Before I make my main point, I’d like to take a second and say that photographers have really been embarrassing themselves at the Olympics this week, including one who obliviously wandered onto the track where an active race was taking place, forcing runners to go around him. I am appalled , but not surprised – photographers can be very self-absorbed.

Anyway.

Many photographers own more than their share of lenses. I am one such photographer. I love lenses, especially those from the era in which I was building my skills as a young photojournalist.

I thought about this at a monthly open-mic event I attended this week, to which I brought my Nikkor 85mm f/2.0 lens, a lens I owned in the 1990s, and always regretted selling, then found again on Ebay.

This 85mm is not my main “duty” lens (that honor goes to my autofocus 85mm f/1.8), so I don’t get it out as often as I’d like. When I make a point to throw it into the mix, I am never disappointed.

One of my favorite things about using older, manual-focus lenses is the reassurance that I am still able to actually focus a lens. It’s a skill I am happy to say I still possess, in part because I remember to keep it fresh.

I also love using old, sometimes obscure lenses on mirrorless cameras with adaptors.

Most of my advice about using old lenses starts with the familiar, the 50mm lens. I have something like 12 of these lenses, whether from boxes of junk from garage sales, given to me by someone who never uses them, or on cameras that I put away on the “one of these days” shelf. The classic 50mm lens is very much right-sized in human hands and to the eye, they are cheap and plentiful, and are usually sharp and bright.

And yes, I know I have offered up this challenge before, but my experience using my old prime lenses at the open mic thing this week was just great. So get out your old 50mm, 85mm, 105mm, 135mm, tag me or collar me on the street, and between us and these classic lenses, and I’ll bet we can make some great pictures.