Zoom Lenses and Fountain Pen Auctions

In this episode I discuss my experience with zoom lenses--I prefer primes--and also my experience with buying fountain pens at auction. First, I talk about Sony G-Master zoom lenses, the 16-35mm f2.8 GMII and the 24-70mm f2.8 GMII, both of which I've sold. Then I talk about some zoom lenses for my Fujifilm cameras that I actually love, the GF20-35mm f4 and the GF45-100mm f4 for my GFX cameras and the Sigma 17-40mm f1.8 for X-T5. I've found these Fujifilm zooms and the Sigma zoom especially useful in landscape applications. In the pen portion of the podcast I talk about buying fountain pens at auction, not eBay auctions, but from auction houses such as North American Pen Auctions Ltd. and PBA Galleries. 

Transcript

Speaker 0:01

Hello and welcome back to the Pictures and Pens podcast. I am your host, John. I am known as RevolvingPens on Instagram. And I have a website, again, woefully, woefully on updated website for my photography, primesphotography.com. And that actually is kind of a topic I'm going to discuss first. So I've got two topics today. One is zoom lenses versus primes, or not really, just zoom lenses, I guess. And some specific zoom lenses in particular. And also I have a topic of pen auctions. So in the fountain pen portion of the podcast, the second part of the podcast, we'll be talking about pen auctions. But to kick it off, I want to talk about zoom lenses. Now, zoom lenses are not something that I've been particularly interested in. I've certainly owned several, and maybe more than several, I'm not sure. I mean I have a lot of lenses. It's maybe a sickness buying these lenses. But I, you know, I try to use them all and choose the right lens for the right situation. But the vast majority of my lenses are prime lenses. I like prime lenses for a variety of reasons. One is the optics tend to be superior to those found in zoom lenses. I mean the lens only has to do one thing. It needs to function at one focal length, and that makes the job for the engineer easier, I suppose. And also prime lenses tend to be faster lenses. By that I mean the maximum maximum aperture is very often, or can be, much larger on a prime lens than a zoom lens. So zoom lenses have more optics in them, and making them faster to have mac larger maximum apertures across a range of focal lengths would require lenses to be very large. And people don't want that, right? So the lens still has to be usable and manageable, and it can't be some gigantic diameter. And when you add glass, you add a lot of weight too. So not only would they get long, they give it quite have a large diameter and quite heavy. So the zoom lenses by necessity are a series of compromises. Now what you gain is of several focal lengths in one lens. And not really several, I mean it's continuous. But as it turns out, people tend to use their zoom lenses at the wide end or the telephoto end. So for example, if you have a 24 to 70 millimeter zoom lens, most of the time you'll use the lens at the 24 millimeter or the 70 millimeter end. That's what the industry says. That's how they say people use their zoom lenses. So I think that's kind of interesting. I mean you still get, in essence, two lenses in one, but I do wonder why people sort of skip the nearly infinite uh in intermediate focal lengths. I mean if you had a 24 to 70, why not shoot it 50 millimeters or or 38 or 33.25? Anyway, I mean people do, and I have as well, but apparently it's the majority of the images are at the extremes of the focal lengths. Anyway, so what are some zoom lenses that I've had and what are some that I currently have? So in the relatively recent past, I had a pair of zoom lenses for my Sony system, and that was the Sony FE, which is their designation for a full frame or 35mm equivalent full frame camera, so not an APS C or crowd camera. So uh Sony FE 24 to 70 millimeters F 2.8 GM2 or G Master 2, so the most recent addition of that lens and with the G Master designation, so it's basically the highest quality lens that they can make in that zoom range and at that aperture, so a constant 2.8 aperture across the 24 to 70 millimeters, and I had its basically its um sibling lens, the 16 to 35 millimeter f2.8 GM2 lens. Now I say hat. I don't have those lenses anymore. I did use them a I guess a pretty fair amount for some landscape work and primarily with the A7 CR camera that I have. That is a 61 megapixel camera, it's kind of a a pared-down A7R5. It doesn't have as many dials, it's a little bit less flexible, it only has one SD card slot. You may say it's not a professional camera, but it still has that really high-resolution sensor. But my A7CR is full spectrum modified. So the filter for UV and infrared that goes in front of the sensor has been removed. So my camera is sensitive to the infrared up through the UV, and you I use different filters in place to select the spectrum that I want. So I have filters. Well, I have a U I have UV-only filters, I have infrared only filters with various cutoffs. Anyway, I use the zoom lenses, particularly with that camera, and for a couple of reasons. One is that camera is nice and compact, and especially the 16 to 35 millimeter is a pretty compact lens and a and a good focal range for a lot of landscape work. And not having to switch lenses when I've already got filters in place. That was, you know, I thought that might be useful. And especially because I initially only had filters that went on the lens. And so the two zoom lenses share the filter size. But I have now switched to internal filters, so much smaller filters that go in this holder right in front of the sensor plane. So I don't really need the infrared or whatever filters that go on the lenses, and because you know, lenses come with different diameters, and if you have if you rely on these lenses or filters that go on the lenses, then you have to buy a whole bunch of different diameters of the filters. And the filters that go in front of the sensor plane in a little magnetic holder, well, then you can put any lens on. So if I have an 850 nanometer filter on there, this is letting only in those longer uh infrared wavelengths and blocking everything else, I can just put any lens on there. So in that case, I could switch switch out primes. And um what is a common feature of modern lenses, especially Jeepmaster 2 lenses, is really good optical coatings and very highly optimized optics to deliver sharp visible light spectrum images. So they don't really do a good job of cleanly passing infrared and UV light. And so you can get what are called hot spots, and you can minimize that by adjusting your aperture and kind of mitigating that effect. But I have found that other lenses, in particular vintage lenses, that don't have such excellent corrections for visible light, they tend not to have such big hotspots for full spectrum or infrared imaging. So the images come out a little cleaner. So I actually did something very unusual and I sold those two lenses. I very rarely sell anything, camera lenses, cameras, or or pens for that matter. But so I don't have those two anymore, but they were they're quite good. And there are people who say they're essentially equal in optical quality or image making ability to the prime lenses that are in that focal range. So for example, the 16 to 35, some people would say, well, at 35 millimeters, it there's no difference. If you get a good quality 35mm lens from Sony and that zoom lens at 35 millimeters, you can't tell a difference. Well, that's that's hogwash. The optics in the zoom lenses are can't be as good, and they're not as good, and they're certainly a lot slower lens. So a maximum aperture of f2.8, I have 35mm lenses that have a maximum aperture of 1.2. So it's several stops faster, but it lets in a lot more light and has a lot greater ability to isolate a subject from its background, even at 35 millimeters. So there are still tremendous advantages to using prime lenses. Okay, so I don't have any zoom lenses for the Sony system right now, although I just realized there's a I'm interested in the 28 to 70 millimeter F2. So it's a little bit faster than the other lenses, and it covers a really useful landscape photo or focal length of 28 to 70. So not quite as wide as the other one, it goes 16 to 35, but 28 is you know pretty wide. And 70 is enough, you you know, for a little bit of reach in landscape, and the F2 would help in low light. Now, if you're shooting landscapes, I mean usually stop the lens down to maybe F8, usually that, or you know, F11, F5.6, kind of depends on the light. But you know, because most things are in the distance, you're not worried about isolating a subject out from the background. And if you have enough light, shooting at F8, F11 is no problem. If you go above that to F16, F22, whatever, on a high-resolution camera like my Sony A7CR, A7R5, which is a 61 megapixel camera, the effects of diffraction start setting in a little bit early. You can start noticing it a little bit more with the high-resolution sensors. So I don't usually use the lenses above F11. Anyway, I guess the point is fast apertures don't really make a huge difference in landscape photography. But even so, the prime lenses are still better optically. I mean, almost always. Okay, so I'm I am interested in that 28 to 70. But let's set the Sony system aside. Because I don't have those lenses anymore. And for landscape work, while I do use the Sony system, my workhorse cameras for landscape are my Fujifilm cameras. So the GFX 102, the GFX 100S, these are the high megapixel um digital medium format cameras. And by high megapixel, I mean 100.2 megapixels. These generate very high resolution, very large image files that are just really beautiful, and it has a different um ratio of the sensor. So the 35mm sensor that's in the Sony cameras, so-called full-frame sensor, that's 3x2, but the GFX cameras is 4x3, so it's a taller image and you can get more in frame. Just a lot better for landscape work. And just about anything else, really. I mean, it's a totally amazing camera, the GFX camera. Um also from Fujifilm, I have the XT5. The XT5 is their high-resolution APSC or crop sensor camera. Fujifilm doesn't make a full frame camera. And the sensor on the XT5 is a 40-megapixel sensor, which is a lot less than 60, and it's a lot less than the GFX 100.2, but it's still a lot. And on a sensor that size, if it was the equivalent of the full frame, it would have the pixel density of a 90 megapixel sensor. So this camera is a high-resolution imaging device and places tremendous strain on any optics that you throw it on. And most of the lens manufacturers have not really invested super heavily in very high-quality optics for the APSC system. And that sensor will expose any lens that isn't up to snuff. And for that camera, I have a really cool uh Sigma lens that is a zoom lens. That Sigma lens is a 17 to 40 millimeter F 1.8. It's a relatively new lens, it's totally fantastic optically, and it has a pretty useful focal range for landscape work. Now, 17 millimeters on a crop sensor camera is not as wide a view as 17 on full frame, 35 millimeter, or certainly on medium format, but it would be equivalent, let's think here, on that sensor. I guess it's about 23 millimeters, and then at the long end, it becomes about 60 millimeters, so about 23 to 60 millimeters-ish at a maximum aperture of f1.8, and you have to adjust for the crop factor again. So it's more like a 2.5, something like that, in terms of subject isolation, but it still lets in a lot of light. So again, for landscape work, I'm not super you know needing subject isolation. But if the light is low, I'm certainly more than happy to have that fast maximum aperture and light gathering ability. And it's it's you know one of the newest lenses, it's surprisingly affordable, it's just an incredible lens on the XT5. So that actually that lens on that camera got me interested in zoom lenses for the GFX camera system. I have a lot of lenses for a GFX camera, both Fujifilm and third-party, like Lawa. Also, I adapt older 645 Mammia 645 lenses and other lenses to the camera. And so I just have a ton of prime lenses for the GFX. The only zoom lens that I ever used on the GFX was an older Pentax 645 150 to 300 millimeter, and that's like a f5.6, and uh that lens is you know uh doesn't have a ton of light gathering ability, but it it's pretty sharp for an older zoom lens, and it has some you know character, and I kind of like the render from it, but it's not you know up to modern standards, and the 100 megapixel sensor on the GFX is extraordinarily demanding. So, in any case, having only prime lenses for that system, I wasn't really super interested in the zoom lenses, but again, the 17 to 40 Sigma for the XT5, the the crop sensor Fuji camera made me think about the zoom lenses for the the GFX. The other thing that made me think about it was in landscape, and especially if I have to trek anywhere, and also if the weather is inclement, then I don't really like to be switching lenses. And I've been some places recently where there could be a lot of dust, and also I I want to get in and out as easily as possible, and sometimes the terrain is rough and the um vegetation dense, and the and the footing is uncertain. So this is a heavy camera system. Uh, having a bunch of primes in a backpack gets pr pretty heavy, and so the first lens I picked up in the zoom for the GFX was the 45 to 100 millimeter f4. So, in full frame equivalent, that's 35.55, let's say 36 millimeters to 79 millimeters because the crop factor or the adjustment factor for the bigger sensor is 0.79. Anyway, that lens is f4 maximum aperture, which puts it right in line with a lot of the prime lenses. These medium format cameras, they they tend not to have super fast lenses. You know, an f1.7 would be pretty fast on that on that camera system, and that's a big lens. So 55 I have the 55mm f/1.7. That's a big lens just by itself. And you know, if if you wanted to go faster, it the lenses would get on very unvery unwieldy very quickly. I have some lenses from Miticon that uh let's say, for example, the 85, let's say 85 1.2, it doesn't have autofocus, and that saves some of the size that would otherwise exist on a lens. And it certainly isn't optically perfect, which also I'm sure came in and trying to keep the size of the lens down and the cost too. I mean, it's pretty affordable lens, but any case, if Fujifilm made a f1.285 millimeter for the GFX, it'd be huge. Okay, uh anyway, the 45 to 100 millimeter, it's a big lens, but at f4 maximum aperture, it's not huge, surprisingly, and the image quality at landscape distances, or really any distance, I guess, but uh at aperture, especially at apertures that I would use for landscape, like f8, f5.6, sometimes f11, that lens is unbelievable across the focal length range. I mean, it's made for the GFX system, it's made to resolve a 100 megapixel camera with you know good contrast, microcontrast, flare resistance, etc. I'd say where it falls down a little bit is you know, if you weren't using in-camera corrections for the lens profile, which you know the it's a first-party lens, it's Fujifilm lens, it talks electronically to the camera body. So it's accounting for the distortions that occur, especially at the extremes of the focal links. So if it wasn't for that, I mean it would probably not be awesome. But that goes the same for the Sony system as well. It's internally correcting for the distortions that naturally come with that kind of lens system. And these days, actually, when you when I really look at it, is a lot of the lenses that are even fast, like fast primes, are shrinking in size. And they're doing that by having compromised optics and digital corrections based on profiling the optics of the lens. So we're in a in an era where digital corrections are necessary and expected in indeed. But even without the digital corrections, I've seen tests of the 45 to 100 and pretty incredible lens, even without the digital corrections. But with that on, it's just almost I will say it's almost indistinguishable from using a prime. So one of my favorite landscape prime lenses for the GFX system is the 45mm F2.8. So it that's a faster lens than uh the this F4 zoom. It's incredible. I mean, just the colors, the resolution, contrast, microcontrast, whatever, however you want to look at it, that lens is optically incredible. At the 45mm, the zoomed out end of the 45 to 100 zoom lens, it's it is almost as good. Is it as good? No. But especially when I'm trekking with it and hiking it in somewhere, um uh it's worth a trade-off, especially to not be you know changing lenses as often. So on the strength of this 45 to 100 millimeter lens for the GFX, I picked up the so I that look that 45 to 100, I got that pre-owned. I mean it seemed barely used, but who knows? Maybe it was used heavily, but cosmetically it was amazing and optically it was fine. So I saved some money on that, which is cool, especially since I was just sort of testing it out, deeping my toe in the water, as it were. But based on the strength of that lens, I bought on sale because right now Fujifilm is running a sale on a lot of their lenses. I picked up the 20 to 35 F4, and so that lens in a full frame equivalent is fit is 16 to 28 millimeters. So really good, again, that's a really good and useful focal range for landscapes. And the minimum focus minimum focusing distance is also pretty good, and it might make some for some interesting portrait work if I really did that work very often. But you know, maybe my daughter will model for it sometime someday. Uh just say daddy wants to do a lens test, and um, sometimes she's game. Anyway, I really like that lens as well. I don't have as much experience with it because I've only had it about a week, but now I have two lenses that are replacing. I would bring normally on landscape uh the 23, the 45, maybe the 55, uh, also either the 100 or the 120 millimeter lens, and then maybe a variety of MAMI uh 645 lenses as well. The 80 millimeter f1.9 is incredible for landscapes, just nuts. And so is the 35mm. Look, I'm getting excited about these primes. I'm far more interested in the primes, and but the zooms have really uh have a unique purpose for me, especially when I, again, I'm hiking into someplace, rough terrain, inclement conditions, not changing lenses often, and exposing the sensor and the glass and the risk of dropping lenses and all kinds of things. The zoom lenses, I now, at least for the GFX, I'm much happier with the with the quality of the zoom lenses on the GFX system, even with the tremendously demanding sensor, than it was with the zoom lenses on the Sony system. I just don't, no matter what people say, they are not the same as Primes on the Sony system. There is a new very like just today, I saw there's a new Sony Zoom, telephoto zoom 100 to 400 F4.5. That lens actually looks awesome. The sample images I've seen in the you know lens testing and test charts and all that stuff that people have done so far, that lens legitimately looks amazing. I don't think I'll be replacing my Sigma 200mm or my Sony 300 millimeter. These are these are faster lenses and practically optically perfect in anyway. But that 100 to 400 does look cool. Okay. So if if you came for photography and that's it, you're done. Thank you so much for listening. If you came for uh fountain pens and stationary, well, not stationary, fountain pens, now's your time. If you've come for both, you know, I appreciate you keep listening. So the topic in pens, and fountain pens in particular, are pen auctions. So recently there was the North American Pens Auctions Limited or that Nap Pens, Napa, or Nap Pens Auctions.com. This is a Canadian outfit based in Toronto, and the 2026 Spring Writing Instrument Auction Auction just ended on May 9th. I had eight bids, and I can click on this and tell you the bids I had in. I bid on the Pelican M101N bright red marble fountain pen. I have a lot of the other M101N pens. Wow, that's a mouthful. M101N. And these are the modern recreations, not vintage ones. But I don't have that model. I was mildly interested in it. I had kind of a low bid. It sold for 450 Canadian dollars, not including buyer's premium, which is not insignificant. I bid on the Pelican M650 Verme 925 cap green striated fountain pen. I did not win that pen either. I bid on the Pelican 710 Toledo Sterling Silver. This is a pen with a hand-engraved sterling silver. Well, they call it a bind, but the barrel of the pen is hand-engraved. I really like the Toledo pens. But I was only mildly interested in the 710 size, so I you know I got out bit pretty easily on that. I did win the Pelican M910 Toledo Sterling Silver pen. So this is just a bigger version of that 710. And I have all the other available Toledo pens. So I have the white one, the red one, the yellow one, the black and vermey one, but this one is it's just one I didn't have. And so I I bit a you know, reasonable price on that pen, and I I won it. That was 1300 Canadian dollars. Really edging up to where I probably should have bought it elsewhere, honestly. This is what kind of what happens in an auction. Um, sometimes you get things for a good price, and sometimes you just would have been better off going to eBay. I bid on a pilot double flying cranes Sokaku Hira Maki fountain pen. This is an older makie pen from Pilot. I didn't really know too much about it, so I didn't bid that much and I did not win that pen. I bid on the Pilot Namiki Yukari Autumn Leaves and Pavilion. I really like that pen, but it's a Yukari sized pen. I don't gravitate. It's a you know a smaller size pen, well, compared to the Ukari Royale and the and the Emperor anyway. It's just a slender full-size pen. But the artwork on it's really good, and I put in a good bid for it, but it went it went pretty high. It went at $3,200 Canadian dollars. I I think I don't know that that's too high for auction, but that pen can be had new, and you can get a discount. Uh it's just too close to what it can be had for new. Then I bid on the AGJ. And I'm this is uh an outfit in Japan that you know I I'm not super familiar with with them, but it had a really cool makye, high-end dynasty on a Kaler Sing Sailor King of Pen. And I put in a pretty good bid for that. And that's the only one I really wanted out of this lot, and I did not get it. So somebody outbid me. And that's another thing that can happen. I mean, pens that some collector, and there's always a collector more well healed and better financed than you, uh, and you get your heart kind of set on winning a pen, and you put in a bid that you think is a stretch, and then someone comes along and outbids you. And that's what happened here. But I also bid on the Sailor Kaga Takamaki and Sansui or Landscape design macchie pen. Also a bit of an older pen, um, something you just don't see these days. And I I won that one actually for 1700 Canadian. And I I'm thinking that's actually probably a good price for that pen, and something super unusual. Anyway, so look, these pen option auctions are interesting. They come up, and there's another outfit that does the pen auctions. And I'm I'm blinking on it right now. I know this isn't good podcasting, but there's at least two sites that do pen auctions, but there's also the big names do pen auctions. So bonhoms will have pens sometimes. And you know, the big name auction house like that. Really? Are you gonna get a good price for anything? Probably not. And then you have to consider the the buyer's premium, or basically what you're paying the auction house, and that can be 50% of the purchase price. That you know, you you don't get pens for free in these auctions. And even if you think you got a good price on something, by the time you get the buyer's premium and the shipping, you might just be like, What why did I bother? You know, again, why not just go to eBay or go to a pen show and track something down? But you know, it's kind of fun to participate in an auction, I guess. And sometimes things come up that maybe you're looking for for a while or had in the back of your mind, and then and there it is. And how do these auction sites differ from eBay, which is also often an auction, or name your own price? Well, I guess you're you're paying for the trust, right? So theoretically, anyway, these are ethically acquired pens that have been vetted by someone for their condition and the description that exists for the pen. So let's click on one of these that I won. So this M910 Toledo description is um M910 Toledo. Again, this is an M800 size pen with a strong silver pint, with box, outer box, and papers from circa 1993 to 1997. Now that I that's not very specific, but I think that's the production time of this particular pen. So first generation 1990s pen, Pelican uh M910 Toledo with two-tone medium nib. Would have been happier if that was a double broad nib, but these are probably only sold in mediums. And so overall excellent condition. And so I think you know, with the premium here for these auction sites, theoretically, you're you're paying for this description to be true. That is your penalty for the buyer's premium. You're certainly not paying for alacrity in shipping. You I don't know when this stuff's gonna ship. Uh it's been almost a week since the auction ended. An eBay seller would have shipped already. Well, usually. Like I said, I I bid on eight pens. I won two. I I couldn't be present for the live portion of it. I I have a life to live, even though I I could have done on my phone, I just put in bids, and I put in as much as I was willing to pay. And in some cases, I increased that as people would bid. You know, it was first posted two months ago. I I'm not sure. And I waited a while before I even decided to participate, and I certainly ran the risk of winning all eight pens, which is something I didn't really want to do, because that would have that would have really added up. Even Canadian dollars. Eh? I would have been a real hoser for winning all eight pens. And it wouldn't have felt like a win. It would have felt like kicking myself for bidding too high and winning all of the pens. Now it's also I guess it's also possible that very few people participated and no one cared about the pens that I wanted to buy. But that's not what happened here. Luckily, six out of the eight were lost to me, except for the one I really wanted. There was some looked like some really nice Machia on it, and from a company I've been wanting to see what their quality was like. Anyway, I don't know if you've ever participated in a pen auction or even knew they existed, but they do. And they come up maybe once or twice a year, sometimes more. And yeah, you know, it'd be kind of fun, you know, participate in it once, see how you like the experience. I would venture to guess that your experience will mirror mine, which is part asking yourself why on earth you bothered with this, and then part happiness that you know you want a pen that you're more interested in, and especially having some confidence that the description will actually match what you what comes in the mail. And so there you have it. That's the fountain pen discussion I had for today. I will mention one other thing, I guess, and that is a pen that I got recently, that I posted on Instagram recently. This is the Sailor King of Pen Limited Edition Tale of Genji Chugusuma. This is an incredible Machiaven. Go to Revolving Pens on Instagram and take a look at it. I've also posted on multiple forums on Facebook, uh Fountain Pen Network, Fountain Pens, the Rushi Collectors Group, this same pen. A very lyrical Machiav, uh beautifully done by a female artist, and a nib that's b beyond compare. It has a Nogginata Grind, but our cru a cross point nib. So this is a stack nib made by uh Nakahara himself. So it's an older pen. Maybe from the I'm not sure when it was made. Let's just say late 2010s. Uh limited edition of I think 50 pens. So in some people's mind, a proper edging towards a proper limited edition number. But just very beautiful. And it it this could it could legitimately be a one and done pen collection, in my estimation. Just a magical nib, beautiful artwork, and a very practical everyday writer. Okay. Well, thanks so much for joining me for this fourth edition of the Pictures and Pen podcast, where we talked about zoom lenses and my surprising love, near love, strong like for, and enjoyment of GFX, Fujifilm GFX, GF Zoom lenses, my less than enamored uh brief, relatively brief stint with Sony zoom lenses, and then uh fountain pen auctions. So anyway, I really appreciate you tuning in, and I hope you have a good day.