Minolta RF Rokkor-X 250mm f5.6 - Another Look

I wrote about my first impression, and the second look, plus many photo samples of this Minolta RF Rokkor-X 250mm f5.6 mirror lens over the last couple of years. It has proven itself for the purpose of its design: small, lightweight, and inexpensive. The inexpensive part does not apply any more because this lens is selling at a few times more than its original price, but it's truly small and light. This lens attaches to the NEX-6 and still fit in my coat pocket, even with its hood. The small size is less intimidating if you are taking pictures of people, especially strangers. The petite size makes me look like a tourist taking pictures :)

As much as I dislike mirror lenses in general, I am warming up to this little lens. It's not the sharpest lens in the world but it's excellent being a reflex lens. So many times I wanted to sell it to fund the upgrade of the camera, but could not pull the trigger. There will always be newer and better cameras, but a lens like this is getting harder and too expensive to buy if I regret the sale and want it back later.

One thing I do wish is in-body stabilization on the NEX-6. It would make using long lenses much easier, especially for focusing. This is the main reason I want an Olympus E-M1 or E-M5. For the time being, I enjoy using it and it can come in handy in many situations, like the pictures from yesterday's blog entry.

Sparrow - NEX-6 & Minolta Rokkor-X 250mm f5.6 Mirror Lens. Click for larger. 

Ongiara - NEX-6 & Minolta Rokkor-X 250mm f5.6 Mirror Lens. Click for larger. 

Little Richard? - NEX-6 & Minolta Rokkor-X 250mm f5.6 Mirror Lens. Click for larger. 

Donut Rings - NEX-6 & Minolta Rokkor-X 250mm f5.6 Mirror Lens.  

Voigtlander Nokton Classic 40mm f1.4 - Photo Set

The temperature is now back to normal, hovering around negative single digits in celsius. This balmy weather has been a good incentive for me to go out during lunch and take some pictures, which I haven't done much since winter started. For some reason, I have been enjoying more black and white renditions of the pictures of late, probably because we have had so much snow so far.

I have had the Voigtlander Nokton Classic 40mm f1.4 mounted on the NEX-6 for the last few days. It actually looks very nice on the NEX-6, especially with its original vented hood; it's almost classic looking, a la film Leica M, and it balances very nicely. I like it as a walk around lens. The only thing that bothers me to no end, is the focusing lever. I am used to having a focus ring on lenses, but this one has just a lever on the side one uses to turn the focus mechanism. I was constantly looking for this stupid lever when I need to focus the lens. It's especially bad when using gloves.  Other than that, it's a very sweet and nice looking lens, with optical quality to match.

Dog Walker - Voigtlander Nokton Classic 40mm f1.4 & NEX-6. Click for larger. 

Bike In Snow - Voigtlander Nokton Classic 40mm f1.4 & NEX-6. Click for larger.

Observation Deck - Voigtlander Nokton Classic 40mm f1.4 & NEX-6. Click for larger.

Where Are You, Canon?

As a long time Canon user, I was attracted to its products that were innovative and features that were a cut above its competitors. The original 3.2 MP G1, with its fast f2.0 lens, swivel screen and "low noise", got me into the realm of digital photography, despite the $1200CAD price tag. Then came the 6 MP digital Rebel 300, that got me into the DSLR "hell". For more than 10 years, I stuck with Canon, and accumulated many of its finest L lenses, and went through a variety of camera bodies from Rebels to 1D series. At the current count, I still have a 20D (IR), 5D II, and a 1D III.

When the competition overtook Canon in image quality, low noise, and other areas (hello Nikon D700), I believed Canon would be back with competing and affordable products. But no, we have seen the same 18MP crap [that's not a spelling error] sensor iterating itself over and over again for years, with poor dynamic range, poor high ISO and generally poor image quality compared to the competition. The 1Dx and 5D III is better, but most cannot afford.

Ducks - NEX-6 & Jupiter-3 5cm f1.5

The recent product introduction is even more telling. All the underdogs, Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic, Sony, and even Sigma, are introducing innovative products. What did Canon bring us? Rehashed G1x as the G1x II and Rebel T2i in the form of T5. Compared that to the sexy Fuji X-T1, 4K Panasonic GH4, highly praised OM-D E-M1, mouth watering Alpha A7/A7r, and even the Sigma DPx Quattro with its unique Foveon sensor, it's not hard to see that the competitors are not sleeping at the helm, as Canon seems to be.

I guess Canon is no longer interested in making cameras for the photo enthusiasts like me; someone who likes better image quality, smaller body, with features that depart from the ho-hum. Luckily for us, there are so many other choices.

Lone Walker - NEX-6 & Helios-103 53mm f1.8

Black & White Photo Set with Jupiter-3 5cm f1.5

I really like the Jupiter-3. It's compact, looks nice, and optically interesting. When mounted on the NEX-6, the set still looks small due to its L39 mount. It's actually a tiny bit longer than the Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f1.4, but thinner. I can put the NEX-6 with the Jupiter-3 in my coat pocket without trouble.

Despite its age, the lens renders very nice pictures with good tones; I especially like the black & white pictures from it. Lots of details in the captures. The most amazing thing is that this lens is very sharp, to the corners, on APS-C sensor. Even at f1.5 wide open, the corners are very respectable. This is something I didn't expect.

This lens makes me want the A7 even more.

All pictures below were taken with NEX-6 & Jupiter-3 5cm f1.5. Most of them stopped down to f8.

Bokeh and flare test @ f1.5

More Helio-103 53mm f1.8 Sample Pictures

When I first did the adapter for the Helios-103, I had to use it on the generic 17-32mm helicoid, because it wouldn't focus to infinity on the Yeenon 18-33mm. I redid the adapter yesterday using the correct thickness of filter rings and was able to make it focus to infinity on the Yeenon. I shot some samples with it and had a much better shooting experience than the last time with the cheap helicoid that had a lot of play. The problem with softness on one side of the picture has improved on re-make.

Overall, this lens is very sharp stopped down from about f4. At wider apertures, from 1.8 to f2.8, it's a tad soft with loss of contrast. There is almost no vignetting on the NEX-6. Still, I am not a big fan of the bokeh from this lens. I think it's not very pleasing, to me. Your mileage may vary, of course.

All pictures below were taken with NEX-6 and Helios-103 53mm f1.8 Lens.

Bokeh @ f1.8

Photo Samples - Jupiter-3 5cm f1.5

My L39 to Sony E-mount adapter came within a week after I purchased it and shipped from the US. It's great to be able to buy adapters cheap from the US because the shipping is usually 2 to 3 times faster for a very reasonable cost of under $2.

I couldn't wait to mount the Jupiter-3 5cm f1.5 lens on it and try it out.  One thing was immediately apparent, and disappointing, is that the minimum focus distance is ONE meter, even worse than the Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 Nokton, which is 0.7m. Oh well. This is normal with range finder lenses, unfortunately. With that aside, I like the this little lens. Reasonably and sharp enough for portrait wide open.  In fact, I like the pictures taken at f1.5 quite a bit. Yes it's not bitingly sharp but it's quite acceptable. This lens is perfect for shooting people in low light. I can see why so many people love the Sonnar 50mm f1.5, Zeiss or not.

William, not liking his picture taken - NEX-6 & Jupiter-3 5cm f1.5 @ f1.5. Click for larger.

William - NEX-6 & Jupiter-3 5cm f1.5 @ f1.5. Click for larger.

Helios-103 53mm f1.8 Kiev/Contax RF Mount - Sample Pictures

The Helios-103 53mm f1.8 lens in Kiev/Contax RF mount does not come with a focus ring. It's like an enlarging lens. The focus mechanism is on the camera body. There are mount adapters for the Sony E-mount, but is very pricey.  I am cheap, so I decided to make it mount on my focus helicoid instead of buying one. Paying more than $100 for an adapter to mount a $10 lens does not seem justifiable. I fully understand the tolerance will be much worse than the commercial adapter, but I can live with it.

The lens turns out to be exceptionally sharp when stopped down a bit. slightly soft with loss of contrast wide open, but still usable. I think it will be a very nice for low light/indoors.  One side of the lens is slightly softer than the other, I am sure this is due to the home made adapter. One thing I do not like much, is the bokeh. It's less than pleasing to my eyes. But, this is the first time I shot with the lens, perhaps I shouldn't conclude so hastily.

Helios-103 53mm f1.8 on the NEX-6. Click for larger.

Bokeh - Helios-103 53mm f1.8 & NEX-6 @ f1.8. Click for larger.

Man at work -  Helios-103 53mm f1.8 & NEX-6.

 

Old & New -  Helios-103 53mm f1.8 & NEX-6

Deep Freeze Continues

The temperature in the Toronto area continues to drop. The forecast for tomorrow morning is -21 Celsius, or around -35c with wind chill. If you are crazy like me, who still bikes in this temperature, please take precaution and dress very warm, with a face mask and warm gloves. If you ride on bike paths, please do not ride if it's icy. I fell twice on my way home today and am still aching. It might be better to take the main roads as they are plowed and salted much quicker than bike paths. Be safe.

Snow, snow everywhere - Canon FD 35mm f2 S.S.C & NEX-6. 

Biking in Extreme Weather in Toronto

Sunset - NEX-6 & Canon FD 35mm f2 S.S.C. Click for larger.

We have had very extreme weather this winter. After the severe ice storm that put hundreds of thousands of households in the dark, the temperature has been very cold. On Friday, when the picture above was taken, temperature was around -30 degrees Celsius when factored in the wind chill, but it was actually colder than that when biking.  The cold is not the big issue for biking; the biggest challenge is the slippery, icy road. The City is doing a good job at salting the bike paths, but during the snow, it's quite dangerous if the ground is frozen. I fell a few weeks ago on my road bike; the small, thin tires are just not very good at gripping the road. I have now switched to a mountain bike/dirt jumper with much better tires. The main streets are actually safer to bike, as they are the first to be cleared of snow, but then you will have the traffic/cars to worry about.

The other annoying thing is the wetness on the boot/shoe/pants from the splash. Fenders are a must in this kind of weather, but unfortunately my dirt jumper does not have provision for fenders, front or back. I can attach a mud guard to the seat post for the rear, but can't do much about the front. My solution is to wear a pair of rain pants, which covers most of boots.

Yes, I know. It would be much easier to drive, or take public transit, but once you get used to getting to work in 20 minutes on bike, versus more twice the time driving (including parking, and walking to the building), and no traffic to fight, you wouldn't want to get to work any other way!

JML 50mm f0.95 TV Lens - Stopped Down Samples

I have had the JML 50mm f0.95 lens for a few years now, but I don't recall using it with apertures smaller than f2. It has been used mostly wide open or slightly stopped down. I took a few pictures the other day stopping down to f5.6 to see how it performs, and found that it vignettes quite badly on my NEX-6. So, sadly, it does not cover full frame. At f5.6, the center sharpness is very good, but the edges are very soft. Clearly, this was designed to cover a small sensor, and probably works best with Micro 4/3 format, if you want better edge.

This sounds like the lens is very bad and unusable, but that's not the case. When used in low light at very wide apertures, this lens can produce some very interesting pictures with shallow depth of field, and I am very happy with it, and used it quite a bit on my Panasonic G1, but not much on the NEX.

Definitely not the lens for landscape.

Frozen lake, note the vignette - NEX-6 & JML 50mm f0.95 @ f5.6. Click for larger.

Boats, slightly cropped - NEX-6 & JML 50mm f0.95 @ f5.6. Click for larger.

The Evil of Irrational Desires

After posting "The Upgrade Dilemma", I have realized how silly and irrational I have been regarding the A7/A7r. No doubt they are great cameras, but as obakesan pointed out, what "more" is there that I want from my existing equipment. Rationally, not much. The 5D Mark II is still a great camera, and I still have a whole set of Canon L lenses that covers the focal length from 16mm to 200mm, plus the 1.4x and 2.0x telecoverters (which I almost never use). That ought to satisfy my need when I salivate over the A7/A7r's full frame feature. The only thing missing is small size, and of course the short flange distance of the mount.

So, it's not really much about what I need, but what I irrationally want. I need to get a grip on reality!

Behind Bars - NEX-6 & Leica-R 90mm f2 Summicron @ f2. Click for larger.

The Upgrade Dilemma

The inter web is abuzz about the Sony A7/A7r; even none Sony users are talking about them. I have been following these two cameras even before they were announced through the rumour mills. Now that they are a reality, should I upgrade my NEX-6 to the A7/A7r?

I happen to like the NEX-6 a lot. In fact, it's one of the best cameras I have used. No complains about its image quality, nor its usability; if it were a full frame sensor inside the NEX-6, I would be all set for a little while. But, there is always that little thing called money. Upgrading is usually expensive. For mortals like us who has limited funds to spend on camera upgrades, a $1700 camera is a significant chunk of disposable income to blow on a camera. So what are the options?

Get a Metabones Speedbooster -- This almost gives you the illusion of a full frame camera, but of course it isn't. I am always leery of optics that gets in the way between a lens and the camera. As good as the Speedbooster is, there are limitations; and it does optically modify the lens in front of it. What you get in image is not really exactly the same as what you would get natively on a full frame.  And, there is the problem of mounts. If you are like me, who have lenses in many mounts, you would need Speedbooster in different mounts. True, one can get the Canon version and then buy cheap Canon to whatever adapters, but that again, increases the margin of error with double adapters.

I could sell some of my existing lenses to fund the purchase. This is really something I try to avoid. I don't plan to add many more lenses to my collection, but at the same time, I don't want to reduce what I have either. However, if the upgrade urge is uncontrollable, this might be the way to go.

Another option is to sell/trade in my 5D Mark II, and sell fewer lenses. This sounds better to me.

Finally, do nothing. Keep and make use of the 5D Mark II and ignore the A7/A7r ever existed.

Yeah, I know you lucky people are laughing at my dilemma.

Men At Work - NEX-6 & 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS @50mm f5.6 [wide open]. Click for larger.

Olympus FTL 50mm f1.8 M42 Mount Lens

Comments from MAWK piqued my interest about the Olympus M42 lenses.  I did some search on the web, and came up with a page about the Olympus FTL camera system. The 50mm f1.8 was one of the handful of lenses from the FTL system. MAWK is right. The FTL lenses were not made by, or at least, not designed by Olympus. Strangely, the more I looked at the FTL camera, the more it reminds of the Mamiya-Seiko 1000 series of SLRs. These cameras had a locking mechanism similar to the Olympus FTL, and they even look similar. So, I wouldn't be surprised if the FTL was designed/made by Mamiya-Seiko. Of course, I am only guessing here.

Back to the 50mm f1.8. The lens is quite small, though not pancake like small and it's all metal construction. It has a 50mm f1.4 sister lens that looks very interesting with multi-coating, but I imagine it's not easy to find one. All of the FTL lenses were never made in quantity, as it was a stopgap product.

I mounted it on the NEX-6 today and took some sample shots. I was going to do it on the full frame, but thought better of it. Too heavy and focusing is not as easy as with the NEX-6. Let's just say that I have not encountered any truly bad standard lenses. Really, it takes more effort to design a bad 50mm lens :) The lens is very sharp, even at f1.8, it's very usable, though the bokeh is not much to my liking, especially when the out of focus background has specular highlights. Stopping down to f8, it's very sharp and has good micro contrast.

Green leaves - NEX-6 & Olympus FTL 50mm f1.8 M42 @ f1.8. Click for larger.

Silhouette - NEX-6 & Olympus FTL 50mm f1.8 M42. Click for larger.

Infinity focus sample - NEX-6 & Olympus FTL 50mm f1.8 M42 @ f8. Click for larger.

Bokeh - NEX-6 & Olympus FTL 50mm f1.8 M42. Click for larger.

Captain John's - NEX-6 & Olympus FTL 50mm f1.8 M42. 

Make Your Own Topcon Mount Adapter

Since I got the Topcor lenses from the camera show, I have fallen in love with these lenses. I do have other Torcor lenses before these ones, but they come in a completely different mount; not the modified Exakta mount, but one that has aperture control on the camera body, a la DKL. This particular mount, like the Exakta, does not provide a secured and tight fit when a lens is mounted; except it's worse than Exakta. The lenses themselves are well made and I have been scratching my head for months on how to mount them to my camera. As far as I know, nobody makes a mount adapter for it.

The other Topcon - very similar to the DKL mount. Aperture control is on the camera body.

Today it dawned on me that I had a broken Topcon body. Why not make an adapter from the original mount? Why didn't I think of that before? Well, in fact, I tried this with a Kodak Reflex with DKL mount, but no cigar. The mount is too intricately intertwined with other parts of the body that it was difficult to separate the mount with the aperture control intact. But, what have I got to lose? It didn't take long before sweet success arrived! The mount is much simpler than the DKL and aperture control stays unaffected after mount is removed from the body.

Gruesome body parts. The mount we want is on the right.

After the mount is removed, I JB Welded a 58-49mm filter ring (don't have a 58-52mm handy) to the rear of the mount, added a 49-52mm step up ring, and mounted the adapter to the very thin focus helicoid. Very unfortunately, I can't use my favourite Yeenon helicoid as the mount is about 2mm too thick. How I wish I had a metal lathe to shaved off these two millimeters. But, this will do in the meantime. The mount adapter is not perfect. the filter ring I glued/welded on is slightly jagged and is not completely flat, cause the left side of the picture to be slightly softer than the right side. I will need to find a better solution for this. It's workable for the time being.

UV Topcor 35mm f3.5 with mount on helicoid. Note the filter rings.

The other Topcors: Mount, 53mm f2, 35mm f3.5, 135mm f4.

Gorgeous, eh?

Schneider-Kreuznach Xenon 50mm f1.9 DKL - Low Light Samples

Many of you already know, that this Schneider-Kreuznach Xenon 50mm f1.9 DKL lens is one of my favourite standard lenses. It's bokeh is delicious and wonderful; its optics superb; and it's one of the most handsome looking lens I have. I felt bad that I haven't used it often enough, so I took it out for some night shots yesterday, as seen below. One of the things I just found out, is that it's flare is very interesting. If you look at the second picture, just under the dark cloud, you will find a flare with star-shape inside a circle. Never seen anything like that before.

Grocery store - NEX-6 & Schneider-Kreuznach Xenon 50mm f1.9 DKL @ f1.9. Click for larger

 

Toronto at Night - NEX-6 & Schneider-Kreuznach Xenon 50mm f1.9 DKL. Click for larger

New Bridgepoint Hospital - NEX-6 & Schneider-Kreuznach Xenon 50mm f1.9 DKL. Click for larger

Garbage Bins

I often wonder what would happen to our living space when we can no longer economically get rid of the increasingly large amount of garbage we produce. A city of a few million people can generate an unbelievable amount of trash. Already, in Toronto, we ran out of landfills, and we were trucking some of our trash to Michigan in the US but that had to stop few years ago, as the Americans had enough of our junk. Now, we are still looking for a site to dump the waste. It will be only a matter of time before the new site fills up, and then what? What would happen 200 years, or 500 years from now? Unless we have fusion engines that uses trash as fuel, we'd better look for a better solution.

Garbage Bins - NEX-6 & Sigma Mini-Wide 28mm f2.8 @f8, Contax Mount. Click for larger

Sigma 28mm f2.8 YS Mount - Sample Image

While we are on the subject of Sigma lenses, I might as well tried the manual focus Sigma lenses that have been neglected. No, I don't have many of them, just three that I remember having, and one of them has problem with a stuck aperture, and two of them have the same 28mm focal length, but different lenses.

My copy of the Sigma-Z 28mm f2.8 has a 62mm filter thread; way larger than most other 28mm f2.8 lenses which have 52mm or 55mm, or even 49mm filter threads. The other YS Mount sister Sigma lens, XQ 35mm f2.8, has the same filter size of 62mm. So, the Sigma 50mm f1.4, having a 77mm filter size, is not that unusual; they started this trend decades ago.

Unfortunately, this lens has a dusty, almost hazy interior, which makes pictures taken wide open very low in contrast and hazy. The lens needs to be cleaned to perform at its designed optical quality. At f2.8, the lens is actually quite sharp, even the edges, on the APS-C sensor. I would like to have the lens cleaned and see what it can do. As the way it is, it's ok when strong, directional light is not present.

Stairs - NEX-6 & Sigma-Z Multi-coated 28mm f2.8 YS Mount @f2.8

Quality of Product Design

A quality product undergoes a tremendous amount of scrutiny in research, design, and testing, before it's released to the market. A new product that can't past the obvious test shows how poorly its research was before the design took place. Case in point, no-name FD-NEX adapter.

For most users, this adapter will work perfectly (not talking about the precision here, just functionality.) In fact, it works with all the New FD, FD, and most, but not all FL lenses. An example is the Canon FL 35mm f2.5. The rear of this lens has a raised portion on one side, where the aperture lever is located. See picture below:

Unusual design - half of the rear is raised. Click for larger.

The problem? The aperture arresting pin on the adapter is set about 1.5mm too low; the pin is resting on the raised portion of the lens and prevents the adapter from mating to the lens. You can see the aperture lever on the lens is at least 2mm taller than the pin on the adapter, so there is room for it to go higher. See picture below:

Pin resting on the mount - Click for larger.

I have another FD-M4/3 adapter and it doesn't have this problem. Clearly, one adapter maker did more extensive research than the other. It's a shame. The FL 35mm f2.5 is a nice lens, and I can't use it on the NEX-6, at least not until I get an adapter that can mount it properly.

Good looking lens. Click for larger.

Don River and DVP at night - NEX-6 & Canon FD 20mm f2.8. Click for larger.