Nex - 3, Carl Zeiss Jenna 50mm f1.8 m42, Nex firmware v.4

20th June was a nice day for me and my photography journey. Not only I have gotten myself a 'new' lens, but Sony released the new firmware for Nex and SLT series cameras. The new firmware brought along some photo filters and the much awaited 'peaking' function. Peaking helps manual focusing easier with manual lenses. What it does it highlighting the in-focus' area with selectable coloured 'areas', in this case it can be yellow, red or blue. Those with a collection of old, legacy lenses can just get right adapters and enjoy the image quality that comes with it.

I myself have been experimenting with old, manual lenses for quite some time but I'm still unable to determine which lenses to get. I tried m42's Hanimex 58mm f2.8 and the Vivitar 135mm f2.8. Both are good lenses, but somehow I'm still on the edge until...the Carl Zeiss 50mm f1.8 came along. A good friend put this lens for sale, and without any hesitation I quickly closed the deal with him. Lucky me it's a M42 mount and reasonably cheap! Sorry for the photos of my cam, taken with my mobile HTC snapper.




Nice black colour with some brushed metal on the aperture and focus ring.





The new firmware also comes with photo filters; namely Toy, Partial (Blue, Red, Green and Yellow), High Contrast Monochrome, Posterization (BnW and Color), Pop and Retro and High-Key.


Notice the yellow mark in the middle of the screen. This marks the area in focus when peaking is activated.

Time to test out the photo filters with the Carl Zeiss Jenna 50mm f1.8, most of them using f4.


Partial Yellow.


Partial Red.


Partial Green.


Partial Blue.


My car tweets using Toy filter.

A series of photos using four different filters.


Toy.


Pop.


Retro.


High Contrast Monochrome.


Pop. Love the IQ from this lens.