Mamiya Sekor 55mm f1.4 vs. Auto Chinon 55mm f1.4

The Tomioka 55mm f1.2 and its sister lens, the 55mm f1.4 are some of the more sought after Japanese made standard lenses.  What many don't realize, is that Tomioka made many of these lenses for other manufacturers.  I had two Chinon 55mm f1.4 lenses, both are exactly the same in terms of appearance and optical quality.  One says Chinon (Tomioka) and the other simply says Auto Chinon (the sample used here against the Mamiya).  I sold the one that says Tomioka on Ebay, for about three times more than a normal Chinon 55mm f1.4 would get.  The 55mm f1.4 lenses were available from many Japanese companies, including Petri (non M42-mount), Chinon, Yashica, Mamiya Sekor, Cosina, Ricoh, among others.  With the exception of the Yashica, which I never had, I used the 55mm f1.4 lenses from the mentioned manufacturers.  Are there any significance in optical performance?  Let's look at the Mamiya Sekor and Chinon and find out.

Before we start, let me be very clear: this is a non-scientific test.  Everything was done handheld.  So, take it with a large pinch of salt.  The lenses were used on the NEX-5N with an APS-C size sensor, so the edge we talk about here, is not the true edge of the lens in full frame. Please keep this in mind.

Chinon 55mm f1.4 on left. Mamiya Sekor 55mm f1.4 on right. Click for larger image. Note file marks on the Mamiya on the aperture ring.  

Note similar coating on both lenses. Click for larger image.

The Chinon 55mm f1.4 has a slightly larger lens barrel with a 55mm filter size, whereas the Mamiya Sekor is a bit smaller with a 52mm filter size.  The Mamiya lacks a A/M switch to allow manually setting the lens aperture.  You would need to buy an adapter that has a ring at the rear that pushes the aperture pin, or like I did, glue the pin down so that aperture can be selected.  Also, the Mamiya has a proprietory locking mechanism, which prevents the aperture ring from turning when mounted on the adapter.  I had to file that ring off so that the aperture ring can be turned.

From f1.4 to F8

Center of Image. Click to see 100% Crop

Far Edge of image. Click to see 100% Crop

As you can see, there isn't a significant amount of differences between the two lenses, especially when stopped down a little, and the bokeh is nice.  Both are very sharp, though contrast is a bit low at f1.4, but improved a lot by f2.0.  These lenses are fantastic choices for low light shooting.  The ambiance and atmosphere is hard to recreate with a smaller aperture lens. No, they won't replace the auto focus lenses for action oriented shots, but with practice, one can shoot with relatively good accuracy and reasonably fast in many kinds of situation, especially with the aid of Focus Peaking of the NEX cameras.  Even better, with an EVF.

Bokeh -- See any difference?  Click for larger picture.

So, why would you pay more for the equivalent of a Tomioka 55mm f1.4?  I guess some just like to own a lens with the Tomioka name on it.  If you are looking for a lens for your own use, with the same image quality as the more expensive Tomioka, the Chinon, Mamiya Sekor, or Cosina versions are significantly cheaper. The choice, of course, is yours.

Below are couple more sample images from the Mamiya Sekor 55mm f1.4.

Bokeh -- NEX-5N & Mamiya Sekor 55mm f1.4. Click for larger image.

Statues -- NEX-5N & Mamiya Sekor 55mm f1.4 @ f4. Click for larger image.

Zeiss Ikon Ernostar 110mm f1.9 Projection Lens

Unknown to many, the Ernostar name is quite famous.  Ludwig Bertele created the world's fastest still photography lens with a maximum aperture of f2, and used by the Dr. Erich Solomon.  Dr. Solomon captured some of the world's most engaging and unforgettable photos, often without the subject knowing that he was photographing them.

Ernostar was derived from the equally famous Triplet design, and in turn, the Sonnar design was derived from Ernostar.  The Canon EF 135mm f2L lens that I and many love, is a derivative of the Ernostar.  With this history, I had high expectations when I tried out the Ernostar 110mm f1.9 projection lens.

B&L Cinephor 120mm f1.9 on the left, Zeiss Ikon Ernostar 110mm f1.9 on the right.

The Ernostar 110mm f1.9 has nice multi-coating.

This is a very large lens, similar to size and weight as the B&L Super Cinephor.  It has very beautiful multi-coating, which is quite unusual for old projection lenses.  However, the very short flange focal distance makes it hard to focus to infinity even on the Sony NEX-5N.  I had to use a very short 12-17mm focus helicoid.  In actual use, the lens performed better than the newer B&L 120mm f1.9.  Purple fringing is surprisingly well controlled.  It's almost as good as modern lenses.

Green -- NEX-5N & Zeiss Ikon Ernostar 110mm f1.9. Click for larger.

The lens is sharp with very good contrast.  I would rate it excellent at its working aperture.  If only I could stop it down a tiny bit, I am sure the sharpness will be even better. As is, it's completely usable but the thin depth of field makes it hard to focus.  Again, the EVF helps a great deal here.

Bokeh -- NEX-5N & Zeiss Ikon Ernostar 110mm f1.9. Click for larger.

I promise this will be the last of the weird alt lenses that I will post with regularity.  I know lately I have been overly enthusiastic on these kind of lenses, which I am sure very few people actually would use, or find it useful, but I enjoy making them usable and using them to take pictures.

Next time we will look at a couple of 55mm f1.4 lenses: Mamiya Sekor 55mm f1.4 and Auto Chinon 55mm f1.4 M42 mount lenses.

More Samples from Kodak Printing Ektar 93mm f4.5

I took more pictures with this Kodak Printing Ektar 93mm f4.5 than I thought I would.  Anyways, I don't know how many people actually used this lens to take pictures, but in case you are reading this, and you have one in a drawer somewhere, I hope these will give a better idea how it renders pictures.  Who knows, you may even like the way it captures images and starting to use yours.

This lens has sort of a L39 thread which makes it easy to mount on the focusing helicoid.

My apologies for all the tulip pictures.

p.s. Just found the Kodak Color Printing Ektar 70mm f4.5, and it seems permanently mounted on the Yashica 50mm lens barrel; a failed earlier attempt to get it focus to infinity.  Need to get it out and remount in on the helicoid and see how it compares to the 93mm.

Pretty yellow flowers -- NEX-5N & Kodak Printing Ektar 93mm f4.5.  Click for larger.

White Tulip -- NEX-5N & Kodak Printing Ektar 93mm f4.5

Pink Tulip -- NEX-5N & Kodak Printing Ektar 93mm f4.5

ISCO-Gottingen Kiptar 6.2 Inch f2.7 Projection Lens Samples

Seeing Pink -- NEX-5N & ISCO-Gottingen Kiptar 6.2 Inch f2.7 Projection Lens.

Finally got a chance to make this lens mount on the Vivitar focusing helicoid.  It's fortunate that the flange focal distance is relatively long that it can be used with my favourite helicoid.  Too bad this is not the case with the Zeiss Ikon Ernostar 110mm f1.9 projection lens, which has a VERY short flange and I could only make it to work on the 12-17mm focusing helicoid.

In any case, I took out the Kiptar to the back of the house to photograph the crab-apple trees, which is flowering like mad right now.  The lens is not very sharp nor very fast at f2.7, but it's pretty light weight compared to the Zeiss Ikon Ernostar.  The quality is just ok, and the bokeh is accceptable, but for the price ($5), it's fantastic.  I want to mention that for a 157mm lens, without the EVF, it would have been very difficult to obtain critical focus, or keep it steady.  Just wish the price would come down by perhaps 50%, and I am sure more people will buy and enjoy it.

Abandoned Drink -- NEX-5N & ISCO-Gottingen Kiptar 6.2 Inch f2.7.

Bokeh -- NEX-5N & ISCO-Gottingen Kiptar 6.2 Inch f2.7.

Jupiter-9 85mm f2 LTM Sample

Rusty Can -- NEX-5N & Jupiter-9 85mm f2 LTM. Click for larger.

Have been playing with the Russian Jupiter-9 85mm f2 for a few days.  Didn't take too many pictures, but I already know I will like this lens very much.  I once had the M42 version of this lens, but it didn't seem as big or heavy or as good as the LTM version.  Many people complain about the weight and size of this lens; they really should try shooting with a Canon 1D series and the 85mm f1.2L.  Now that's big and heavy.  Size and weight is all relative.  To me, it's not a big deal.  In fact, I like the hefty weight.  It feels nice in my hand.

Getting the Most Out of Your Old Lenses - Part I

If you read my blog, you are most likely an old lens lover, as I am.  As much as we love our beautiful old lenses, we often find that they don't perform as well as we have hoped.  Typically, pictures look foggy, have very low contrast, and flares very easily.  This is especially true for very old lenses with single coating, or no coating at all.

In Part I, we are going to talk about using proper hood for the lens.  Hoods are one of the best and cheapest way to extract the best optical potential from a lens.  You may be very surprised what a difference a hood can make to your pictures.

I have had the Voigtlander Skopar 8.3cm f4.5 lens for a number of years.  It was first used on the Canon 5D but the results were not good at all. There was always a white area in the center of the picture, even when shot indoors.  I first thought it was the internal reflection from the lens barrel, though it might be a factor, but even after spaying the barrel with black paint, it didn't make too much of a different.  I then added a hood to it, and it improved things markedly, but the foggy center remains in most pictures, until one day I put on a very long hood.  Problem mostly resolved, although in some situations, the white spot is still visible, but not very frequently.

The picture below shows the effects of using no hood, short hood, and a long hood:

Left: No Hood, Middle: Short Hood, Right: Long Hood.  Dramatic, eh? Click for larger.

As you can see, the right hood made a huge difference.  But where to find the proper hood?  Most old lenses we get do not come with hood, or they were never designed to accept one.  Fortunately, they are easy to make using black craft paper and glue/tape.  Sure they don't look very nice, or even ugly, but that never deters me :)  I have thick skin!  I am luckier than most since I have so many spare parts from disassembling old lenses and other devices, and  because I am a packed rat.  I keep a lot of junks around. In the example of the hood(s) for the Voigtlander Skopar, I found some black tubes that fit almost perfectly.  The tubes were just taped to the front of the lens with electrical tape.

How do you determine the length of the hood?  At first I thought the one I put on the Voigtlander was long enough, and any longer would vignette, but I was wrong.  You would be surprised to find that hood can be very long before they would vignette.  The best way to find out is to make one with paper and experiment until it provides full protection from stray light, but would not vignette.  I can be wrong here, but I think the length of the hood could be as long as the focal length of the lens.

So, put your hood on your lens, and make beautiful pictures with quality the designers intended!

Kodak Color Printing Ektar 93mm f4.5 Sample

Young Leaves -- NEX-5N & Kodak Printing Ektar 93mm f4.5. Shot with aperture disc on.

I have a few of these Kodak printing lenses that were used in the copiers or printing machines.  They don't have  focus control and most of them have a fixed aperture disc inside the lens.  This particular one says Kodak Color Printing Ektar Lens 93mm f4.5, but has a disc aperture with a small round hole, which I estimate would make the lens around f16, because the ISO goes up to 640 in very bright light at 1/125s.  The picture above was taken with the aperture on, but the aperture disc is removable.  Below shows a picture with the aperture disc removed:

Red tree -- NEX-5N & Kodak Printing Ektar 93mm f4.5 without aperture disc.

As with most lenses of this kind, it isn't usable without a hood.  There is coating on the lens, but not something comparable to the multi-coatings on modern lenses.  The lens is sharp with the aperture on, but then again, a Coke bottle at f8 is probably very sharp too.  Some test pictures wide open shows that sharpness is pretty good too, but suffers from fringing in strong lights, especially in the edges, and the contrast isn't very high at f4.5.  Not much use, I guess, but satisfies my curiosity.

Shown with the disc aperture inside the lens.  Disc can be removed. Click for larger size.

Sony FDA-EV1S EVF for NEX-5N - Some Observations

For me, the major flaw of the Sony NEX-5N was the lack of a built-in viewfinder, optical or electronic.  Without a viewfinder, it's difficult to see anything under bright lights.  This is especially bad for manual focus lens users.  If you can't see clearly, you can focus accurately.

Fortunately, Sony made an optional EVF for the NEX-5N, the FDA-EV1S external viewfinder. Unfortunately, it's not cheap; it costs slightly more than half of the NEX-5N with a kit lens.  I bought mine used from Adam, but it was defective.  Took it to Sony's repair center and I was given a brand new one.  Haven been using it for about two weeks. Below is my impression of using it.

Bleeding Hearts -- NEX-5N & Kodak Printing Ektar 93mm f4.5. Click for larger.

Without doubt, the EVF helps a great deal in a few areas.  It addresses the biggest issue of unreadable LCD screen in the sun.  Another advantage is when using long lenses.  The EVF helps to stabilize the lens and thus reduces handshake.  These are the major concerns that I have, and the EVF does its job well.

It's not perfect, of course, and this is not even taking into the account of the high price.  First of all, there is no locking mechanism on the adjustable viewer.  Very frequently, I find my glasses pushes the eye piece and moved it upwards, when I really want to see horizontally.  This annoys me a great deal.  Secondly, I find the image inside the viewfinder to be of very low contrast, which makes it very difficult to focus on something that's not very contrasty. In this aspect, I find the EVF on the G1 much better for manual focusing.  Lastly, light leaks too easily into the viewfinder through the eye piece.  Again, the G1 has none of this problem, because the eye-piece is very large and soft that forms to the eyeglass.  The eye piece on the Sony EVF is very hard and small, compared to that of the G1's eye piece.  The blocked up shadow area problem that many people have, is not too much of an issue with me.  I am actually OK with it, but the three problems listed above just bothers me.  I guess if you don't wear eye glasses, you have fewer problems.

Despite the issues I have with the EVF, I find it indispensable for shooting in day light, or with longer lenses.

How I Process my Pictures

A few readers asked how I post process my pictures, and I was hesitant to answer.  Not because I want to keep it to myself, but because it varies, depending on the kind of picture.  I process people pictures slightly differently than say, flower pictures or landscape pictures.  You may be disappointed how simple it is, though.

I don't shoot commercial products, so absolute colour accuracy is not important to me.  I strive to make the pictures with the looks that I like.  This may include adding vignetting, boosting colour saturation and/or contrast.  We will look at one example for this post, but if there is interest, I will expand on the topic to cover people pictures, which, unfortunately, is not my strong topic.

I like pictures with more saturated colours, except portraits, which i try to make the colour as real looking as possible, except those I want to leave alone to preserve the atmosphere/ambiance.  I know saturated colours are not accurate, but I like it.  Same reason so many people who love Velvia slide film.

All my pictures are shot in RAW.  Not exceptions.  If I need a quick jpeg, I would shoot RAW+JPEG.

Before and after.  Note the crop marks

  

The screen above shows the picture before and after adjustment. You can see that the original looks pretty dull with the defaults.  I accidentally shot this series of pictures in 16:9 aspect ratio.  It's not a format I am comfortable with.  So I cropped to a more comfy 3:2 ratio.  What adjustment did I do?  Below shows all the adjustments I did in Lightroom. I only touched two area other than cropping: Basic and Tone Curve. 

That's it.  This is pretty much all the adjustments I normally do.  Depending on the picture, I may increase or decrease the above settings to fit my taste.  One other area I may touch is the vignetting section, but I don't do that often.  Below is the final picture, which I used in this blog post (picture is at the bottom): 

Finished picture.  Pretty, eh?

Leitz Hektor 120mm f2.5 Projection Lens Samples

Daisies in Black & White -- NEX-5N & Leitz Hektor 120mm f2.5 Projection Lens. Click for larger.

I now have a helicoid with aperture control, which adds  a lot of flexibility.  Sometimes a little bit of depth of field can make the picture look quite different from wide open.  Often, I like pictures taken wide open.  This seems to bring out the optical qualities of the lens in use.  This is the case with the Hektor 120mm f2.5.  When stopped down, the bokeh looks a bit strange.  Maybe it's due to the aperture blades of the helicoid.  Both the Hektor 120mm f2.5 and Colorplan 90mm f2.5 share similar optical qualities.

Young Iris - NEX-5N & Leitz Hektor 120mm f2.5 Projection Lens.