Worst ever seen Lens.

[hans voralberg]

Russian lens then, quite moddable and dirt cheap

 

[john341]

Can't believe you people are so unkind to Russian lenses. Soft, flare ++ poor contrast, it has to be an f2 Summar!

 

[horibilis]

How about an Itorex Pan Focus lens which is a T mount lens with a LTM T mount. This lens has an f40 removable disk. Unscrew rear element, remove disk, replace rear lens element. Use with anutoexposure or use on a metered SLR to get a basic exposure. Haven't tried this but will do in the morning.

 

[martin_t]

My '36 Summar. No filter or Vaseline required.
Special, blurred effects, straightaway.

 

[John Lawrence]

I should think the lens that came off this camera could have a few issues:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI...m=140286958571&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=004

Seriously though, I'd go with the other suggestions for a Summar. There are plenty around that are badly scratched, hazed, fogged etc.

 

[charjohncarter]

Here is a photo made with a homemade lens that fits my LTM camera, so I guess it will work on M. It is an Instamatic lens mounted with the help of a plastic medication bottle in a LTM to T mount adapter. I, since this image was taken, have stopped it down 5.6 to lower the flare, (BTW it did not cost much):

 

[jwhitley]

- Haze: Smear some vaseline on a clear piece of glass, hold it in front of your lens.
- Vignetting: Cut a ring from cardboard with a hole slightly smaller than the front element, hold it in front of your lens.
- Flare, low contrast: Make some deep scratches into a clear piece of glass, hold it in front of your lens.

A great way to do the above is to simply get an old junk-bin clear-ish filter, as cheap as you can find, then put it to the torture test as rxmd describes. You can get two and stack them to keep the vaseline from getting all over everything, and to hold a cardboard vignetting ring in place in the middle. (Or just use a step down ring with filters that are too small.) The nice thing about this approach is that you can try it on different lenses to see how the effect varies.