50mm lenses

FrankS

FrankS

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So, I've finally got my 50mm lens collection completed and will be looking for some time to give them a test. On the camera is a Fed f3.5 collapsible lens. (Yes, it does collapse all the way to make a very compact package. This lens was bought from Ole in Norway!) In front of the camera from left to right are: Canon f1.8 (bought from Brian), Summicron f2 (bought with the assistance of Don), Jupiter 8 f2 (bought from Kin) and an Industar 61LD f2.8 (55mm). (gift from Joe) What a great place RFF is for photo gear collectors/users! I plan to use just 1 roll of film on 1 body and switch the lenses to eliminate processing differences. Any suggestions for the test subject matter?
 
Pretty collection you have made.
If I stop buying compact rangefinders I may get one of those someday.
I'll be watching your pictures.
 
Re: 50mm lenses

FrankS said:
I plan to use just 1 roll of film on 1 body and switch the lenses to eliminate processing differences. Any suggestions for the test subject matter?
Click to expand...

Umhhhh, very nice looking women? 😉

Todd
 
Funnilly enough, I have been thinking along the same lines. I am going to try and get out this weekend and compare my 35's.

My initial thoughts for test shots were:

1) Head and shoulder portrait shot at f4
2) Still life of some sort at f2
3) candid people shot at f8
4) scenery shot at f5.6
5) scenery shot at f16

trying to get some real world stuff instead of a shot of a newspaper pinned on a wall.....(I'm more interested in the clarity and appearance than the ultimate "ooh look you can read the text in column 4 of the newspaper")

Anyway, as Frank said - ideas?

tim
 
And yeh, very nice looking women would be great, and there's no shortage of them in Sydney in summer. Scantily clad, too, many of them.
Unfortunately you can't ask them to stay in one place while you change lenses (well, I suppose you could but you may get slapped)
And for the (few) women on this forum - to be fair I'd have to go and look for nice beefy men. And while there are also plenty of them around, I'm not going photographing them. Sorry....

tim
 
... to be fair I'd have to go and look for nice beefy men. And while there are also plenty of them around, I'm not going photographing them. Sorry.... Tim

I'm not that artistic either.
 
Send those lenses to me. I'll test them on Midsumma Gay and Lesbian Festival - both girls and guys.

Boy, I must be a sick person! 😀
 
Hi Frank, I was just reading your post and noticing that you already have an industar-61. If you want I can send you a

"something in Russian"-26m

instead. Makes no difference to me as I'm not using either. Let me know.

DD
 
DD, that's an Industar 26 - even has a FED logo. It usually comes with FED 2 and/or FED 3, from what I've seen. Not much of a performer, usually, although some shots I've taken with it were quite nice. Not super sharp, as Leitz glass, or even a Yashica, but nice.

Denis
 
All this talk of 50mm lenses and Jupiter 8's has reminded me that I'm on the lookout for a good quality silver Jupiter 8! I'm using my black one on my Bessa R2 and need to replace the one on my Zorki 3M. Silver looks nicer on the Zorki.

Anyone have a decent user to spare? I'm willing to part with insignificant amounts of money 😀

Gene
 
Gene, if the J-8 thread is anything to go by the J-8 might become the next Canon P: increasing in value and becoming rarer by the day. 🙂 Maybe we here on RFF can stock up on J-8s, keep them away from the public, push the J-8's reputation to the sky, and sell them at a profit in some years to all those new J-8 addicts? 😛
 
What I will never figure out about Russian Lenses is how they get the HARD part right (the optics) and then BLOW the mechanical portion: The Helical, RF coupling, Aperture Clicks, and other Machining varries greatly from lens-to-lens. This is the country that made the MIG-25 (Mach 3) in the '60s! I suspect that they ran there tools too long, so the quality of the lens depends on the condition of the tool used to make it. Pure Speculation, but something systemically wrong had to be in place to screw up quality control.

Let's keep those prices down; like $2 for my J-8m and $14 for my Helios-103.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'd just remind you from recent personal experience that the lens to flange distance on the russian lenses is not quite the same as with the Leica and VC lenses and bodies. If you are using f2-2.8, you are likely to get an incorrect focus point.

David
 
Apparently glass making is a long standing (centuries) Russian industry. They have natural resources of excellent sands and a tradition of making very high quality glasses.

I had read that in many places, but most recently is mentioned in the Princelle book.
 
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