Mount Usher Gardens

DaireQuinlan

I was down in Mount Usher Gardens sunday last, the first gloriously sunny day we've had so far. Haven't been down there in years, I heartily recommend peeps get down there with their cameras in tow if you're at all of the horticultural bent. Didn't have a WA with me so I confined myself to the plants for the most part.

Here are a few, some others in the Mount Usher Gardens set, including a couple I had on the HBW thread earlier on ...






Some parts of the gardens are, unfortunately, private ...


Thoroughly enjoyed by all, even if the day was a little bit too much for some people ...


Linky here to google maps, its down in Ashford, Wicklow.

cps_goodbuy

were these taken with a helios 40?

DaireQuinlan

cps_goodbuy wrote: »

were these taken with a helios 40?

Actually a Helios 44. Its a 58mm f/2 as opposed to the 40's 85mm f/1.5. Its soft wide open (although nowhere near as bad as the the 40) and has this signature swirl in the OOF areas. I overdid it for a week or two

Its a lovely portrait lens though. Maybe a smidgeon too short for most peoples tastes, but I've always preferred portraits taken with a shorter FL than normal. Gives them a little more character IMO

elven

Loved that place when we visited a few months ago - must go back now everything's in bloom. The muted colours and shallow depth of field are just yummy in those shots of yours.

Fajitas!

Some lovely shots there alright, the first and third in particular! I picked up a Helios 44 myself there, must see if I can pop it onto the 5D mkII body and see what happens with it... I've a roll of film getting dev'd at the moment from it.

cps_goodbuy

so the other helios' have the swirl effect??!

must pick one up so *counts pennies*

58mm is actually be pretty fine on a crop sensor I feel for portraits



I'd love a Helios 40-2 Export... anyone out there selling?

cps_goodbuy

btw, which helios 44 were you using? thanks

DaireQuinlan

elven wrote: »

Loved that place when we visited a few months ago - must go back now everything's in bloom. The muted colours and shallow depth of field are just yummy in those shots of yours.

It has a really distinctive look all right. I don't think my 50 f/1.8 would even look like this. I actually think its because the bokeh is really technically BAD. So the OOF areas get smeared across but with really well defined edges, makes them look almost cartoony or something.

Fajitas! wrote: »

Some lovely shots there alright, the first and third in particular! I picked up a Helios 44 myself there, must see if I can pop it onto the 5D mkII body and see what happens with it... I've a roll of film getting dev'd at the moment from it.

Do you get infinity focus on the canon ? Thats the one problem mounting this on a nikon body. I have a couple of shots sitting in the camera at the moment taken of stuff thats enTIRELY out of focus. Just to see what happens. You can get an adapter for the F-mount which enables infinity focus but its got optical bits and bobs and so is either cheap and crap, or expensive and good. I was on a cheap vibe when I bought it so I just got the crummy mount only adapter for about €5.

cps_goodbuy wrote: »

btw, which helios 44 were you using? thanks

I think its the 44-2. Looks wise I think they're all more or less the same. Round about the 44-4 they started being called the 44m. AFAIK this means that they're multicoated. They're up to version 7 at the moment which is still being made new somewhere. There's also a version of the original 44 which was made for the m-39 mount which you probably don't want to get if you have an m-42 adapter.

Fajitas!

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

Do you get infinity focus on the canon ? Thats the one problem mounting this on a nikon body. I have a couple of shots sitting in the camera at the moment taken of stuff thats enTIRELY out of focus. Just to see what happens. You can get an adapter for the F-mount which enables infinity focus but its got optical bits and bobs and so is either cheap and crap, or expensive and good. I was on a cheap vibe when I bought it so I just got the crummy mount only adapter for about €5.

I probably won't - Again, buying mounts with glass in - which brings up the cost... To be honest, the rare few times I shoot at infinity, I wouldn't mind not having it on the Helios - I've a 50mm 1.4 in the bag if needs be

DaireQuinlan

Fajitas! wrote: »

To be honest, the rare few times I shoot at infinity, I wouldn't mind not having it on the Helios

welllll, by 'inifinity' I mean anything further away than about 2 or 3 metres. This can be a little troublesome sometimes :rolleyes:

You should be okay with a cheapo mount adapter though. Just did a quick google, apparently the register distance of the m42 mount is bigger than the Canon mount register distance, so the lens should mount and focus all the way to infinity.

Fajitas!

Aha, nice one. Aye, one of the benefits of the Canon mount is it's wider than anything else out there, so most other lenses can be mounted onto it. (A friend of mine is currently getting a Zeiss 400mm converted over for his 5D - including autofocus and auto-stopdown).