Alium past its prime - MC Industar 61 L/Z - Sony a850

[themoleman342]

Despite having almost every m42 Soviet lens under the sun, the Industar 61 L/Z was one that I always held out on. I'm not one for macro photography, I was doubtful of how 'general-purpose' it was, and I have far too many standards already, so it just didn't make sense. But of course, one came along for a good price so I had to test it out. This isn't anything special, just one of the four shots I took with it so far. Notice the star shaped highlights in the crop? Cool!

One thing that surprised me was an infinity test. I decided to compare it to my Tessar 2.8/50 1Q T-coated 14-bladed. Now I've used this tessar to take some of my most favorite photos. It's a very good copy. I assumed the Tessar would do a bit better at infinity because the Industar was more-or-less calibrated for close-ups. But the Industar kills it! The tessar looks like a soft-focus by comparison. Certainly there are other factors at play, but it was interesting. Please comment if you have a thought.




~Marc