Chuck the Writer tests out his new lens

Flash back a couple of weeks. When I was working as an extra on that SALT movie, I met another extra – a college student from RPI. We talked for a little while, she said she was getting rid of some of her photography equipment – including a very large lens that she couldn’t use any more. I offered to buy it from her, and came into possession of a 1970’s era Nikon Zoom-NIKKOR 50-300 f/4.5 manual focus telephoto lens.

Despite its age, the lens looked good – and I was about to take it out for a test run when I looked inside the lens and saw a copious amount of dust and gunk inside the lens elements. This would have made any shot I took look like it was photographed through a marshland.

So I took the lens over to my camera tech at Cameraworks, a Latham-based photography repair shop. Guy does great work. A few days later, I was able to acquire my new lens and took it out for a test run.

This Friday morning, just before work, I took the lens down to Albany’s Broadway area and used the telephoto lens to snap various building facades, including the one you see here. I also took it out to a little league game Thursday night (after making sure I cleared using the camera with the little league operators so that nobody would assume nefarious use), and discovered that although the lens is decent for long-distance telephoto work, it’s not fast enough to handle sports photography. So if I’m shooting nature or architecture, it can come with me; other than that, it’s staying home.

I’ll see what this lens can do this evening, as well as maybe some shots tomorrow.