Meyer-Gorlitz Primotar 18cm f3.5 Samples

One-wheeled Bike -- NEX-5N & Meyer-Gorlitz Primotar 18cm f3.5

Frankly, I am disappointed with this lens.  When I shot the first  few samples at home, the light was flat and the pictures came out not so bad.  The other day I shot with this lens in full sun, most pictures came out that look like they have a layer of fog.  I guess either the hoods were not long enough, or the lens just behaves like this in very bright light.

Four red chairs -- NEX-5N & Meyer-Gorlitz Primotar 18cm f3.5

From what I can tell from all the pictures I took that day, this lens has very little contrast below f5.6 in bright lights.  The nice bokeh of this lens couldn't save the day.  Perhaps, it's only suited to shoot in flat light.

Bokeh -- NEX-5N & Meyer-Gorlitz Primotar 18cm f3.5

More Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 200mm f2.8 Samples

Street Lamp -- NEX-5N & Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 200mm f2.8 @ f2.8

The Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 200mm f2.8 is my first Sonnar lens.  I have had it since 2005.  Though not used extensively, it has always been one of my favourite manual focus lenses.  At more than 1kg, this lens looks funny when mounted on the NEX-5N, not to mention how difficult it is to focus.  The Peaking Level is a godsend!  It helps tremendously in achieving accurate focusing.

I now have two of these lenses.  Don't ask me why.  Perhaps I just like it a lot, and it's not a lens you see often in the used market locally.  It cost slightly more than what I paid for my first one in 2005.  Considering the price appreciation on used lenses, it's not a bad deal.

Stop -- NEX-5N & Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 200mm f2.8 @ f2.8

Like most Sonnar designs, this one has very nice bokeh.  I like the bokeh a lot.  It's like a creamy soft cheese that melts in your mouth.  The longer focal lengths makes it easier to throw the background out of focus to isolate the subject of interest.  The only gripe I have is the two meter minimum focus distance, making it hard to get close ups.  An M42 extension tube of about 5mm would come in handy when close up is needed.

William's Helmet -- NEX-5N & Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 200mm f2.8 @ f2.8

More Exakta Stuff

Pink Ribbons -- NEX-5N & Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 135mm f4 @ f4

Unearthed another Exakta mount lens: the Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm f4.  Don't believe I have used this one before and I have no idea when I bought it; probably quite a few years ago.  I think most people know the Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm f3.5 in M42 mount better than this one, as the M42 version is a lot more popular.  I had the M42 version once, and it looks almost like the 135mm f4.  Both have zebra patterns but the 135mm f3.5 is a little bigger.  Both are great lenses.

Bokeh Test -- NEX-5N & Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 135mm f4 @ f4, EXA mount

I find the Sonnar design tend to have very nice bokeh, and this one is no exception. It's very pleasing to me.  Of course, the other qualities that people like it is its sharpness.  Even at f4, this lens is very very sharp (as is the f3.5 M42 version).  It's completely usables.  If it's sharpness you are looking for, this lens will not disappoint.

My only beef with this, and most of the East German lenses, is that the focusing is not smooth due to the lubricant drying up, making the focus action very rough.  The Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm f2.8 has the same problem.

I quite like this lens, and it has a pretty good one meter minimum focusing distance, which is close enough for some relatively close ups. It's a nice lens to have.

Playing with the Meyer-Gorlitz Primotar 18cm f3.5

Bokeh -- NEX-5N & Meyer-Gorlitz Primotar 18cm f3.5

If there is anything that seems to be in abundance in camera shows, it's old medium format lenses.  Or it used to be any way.  I picked up quite a few of them over the years, because they are quite cheap for the likes of Meyer-Gorlitz and some very old no name ones.  All of these lenses are uncoated, and require a shutter to work if you want to shoot film with them.  Making them to work on DSLRs are not exactly easy either, especially for the long focal lengths.  In the case of this Meyer-Gorlitz 18cm f3.5, the extension tubes required is very long, consisting of two digcam adapter rings and five 55mm filter rings and the Vivitar 2X macro focusing helicoid.

First picture turned out like it was shot in a thick mist.  I knew immediately that a hood is required.  Put on an old 55mm Minolta 135mm hood on, and the contrast improved quite a bit, but I ended up using two of them taped together in order to provide enough shielding to stray lights.  Still, contrast is pretty low.  In fact, peaking level shows almost nothing even in contrasty objects until dialed down to f5.6.  But I like the rendering from this lens.

I see optical similarity from this lens and the Wollensak 209mm f4.5, although the Wollensak is sharper wide open than the Gorlitz.  Both lens have very good resolving power and render pictures with excellent details.  They also produce yummy bokehs.  Check out a similar shot with the Wollensak 209mm f4.5, taken more than three years ago:

Bokeh -- Canon 1Ds & Wollensak 209mm f4.5.

I think I will spend more time with the Gorlitz 18cm f3.5, especially when we have more colours that spring will bring.
 

Swim Meet - March 2012

Another swim meet today for the regional swim teams.  Megan and Ryan attended swim meet.  As usual, Megan did a fantastic job, winning all individual events in her age group #1 in all of them, except one even that she was disqualified without just (have video to prove it).  Ryan also did much better than his last time.  Both of them worked really hard during the swim team practices.

Megan Butterfly style -- 1D Mark III & EF 200mm f1.8L

Megan Breast Stroke -- 1D Mark III & EF 200mm f1.8L

Ryan Back Crawl -- 1D Mark III & EF 200mm f1.8L

Megan, waiting for next event -- 1D Mark III & EF 85mm f1.2 @ f1.2.

Isco-Gottingen Isconar 100mm f4

Red & Gray -- NEX-5N & Isco-Gottingen Isconar 100mm f4

The Isconar 100mm f4 is not really a common lens that you see often.  In fact, you don't see too many Isco-Gottingen lenses in North America.  The only reason I bought it, aside from its cheap price, is that I don't many Isco lenses.  The lens itself is slim and long but has a very small diameter.  Minimum focus distance is 1.5m (5 ft).  Not really a sharp lens until stopped down to at least f5.6.  At f4, without a hood, the image is flat with a creamy layer of white light.  Very low contrast wide open.  But one stop down the lens is starting to get quite sharp.  

I just don't understand the purpose of this lens.  It's kind of slow for portraiture, and the long minimum focus distance means it's not for headshots (on full frame).  It does have circular aperture blades and boheh isn't too bad. Perhaps the lens was designed as a general purpose medium telephoto lens.

Curver -- NEX-5N & Isconar 100mm f4

Anyways, I only shot this lens a few times and I just happened to find it in one of my boxes of lenses that I don't use often, and decided to take it out.  Perhaps, it deserves to see more light than it has been given.  I think with an extension tube, it would make for a nice close up lens too.

Solo Steel Drummer

Steel drummer - NEX-5N & Kern-Paillard Switar 75mm f1.9. The seemingly drunk fellow leaning on the wall was actually recording the music.

Part of the reason people like c-mount lenses on their NEX and M4/3 cameras is that they have very short lens registers and the mount adapter is very thin, making them look like they are native E-Mount or M4/3 mount lenses.  I do think though, that the manual focus lens market has gone mad.  Prices keep going up like there is no ceiling.  If I had to start my lens collection now, I certainly would not have been able to buy the lenses I want.  Now whenever I see a good deal, I would buy the lenses and keep them, because, if I want to buy the same lens back, I may never be able to buy it the price I sell them now.

You've got to admit that many of these old lenses do have their very unique characters.  Modern lenses are designed to be sharp and well corrected and so most would produce pictures that are hard to distinguish between them.  If you look at the picture above, you know immediately it can't be taken with an auto focus modern lens, because of the severely vignetting and blurry corners, not to mention the distortion at those corners.  Why would people pay hundreds of dollars for a lens with such defects?  All I can say is horse for courses.  Aren't choices great to have?

Say Cheese

Say Cheese - Sony NEX-5N & Birns & Sawyer (Tewe) 200mm f3.2 Cine Lens.

The weather has been fantastic the last few days.  Yesterday we decided to ride our bikes to the beach in the evening.  It was a wonderful ride along the beaches and there were so many people came out to enjoy the nice warm weather.  Naturally, I brought my camera with me, and the Birns & Sawyer 200mm f3.2.  I really like this lens and I am even warming up to its bokeh.  Even the naturally vignetting corners look acceptable now, which is part of its charm, I guess.  My thinking is that you can't change the characteristics of a lens, and might as well take advantage of it instead.  With some pictures, they have the "vintage" look, like the one above, shot at either f3.2 or f4.  I only converted it to B&W in CS4. No other changes were made.

Canon nFD 50mm f1.2 - A New Favourite

Ceremic thingy -- NEX-5N & Canon nFD 50mm f1.2

After having my Canon nFD 50mm f1.2's stuck aperture fixed, I never really compared it to older brother, the FD 55mm f1.2 S.SC for image quality purposes.  But, as I use the nFD 50mm f1.2 more, I have grown to like it more then the 55mm f1.2 as a picture taking lens.  The 50/1.2 is smaller, lighter and optically slightly better wide open at f1.2.  It's really not much bigger than the nFD 50mm f1.4.  Like the 55mm f1.2 S.S.C, this one has the same beautiful picture rendering and bokeh.  I can't imagine what the FD 50mm f1.2L or the FD 50mm f1.2 Aspheric would be like.  If they are better than the vanilla nFD 50mm f1.2 then there is not much improvement on the EF 50mm f1.2L.

Megan -- NEX-5N & Canon nFD 50mm f1.2.

Hosing Down

Hosing down -- Sony NEX-5N & Steinheil Quinar 135mm f2.8

I was taking my usual lunch hour walk around the area near where I work, and surprised to see that the two building on Peter and Richmond Streets were being demolished.  Took some pictures of the ruins and continued my walk.  On my way back, I saw this guy hosing down the dust created by the demolishing machine.  I thought it was funny because it looked like he was peeing :)

Took along the Steinheil Quinar 135mm f2.8.  It's arguably the best looking lens I have, not to mention that it has more than just good looks; its bokeh is fabulous and optics very sharp.