End of One Week Cycling Break

Waving Goodbye -- Canon 1D Mark III & EF 135mm f2. Larger Picture.

My wife had a one week seminar and I had to drive the kids to school and then drop her off at the subway, so haven't been biking to work for a full week. I hate driving to work, especially now that Queen street, Richmond Street, Dundas Street, and pretty much all major streets where I need to take to work are under construction at certain sections of the street. It's always a frustration. I am glad it's over and I can bike to work again.

There are some benefits for driving the kids to school. I could take pictures of them. This one was taken this morning.

Voitgtlander Skopar 8.3cm f4.5 Update

Two updates actually. One on the Voigtlander and the other on the Ultra Achromatic Takumar 300mm f5.6.

I didn't get around to the paint store to get some matte black spray paint to spray the internal barrels and mounts to make them less reflective. As it turns out, the Franken Skopar problem with bright center/haze is caused both by light entering the lens and internal reflection on the mount/barrel. I used a black permanent marker to paint over the inside, and this actually made some improvements. There is still excessive light/haze in the center of the image, but it's reduced. After some processing, the images are actually usable.

Next thing I am going to try, is to make a hood that goes over the lens. This should help with the flare from the front, but no doubt will make the already Franken Skopar even more ugly. But, if it works, I am willing to try it.

On the image quality department, the Skopar is quite respectable, considering it's uncoated, and at least 70 to 80 years old, with some heavy dust, and other "stuff" stuck inside the lens elements. With some patience, I am sure it can make some fine pictures.

I did the same kind of treatment for the Ultra Achromatic Takumar 300mm f5.6 lens. This lens suffers from the the same problem as the Franken Skopar. The darkening of the lens mount helped a little, but still very visible. I am not sure if this lens has been modified or it was like this. The internal of the lens elements are very clean and there is no sign of tampering. We will see after I get some matte black spray paint and make the mount even more black. Hope that will help.


One the way to school -- 1D Mark III & Ultra Achromatic Takumar 300mm f5.6. ISO 800. Larger Picture.

Streetcar in the evening -- 1D Mark III & Voigtlander Skopar 8.3cm f4.5. ISO 1250. Larger Picture.


Tree Trunks -- 1D Mark III & Ultra Achromatic Takumar 300mm f5.6. Larger Picture.


Old & New -- 1D Mark III & Voigtlander Skopar 8.3cm f4.5. ISO 1600. Larger Picture.

Gooderham Flatiron in November

Gooderham Flatiron -- Canon 5D & EF 35mm f1.4. Larger Picture.

One of my all time favourite photography spots. This old beauty looks good in any weather, at any time of the year.

More Cheap Lenses -- Tamron AF 70-300mm f4-5.6

Today's weather in Toronto is gorgeous. Warm, sunny, breezy and the air is fresh. It's almost like summer again. Perfect day to shoot some of the last of fall colours that's still hanging around before winter sweeps them away.

Henry's Outlet store is having some fire sale on some of the older lenses. I got a used Tamron 70-300mm f4-5.6 (172DE). The whole lens feels like it was made of plastic. Looks cheap, feels cheap, very noisy and slow focus, but hey, it's only $40!!! I shouldn't complain!

Despite being cheap, both price wise and materially, the lens is quite sharp. I found most Tamron AF lenses are quite sharp, even the cheap ones. Even the colour is quite nice, but bokeh looks unremarkable and boring, but did I mention it was cheap?

If you plan to use this lens for sports, forget about it! The focusing is excruciatingly slow in AI Servo, not to mention the noise. But, I think as a travel lens, this will actually be very good. It's almost feather weight compared to my Canon EF 100-400mm f4-5.6 IS lens. I would not hesitate to bring it on vacation.


Fall Colours - 1D Mark III & Tamron AF 70-300mm f4-5.6 @ f5.6. Larger Picture.


Blue Mini - 1D Mark III & Tamron AF 70-300mm f4-5.6 @ f7.1. Larger Picture.


Untitled -- 1D Mark III & Tamron AF 70-300mm f4-5.6 @ f7.1. Larger Picture.

Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 45mm f2.8 DKL

Tried out the DKL Schneider 45mm f2.8 Xenar today on the 1D III. I had a much easier time with it, due to a number of factors. First the weather was much better today. Second the lens is one stop brighter than the Tele-Arton, and lastly, the split screen on the 1D III really helped.

The Xenar has soft corners until it's significantly stopped down. Not sure if this is a copy variance. I have another one of these so perhaps I should try the other one and see. The center of the the image, however, is very sharp on larger apertures. Again, the colour from the Schneider lenses are fantastic. As I mentioned before, the 1 meter minimum focusing distance is very long for a normal lens. But then again, most very old lenses have this attribute. Perhaps it was harder to design a lens to focus closer.

The last one of the Schneider I have not tried yet, is the Tele-Arton 85mm f4. I am sure it would perform very close to that of the Tele-Arton 90mm f4. We will see.


Autumn in the city -- 1D Mark III & Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 45mm f2.8. Larger Picture.


Frosty Leaves -- 1D Mark III & Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 45mm f2.8. Larger Picture.


More Autumn Colours -- 1D Mark III & Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 45mm f2.8. Larger Picture.

Schneider-Kreuznach Tele-Arton 90mm f4 DKL

The Kodak DKL mount lenses are not very common, although not really rare either. Mostly used on Kodak Retina interchangeable lens SLRs. The three major lens makers of this mount were Schneider, Rodenstock and Voigtlander. Most of these lenses fall into the love/hate category. At least for the Schneiders that I have, the 45mm f2.8, 85mm f4 and 90mm f4, all of them are small aperture lenses, and their minimum focus distance is long. About a meter for the 45mm and almost 2 meters for the 85mm and 90mm. The Voigtlanders and Rodenstock lenses are more sought after because some of them offer larger apertures and wider angles.

Being very small aperture lenses, they are very difficult to focus. Add to all this, the DKL-EOS adapter is relatively expensive, until recently. The first time I was looking at the adapter last year, it was well over $120USD, but I bought one couple weeks ago on eBay for around $60. This adapter includes an aperture ring (DKL lenses do not have aperture rings. Aperture is controlled on the camera). I am hoping that the relatively few DKL lenses I have is worth buying the adapter for.

Today was the first time I used this adapter with the Schneider Tele-Arton 90mm f4, and it proved difficult. In the morning when I dropped the kids off to school, the sky was very dark with some drizzles. I had to set the ISO to 1600 in order to get an acceptable shutter speed at f4, the lens' maximum aperture. Luckily, the weather turned better and I was able to take some pictures at ISO 400, and even 250 later in the day.

One thing I can tell you, the colours from this Tele-Arton lens is incredible. Take a look the pictures below that shows the newspaper boxes and the streetcar. I don't remember other lenses with such strong colours, especially the red. When critically focused, it's very sharp too. Haven't got a chance to try the bokeh. With such small maximum aperture, and long minimum focusing distance, it may not be easy to achieve that creamy bokeh that many craves.

This lens, like so many others, hits the mirror on the 5D at infinity. The 5D is perhaps the worse Canon AF camera for manual focus lenses. The compatibility with manual focus lenses isn't good. I will try again with the 1D III and the split screen later.

Is it worth getting into DKL lenses? Sorry, I don't know yet. After all, it's only the first day. But, if you are tired of your 24mm f1.4, 85mm f1.2, 200mm f2 IS etc, it's quite a lot of fun try something that's old and different. Besides, it's peanuts compared to the prices of these lenses!

Stay tuned for more pictures from the DKL lenses.


Schneider-Kreuznach Tele Arton 90mm f4 on 5D. Larger Picture.


One the way to classes -- 5D & Schneider Tele-Arton 90mm f4. ISO 1600. Larger Picture.


Colours!! -- 5D & Schneider Tele-Arton 90mm f4. Larger Picture.


Adam Beck in the autumn -- 5D & Schneider Tele-Arton 90mm f4. Larger Picture.


Queen & Yonge Streets -- 5D & Schneider Tele-Arton 90mm f4. Larger Picture.

Voigtlander Skopar 8.3cm f4.5 Anastigmat

This lens has been sitting quietly in the "to do" box for a couple of years. I always wanted to see what kind of pictures some very old, un-coated lenses can create. This particular Voigtlander Skopar 8.3cm f4.5 lens is actually a complete camera minus the film box. It has a shutter speed dial, exposure modes, and shutter lever. Of course, I have no intention to shoot any film with it, so it has to be converted to work with digital SLRs.

I have a number of Yashica 50mm/55mm lenses that's been collecting dust. They are ideal as lens barrels because the glass is easy to remove. It took an evening to put it all together and it actually focuses to infinity.

The conversion is a bust. The lens works, but not well. The lens barrel has too much internal reflections and therefore all the pictures have a hazy, white-out middle area. I need to get some non-reflective spray paint to paint over the internal barrel and the rear of the lens.

Aside from the white spot, the lens itself is actually quite sharp. I can't wait to try it again once it's fixed up. I will post more pictures from this lens when it's better.


The lens "planted" into a Yashica 50mm f1.9 lens barrel. Larger Picture.


Chinese Lantern -- Canon 5D & Voigtlander Skopar 8.3cm f4.5. Larger Picture.

The Village Idiot

One of the lamps outside of The Village Idiot -- 1D Mark III & Wollensak 209mm Copy Lens. Larger Picture.

The Village Idiot is actually the name of a bar at the corner of Dundas and McCaul street in Toronto. It's been around for ages and I have always wondered how they dreamed up such a name for a bar. But, you gotta admit that it sticks to your head.

I especially like the lamps outside the bar. Very unique.

Adam Beck

Adam Beck at University & Queen -- 5D & EF 35mm 1.4L. Larger Picture.

Adam Beck, founder of the Hydro-Electric Commission of Ontario (now Hydro-One), Mayor of London (Ontario), and a Knight, among many of his life accomplishments.

Cheap Old Lenses

Cheap lenses have their places, especially in the old days when good lenses are very expensive. Inexpensive lenses enabled those who want to get into photography, but not willing to spend the money to buy a good, but expensive lens. In film days, most cheap lenses actually produced pretty acceptable results, because most people only print 4x6 size pictures. At that size, even a coke bottle at f8 could make passable pictures.

I have MANY cheap lenses. Some are better than others, but in general, you get what you paid for. Take for example, the Hanimex 200mm f3.3, which I bought for around $15. This M42 lens looks quite impressive with its 67mm filter size and multi-layer coating. Tried it today on the 5D, and the result is as expected -- I got $15's worth of optical quality from a $15 lens. The lens is soft wide open, has green colour fringing, and needs to stop down to f8 for acceptably sharp pictures. Oh, the colour is totally unexciting. You may say it can be changed with post processing, but if it's not there in the first place, it ain't gonna look good no matter how you massage it.

There is one good thing about the lens. It's acutally quite well built.

So, the saying "You get what you paid for" is certainly true in this case.


Yum -- 5D & Hanimex 200mm f3.3. Larger Picture.


Stopping at the red light -- 5D & Hanimex 200mm f3.3. Larger Picture.


Conversation -- 5D & Hanimex 200mm f3.3. Larger Picture.