The Off-Brand Club!!

[Björn]

Some more, sort of off brand. I got a 50mm f1.4 auto-chinon lens from a friend at work. Tried to put it to use during the weeks before christmas and got some great images out of it, I think. Although, I had to use high ISO (400-800). This is the last one from the Chinon lenses. I got a pentacon 30mm/3.5 from the uk the other week that I will try out for a bit now (very cool small lens).

[jgredline]

These are all with the Promaster 100F/3.5 macro.

[jgredline]

More with the Promaster 100 F/3.5 MACRO Pic of lens shown below.

[Björn]

[QUOTE=jgredline;432329]More with the Promaster 100 F/3.5 MACRO Pic of lens shown below./QUOTE]

The portraits was very nicely "soft" and the colors was very nice. Nice pictures and lens I think!
Björn

[jgredline]

[QUOTE=Björn;432584]

Originally Posted by jgredline

More with the Promaster 100 F/3.5 MACRO Pic of lens shown below./QUOTE]

The portraits was very nicely "soft" and the colors was very nice. Nice pictures and lens I think!
Björn

Thank you. The reason I bought it was because I kept running across it on ebay and I thought to myself. Awe, what the heck. It's only $125.00, worth a try. I have used it only twice since as I really bought it for use with my film cameras. As for the soft portrait shots, that is what I really liked about those images. There is some soft that is good and believe this is one of those times. I had those printed and I like them.

[jgredline]

Here are a few more from the promaster lens.

[georgweb]

Björn,
nice portrait series, the black and white one has good shadows I think. Your Chinon should be the same lens as the Sears,... variants.

Javier,
beautiful portraits and maybe even better in print? I can contribute a little and connect to the 100mm portrait lens topic.


Oh oh. Something strange with the bokeh (middle and upper left).



Better maybe: Glowy duckshot.


Both of these are full open from a Meyer Görlitz Trioplan 2.8/100 on the K100D. Low-fi 50s design, but still OK.
This is one of the lenses that produce visible grain on the DSLR, which means that the resolution is not up to it
(easily visible in 100% crops). Still not bad, should try it on film one day.

Lucky entry into 2009,
Georg

[jgredline]

Thanks George!. It is not often I like an image with blown highlights, but those portraits are soft enough where they work for me. I had them printed on 8x10 and are perfect.

One thing about macro lenses, is they do make nice soft portraits.

[jamelikat]

anyone know anything about derek gardner 135mm/2.8 M42 screwmount lens? e.g. is it an english lens?

sample photo shot on it today (via M42 adapter to pentax ist DS) here > photoshop autolevels or not

.

[mel]

This is from a testing set of a Korean-made Varexon (never heard of it) 135/2.8 that I picked up, essentially for free, at a Flea Market, which is the very best price ever. I also had a CU+3 filter and a flash, bounced, with white tissue paper wrapped around it for diffusion. The image is cropped. I had to take the back off the lens and jimmy the pin to keep it pushed in so the aperture would open and close. Not too shabby a lens for free I think.

[stevebrot]

Originally Posted by mel

This is from a testing set of a Korean-made Varexon (never heard of it) 135/2.8 that I picked up, essentially for free, at a Flea Market, which is the very best price ever. I also had a CU+3 filter and a flash, bounced, with white tissue paper wrapped around it for diffusion. The image is cropped. I had to take the back off the lens and jimmy the pin to keep it pushed in so the aperture would open and close. Not too shabby a lens for free I think.

The image looks great...and free is a VERY good price!

Steve

[stevebrot]

Originally Posted by jamelikat

anyone know anything about derek gardner 135mm/2.8 M42 screwmount lens? e.g. is it an english lens?

sample photo shot on it today (via M42 adapter to pentax ist DS) here > photoshop autolevels or not

.

There was a posting some months ago regarding a Derek Gardner lens (Off Brand Club, page 6, bottom of page) in Singapore. Google gives a few references, though not much. Maybe another user will have some information?

Steve

[Nesster]

Mel, a free lens is a good lens. Recently I got two Hanimar 135's, effectively free between them (the second, 'real' lens was sent in error and the seller didn't want it back)... which I have yet to try.

Because of this Soligor 105mm 2.8 T4 mount lens I've been mainly playing with:

Click on the image to view it in a larger size

[mel]

[QUOTE=Nesster;438683]Mel, a free lens is a good lens. Recently I got two Hanimar 135's, effectively free between them (the second, 'real' lens was sent in error and the seller didn't want it back)... which I have yet to try.

Because of this Soligor 105mm 2.8 T4 mount lens I've been mainly playing with:

I have a Hanimar m42 supposedly (135/3.5) but it won't mount on my cameras (with the adaptor or the spotmatic). It seems like the thread grooves aren't deep enough or something. It will go on about maybe 3/4s of a turn and that's it. I'm rather bummed about it as it's a rather cool looking, skinnier than normal, preset aperture lens. Does yours mount okay?

I also have an old Soligar zoom but I've never really been satisfied with the IQ, even back in the film days. I always thought, even when developing and printing in the darkroom, it was soft. Now it has some haze in one of the inner elements. I'm sure I'll take it out sometime to play and be artsy though. I still have kind of a soft spot for it.

Oh, and thanks Steve!

[Nesster]

Mel, what you have is probably a T mount: T-mount - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Does it look like this, but with a truncated rear end?


With a T mount, the bit after the knurling at the end would be where the mount goes.

--

This is a photo with my other favorite 35mm lens: Yashinon DX 35/2.8

Click on the image to view it in a larger size