Adapting Refitted Rangefinder Lenses on the Sony A7

I have had quite a few Japanese rangefinder lenses that I took out of the cameras, but was never able to make them work.  Many of these are "fast" lenses, like the 45mm f1.9/2.0.  At the beginning, I didn't have enough experience removing the lenses and they pretty much all ended up having problems; shutter stayed shut, aperture not working, focusing mechanism could not be put back, etc. The most pressing problem is the very short flange distance, and a very large rear elements within the helicoid that interferes with the mount.

The short flange usually means the original focusing mechanism on the lens must be retained, but most of the old rangefinder lenses have very long minimum focus distance of about 0.8-1.0 meters (3 ft). I love to take close up pictures and this is just not very useful for me.  What I what is a method that allows me to focus very close, but also be able to attain infinity focus.  The answer is a helicoid with large opening, which allows the lens to go inside of the helicoid, and thus get closer to the sensor in order to achieve  infinity focus.  I found that most of these lenses have a barrel sizes just shy of 58mm, perfect to put a 58mm filter ring on the lens, and then mount the lens on the helicoid.

Rangefinder Lenses: On camera - Nikkor-H 48mm f2, on the right, Minolta Rokkor-PF 45mm f2, Fuji 4.5cm f1.9.

The focus helicoid I bought from the generic junk variant with a 58mm opening, and a 58mm mount. This helicoid has the same sh!t quality as the 17-32mm that I bought a few years ago.  When fully extended, there is a lot of play and it feels like it would break apart.  The German and Japanese have perfected the helicoid decades ago, and I just fail to see why we still have lousy quality on new helicoids.  But, helicoids with large opening is not easy to find and they are usually expensive, because most people would opt for the M42 version.  I just have to work with with I have.

So far, I have converted three lenses and they all work beautifully, except the Nikkor-H 48mm f2, which has the aperture stuck at wide open. The Fuji 4.5cm f1.9 and the Minolta Rokkor-PF 45mm f2 both works beautifully.  The lens can now focus very close, and yet I can still focus to infinity.

First snow storm in Toronto.  Shot through window - Fuji 4.5cm f1.9 & Sony A7.

2015 - A Year in Review

Photographically, 2015 has been an interesting and fulfilling year.

In the gear department, I have added a Nikon D810 to the family of camera systems. I am now shooting Sony E-Mount, Micro 4/3, Nikon, and Canon (Infrared), but the Sony A7 continues to be my all time favourite camera, and all other systems see very little action.

Nikon D810

The Nikon D810 addition was totally unexpected.  This beautiful camera brings out all the fond memories of shooting the DSLR in the past, and then some.  It's as perfect a non-action DSLR as I would want; simply a superbly build image making machine.  But, as nice as the D810 is, its use has been limited.  I have only a few lenses for it.  AF-S 28-70mm f2.8, AF-S 70-200mm f2.8 VR, and a AF 85mm f1.8, plus some manual focus lenses. Unfortunately, the 28-70mm f2.8 fell down with the tripod in June and it's now inoperative.  I really like this sharp lens, especially coming from Canon where first and even second generation (17-35mm f2.8L and 16-35mm f2.8, both versions) wide angle zooms were not stellar optically. The images from this lens and the D810 are simply marvelous. I am hesitating, but I might trade the D810 for a Sony A7R II in some future time, only because I use the A7 more.

Olympus E-M5

I have a love/hate relationship with this camera.  On one hand, it's a small and well built camera with very good image quality, and works with most of my c-mount lenses, and the in-body-stabilization is one of its best features.  On the other hand, it's quirky to setup and use.  I find that I do not like the handling of this camera. The small size is actually something of an Achilles's heel; the buttons/controls on the camera are too small.  It's now used mostly to shoot pictures of my gear :)  I do not foresee another Micro 4/3 camera in the near future.  This one should last me a few more years for the kind of use I do with it.

Canon 20D IR

My faithful, though seldom used camera.  The only Canon EF mount camera I still have, and I shall keep it until it dies, so that I could use it for the few times I have the urge to shoot infrared each year.

Lenses

Despite the initial intention in the beginning of the year to limit my purchase of lenses, I actually did the opposite.  I don't remember any recent years which I bought so many lenses.  Mind you, most of these lenses are really old and not worth much, but they do add up to not small a sum of money. Sadly, I probably will never recover the money as most of these lenses are of little interest to most people.  Many of them are nearly a century old old large format lenses that most people have never heard of, and I must make my own mount for them to be used on the Sony A7.  The others are lenses harvested from rangefinders (mostly broken).  I have gotten a lot of joy from using them to make images.


In the picture taking department, I am happy to say that it has been a very productive year, in terms of number of images produced.  This means I actually went out and walked (or biked) around much more often than previous years, and for this, I am truly happy.  The pictures themselves, are merely a byproduct to amuse myself.  I would still be happy if only a few pictures tuned out that I like.  99% of the pictures were taken with the Sony A7 and manual focus lenses, and the majority of them were unusual and weird ones.  It was great fun and I consider that's money well spent.

As for the photo books.  I actually finished one of my own, which I called Vintage Affairs.  A 100 page photo book mirrored the original layout I started with Blurb's BookSmart. It did not turn out the way I originally started with, but I am happy to to have at least produced one.  The book was created with Photobook Canada book designer, rather than BookSmart I used originally.  I also created 3 additional books for my kids; one book for each kid with pictures from the first two years that I started using digital camera (mostly shot by the 3.2 MP Canon G1), and there is still one more to go.  Sadly, the original book data was lost when I upgraded the computer.  Totally forgot to backup those files.  Not a great loss as they can be recreated quite easily.

To conclude, 2015 has been a very good year for me, in terms of the amount of exercise induced by photography.  I hope the 2016 will be even better.

Dusk at the Port - Sony A7 & Canon nFD 50mm f1.2

Merry Christmas!

I would like to wish all my readers a wonderful holiday season!  May all your wishes come true.  If you have been nice, I am sure Santa will bring you that special gift that you always wanted, whatever that is :)

Have a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Be safe and please do not drink and drive.

Virtual Machine Emulators

I have finally retired my 7-year old Dell Studio XPS desktop, and got myself an off-lease Lenovo D20 ThinkStation. One of the reasons for getting a workstation is that I need a computer with lots of RAM, space for drives, and dual processor configuration.  My D20 came with 2x Xeon X5650 6-core CPU, 64GB of RAM and space for 8 hard drives.  The other reason is reliability.  I do not want another computer that will blow up the power supply, killing my hard drives.  The painful experience is still fresh in my mind.

You may ask why 64GB of RAM?  I know it's an overkill for most applications, but I indent to run multiple VMs within this workstation.  Beside, it was only $80 to upgrade the 32GB to 64GB so why not?  ECC RAM is expensive and $80 is a good deal.  But, back to Virtual Machine Emulators.

I had good experience with VirtualBox from Oracle.  It ran really well on my MacBook Pro running Windows 7, and I could have 5 VMs running at the same time on 16GB of RAM.  It was slow but stable.  But, when I ran the latest version of VirtualBox on my D20 with Windows 7, I have had a lot of crashes with Blue Screen of Death.  Just wondering if anyone has this issue.  I don't have other hardware on it, other than the video card, and my system drive is a 240GB SSD (SanDisk).  At one point after the crash, the VM was missing completely and had to be added again.

I also tried the free Microsoft Virtual PC, but it's a single threaded application and the maximum amount of RAM I can assign to the VM is 3.7GB and runs on a single CPU.  It was just too slow for my needs.

Now I am trying the VMWare Workstation Player.  It will take a few days to install, update and test the OS.  I have the OS installed and now running updates.  So far it's stable and seems quite fast.  I have my fingers crossed.

If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear from you.  I really like VirtualBox, if I could get it to run more stably.

Canon nFD 28mm f2.8

I always feel that the nFD 28mm f2.8 is an unloved child in the Canon FD family among other fast primes like the 24mm f1.4, 50mm f1.2, 85mm f1.2, etc.  In camera shows, in flea markets, you will see them often selling at $20 to $30 each, all in like new condition.  The nFD 28mm f2.8 really is an underloved, undervalued, and it really deserved more respect. So far, I have picked up at least 3 of them. Who knows, when people wake up and discover how great these little gems are, I may even be able to make a positive return on investment, LOL!

Reflection of Canada Malting Silos - Canon nFD 28mm f2.8 & Sony A7

Part of the reason the nFD 28mm f2.8 lens doesn't get much love, is because 28mm is a meh focal length for most users.  It's too common and often the cheapest in the wide angle category, if you overlook the Zeiss Otus 28mm f1.4.  The focal length sits between the ultra wide, normal.  It doesn't give you the impact of the 20mm angle of view, and is too wide for normal use.  But I kind of like this comfortable angle of view.

If you are looking for a very sharp wide angle lens that's cheap, this is the lens for you.  Compared to my Leica-R Elmarit 28mm f2.8, the Canon is sharper at the corners and edges.  Even wide open at f2.8, it's sharp and usable.

Toronto Downtown at Dusk - nFD 28mm f2.8 @ f2.8 & Sony A7, ISO 1600

The cheap price does not mean inferior build.  In fact, this thing as nicely built as the nFD 50mm f1.2, with metal barrels and very smooth focusing.  The only niggle I have is the 5-blade aperture, but then again, it was not designed for shallow depth of field or close up with a diffused background. I am more than happy with  with it.

Canon nFD 28mm f2.8 on Sony A7

M.R. Kane - Canon nFD 28mm f2.8 & Sony A7 @ f8

Tamron SP 60-300mm f3.8-5.4 - Revisited

Last time I looked at this lens here, I didn't mention its macro capability, so here is another look.

There are couple of very well known zoom lenses with macro capabilities.  By macro I don't mean the garden variety 1:4 ratio that pretty much every zoom lens possesses.  The Nikon Micro-Nikkor 70-180mm is probably the most popular, but expensive macro zoom, that can focus to 1:1.33 ratio at 180mm.  The Vivitar Series-1 90-180mm f4.5 Flat Field Macro Zoom is a cult-classic that can do 1:2 half life size at 180mm.  These two lenses were designed with macro capabilities in mind and thus the image quality in macro mode is much better than other zooms with macro features as an afterthought. One lesser known lens, the Tamron SP 60-300mm f3.8-5.4, has very capable macro mode, and deserving of a look if you are looking for a zoom lens with macro capabilities.  This lens has a maximum magnification ratio of 1:1.55 at 60mm, but majority of owners of this lens, if they do not read the instruction manual, would not know how to access this macro feature.

To activate this macro mode, you need to collapse the lens to 60mm, then focus the lens to minimum focus distance of 1.9m, and when you hear the focusing ring stop, apply more force and continue to turn the focusing ring until the yellow macro line on the focusing ring is aligned with the macro line on the lens barrel.  The special macro mode is now engaged.  If you slide the zoom ring outward, it will reveal the 1:1.55 mark that's normally hidden.  The biggest negative of this mode?  The focusing ring is locked and you can not use it to focus.  You can only move back and forth to focus.  It awkward and unnatural to use than a true macro lens, but if you don't want to spend the money to buy a true macro lens, this lens can be used in a pinch.

Aside from its macro capabilities, the Tamron SP 60-300mm lens has a very versatile zoom range.  Many people dismiss this lens because it's not very sharp wide open, especially the corners and edges, but at f8-f11, it is very acceptable across the frame.  True, it lacks micro contrast the gives the pictures "bite", compared to a prime, but the 5x zoom range is more than makes up for it, and the macro capability is definitely a nice bonus.  I am not a zoom lover, but I like this lens a lot.  The only downside, is the weight and size.  The lens itself is not very large in diameter with a 62mm filter size, but it's very dense and long, weighing more than 2 lbs.  One of the biggest advantage of this lens against the Nikon's micro Nikkor and the Vivitar, is the price.  It's often sold for around $60USD or less, compared to around $1000 for the Nikon, and around $150-$300 for the Vivitar.

All pictures below were taken with Tamron SP 60-300mm f3.8-5.4 & Sony A7

Topcon RE Auto Topcor 135mm f3.5

Got this lens from the camera show a couple of weeks ago, and it was a bargain for $5.  The lens is in pristine condition, both cosmetically and optically.  The RE Topcor lenses are beautifully made and this one is no exception.  The fit and finish is first rate.  A turn on the aperture ring reminds me of a precision instrument, and it's crafted like one.  The click is crisp and precise, and the sound is angelic.  Of all the lenses I have, and I have a few, no other lenses have an aperture ring that feels and sounds like this one.  I can feel the passion, and painstaking care the designer put into creating this piece of awesomeness.  Even if the lens performs like crap optically, it would still earn my utmost respect.

Topcor 135mm f3.5 on Sony A7

The attention to details can be seen clearly with the built-in hood.  In most Japanese lenses that have built-in hoods, 99% of them are useless, because they are way too short.  But, this lens has a two stage collapsible hood, similar to the one in the Leica-R Summicron 90mm f2, and extends to about twice as long as most built-in hoods.  While still not the proper length for this lens, it's much better than most.

The precision feel of the lens extends to the focusing.  The focusing ring is rubber with ribbed textured, and has the right amount of damping.  One turn of the ring and you feel like slicing butter with a hot knife.  It's smooth with a quality feel.  Again, the fit and finish of the rubber is just amazing; it looks and feels like a unified body part of the lens.

The modified EXA mount may pose problem if you use it on Canon bodies, but it has no problem with the NEX-EXA adapter that I have.  The 4 extruding pins on the mount will prevent the lens from mounting properly on EF-EXA adapters.  More reason to go with mirrorless cameras if you are really into manual focus lenses.

Lens mounts perfectly on the NEX-EXA adapter.  Note the 3 pins in the space between the adapter and the lens.

Attempted to mount lens to Canon-EXA adapter.  Note the pins are preventing the lens from mounting flush with the adapter.  On a normal Exakta mount, there is usually one one locking pin.  Not all RE Topcor lenses have these pins.  My RE Topcor 10cm f2.8 and 5.8cm f1.8 have only one pin.

In the image quality department, I can only evaluate the images that is in focus; the adapter I have is just shy of attaining infinity focus, unfortunately.  All the images at infinity appears to be sharp, but it's just not quite there.  I know the lens can do better as in medium distance, it's really sharp.  I guess a new NEX-EXA adapter is needed.

I quite like the rendering of this lens.  I was worried that a lens this well designed and built, might perform like crap, but it doesn't.  Sure a larger maximum aperture would be nice, but for close ups, it still provides very thin depth of field.  Check the picture below.  It was shot at f5.6 and the depth of field is still very thin.  The large sensor on the A7 helps.

Fallen leaf -- RE Topcor 135mm f3.5 @ f5.6 & Sony A7

Having used this lens, I am worried that I might start looking for other RE Topcor lenses.  They are not very common in Canada and price is not cheap at all.  I guess those who own these lenses know how good they are.

Bokeh - RE Topcor 135mm f3.5 & Sony A7

Island Ferry - RE Topcor 135mm f3.5 & Sony A7

Autumn Leaf -- RE Topcor 135mm f3.5 & Sony A7

Another Bokeh Shot - RE Topcor 135mm f3.5 & Sony A7

Topcon UV Topcor Lenses

It's often confusing when it comes to Topcon Topcor lenses, because it could be one of the two mounts: modified Exakta or UV mount.  The lenses themselves are physically very different between mounts.

The Topcor UV mount is the very cheap line, with aperture controls on the camera body, but thankfully, focusing is still done on the lens.  With the lens detached from the camera, the UV mount lens looks incomplete; they look like half lenses.  This is the whole point of this line of camera/lenses.  To be made cheap.  There are very few lenses available for the UV mount.  I have the 50mm f1.9, 53mm f2, 35mm f3.5, and 135mm f4.  Other UV lenses made were 28mm f4, 100mm f4, and 200mm f4.  Not many, and no fast lenses other than the 53mm f2.

Two Topcors. Left: Topcor 5.8cm f1.8. Right: UV Topcor 50mm f1.9

Mounting these lenses could be a problem.  As far as I know, there are no proper made adapters to use them on digital cameras.  You can make one with the mount from the camera, like I did here, and this is probably the only way to go.  I tried the lenses and I was not blown away by their image quality.  They are pretty much run of the mill quality in the same era as other lenses in the same class.  However, the 53mm f2 have pretty nice bokeh.

UV Topcor 53mm f2 on Sony A7

Spent an hour today shooting with the 53mm f2 UV Topcor.  The lens is quite sharp in the centre at f2, but the corners are kind of mushy.  Since aperture is controlled from the camera body, there is no easy way to control it on the lens when adapted to digital, so I just shot everything wide open.  That's not a great loss for me, as I like shooting wide open.  The only thing I couldn't do is the test the smaller apertures and see how the lens performs.

Overall, not really bad for a cheap lens.

All pictures below were taken with UV Topcor 53mm f2 & Sony A7.

F2 at infinity.  Not bad at the centre.

Flare -- Even the best lenses could not do much better in this situation.

Growing out of the wood --  Bokeh #1.

Milkweed Pods -- Bokeh #2

More Milkweed Pods

Full Frame Versus This and That

If you search the web on full frame vs. other sensor sizes (M4/3, APS-C, etc), you will no doubt be presented with all kinds of comparisons.  Some are very good, but many are pointless, to the point of being silly.  Consider a scene taken with a 24mm lens on full frame, and one taken with M4/3 with a 12mm lens, with aperture set at around f8, and compare away. With recently designed cameras, a picture like this will probably look identical in most cases, except the colour/white balance.  I am pretty sure few people can tell the difference between the two pictures if white balance is equalized. Personally, I think this is the wrong way to compare cameras systems.

Choosing a camera should reflect the kind of pictures you want to make, and you make sure the camera you choose has the lenses that allow you to realize the style of pictures you want.  Obviously, if you love to shoot architecture, you would want a camera that has tilt-shift lenses for it.  If you a thin depth of field freak, you want full frame with large aperture lenses, and if shooting sports is the primary use of a camera, then a DSLR with fast tracking focus system should be the main consideration.  The point is, the sensor format does not really matter much any more if viewed purely from the image quality standpoint, except when pushing the low light limit, in which case the full frame sensor usually has an advantage.  What really matters is that the chosen camera meets your needs.  Of course, if you have the means, and you really, really want, you can always have more than one system, to get the best features/functions from each system.

I chose a mirrorless full frame camera as my main system, because I like legacy lenses, and I am a thin depth of field freak.  The short flange of mirrorless cameras allows pretty much all lenses ever made for previous cameras to be used with proper adapter, which is what I like to do.

The Light -- Tamron Adaptall 60-300mm f3.8-5.4 & Sony A7

Camera Shows in Toronto - A Thought

Today was the annual camera show organized by the Photographic Society of Canada, the "Big One", as they advised.  Previously, this show was held in Woodbridge's Soccer Centre, taking up half of the indoor field, and was a huge show.  For the last couple of shows, they moved back to the original location in Etobicoke, much closer to me, but the venue is smaller.  I can't help but noticed that most of the camera shows in Toronto now have fewer vendors (tables) and are dominated by a few large (commercial) vendors, and fewer individual sellers.  The large vendors have some good selection of lenses, but very pricy.

What maybe happening is that these shows will eventually die, when all that's left are the large vendors.  I have been making conscious efforts to skip the commercial vendors' tables, since they seldom have any good deals.  If the shows ever end, that will be a very sad day.

I did spent more than I should have at today's show, as it usually happens.  One of the items I bought was the Voigtlander Prominent with an Ultron 50mm f2 lens.  I have been looking for this lens for a very long time, and I bought one today at a reasonable price, but the lens has separations in the rear elements.  From experience, this hardly causes any issues with image quality, and I hope I am right about this one.

Voigtlander Prominent with Ultron 50mm f2

One good deal today was the RE Topcor 135mm f3.5 for $5.  Every time I go to a camera show, I keep any eye open for the Topcor lenses, since Steve mentioned them in the comment section of this post.  They are not very common here in Toronto as I don't see them often.  I am happy to find another one for the collection for a low price.  But his one has a modified EXA mount which won't fit the Exaktar adapters.

RE Topcor 135mm f3.5.

Found another Vivitar 2X Macro Teleconverter for $15.  I have 6 or 7 of them now and I usually pick them up if they are under $20. I use them as focus helicoids for those lenses that don't have focus mechanism.  In the What Was I Thinking Department, I bought a C-mount 75mm f1.4 lens, hoping it would at least be usable in APS-C sensor, but the image circle is rather small.  Works well on the E-M5 though.  I haven't used C-Mount lenses for a while, and I really don't understand why I bought it.  Finally, a couple of broken rangefinder cameras that I will remove the lenses from.  A Nikkorex Auto35 with a Nikkor-H 48mm f2, and a Minolta AL with 45mm f2 lens.  Hopefully I will be able to make the lenses work.

No-Name (but 90% certain it's a Cosmicar)  75mm f1.4.