Manual Focus Lenses Forum

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4069 Location: Charleston

While I am not to be the first to post about this lens, there haven't been many others. It came to me in pretty good shape except for internal dirt and minor fungus. I disassembled the rear portion and was able to clean (maybe not so well) the rear element and the rear of the element in front of it. Given my track record with reassembling lenses, I didn't disassemble the front portion, which also needs cleaning, so I still have some haze effect at wide aperture. I find the lens to have a unique rendering which you will see in the bokeh of the lager aperture shots. The lighting yesterday was less than ideal, but was my friend in some shots while not so much in others. The first set of my brother (no accounting for his taste in camera brand) were taken at f/3.5 and f/5.6 respectively. The next picture at f/3.5 displays the soft haze around the light areas. The remainder were taken between f/3.5 and f/5.6. I don't recall stopping down below that. I think you will agree that the lens renders in its own way in some of the shots, and can get quite sharp when stopped down a little.

enliten · Expire: 2014-07-03

I'm normally a fan of the meyer bokeh, but this lens is just too harsh for my tastes...
IMO the 6th shot is the best.

Can you post a pic of the lens itself?

-Ben

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Birds are quiet nice, yet a bit oversharpened.

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4069 Location: Charleston

ForenSeil · Tue Mar 05, 2013 1:24 am

#4 and #6 are nice
Not bad for a faulty lens

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Rare lens and perform pretty well, nice series.

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

cyrano · Expire: 2016-12-30

#4 stands out head and shoulders above the pack, #5? whoa, what happened there? The bokeh took a manic twist.
Interesting lens thoughb either way.
first post here, hello people. Very Happy

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4069 Location: Charleston

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4069 Location: Charleston

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

No issues before sharpening, that seagull's head looks just perfect. I think it has to do with that
sharpening algorithm applied. I use a simple unsharp mask after I resized to net size before upload.

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4069 Location: Charleston

I have just stopped all sharpening of images after what the camera already does. The camera seems to do a good job of it and I probably don't need any more anyway. I use the Photoshop "Image Size" to resize my images to 1024, and have been selecting "Bicubic Sharper (best for reduction)" from the pull down menu below. Maybe if I do no additional sharpening, the resize will work better.

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4069 Location: Charleston

Here are a few more images from this lens. You can see where it suffers a haze/glow around light areas. When stopped down to just f/5.6 it seems to go away. I'm wondering if this is a characteristic of the lens or still needs more cleaning. Anyone? The last two were exposures of 1/2 second at f/3.5 and 1.3 seconds at f/5.6. No additional sharpening post camera.

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4069 Location: Charleston

Since my last post I have had this lens cleaned of fungus and haze. It works much better now, but still displays a glow from highlights, so I'm inclined to believe that is a characteristic of the lens. I will use it extensively tomorrow, but today I just did wide open tests to assess IQ after the cleaning. It's not the most easy lens to focus, but when done accurately, provides an acceptable level of sharpness despite the glow. Stopped down we know from my earlier pictures that it gets sharp. Here are my wide open post cleaning test shots:

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4069 Location: Charleston

Had a chance to use this lens yesterday while walking downtown. The glow is quite apparent in the strong bright areas and provides for a soft look, but inside the glow is very acceptable sharpness. At f/5.6 it's like a different lens as it sharpens up and contrast increases.

Pancolart · Expire: 2013-11-18

Mirror lens like bokeh is quite terrible, whereas i really like softish samples with glow. In some photos you manage to "simulate" Trioplan bokeh.
It seems you like challenging lens and this Meyer certainly seems such. Beware it might grow on you Smile

.

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4069 Location: Charleston

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

I have the Primotar 135mm. It has the same bokeh, I think the outer ring to the bokeh circles is due to the way the elements were ground - the edges are not as smooth as they might be. Also, the Primotar I have does have some glow wide open but not as much as this one. Mine has clean glass. I wonder if it's due to internal reflection? The black paint on the inside doesn't look as black or as matte as with some other lenses.

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4069 Location: Charleston

I'm hoping someone can answer this for me. This Primotar has an outer ring similar to many presets, but it only moves a short turn and has two dots indicating where the turn stops. This really is a very short throw and I can see it doing anything different from right or left. The diaphragm stops down with the inside ring; it appears as a single function. What is that outer ring about?

calvin83 · Joined: 12 Apr 2009 Posts: 7740 Location: Hong Kong

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4069 Location: Charleston

Fascinating. Thank you, Calvin. I have a dedicated adapter on this P6 version and never noticed the push button on the rear of the lens. Unfortunately, I can't make any good use of the function.

Oldhand · Fri May 09, 2014 8:17 am

Thanks for sharing these. Meyers are truly wonderful lenses.
That glow can be used to effect and - of course the trick will be to find those suitable times and conditions - and in my case anyway, remembering them Smile

I don't have this Meyer but went searching for my closest equivalent in P6 format and it is the CJZ Biometar.
Here is a sample of it wide open for comparisons - similar - but not the same - colour rendering.
Another lens my son likes to borrow regularly - haha.
OH

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4069 Location: Charleston

I believe my copy of this Meyer may have more glow than others and I am wondering if some of that could be caused by external factors. I have a double adapter arrangement, having a P-6 to Sony A, then a Sony A to NEX adapter. That is not ideal, but is what I had when the lens arrived. I may look for something to use as a baffle to eliminate or reduce reflective light. I am thinking of a cylinder to reside inside the adapters and be of a non reflective material.

I used the lens yesterday at a beach where the conditions were not ideal, meaning that it was a very bright, sunny day. I received results pretty much in line with what I expected; wide open were overexposed, as I knew they would be, and stopped down shots were sharp with good contrast. There is an enormous difference between wide open and even one click down. However, there is one picture that puzzles me. There is a red-ish glow in the center portion of the image. I have never experienced this before and can't make any sense of it. To my memory, the lens was stopped down moderately and this was the only picture I took where I deliberately blocked the sun with my back to create a shadow on the ground where I was to frame the picture. So I think this also means the camera and lens were also shaded with the sun to my back. What do you folks make of this?

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4069 Location: Charleston

Hoping to get comments on that one picture. Here are three more from yesterday...

Oldhand · Mon May 12, 2014 12:48 am

That hot spot really is puzzling.
I had a similar result from a different lens - OK fully open and then burned out much worse than that when stopped down.
I found a long hood and for whatever reason it hasn't happened again.
Other than that one, your other images are delightful. Very Meyer-ish in the colour dept.
OH