Playing With Lenses: July 2017

Friday 28 July 2017

A Centenial: Kodar 131mm 1:6.3

Cost: 25$ for the Donor Camera in an Antique Store

Now that was a fun project! Taking the lens from a 91 year old folding camera, and mount it on a new digital camera to see how good these old lenses really were. And looking awesome wile taking the pictures! I had a lot of other camera-guys give me a second look when parading this concoction on the street. Pretty cool!

The Kodar 131mm lens is an achromatic meniscus lens with a maximum aperture of f/6.3 and a Kodex 1 shutter with four speeds: time, bulb, 1/25, and 1/50. In my case, I could use the T setting (shutter stays open in the level is pressed again), so I could use the electronic shutter of the Sony. The bellows make for smooth focussing. So smooth that I wonder why this is not used more often... I will for sure use the bellows again with some other lenses.

Of course, you can not expect the same quality as today's lenses, but I was pleasantly surprised. A little bit of focus smear when pixel peaking, but little color fringing. As there is no lens coating, taking pictures in the direction of the sun is out of the question. Sharpness was not that bad, for a lens this old. I did like the awesome bokeh this lens produced, as proven by the flower pictures below.

Of course, I did have to figure out how to mount this lens on the Sony camera. Looking bad, once I had the right tools (the Pentax bellows, a metal M42 camera body cap and a step drill bit - from eBay), it was fairly easy to do.

Removal of the camera system from the main body, for easy access to the lens.

Removal of the lens and shutter unit by using a lens spanner.

Use a stepped drill bit to make a hole in the metal body cap, the size of the screw mount of the shutter system.

Use the adapter ring of the original camera to mount the shutter system on the body cap. and screw it on the bellow. Done!

Fun project, already looking out for the next Franken-lens project!
Lens Specification:

Focal Length: 131
Maximum Aperture: F6.3
Minimum Aperture: F45
Image Format: 116
Lens Mount: Screw Mount
Optics: 3 elements
Blades: 9
Focussing: Manual via Bellows
Minimum Focus: ??cm
Filter Size: na
Weight: na
Length: na
Production: 1926
Serial Number: na

Made In: USA

More information on Kodak

The No.1 Pocket Kodak was introduced on 1926 and uses Kodak’s short-lived autographic 116 film which allows you to use a metal stylus to write information about the photograph you just took by opening the squat T-shaped window on the rear panel of the camera. It was also possible to use regular 120 film. A rotating waist-level viewfinder can be found diagonal from the lens and focusing is achieved via worm screw on the user’s right side of the front panel with a focus distance scale on the left. The Pocket Kodak also features two tripod sockets: one just behind the worm screw for portraits and one on other side of the winding key for landscapes.

Although it was not a high end camera at the end, it's nicely art-deco decorated, and looks awesome of the shelf. I haven't tried but expect the camera is full working order. No worries, nothing got damaged during this test!

Kodak's economical group of achromatic lenses included the Kodak Kodar, Twindar, and Bimat Lenses, utilizing the front element method of focusing for subjects as close as five feet from the lens. These lenses and shutters, within their limitations, will produce decent pictures. Cameras had the advantages of lightness of weight, simplicity of operation, and were inexpensive.
It should be noted that in the 1920s and early 1930s, the Kodar was usually a triplet design of decent performance. In later years it was often a doublet design of lesser quality. This name has been used for various lenses until the present time.

Adapter: Honeywell Pentax Bellows II - M42
Cost: can't remember :-) - on eBay

What can I say, it's a bellows adapter. Well made, smooth focussing. good markings. There is only one minor issue when mounting on the Sony camera with an adapter ring. It's impossible to just mount the whole bellow on the camera, as the rail system, when being mounted, is blocked by the camera body. Luckily, you can take the mount piece itself from the bellow, mount it separately on the camera, and slide the bellows back on. Easy to do...

Samples:

1/125s - ISO400 - Handheld

1/80s - ISO800 - Handheld

1/200s - ISO800 - Handheld

1/160s - ISO800 - Handheld

1/320s - ISO800 - Handheld

1/125s - ISO800 - Handheld

1/125s - ISO800 - Handheld

1/500s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/200s - ISO100 - Handheld - Cropped

1/500s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/400s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/125s - ISO400 - Handheld

1/50s - ISO100 - Handheld

Sources:
CameraPedia - Kodak Lenses
Vintage Camera Lab
Mike Ecman Dot Com

Friday 14 July 2017

Blah..: Summatech Zoom P-MC Macro 1:4.5 70-210

Cost: 19.99$ (average market price $20)

Blah... that's the correct term to describe this lens. The lens feels cheap, with a shiny but metal build, poor handling and low image quality.

The lens is hard to focus as the focus peaking feature was not accurate, and the focus zoom was hard to use due to an almost hazy picture in the view finder. The macro feature was not much better then any other non-macro lens.

Image quality was lacking. No contrast or saturation, disappointing bokeh, often a lack of sharpness, to much fading of the image when taking pictures in the slightest direction of the sun all the way up to a point where some Lightroom editing cannot correct it anymore.

Just one of these lenses where you doubt you want to post the review, as for sure this one is going for sale on eBay and you don't want a potential buyer to Google this review... but honesty first, I guess.
Blah!

Lens Specification:
Focal Length: 70-210mm
Maximum Aperture: F4.5
Minimum Aperture: F22
Image Format: 35mm
Lens Mount: PK
Optics: ? elements in ? groups
Blades: 6
Focussing: Manual
Minimum Focus: ??cm
Filter Size: 58mm
Weight: 560g
Length: 128-140mm
Production: 70's or 80's
Serial Number: 831346
Made In: Japan

Company:
From the little information I could find, Summatech was a 70's-80's Denver-based company that sold camera accessories and binoculars. Apparently they also distributed a very limited line of re-branded lenses for various mounts. A quick search on past postings on eBay gave a 200mm Prime, a 28mm Wide Angle... but not more.

P-MC
I was not able to find to much on this, so will just assume that MC stands for Multi Coated, and P possible for Pentax Mount. Note that the term PMC (without the hyphen) was also common used on Panagor lenses.

Adapter:

Lens Turbo II PK - Nex

Cost: $75, used on B&H PhotoVideo, new for $149

The Pentax K Lens to Sony E-Mount Camera Lens Turbo Adapter Mark II from Mitakon allows Pentax K lenses to be mounted on Sony E-Mount APS-C format cameras, increasing the angle of view by 0.726x and the maximum aperture of the lens by 1 f-stop.The four optical elements of the Lens Turbo adapter condense light from the Pentax K full frame lens and project it onto the camera's APS-C sensor allowing the sensor to capture all of the lens' transmitted light, negating the 1.5x crop factor and effectively producing full-frame coverage on non-full-frame sensors. A corresponding increase in the maximum aperture of 1 f-stop makes the lens more effective in low-light situations.

The Mark II version of the Lens Turbo features an improved design to produce sharper images. Its rectangular rear lens rests closer to the camera's sensor improving light transmission and an enhanced lens coating minimizes ghosting and flare. One extra-low dispersion (ED) lens element reduces aberrations for better delineated images. The adapter offers a sturdy metal construction and stainless steel mounts, it attaches to both camera and lens with little play and includes a front and rear protective cap. The Lens Turbo is a manual adapter offering no electronic communication between lens and camera.

Samples:

1/320s - ISO1600 - Handheld

1/4000s - ISO1600 - Handheld

1/200s - ISO400 - Handheld - Cropped

1/160s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/400s - ISO400 - Handheld

1/100s - ISO400 - Handheld - Cropped

1/400s - ISO400 - Handheld - Cropped

1/50s - ISO400 - Handheld - Cropped

Sunday 9 July 2017

Getting detailed: Ricoh XR Rikenon 1:2 50mm

Cost: 19.99$ (average market price $24.50)

This is my second Rikenon 50mm prime. This time the XR version. Again a decent, well build lens. Smooth handling, light weight, sharp and nice colors. Did I mention sharp? Take a look at the horse pictures below.

This time, I wanted to do something different, so I tested the lens also with some Macro Extender Tubes. To get a decent macro, traditionally you would use a dedicated Macro lens. But with the new digital camera's, with high ISO, you can use the tubes without even needing a flash. No pixel-peeping though as the high ISO does show when zoomed in all the way.

No need to say I'm impressed. Most of the macro shots below where of subjects smaller than the thumbnail of my pinky. No need for expensive macro equipment. And a lot of fun experimenting. The peak focussing feature again helps tremendously. You leave the lens to the closest focal distance and move the camera itself until in focus. A high shutter speed will keep things sharp.

Again a keeper. If you see one, get it. A very cheap way to get a fast, sharp, 50mm prime.

Lens Specification:
Focal Length: 50mm
Maximum Aperture: F2
Minimum Aperture: F16
Image Format: 35mm
Lens Mount: PK
Optics: 6 elements in 5 groups
Blades: 6
Focussing: Manual
Minimum Focus: 40cm
Filter Size: 52mm
Weight: 230g
Length: 38-46mm
Production: 1980's
Serial Number: 146068
Made In: Japan

XR
The XR and P versions are Rikenon lenses with better optical quality. The XR and the P labelled models are essentially of the same optical grade and image quality, the only difference being the pin on the P model for use in AV mode on Pentax cameras.

Samples: