Flare

Now this is flare in a lens!

approx. f4 @ 1/60 sec., Kodak GT 800
handheld - and it shows

I shot this while testing a new camera and lens that I was playing with, a Kiev 19M and a Sakar 28-80mm f3.4-4.5 macro lens. I thought this might have been a nice inexpensive setup (courtesy of ebay and the Ukraine), more on this some other time. In all fairness, I did not have a lens hood that fit so I shot without one. I was under a canopy of trees and the lights were very high up. I was hoping to get some protection from flare with this and anyway, the lights were way, way up there in the sky. Well, it did not work too well but I did learn that it is better to shoot with my f1.4 lens along with a good lens hood, a monopod and then to enlarge the section of film that is of interest. With the lens wide open I could probably get away without the monopod. Unfortunately, there is no inexpensive zoom that can come close to matching the resolution and correction of a prime lens plus all those elements and groups add to flare and reduce contrast. I probably would not use the Kiev either.

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