Manual Focus Lenses Forum

kathala · Joined: 13 May 2022 Posts: 164

This is a Meyer Kinon Superior 5cm, a 16mm projection lens. It nearly covers full frame, with the tiniest hard vignette in the image corners. In all crop formats (1:1, 1:3, ...), it's fine.
I had researched these projection lenses extensively, since I enjoy lenses with character, i.e. neither a technical, flat bokeh (think Sigma Art), nor a one-trick-pony toy look (think Lomo Petzval or Lensbaby). I know this is not to everyone's taste, and if it's not yours, now at least you know Smile

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For me, I fell in love with the rendition of four lenses: this one, the Meopta Meostigmat, the Kowa Prominar, and the Wollensak CRO. In a year of search, I have only managed to find the former two. They were moderately priced and easily adapt to Leica M mount (uncoupled). Coming from Leica M, I use a helicoid adapter from M to my EVIL camera, which also functions as focus unit for these lenses, and gives about a half metre close focus. The aperture is of course fixed (1.3 for the Meo, 1.9ish for the Meyer, but they did do an f/1.6 version as well, which is marked as such on the front).
And so for some early impressions:

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The field of focus is warped in a W shape, and towards the corners bends towards the camera (= LOTS of separation).
Centre sharpness is high, IMHO higher than the Lomo Petzval Bokeh Control at several times the price, and just staggering for a design from 1935 (!). It's slightly behind the 5o/1.4 Canon FD at f/1.4 and accepts slightly more sharpening.
Corner sharpness however is nonexistent, even after shifting focus, since we are using an image circle way out of the comfort zone of the original application. But the Lomo's out-of-centre sharpness isn't great either, BTW.
CA is low to nonexistent.
Separation is roughly on par with the Canon 5o/1.4 open (which is about the same as a Noctilux at f/2!), although much of the separation effect is achieved through field curvature rather than shallow depth of field.
Contrast is lower than on modern lenses, of course, and stray light sensitivity higher (the lens seems uncoated), but again, is quite spectacular for something older than all of my grandfathers.
The entire lens weighs below 1oog and is astonishingly slim (but lengthy).

simple.joy · Joined: 30 May 2022 Posts: 945

Fantastic results with this interesting lens and you really highlighted its capabilities with the choice of formats as well!

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

alex ph · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 1802

A nice find and a jolly PP!

The image circle of this lens is suprisingly large for a 16mm projector one. Comparing it to other 16mm with equal focal length and similar swirly rendition I tested, I confirm that Benoist Berthiot 1.5/50, SOM Berthiot 1.7/50, and even Som Berthiot Cinor 1.5/65 barely cover an APS-C while you used yours with FF.

kathala · Joined: 13 May 2022 Posts: 164

Thanks everyone for the warm response!

sergtum · Joined: 14 Nov 2016 Posts: 735

kymarto · Tue Nov 15, 2022 1:14 pm

Crazy Leica Fox · Joined: 29 Apr 2017 Posts: 83

Jozef_AV · Joined: 24 Sep 2015 Posts: 39

Kinon 3,5cm is also fun. I find it a tad more forgiving than the 5cm, especially at closups.
It doesnt cover full aps-c frame on infinity but the closer you get the less of an issue it is.
Bokeh is wonderfull and it swirls nice too.

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kathala · Joined: 13 May 2022 Posts: 164

kymarto · Fri Nov 18, 2022 2:48 pm

I'm not sure it will work with the normal Kinon Superior. If you remove the rear retaining ring there are two air spaced elements. I can't remember which of the two needs to be flipped