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Lens: Chinon 55mm f/1.4. Camera: Camera: Fujifilm X-E1.

Lens: Chinon 55mm f/1.4. Camera: Camera: Fujifilm X-E1.

Camera: Fujifilm X-E1. Lens: Fujinon 35mm f/1.4 XF R.

Camera: Fujifilm X-E1. Lens: Fujinon 35mm f/1.4 XF R.

Camera: Fujifilm X-E1. Lens: Fujinon 35mm f/1.4 XF R.

Camera: Fujifilm X-E1. Lens: Fujinon 35mm f/1.4 XF R.

It looks better from behind. Camera: Fujifilm X-E1. Lens: Fujinon 35mm f/1.4 XF R.

Free enterprise flourishes in the streets. Camera: Fujifilm X-E1. Lens: Fujinon 35mm f/1.4 XF R.

Photographed using a Fujinon 55mm f/2.2 lens in M42 screw mount on a Fujifilm X-E1 camera via an adapter.

It was a crap photograph but with possibilities. The copy of a copy of a copy route was entertained, but instead I processed the image very thoroughly. There comes a point in the processing mayhem where it is still crap, but as far as it is going to get from crap before it begins a return journey to Crap Central. I think I might have started the return leg. I know it's on the wrong axis. I like it that way. It disguises how completely crap it really is. The lens was a £10 Cosina Cosinon 135mm f/2.8. The filter was a dirty window. The softening was provided by light but persistent drizzle. The black-and-white treatment is simulated Tri-X 400 ISO. There are two frames because I like fake presentation to rejoice in duplicate. Camera: Camera: Fujifilm X-E1.

Lens: Cosina Cosinon 135mm f/2.8. M42 mount, This photographer identifies it as better on digital than on film by some margin, and speculates why that might be: 35hunter.blog/2017/02/11/with-eyes-reborn It cost me £10 on eBay. The adapter was twice that! Camera: Fujifilm X-E1.

Outer space. Camera: Fujifilm X-E1. Lens: Helios 58mm f/2.

Lens: M42 Chinon 55mm f1.4. Made by Tomioka. Camera: Fujifilm X-E1.

Photographed using one of the relatively early Helios-44 lenses, a preset with unusual positioning of the aperture ring at the front and a scalloped focussing ring close to the camera end. The filter ring is 49mm and there are 13 aperture blades. When I bought it on eBay it was screwed into a Zenit-E. The logo engraved at the front reveals it was manufactured by the KMZ company. It is quite good, if a bit counter intuitive in use. It was a more up-to-date auto version of this lens that was on my first SLR, a Zenit-EM. I don't think I realised at that time just what a special optic I had. I have been reading a blog about the Helios-44 used in combination with a Fuji-X camera - www.sharkandpalm.com/photography-tips/walking-through-washington-heights-on-a-rainy-afternoon The writer enthuses about ‘the gorgeous lo-fi bokeh the Helios 44-4 offers wide open’ and remarks ‘Something I understand more every time I shoot with this lens is the limits of it's sharpness. Even when focus is spot-on, a subject on the edge of the frame hazes and blurs out of focus.’ He is surprised ‘that this cheap vintage glass can perform so well for architectural and landscape shots!’ In a blog reviewing the Helios-44 at www.sharkandpalm.com/camera-reviews/helios-44-4-lens-review-swirly-bokeh-for-portraits he opines that ‘for $30’ it is ‘one of the best portrait lenses for a mirrorless body you can find.’ Regarding the ‘Helios 44-4's Swirly Bokeh’ he finds that, ‘Funnily enough, this optical quality was also considered an engineering defect: newer versions of the Helios lens phased it out. The Helios 44-4, being one of the earliest models, exhibits some of the most dramatic swirly bokeh.’ Camera: Fujifilm X-E1.

This is the Fujinon 55mm f/2.2 lens which came with my Fujica ST605 bought in practically new condition from an eBay seller for £5. Photographed with a Helios-44 lens also bought for a song on eBay. Camera: Camera: Fujifilm X-E1.

Photographed with a Fujinon 55mm f/2.2 lens. Camera: Fujifilm X-E1.

During June, 2017, I visited Lacock Abbey to try out a few old M42 screw-mount lenses on a Canon EOS 40D DSLR. I got some nice pictures of bees and insects feasting on the flowers in the garden, and an especially satisfactory result photographing a lavender bush using a Cosinon 135mm telephoto in the abbey yard - the place where Fox Talbot did his photo of a fellow up a ladder. Later I took a walk around the inside of the big house built on top of the abbey, just to prolong the visit really. And from an upstairs window I observed a party of girls arriving under the supervision of a harrassed-looking teacher-type of woman. They were probably there for the Harry Potter experience in the cloisters, because that was where they were about to enter. I had a Chinon 55mm f/1.4 on the camera and clearly no time to change it, so I shot a few speculative shots of the melee beneath the upstairs window. I might have done better with a longer focal length, but as it turned out one of these pictures included this girl swerving in a right angle to enter the cloisters. She had the perfect expression of a young person in high spirits on a summer outing, bringing back all sorts of buried memories of joy and freedom.

She had a small white dog on a lead but strangely the picture works better with an inspection cover instead.