Toronto Camera Show - September 2014

Went to the Toronto Camerama Camera Show today, which is basically a used photographic equipment flea market.  There are few of these shows each year with most of it near the end of the year. The show changed venue again but still hosted in a hotel, and it was just as crowded and difficult to move around as the last show.

I was hoping to find some interesting German glass to play with, but no luck, and ended up with half dozen Japanese lenses. Nothing against Japanese lenses, but they are just too common. Scored a Canon FD 35mm f2 S.S.C for a very good deal ($40), and I found out that this version is different than the one I already have. This one has a more normal convex front element, whereas the one I have been using has a concave front element, and very yellow, an indication that it might use radioactive elements in the glass. Will be interesting to see which is better.

FD 35mm f2 SSC Twins - the one I got today is on the left.

From the fun department, got a couple of Wollensak 75mm f4.5 enlarging Raptar lenses and a Commercial-Astragon from Russell, who owned a camera repair business before. I tried one of the Wollensaks today and it's very sharp wide open, as expected from an enlarging lens. I love the Wollensak lenses! The large format 210mm f6.3 lens, which has a German shutter but Japaness glass. I do look forward to trying it out but it will look huge when the lens barrel and focus helicoid and a hood is added.  $35 for the trio. So much fun for so little :)

Wollensak 75mm f4.5 enlarging lens and a large format 210mm lens from Russell.

I did find something that I wanted; a Kodak Retina with a Schneider-Kreuznach 50mm f2 Xenon lens, though I was hoping for a later version.  I was happy to have found this one relatively cheap at $50. The winder does not work. I have full intention to remove the lens from the camera, but now I am hesitating because the camera is so beautifully made and in great shape. Maybe I will leave it the way it is.  Got enough lenses to play with anyway :)

The original Kodak Retina with Schneider 50mm f2 Xenon lens.

Another trio of lenses belong to the Takumar family.  I started my manual focus lenses with Takumars on the digital camera and they always have a spot in my heart, as my first SLR was a Pentax Program Plus :)  I have owned the Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 135mm f2.5 and the radioactive 50mm f1.4 before and they are very fine lenses. I didn't intent to buy them again, but the price seem reasonable (all three of them are $40 each). You will notice the 135/2.5 has a "huge" scratch on the front element. That's why it's so cheap and seemingly nobody wanted it. But from my shooting experience, and I had used lenses with worse glass condition but with pictures turned out fine, I bought it, because I know there won't be a noticeable effect, if any, and it came with original hood and case. Now I have two copies of the 105mm f2.8, but that's ok, it's an investment, like I have been telling my wife :).  Lots of people prefer the radioactive version of the Takumar 50mm f1.4 over other versions. I guess it's because the use of thorium in the glass usually makes the lens sharper? I don't know, but I know I won't be using often,

S-M-C 135mm f2.5, Super Takumar 105mm f2.8 and the radioactive 50mm f1.4.

There are couple more lenses I got from the show: Nikkor 105mm f2.5, non-AI version, which is in great shape but has some dust at the rear elements. Not enough to be concerned about. And the last lens is a Kiron 28mm f2 in OM mount.  I already have a few of these in various mounts. But I pick them up when it's cheap.

Another show next month, but I hope I will find something more interesting.

Some Images from my Favourite Wollensak 209mm f4.5 Raptar Copy Lens

The Wollensak 209mm f4.5 Raptar Copy Lens is one of my favourites enlarging/copy lenses.  The bokeh is pleasing, silky, and beautiful. Image quality is exceptionally good even wide open at f4.5.  I used to have a problem with it having hazy, white spot in the middle of the image, and it has been resolved by a foot-long hood.  The whole lens is about two feet long with the hood.  Looks very imposing, but works wonderfully.  I added a helicoid to the lens barrel to make it focus closer.  Here is how my first version of the lens look like.  Works nicely on full frame.

All pictures below were taken wide open at f4.5.

Curiosity - Sony A7 & Wollensak 209mm f4.5 Raptar Copy Lens. click for larger.

White Fence - Sony A7 & Wollensak 209mm f4.5 Raptar Copy Lens. click for larger.

Transformation - Sony A7 & Wollensak 209mm f4.5 Raptar Copy Lens. click for larger.

Dance of the Colours - Sony A7 & Wollensak 209mm f4.5 Raptar Copy Lens. click for larger.

More Bokeh - Sony A7 & Wollensak 209mm f4.5 Raptar Copy Lens.

Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f2 Silver [M42]

I have two versions of this lens, the original 5.8cm f2 in Exakta mount, which I covered here, and here, is smaller than the silver, M42 version, which I had a couple of sample images here. Not really sure why, but I have been shooting with Carl Zeiss Jena lenses for the last couple of weeks, spending most of my lunch hours at the Toronto Music Garden.

The Biotar 58mm f2 is a wonder lens with silky, exquisite bokeh.  All the pictures below were shot to showcase how nice the bokeh of the Biotar is.

Pretty In Pink - Sony A7 & Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f2. Click for larger.

Busy Bee - Sony A7 & Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f2. Click for larger.

Young Leaves - Sony A7 & Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f2.

Bokeh - Sony A7 & Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f2.

Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f2 with Cousins. click for larger

My Thought on the new Canon 7D Mark II

I briefly owned the original Canon 7D.  It was great camera for action, but unfortunately the image quality let me down and eventually I got rid of it, and replaced with the Canon 1D III. The new 7D Mark II looks like an impressive upgrade for the 7D.  The auto focus system seems to be greatly improved, and of course, that is one of the most important features for the camera of this kind. I think it's a worthwhile upgrade and will make a lot of Canon users happy.

Even though I don't use the 1D III all that much, but I can't help by thinking that maybe it's time to do the reverse; replace the 1D III with the 7D II.  Crazy, no?  One thing I am not too convinced is the image quality from the 7D II.  The sample images look impressive, but it's out of camera jpeg; what it looks like from RAW is still remains to be seen.

I am sure some people will complain about this camera without 4K video, but I don't believe this camera is aimed at the video segment. I just hope that the sensor will be much improved from the original 7D.

Afternoon reading -- Sony A7 & Voigtlander Velostigmat 10.5cm f4.5.

For the Love of Pancolar

I have been checking out some of the pictures taken by Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolars on Flickr, and that re-ignited my love for the pancolars. The last few days I was shooting with both the Pancolar 50mm f2 and the 80mm f1.8. For some reason, I like the rendering style of the Pancolar 50mm f2 better than the 80mm f1.8. The 50/2 has more distinctive rendering and is very sharp when stopped down just a bit. I wanted to get the 50mm f1.8 Pancolar for the last few years but that proved to be an illusive lens. There are couple of camera shows coming up so hopefully I will find one there, if not too expensive :)

Dreamy Yellow - Sony A7 & Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f2. Click for larger.

Empire Sandy - Sony A7 & Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f2. Click for larger.

Bokeh - Sony A7 & Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 80mm f1.8. Click for larger.

Monarch Butterfly - Sony A7 & Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 80mm f1.8. Click for larger.

Faded Beauty - Sony A7 & Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f2.

Kodak Anastar 44mm f3.5 [Pony IV]

Last time we looked at the very old Kodak lens from the Premonette, today we take a look at the more recent Anastar 44mm f3.5, taken from the broken Pony IV 35mm camera, circa mid 1960s. Making this lens work on the A7 proved to be troublesome, but I did it at the end, by mounting it on a very thin 12-17mm focusing helicoid. The lens itself has a focusing ring, though the minimum focus distance is rather long at 2.5 feet. By using both the focusing ring on the lens and the helicoid, the lens can focus pretty close, but there is a caveat for this configuration.

Kodak Anastar 44mm f3.5 mounted on its original lens board. Click for larger.

This lens needs to be set at infinity when using the helicoid to focus, for anything other than close up. That's because the edges are very soft when the lens is not set to infinity focus, even when stopped way down.  The picture below is an example.  The aperture is around f8, but you can see the edges are very soft.  If the lens was set to infinity, the edges are quite respectable. In a way, it's a nice effect for some kind of pictures where the blurry edges actually makes the subject in the centre stand out more.  The second last picture is an example when the lens is set to infinity focus, but focused by the helicoid.

Captain John's - Sony A7 & Kodak Anastar 44mm f3.5. Click for larger.

Boats and Kayaks - Sony A7 & Kodak Anastar 44mm f3.5. Click for larger.

For the age of the lens, it's optically quite good, and when stopped down, even the long edges are very acceptable. One of the attributes I like very much, is the interesting bokeh this lens creates. It's very different than most lenses I have used. I must say I am a little surprised, that this lens kind of exceeded my expectations, and that's not a bad thing at all :)

The rocks - Sony A7 & Kodak Anastar 44mm f3.5.

Bokeh - Sony A7 & Kodak Anastar 44mm f3.5.

Shooting with a 100-Year-Old Lens

The 100-year-old lens was removed from a damaged Kodak Premonette Jr, made in 1913. It took me a little while to find the parts to mount it on my Sony A7 and went out for a shoot.

This lens is very tiny and has no aperture or focal length markings on it, but I think it's maximum aperture is somewhere around f11, and the focal length is probably 125mm. With a maximum aperture this small, there are some challenges shooting handheld, even in broad daylight. Thanks to the high ISO capabilities of today's digital cameras, I was able to just set the camera on Shutter Priority and let the camera select the appropriate ISO. You have to admire the patience of the photography forerunners who had to take multi-minute exposures with this camera, and the frustration they had to endure when things moved.

I wasn't expecting stellar performance from this 100-year-old lens, but it still surprised me, considering it age. No, it won't win any sharpness contest, but it's pretty good.  If I enlarge one of the pictures to 8x10, I doubt anyone can tell it from one shot with a modern kit zoom lens.  If anything, I think the distortion correction is even better than the cheap zooms of today.

One thing that I noticed is that the colours are somewhat subdued. It also lacks contrast, and sharpness is just OK, but one needs to understand that this camera was made to be affordable; expectations should be adjusted accordingly :)

Although the lens is recessed and does a pretty good job of shielding the stray light, I do wish I could mount a lens hood on this lens, because flare is still a big problem in many situations. Also, this lens should be used with a tripod to fully extract the performance from it. I suspect that it would perform a bit better if a more stable method of shooting was used.

The lens is no better than even the average quality lens of today, but when you are shooting with a lens this old, you will treat it and shoot it with a totally different mindset.

Lens from Kodak Premonette Jr. that was made in 1913, so it's slightly more than a 100 years old.

Fire Truck Maintenance - Sony A7 & Kodak Premonette Jr. Lens. click for larger.

Morning Walk - Sony A7 & Kodak Premonette Jr. Lens. click for larger.

Bokeh - Sony A7 & Kodak Premonette Jr. Lens.

Gooderham Flatiron - Sony A7 & Kodak Premonette Jr. Lens.

Helios-103 53mm f1.8 Kiev/Contax RF Mount on Sony A7

Previously, I used the Helios-103 lens on the NEX-6 and I liked it quite a bit.  You can read my posts here and here. The only problem using this and other Contax RF mount is that the adapter is very expensive, more than the worth of the lenses.  Fortunately, it isn't too hard to roll your own adapter. If I could do it, anyone can. I showed how it's done here in Part I, and part II.

This lens also works very well on the full frame Sony A7. There is a bit of vignetting which I am not sure if was due to the hood or was part of the lens character. It's not objectionable and can be corrected easily. On the NEX-6, this lens shows pretty sharp "corners" but it's less so when used on the Sony A7. It's passable, but don't expect very sharp corners on full frame, especially in larger apertures.

Personally, I think it 's a nice little lens. Looks compact on mirrorless cameras due to the very short flange distance,and it performs quite decently. I got mine at $5 each at the show, which I think is a low enough a price to experiment with without fear of trashing it.

The Duke - Sony A7 & Helios-103 53mm f1.8. Click for larger.

Fairy - Sony A7 & Helios-103 53mm f1.8 @ f1.8.

Bokeh - Sony A7 & Helios-103 53mm f1.8.

Old & New - Sony A7 & Helios-103 53mm f1.8. Note the vignette on top corners.