fotomeow, the film in the shots above: 100 speed Kodak Ektar; a gorgeous film.
Luno, I did indeed get aberration data, but it’s mostly in japanese (I don’t speak it). Anyone willing to translate? I’ll upload a photo of the conversion slip below courtesy of Dirk.
Here are my thoughts on the lens thus-far:
Conversion is top quality. Materials used seem like the same materials in Contax G lens conversions which Ken Rockwell describes on his site: Anodized aluminum body and brass helicoid and mount. A notch has been thoughtful milled into the top edge of the mount that aligns to the click point on the camera body... kind of like the brass notch version of the Leica red dot. Another cool feature is a recession which has been milled into the mount for the code strip on the m8/m9... this way if you mark it it wont wear off from mounting remounting. Dirk offered to code it for me, and did just that! Lens feels super solid, with no play, and is very light! About the same weight as my 35mm cron pre-asph.
Handling on the conversion: the focusing tab is very sharp, but the front block of the lens rotates so you can easily achieve focus this way. I like the short focus throw, and it is SHORT. Damping on the focus feels just about right, VERY smooth. The aperture doesn’t have click stops and is damped very stiffly to prevent accidental turning. I would have preferred it to rotate more freely, but Dirk says there might be a screw that can adjust this. It could also just be that the lube used is a very resistant one.
The lens LOOKS collapsible, but it isn’t. Just has a minimalistic rigid design. Front filter ring has been converted from a skylight filter, works perfectly!
All in all handling is similar to a Jupiter 8 or other FSU lens with rotating front block, albeit a very nicely tuned one. I am very pleased. For the rareness of this kind of speciality lens work I couldn’t be happier, I just wish the aperture were easier to rotate. 🙂
Close focus specs are the same as the Electro series. The lens is marked to F16 on the aperture but you can stop it down a little beyond this... an initial test photo shows that stopping down past F16 gives some degradation... but F16 is perfect, just like on the GSN.
Most interesting is the entire aperture mechanism has been replaced, and now has no less than TWELVE, that’s right, twelve blades. The original Electro G lens had 5 blades.
Image quality: more on this to come, but my in my in initial tests it looks exactly like the Color Yashinon DX f1.7 I love so much. I’m planning on doing some side by side comparisons between my Yashica GSN and the newly converted lens. More coming soon!
