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S-K Xenar 4.5/75 at f/8, sharp setting
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PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2009 2:57 am    Post subject: S-K Xenar 4.5/75 at f/8, sharp setting Reply with quote
Here are some examples of what the Xenar is capable of on a 350D when the front cell is set at infinity. The linked full-res examples are worth examining. I used a proper lens shade and haven't made any contrast adjustments. All the shots are fully manually focused at f/8.

11779, examine at the granite surfaces at full-res:

http://galactinus.net/vilva/retro/eos350d_xenar75_files/xe11779.jpg

11780:


11781:


11783:


11784:

http://galactinus.net/vilva/retro/eos350d_xenar75_files/xe11784.jpg

11788:


11791:


11792:

http://galactinus.net/vilva/retro/eos350d_xenar75_files/xe11792.jpg

11795, the highlight bokeh is quite nice - for a four glass triplet:


11797, look at the full-res considering the frame area is about 37% of a full 35mm frame or 10% of the 6x6 for which this lens was intended:

http://galactinus.net/vilva/retro/eos350d_xenar75_files/xe11797.jpg

Quite decent with a lens from 1932.

Veijo


PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2009 3:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Veijo, hienoa! That's awesome, the granite is alive. I have seen this from my Pentax 43mm Limited, and your beautiful 1932 Xenar. Excellent work from all involved - the original engineers and manufacturers, and you for bringing this lens back to purposeful life.


PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2009 5:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Veijo

Another stunning example of what the early designers/makers could do. Between you and Luis we have a wealth of exemplars that we would never otherwise experience. Thank you


patrickh


PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2009 7:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Really respectable results with the old lens. Ofcourse you only use the best central piece of the picture from the original 6x6 format, but nevertheless... Did you just pick the first Xenar you found, or have you sorted out some first? I have no idea about quality control in the old days.


PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2009 7:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Amazing photos from this vetern lens. I am trying to make the brass lens works on my E-510 too. The closeup lens is an adapter or filter ?


PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2009 4:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Minolfan wrote:
Really respectable results with the old lens. Ofcourse you only use the best central piece of the picture from the original 6x6 format, but nevertheless...


Yes, only the center of the image circle and without film flatness and registration accuracy problems. However, I've used similar lenses from the same era (Zeiss Tessars) on 645, 66 and 69 folder cameras, and the results have been about as good as can be expected given the purely mechanical constraints, no optical problems.

Quote:
Did you just pick the first Xenar you found, or have you sorted out some first? I have no idea about quality control in the old days.


This is the only Xenar I've tried on a digital body, but I also have two S-K Radionars (triplets) which I have used a lot, and they are quite OK.

Veijo


PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2009 4:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Krisgage wrote:
Amazing photos from this vetern lens. I am trying to make the brass lens works on my E-510 too. The closeup lens is an adapter or filter ?


There is no close-up lens or filter. The lens is mounted on a variable close-up ring (a variable length macro tube with a focusing helicoid). The lens is fixed to a M42 reversing ring for mounting on the M42 close-up ring mounted with an adapter to the EOS body. With the front cell set at infinity, the nearest focusing distance is about 70 cm, with the front-cell set at 90 cm, the nearest focusing distance is about 45 cm. After I sawed off the lens side threads of the reversing ring, I can reach infinity with the front cell set at 1 m, which gives a slight soft focus effect.



Veijo


PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2009 9:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Not bad but considering the age, super.
gil


PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2009 1:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Veijo, just out of curiosity, do you collimate the infinity setting on the lens, and if so to what film distance? Reason I'm asking is in it's original mounting, collimation seems to ensure the best sharpness at all focus settings.


PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2009 4:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Nesster wrote:
Veijo, just out of curiosity, do you collimate the infinity setting on the lens, and if so to what film distance?


No, I don't, see below.

Quote:
Reason I'm asking is in it's original mounting, collimation seems to ensure the best sharpness at all focus settings.


Well, a front cell focusing lens system is probably always a compromise when mounted on the original camera, sharp with reasonably low spherical aberration when focused at some specific distance (what ever that may be, probably either infinity or something like 5 m) and with rather more aberration when focused at other distances, especially nearer than, say, 2 m.

In my original setup with the 105 mm Radionar mounted on a 350D using a couple fixed length macro extension tubes, there probably was no focus setting which would have hit exactly the optimum, but I was lucky - it wasn't too far off.

My present setup converts a front cell focusing lens into a unit focusing, adjustable soft focus lens, and I can (in theory) minimize the aberration at any focus distance from about 80 cm to infinity by juggling both the front cell setting and the completely separate focus control. At some intermediate distance range I have a certain degree of softness control available although not as much with this 75 mm Xenar as with the 105 mm Radionar because the minimum length of the variable close-up ring sets a limit. With the front cell set at infinity, the lens seems to be quite sharp over the whole focus range, and this setting may well be the optimum - or at least near enough given all the problems of manual focusing and the requirements of real life photography.

Veijo
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