75mm f/1.7 lens with no iris...

[rpcrowe]

The Night Hawk lens is designed for surveillance cameras but at 75mm (112.4mm equivalent focal length) and with an f.1.7 aperture, it is a nice combination for portraiture on a crop sensor camera. But, will it be sharp enough



I suspect that it will be and that it will produce a sharp but, somewhat diffused (there is a difference between diffused and fuzzy) rendition that should be flattering to real-life female subjects

The total price of $46 (USD) with an additional $8 (USD) cost for a M42 to Sony E-mount adapter is pretty darn inexpensive for a viable lens.

I need to get an adapter ring to fit one of my neutral density filters before I can work with this lens outside. My calculation is that I would be shooting at 1/6000 - 1/7000 second using ISO 100.

I digress for a moment: I know that a mega-gazillion ISO capability sells cameras but, I would love to have an ISO as low as ISO 25 for still shooting. It would be great for capturing imagery at extreme wide apertures, slowing moving water and for fill flash using the minimum of HSS

The lack of iris is no problem since I plan to shoot this lens wide open all the time...

At the risk of being redundant, the Sony A6500 is a great platform for these manual focus, non-IS lenses. Focus peaking and IBIS really is great!

I will, of course, include a WhiBal card so the white balance of my portraits can be corrected if needed...

Here's a shot I did in the evening light. The bokeh is pretty pleasing to me...



I am going to do a series of shots using this lens, the 68mm Helios, my 50mm OSS Sony, the 28-70mm OSS Sony and my 70-200mm f.4L IS lens...