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.

Pancolar 50mm f2 on NEX-6

Mirrorless cameras have been a godsend for manual focus lens lovers. For one thing, they can take pretty much any SLR lenses (except the Samsung NX, which has a much longer flange distance). The other advantage is that viewfinder does not go dim when you mount a very slow lens, or stopping it down, because the electronic viewfinder/LCD screen compensates the loss of light by brighten up. The only disadvantage I see, so far, is that there is no affordable full frame mirrorless cameras on the market today. Hopefully that will change in a couple of years.

The Sony NEX-6, in my opinion, has the best balance between price, performance, and usability. It's very comfortable to hold, has most of the controls accessible without going into the menu, an excellent viewfinder, and most important of all, exceptionally good image quality. While I struggled with the Pancolar 50mm f2 on the 5D Mark II, it is a breeze using it on the NEX-6. If there is a full frame equivalent of the NEX-6 at affordable price, the world (OK, at least me) will rejoice.

Downtown Buildings - Sony NEX-6 & Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f2 @ f8.

Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f2 [EXA] - Some Observations

Let's just say that it was not easy making this lens to work on the Canon 5D Mark II. I will explain this in another article when I talk about the new adapter I got, which allows infinity focus for Exakta lenses on the Canon EOS full frame bodies. But, all the trouble was worth it. I love this lens on full frame.

The first thing that gripped me was how beautiful the bokeh is from this lens. It almost has that cinematic feel to it. When focused close and wide open, it exhibits slightly swirling background which is not as apparent when used on the NEX-6 with a smaller sensor. I absolutely adore the bokeh and I think it's wonderful. One of the reasons I missed full frame was seeing the full image as the lens was designed to capture, rather than just a the middle of it with cropped sensors.

Wide open, the lens has very severe vignetting of at least 1.5 stops. The last picture shows the exposure difference between the center and the corner. For you pixel peepers, you can see that the edge is no too shabby at f2. The far corner is not as sharp as the center, but is very respectable. Stopping down to f8/f11 does improve quite a bit, but still not as sharp as the center.

I don't mind the vignette at all. In fact, I prefer it. Usually, if you shoot wide open, you want the subject, usually near the middle, to stand out, and the vignette helps in this regard. Besides, it's completely gone by about f5.6.

Is this why people pay more money for a Pancolar than say, a Pentacon 50mm f1.8? I know the Pentacon 50mm f1.8 does not render pictures like this. The signature is certainly unique for this Pancolar.

Bokeh - Canon 5D Mark II & CZJ Pancolar 50mm f2. Click for larger.

Orange Bike - Canon 5D Mark II & CZJ Pancolar 50mm f2. Click for larger.

Reflection - Canon 5D Mark II & CZJ Pancolar 50mm f2 @ f11. Click for larger.

100% Crop sample. Need to click on the image to see the actual pixels. You can see that vignetting is pretty sever. I would say it's a difference of at least 1.5 stop.

The Pain of Adapting Lenses on Canon Full Frame Cameras - Part II

In Part I of this two part series, we looked at the general problems facing the use of manual focus lenses on Canon full frame cameras. This time, we will look at some specific examples.

Generally, the longer the flange distance of a lens, the fewer issues it will have with the camera's reflex mirror.  M42, Nikon, OM, Leica and Contax lenses usually have no problems with a few exceptions, usually with wide angle lenses. For those lenses affected, much has to do with the way the lens was designed. But on the 5D Mark II (and probably the 5D Classic as well), some of the lenses that worked on full frame Canon 1Ds and 1.3x Canon 1D III don't work with the 5D. Below are some of the lenses I have tried and don't work with 5D/5D II at infinity:

M42: Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f2.8, Meyer-Optik Primoplan 58mm f1.9, Takumar 50mm f1.4, and quite a few others.

Yashica/Contax: S-Planar 60mm f2.8 Makro, Distagon 35mm f2.8

Rollei QBM: Carl Zeiss 50mm f1.5 HFT - won't focus to infinity and hits mirror when lens is turned to infinity focus. I think the Rollei 50mm f1.8 won't work either.

Exakta: On the adapter that can't focus to infinity, most lenses seem to work fine, but with the new adapter I got (I will have a separate post for this), the adapter itself will hit the mirror on the 5D II. It only works with Live View.

There is a wealth of information on the net regarding lens compatibilities. I have only listed a small selection of the lenses that I have tried that don't work on full frame Canon 5D/5D II. The best way to find out, before buying lenses for your 5D/5D II, is bring your own adapter/camera to try it, if possible.

If you are using the old 5D Classic, there isn't a lot of options to go around this, other than shaving part of the reflex mirror. With the 5D II/III, you can avoid this problem by using Live-View. It's not a perfect solution, but works. I shot with the Exakta mount Pancolar 50mm f2 yesterday, and it was manageable. I will have another post about the Pancolar 50mm f2 on the 5D II in the near future.

Sweet and delicious Bokeh - Canon 5D Mark II & Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f2 @ f2

Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f2 - Photo Samples

This Pancolar 50mm f2 is the cheaper version of the Pancolar 50mm f1.8. Both versions have a few cosmetic variations. Later ones are multi-coated. Personally, I don't know what the craziness is with Pancolar lenses, as their prices are much higher than the garden variety Pantacon 50mm f1.8. I admit, I like the Pentacon 50mm f1.8, and I still have a few sitting around somewhere. Perhaps some day, I will shoot the same subject/scene with both lenses and see if there are any differences between them.

Aside from the optical aspect of the lens, it has the typical built quality of the zebra version of the Pentacon 50mm f1.8. This one is in great condition, although the focusing ring is a bit dry; no doubt due to the aging grease. The elements are pretty clean for such an old lens. No hazy stuff inside, which is really nice.

The series of pictures below were taken inside my company's cafeteria, while waiting for my wife to finish, and all were shot wide open at f2. I can say that at f2, the lens is very usable. Not really sure how the edges performs, though. I think it probably won't be as good as a Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f2.8. The Tessar design is know for very good corners. We will see later when I get around to shooting outdoors with it.

Real Beauty, eh? Click for larger.

Boheh - NEX-6 & Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f2 @ f2. Click for larger.

Water Valve - NEX-6 & Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f2 @ f2. Click for larger.

Bar Stool - NEX-6 & Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f2 @ f2.

Algo Cafe - NEX-6 & Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f2 @ f2.