When to use vintage lenses for travel photography?

I’ve talked quite a bit about Vintage glass. Let’s consider you have, or consider getting, a vintage lens. Vintage lenses have flaws, and these flaws may prevent, for instance, a photo to get thorough quality control on photo stock. Where should you use it, and where not?

In summary, if you have only one opportunity to take a photo – use a regular modern lens. But there is more to that… so let’s talk. 

I mainly do travel, events, and street photography. What I write here is my personal opinion, based on my experience, others may think differently.

Why is it important?

The first time I took this question seriously was in Greece. I decided to take a few shots on a vintage lens, when suddenly, I saw a cat, sitting so nicely in front of the authentic district of Anafiotika. I decided to take a picture, and after a few moments, the cat was running away.

The moment was lost forever. I ended up with an artistically-beautiful image, but the target audience for it was limited to my blog and social media. Even it was very well received, especially by the vintage lenses community, couldn’t do much more with it. 

That’s when I started thinking seriously about limiting my use of vintage lenses…

When NOT to photograph on vintage lenses?

Vintage lenses do make your photo stand out, but it comes with compromises. Lenses may have lover resolution, monstrous flare, hard-to-remove vignetting, and unnatural colors. But isn’t it why you use them? No one cares about the resolution on Instagram, lens flare could be an artistic effect, vignetting adds accent to subject in the center, and weird colors make the image stand out. 

If you are in doubt, I recommend listing the effects, may make your image unusable for certain applications. Think about the purpose of your image. If you aim to publish on Instagram or Facebook, then you probably shouldn’t think much. But if you do more with photos – find when the lens doesn’t work and limit the use.

I photograph pretty much everything with modern glass, I mostly use vintage glass for the moments I can easily re-capture. Often, I take a shot with vintage and modern lens and use them for different applications. For instance, the vintage shot goes to social media and modern to a photo stock. 

Recently, I limited my use of vintage glass for street photography. The reason is similar to the cat example. Something may happen really fast, and the moment will be lost forever. Vintage glass is manual, so I may not be able to focus fast enough to capture the moment.

Another issue with vintage glass – images look so different, that they fall out from a series. Even if I don’t have a certain series in mind, the idea may come later. So I nearly always double the shot with modern glass. 

Where you SHOULD use the vintage glass?

I know some photographers, who only do artistic work and use exclusively vintage lenses. They are within their niche, know the special features of vintage glass, and use them to their advantage. 

I know portrait photographers who take pictures with modern and vintage glass in parallel. It gives them a competitive advantage. 

So what about travel photography and me?

Fist of all, I use vintage lenses to shoot old environments, and I normally double the shots with a modern lens. Before switching to a vintage lens, I make sure that things are calm, and nothing would change in the frame.

When I shoot portraits, I like to take a few shots with and a vintage lens as well. People just love how they look. I think if I was seriosly in the portraiture business – I would buy some extra high-quality vintage glass.

Sometimes, when light conditions allow, I shoot non-commercial events on a vintage lens. For instance, in Couchsurfing camps, I take the main body of work on modern glass. And when all the work is done, I take the final relaxed after-party on the vintage. I publish the last (vintage) event separately, and it attracts a lot of attention.

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I mentioned that a vintage image falls out of series, but what if it is your purpose? For example, in a photo story, you give certain facts from the past. You may want to illustrate it with old-looking images to underline the era it belongs to.

What do I carry with me?

I prefer not to carry everything I have with me and usually, I am very selective with the gear. I pick up only the things I need.

First of all, super-tiny Industar 50-2 is always in my bag, just in case I need it. But other than that, I try not to take more than one piece of vintage gear for a photoshoot.

I usually take Helios 44-2, if there I know that vintage portraits are a possibility. In not Helios, I take one of my film cameras or an instant camera.

What about you?

How do you use manage between the modern and vintage glass? What do you carry with you? We have a Facebook group dedicated to Soviet lenses, you are welcome to join.

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I love working on Engineer on tour, but it is a time-consuming thing to make. I am always improving and trying to bring you the best from photography and travel.

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