stands near the gazebo on the waterfront in Cold Spring, NY. Nowadays Cold Spring is a picturesque Hudson River town with antique stores, nice restaurants etc., but once upon a time the town was dominated by the West Point Foundry, which made munitions for the Union during the Civil War. One of the most famous (or maybe infamous) items made at the foundry was the Parrott gun. Its rifled barrel made it quite accurate, but unfortunately the metal with which it was made was also quite brittle and tended to shatter easily (not a good thing if you were one of the people firing it).

Canon 35-70mm f3.5-4.5 macro zoom

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Sometime back in the 1980s I bought a second hand Canon AE-1 from a long departed photo store on 43rd and second avenue in New York city – I don’t remember the name of the store. I also bought a couple of lenses to go with it: a Canon FD Zoom 70-210 mm f4 and this lens: a Canon FD Zoom 35-70mm f3.5-4.5 macro zoom. I hadn’t used for decades but I’d acquired a Canon FD-Sony NEX adapter to use with some other FD lenses I had so I thought I’d give it a try – at least partly to check if, after all this time, it was still working. I tried it on the closest things to hand: flowers in our garden. The good news is that it’s working. The bad news is that it’s a somewhat mediocre lens.

I don’t remember much about why I bought it. I know I didn’t have much money so it must have been cheap. It’s slow and feels quite ‘plasticky’. Because of the crop factor it has an awkward 52-105mm zoom range. It also seems to be a bit soft (particularly around the edges) and contrast seems to be low. Most of this can be easily fixed in post processing though. It may also be that I need to use the lens more to understand its full capabilities.

It does have a couple of advantages though. It’s very small and light. As I get older I incline more and more to small, lightweight gear. Even though the adapter makes it a bit longer, and a bit heavier the combination of the NEX 5N body and this lens makes for a very easy to carry around package. It also has a macro (or at least close focusing) capability throughout it’s entire focal length range. Apparently the lens also has some historical significance: it had with world’s first three group zooming system, which allowed it to be smaller and lighter which still maintaining fairly decent optical performance.

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Look at that Bokeh

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I completely missed the focus here, but I thought I’d include the picture because of the crazy, swirly bokeh – and from a 28mm lens too (Sears 28mm f2.8 in M42 mount. I have no idea who actually made it). The funny thing is that I’d recently seen a picture with similar bokeh and found it interesting. It was taken with a Helios 44-2. The Helios 44 seems to come in several version and I’ve been reading about them so as to make an educated decision as to which one to get. Imagine my surprise when my Sears lens ($7.99 with a nice case from Goodwill) managed to produce this. I might still get the Helios though.

Ruined Gatepost

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As is often the case I came across some ruins in the woods. I liked the patterns and the textures particularly in contrast to the fairly smooth green vines. Something about this reminded me of pictures I’ve seen of the discovery of pre-Columbian ruins in Mexico (not that I’m suggesting that these are pre-Columbian. Clearly they’re not). Maybe it’s the geometric patterns?