Pancolar MC 50 1.8 - tidying it up

PhantomLord · Joined: 08 Apr 2013 Posts: 476 Location: Szczecin, Poland

Hello,

It was long time ago since I've posted, but I try to stay up to date with the posts. Some time ago I was cleaning my Pentax-M 28 for sale and I thought that it would be fun to get some nice lens but in not so good condition at good price. Kind of a project.

Long story short I've decided on Pancolar 50/1.8 MC. I've found one locally for about 35 Euro (not the best price, granted, but it was still half for what they come here).
Here are some photos taken by the seller:
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After receiving package it turned out that it's dirty as hell, focusing is not smooth at all and has some play in helicoid and aperture is a bit closed and uneven despite being set to wide open. Project it is!

I've disassembled it completely, including the whole aperture (which was by mistake, it just happened - I was holding the rest of the lens while all aperture blades dropped on the table, one by one Very Happy

).
Barrel cleaned nicely with WD-40, soapy water and in the end a bit of less aggressive metal polish. Glass was almost pristine, except first lens, which cleaned nicely. It took me about half an hour to find out how whole aperture assembly should be packed up and another hour to get it done. I've put some lithium grease (which I've never found separating) on the both helicoids and put it together. Grease is a bit to thick (NLGI-2) and I really should find some NLGI-1 or 0 grade, but focusing is smooth, albeit a bit on the harder side.

Lens ready after some "spa" treatment:
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I think it turned out reasonably nice and in person it's night and day difference.

What's more I've never had Pancolar before and Rollei HFT Planar 50/1.8 I had wasn't anything to write home about, in my opinion. I was really curious then about the photos from my new lens.
I must admit, that I've took only a few, mere snapshots around the house and at first glance it's nice lens with plenty of character. On close focusing distances it's visibly less sharp, but paints background in a way that reminds me Chinon's 55/1.7 rendering and I really like it. On a bit longer focusing distance around 1.0-1.5 m image is tack sharp from wide open (at least in the centre) with nice contrast, but it needs to be taken outdoor for some fun to see what it's made of.

All in all I would like to thank all of the guys in various Pancolar threads that spoke very fondly about the lens, as it was great recommendation to buy it. Whole project was very fun and relaxing (well... except the part when aperture blades and whole aperture mechanism dismantled before I took any photo of how it was assembled).

A few snapshots on A7II
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Sciolist · Expire: 2021-04-16

Nice job

.

TurtleSkinny · Joined: 15 Jan 2020 Posts: 70 Location: Italy

Wow congratulations! Like Dog

papasito · Joined: 09 Jan 2015 Posts: 1658

Congratulations!!!

Great job. And nice lens.

I had have 3 copies of it. Red MC with yellow/brown second rear element, white MC and white MC with shorter ficus ring.

The red MC had strong contrast and yellowed colours. The white ones were more neutral rendering.

In the sharpness departament, the sweet F was at 5 6 un the center and F/8 at the corners.

But they had not the punch sharpness that my S-M-C 50/1,4 had in the center at F/4 to 5,6.

So I sold them.

Good lens.

uddhava · Expire: 2021-06-21

Oldhand · Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 8:58 pm Post subject:

Very well done.
The rendering is quite beautiful.
The creamy bokeh is outstanding
Tom

jamaeolus · Expire: 2015-08-20

Pancolar are excellent. I have a couple copies of the F2 and a 1.8 in 50mm I also have a near pristine 80mm 1.8 eclectric with original case. My first was f2 I bought cheap that had a stiff helicoid and was pretty ugly cosmetically but took really nice photos.