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S-K Radionar 4.5/105 + 2x TC
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 5:32 pm    Post subject: S-K Radionar 4.5/105 + 2x TC Reply with quote

Now that the weather around here is getting friendlier (the temperature is something like 10 degrees C above the average), I took a walk with one of my favorite lenses, the 4.5/105 Radionar salvaged from a broken down 1938 6x9 folder camera, mounted on the 5D. I took a lot of photos and am playing with duotoning - more about that later on. There was a lot of sunshine, and I had an opportunity to test the Radionar with my Komura Telemore95 II 7KMC TC, a rather slow combination with a full aperture of f/9 but OK at ISO 400. The combination isn't very sharp or contrasty, but properly used it can produce quite decent photos with a hard to define, pleasant quality with no nasty surprises in the OOF zone behind the subject, very nice bokeh. Here are three examples (RAW conversion, PP and downsampling with LightZone, no sharpening after downsampling):







NB. manually focused at f/9 with a rather low contrast lens, only single shots of each subject.

Veijo


PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 5:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Veijo, you don't know how much I envy your ability to assemble those old lenses into useable ones for today. Every time I see a Radionar or Meniscus lens in auction, I am tempted to buy it, but then I always give up because my manual abilities are not surely up to the task of building a working lens.

These samples are indeed low contrast, but resolvance is a different matter and they show an impressive amount of detail for having been produced with a lens that is more or less one century old! (you will correct me on the date).

Not to mention the bokeh - which speaks for itself.

Contrast is easy to restore in Photoshop, while detail must be there from the beginning, no software will add it if the lens does not capture it first. I have saved your first picture and had some fun with it in Photoshop: what can be achieved with a little editing starting from this raw material is simply amazing.

I enjoy very much seeing these samples. So when you have more, please post them. Maybe one day I will be able to adapt one of those lenses myself.


PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 6:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"Me thinks", as Shakespeare would have put it, I have seen these pictures somewhere else on the net. Wink

Anyway, very nice photos indeed!

And I agree with Orio. Putting such old lenses at a modern cam is magic!

Carsten


PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 6:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have in front of my eyes the result of some basic Photoshop editing that I have done on the first of Veijo's raw samples (well knowing that Veijo himself would do even better).
Well I just can't believe what my eyes can see. Once rescued from the low contrast, and optimized, the image acquires great presence and detail but still maintains an "organicity" that I am not afraid to state that it's unknown to today's lenses, and that just has to be seen to be believed.

Man, I want that lens on my camera!!!


PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 6:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for saving this old lens and show to us it's value!


PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Orio wrote:
I have in front of my eyes the result of some basic Photoshop editing that I have done on the first of Veijo's raw samples (well knowing that Veijo himself would do even better).
............
Man, I want that lens on my camera!!!

Can you show the results....
I am sure, Veijo will give us permission to paste low resolution result on this forum.


PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ballu wrote:

Man, I want that lens on my camera!!!

Can you show the results....
I am sure, Veijo will give us permission to paste low resolution result on this forum.[/quote]

If he does, I will, Ballu.


PostPosted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Orio wrote:
Veijo, you don't know how much I envy your ability to assemble those old lenses into useable ones for today. Every time I see a Radionar or Meniscus lens in auction, I am tempted to buy it, but then I always give up because my manual abilities are not surely up to the task of building a working lens.


There isn't much building involved in this case as the Radionar has front cell focusing. The lens assembly is just glued at the end of 54 mm worth of M42 extension tubes. It is very easy if you don't want to be able to change the aperture, which isn't very necessary as the maximum aperture of f/4.5 is sharp enough and will also produce the most distinct results. A 0.5 mm partial spacer between the lens and the tube would be required for an adjustable aperture if you absolutely think you need it.

Quote:
These samples are indeed low contrast, but resolvance is a different matter and they show an impressive amount of detail for having been produced with a lens that is more or less one century old! (you will correct me on the date).


Well, not quite seventy years yet (1938). Quite a lot of the detail is lost in the lens flare, but on a 5D there is enough resolution for rather sharp A4 prints, a 350D or a 400D could use somewhat more resolution.

Quote:
Contrast is easy to restore in Photoshop, while detail must be there from the beginning, no software will add it if the lens does not capture it first. I have saved your first picture and had some fun with it in Photoshop: what can be achieved with a little editing starting from this raw material is simply amazing.


I've already increased the contrast to suite my liking. It is, of course, possible to increase it even more, but I feel something essential is lost quite soon, and sometimes the bokeh will become rather queer.

Quote:
I enjoy very much seeing these samples. So when you have more, please post them.


Thanks, I've got more, but they are different, intensionally.

Quote:
Maybe one day I will be able to adapt one of those lenses myself.


Just do it!

Veijo


PostPosted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

LucisPictor wrote:
"Me thinks", as Shakespeare would have put it, I have seen these pictures somewhere else on the net. Wink

Anyway, very nice photos indeed!


Thanks!

Quote:
And I agree with Orio. Putting such old lenses at a modern cam is magic!


As someone on a French forum stated: tout n'est pas perdu!

Veijo


PostPosted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Orio wrote:
I have in front of my eyes the result of some basic Photoshop editing that I have done on the first of Veijo's raw samples (well knowing that Veijo himself would do even better).


Which raw samples? I must be really getting old, I've no recollection Smile

Quote:
Well I just can't believe what my eyes can see. Once rescued from the low contrast, and optimized, the image acquires great presence and detail but still maintains an "organicity" that I am not afraid to state that it's unknown to today's lenses, and that just has to be seen to be believed.


Rescued? A certain amount of retained low contrast is a feature and part of the reason I use these lenses - it makes the photos less "clinical". Anyway, there is something about the presence, perhaps the interplay between the focused subject and the background, the subject is sharp in a natural way, and the background often resembles the painted backdrops of old studio or marketplace photos, the slightly impressionist ones - perhaps due to the nature of the bokeh.

Quote:
Man, I want that lens on my camera!!!


Then get one - just avoid too good lenses Smile

Veijo


PostPosted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ballu wrote:
Orio wrote:
I have in front of my eyes the result of some basic Photoshop editing that I have done on the first of Veijo's raw samples (well knowing that Veijo himself would do even better).
............
Man, I want that lens on my camera!!!

Can you show the results....
I am sure, Veijo will give us permission to paste low resolution result on this forum.


Well, on my new, yet to be finished site, I've put all my photos under a Creative Commons license. The photos can freely be used, modified and published for non-commercial purposes as long as I'm given credit for the original. I can certainly upload a selection of Radionar/5D RAW files for you people to play with The examples I post here and on my site are, after all, only my interpretations, and the raw material is truly very malleable, allows many interpretations.

Veijo